kendall

Next in the series: Excelsior and Mcilvine Streets, Mt. Auburn. The severe topography in this area makes it clear why these streets were abandoned. Yet they remain on the books. Maybe someday, modern building methods will overcome the challenges of these sites and Excelsior and Mcilvine will live again! From the Auditor: Several of the parcels are still privately owned. There are even six addresses on the street, between 219-230. The USPS has these addresses on file, but they are deemed non-deliverable. Here's how it looks from the air. You can't see Mcilvine (though you can from Dorchester in person, I will add a photo later), but the ends of Excelsior are clear. Edit: This 1905 photo depicts the Sycamore St. bend shown in the aerial above. The houses in the foreground were located on Excelsior St. The large buildings sat along Edinburgh Pl., another ghost street. Only the two circled buildings still stand. A future development opportunity?

Lately, I've been intrigued by some "ghost" streets that appear on the Hamilton County Auditor's online records, but no longer physically exist. Some of these streets are surrounded by vacant residential parcels that are still privately-owned, with taxes paid, even though they lack street access. It's not clear based on the information available online why these streets don't exist anymore. Perhaps the topography proved too challenging and buildings had to be torn down. Or maybe they ever only existed on paper? I'll get the thread started with the one that baffles me the most, Severn Ave. in Clifton. I have a couple others that I will add later. Severn Ave. is a relatively short street, with about a dozen residential lots on each side. It is a no-outlet street, accessible only from Green Hill Ave. But today, Green Hill is only a jog, connecting Juergens Ave. (down to Avondale) and Greendale Ave (up to Clifton). Was it ever extended and then abandoned, or never extended? The clues are mixed. Let's start with Mapquest, which registers 101 Severn Ave. as follows: However, the U.S. Postal Service doesn't register any Severn Ave. addresses. Here's how the Auditor's records show the streets and accompanying parcels. The parcels on the north side of Severn are owned as back yards by the homeowners on Lafayette Ct. The parcels on the south side and along Green Hill Ave. have no online records: Here's how it looks from the air. Can you detect a break in the tree cover where there bend in Green Hill might have been, and the intersection with Severn? I've lightly highlighted where I detect what might be the traces of the street. Maybe the street was cleared but the development never came into being? To solve this mystery, perhaps I will have to do some ground recon or go look at some old plat maps. Anyone have any ideas? Please add your own ghost streets of Cincinnati! Coming soon: Excelsior and Mcilvine Streets, Mt. Auburn, and Van Lear and Cliff Street extensions, Clifton Heights.

I drove through the subdivision today. What's built so far looks great. There is a wider variety of houses than just the models shown here, although not all of them are equally attractive. There are also a few townhouses along Seymour. What an improvement over an apartment complex. Cincinnati needs to improve its homeownership rate, and this can't hurt. Though building new houses doesn't guarantee an increase in the homeownership rate if it only shifts homeowners from existing properties. But fresh housing stock is crucial. Does anyone know where CitiRama will be this year? Are they having one this year?

I could read these threads about new construction in the city limits all day. I hope the style and color of these houses complement the neighborhood.

"Subject to required pre-leasing" is the phrase that I don't like the sound of.

Grasscat, you are omniscient. Wow.

Just how safe are students at UC? None of this weekend's victims were UC students.

That streetscaping plan will look a whole lot better than the current intersection! How soon will the city make these improvements?

^ Those buildings would make amazing condos with their proximity to downtown, the ballpark, and the riverfront. Hopefully there is a small parking lot in back or nearby that could make the site feasible for residential development.

Both of those buildings are beautiful. If they do a quality renovation, they should sell and will be a major asset to the neighborhood. Things are looking up in Walnut Hills!

Sprawl may not be what kills this country, but do not underestimate its attendant harms. They are not limited to sissy concerns like increased air pollution from more, longer car trips or the loss of wildlife habitat. Sprawl also degrades the quality of life for both suburbanites and city dwellers. Suburbanites spend more time commuting and drive everywhere, even to the park or to get a gallon of milk. As a result they have less free time, get less exercise, and spend more money on gas and car repair. Sprawl requires more miles of roads and sewers, increasing the infrastructure tax burden per home. Suburban homes often occupy large lots, and lack front porches and sidewalks. People drive their cars right into the garage when they get home. As a result, suburbanites do not regularly interact with their neighbors, and might not even know who lives across the street or next door. This makes it difficult to foster a sense of community, except in the rare instance where a go-getter neighbor arranges a block party or garage sale. But these efforts are short-lived, fading away through lack of novelty or the departure of the promoter. City dwellers suffer because suburbanites take their $ with them, forcing the city dwellers to pay to maintain infrastructure built for a larger population. The suburbanites flee to demographically-homogenous schools and create demographically-homogenous schools behind them when they leave, amplifying misunderstanding and intolerance in new generations. So sure, sprawl might not kill the U.S., but it's not doing it much good either.

^Plus, the building's not especially close to the park.

You can find the floorplans at dreeshomes.com They are uninspiring, but it's good to see new construction sub-$250k inside the city limits.

Since this old thread has seen a resurgence in interest, here are a few bonus pics taken the same day as the rest (April 15, 2004):

The museum's job is to preserve and display art, not necessarily buildings.

That's funny.

I have a really good feeling about the direction UC is headed. I already hear comments from alums to the effect that it's a totally different, better institution than it was 10 years ago. The massive investment in the campus facilities and the surrounding area is generating plenty of positive attention.

Cool design. I think it would look even better scaled down about half. Bring it right up to the street and put restaurants in the unique triangular glass storefronts it would create.

We'll see about those chandeliers. Neat idea. These renderings make you realize how big a piece of the puzzle that crappy low 5/3 building is.

So which is it? Up or down?

Take a look at the new Stetson Square website: http://www.stetsonsquare.com/ Easily the best project website I've seen. Floorplans, renderings, flythroughs, area maps, the works. It even owns up to being in Corryville, though it claims to "re-establish" the neighborhood.

They could have salvaged the top from being a complete disaster by cladding it with brick and installing large, symmetrical windows. But it's a complete disaster.

The first quote.

Please tell me they are going to put brick on that facade!

On the aerial site plan at the top of the thread, there is a series of blue shaded buildings along Linn St. that have first-floor retail. The only current tenant is PNC Bank.