BigDipper 80

CP has a LOT more land on the peninsula for expansion than people seem to realize. There's a ton of wasted space near Maxair where all the carnival games are, as well as back near Steel Vengeance. There's also plenty of room along the Dragster midway to add some new flat rides, and the old Dolphin stadium was removed which opens up a decent chunk of land over by Wicked Twister.

UD's coffee shop on campus is quite nice, so I'm sure this will be a great space too.

The fact that the Las Vegas metro is 97% "urban" is a good example why there should be a clearer distinction between "urban" and "urbanized".Miami appears to have the same effect since it has a very clearly defined edge, just with a swamp instead of a desert.

This is an... unexpected development for Toledo... New drag-themed restaurant coming to The Docks A new eatery at The Docks is expected to be as flamboyant as its purple exterior, because Hamburger Mary’s is no drag — it’s a drag show. The restaurant franchise is known for creative burgers, hand-cut fries, and queens, who will perform Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday mornings during brunch. As its slogan suggests, it’s a place to “Eat, Drink and be ... MARY!” More below: https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/food/2019/07/01/hamburger-marys-drag-themed-restaurant-the-docks-toledo/stories/20190701127

From what I understand it's more CSX's fault than RTA's. It's CSX's retaining wall at the S-curve that's collapsing due to poor maintenance.

I'll be there!

I'll be there!

^The only point I was trying to make when I said that was that there's a difference between "urban" and "urbanized". It doesn't matter if your town has 700 or 700,000 people in it, you can still prescribe the principles of urbanism to make your city more accessible for everyone. It's possible to build lower-density environments that are still walkable and pleasant; you just need to properly space out your business districts instead of grouping them all around a mall and then having a bunch of cul-de-sacs spreading out around that mall for 10 miles in every direction.

I really can't wait until they put in the new windows on the Commercial Building.

Awe, Brezel closed? Maybe they'd have done better with a stall at Findlay or something.

I found it here: https://www.phillyvoice.com/maps-how-does-phillys-population-density-compare-other-cities/ I don't think it's just comparing sizes, saying that if Philly was the same density as LA, this is the area that it would fill, ignoring whatever is currently built on that chunk of land. Anyway, we're a long way away from talking about Cleveland's population trends at this point!

^Right. I'm just making the point that LA is much denser than people think it is. But even then, there's not that huge of a difference in their densities (or at least not as big as you'd expect given LA's common perception):

^Yeah, it's getting more and more common to see headlines like "50-unit apartment replaces two single-family homes". LA is the yuppiebox capital of America right now and is slowly-but-surely creating some very dense nodes throughout the city. It was all streetcar suburbs in the first place, anyway, so it's TOD without the T (and even that's getting better).

Yeah, CP and KI are still their busiest parks and CP is the only one that is really a true “resort” so I don’t know why they’d want to leave when the Point needs the most varied operational assistance, etc.

^Does it really matter? I mean I'd agree that Mt Adams isn't part of "downtown" Cincinnati, but who cares about the rest? The dynamics of Cincinnati's basin and downtown Cleveland are very different.

LA has way more density than people tend to realize. Most of Central LA looks a lot like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0666409,-118.2992479,3a,75y,168.87h,83.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snqJmK5WLWEHSw0x6mdRLwg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0933388,-118.3644474,3a,75y,194.78h,72.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s19HXVhsL_h2BsYvZR_ATTA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0627084,-118.4327411,3a,75y,208.45h,110.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1HOnkJYJkEMlip-sVQ3y5w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0485981,-118.4331009,3a,75y,54.72h,93.87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8FRUE4m6wKVFn6PAIxDvZA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Philly and Chicago might be significantly visually denser, but a lot of their housing stock is still a lot of single-family homes (which, of course, LA also has in spades). Still, Southern California has a lot of multifamily apartments, especially in the form of dingbats.

Cedar Point is still their baby, and it shows, even with all of the major amounts of money they've dumped into Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, and Knott's in the past few years. I don't see them moving their HQ off the peninsula any time soon.

Why does the Spring Grove connection need to be preserved anyway? It's nearly as pointless as the hardly-used Fredonia and Blair bridges that ODOT replaced with the MLK exit because... reasons. Just build a 6-lane, single-deck replacement and have a SPUI interchange between the bridge and I-75, and be done with it.

Everyone knows that subsidizing free public transportation is immoral and probably illegal.

There's definitely a point where it can become a safety hazard (as a more extreme example, look at everyone dying on Everest this year), and too many tourists can cause irreprable ecological damage from littering, accidental trail widening, and exhaust. But I agree that this could be solved at least in part by investing more in park facilities, implementing more shuttle systems like they did at Zion (and I think Yosemite), and providing people with better education about why these places are reserved in the first place.

At the end of the day though, outside of Grandin and maybe Observatory and Erie, most of Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout and Oakley look like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1363122,-84.4388818,3a,75y,80.57h,82.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sXRCacHEI4NTpUCS9ahw1sA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DXRCacHEI4NTpUCS9ahw1sA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D10.508775%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1413207,-84.4349359,3a,90y,324.68h,84.29t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sCX7xC3b7Y0kHhxQ0zts6FQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DCX7xC3b7Y0kHhxQ0zts6FQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D117.771996%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100 Don't get me wrong, there are some really great side streets like this one- https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1351933,-84.4242345,3a,75y,321.47h,87.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLFGMloqwurrm7Ut055RPqQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 but by and large I don't find it as interesting as just about any random street in the "central rich areas", like: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1461947,-84.5232584,3a,75y,265.1h,85.79t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjqdJmzz8wGEm6xxoJpkm0Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1246938,-84.4743694,3a,75y,211.65h,86.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYSjr6nRLUvpJFOmYYF5DHA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1264004,-84.4765516,3a,75y,109.37h,90.86t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shpL-ovER1N8s2II7Jqw2gQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DhpL-ovER1N8s2II7Jqw2gQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D90.525734%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1212358,-84.4884099,3a,75y,158.95h,90.34t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sz1G0uOQ-tVYUQkhCefQyJw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dz1G0uOQ-tVYUQkhCefQyJw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D0.934729%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 But again, I'm biased toward the unique, rambling, somewhat heavy 19th century architecuture as opposed to the streetcar suburb aesthetic of the east side. Not to say it's "overrated" or anything, just that it doesn't stand out as much as other parts of the city.

Eh, I know it’s a matter of personal taste, but I’d take any of the rambling estates on Clifton or Lafayette before any of those houses. I just find the older neighborhoods to have more eclectic and unique homes than the Tudor Revival 1910s-20s stuff you’ll find in HP. Of course, that’s just HP being a product of its time. It’s still a fantastic little neighborhood, and I’d take just about any house there over something in Indian Hill, which has always been a bit of a letdown IMO.

Hot take: Hyde Park is the least impressive, architecturally speaking, of Cincinnati's "rich people neighborhoods". Both of the Walnut Hills, Clifton, and the Avondales have both more interesting estates as well as "middle class homes". Hyde Park for the most part doesn't look much different from Norwood, other than the properties being in better shape.

So, we're going to use money from the dump to fix up a different dump (DeSoto Bass)? Sounds like a win to me.

I thought that was the corner of Main and Stewart for a second and was about to get really upset. I don't mind the greenspace being a little further up Main, though.