natininja

Nailed it.

First thing you should do is back up your data.

I was referring to jwulsin. My original "^^" had to be amended to a "^^^" when I saw thomasbw had snuck in a comment while I was reading yours/composing mine.

^^^ Hope you weren't thinking of me as someone who's "written-off" Jefferson. Like I said: "I don't think Jefferson should stay highway-like. It should get cycletracks and a nice median. But not a streetcar." I think a streetcar on Short Vine could help a lot with transforming Jefferson. My reasons for favoring Short Vine are not that Jefferson is hopelessly a highway. The primary ones are: 1) Serving Corryville better, transforming the neighborhood. 2) Smooth connection with Vine on the north side of MLK & reconnecting Vine (for some traffic), undoing a planning error and patching a hole in the city's fabric. Harmony with history. Bringing a streetcar back to a street made from streetcars. 3) Turning University Plaza into a streetcar village. 4) Making the existing commercial corridor on Short Vine look sexy and appealing. (Now this is something Jefferson probably couldn't achieve (not on the same level of a cozy, narrowish, dense urban commercial street like Short Vine), and if it could it would be so many years out that the effect on the area/neighborhood/city would not be so starkly transformational. In fact I think it's more likely more quickly w/ the wow-factor on Short Vine spilling over to Jefferson.) I think those are the main points, I'll come back if I think of more. But the thrust here is that they are positive points for Short Vine, not negative points for Jefferson, which I think can and should be improved, regardless of where track is laid. Just like you said.

You're having a little fun with John Schneider aren't you? Because the ship has sailed on preventing Columbus and Franklin County from turning deep blue. Just look at the red vs. blue map KJP posted HERE in the 2016 Republican National Convention thread. Up to the late 90's Columbus and Franklin County were much more Republican-leading. But since then, it's been going heavily Democratic. In 1999, Democratic Mayor Coleman won a competitive race. In 2003, the Franklin County Republicans couldn't even field a GOP candidate! And in 2007 and 2011, the GOP mayoral candidates against Coleman were tokens. --- In late 90's, Columbus City Council was divided 4-D's and 3-R's. Now it's all 7 D's and there hasn't been a Republican elected to the City Council since 2003. --- And even in the larger Franklin County, the County Commissioners makeup went from 3-R's in the early 2000's to 2-D's and 1-R today. That's true. The one place in Ohio that has changed demographically and politically is Franklin County/Columbus. HamCo also has turned blue, albeit to a lesser extent.

Suddenly it's okay to take from the pension fund to plug the budget hole, then add a bunch of earmarks for pet projects. And the fiscal responsibility bell-ringers are nowhere in sight. And WLW is worried only about "bike welfare".

Okay, excuse me while I argue with myself. This is true, but UC doesn't have to do anything in order for streetcar access to influence people's decisions to attend or seek employment at UC. Still, I think it's overly speculative to say that impact will exceed the benefit of development focused in the Corryville neighborhood. I also think you lose a lot of elegance and efficiency in the system overall by forfeiting the chance to create a UC-adjacent transit center (at University Plaza). And you can always add more track if it looks like a greater impact could be leveraged, but once the track is laid, (for all intents and purposes) that is that.

Furthermore, there are payroll taxes that result from the expansion of an otherwise tax-exempt university. There may also be spin-off private-sector jobs having offices or otherwise working inside the university in R&D partnerships, or in work-study programs, or technology clustering just across the street from campus properties. And all of those payrolls comprise a measurable and potentially significant taxbase that drives innovation and economic development. And as we've seen in other cities, transit, biking and walking are preferred modes of the creative class because driving takes up too much mental bandwidth. :-D UC and other schools and non-profits are exempt from property tax, and sometimes county and state sales tax, but not the city earnings tax. Despite what COAST says, Cincinnati's city property tax is quite low and just a fraction of the total county, public school, and special services (zoo, MRDD, etc.) property tax a property owner typically pays. It's not like I've suggested skipping UC. BTW any resemblance between what I've said and what Randall O'Toole or COAST says is purely coincidental. I categorically deny any affiliation!

John Schneider, thanks for the clarification in terminology. Don't get me wrong, I think it's very important to connect to UC. (Heck, I'm suggesting making a streetcar Government Square across the street from the Edwards Center!) I just think covering the east side of campus is enough, at least to begin with. It's the side with the most on-campus housing and the side with the most potential for transformation. We should also keep in mind that the Bearcat Shuttle (as well as metro buses) will respond to and integrate with the streetcar. I imagine there would be quite a high frequency from (e.g.) the One Stop Center, DAAP, and the Greek Village to University Plaza if it became a streetcar hub. If we're going to go closer to campus (Jefferson) or extend along the south of campus, we have to ask if we're getting the best bang for the buck. The scope, scale, and kind (notably the kind that pays property taxes) of development (the economic impact ;)) that would occur in dense Corryville would be more transformational (or at least more reliably so...in my estimation) than saturating UC with walkshed. At least have UC ask for it rather than bending over backwards to throw them bones. After all, they're the ones who would have to decide the extent to which the streetcar would impact their development strategies.

I still don't think it would be that different, assuming you cut through University Plaza. You are eating it up. The university is already well-served by buses, and fixed rails will not create economic development on campus-owned property (remember also UC does not pay taxes!). Without economic development, you sacrifice ROI. Corryville needs revitalization that can result from fixed-rail transit. The change there would be far bigger and far more economically impactful than with a route abutting campus.

I'm not concerned about the walk to Vine, but more the walk to Eden or Bellevue. Also the visibility of the commercial district which you mentioned and I believe is important. I don't think you gain much speed using Jefferson. I'd like to see the options modeled, though.

Looks like a reason to go vegan ;) Reminds me of Guinness & Bailey's.

Very strange considering that the whole way that commercial district developed was due to a streetcar line running through it historically. I've ridden the Muni through San Francisco and one thing that really struck me about it was how visable it made all the commercial districts it rode through - that entire setup was designed for a streetcar. Two major streetcar lines converged there. Lines from Vine and Auburn converged in a triangular intersection at Corry St. They diverged where the UC power plant is now, with one line continuing north on Vine and the other on Jefferson Ave. to Clifton. It's very rare in American cities for the physical layout to enable situations like this. It's completely ridiculous that they wouldn't want it. It's an ideal location for the streetcar to extend through. An effort should be made to educate them. Jefferson is a gajillion times worse of a spot. I don't think Jefferson should stay highway-like. It should get cycletracks and a nice median. But not a streetcar. Allowing campus to eat up half of the walkshed of the streetcar is asinine. I'd go so far as to say bringing the streetcar west of Vine, until it's past MLK, is a waste. If the hospitals, UC, and HUC want to kick in some funds to bring the streetcar over to Clifton Ave., so be it, but if they don't want it then it's not worth doing. Clifton Heights/Fairview can be served by the Conklin Steps stop plus University Plaza stop. I also don't think going straight to the Zoo is the best way to go, at least not right away. Here's how I imagine lines coming together, at a University Plaza station. Two things I strongly believe would be a missed opportunity: (1) Taking Jefferson over Short Vine, (2) Not utilizing University Plaza for a TOD/transit hub. The blue line uses Jskinner's idea, which I like very much.

When I first heard about their plans for Jackson Brewery, I thought they were way too ambitious. So when I first read they were doing this thing in Northside, I figured it was an acceptance of that fact. My bet is they're hoping to make enough money with the Northside venture to complete the OTR build-out.

Crazy story! Scary! The car was "parked" in drive or perhaps neutral, and the car rolled down the hill.

Sorry if the video sucks... TBH I didn't watch it; I just thought it might add to the discussion here. Should I edit the post and remove it?

Why solar roadways are not viable:

To me, the better question is whether providing activities costs less than policing/punishing crime (or any other social ill) that happens without them. Even if the latter is a "public duty" and the former is not. We should be concerned with what works best, not what makes us feel better or conforms to some ideology of what is or isn't a duty.

Okay, this has officially flown off my radar. It sounded interesting, but 200 sites and the local one is by Wilmington Airport? Ha. Nothing unique about that spot to lure them, so it won't happen. And if it did I couldn't bother getting excited about it any more than were it 300-something widget-producing jobs going to Wilmington.

^ Americans get way too emotional about punishment. We need to take a step back and read the statistics. What works? What doesn't? Forget about revenge or even justice -- it doesn't help. In the case where empirical studies would support throwing the book at someone, I'd be all for it.

With Stone and Sam Adams in addition to all the locals, if SA opened a taproom, Cincy would probably start getting some national recognition again as a brewing capital. Especially if Stone set up in or around OTR, which seems like what they would do. I don't know why else they'd be eying Cincy in particular, if not to use the city's brewing history as a marketing tool. The Mockbee would be a cool spot for Stone, though it's a tad far from the gravity of OTR.

^ Less smoke inhaled for the same effect sounds like a health benefit to me. Though I'm sure plenty of people let their tolerance build and burn the same quantities people did back in the day. Probably burns a hole in their pocket too, though, as I've heard the price differential from then to now roughly matches the potency differential. My general understanding/belief is that the "zomg today's weed is super weed" is fearmongering, especially since there's no such thing as a THC overdose. I've also read that the selective breeding that led to that situation occurred when Nixon cracked down on pot and drove the growers indoors. Who knows how things would have gone had Nixon actually listened to the Shafer Commission in 1970. Or if the LaGuardia Committee were taken seriously. The history of marijuana prohibition is pretty fascinating. It's so full of lies, I think people are finally finding that out in great numbers. The Internet probably helped along the multigenerational debunking. Had the market matured naturally, I wonder if the potency issue wouldn't be more of a beer/wine/liquor thing instead of people just aiming for the strongest stuff. I mean, it's beneficial along the whole supply chain to have less material with more potency -- less legal risk.

Simply outrageous. Why should one of the most affordable, greenest, healthiest transportation modes be singled out for extra scrutiny? Why should public safety improvements face extra legislative hurdles? If this passes, we need to start thinking about a new ballot campaign. This stuff coming from Cranley and Mann is so backwards.

Now that would be terrific. Stone is one of the top-5 best brewers in the US. Yes, yes, yes.

A little competition among the C's is not bad. Perhaps it will force them all to step up their game. The state/region has such a poor brand nationally that if Columbus starts to catch people's eyes it will in turn be good for Cincinnati, and vice-versa.