OHSnap

Construction begins Monday on the Kennedy Connector. Are there any documents available online? Drawings, schedules, etc.? It looks like all of Ibsen is closed to through traffic. I also noticed a bunch of tree removals on the north side of Duck Creek Rd. and behind the houses on Madison between Ibsen and the Duck Creek floodwall.

I noticed a couple of days ago that a row of temporary electrical drops and meters were being constructed on the grounds of the former Precision Automated company (or whatever it was) on Ibsen, where the Kennedy Connector is planned. One assumes this is for construction trailers for the road building.

From the auditor's website, it appears the building the burrito place is in has been a restaurant since 1972. It was called The Chili Company up until about five years ago, then the ill-fated Fatburger. The Loesch family owns the property. I get what you're saying, though - it's auto-centric in a community that's gravitating towards walkability. But one could argue that a place that's been a series of restaurants for forty years shows there's demand for that at present. And it's not as though it's got acres of parking like a Red Robin or something - it still fits the fabric of the neighborhood pretty well (better than partly-empty used car lots, at least). Heck, even in the older Chicago suburbs like you mention there are IHOPs and McDonald's. Interestingly, the Heflin name also owns the empty lot just west of Loesch Hardware, which is also an old under-utilized Courtesy lot. I'd like to see that get redeveloped. It's 65x235, which could easily contain a narrow deep apartment building. At two or three stories it would fit in with other buildings on that stretch. I like this development. Now if someone would just buy out that eyesore of Baba India. It does a great business but they do not plow much back into maintenance or landscaping. The Hardees that preceded it probably looked nicer.

I guess I don't know for sure, of course. But as I said, Loesch has been there for ages and seems to do fine. Hotheads has only been there a year or two and has built up a nice business. Everyone's got a price, obviously, but since I don't see for sale signs on the buildings my hypothesis is that they're happy with their current locations. It just seems strange for these plans to be unveiled when I see no street-level evidence that these thriving businesses want to sell.

If I'm reading this correctly, they're planning this for the corner where Hotheads Burritos and Loesch Hardware currently sit. Both of those are thriving businesses that are not, to my knowledge, for sale. Loesch has been there for decades. I guess I'm not surprised this is coming from the architecture firm just across the street. I bet they can get the Courtesy lot easily enough - Courtesy has at least four properties on that intersection, most of which are underutilized. That's not to say an apartment complex there would be a bad fit. I think it would work. The stretch from Baba India almost to Brazee street seems sort of lower-end, including Courtesy's lots. This would help bridge the gap between Oakley Square and Oakley Station. Plus it would help anchor the newer stretch of storefronts from Brazee eastward, whose tenants seem to be tenuous.

Good luck with that. The Flying Pig will make the area are madhouse all morning. Still questioning the rationale of opening it on Flying Pig Sunday versus, say, Saturday.

I'm with you. However, once the streetcar is built out to the Zoo, if it, the Reds/Bengals, Findlay Market, or anything else along the route advertised and gave the streetcar additional "branding," then I have no problems.

Agreed. Crossing Edwards anywhere along that stretch rises to Evel Knievel-levels of daredevilism. I do cycle along Madison, and if I need to get into Rookwood I'll go that back way behind Boston Market, et al., but I have better sense than to ride on Edwards. Now, if they put a traffic light at Atlantic or Hyde Park Ave, one could use those streets as a quiet cut-through on foot or bike. But there are already four lights in a half mile, five if you count Wasson.

It already is. And the current gridlock is what has neighboring streets worried. Even today traffic stuck on Edwards bails out onto Atlantic and Hyde Park Ave. to work over to Madison at Appleton. While cul-de-sac'ing these streets might not be the best idea, a one-way with barrier like Arbor would be a useful solution. Arbor is a quiet street at 5:30p on a Friday when Edwards is a zoo. This even with Rookwood right across the street. For another example of neighborhood preservation via cul-de-sac'ing, check out Eastwood Circle in Madisonville. When the neighborhood was built 75 years ago Eastwood used to join Duck Creek and Madison. When Stratford Manor was built in the 50s/60s the neighborhood lobbied to have the north end of Eastwood blocked off. The neighborhood retained its quiet character despite being an island of residential properties surrounded by commercial uses, and in fact included this in its successful application for Historic District status in 2005.

That lot has had "Coming Soon" signage for close to two years now, I'd say. I've seen no activity.

That's a nice bridge, but such a bridge in this case would have to be around 1000' long, passing over two five-lane roads, in a dense built-up commercial area. The cost would be astronomical. And I think it would span two municipalities, Cincinnati and Norwood, which I'm sure would open another can of worms. And then if rail later comes to that right-of-way as you posit above, the bridge would necessarily have to be taken down again. If we can't get a streetcar without lawsuits and ballot initiatives, imagine the uproar over a million dollar bike bridge serving a wealthy neighborhood.

^ Agreed. A light rail line would cross Edwards right at Wasson, and Madison just west of Edwards, all three busy roads, in the space of 100 yards. A passing light rail train would shut these intersections down for, what, at least 60-120 seconds while the barriers come down, the train passes, and the barriers go back up? It would also impede traffic flow into Rookwood. I don't know what the frequency of such a light rail line would be, but that intersection is a clusterfart most of the time already. And I don't even want to think about the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wasson at Paxton/Isabella is also a complicated intersection, and the rail line has poor sight lines from much of that intersection. I wouldn't want to cycle on a path there. I just can't see that stretch as being safe for MUP users without dedicated ped/bike signaling or other traffic calming measures. I'm a cyclist and I would rather ride on the street - I think I'd be more visible. I just can't get my head around it.

Anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but I was in that BN on a Tuesday night in January and it was hopping.

^ It's sort of chicken-and-egg, right? Until the average resident sees the basin as walkable, they will demand parking. But if it's easy to keep a car there's little incentive to walk more than a couple of blocks. I noticed something recently. The American Can lofts advertise secure indoor bike parking, and we all nod and say "sure, it's Northside, makes sense." Except I had opportunity recently to apartment hunt in Chicago, and I'd say 75% of the buildings I looked at advertised secure indoor bike parking, but very few had any auto parking, and those that did charged a fortune. So it seems that cycling is the "bridge" mode to get people out of their cars and on foot. Make it harder (but not impossible) to keep a car but easy to keep a bike. People will bike and eventually figure out that it's pretty easy to walk, too. I bet if the city offered an extra year of tax abatement in buildings that include bike storage in their designs, we'd see a lot more demand for condos and apartments with bike storage...

I stand corrected. The point remains, however.

On Ridge north of Highland, on the west side of Ridge just south of the train tracks. There was a cheapo Big Lots-style home improvement store there that never seemed to have a ton of traffic. Come to think of it, maybe that's still open - been awhile since I paid attention. There's a new McDonald's in front of it, along with Aldi. Wal-Mart then moved to Kennedy at Highland, and now to Red Bank. I've heard that Red Bank store is little improvement.

I live in the area and this store has the lights on inside 24/7. Who pays that bill???? My guess is the real estate company that's been trying desperately for years to unload that empty box. I seem to recall a few years ago when Wal-Mart left a second empty box in Columbia Township reading somewhere about a proposal to ensure that the original tenant would be on the hook for the costs of redeveloping an abandoned store. (Maybe it was NYT?) I think both of Wal-Mart's sh**boxes in Columbia Township are currently empty, despite the attempts to turn one into a flea market. A flea market?!

There was a Halloween Express sort of place the last couple of years, but otherwise, no.

^ Yeah, I go to all three of 'em regularly... But not IHOP. That place is a hole. How do pancakes take 45 minutes? </off topic>

Went by again this weekend - swear I'll get pictures sometime but I'm always in the car. Sure wish someone would build something other than an auto-centric shopping center... Anyway, it looks like they're still working on breaking down rubble from the structures. It appears they have nice neat rows of segregated materials - maybe for recycling? There are also 3-4 MASSIVE piles of dirt at the west end of the lot, nearest Sam's. No work yet on the removal of any of the old building foundations that I can see from the road. Opinion Time: I'm with the majority here in that I would have preferred to see an adaptive reuse of the existing structures. Would have been cool to watch a movie in a 50-year-old factory building converted to a theater rather than a bland suburban-style megaplex, never mind the neon marquee they hope to fool us into thinking matches the 20th Century. However, as a resident, there's a part of me that's happy that something is going on there instead of some old buildings rotting away empty. Call me a heretic, but I guess some less-than-ideal use is better than none. And let's face it, while most of us here would prefer to see something more thoughtful, just about everyone else that lives and shops in that area is fine with big boxes. It suits their needs without them having to think about it. They will shop/eat/watch movies there whether it's in an old factory or a bland box. Case in point: a corporate employee once told me that Target is one of the top-grossing (maybe the top) stores in the region.

There's a Kroger on McMillan and Gilbert, and another down on Vine south of Liberty. I'm not saying they're nice, but they're there, and probably closest to the old one at UC. Also, one can just shoot down Clifton Ave. to Mitchell - but maybe that's what you meant by "Ludlow"? I think someone (maybe another board here at UO) said they see a lot of folks getting off the bus at the Norwood Kroger, too. The name escapes me - is the up-market grocery to replace the IGA on Ludlow open yet?

I've only been to Cleveland once, briefly, but I've spent a bit of time in Duluth and its environs. I really like Duluth in the summer - feels a bit like San Francisco, but midwestern. Winters, no thanks. Yeah, the lift bridge attracts tourists, and it is unique in the world (I believe), but you also have to remember that Duluth is the gateway to a really amazing (and fairly under-marketed) area of the country. The north woods are spectacular, especially along Lake Superior. Then there's the Boundary Waters, and the light houses, etc. I'd be interested in knowing what nationalities you saw at the hotels in Canal Park. MSP has sizable Somali and Hmong communities, and Duluth has long been a weekend getaway destination for MSP residents. Could be that those communities have also recognized the allure of the area?

^ Love it or hate it, you're right - money wins. We live in a capitalist society. The FBI likely hired a real estate consultant to find a list of sites suitable for their requirements. The site in Kenwood won, and now they're building. If you want to move house, do you take into account which municipality gets your new home's property tax dollars as the first criteria? Probably not - it's probably whether it's close to where you work or where your kids go to school and if the price is right and if the house has the features you want. Same story with the FBI. So why the anger? I guess I can't see why all the kerfuffle. It's a simple real estate decision just like thousands every day.

This has probably been said elsewhere in the forum, but I love flying into DCA. When I used to go for conferences at the convention center, and if I carried my bag on, I could be from the plane to my hotel at Chinatown/Gallery Place in a half an hour. I think it's the gold standard for public transit at an airport.

I get the gist of your comment, and I agree that it would help make the airport a nicer place, but it's worth mentioning this isn't a unique idea at all. Nashville was probably the forerunner at least a decade ago - they have daily lunchtime concerts by local musicians trying to make it in the business. I was also just at Puerto Plata airport in the Dominican Republic, and they had a three-piece band playing Dominican/Caribbean music as you walked to customs. In other words, it's being done all over.