jjakucyk

Come on Jake. It's right next to Shawnee Creek going out of Xenia, then crosses the Little Miami River, then parallels the Creekside Reserve and Little Beaver Creek past Zimmerman. That's like half the distance between Xenia and Dayton.

The child murder outrage came about in the 1920s in the US (called motor killings here), which is also when the automobile industry began its massive propaganda campaign to redefine streets as for cars, inventing the term jaywalking, and trying to push cars on city dwellers who weren't all that interested, since automobile sales had flattened. They had some success, but most urban transit systems didn't end up collapsing until the 1950s when highways started being built with gusto. In Europe however, there was very little automobile use or infrastructure before WWII, and many countries went all-in during rebuilding. They tried to do in 20 years what had taken 50+ years in the US and noted the rapid destruction of their built environments, precipitous drop in cycling and transit use, and increase in fatalities. We were the frog that was gradually boiled to death, while they jumped out because it was too much too fast.

Speed and capacity are two completely different things, which actually have somewhat of an inverse relationship. In fact, if I recall correctly, a single traffic lane has a maximum capacity of about 2,000 vehicles per hour regardless of speed. Increasing speed doesn't increase capacity because the distance between vehicles grows as speed goes up. So traffic calming and changing out signalized intersections to 4-way stops or roundabouts can actually reduce total travel time AND speeds because traffic stays flowing more as opposed to starting and stopping, all without reducing capacity. That's what's so ingenious about the Dutch streets. They're friendlier to everyone because they have their own space, speeds are low, and you rarely have to stop. The narrow lanes and rights-of-way, which communicates that these are places for people, not highways, means you're not itching to drive faster because it would be uncomfortable if not scary to do so. It's something of a "slow and steady wins the race" situation.

Nah, not an issue.

I can't speak for all of Europe, but just because downtowns look like museums doesn't mean they are. Downtown Copenhagen, the medieval core, has one of the lowest populations of the city's neighborhoods. That's because it's mostly businesses. Yes some of it is tourist stuff, but that's where the design firms, banks, accounting offices, and other "normal" businesses are. They're just not in skyscrapers with million square foot floor plates. The buildings aren't overtly commercial (they originally weren't, or were only ground floor retail with apartments above that are now offices), so it's hard to see. The hub-and-spoke train system they have shows that the core of the city is still the major draw. I don't think most large-ish European cities are much different.

Because that's not what's done in countries that actually have decent cycling mode share. That's a deprecated bandaid non-solution. Look at places that have figured this out and have people of all ages and abilities riding. Narrow streets like you find in OTR with permanent street parking and low traffic volume (most east-west streets) can be tamed such that cycling within the roadway is comfortable enough. https://goo.gl/maps/zqJVKmyd7bs Somewhat wider version: https://goo.gl/maps/AoDNK2ykxmS2 Somewhat larger north-south streets start needing separate physical infrastructure. There's too much traffic to just say "ride in the street" but the sidewalks are also too busy and cluttered with poles and trees and such. This could easily be Walnut Street https://goo.gl/maps/uYy1CBA72F52 Race/Elm: https://goo.gl/maps/PgzNfWe1CN62 Even downtown could have something like this: https://goo.gl/maps/94KhKyVrfkF2

Ugh, you can see in this view between July 2015 and September 2016 that they actually added some overhead back in. A new 3-phase drop to somewhere. https://goo.gl/maps/k8hvzdZz6Tu That's borderline criminal if you ask me. Of course around here it's never a quick process regardless. When they redid Woodburn Avenue in 2007-2008, there were still some poles and overhead wires that weren't finally removed until sometime between 2014 and 2016.

An infuriating amount of the urban core has a minimum 5-foot front yard setback, so that could be a factor. A single infill building may not have much trouble since existing front yard setbacks of neighbors are averaged, but a large new development won't have those to pull them forward. Give them credit for bring the buildings at the corners right up to the sidewalk, even if the rest aren't. That's not a bad compromise. There's also a requirement that 20% (I think) of units in multifamily developments need to be accessible, so having a little extra space to taper the sidewalk up to the front door can help to keep the floors aligned and make up slight variations in the site and sidewalk. I'm getting tired of all the "hurr durr faux historic = the sux0rs" shtick. We've had this argument before that even the "original" Italianate buildings in OTR are already a reinterpretation of even earlier designs and construction methods. They're almost all "____ revival" styles of some sort. We can build just about anything today, and it's all been done before. A rehash of Italianate is no less valid than a rehash of Miesian glass and steel (at this point mid-century modern is just as far removed from the present as from the Victorian era). If designs that use tried and true materials, arrangements, and typologies that people understand and relate to are going to be derided because they're not new or novel enough, then that just exemplifies everything that's wrong with the architecture profession today. There's plenty to criticize in newish construction, but the use of brick veneer instead of load-bearing masonry, polyurethane brackets instead of pressed tin, or calcium silicate masonry instead of quarried limestone is just grasping at straws as far as I'm concerned.

Stretimann also has very rental high rates, like class-A level, so it's no surprise they're struggling to find tenants.

Yeah the scale of the windows is really small compared to the overall building. Plus it's the usual urban builder bland blah.

But is it worth it to open more hole-in-the-wall pizza parlors just to cater to a single night's rush? That's the sort of mentality that gets us 20-lane highways and parking lots that are sized for Black Friday. If these places aren't crowded on a regular basis then they won't survive to cater to those few big events. I will grant that the bars and tap rooms seem like they always come in with the mentality of "we don't need to offer food" and quickly realize that they do. So they scramble to get a food truck before eventually shoehorning in a kitchen. "Just go to X down the street to get food" never seems to work all that well.

Well, even the city's historical streetcar system didn't cover every neighborhood, and it certainly wasn't what we'd call high-speed. Add in the interurbans and a couple of commuter railroads and some of the suburbs had at least ok transit options, but not much more. MetroMoves would've certainly been a big step forward, but still not "high-speed rail across all 52 neighborhoods." Maybe with gas prices nudging up a bit there could be a little bit more interest, but I wouldn't expect to see much happen with people like Trump, Kasich, and Cranley in power. Drill baby drill, screw the environment, etc.

National chains may be the only ones left that can afford the rent.

Well the old Servatii's location at Court and Walnut is becoming a Great Clips. *facepalm*

Not to mention there were numerous streetcar lines that operated over Gilbert Avenue. The streetcars couldn't be blocked. ...

Gaslight is literally the part of the neighborhood that still has operating gas lamps along the sidewalks. I doubt anyone is that diligent about it, partly because that would exclude Ludlow and Clifton Avenues, Woolper, Terrace, Lowell, Whitfield south of Ludlow, Bishop, Ruther, McAlpin, and Rawson Woods. That's not a district, especially when your main streets are exempt.

I always assumed Clifton gaslight was referring just to the Ludlow business district and a few blocks around it (Shiloh, Bryant, Howell, Telford, etc.), not Lafayette, Warren, or McAlpin.

It's probably too hard to justify the renovation cost and longer payback period for an apartment versus the (mostly) immediate return on a condo sale. Of course condo buyers want bigger kitchens, en-suite laundry, storage, and central air, which requires additional work and expense.

The benefit in this case is that they're developing the parcel that blights the entire block. There's nowhere to go but up when this is what you have: https://goo.gl/maps/F5Gsf2We1Bt I do wish they didn't kink the new street (Merrimac). They have an opportunity to create a little axis along the street to a monument or fountain or whatever at the end (they even show...something...on the site plan) but with the bend in the street that destroys the alignment in favor of a more suburban cul-de-sac design. I am glad to see that some of the garages are detached at the rear yard rather than having a 40 foot parking pad and no back yard, but there's still a lot of pavement.

Baking is a bitch and casseroles are so last millennium. If it weren't for frozen pizzas my oven wouldn't see any use either, even though I use the stove daily.

Or people want to be able to cook and not be crammed in a little corner. Being able to see the TV in the living room or communicate with the SO without having to leave the kitchen is a good thing. The number of people who want the kitchen isolated so they can cook "without distraction" is minuscule. Otherwise who wouldn't want an open plan? Small kitchens with no counter space suck too. Once you get your microwave and a toaster you don't even have space to drop the groceries, let alone actually cook anything.

The McDonald's has always been the McDonald's. The old Skyline is now Taco Casa with the new Skyline next to it.

Subway in general is in trouble since the whole Jared fiasco and the chicken/soy scandal. They're also squeezing their franchisees more, so the dumpier ones seem to be folding. The one on Court Street closed a couple weeks ago too.

That is so 2013.

Considering this is the typical development pattern even in modern day Japan, Korea, much of the Middle-East, and of course the old cities of Europe, I think moving is a solved problem.