vxt22

That's because displacement from gentrification is due to changing property types. Usually it occurs when rental properties are condozed. That is, when renters are replaced after a building is sold and converted to condos or when it is demolished for condos. Usually when property types change it is because they're targeting people from outside the area or because those people are moving in. The difference is that when condo buildings become rentals it will require all these people to sell or to rent their condo out of their own free will. Unfortunately condozing is a huge problem all over Chicago, for example. It seems to me that large rental communities are important for cities. At some point there are simply too many condos. And in Chicago's case the city and alderman doesn't care that an 1880s cottage gets replaced with high end condos way out of proportion and with far cheaper materials. There are corridors on the West side where the majority of the old homes and apartments have been condozed and replaced over only the last 10 years. Yet here is Chicago losing population in these areas. Rentals, I think, afford more density and diversity. I'd like to OTR keep a lot of rental units. Every time you guys show another one of these buildings converted to loft condos with exposed duct work I cringe. Frankly I would live in OTR exactly because I don't want to be around the kind of people who want to live in a loft. How cheaply kitsch can you get? Ugh! It's a faux version of some 90s artist hipster fantasy. Gag me with a spoon! Exposed brick? NO! Save as much of the plaster and moldings as possible. Dry wall at least, and some repair of any salvageable wooden interior elements. But then I want chambers and rooms, none of this open floor plan crap. In this time when Ohio and the country seem hell bent on anti-business policy, Cincinnati and its older city brethren are losing the economic battle to the South and to other countries. So what places like OTR have to do is offer a unique sense of place. OTR would ideally gain a number of newer landmarks to anchor different parts of the sprawling neighborhood and give it more of an identity and appeal for outsiders. Any deteriorating buildings on pie shaped corners should be recognized as the most important buildings to save and future anchors. And new mixed use and heavy rental buildings on vacant pie shapes would really, I think, spur development in between. Like a PR campaign with new landmarks. The buildings would have heavy presence on the corners they are built on, preferably with some sort of tower element which can be seen from downtown. And they should be made of materials which are the same or at least respectful to the neighborhood around them. Scientifically creating a landmark in order to boost all the land values in the area. That, and I think OTR needs something like this built in to the hills behind it: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8484/img1975m20zs5.jpg

"Reason Saves Cleveland" You may have heard of this documentary. It got the city council's attention. http://reason.tv/video/show/reason-saves-cleveland-with-dr

University Village is NOT an example you want to use. That is the old Maxwell St neighborhood. The city and the university used the university's special abilities for land acquisition to threaten eminent domain and get the landowners to sell their properties one by one. Then they tore down the buildings they acquired. When there were only a few dozen buildings left large protests were mounted against destroying Chicago's version of an Ellis Island and the birthplace of electric blues, where millions of immigrants bought the items they needed at a massive outdoor street market. The place had a huge significance in black and jewish history. After the university acquired the land they sold it, cheaply, to politically connected developer friends of Daley, who built the current buildings and made a mockery of preservation by preserving a few facades of the old buildings and rearranging them on one block in front of bigger buildings. Now the whole neighborhood is gone. One can see before and after pictures of the area here: http://www.gapersblock.com/detour/photo/12102004/maxwell.php The episode is one of the most shameful examples of the destruction of a poor neighborhood for the benefit of corrupt politicians and their friends. The new development had to include low income housing, but even that politically correct gesture was destroyed as those "low income" (not really) people just sold their condos. How to displace the poor and leave nothing of value to your children 101. The extent of this corruption is monumental even by Chicago's standards. Look at old pictures of the intersection of 12th (now Roosevelt) and Halsted, or 14th and Halsted, and then tell me this is an "economical" and "good design." Used to be an incredibly dense area, and organically built by the ancestors of those who lived there.