Brutus_buckeye

I am not too worried about Ohio in general. I think like 1998 when the rest of the world went into a huge recession and the US didn't we will also do well comparatively speaking. We will still have a recession but not as bad IMO. I do not think this asset bubble is any worse than many recessions and it is nowhere near what we saw in 2008. Certainly prices are inflated but that is what happens before almost any recession.

I do not think the unemployment rate is a great indicator on how the economy is, especially given the overall labor participation rate. The biggest indicator I would look at is more durable goods orders. This will forecast a longer term slowdown in the economy that wont be noticed for a few more quarters. One big difference from 2007 was that inflation was not as big of a challenge at that time. The one thing that does stick out to me is the slow down in the CRE sector as well as what I have heard is a more slow down in larger heavy equipment/technology purchases. Certainly not all industries are seeing this, I think I saw GE was expanding their manufacturing, but there are certain sectors where the ripples of the higher interest rates are being noticed. Layoffs in the tech sector will have a trickle down effect and the higher interest rates have certainly slowed the Commercial Real Estate transaction pipeline a bunch. Just like in 2007, I would not be surprised if we really see more of a full fledged recession (not 2008 variety) starting sometime in winter/Spring 2024

There is a stigma associated with multi-family that people do not understand. Even high end multi-family gets a bad rap. I know in a number of communities, beautiful high end apartment complexes have been proposed in single family neighborhoods and the residents have been up in arms. These high end apartment complexes are Class A+ units with high end appliances and features. They are managed by top notch management agencies who seek to make a return for their owners. They are not about to mismanage the property so that if falls into disrepair. Yet the fears of the communities like this are all essentially the same: 1) They fear that there will be a lot of renters bringing in a ton of additional children to burden the school system. - The reality is that most of the renters who rent in such higher end apartments are empty nesters who have downsized or are looking for a summer place to be back home. There are some transient renters who may move with families but very few additional children in the school system come from these types of units. Even so, many times, the school system needs more bodies because the community has already developed to a point where the school system is going to shrink without new development. 2) They fear that these units will end up being full of a bunch of mexican workers cramming 20 people and 6 kids into one bed apartments. This again is a ridiculous assertion because the management companies would never let this happen as they seek to keep it a high end complex and the rents and costs of such apartments will price most working class individuals out of the market. 3) They complain that just because things are like that now does not mean 40 year from now things that wont be the case. As I remind them, in 40 years, they will likely be dead so they dont have to worry about the potential of that happening anyway. There are a lot of fear based assertions that come with such multi-family developments in bedroom suburbs. Yes, over the long term, these units will likely become affordable or more affordable than they start out, but as towns develop, that is a natural occurrence. It should not stop these developments from happening today because such high end developments like this open up an affordable spot for someone else further down the chain.

What most industry experts recognize as the cause of the housing crisis are supply side issues caused by 1) NIMBYiSM - Towns and cities have restrictive zoning codes that make it difficult to construct multi-family housing at an affordable price. Even when they can ben constructed, many cities place covenants and restrictions on them to drive up the overall costs and therefore make them affordable to only the top echelon of renters (maybe with a few affordable units mixed in). Multi-family can only be in certain areas of town. It used to be that you could have a 4 family mixed in next to a single family or duplex. Now you cant do that. Some of this is getting better with the allowance of accessory dwelling units. Also, you have too many parking restrictions on development, especially in urban areas. To build an apartment in many cities (at least in Ohio) you need 2 parking spaces per unit. Many lower income apartment dwellers do not have a car or only have one at most. There is no need for 2 spaces. These are certain rules that need to be rethought. 2) Overregulation - The cost to develop is exorbitant. There are regulations after regulations that drive up the cost, many times in needless ways. Many of these regulations often prevent formally usable buildings from being converted into affordable housing and essentially make high end renovations the only type that will work. One example is requirements that cities place to develop 10-20 % of a project as affordable housing. While this does in fact bring on a small fraction of affordable units to the marketplace, it forces the developer to recoup that cost in the other units. Those units will rent for higher than otherwise without the affordable requirement. Renters whio may have been able to afford those market rate units at a slightly lower rate will stay in their old space thus not allowing the older space to rent at a more affordable rate to a lower income renter. also, the years it takes and red tape to develop a complex make it extremely difficult for many developers to expand housing. Another example is that a lot of older apartment communities were designed with excess space, or even old community space that is no longer used. When a building is a Class A or Class B building, amenities like community rooms etc are more valuable than when the building becomes a Class C building. In many cases, it makes sense to convert these underused spaces into affordable living units which could be done at an affordable cost and add a few units to the housing mix that would rent at an affordable rate. Unfortunately, this does not happen because the costs to get the permits to undertake such an expansion makes the project unfeasible. These keep newer and renovated affordable workforce housing from entering the market at a faster pace and cheaper cost.

^ So Dublin is going to be a free rider and let Columbus provide all affordable housing (since they have mandated a carve out) and then let workers in Dublin commute from Columbus. Dublin and then focus on high income housing that further props up their property tax base. Columbus just increased the cost to build for developers now and further exacerbates the affordable housing problem as developers push to build high in projects in Dublin, Upper Arlington and Worthington (because they get a larger return) and Columbus struggles to find people wanting to build in the city (at enough scale to make a dent in the problem)

I think every school has one of these guys. lol. They dont leave their dorm room and spend their entire time (when they are not in class) playing video games and watching bad movies from what seems like their ever endless collection. Eventually, when people were in a bind for a movie they would use this person as their personal video store.

I thought about that but I never thought they put conceptual buildings like that which were not on the drawing board into those designs. THe other question I have with the whole Saks redevelopment is what do you do with the Hyatt ballroom that sits above the old department store. You would think Hyatt would request a new ballroom.

The Millennium in the photo is being torn down. The crane is there and it appears they have already knocked off a few stories. Not sure if this is the best baseline. The thing that I was always curious about is what is the tower between the Hyatt and Hilton? There is no tower there. It appears that they invented an extra block in downtown.

Many of those based in Cleveland (at least not initially) will live there. Many pilots and Flight attendants who have a base in a specific city will commute there for their shifts. So the FA or Pilot could live in say Miami but have Cleveland as their home base and then they have to fly to Cleveland to begin their shift. I am not sure how it works with Frontier, but I know Delta allows their flight attendants to fly free when they are commuting to work.

I did always like that window. It had a cool view to the west side of downtown. I remember having prom there years ago and thinking what a cool view that offered.

The news today referenced 26 stories. It will be about the height of the Hilton, maybe a bit taller

Volleyball does not pay what Tennis does.

The Applebees is now a First Financial Bank branch. The tennis complex does remind me of the old Richfield Coliseum in NE Ohio. It was in the middle of nowhere and there was absolutely nothing convenient to that place. the good news for your volleyball friend, if she does not like Kings Island she can spend her day hanging out at the Beach Waterpark.... O Wait.....

Dont get me wrong, my info is anecdotal too, speaking with (not tennis players) but people involved on the periphery of the tournament. That is what they have mentioned (right, wrong or indifferent). I guess, I could see the point from the lower level player who is non-American playing in an event without some of the amenities they may be able to have in say Chicago, Miami, etc. but I probably think some of their complaints are in the minority and overall, to your point, the experience of the fans and players is overall very positive. I tend to agree with your position more than the position that people hate playing there just by the simple fact that if the players hated playing in the tournament (Masters Series or not) they would not play there and the tourney would rank as the lowest for top participation amongst the worlds top players. Sure, purse size matters, but if the players hated coming there, many would skip it for other events.

It is a bit more complicated and nuanced than that. Many fans love it because it is a good family environment in the burbs. Certainly, there are some younger fans who may prefer it is in the city, but there will always be debate no matter where it is held. on the player side, the issues I have heard is that the top of the top players in the tourney like it. They rent a luxury house for the week and bring their families and staff to cook for them and it offers a bit more of a relaxing tourney while they tune up for the US Open a couple weeks later. The complaints are coming from many of the younger players who are not as highly ranked who hate the tourney location because they do not have families and they cannot afford to stay in the same accommodations as say a Serena Williams or Djokovic, etc. So, when they get done with their matches late at night, there is often not the availability of options where they can get the type of food they need/want or if they have specific ethnic food desires, they cant find it in the burbs as easily (especially late at night). Now, the presumption is they could find it better in the city (or moreso in a larger market) but that may not always be accurate either. Furthermore, the lack of a hub airport also causes some pain for some of the lower ranked players in the tourney who can't fly private (Now moving to Charleston does not really solve this issue but it has been one of the complaints I have heard on the tourney). I certainly understand the complaints but does moving it to a larger market really solve that issue? I am doubtful on that. If you move it to say Chicago, you are also going to be in the burbs with the same issue. Atlanta had their old tennis center way out in the burbs (which is no longer now), and you would figure outside of say a Boston or Miami (which are not going to get the tourney for numerous reasons and obviously New York which is already set for their tourney, I do not see where another market can really meet all of these concerns by the players.

It is not as easy to do as you would think. Ultimately, it is on the sites (AirBNB, etc) to set their platform to comply with this and to force the landlord to comply. The small guys were likely never complying from the beginning (or at least the majority of them) and I remember reading at one time that Covington had a hard time with enforcement of such an ordinance because there were so many "small" owners and too limited of an enforcement staff. So if they place the burden on the apps like AirBNB, they do not want to fuss with it so they essentially make it a requirement to list and do not want to worry about specific carve outs, etc.

It still needs to pass the Senate. I assume that is a formality at this point but you never know.

I once looked at a place in Mt. Washington which was a haven for single divorced dads who used to live in Anderson Twp that needed to be near their kids I could not believe the concentration of divorced fathers who had good jobs that wanted to live there, but then again, they say divorce is a quick way to the poor house for a lot of people.

This would not be shocking by today's standards

now with online payments it is a lot easier to collect rent and not have to worry about PO Box's anymore. Heck, there are even systems that allow tenants who only use cash to pay rent with cash by going to Wal Mart or CVS and using cash to pay which converts it into an electronic transaction.

unfortunately, there are a lot of people on council who want to give a voice to everyone no matter how ridiculous or unreasonable their position is. Josh Spring is a perfect example. Those on council should be saying that they are not going to be taking him seriously until he either moderates his position into something reasonable or his group finds a new leader to represent them. Unfortunately, that will not happen.

They say the additional cost is to be more competitive with other P5 facilities opening at other schools soon.

I do not think housing is built for the affordable renter in mind. It fits the higher end renter typically and then after years of wear and tear moves into the affordable category. Any affordable housing projects are built with a lot of subsidies so they are probably driven by median neighborhood value to qualify for such subsidies. I do not think the needs of the affordable renter rank high in priority. At the same time, I think the biggest priorities for affordable renters are 1) affordability, 2) ability to get to and from work (if they work). They do not really worry about amenities and those issues. Certainly, they want a clean place but outside of that, I do not think other features come into play

When you have a blighted space that has no improvement and is not generating tax revenue for the city and you have a developer willing to invest their money and resources to make an improvement to the community that will bring jobs, much needed housing to the area, increased property taxes for the schools, and increased income tax base for the community, then yes, while the community is welcome to include a certain level of input into the project, in the end they ultimately need to shut their mouths and take the improvement that will come from the property because at the end of the day, they really have no money at risk in the project and the project will be an improvement for the community over what is already there.

I also feel Columbus and Cleveland downtowns feel more spread out because they have wider streets that often have 2-3 lanes each direction whereas Cincinnati has many more one way streets in the urban core and even when they have 2 way streets, they are not as wide as the other cities. High street through downtown columbus is a pretty wide street and same with Broad Street. E. 9th in Cleveland is the same. This certainly creates a bit more of a spread out downtown. Also, I know OTR is not part of downtown, do you know if the Banks is part of downtown Cinci or the area by Montgomery Inn? At one time a number of years ago I thought the Banks area (because it was mostly empty and warehouse space) was not part of the downtown business district?