kendall

For the true step-junkie, there is an abandoned set on the west side of Vine St. going up the hill from OTR/Mt. Auburn to Clifton Heights. I'm guessing it terminates on Ohio Avenue, and I'm guessing the residents of Ohio Avenue were happy to see them fall into disrepair. Note, these are not the same steps that connect the upper and lower portions of Ohio Avenue, which are still maintained.

In time for New Year's Eve, Cinweekly published a useful directory to area cab companies. Never hurts to have a couple in your cell phone: http://www.cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051228/NEWS/512280328/1073

Basically anywhere there's a bar scene, there will be cabs. Mt. Adams, Mt. Lookout, Hyde Park, Newport, Covington, Main St., etc. You will also see them swing through other areas with entertainment or shopping districts, though if you are in, say, Clifton or at a popular bar that's isolated from other bars, such as The Pub at Rookwood, Mulligan's, or the Dubliner you might have to call one a few minutes before you leave the establishment just to be sure. You can ask your bartender or the hostess if cabs regularly stop by. One nice thing about living downtown is that you will be centrally located to everywhere else in the region, so cabbing it to and fro is cheaper. Good luck!

Great thread! A while back I thought the city steps might make an interesting set of photos and I'm glad to see you put in the hard work. Thanks!

It's pretty easy to get a cab downtown, even at night. Your best bet is to find one in front of a hotel. It's also easy to find one around the Aronoff/Backstage district. When calling for a ride, I've also had good luck. But then again, I've usually called 45 mins to an hour before the pickup time. If there is one I would suggest avoiding, it would have to be Ron's Cab. They have the most broken down rides in town.

They better keep the place locked up at night!

So Republic-appointed trustees contribute overwhelmingly to Republican candidates. Big surprise! I hope they're not somehow diverting university funds or resources. But then again I hoped Ohio would have a fair election in Nov. 2004. Republican officials are capable of all manner of dastardly deeds, and this back-scratching campaign contribution is just the tip of it. If only there weren't so many people who blindly voted like their parents did and educated themselves on how our government works and doesn't work.

Now only if it had about a million more pixels.

This page has a narrative involving the Convent of the Good Shepherd, though in the story it is located in Price Hill: http://www.geocities.com/visplace/godsmith3.htm

How about a section on the site offering high resolution images in a variety of pixel dimensions for use as wallpaper? e.g., 1024x768, 1152x720, 1440x800, etc. You could pick a couple of each city.

^good riddance. As always, thanks for the thorough updates!!

An electric pigeon deterrent system? I love technology.

The unfortunate thing is, a lot of people hold attitudes about OTR similar to those expressed on the cincymusic boards. I regularly have people parroting the lamest stereotypes in my presence, even after they've been told that I've lived here for 1 1/2 years and counting!! Outsiders forget that the residents and transients in OTR are people, not wild animals. Lately, I've been doing my incidental grocery shopping at Vine St. Kroger, a place that outsiders have only heard of in whatever passes for urban lore out there in the burbs. Last week, on a nice sunny day I walked home from UC down Clifton to McMicken. Every weekday during the school year, I use bus stops at Vine and Liberty and 14th and Walnut. And guess what? Nobody ever bothers me, except for the occasional quarter. Maybe I'm just lucky, but in my opinion most parts of OTR are safe if you mind your own business, at least during the day.

Wow, it is looking good. I can't wait to see what it looks like with all the windows in.

If you are referring to the one with the US and Ohio flags, I believe that is the Cincinnati Bar Association. The Cincinnati Bar Association is located on 6th across from Shanghai Mama's.

Pretty maps, but what about None of the Above?

Guys - here's something very, very cool. I was looking for some information on the sesquicentennial parade featured in several of these photos. They were taken by John Vachon (1914-1975) in 1938. Turns out there's a book called "John Vachon's America". I found it through Google book search. Anyway, it turns out he didn't even plan to be at the parade that day. Here's what he says on p.136: "October 11, 1938 Cincinnati, Ohio my sainted wife: ... I got up about 9 o'clock went down breakfast and then out to find a haircut, when whoops! Millions of people milling and muttering, mewling and puling, lining the streets for blocks and blocks to watch the parade go by. Cincinnati's Sesquicentennial parade. And me without a camera. So up I scoots to the 10th floor, loads me Leica, and down I am again. First I takes in the post office, reads your lovely letter, sighs for you, and then starts snapping. ... Really got some good material. I don't know what it's worth to John Citizen who is paying for it, but it pleases me, and it was a great deal of fun. Our organization really should be part of the WPA art project." ...Which apparently it was to end up on the website I found it! Page 137 of the book has the photo that ColDay correctly identified as "powerful" which was taken outside the post office (now the federal court house) right after the photographer read a letter from his wife. Having first-hand narrative from the photographer about a 70-year-old set of photos is amazing to me.

I found these on the Library of Congress website, where larger versions are available: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html For those interested, the site also contains numerous photos of the Greenhills project, under Ohio-Hamilton County. Captions from the LoC website. No caption. Oct. 1938. Downtown Street. Sept. 1939 Old theatre converted into modern shop fronts. Oct. 1938. The flag is going by, sesquicentennial parade. Oct. 1938. Fountain Square Oct. 1938 Fountain Square Oct. 1938 Man reading newspaper in Fountain Square, Oct. 1938 Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 1938 Watching the parade go by, Oct. 1938 Waiter and chef watching Cincinnati's sesquicentennial parade, Oct. 1938 Woman selling ice cream to parade watchers, Oct. 1938 Roman chariot at the tail end of the sesquicentennial, Oct. 1938 Parking Lot, Oct. 1938 Theater. Sept. 1939. House at 1400 Block, Eastern Ave. Dec. 1935. No caption. Dec. 1935. Cheap brick houses. Dec. 1935. Bernard Cochran, a Greyhound bus driver, leaving the terminal. Sept. 1943 The skyline as seen from the towboat Ernest T. Weir on the Ohio River. Sept. 1943 Houses on Laconia St. in a Cincinnati suburb (now Bond Hill/Roselawn area). Dec. 1935 Narrow frame house. Dec. 1935 Suburban section. Dec. 1935 Typical wood fram house. Dec. 1935

I was driving down Liberty St. last night a few minutes before 10 pm, when the cops were still swarming into the area at full speed from all different districts. Normally you only see District 1 officers in OTR, so I knew it must have been something serious. According to WCPO.com, they found the suspect in a local hospital, so he must indeed have been wounded when the officer returned fire. The officer was shot in the shoulder and will be OK. I'm glad to hear this situation turned out as good as could be expected. It could have been much, much worse, and the suspect could still be at large.

Parker Flats will happen. One difference between it and the Next project is that almost half of the units are under contract.

It's sad to see these smaller buildings go. There are more and more gap-toothed block faces in OTR. Chip, chip, chipping away at the neighborhood's future!

I drove by the other day and noticed that a few of the facades had been painted (I don't remember what color) and a new outdoor light installed on one of the units. Presumably this was intended to be the model. I wish I knew how recently the work was done, but I don't drive through there very often.

The work on the E. Thirteenth and Yukon properties is already underway. I believe they have been doing lead mitigation for several weeks, and the exteriors of the buildings have been repainted in the process. Grasscat, I agree that 1307 Yukon is probably the small building north of 214 E. Thirteenth, the 3-story building between the green and taller gray building in this photo:

Anybody have a rendering of this project?

SCPA is the old Woodward high school. I believe some members of the Woodward family are interred under the allee of trees (newly re-planted) on the school's east side.