kendall

Amazing that Norton was able to buy that corner lot at 1600 Elm for only $25,000, less than four years ago.

Nice choice of black & white for the shots. Thanks!

Phenomenal composition!

Born and raised in small-town Michigan, spent the last five years in the urban core of Cincinnati.

Great set; nice looking historic neighborhood and a fabulous mid-century Macy's.

Uncle Woody's is desperately in need of interior remodeling, especially the back room. I imagine the opening of Mac's on McMillan hurt business because it is larger and looks cleaner. I think a new owner could be successful at the Woody's location if the place looked a bit more respectable inside.

I forgot that I had commented in this thread. My wife and I bought one of the units in the Cooper and have been in about six months. We had a few workmanship issues with the renovation, but overall we are very pleased. I believe 38 of the 40 above-ground units have been sold, and the developer carved out 2 "garden" level units in the lower level that are currently on the market.

Steubenville has a pretty good showing. That first and third buildings would hold their own in any of the 3 C's.

My wife and I saw Iron Man over the weekend. She enjoyed it, and she is not inclined to enjoy comic books or science fiction. I thought it was great, not corny, and the humor was well-placed.

Enzo's has always appeared to do a brisk lunch business the half dozen or so times I've been there. The food (sandwiches and salads) is excellent and the space is nice and modern. I hope they reopen soon.

I'm in.

I'm assuming your husband won't need to wear the suit regularly, or he'd already know where to buy them. Jos. A. Bank is a great place to start, Brooks Brothers is probably going to be a bit too much to justify for a suit that will be worn only on occasion, in my opinion. You should look at Macy's too.

Does that sign seriously say "Urban Renewal"? Sad...

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that Mt. Adams was never a separate municipal entity.

We stopped in for a beer at the newly reopened Grammer's tonight. The historic interior is beautiful but has been thoroughly cleaned and refreshed. There were 50 or more patrons, not bad for 8:30 with no food except pretzels and sausages. The emphasis was clearly on beers, with a well-edited selection favoring seasonal bock beers. Overall the atmosphere was great and I will definitely be returning.

I don't think downtown has too many restaurants, at least during dinner. Last night, we went downtown for dinner around 7:30 on the spur of the moment. There were hour waits for tables across the board at the five or six restaurants we bothered to check (not even including Nada and Via Vite) before we went to that old standby, Arnold's. Having lived downtown for a few years and being used to being able to walk in and be seated at pretty much any hour, the new restaurant scene downtown is a huge change, despite the new openings.

Too many restaurants? BY POLLY CAMPBELL | [email protected] In 2007, downtown Cincinnati saw a dining explosion. Responding to investment in the renovated Fountain Square, about 20 new establishments serving food and drink opened in a year. Suddenly, with dining choices that ranged from modern Korean to seafood to inexpensive bar food, some people began to ask a question that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier: Is it possible that there are too many restaurants downtown? Can all these new choices survive? No link available.

Just drove by the area, didn't know it was happening until I saw the ladder trucks and the charred stubs of the steeples. A ghastly, sickening sight.

They definitely watered down the exterior design concept for the mixed-use building.

My wife and I have been using Corryville Kroger to meet about 40% of our grocery needs (all but "stocking up" trips) for the last 3 or 4 years. It's relatively small, can be crowded, and there is some loitering outside the entrance. As a previous poster mentioned, there is an interesting dichotomy in the merchandising, some products for your stereotypical low-income buyer and others clearly targeted toward your stereotypical young professional. The beer aisle, which is incredibly large relative to the square footage of the place, includes everything from 40s of malt liquor to seasonal craft brewery selections. The store carries a modest but serviceable selection of wine, imported cheeses, organic, and vegetarian foods. Another poster said there are zero ethnic food choices. That's not true, though you're not going to find the same number of products you would in Hyde Park. But you can find what you need to whip up a quick thai noodle or curry dinner, for example. I have also shopped at the Krogers in Bellevue, OTR, Walnut Hills, and the aforementioned Queen City Kroger. Of those, the Queen City location is the by far the best, but the location is not convenient for us. The Corryville store is similar in size to the Bellevue one, though Corryville stocks more of the cheeses, wines, craft beers, etc. The produce and meat are not excellent in either case. OTR is very small for a full-service grocery store, and omits things like floral, bakery, and seafood counters. The produce selection is very limited, and last time I was there Killian's was the highest end beer offering. Walnut Hills hasn't been remodeled in about 20 years, has limited produce, somewhere between OTR and Corryville, but it is rarely crowded so we use it for smaller trips for packaged food, household items, etc. due to the convenience of the location. Now if you've made it this far in the post, you're starting to see the issue that dwellers of the urban core are faced with - lack of a large, well-stocked, full-service grocery store. There are four or five grocery stores within a few miles of each other but none of them individually, or even collectively, adds up to Hyde Park Kroger or Bigg's, which are right next to each other. A new Kroger in Corryville would be a welcome addition.

Amazing shots with the wide angle lens! How did you ever photograph the city without it?

Great to hear they are keeping Westwood, that is a beautiful historic school building that is part of the neighborhood fabric.

Does anyone have a rendering of this building?

They used five different species of trees on Fountain Square. The plane trees along Fifth St. are quite large already for newly-planted specimens and in just a year or two will start to change the feel of Fifth St (heck, they already have). The elms on the north side near Via Vite and Rock Bottom are also large and they will be well established by next growing season and will grow very quickly, and in just a few years we should have a tables-among-the-trees effect. It will take about 5-7 years for the maples on the west side and along Vine St. to give a consistent, useful amount of shade in the area. I don't know about the ones near Graeter's.

I'm really looking forward to the Korean bistro!