kendall

OTR is losing way too many of its historic structures. 1925 Vine is a wonderful building that occupies an unusually shaped lot. Once it comes down it will forever be a surface parking lot.

I wonder where they are planning to build this motel and office building. They have the space next to the IMAX theater where they had a skating rink a couple years ago, and the surface parking lot east of the existing structure. I'm guessing they'll build up on that, which will be a shame because it will cut off the excellent skyline view from the biergarten at Hofbrauhaus.

Why is Clifton GLC?

If I won $100 million in the Powerball lottery I would buy the Post and run the shitty Enquirer out of business. What an embarrassment to our beautiful city.

"we had the massive task of overcoming the perception of a safety problem" WTF is it with people and "safety"... What an ass.

So they have 3 more years just to get a building permit? How about 1 year for a permit, 3 years to completion!!

Coffee shop's move to the city a welcome jolt By Joe Wessels Post contributor It's not often that a business leaves Northern Kentucky and finds greener pastures in Over-the-Rhine. But that's exactly what Enzo's Over-the-Rhine, a new coffeehouse on Race Street set to open around March 1, did - thanks, in part, to a new program offered by that neighborhood's chamber of commerce. No link available for rest of article.

You should consider subscribing to Cincinnati magazine. Though a lot of it is fluff, there are always interesting sections. Plus it's like $1.50/issue. Here it is (followed by last year's rank): 1. Jean-Robert at Pigall's (1) 2. Boca (2) 3. Nicola's (4) 4. Slims (9) 5. Nectar 6. Pho Paris (10) 7. Orchids at Palm Court (3) 8. Daveed's at 934 (6) 9. Jo An Japanese Restaurant (7) 10. Sturkey's (5) 11. Cumin (13) 12. Miyoshi 13. Brown Dog Cafe (11) 14. The Palace (18) 15. JeanRo Bistro 16. Beluga 17. Aqua 18. Riverside Korean (24) 19. Knotty Pine on the Bayou (21) 20. Primavista (20) 21. Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse (19) 22. Honey (15) 23. Quarter Bistro (16) 24. Rondo's (23) 25. Germano's (25) Dropped off: Embers, The Celestial Steakhouse, Tousey House, La Petite Pierre, Carlo & Johnny here's the link for past lists

I like that people are coming forward with fresh ideas for Main Street. The area is as close to a blank canvas as you're likely to find in an established neighborhood. There are lots of empty storefronts that can be transformed into running businesses in a manner of days, weeks, and months, meaning that new ideas and investment can come to fruition very quickly.

This subdivision sprung up virtually overnight once they started building the first home (I know there was a couple years of planning, acquisition, site prep, etc.). It shares a driveway with a 70s era brick apartment building and is walking distance to nothing. Some of the lots back up to properties worth a third the selling price of these homes. And yet they sold incredibly fast during what was a very slow year for builders in most areas of the country. The pace of sales on this development really shows how much demand there is for new (and presumably like-new rehab) construction within the city limits. Unfortunately, most new construction must take place as infill and for some reason the price points on most other new construction far exceed the $230k or so that these homes started at. Villages of Daybreak would be one exception, and that seems to be doing pretty well too.

Here's a before picture of the Duncanson Lofts, part of the Gateway Urban Living Quarter (shamelessly lifted from step2me's Midwest! thread: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=11971.0)

I think the Gateway Urban Living Quarter references here have all been tongue-in-cheek, especially considering the phrase was unleashed on the public about three days ago.

Yeah, I like Kaldi's, but unfortunately they don't open until 10 am.

Interesting map concept. With some tweaking and error correction, it would be better though. The creator would do well to look at a roadmap of Michigan, for instance.

I went to Coffee Emporium, by way of the Gateway Urban Living Quarter.

Here are a few shots I snapped on my way to get a hot cup of coffee on this frigid morning.

Well the National Trust for Historic Preservation has listed Over-the-Rhine as endangered, maybe that would be one route to pursue for support. A museum celebrating the neighborhood would help call attention to it, thus increasing the likelihood that it will be preserved.

Probably just power outage at the server location due to the weather.

The cold temperature clears the air nicely. Excellent winter photos!

Floorplans and unit pricing information is available online for 3CDC's OTR condos, check it out: http://www.cincinnatigateway.com/

Well, we had "more like 85" in 2006. I guess that means Cincinnati is typical. People who make a big deal out of homicide numbers seem to think that Cincinnati is worse than other cities, when that is not the case.

Congestion pricing is a great idea. Building new highways is not, generally. Congestion pricing would give people an incentive to shift non-essential or flexible trips to non-peak hours. It would induce carpooling and transit use, both of which have environmental benefits in addition to the obvious congestion alleviation effect. Most of our urban and suburban highways see only a small fraction of their capacity used during non-peak hours. Alleviating peak hours congestion using market techniques like this would actually reduce the need to expand highways. It is ridiculous to spends the millions and billions required for highway expansion (yes, highways are fantastically expensive to build and maintain, contrary to what anti-rail advocates want you to believe), when in many cases slight behavioral changes are all that is required to keep people moving. Congestion pricing is regressive, as noted in the article, but perhaps that could be addressed in the fee structure.

It looks like the developers are trying another tack to sell these places. Check out this listing for "new one-story flats" at Marburg Square: http://www.huff.com/search/detail.php?MLNumber=1049462&PPropertyType=26&ListingAgentID=&frmaction=search&

You're right that the rehabbed house on Burdett St. in Walnut Hills is priced much higher than its neighbors. But it does sit directly across from the new Schoolhouse condos. You have to imagine the rehabber had that in mind when making the investment.

Why are the retail buildings so low and uniform in appearance? I like the pergola over the sidewalk idea for a restaurant (for outdoor dining). But in front of the "video store" or "cleaners", it just serves to obscure the storefront.