natininja

^ There's the I Love Cincinnati Shoppe in Tower Place. http://www.ilovecincinnatishoppe.com/

I know there are no plans; I was just wishfully thinking. The Cardinal b/t CIN and WDC is probably to circuitous (and perhaps too rural) to be prioritized for a major overhaul, anyway. Cin>Ind>Chi, on the other hand, would be a perfect corridor for HSR upgrades. Cin>Day>Col>Pit>Phi>NYC would also be good. And direct. 3C would've been a good start for that...sigh.

Union Terminal in Cincinnati suddenly comes to life in the middle of the night when the Cardinal arrives/departs. I think most residents of the city don't know about this, but it is illustrative of the market for rail because there is a genuine spike of activity. You might expect the place to be empty, due to the inconvenience of the times and sparsity of trains, but that is really not the case. I don't mean it's crowded or anything (anyone who's been there knows it would take more than one train departing to make that rotunda feel crowded), but the place definitely comes alive, with cabs out front and a fairly crowded waiting room, etc. I can only imagine what it was like back in the day, with many daily departures and an intact concourse. There is also a very dramatic arrival into the city coming from the east, which must be impressive for someone who's never been and/or is just passing through for Indy or Chicago. You catch the skyline from many angles as you follow the Ohio, simultaneously passing street after street of 19th century architecture of urban NKY. This culminates with the crossing of the river with a great view of the historic Roebling bridge while you head into the cluster of skyscrapers you've been catching a glimpse of for the past 15-30 minutes. (I can't comment about coming from Indy/Chicago, but my bet is it's not as powerful. How could it be?) It almost redeems the pain of an 18 hour train ride from NYC. (Cut this to 6 or 8 hours and flying would only be for business travelers in a rush.) Any idea how recent financial developments might affect plans for daily Cardinal operations?

Kasich is not one for playing by rules, so we shall see how he tries to do toll implementation...if he is actually serious about it.

There's also a Brewery District thread, I believe. :)

I wonder if companies collecting tolls for contributions to construction costs will be contributing to maintenance of the infrastructure. Would that be a given?

We need more people like Caleb Faux on that board and less "yes men".

^ Looks like Ohio Republicans might be waking up a bit to fiscal reality. If Kasich wants to add toll booths to new road projects instead of raising the gas tax (taxes are evil, right?), then so be it. Forcing roads to "pay for themselves" will be a great way to encourage rail development!

^ Didn't Biden "complement" Obama by saying how articulate he is? Yeah, that is a weird one that seems to come out when least expected. I feel compelled to mention I have a style-crush on the "blipster" look, even though it doesn't sound like yours qualifies. I've always found bright colors appealing, and the 80s/early-90s hip-hop revival (even done ironically) makes me really nostalgic. It's freaking awesome, LOL. White people can't really pull it off. At least not so far as I've seen. I do like to wear bright colors, though, and in my mind it is in confluence with such a look.

Wayne Lippert should be ashamed. He is replacing someone who was elected on a platform supporting the streetcar, which was by most accounts the defining issue of that election. For him to take a position against it is a blatant insult to the voters and citizens of Cincinnati. I sincerely hope he fails miserably, come November. There is no justification for his de facto flip-flop.

^ On the other hand, if the give-away is promotional in nature, the extra exposure could be like free advertising. That might depend on the purchasing power of people who follow the Twitter feed (or FB group or whatever), but it is an interesting experiment. And it doesn't really hurt to try. At worst, you will miss some spread-out opportunities for free stuff in the long term for a shortish period of time when you can get tons of it. (And you would get tons, if the venture is so successful as to stop the practice.)

^^ I don't claim enough expertise on the city to judge which one of you is right. I was just trying to parse what Keith M. meant when he said conservatism is holding the city back. Hopefully, once High between Downtown and OSU is saturated, development will branch outward. "Development here or there" vs. development along High weren't the only competing models I was talking about. I was also talking about branching the High St. development out to the east and west (thereby making walkable neighborhoods). Maybe connecting the two points, then branching, is the best strategy. But with the seemingly submissive nature of transit advocates (judging by the streetcar's easy death), the current linear development strategy is a tacit submission to auto-dominance. At least for the city's flagship developments -- the ones along High (I'm not commenting on the other areas you mentioned).

What kinda cryptic sh!t is this?

It could be as simple as promoting a Twitter hash tag like #FreeFoodChicago. Or a Facebook group where people can report locations.

Continuing development all along one thoroughfare is anti-urban in the sense it is anti-walkability. So it's driven by a car mentality, which might be the conservatism Keith M. was addressing. Making a line of development is much worse for accessibility than making the same amount of development in a more square (or circle or whatever) shape. It also is bad for neighborhood identity and place-making: having different streets for business districts in different neighborhoods creates variety and distinction. High Street is pretty awesome, but when its creation is at the expense of more livable (less linear) development, it displays a lack of "getting it" in terms of quality urbanism. There needs to be some east-west momentum, at some point. BRT or streetcars running perpendicularly through High, perhaps? Git 'er done. :)

^^ Guided by Voices came out of the Dayton scene! And a while back so did the Ohio Players (Love Rollercoaster!). ^ Wow, someone really hates hipsters. If you've never met one that wasn't boring, you probably haven't looked too hard. I'm not a huge fan of hipsterism, but I find it hard to make so many blanket statements about them as you.

Just poking fun. ;-) You really need to try a shelf toilet. It's a life changing moment, bringing you to new heights of intimacy with your...meals. Maybe you can include one alongside your urinal and bidet. BTW - Wikipedia talks about the accuracy of Farmers' Almanac weather reports.

We need a new Urbanbar thread: David's Random Musings

Not only support it in principle, but support paying, literally, billions for it.

With the new thread name, I am just waiting for someone to post something related to a project in CUF, the Heights, or Corryville. :shoot:

It would be nice if Kroger would use that store for a new urban grocery concept. Seeing as it is the store closest to their corporate headquarters, it would be sensible to make it a flagship of some kind. Something to show investors when they come to town, and something to help out the revitalization of the core of the company's home city. You know, to be good corporate citizens and all that. Wishful thinking? Probably. But it sounds very reasonable to me!

^ That would fail to explain their prevalence in the Netherlands.

For sure, Cincinnatians are familiar with various neighborhoods and the corresponding commercial streets/business districts. You can kind of choose the flavor of your evening by picking which 'hood to play in (or you can switch it up in the middle). Northside, Clifton, CUF/Corryville, OTR/CBD, Mt. Adams, Hyde Park, Covington -- all geographically separate and each with different flavors. Edit: It's one of the reasons a streetcar and/or light rail system makes so much goddamn sense, because there are various centers with legitimate gaps to bridge.

I think some of the variation in numbers comes from the different ways the project can be divided into subprojects. According to a troll on this board claiming to be from COAST, there may be more opposition to this than we know. It would be interesting to see a big fight over a highway project.