RockyMountainHigh

Your first post about how the city does "everything" seems pretty sketchy to me.... Just stop while you're ahead. I checked over at City Data, you all love to bash the city, don't you? The problem is the undertones you take, and the way you go about it. Don't play innocent here. Your posts show your true attitude, and you really don't seem to know much about what is happening in the city today. It is really great if you want to know truly what is happening in the city, but your negative/bashing undertones do not help your case. Judging by City Data, you seem pretty content with Mason, which is great, but have no problem bashing Cincinnati. You know the attitude here, and most know the attitude there. That is probably one reason you see very few here signing up to be a member of City Data. If you have a problem with this site and the way people go about addressing you, why don't you stick to City Data and bash Cincinnati there? I mean you had to of known this was clearly an urban site, and no one forcing you to join this site. Take out your hate for the city, but praise the suburbs in everything they do. It seems like threads have really gone no where since you have joined, and certainly take a turn for "why does the city do this?" why do they have to do this in the suburbs?". Your intentions seem so out-of-whack and almost like you are looking for trouble or starting an argument. I try to fight the good fight over there (under a different name) and it almost makes you want to clamp a pair of jumper cables on your eyes to read some of the ridiculous garbage they spew. The arrival here of one of that site's most anti-Cincinnati posters gives just a taste of the venom they have for the city and all who love it and aspire for its greatness. To give an example of the blind city hate by this current poster, he actually opposed Paul McCartney playing downtown last summer because he didn't think any economic benefits should be realized until the stadiums are fully paid for. Another time, he advised a 20-something single girl moving from Copenhagen to Cincinnati (she was seeking information on some vibrant neighborhoods with lots of activity) to locate in Mason instead of the city, citing safety reasons. Of course, I'm the villain over there to him and his "friends" for refuting that nonsense. :drunk: As for U-Square, I don't think it needs the streetcar running right by its front door to succeed, as evidenced by the popularity of that area now. Plenty of students pack the bars, restaurants and shops along those blocks today. And according to today's Enquirer, the Short Vine area is starting to realize its own renaissance which means when the streetcar does come, the area should already be humming and the rail will just add to its vitality. Looking at the University of Minnesota, for example: The light rail doesn't yet go to Dinkytown, which is the popular hub for student activity. A spur is planned and when the area is finally linked to downtown, it will give more visitors access to this part of the city. I would expect a similar result in Cincinnati. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?action=post;quote=604102;topic=2567.930

While most would agree that an In-N-Out would be the No. 1 choice, it's a fantasy. It took the stars to align absolutely perfectly and they still had to bend over backward just to agree to move into the Dallas market. Cincinnati might as well be in Scotland for all they're concerned. Not happening.

How about this for The Banks: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/newintown/2012/02/14/jack-in-the-box-to-open-several-local-outposts-west-chester-will-be-first/ Several locations are slated for Cincinnati, with the first in West Chester. This would be great to have at The Banks. There needs to be some quick, lower cost options and Jack in the Box gets my vote. (Unless we can do the impossible and lure an In-N-Out Burger!)

I took this picture Monday afternoon on Vine just south of Fifth (right outside the Westin entrance). It sure doesn't seem that there is much concern from this Duke worker about the traffic that is much closer to him than eight feet. And the path of these cars is far more unpredictable than a streetcar's.

I went there before a Bengals game and it was pretty crowded. There were no tables and we had to sit at the bar. I think it gets a decent amount of Holy Grail overflow business. The only reason we went there before the game was because the Grail was shoulder-to-shoulder with a line out the door.

Any chance they're considering a move to The Banks? Now that dunnhumby has decided on Fifth & Race, I'd like to see the county and city approach Paycor as an office tenant. I would expect Covington and the State of Kentucky to throw the kitchen sink at PayCor in a no-holds-barred battle royale in order to lure them across the river. They would be a nice company to have at The Banks though.

Whoops ... totally didn't see that in your post. Guess I was too excited! :clap:

Great news! I'll certainly be there. Any idea where?

Which means that all of 40 people heard it. And I think many WLW listeners are starting to flip the station when Smitherman comes on to spew his streetcar hate. The guy is on every show every day saying the exact same thing. Even if you agree with him, you just can't listen to the monotony. Doc Thompson had him on all the time and his ratings tanked so bad that he was fired. WLW continues to badger its listeners with the same guests all the time (Smitherman bashing the streetcar, Ghiz on her cell phone while driving) at its own risk. True...And Smitherman is coming on the Cunningham show at 1 to discuss "Shocking and disturbing new streetcar developments" I listened today to hear Joe Biden talk with Cunningham and then he follows with Chris Smitherman. Going from Biden to Smitherman is like rooting for the Yankees and then switching to the Royals The Royals? It's like going from the Yankees to Little Miami HS reserve baseball. But you know that Smitherman was just beaming with pride with the knowledge that he followed the vice president.

Which means that all of 40 people heard it. And I think many WLW listeners are starting to flip the station when Smitherman comes on to spew his streetcar hate. The guy is on every show every day saying the exact same thing. Even if you agree with him, you just can't listen to the monotony. Doc Thompson had him on all the time and his ratings tanked so bad that he was fired. WLW continues to badger its listeners with the same guests all the time (Smitherman bashing the streetcar, Ghiz on her cell phone while driving) at its own risk.

Talk about a soft opening. Not a peep from the "media."

That building used to be some sort of theater, movie or otherwise, I believe. You can clearly see the theater infrastructure still inside. How cool would that be if it could be returned to its original intent?

Yet Duke has no problem charging its ratepayers for naming rights to the convention center? Just give Duke the naming rights for the next 30 years, have them pay for the utility relocation and call it even.

Wow that is a cool graphic. I was way off where I thought the Lager House was in relation to the baseball field. Of course, that field layout in that graphic was only in use during Riverfront's last couple of years (after the Bengals left and after the switch to grass). The original layout (home plate, bases, pitchers mound) was moved nine feet to the west in order to bring the walls in slightly to allow GABP construction. Also, what was the elevation difference between the playing field and the new Banks street level, or the ground floor of the Lager House for that matter?

The the Lager House wasn't anywhere near homeplate. More likely, its space was parking garage space to the south of the playing field. Wasn't Holy Grail somewhere around the third-base line blue seats?

Well, it's not like DH is in an office tower now. Far from it. With the street-level retail and parking, their new offices will surely be higher than the highest floor they have now.

There are still plenty of vacant parcels that could support high-rise residential: - St. Xavier Park area (Sycamore both north and south of Seventh and extending north of Seventh all the way to Main) - NE corner of Seventh and Vine and half of the entire block east of Vine - NW corner of Sixth and Sycamore (both the vacant lot and the lot that is currently wasted on the single-story Red Fox diner) - mid-block east side of Main between Sixth and Seventh (infill could be larger part of massive vacant lot next to St. X) - SW corner of Ninth and Sycamore directly north of the Power Building (though this would be across the intersection from the jail) - SE corner of Walnut and Eighth - the vacant land on Eighth St. that the old Blue Wisp was on - NW corner of Race and Garfield Place - mass vacant land between One Lytle Place and the PP bridge on both sides of the street (originally slated for condo high-rises but scuttled due to the economy) - perhaps even some decent-sized infill on the SW corner of Fifth and Broadway Not to mention the mass amounts of vacant space at and near the Court/Elm/Central area. And I wouldn't count out residential being at least part of this Fifth & Race development either. And why can't the lots near the courthouse and especially City Hall ever be high-rise residential? What's the roadblock?

I walked through The Banks today (great day to do so) and there is some definite work going on inside Ruth's Chris. And work continues to go on inside Toby Keith's. I'm not sure what's taking so long there - it looked completely finished more than a month ago. Everything is in place and I even saw a bartender behind the bar today. A couple of questions though: 1. Is there eventually going to be permanent poles for the stoplights/intersections, ala downtown? The new Lager House looks amazing, but then the deck is perched right over lights dangling from floppy, wind-blown wires. Same thing with the Freedom Way/Main intersection wires outside the Grail. It looks cheap. 2. Across the Main/Mehring intersection from the Lager House, is that awkward, empty, astroturf-covered space a pad for a future restaurant? It looks so strange. Why didn't the ballpark's plaza level just extend out to the sidewalk or at least take the rose garden space down to the end of the block? 3. I wonder why the space between the Holy Grail and Crave hasn't been spoken for yet? It would seem to be in one of the three most prime locations in the entire Banks development. I assume it'll eventually go restaurant/bar?

Bingo. The original design concepts for the Center of Cincinnati development were much more interesting that what we're getting. I do hold out high hopes for Phase II of Rookwood, however.

I disagree. Fifth and Race has been as prominent of an ugly surface parking lot for a decade and in full view of visitors staying at the Hilton, Hyatt and Millennium hotels. It's high time to develop this land and start generating some revenue from it. And I would hope that the parking would be underground, ala Fountain Square and Washington Park. Also, hopefully the development at Fifth and Race will generate some momentum for that part of downtown and lead to something happening at the Terrace hotel, the empty, dilapidated buildings on Sixth just to the north of the vacant lot and even spur Fifth Third to consider finally doing something with that nice three-story base of an office tower they built at Fountain Square West all those years ago.

I've also mixed it up with kjbrill on the C-D forum in the past. Unfortunately at that place, if you're pro-city or pro-Cincinnati, you'll get ganged up on rather quickly by the naysayers. I guess my hope is that by joining this forum, he'll gain a new perspective on what's going on in the city as opposed to the one-sided hysteria he sees on the local news or reads on Cincinnati.com. And by reviving this old thread, it looks as if he is indeed perusing some of what's been written here. Welcome kjbrill, it's an entirely different world here. As to the skywalk, I wonder why the dead-end branch extending east from the Macy's building hasn't been demolished. It's as big an eyesore as there is downtown. And I can't imagine that any new construction at Fifth and Race would want to re-use it or incorporate it into their design.

So Doc Thompson was fired due to historically low ratings during the 9 a.m. to noon timeslot, huh? Gee, WLW, ever think that maybe listeners are sick and tired of your constant, relentless railing against the streetcar? Imagine that: People don't want to hear Chris Smitherman and Leslie Ghiz whine about the same thing, day after week after month. Doubt WLW will learn. No doubt Scott Sloan will pick up right where Thompson left off.

It was Mallory who proposed the idea, but not Mayor Mark Mallory ... http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/boxing-arena-proposed-as-amenity-at-cincinnati-casino-445783.html?showComments=true If we're talking a new arena, let's stop fooling around and look toward replacing USBank Arena with one of the state-of-the-art facilities that just about every city has now. USBank Arena is a dinosaur. And since UC is making rumblings about replacing/renovating Fifth Third Arena, maybe now is the time to get the ball rolling. Louisville has the brand new Yum Center, and it doesn't have an NBA or NHL team. Cincinnati should do something similar ...

And now add thousands of more visitors to The Banks this summer: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2012/01/20/bengals-will-train-at-pbs-in-2012/ Great news for all the new restaurants and bars, not to mention the parking revenue.

Interesting article ... and their possible move hits at virtually all the available vacant land parcels downtown, including a proposed Third and Race tower (yes please!), Court Street near the Kroger Building and empty land along the riverfront owned by Montgomery Inn. Unfortunately, Mason is also mentioned.