natininja

The streetcar goes to a lot more places for a lot less money. More bang for the buck. However, I agree replacing the viaduct is a major priority. Suburban westsiders who use the viaduct should be urging the county to pitch in. It's not just city residents creating that traffic volume. But if traffic volume is as big as you say it is, it also sounds like a transit connection is vital. You can move so many more people with so much less space using transit. Back to bang for the buck, again. An auto-only transportation system can't be sustained economically.

It says a lot that, in your post, you implicitly exempt roadwork from the funding question.

It sounds like cops don't like to do it. Which is messed up. Hire cops that want to do this, it is a key part of the job.

^ You forgot about Scott Greenberg. What was so individualistic about metal heads or any other GenX subculture?

Thanks, ProkNo5. It's been a long time since I looked at that. Okay, yeah, they are completely annihilating the density and bones of the area. IMO this is all the more reason to go back to the drawing board with a transit corridor in mind. Combine the Viaduct and Lick Run projects with a plan for the "stream" to be surrounded by TOD. It's like adding pennies onto these massive, expensive projects. Making that space parkland is a joke, as PAlexander says. Westside leaders should be acting quickly to turn this into a positive instead of a negative.

^ Nice to see something other than a restaurant or bar opening.

Was there anything in the approval which said where the money needed to be spent, other than in southwest Ohio? I doubt it. Why would the state care? They probably didn't even put "southwest" in the language of the grant. Hell, the state is probably hoping GE reconsiders and goes to Franklin County.

You're definitely right about that, it's in a narrow valley. But it is dense and offers a potential seed for development of the Westside and a place for connections to BRT or future rail lines. I have to take a look at the MSD project, as I do remember that being an area with a couple dates with the wrecking ball. Though if they are tearing everything up there, it could be a good opportunity to build the streets back up with some rail on the cheap, just like doing so with a new viaduct. Small walkshed or not, if it's cheap to construct it might be worth it.

"We live in a city of hills and valleys, so we're bound to have some tunnels and bridges." - John Schneider I think we should focus on taking the viaduct to south Fairnount, and densifying/repopulating the Queen City/Westwood Ave. corridor as a first phase in the Westside. Then worry about how we connect that to Price Hill (probably including a tunnel somehow, somewhere). I used to think Lower Price Hill would be the best place to start repopulating the West Side, and I still think it's a very important focus point, but I don't see it getting a streetcar/LRT link in the early years of construction, so I now think this spot just across the Western Hills Viaduct is the best place to start. It has good bones and limitless opportunity. It's also a flat spot in a part of the city where, as you pointed out, topography is a bear.

Click the link, there are plenty of numbers to sift through. After spending a couple minutes, I noticed the number of cycling fatalities has remained mostly constant as cycling infrastructure has been built and more people are cycling.

You're going to have to provide a source for that. It's the same argument as the one against bike helmets. When I was a kid nobody had even heard of a bike helmet, let alone seen one. Then someone realized you could sell a lot of helmets if you scared all the moms. You can see that as recent as 2002 the Tour de France riders weren't wearing helmets: We're seeing that when poorly implemented bike lanes are creating at least as many problems as they solve. The tension between road bikes and commuter/bikeshare bikes when funneled into a bike lane is almost as harsh as that between bikes of all kinds vs. motor vehicles. In the previous video from New York, we see how the issue of bicycles passing other bicycles in the bike lane is a recipe for disaster. Again the big problem with "bicycle safety" is that the enemy is framed over and over again as being cars. It's long been my observation that other bicycles are the most serious vehicular threat to a bicycle rider. Unleashed dogs in rural areas are another huge problem. I have been chased many times but luckily have never been bitten. Yet somehow cyclist crashes and injuries are not going up (on a miles traveled basis) in NYC -- quite the opposite. The truth of the matter is there is a sh!tton of experience in cities around the world which show what best practices are if you want to increase cycling modeshare and decrease dangers. And dedicated infrastructure is a key part of doing that. Your position is yet another "it won't work here, we're different" argument. I get that you want more freedom of motion than mandated use of cycle lanes allows. But don't pretend you're advocating for safety or for cycling for the masses. I'll see your sensationalist video and raise you some actual data: via http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikestats.shtml

Just say this each time in your head and don't bother replying. Time saver. ;)

You're going to have to provide a source for that.

Change of venue. We're now meeting at the Anchor Grill!!!!

I agree with jwulsin, we should have bike lanes Downtown. At least on a couple N/S streets and a couple E/W streets. I'd like to see some contra-flow lanes, especially, because one-way restrictions suck extra for bikes. The extra danger of separate lanes can be more than offset by safety in numbers. More bikes means more cars looking for bikes. I remember listening to that podcast when it came out and totally disagreeing with what she said, though I take the point that the Mallory administration was not prioritizing bike lanes downtown, which makes Cranley's shift less relevant to the bikeshare. However, the bikeshare was not so inevitable and right on the horizon then, so things could have shifted.

Well they did report it, so they didn't exactly ignore it. But they could have pounced on it a little harder.

He is explicitly saying he wants to take money from neighborhoods to give to the Port. I don't know why the Enquirer didn't highlight that a bit more. It's a rather stark shift in rhetoric and goes against the ethos of his entire campaign.

CBD is not covered in form-based code. But it does have reduced parking requirements.

Oh, it gets better. There's also this gem in the Enquirer piece: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/15/tax-levy-support-port-authority/2140888/ So now the Mallory administration spent too much money on those neighborhoods he was so neglecting.

Sadly, I think you're spot-on. This needs to be addressed ASAP. Good question.

He is another Westsider. If the west side gets a taste of TOD and ceases its opposition to transit, I think it's game-set-match for local rail opposition.

Flynn is all about the West Side, so maybe a plan like that would appease him. If westsiders are interested, I say we make them a priority. As long as terrain and (potential) density are suitable, it makes a great deal of sense politically and from an access/mobility & development perspective.

With the recent talk of a streetcar extension to the west side, in conjunction with rebuilding the Western Hills Viaduct, I was thinking... Phase 1 (1a?): Activate the subway tunnels, build the new viaduct with dedicated rail ROW, run track on the one-way pair of Queen City Blvd. and Westwood Ave., with a turnaround near Quebec. There's a fair bit of density there already and a lot of room for development. Phase 2 (1b?): Continue the original subway route north, onto its surface segment, and built a new bicycle/rail bridge across the Mill Creek to Knowlton's Corner and run track in the street up Hamilton to Chase.

^ What about Queen City? Probably too late now, but some prep work could (have) be(en) done with the MSD project planning. Edit: Since we're stretching beyond the streetcar, I made a post in the Beyond the Streetcar thread.

I was thinking at least two, and at least one in the housing cluster in Queensgate.