mu2010

There's some really interesting history as to why it's called Circleville. The original streets were concentric circles. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Circleville,_Ohio The "Circleville Squaring Company" has to be one of the all-time best company names.

Two things - 1. Remember the 2007 ALCS. Tribe was up 3-1 and lost 3 in a row. Anything can happen. 2. Watching these guys run, and jump, play long minutes, and play through injuries, play until they can barely stand up anymore (or are hospitalized for cramps in the case of Dellavedova), it's one of the most amazing sports experiences I've ever witnessed. Most of the time when I've watched sports I just automatically think of it as a question of talent. Sure, we all pay lip service to 'heart' but rarely is it front and center like this. It might have to do with the fact that basketball is more up-close and personal with the players than football or baseball is, but one thing is for sure - These Cavs are truly leaving everything they have on the court and it is amazing to watch. I hope their bodies can hold up.

What is amazing is that there are 12 states that have zero fortune 500 companies which says a lot for Ohio having as many as it does. I also noticed that there are a lot of other companies in the general Ohio area that are listed in the 1000 list. Some just out of reach sitting in the 500's like KeyCorp and many others. Well, whatever our national reputation may be, we still are the 7th largest state in the union, with the employers and companies to support that population.

Didn't realize KeyCorp wasn't Fortune 500, but according to Wikipedia they are currently sitting at 521.

I personally feel that 5 ten-story buildings would be better for these cities than one 40 or 50 story building like Queen City Square. I think the mega skyscrapers tend to isolate people, kind of like a suburban office park that just happens to be downtown. Whereas smaller scale buildings might get their occupants to interact with the neighborhood a bit more. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for height at the proper time, if we were out of space and demand called for it, but when it's subsidized, I think we tend to jump the gun and build too high for the specific situation.

That's kind of far South for a new development for undergrads, but then again I always considered King to be the unofficial border.

Yet that does not mean there can't be cooperative as well as competitive (for the consumer) options nearby. And the "local" selection at the West Side Market really isn't that great. Most of the produce is from the same food warehouse, trucked in from all over the country (and beyond). I once worked as a cashier at said food warehouse and this is 100% true. All the West Side Market produce guys come in once a week and buy exactly the same stuff as all the rest. They all pay with wads of cash held together by rubber bands. Then they bring their products over to the market and try to compete with each other on price, so I'm not exactly sure where the profit is in that business haha. Interesting characters though.

I get that these subsidized new skyscrapers totally throw off downtown office markets... the same thing happened in Cleveland in the early 90s with Key Tower and the BP Building... but, a bunch of new hotels and residences in both those cities isn't the worst thing in the world. Still though there are probably better uses of all that public money.

There is a bus called 'GoBus' out of Athens that runs regular (I think even daily) service to the 3C's. (I believe the Cleveland route is brand new, previously it was just Cols and Cin) It gets some kind of state/federal subsidy and is operated by a nonprofit: http://ridegobus.com/ I imagine if it could work in Athens it could work in BG.

I'm scratching my head about the lot owners not wanting to sell, because if the demand is so high, there's got to be a point where they are worth far more as condos than as parking lots, and no sane parking lot owner would refuse to sell. Maybe it hasn't been reached yet but eventually they'll tumble like dominoes.

Do you mean west of dead man's curve? That's probably the next logical step after the west side project is done.

My cousin works for Morley Library and she went to the mansion today after work and put a bunch of pictures on facebook. Looked great!

Technically, when all of us file our Ohio tax returns each year, we're supposed to claim online purchases and pay tax on 'em.

That's pretty high. I don't think Uptown is anywhere near that for a 2BR, and that's probably the most comparable place.

Tiny house people are usually creative or free-spirited Henry David Thoreau influenced types who are basically finding a way to beat the system and lower their cost of living drastically. I used to see a lot about them when I frequented financial independence/personal finance blogs. They are definitely the type of people you want moving into your city if you want a vibrant city. The houses are tiny but well maintained, interesting, and aesthetically pleasing. The sad thing was a lot of them were/are operating at the legal fringes due to zoning laws that just could never anticipate this kind of thing when they were drafted. It would behoove Cleveland to let these people in and not hassle them.

I'm not a purist libertarian by any means, but I consider it an indirect manifestation of same that it's better to spend money on things people have shown they want, rather than what is considered to be "good for them". Sprawl is an example of that. We've discussed in the sprawl thread what actually triggered it after World War II. Government promotion of it was only a small factor. While government spending has facilitated sprawl, in my view that was driven by the demand rather than vice versa, especially early on. I definitely agree that people wanted roads and suburbs and sprawl after WWII... it was a completely undisputed, bipartisan thing. But even if people want something, it can throw things way out of balance if the cost of that thing is artificially decreased. There is more to supply and demand than what people want. It's also a matter of what they can afford and the costs of those things compared to other things.

The funny thing about this debate is that in my opinion, there is no better example of the libertarian argument against government than this sprawl thing. It is the textbook example: 1. Government pours billions into an initiative. This initiative creates market distortions that shift the equilibrium. In this case, the price of living in the suburbs decreases, so the demand increases. 2. The market distortions have all kinds of unintended consequences on society. Car commuting hurts the environment, costs tons of money for commuters, creates unsustainable infrastructure costs for governments, and wastes people's time. I was a big Ron Paul libertarian in college. These days I've gone towards the left in many ways but I still consider myself something of a libertarian or at least highly influenced by it. Big appreciator of the invisible hand of the market. Back in the laissez-faire era we had big crowded cities. After the New Deal we now have sprawl. It's so obvious. In my estimation, conservatives and libertarians should be shouting this sprawl argument from the rooftops. It's a beautiful and elegant argument for the unintended consequences of government spending. But they aren't, because large portions of Republican voters live in and prefer sprawly areas so of course, they ignore it in this case and stick to yelling about social engineering, when clearly the real social engineering is the suburbanization! It's just another example of how conservatives selectively exempt the parts of government that they like from their principles. Some of them do it subconsciously, some consciously. There are some real libertarians who maintain consistency, but they are not usually found in the phony libertarian circles of the US right wing echo chamber.

Columbus has a massive inferiority complex. It usually comes out with the Mayor or Dispatch columnists saying something along the lines of "See! We are too a big city. We're the 15th largest city in the nation!" Cleveland also has a massive inferiority complex. It usually involves people talking about how "We were the sixth city 80 years ago! John D Rockefeller lived here! We were like, the richest City besides New York for a long time! Columbus is a cowtown, we're bigtime! Big 5 orchestra anyone?" Cincinnati I'm sure does it too but I have to think about what their's is as I haven't spent as much time there. Point is, that's why Columbus is defensive about the suburban thing. Years of being referred to as 'cowtown' cause people to want to justify their large city-ness. At the end of the day, the suburban thing is definitely true but it doesn't make the city's urban core any less desirable. Also, seeing that all of these cities still have just as many suburbs, and the only difference is that Columbus' suburbs are within city limits, well I'd rather have Columbus than the fragmented political mess that exists in Cuyahoga County for example. I hope nobody gets upset at my characterization, I love all these cities or I wouldn't be here. :) Unfortunately I think this inferiority thing is just part of the psychological condition of Ohio. It also drives all of these 3C pissing contests. Moral of the story is city populations mean nothing.

The reason Columbus has the 'suburban' reputation is because Polaris, Easton, Tuttle, Blacklick, many areas with New Albany or Hilliard mailing addresses that are actually within Columbus city limits. Also the Polarises of yesteryear along 161 and Morse Road. There is just nothing like that in Cleveland or Cincinnati. There are far more areas of postwar development overall in Columbus. That being said I would bet a lot of the 'suburban' areas I just mentioned are denser than huge chunks of the East Side of Cleveland or the West Side of Cincinnati. The former having lots of abandoned industrial zones/residential neighborhoods and the latter having lots and lots of hills. Downtown Columbus (other than the Arena District) is getting better, the Commons is great and the apartments going up around there are only going to increase. Also the Scioto project is going to be really cool. Neighborhoods are where the city really shines though. Those areas adjacent to downtown will continue to densify and redensify over the coming decades.

I think that the 2-10 story stuff is way better for the urban vitality/street life of an area than a skyscraper is. Skyscrapers strike me as closed off from the rest of the city... walled fortresses with attached parking and a starbucks on the ground floor that are horrible for street life. Sometimes they are even worse when the try to be "cities within a city." Tower City Center being the worst offender in Ohio. Also the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit comes to mind. You build too much too fast and it ends up cannibalizing surrounding areas. Whereas with the smaller buildings development is more on pace with actual growth. I'm a little skeptical about NuCLEus in Cleveland. I love the stuff we are getting along High Street in Columbus like the Fireproof building or the proposed White Castle building, or even now on West Fifth Avenue with the View from Fifth. I wish Cleveland would start to get stuff like that. Uptown and the Flats developments are a start I guess. West 25th Street would be a perfect place for buildings like that though, and I can't believe it hasn't happened yet. Let Chicago and New York build skyscrapers, in Ohio for the next 50 years we should focus on 2-10 story buildings. THEN maybe skyscrapers if we run out of room.

My friend bought that round so I don't know for sure. Beer selection wasn't great, it was definitely more liquor-oriented. I had a Sam Adams that was probably around $5.

Stayed at the 9 last night for a bachelor party. It was very nice and the Vegas feel of the place really worked for us. Just the fact that they have hotels/apts/bars/restaurants all in one complex, that was really cool. Lots of people going in and out all night. Also we talked to Gregg Popovich... he was in front of us in the check-in line yesterday around 3:00. He's here for tonight's Cavs game, really nice guy. Also one of my buddies claimed he saw Johnny Manziel but that might be BS, I had heard he moved out. Went up to the rooftop and that was probably the highlight of the night for me. Pretty good sized crowd and great view, around 4 PM. I should have taken more pictures of the actual bar instead of just the view for you guys. Side note - We were a little worried about the protests but they did not affect the night very much. They all came up to 9th and Eagle right as we were leaving the Tribe game so we walked around to get back to the hotel. Later on we saw them from the hotel room walk by on 9th a few times. But then we walked back and fourth to the casino on Prospect around 11 PM - 1 AM with no issues, and a lot of people were out and about.

Rinehart was way before I got here, and all I know about him is from what the media said about him when he died, but he seemed like a pretty cool guy and a decently accomplished mayor. Obviously they were sugar coating things though, he just died after all. They basically credited the Arena District to him on NBC4. How accurate is that?

That was my takeaway too from looking at the page. Just people who can't handle change. No different from the suburban opponents of the streetcar, urbanism, etc. Who at first glance would apprear to be political enemies of these people on the Facebook group, but upon careful examination, they are the same thing.

I'm surprised Cleveland.com ran that. Most of their audience tends to be of the Rush Limbaugh demographic that he is demeaning.