natininja

Re: the MLK thing...the link to the government site has January 17th. Also, the signature is no longer blue. Did the governor's office fix it, or was the plunderbund site messing around with photoshop? Someone commented "It's been six hours since you posted this and the original document is still up on the Governor's website. WTF?", so I guess the answer is the former.

Rural VTers and MEers, though, are fairly liberal. NH is full of libertarian types, many of whom vote Republican. Many rural NYers are classic American rednecks. It's an interesting region in terms of politics, for sure. The rural liberals brings to mind Europe, but then the libertarians are so quintessentially American. The "mountain lesbian" phenomenon is also kind of fascinating, IMO.

There are tons of Cleveland lawyers here. You came to the right place.

I think it's funny the way you talk about New England's pace. Outside of the NYC and Boston metros, New England is much sleepier than most of Ohio. Less diverse, too! VT, NH, and ME are sloooooooooow and WHITE. I can see how growing up where you did, though, leaves you feeling like Cincinnati is too slow for you. It's definitely a city for people who want a slower pace of life. For some people, that's a positive; for others, a negative. People are pretty laid back.

Concluding "it's clearly not racially motivated" is a bit of a stretch, but your points are solid for showing that it's plausibly not racially motivated. Thus, giving the benefit of the doubt is appropriate. Still, I take it as an obvious sway towards rural interests. And that makes me sick! While I wasn't in love with Strickland, I felt he fit Ohio well regarding his balance between rural and urban interests.

I like Paul, but I think it's funny he presents such a stiff view here of what Mallory should be able to do as the "face of a business". Paul is such a firebrand, it seems like he rarely cares what the face of his own business looks like; he's certainly never one to avoid controversy. "As a businessman, my image is everything and I'd like to think the city I chose to do business with feels the same way." That's not the Paul I know, which is exactly why I have a hard time taking this rant seriously. The CEO of Chiquita went on the program, and that company doesn't seem to have lost much face as a result. Maybe reality shows are classless, but they are mainstream in the world we inhabit. Businessmen understand the value of a publicity stunt, which is exactly what this is, viewed in the most cynical light. "No such thing as bad publicity" and all that... And that's assuming consensus among the business class is that the show is trashy, which I wouldn't bet is the case. There is also the potential to appeal to common folks, which Paul doesn't even consider. I think there are two forces driving Paul's rant: 1) his already established distaste for Mallory, and 2) his tendency to like things as they used to be, rather than how they are currently. In the past, the conventions were different regarding what was an appropriate image for a leader to project. They are different now, but like with other things, Paul thinks the old way was better. He's very small-c conservative, in that sense.

Take it as a micro view of Kasich's plan for "job growth": fatter jobs for top earners, less jobs overall.

^ But you called it Courthouse Square (instead of Playhouse Square), so it's different! ;-P

I guess that big surface lot on the other side of Plum didn't offer enough space for development.

From our very own restorationconsultant: Cincinnati Mayor appears on "Reality Show". Council should seek his resignation.

The Banks is turning into the place to go one game day, whether you have tickets or not. Darn those blackouts!

I'd say Northside has slowly but steadily continued on its upswing. Hopefully when the economy starts to swing back some momentum will pick up. Covington and Newport are noticeably better than five years ago, if they count.

I really need to get to Cleveland again soon.

Au contraire, your view of government is far too rosy. If government were to be so self-serving and self-preserving, it would need to be far more efficient than it is, in reality. Government has no problem with contradicting or undermining itself, which in this case is a good thing. Likewise with universities. For example, academic studies cited in this article.

^ No way. Winter 2013? I hope so.

Academic- and government-funded think-tanks certainly have less potential for bias than those with corporate backers. This is true for the same reasons that public funds are available for the study of, e.g., pure mathematics, whereas corporations are only interested in the same once an application is found. Think-tanks which are given the freedom to explore ideas without a preconceived aim are inherently less biased. Corporate money follows the preconceived aim of generating positive results for the donor corporation, with results further confounded by an eye on the omnipresent quarter-annual clock.

The don't have to be as big as the Enquirer, they just need to out-last the Enquirer.

I don't have much to add at the moment, but I do want to let you know I greatly appreciate your work. Wouldn't want you to feel what you're doing is in vain! Best of luck with your endeavors. I can't understand why Cincinnatians don't hold these in higher regard.

^ That question is poorly worded. People probably thought "79 mph service" meant 79 mph average service.

^ It's all of Ohio's fault.

^ Spur growth, but where is that growth coming from? This type of project is not going to draw residents from another region, so the "growth" will come with corresponding shrinkage across other parts of the region. Zero-sum growth is not worth $1m, let alone $809m.

There is a direct connection. A while ago, council refused to recommend the Eastern Corridor project for a (federal?) grant. Republicans went nuts, because they were favoring the city rail project over the county "rail" project. Or supporting one and not the other (due to there being actual competition between them). So the fact that this is becoming less transparently a highway project helps to vindicate city council for their exclusive support of the streetcar.

Aside from the density issue, the fact that Cincinnati is older puts forth another potential flaw in the claim that Cleveland has more to weep about. Cincinnati's lost architecture was older and more unique, particularly for the Midwest. Re: density, CDM is right -- the basin was much more dense than anywhere in Cleveland, and at its peak density it made up a large portion of the city's area. Cleveland filled in more uniformly to a larger area. Cleveland didn't start out so highly concentrated, followed by tons of annexation of less dense suburbs, like Cincinnati did. The reason the buildings wouldn't need to be half empty with a drastic drop in population is that the number of people living in each building also dropped drastically. Think about buildings in the Lower East Side becoming populated with students, displacing Chinese immigrants. You might fit two or three students in a unit which used to house 6-10 immigrants. Same idea. The basin, at its peak population, was second only to Manhattan in density (and likely levels of horrible sanitation). The inclines and streetcars enabled affordable life outside the basin, so their advent began the flight to suburbs on surrounding hills. The subway which was being built in the 20's (when the picture was taken) was actually meant to further this process along.

roflmaoyaoming.