OCtoCincy

Those extra 77k votes almost guarantee that issue 48 would have passed. The ONLY one of those municipalities I'd take is actually Norwood, only if the City of Cincinnati didn't have to take any of their debt.

Thanks for tacking the rendering on. Any way you could add phases 1 & two of the banks with renderings? That's basically what we would have in 2015. Would be cool to see.

Omg that's amazing.

Hotel http://m.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2013/05/15/qa-with-john-barrett-inside-the-anna.html?page=all&r=full

That sucks about the Starbucks. I wish the city would have put in a clause that they couldn't poach from the rest of the business district/

Ok. Here is a recap of what has been publicly said about these projects. 1) new garage, roughly 700 spaces at 7th & culvert 2) renovation of Lytle Park including hotel renovation to Anna Louise Inn 3) W&S has said they want a new headquarters downtown and want it to be a high rise. Have not said where, but rumors have included replacing their current headquarters which is a mid rise building. 4) tearing down of W&S clock garage at 3rd & Bradway to be replaced with new garage and tower overhead. They have said they could do office or residential depending on market conditions at time of building. Most recently were leaning residential in media

No taxpayer money? Awesome. Best of luck. $50 says they don't get any money to do this. It's just trying to freak people out. Not gonna happen: so let's ignore it.

I've been told the renderings are what it will look like even with the parking garage. The garage design will have glass in it. It will also have screening and vents to allow for airflow

Construction has begun!

Right down the street at Rochelle and Eden the first two buildings of the 18 condo unit development as the next phase of Stetson square is under construction.

In college I lived in a 1997 dorm with individual bathrooms, then a 1970's dorm with one shared bathroom per two dorm rooms (4-5 guys per bathroom) then a 1960's solid cinder block dorm (electric in conduits running along the walls) and we had an individual bathroom (pre-fab solid plastic bathroom) in our unit. A girl I dated in high shool went to Stanford and when I visited her during college she had a room that was 1/4 the size of mine (still for two people) and shared bathrooms with the entire floor. I think it just depends on where you went to school and what they built when and what building you ended up in. UC still has old buildings that require Shared bathrooms.

December 2013

Undergraduate students I believe.

Thank you. Find me one successful urban neighborhood in America that doesn't have a single chain restaurant. You won't. Additionally, did you even look at the storefront this is moving into? You had that huge address about historic character of buildings. This is going into a parking garage that was built a couple decades ago.

In case anyone isn't aware the OTR Kroger has expanded its Sunday hours to 9 PM (previously 6 PM closing on Sundays). Additionally, they now carry craft beer. If it happens, the fourth and race grocery store will have hours of 7 AM to 10 PM every day. That new grocery store will be about the same size as the OTR Kroger, but obviously will be slightly higher end and targeted more at Gravin go dishes for downtown residents and commuters.

All Ohio Cities have earnings taxes. It's a strange old model that exists only in a handful of primarily midwestern states. In many other states cities can collect business taxes and have significantly higher property taxes (but less school board property taxes) along with cities getting sales tax too. In Cincinnati the city only collects about 10% of the property taxes you pay. In many other states the city collects significantly more yet property taxes are lower overall. In fact, in many states property tax levies like the ones we used to fund any Social services don't even exist. Also state governments in other states share way more with municipal governments. Basically there are all kinds of funding options, and Ohio is used the individual earnings tax method. It's quite a mess, and made sense hundred and 50 years ago but is pretty crappy now. That being said, the benefit is that individual municipalities can decide their revenue and taxes. In a world where state governments are more frequently run by far right conservatives bedtime decreasing all government revenue, a city can choose its own taxes Cincinnati's 2.1% is interesting. In Columbus it's 2.5%. 1.8% goes to general fund, .7% goes to capital. Additionally they have a county wide sales tax to pay for transit. Our system, however, is significantly more complicated. Cincinnati gets 1.55% to general fund. .15% for general capital. .1% for infrastructure, and then .3% goes to SORTA. We are the only municipality in Ohio that funds a transit system and its completely idiotic. Currently in Cincinnati .1% of earnings tax is about $14-16 million.

I've been hearing more talk about the lawschool at the Banks again from some people I would consider relatively in the know on these things. Would be very interesting if the Law School signed a 5 year lease with the Banks while they fundraised, demolished their old buidling and built a new one. Would give the Banks the financing they need to get the building off the ground (having a large tenant signed in a for a multi year lease).

I've been told they are replacing the playground equipment with better equipment being removed from LeBlond on Riverside (which is having its own renovation/improvements).

I'm putting money on 9-0 or 7-2 vote for this project. 100 more apartments opening in March of 2015!

I would much rather have them say Sept 15 2016 and then be done on Sept 15 2016 than say July 1 2016 and not be done till late fall.

What?? How old are you. Cranley was on council for 8 years, top vote getter in 2005 and second to Roxanne by only 3 votes in 2007. At what point does someone stop being novice? Only Winburn and Roxanne have served longer.

large chunks of OTR were considered some of the most dangerous places to be for decades. In 2010 there were 71 homicides in Cincinnati In 2011 there were 11 homicides in OTR and 67 in the entire City. Last year there were something like 2 in OTR and 53 in the entire City. This year we are virtually on par with the YTD of 2011 so the year will probably end up right around 70 again for the whole city, but OTR is only at 3 so far. Perhaps it will end up around 6 or 7 for the year. if you think the City and developers in OTR don't know that they need to "get it's crime figured out quick" and haven't been working on that I'm not sure what the point of this conversation is. Gentrification doesn't just magically happen over night. It takes decades to truly take hold in a way that can't be flipped back easily. That is happening, but everyone needs to remember, this neighborhood was much more dangerous and much crappier for several decades. 200 new apartments and condos in 5 years won't change it. years of resilient work that never lets up, several thousand new residents, several thousand new housing units and hundreds of businesses over the next 15 years will change it into something that does not resemble OTR of the late 70's and early 80's. Prospect Hill in the 1970's was a quarter vacant, a quarter falling down, and very dangerous. decades worth of work later and now it's Mt. Adams lite. There will be ups and downs. years where there are 11 homicides, and years where there are two. but because one year goes back up to 3 homicides by July, doesn't mean things are falling apart. the trends are clear, while there is a blip every once in awhile this neighborhood is nothing like it's old self already and there's so much more work to do.

i'm close friends to several people who are part of the campaign team for roxanne. Even they don't believe there is no way she loses. Its going to be a very tight race. No one should assume roxanne is invincible. He absolutely can stop it. He could decide that losing any future grant is "worth the savings by killing this project that will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars to operate for the next several decades." Obviously a foolish position but the guy would do it if he thought it was politically advantageous. If he is elected he CANNOT let the project go forward. Because if it does and works he will have to explain why he is still against it in a second term, his ideologically opposed conservative big money backers will demand it, etc. By december we will have a frame up for the maintenance building and some track ordered and more utilities moved, etc. that's likely all. It could still be cancelled, but he can't cancel it himself. He would need 5 (though more likely 6) councilmembers. There is a small chance he plays the "it only is working now because I came in and saved it from being a failure" card, but trust me. If he can stop it in December he would. Streetcar supporters have been saying for 3 years "yay we got there and passed that hurdle! now it'll be built and there's no way to stop it". many many many people said that exact same thing last february. We have since had 2 different votes that could have killed the project. one wrong Elected official and it could have been dead ($15 million more in blue ash money for Duke deal which is only reason why they are working and $17.4 million for bid.). Subway supporters in 1915 probably thought when they started construction of the tunnels the project was good to go. They were wrong. This isn't done until it's operating. i hope that last part is true.

Rent-a-center is printing money from that location. Won't close until their lease expires. .

You're underestimating the homicides in Fairfield (had 6 past year alone) Colerain, etc. if bet its closer to 10-12 more outside of city year-to-date and 50 for the whole metro. Also, since the vast majority of homicides in the city are just a couple neighborhoods and are virtually entirely among people with records and with victims who know their killer, it's hardly a statistic to determine how safe you are of how dangerous a city is. Also, Cleveland is around 50 or the year (though obviously larger). There have been almost 230% more rapes in Cleveland than in Cincy year-to-date for 2013 yet the population is only 33% more. What that means is taking one specific crime's one year number and implying a level of crime isn't a good metric. (Not starting a city vs city battle).