cramer

Does anyone know where this project stands? Has it ever moved to Planning Commission? Did Clifton Town Meeting take an official stance at a meeting?

I really enjoy the Reuben at Paula's.

Why a park at Hamilton and Blue Rock? There's one across the street. Is some of that surface parking going to be used for the rest of the business district, or is it reserved for the condos or new outbuildings? Seems like overkill if there's residential parking in the building itself.

Me neither. Never heard Boston called the "East Coast San Francisco" either. I'm sure if Boston found out about this moniker, they'd be wicked pissed.

Madison-Marquette manages Tower Place and also developed the McAlpin on 4th Street. Maybe some retailers will relocate there.

It's cool that my original post was moved into this topic, but it doesn't have much at all to do with politics. I haven't read this dissertation, so maybe he talks about this, but I think the main historical events that stagnated Cincinnati were WWI and Prohibition. WWI had a part to play in the never used subways, and had a severe negative effect on the culture of the city, driving Germanness underground. Prohibition finished the job, decimating the brewing industry and the social life of the city. Seems to me Cincinnati went from a fairly wild town, to a known safe entity. (I think there was even a quote in a Bogart movie about sending the dame to Cincinnati, where'd she be safe. That may be apocryphal.) Then the newspaper editors and city fathers made a point of driving out what was left of exuberance by shutting down old Newport. There's loads more to be said, those are just some ideas I'm kicking around. It's clearly too generalized, but I think there might be something to it.

I think Cincinnati is indisputably conservative, but that word is so loaded it obfuscates more than it reveals about the character of the place. It's not as simple as political conservatism. It's more like a civic lethargy. I think though that too often Cincinnati simply chalks anything up to it's own peculiar shortcomings, instead of looking to larger trends, like, oh, the continued movement of population westward. In this way, Cincinnati behaves like a hypochondriac. Anything bad that happens here must be the sign of irrevocable decay; anything good is lost in the tide of decline. Anyone who tries to step out and make something better runs into the "it's Cincinnati, why bother" attitude. I think this is beginning to change, but maybe that's just 'cause I hang out here too often.

A column in the Post by Dan Hurley about why Cincinnati is conservative. Examining roots of Cincinnati conservatism Why is Cincinnati so conservative? I get asked that question all the time. Though some people are thinking about the dominance of conservative Republican politicians, more often the reference is to our region's seeming reluctance to take chances or to sit on our hands while other metropolitan areas innovate to their advantage and our disadvantage. Reach him at [email protected].

I think from UC to Union Terminal, the best you could do is about a half hour, which is decent but depends on excellent timing. Depending on the vagaries of your transfer, it could take a while. I guess the best way is to take the 17 or 18 downtown, walk to 4th street and catch the 1. There's a trip planner at sorta.com that helps. By the way, the word is spelled ridiculous, with an i in the first syllable.

I saw that as well and thought it was just awful. As far as I know, there's no historic precedent. I think it was just dreamed up by these dudes. I suppose it's possible that at some point in the 19th century there were dry goods manufacturers or stores in the area, and that these either made or distributed soaps or soapboxes, so maybe there's some tenuous connection. But to hear this guy say it, the Soapbox District is a place for young people in Cincinnati to "have a voice" or somesuch nonsense. Really, guy? You sat around and thought about this and, presumably, ran it by your associates and friends, and then you and everyone agreed that it sounded good? Huh. Unless this fellow has a personality cult with which I am not familiar, there is no way that name sticks. If there really is a reason to call it the Soapbox District, well, I am prepared to be enlightened. But I'll still think it's a silly name.

One cool fact about the U-M law library is that the seals of all the other law schools in the country are in the stained glass. Another: During the Naked Mile sometime in the late 90s, some guy ran across several of the tables. And nobody seemed to mind as much as when I sneezed.

LincolnKennedy should run. High name recognition. Nice positives, low negatives.

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/ I don't always agree, but he does bring a new perspective to the table. He's thoughtful about the big picture, and when you thinking that big, it's easy to get little stuff wrong. Plus, he uses words like legerdemain.

I think that terms like Center City (as in Philly, or 3CDC) or the Basin would be useful in describing a "greater downtown." Better at least than a series of hyphens. Basin neighborhoods are relatively easy to i.d.: Downtown, OTR, West End, part of the East End (from the east edge of Ted Berry back to town, maybe), and, someday, the Banks. Now, the Basin could extend out to Queensgate and Lower Price Hill, more or less. But it's not functionally whole. Adding neighborhoods like Mt Adams or Mt Auburn to the mix is tricky, since there isn't as much connection, thanks to hills and highways. Maybe with better transit providing connectivity, you could make the case, but right now they feel and behave as distinct entities. And eventually, you start overlapping the conglomerated neighborhoods of Uptown, which is also a moniker I really dislike. But that said, this really is a silly dick measuring contest. No city is going to have the same X square mile downtown, so we really shouldn't concern ourselves with how many people live in some arbitrarily defined area. What matters is getting people to live in our arbitrarily defined area.

Speaking as a Cincinnatian who went to Michigan, and grew up loving the Bad Boys era Pistons, this just might be my favorite photo thread yet.

Hmmm. I always thought it was more like Rockefeller Center. I think we need to reexamine how we're using the term prototype anyway. I think we're playing a little fast and loose with it myself. The Suspension Bridge is not a prototype of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a predecessor. It wasn't designed and built to test the functionality of a bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn -- Roebling didn't have that job until when, 1870? Sure, he clearly used what he learned in Cincinnati and Waco in NY, but that doesn't make it a prototype. You can't apply that term ex post facto. I think the same holds true for the Carew as well. Sounds a little more like self-plagiarizing rather than prototyping.

^Maybe the apartments at Madison and Dana? The Regency I think.

Well, I'm going to enforce it. With my good friends Smith and Wesson. [Kisses Biceps]

I'd also suggest that if you're an audiophile, you probably aren't listening to digital audio players.

Nobody understands that idea that the best product isn't always the most popular better than Apple fans. The advantage that the iPod has, among many, is primarily in the system. Sure I wish the files from itms were higher quality, but they're not bad. Clearly buying a cd (as long as it's not copy-protected or has a root-kit) is a better long term proposition than buying from iTunes, but it's so easy and fast, it's a viable competitor to file sharing. Besides, you slap some decent headphones on an iPod and things improve tremendously. I love my Sennheisers. That SanDisk Sansa seems like a good player, but I always view Creative's offerings as being iPod knockoffs in their design. I think this actually hurts them in the marketplace, when people decide just to get the real thing. Of course, I bought an iPod the day it came out, so what do I know.

Yeah, no blocking. Same concept as the steps in E. Walnut Hills down to the East End.

^That's great news. I think I mentioned upthread that I think we should use Blue Ash Airport revenue to help fund a line. I've learned this week that that's even more unlikely than I previously thought.

Oh. I've no doubt that a phone is being released and announced in early January. I was just speaking to the detailed features, most of which are either no-brainers, or vague to the point of pointlessness. I find the P990i to be overkill and too big. I'm guessing that Apple's first entry won't be as "smart" of a smart phone. Just really good links with built-ins in OS X, and slightly clunkier functionality with Windows.

^Nope, but I was heading home Wednesday and tracked it down. Bunch of swells getting together. Looked like a holiday corporate party.

I'd advise not getting too excited, since Apple rumors are almost always wrong in some fundamental way. All that speculation is from Kevin Rose, who got the nano right, but that was only four days before launch, when info was probably more easily available. I doubt it will have all those features. The rumor that most appeals to me is that the phone would be unlocked. I wish more manufacturers did that. That said, my SonyEricsson has decided to relentlessly suck, and I'm waiting till January to see what Apple's got.