jjakucyk

Hmm, at some point you just have to embrace the 3-point perspective for images of taller buildings. That's way too tilt-shifty.

It's rather difficult to find a decent amount of office space in a walkable area like OTR, HP Square, Oakley, etc. that's not smack in downtown or some isolated non-walkable part of the neighborhood. Seems like 3,000 SF is the most that's usually available, and even then it can be pretty chopped up with walls and stairs and such. It illustrates the value of having some more medium to large size buildings.

This is certainly an interesting area because there's huge amounts of pedestrian and cyclist traffic on the PPB and up and down Bulter Street, not to mention in the park, but once you get across Pete Rose Way it totally dies. Even during the day it's pretty quiet on that stretch of 3rd Street and Culvert.

The Paris and San Francisco situations need some clarification. For one thing, central Paris isn't really low-rise, it's 7-stories. That's Calhoun Street, but on every single block over an area from the riverfront to St. Bernard. Their streets are also half as wide, if not less, even counting the grand boulevards, and they don't waste land on useless "green space" or buffer zones or parking lots/garages. That's how you get nearly the same population density as Manhattan with just 7-story buildings. San Francisco and most US cities have such "peaky" downtowns because that's the only place any reasonably dense development can happen at all. Once you get just a short ways outside the downtown, you're limited to low-density automobile-oriented sprawl by zoning. In many cities what urban development exists outside of downtown is only grandfathered in, or at best is allowed to be maintained as-is but no bigger. Yes San Francisco's core neighborhoods aren't THAT dense, certainly not compared to Paris or New York (SF has only 30% the population density of Paris), and that's in no small part because it's completely strangled by single-family residential zoning, whether in city neighborhoods or the suburbs. Chicago is the same, and even a lot of Brooklyn and Queens are single-family only. Yes they may be smaller lot, even attached, with some denser commercial nodes scattered about, but because there's such a tight noose around all development in the entire metro area, so much of the demand gets focused on the few lots where high density is allowed. The other problem with that is it causes speculation on those few parcels, further stalling out development. Cincinnati may not be quite in that position now, at least not region-wide, or even city-wide, but you can see it in OTR, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, and Mt. Adams. The desirability of those neighborhoods and the inability to do anything but rebuild what's already there causes prices to go up which pushes other people out. But it's not the rich who get pushed out, because they're the ones who are doing the pushing since they want to live in these neighborhoods. That's what makes it difficult to bring other neighborhoods up, when it's only those who've been displaced are left to try to repopulate them. Granted someone priced out of Hyde Park is unlikely to be poor, but once you're out there's the whole metro area to pick from, so everyone gets spread thin and building the critical mass to turn around another neighborhood is difficult. So if there's a concern about high rises downtown or excessive rents and development in OTR, it's necessary to look at the whole region and see why people are being squeezed into these specific locations. Walkability and amenities are certainly a factor, and even in Hyde Park Square or Northside those can be lacking. In part that's because those neighborhoods are not as walkable as they may seem due to low-density zoning surrounding their business districts. I personally believe that 2, 3, and 4-family apartments as well as garage apartments should be allowed as of right in the whole city. You could theoretically quadruple the population of an area without significantly changing its overall form, and then you get much better transit performance. That's also the increment necessary to encourage redevelopment of run-down or fallow neighborhoods. It doesn't make financial sense to redevelop single-family into two-family, the numbers just don't work, but a 4x increase in density is where the numbers finally start to pan out. I'll stop rambling now.

^ 5th Street at Fountain Square is 550', Pete Rose Way here is 502' but it drops to 486' at the railroad tracks.

Not much change over the last few weeks, but with the temporary lighting inside I think it's safe to say that what little we see left of the structure is going to remain. Not sure about the tower, but one can hope. Still, this whole corner, and much of Reading Road and MLK is, as James Howard Kunstler would say, entropy made visible.

Kathump-kathump-kathump? Time for the wheel lathe already?

Right, because there's not enough "green space" already.

^Yes pretty much. Because of the number of lanes and ramp configurations there isn't really the opportunity to carve out some space from the existing road bridge like was done on Kellogg. The trail is also expected to tunnel under Beechmont, though I'm not quite sure why, since there's a path under the existing bridge next to the river. Maybe it's to avoid the flooding problems that routinely happen on the Lunken-Armleder connector being so close to the riverbank.

I've never had that problem. I have to push the knobs in pretty hard in order to allow them to turn.

I have a 20" gas range in my 100 year old apartment, and an 18" dishwasher. They definitely save on base cabinet space. Magic Chef, Amana, and Hotpoint make small ranges, and even Best Buy carries many of them (maybe just online). Yes the stovetop gets a bit crowded if you're cooking a big meal, especially involving a large saucepan plus a big pot for boiling, but it's manageable. The smaller dishwasher is still big enough to fit said saucepan on the top rack. I do have a full size refrigerator which I definitely appreciate because more modern ones tend to have smaller freezers than in the past due to the extra insulation required, but there are 3/4 size refrigerators out there too. All that said, if I were looking at an apartment and there was no oven at all, I would have to pass without question. Toaster ovens are not big enough to fit baking sheets or frozen pizzas of any reasonable size, and they take up valuable counter space as you said. They're hard to hide away too, and it's impractical to put them on top of the refrigerator which you can do with a microwave if there's no cabinet above it. The oven in a 20" range is quite large since you still have just as much height as in a standard 30" model. There are some standalone small cooktops out there, but they're expensive. Standalone small wall ovens are a rare beast if they even exist at all, as are combo microwaves/convection ovens. In those cases you're getting much more expensive because they're a niche product usually intended for high-end kitchenettes as part of bar areas or pool houses. The small gas ranges have the advantage of being relatively inexpensive since they serve the old apartment market that has limited space and money. They're mostly gas too because (as in my case) the older apartment buildings where they're most used don't usually have the 240-volt service needed to drive electric appliances, though there are small electric ranges there too. I would personally prefer to have an electric oven and a gas stove but I'll take all gas over all electric.

I biked through there after they'd put in the streets and graded all the land, but before any of the buildings were up (maybe they'd started on the apartments), and I was stunned at just how huge the whole development is. Even ignoring the already developed Center of Cincinnati, it's massive, and all that land has been squandered on this awful low-density suburban development. I will say though that the street grid isn't all that bad. The streets are straight and mostly connected to each other, if not the rest of Oakley. If they'd just plan for at least one railroad crossing it would help so much. 34th or Appleton are the two most logical choices to line up, but 34th is a bit too far west to be of much use. Appleton could still be done with a little realignment of Factory Colony Lane. The fact that it doesn't line up now though shows that there was never any intention of connecting it through, which is a shame. What's really sobering is that these streets have almost exactly the same cross-section as Freedom Way at The Banks. Did I mention squandering?

Nearby areas are usually "undervalued" for a very good reason, because they're not "there" yet. It takes a very specific type of person to be a pioneer in a neighborhood, and there's not many of them. While Walnut Hills or East Price Hill or Camp Washington or the West End could be nice some day, they're frankly not nice now. Even if they're not dangerous, they're run-down and have few amenities that appeal to an urban clientele. Farther out neighborhoods like Carthage or Westwood or Pleasant Ridge may be in better shape, but they lack nightlife and walkability, plus they're a non-trivial distance from neighborhoods that do have those qualities. There may be good bones in those neighborhoods, but there's little meat, and that's why they're still cheap, they have a long way to go before they're firing on all cylinders. If you want nearby shops and walkability and such things, then those neighborhoods do NOT provide, so unless you're a pioneer who wants to start a small business and begin to plant the seeds of a better community, then it doesn't make sense to live there. It could be a long wait for the neighborhood to reach critical mass.

I would assume, though I have no verification of this, that even where the main span of a bridge crosses the Ohio border, it would still be Kentucky's responsibility since it's a contiguous structure. That's relatively close to the state line for Brent Spence and Clay Wade Bailey but starts to get murky as you go farther east. The Suspension Bridge I assume would have to include the cable anchors as part of Kentucky's responsibility, even though it's literally planted on Ohio soil, but maybe not the roadway between them until it transitions to the metal deck. Even the north tower of the Suspension Bridge is on the Ohio side of the border. A good third of the Taylor Southgate Bridge is on the Ohio side, with the main truss ending on the north side of Mehring Way. The Big Mac Bridge ends pretty much right on the shore, but there the border is well out in the river, almost half way in the arch span. I haven't the slightest idea how the Purple People Bridge would be divvied up. Probably a good question for someone at ODOT or KTC.

Agreed. I was down there not that long ago and the concrete wasn't nearly that bad, so I bet Sherman is right that they went in and deliberately chipped away any concrete that they could get to come off in preparation for rustproofing and patching.

Mill Ridge, Ibsen, also ones they added at Ridge/Ibsen and Ridge/Madison.

^ Six with those damn right turn lanes that are too short and angular to actually be of any use.

Reserved right-of-way is pretty well necessary for anything fairly long-haul, or if you want a streetcar to be more than just a bus with greater capacity. Here's a great explanation of how street running rail transit worked fine in the pre-automobile days but gradually lost its advantages as street congestion worsened. http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/09/transit-and-congestion-part-2-how.html (Still running Snow Leopard eh? Get with the times ;) )

Suburban development doesn't pay its own way in infrastructure and services, so allowing suburban development in a city that already has city-level infrastructure to support is even worse because it takes that land off the market that could be put to better use and creates a residency that is resistant to change. It's like, having a little oil in your car engine is better than having none, but if you don't have enough to prevent damage, then it's still a futile effort and you're just wasting the oil and money.

^ Ours is was nicer.

^ But this building had a lot of windows on the 3rd floor, and of course all along the sidewalk. The 2nd floor could have been opened up with windows to match the 3rd without compromising the original design in any way.

Good grief, what's the point anymore?

Copenhagen's main street (also a pedestrian-only street) Strøget has a 7-Eleven, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, another 7-Eleven, Footlocker, yet another 7-Eleven, a Nike Store, Urban Outfitters, Disney, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ben & Jerry's mixed in with all the local stores and restaurants (many of the restaurants are on the 2nd floor), along with many more high-end retailers like Chanel, Burberry, and the like. https://goo.gl/maps/h3afkkW6xWT2 The key is they're all in urban storefronts of (mostly) older buildings. Even the newer ones are just a bit more glass and steel as opposed to glass and masonry. Now what is interesting is that the cheaper fast food and convenience stores are pretty much right at the main entry point of Strøget off the City Hall square, near the train station and main bus depot where most tourists and commuters alike would be coming from. As you go farther you get the more high-end boutique and jewelry stores. Still, this street which bisects the medieval core of the city is only 2/3 of a mile long, the distance from the SCPA to Findlay Market.

^ Pretty sure that's the homeowner's responsibility still. You can argue that having less pavement in front of the house is a net benefit to them, so asking them to care for it isn't really an undue burden. As for the roundabout situation, they wouldn't need to move the sidewalks at all, just build some extra legs to connect to the crosswalks.

Chipelto is much better ;)