natininja

IAGuy39, I think I misunderstood; I thought you were saying banks would specifically look at the streetcar (rather than looking at its post-hoc impact on property values) and consider it in loan decisions (i.e. that they'd see the streetcar directly as an asset, rather than indirectly). If that were the case, the catalytic impact of the streetcar would be even more interesting. Anyway, never mind. Good posts! :) I agree.

Perhaps. But I would suspect that Cleveland's "Bible-mindedness" is a bit different with our large® catholic and jewish populations. And especially with jews, that makes a big difference in terms of how it permeates through the city. I wasn't talking about this list specifically, but I'd say what you bring up actually highlights a similarity more than a difference, at least between Ctown and Cincy. (OTOH it highlights a huge difference between those cities and Columbus, which has a totally different religious demographic profile.) While Cleveland does have more Catholics (which surprised me) and more Jews, the numbers are fairly close making them account for less than a 5% difference, total. According to this site, anyway. Though, according to that site, the rankings would probably be reversed (it shows Cincinnati having marginally fewer religious people). Cincy's Jews are likely more secular, since the city is the birthplace of the American Reform movement, and Conservative and Orthodox Jews are underrepresented. But the Jewish population in both cities is too small to have a great impact either way. My guess is Cleveland would fall quite a bit lower on the list if it didn't have such a comparably large minority population, especially largely Catholic Puerto Ricans. Edit: Anecdotally, a few years back, I was on a Greyhound to the east coast which passed through Cleveland, where we picked up an Orthodox Rabbi from Israel. We were talking about American Judaism (though he was hard to understand w/ his thick Israeli accent), and I mentioned Cincinnati's role in the American Reform movement. He told me Cincinnati Jews aren't real Jews, haha. I thought it was kind of a nasty thing to say. There are Jews out there, though, that are every bit as nutso as Evangelicals. Lots of them in the northeast, including entire communities where they avoid using the secular legal system in favor of their own corrupt courts.

I hope you're right about the streetcar's existence making banks more confident to lend. Anyone have more to add to that (like data)?

Is the '90s dotcom boom striking Cincinnati? In a couple decades, all development names will begin with a lowercase i.

^ Come on, you can be more inclusive. 36. Dayton 45. Cincinnati 47. Columbus 50. Cleveland 88. Toledo And these are ranks for "Bible-mindedness," not Godlessness. So Toledo would be (by far) the most "Godless," with Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincy lumped together, and Dayton the most Bible-minded city in the state. I think it's interesting how the 3Cs often are lumped together in lists like this. Perhaps they are more culturally similar than we recognize.

I think it was William Whyte who said Fountain Square was the, or one of the, best public space in the country. This was in reference to the 1970s version, and he is someone famous for critiquing public spaces. If it was tired by the early aughties, it was more a reflection of what had happened to the city center than a failure of Fountain Square as a quality public space. But I guess it is an interesting question whether a super-successful design in one era can be a failure 20+ years later, or if spatial design principles are more timeless than that. I believe much of 3CDC's success with the square has been through hyping and programming. Nothing wrong with that, but to imply the old design was defective, I think, is inaccurate.

Right. The Nippert renovation will be revenue-positive for UC. Building a streetcar, especially if that means moving to PBS, definitely would not be, since UC can't collect taxes from economic development along the line (nor concessions/etc. revenue at PBS). Only way I could see UC making more than a token donation to streetcar construction (which itself is unlikely) is if they are interested in developing land near the tunnel exit. Which assumes a tunnel, and assumes such a property transfer would be considered constitutional. I would love to see that carrot dangled, but it's firmly in the realm of fantasy at the moment.

Whoa, you can say that again.

Is this the article you're talking about? http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2013/08/is-banks-phase-iia-saving-room-for-a.html?page=all

^ Seems like an exceptionally good place to invest in upgraded transit, considering the 43 bus that serves the Reading corridor has the highest ridership of any bus line in the city. It had 1,045,834 riders in 2012; for comparison, the second- and third-highest were the #4 and #17 buses with 839,402 and 825,584 riders, respectively.

That was a pretty close game with an awful team. A W is a W, but it doesn't give me confidence. It was kind of a sleeper game, on the road, against a bad team, with Louisville coming up later this week. Plus, that one guy from Temple was on fire and made 7 of 8 three pointers in the second half. Is it the shoes? Your analysis sounds reasonable. I don't follow basketball closely, TBH. But it's good to see the Bearcats at 19-2. Too bad they had to lose to Xavier to get that fire in their belly. Hopefully Jackson's back to play vs. Louisville.

That was a pretty close game with an awful team. A W is a W, but it doesn't give me confidence.

I have ruminated before about the possibility of using eminent domain to turn University Plaza into a transit hub, with mixed-use TOD developed by the Port Authority. I was just ruminating about the possibility of turning the development portion over to UC instead, for student/faculty housing with ground floor retail. There would be other possibilities, too, like an on-campus hotel like the one on East Campus, or even offices and classrooms. Since UC is a public university, it seems legal (though IANAL, nor that familiar w/ the Norwood ED case). Port Authority might be better, in order to have a more general variety of uses, though UC might build higher quality architecture. I envision some mid-rise buildings, and I'd think the potential views of Downtown could command pretty nice rents. But if they're unwilling or unable, UC is another possibility. I don't know if there's a better thread for this, but UP has been discussed as the northern end of a tunnel, so that's why I'm posting this here.

No, not without a tunnel of some kind, and the problem with tunnels is that they have to be of a certain length before use of a TBM is economical. That distance varies depending on the geology and other local conditions. For example, it's much less expensive to have dirt conveyed out of the proposed Mt. Auburn Tunnel into dump trucks waiting in front of Rothenberg School or in the (*ahem*) University Plaza parking lot than it is to lift bucket after bucket of fill out of the Second Ave. Subway's launch pits. Without a TBM you've got a team of dudes getting paid $200/hr with dynamite and jack hammers behind a shield for a year to bore a steeply sloped half-mile tunnel from Vine to Auburn. You can pay $75 million for a 1/2 mile tunnel or $100 million for a mile-long tunnel with a straighter alignment and gentler grade. Also, a route of any kind diverging east from Vine means the route still has to travel on the steepest part of Vine near Mulberry and northbound streetcars have to negotiate the ridiculous 2,300 foot loop to Henry St., which includes 900 feet of traveling south on Race before streetcars turn north from Elder onto Vine. Let's compare the track distance and travel time of northbound streetcars between Findlay Market and Jefferson and intersection of Short Vine & Corry St.... Current plan: 8,800 feet of track At least 10 minutes $50 million 4,800 foot tunnel from McMicken and Ohio Ave. (right next to the church) to Short Vine: 6,250 feet of track 2 minutes $100 million+ 5,700 foot tunnel from McMicken and Ohio Ave. (right next to the church) to Auburn Ave. station, then to Short Vine: 7,500 feet of track 3 minutes $100-200 million Plus, not counting the cost of the deep subway station, the longer tunnel would only be incrementally more expensive because it would share the same fixed TBM and design costs as the slightly shorter tunnel. Unfortunately, the deep station would be very, very expensive, like at least $50 million. Seems to me the longer tunnel could be built prior to the Mt. Auburn station build-out. At a minimum, a flat (0 slope) segment of track could be built where the station would be built at a later date, thus saving $50m from the initial cost. For roughly the same cost as 1a, there could be a super-fast extension to Vine & MLK. A logical next phase, IMO. Get UC, Christ Hospital, etc., to voice their support and the political will could be there.

Deserves some style/grooming points.

Absolutely! It's really great, and illustrates one of the enormous advantages Cincinnati has over most peer cities. Gotta be some advantage to having all those Fortune HQ's, eh?

^ Agree on all points. The original facade should be respected as an organic part of the new building. It should either be unnoticeable from the street that the building is not original, or tastefully considered as part of the design (a la the Otis Building). In OTR, I would think the first option is most suitable in most cases.

I think a lot of it comes from Stephen Smith, who writes for Next City and runs Market Urbanism. He has criticized the Cincinnati streetcar route in particular, basically saying that it's not real transit because it favors a more complex route (having an S-bend at Central Parkway) to connect more existing destinations, rather than just running a simpler route (such as north on Elm, south on Race) throughout the entire basin area. While I understand the criticism, this is not a concern unique to streetcars. Every rail transportation route was chosen to balance multiple concerns -- more stops for higher ridership vs. fewer stops for faster speed, curvier route to connect to more destinations vs. straighter route for simplicity. Also, Next City fails to mention that mixed traffic streetcar lanes could be converted to transit-only lanes in the future. Imagine the streetcar lanes on Main and Walnut being converted to transit-only lanes (for streetcars and buses) some day. It's a ways off, but it could happen. I think they have some points, but also feel we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Two-way street conversions would have been smart. And I hope there has been planning w/ the idea in mind that the lanes could become dedicated rail rights-of-way. I know previous route plans had some lane changes which might have interfered with this, but I believe some (all?) of that has been ironed out. I hope they offer a couple free day-passes with parking fees at the Washington Park and Banks garages (i.e. the lots on the route ends, on the periphery of downtown). Throw a couple child passes into the deal, too. Hard to imagine a better opportunity to get suburbanites accustomed to transit, while simultaneously keeping congestion & pollution out of Downtown.

Marcie Seidel, executive director of the Drug Free Action Alliance, a statewide group based in central Ohio, said the law should not change. “The problem that we’re concerned about … (is people) will be thinking they are only drinking one drink when really it’s the equivalent of two or three (normal) beers,” Seidel said. Save us Marcie. Save us from ourselves! It's not that this could/would never happen, but the cases would certainly be statistically insignificant in terms of negative impact on society. Are Ohio Republicans ready to ban pop servings over 20 oz. yet? Edit: It would also be further fixed by simply putting into the law that establishments wishing to serve >12% ABV beer must provide ABV info on their menu. Most places serving such niche beers probably already do this.

I have no problem with saving a facade if the interior is beyond saving, Preferable to a full demo in most cases. Maybe it's blasphemy from an architect's perspective, but from my perspective I probably will never see the interior of the building anyway. The primary contribution of a historic building to the environment around it is its facade. I also think you start losing the argument to the "property rights uber alles" crowd if you don't allow facade preservation as a compromise.

If you can afford a car, you can afford to park downtown for the time it takes to go vote. If you can't afford a car (or otherwise can't drive), there is no similar guarantee that you can afford the extra time to get to Mt. Airy by bus. Quimbob, that is a nice time breakdown, but it doesn't even account for suburban voters from, say, Lincoln Heights or Springdale!

We're well past the point of half our gross being in plastic, and this is a relatively recent phenomenon. There you would think it would be moreso, especially if the panhandlers are as aggressive as rumor has it. Are they doing this because cards are getting declined? Or because of the fees? Cash businesses usually evade taxes.

Very sad he didn't know that beforehand!

Sherman is one of my new favorite players! That was hilarious. I hope we get to see more trash talk on camera into the future. Still rooting for the AFC, though.

Which isn't a bad price tag for what you get, but I recognize the point that it's probably not politically viable as an all-at-once project. But we need a big picture to work towards, so we don't end up creating redundancies (MetroMoves is certainly a good guide for doing this, but I don't think it foresees LRT and streetcars sharing ROW -- which now seems like a coming reality). If 1b is built on Vine Street Hill, then something like my proposal is adopted in the future, the tracks up Vine basically become redundant -- they're slow and they don't offer much opportunity for development. Jake has a good point about 1b offering a tangible "somewhere" that it goes. Maybe I'm letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, but my hope is we aim higher. In terms of something shorter that reaches "somewhere," I'd prefer the tunnel to Short Vine, with a turnaround at Vine & MLK. Could be split between Short Vine and Jefferson, but again I prefer two-way on Short Vine until convinced otherwise. University Plaza could be redesigned with inviting pedestrian access to UC, making that the primary "UC stop" and avoiding having to spend too much "walkshed" on UC, which offers no development potential. It's not a long walk from Jefferson or the Jefferson dorms to Vine.