Krugkiw

Took my first streetcar ride Monday evening: ridership was very light (which meant that I got to my destination quicker, which was nice). The voiceover announcing the stops was ahead by one stop (called out 12th and Main when we were at Court and Main, etc.). That was very confusing, and I hope no one else has had that experience. Walked by the Banks stop tonight (Friday), and it was absolutely bumping. I'd guess the median age of the ridership was around 45. Heard about three different conversations in passing that were very optimistic about the streetcar and downtown Cincinnati in general.

My young brother, who has lived in Northern Kentucky his entire life/schooling, picked me up from an interview downtown last week, and had no idea that the streetcar was being constructed, much less a few weeks from opening to the public. "I'd heard about it, but didn't know it was actually moving forward." The level of ignorance is stunning. (By the way, got the job, moving back to the area the week of the streetcar opening! It's already in the win column for population growth!)

Don't forget the "Duveneck Square" project, which will activate even more of this corridor: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2015/12/massive-covington-mixed-use-project-moves-forward.html

Given the discussion around the need for a soccer-specific stadium to join MLS, I thought I might take a page out of thebillshark's "Cincinnati Ideas" playbook and propose the IRS building site in Covington as the Cincinnati FC stadium site: This stadium site is about the same size as Portland's Providence Park, which holds about 21,000 and is also bounded by a street grid. While this proposed stadium fits comfortably on the Covington site (bounded by 4th Street, Johnson St, and Rivercenter Blvd), a smaller stadiumfootprint would be doable. San Jose's new Avaya Stadium (capacity ~18,000) is a smaller site, and could also be a good fit. Benefits: On PG Sittenfeld's podcast, Jeff Berding made it pretty clear that he believes having Nippert as the home field has played a huge role in the team's early attendance success. He may have meant that the stadium is newly renovated and a regional landmark, but I think it is critical that the stadium be located in the urban core in a built neighborhood. The IRS building is within a ten minute walk of three Covington business districts, and is about a 20 minute walk from the Banks/southernmost Cincinnati Streetcar stop. People make the walk from Covington/Newport for Reds games all the time, so it's not unreasonable that fans would make the reverse trek for FC Cincinnati. While Covington's urban core is starting to build some momentum, the city is vastly oversupplied with potential lots for redevelopment, even with the IRS building site currently occupied. There's been talk of consolidating the IRS facility into a tower, and while this would be a huge win for urban Covington, it'd probably be thirty years before the plan came together to develop everything between the Clay Wade Bailey bridge and Madison Avenue. The stadium would speed things up considerably in this part of the city, and would benefit development in the other nearby business districts. The stadium plan still allows the city to expand the convention center to the south. Potential drawbacks: Well, it's not Cincinnati. There is precedent with the NY Red Bulls, NY Giants and NY Jets playing in NJ, as well as the Cincinnati airport being in NKY, but I could still see this being a roadblock. Building an urban neighborhood around stadiums has worked fairly well for the Banks, but the success of the Banks isn't necessarily tied to the stadiums. While it was hard to predict twenty years ago, you could argue that the land occupying Paul Brown Stadium would now be better served with additional residential/commercial development, given that PBS hosts only a few events per year outside of eight Bengals home games. FC Cincinnati would be full more often that PBS, but it's still a lot of potentially highly productive land to dedicate to a low productivity activity. It does seem like the soccer-specific stadiums in the MLS are usually located on cheap land away from the urban core, probably due to paltry box office revenues and a lack of multiple revenue-generating uses. While Berding's comments in the podcast do make me a little more optimistic, the fact that the Lindners own the team means that a Dallas FC-style stadium in Mason is probably a likely scenario:

Maybe "Remedial Urbanism." :) For a culture that is several generations removed from understanding what it might really look like.

My father has worked in downtown Cincinnati his entire adult life, since the early 80's. While I don't live in the Cincinnati area now, whenever I visit I try to get downtown or OTR as much as I can to check out new development and entertainment options. When I occasionally bring up doing something in OTR as a family, he says he would NEVER visit any new establishment in OTR, because he doesn't believe in the Cincinnati Streetcar and doesn't want to have anything to do with its potential success. I was totally flabbergasted by this revelation; he's logged over 60,000 hours of his life in downtown Cincinnati, so I thought for sure he would appreciate the success and investment that downtown and OTR have seen recently after decades of neglect. At the very least, I thought maybe he would be totally indifferent to what is happening, since the type of entertainment options that have been popping up in OTR aren't necessarily for everyone. He was actually hostile to the idea of spending any time or money in OTR, and it sounded like it had almost everything to do with the streetcar. He's a devout Catholic Republican that has spent his entire life in the Northern Kentucky suburbs, so take that for what you will. These are the types of people we are up against, and I'm not sure if any amount of success will turn their opinion on the matter. It's going to take many years until the region fully embraces the Cincinnati Streetcar and rail's future in the region, but I think Cincinnati's off to a great start.

I think Game 1 bodes well for Cleveland. Bulls shot WAY too well tonight, and the Cavs still had opportunities to win. I can't see the Bulls playing that well too many more times this series, and with J.R. coming back, the series is still plenty open.

Downtown Louisville has a ton of potential, and besides the airport and hospital area I think downtown and UofL are the two largest employment centers in the metro area. The university seems to be becoming less of a commuter school, so it's nice to see that the growing on-campus student body has been connected to downtown jobs/entertainment/Yum! Center. Looks like the most realistic route I could think of. "SoBro" seems like it has a lot of potential for density, and Old Louisville is probably dense enough to make it worthwhile to connect through to the university. The more I look at it, the more I like it. And I may be wrong on this, but it seems like the Louisville political climate may be more open to the idea than Cincinnati is.

"Fixed-gear fanny pack." LOL

Chris Wetterich (@ChrisCinciBiz): "Ch. 12 reporting that a private organization has offered to underwrite streetcar for 30 years and @JohnCranley will announce tomorrow."

Yeah, because the Mayor of Cincinnati has a lot of sway in the national abortion debate. :wtf:

Haha, I spent five minute trying to make sure it was definitely south on Linn, because I couldn't believe my eyes. The hills of NKY in the background are very deceiving.

Perhaps the deadest street downtown right now, it'll be totally unrecognizable in five years.

That location would almost make too much sense, but I believe there are plans to build a new Kroger and Walgreens there. I think a new arena in Cincinnati is a good 10+ years away. Maybe they can build it on the land that will open up after they Move the Mill.

It sounds more like they are just upset that it isn't taller than fifteen stories.