OCtoCincy

^ Wow! Thanks for the insider info. I hope everything you just said comes to fruition. Sounds great!

^ Actually, this is something that was mentioned in the forum earlier by eighth and state and I completely agreed at the time. Like I mentioned earlier, there are over 30 manholes just along Vine (between mcmicken and calhoun) that would all need to be moved. Thats probably at least above a million dollars right there. I think this was a huge mistake in the budgeting. We'll see what happens- Hopefully I'm wrong!

ya, the Neyer building is on the opposite corner and is basically empty- in fact, I thought I read somewhere that they were considering moving some Neyer employees into that building just so it stops sitting there empty. That would be a really interesting apartment complex- It's semi on a hill (half the lot is higher than the other half of the lot), so if they build it "up" on top of the hill (say with a semi-underground garage as its base) it could have some great views and be 'above' the traffic. If they build it down (cut off the top of that hill, have it closer to the road) I could understand the noise issues mentioned in the article.

Alright- I'm going to try for the next week to only get my cincy news from CityBeat, the Business Courier and Soapbox (and an assortment of personal Cincy blogs). I know I won't get all the same info, but at least it won't be so far skewed to the right that I feel like I'm falling over. Anyone else want to join? Let's see if we feel just as informed but half as irritated. I just can't stand the incredibly biased anti-streetcar stance that the enquirer has. Part of me thinks this goes way beyond the streetcar- it's simply the Enquirer trying to take down the mayor/most of council to feel as though they have some power left (declining readership is leaving them feeling impotent). Until next Saturday, I declare this No Enquirer week!

^ hooray.

I really don't think most people understand the difference between capital and general funds. I honestly think more than 15% of the city/county(i include them since many of the most vocal opponents live outside the city) are aware of the difference. I think this is where the city administration is losing the message war. All you hear is "cops to lose jobs while streetcar is built!" And people assume the streetcar could pay for the cops instead. I really wish government had better PR. There's no reason they should be barred from PR and marketing while traditional media (enquirer) can lie/not explain the truth whenever they feel like it. Remember how well they explained capital fund vs. general fund when Winburn found 750,000 to buy the Gamble house. What does Leslie Ghiz have to say about that?!

^ no- Even though it was super foggy, I'm certain the lights weren't on between 6 and about 7. I could see Carew lit up clearly, and the lights inside QCS were coming through, but the birdcage was dark. You'd think this would take a day or two to figure out... interesting.

They still aren't getting the sunset timing right. Around 6:something last night it was clearly night out, and the lights on all other DT buildings were up, but QCS was still dark.

^ Bogarts $10 mill expansion was talked about in 2008 and then the recession hit. Part of the 10 million includes a parking structure... details at the time were very vague.

Incase anyone missed this! http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101116/BIZ01/311160033/Hotel-nearing-completion-in-Corrvyille Hotel nearing completion in Corrvyille: A newly built $24 million Hampton Inn and Suites hotel in Corryville is expected to open by early January. On Tuesday, local business and community leaders gathered for a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the 132-room hotel and a more than 200-space public parking garage, which was developed by Burgess Doan Co. Financing partners included non-profit developer Uptown Consortium along with special tax increment financing from the city of Cincinnati valued at roughly $6.1 million. “If you want to build a hotel, particularly in a city neighborhood, you have to have vision, you have to have persistence, you have to have tenacity,” said Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney. “You can look around and remember when this was just dirt and look how far it has come in a very rapid fashion.” See Link for Remainder

^ just for clarification, I was being highly sarcastic/pointing out the silliness in Ghiz and Winburn's arguments... Government provides a whole bunch of important services and it's silly to think we don't need it... You might also be joking, but I can't tell. Regarding Cincy vs. another ohio city, the only Ohio city that is (just over) twice as populous as Cincinnati is Columbus, and it has roughly 1.8 times our police force and I'm pretty certain crime in both cities is fairly comparable. I also doubt that anyone can argue that a real crime could have been prevented because one officer (at a time) was on fountain square.

How much money does the city spend on policing the streets after a Bengals game? Weren't two officers just attacked after MNF and treated for minor injuries? I demand a hearing on how much money the city wasted on Segway's for the CPD! Those things cost thousands of dollars and I demand a study that compares cops on segways to cops on horses to cops on bikes to cops in cars and who is more effective. I also think that the fact that the city lights a Christmas tree on fountain square is a waste of my hard earned tax money! Government should do nothing! *sarcasm*

It won't happen simply because they won't be able to get a hotel to join them. The Banks are already lobbying Boutique hotels to move into there for a 200 room hotel with a pool and ample parking, let alone building a hotel over a bridge (where do the guests cars go?). 21C is planning on moving here in a couple years (pending the Metropole suit) and we've already had several hotels in Cincy close in the last couple years. There isn't a market for it, AND everyone should do a little research on the company that they are partnering with... their accomplishments are amazing.

The utility relocation will be starting soon and will take a while. Every single manhole along the streetcar line has to be moved. Every major powerline, gas access point, etc. that is not a certain depth/has an accesspoint in the middle of the road needs to be moved/have a new access point. Driving up Vine, from McMicken to Taft I counted over 20 manholes where a streetcar track will be laid. That's a LOT of construction to do. It will take months and be very noticeable.

^ good to hear we aren't the only city that hates itself. I'm glad that mentality is finally (slowly) starting to subside.

Love the black background on those and I love seeing both stadiums lit up.

I looked at several of the apartments- Initial impressions: 4 West 14th Street: - the studio: not feeling it- came across as very small, I accidently asked her where the bedroom was because it seemed way to small to have been a studio. 1407 Vine: - The small 1 bed rooms (~630 sq feet), much better. (same square footage as the studio but they felt soo much bigger). - The 2 bed rooms had very very tiny bed rooms but a nice living/dining and kitchen area. - The large 1 bedroom with "den" were great! could be good for a young couple or a single with a decent income/works at home. The large 1 bed rooms have porches and a nice sized living room over looking vine. They are also the only ones that have decent closet space. Those are $1025 and $1075 (3rd floor is more expensive). All parvis apartments have to pay an extra $20 a month for a parking space. But again, they are all very basic. The fire place mantels look kinda cheap, everything just seems very low budget (great for me! but atypical to a lot of the development in that neighborhood)

Stupid 3CDC... "fixing" our neighborhoods... *sarcasm* That looks wonderful. Google Streetview offers a lot of the same scenes (although they've updated some sections of OTR). I went into the leasing office and got a tour of the Parvis Lofts yesterday- Nice for basic apartments, but very simple compared to a lot of the development in OTR. I have friends in some other buildings and they look gorgeous inside... Parvis looks much more basic (which is fine since they are apartments and not condos). I love that every apartment gets its own washer dryer and wifi is included in your rent.

^ is the 'he' Tom Luken in that statement?

^ Beautiful. And while they can't have balconies, perhaps the roof can have a communal garden/patio?

the McAlpin has about three units left. And they do have balconies.

It's called civics, something we've wholeheartedly abandoned as a county. Pshh- You commie, everyone knows Civics has a liberal bias... I could be mistaken... but under what fund is the firefighter pension housed? Is it part of the general city pension fund that is absolutely failing? Or is there a separate one... Oh and as mentioned earlier/or in an article... Fire and Police budgets make up over 60% of the city budget. I'd LOVE to see how that compares to other cities our size.

Wow- It always blows my mind how ridiculous he is. What I can't stand is that they can just lie and lie and lie. The CFD and the City Manager have already said that the first fire truck to the scene was from the nearby Northside station. It was the exact one that was supposed to be there. It was there in 3 minutes and the city average is 4 minutes. I've been to Streetcar city council meetings (and have seen Luken there), they have taken sooo much public feedback- Everyone has been 20-30 people for the streetcar, 2-3 against. Yet Tom says, they've never held a public hearing. And of course there's not going to be a vote. Do we vote on the Banks? or the Metro lines? No! We're a representative Democracy and our constitution actually warns against direct democracy- Sigh. They will campaign HARD against everyone on Council who supported the streetcar.

^ well, either way, they aren't putting a parking lot there so it's a moot point. It's a construction staging site.

^ It's true- There is no way they would support the streetcar in two years when things are moving again and it costs twice as much.