BigDipper 80

Honestly I think the fact that there IS so much of it really hurts preservation efforts, as paradoxical as it seems. This, coupled with the fact that Cincinnatians don't seem to travel much to see that their collection of historic buildings is actually something very unique, makes it all but impossible to convince many people that it's worth saving. To them, it's "old and worthless" and any new development, no matter how schlocky and terrible, is considered an upgrade just by virtue of its newness. If people would realize that there really is nothing like these neighborhoods elsewhere in the country, they might have more of a fighting chance, but the region needs to see the inherent value in these old buildings first. Uptown is going to struggle the most with this because the two groups of people who are probably going to care the least about historic preservation are college students and absentee landlords. By and large, people don't have to fight these fights in other cities. Columbus gets it, and Cleveland has started to get it - hell, they completely rebuilt one of the Playhouse Square lobbies that burned down fifty years ago to its original grandeur (not to mention the Heinens and everything else along Euclid). There should be this level of activism in Cincinnati, which has far and away the best collection of historic urban fabric in this part of the country, but no one will step up to the plate. We shouldn't be fighting battles of the Dennison, or over Union Terminal for f**k's sake. Who in their right mind would actually say "it's an old drain on finances, tear it down?" It's one kind of unforgiveable when we lose places like the West End, but when we have people in this region who don't even care about Union Terminal and Music Hall, it's a very, very difficult war to fight.

^^ Always looking forward to seeing more things in St. Anne's. I'd love to see a nice low-key bar or restaurant open in one of those corner storefronts that's actually within the neighborhood and not just along 5th, like you see throughout Ohio City or something. Really would activate the area a bit more.

Yeah, my dad and grandma always mention how wings used to be totally worthless back in the day and that they were good for preparing chicken stock and not much else. I don't ever buy wings when I go out because they're so damn expensive now. Occasionally I'll fry some up at home but even those aren't cheap.

I was wondering what was going on there - Channel 2 said downtown is on track to get 800 new apartments, which is really great news.

^ Jump to about 2:00 -- https://youtu.be/KYxXtKkqK4E?t=127 (Not-so mild language for our younger members)

Wow, I dig that street art! Miami and some of its environs is really the only truly intriguing part of Florida to me, city-wise.

Too bad we couldn't have gotten something more like this for Oakley Station instead of the crap that ended up getting built there.

That Eastern Corridor map looks like an ODOT engineer's wet dream.

^I think we found the voice of the streetcar announcements.

This is awesome! That park really needs some more activity at it. That plot hasn't historically been a park has it? I'd assume it went in the same time as the Crowne Plaza.

I'll be making the trip down from Dayton for this! Can't wait to see it in person! My buddy from Cleveland is also likely to come along too, he's been really impressed with this renovation.

This is great! They better not be messing with Century Bar though, I don't think they'd make that mistake.

Pendleton is such a gem. It probably has the most "European" feel of any neighborhood in the city. I've always admired how the brick tenements, and especially the little plaza in front of the church at 12th and Spring, have such a distinctive, almost Italian flair to them. 13th Street has such a great scale, and I love that the neighborhood has actually managed to hold onto some of its Greek Revival style houses from the earliest years of Cincinnati's existence. Now if only they could do something with those lots across from Woodward! I always envisioned a narrow mall or arcade of some sort running north-south from 13th to Reading with new apartments lining the length of it.

I might have said a swear word or two out loud when I saw this... :-o

You know there's no turning back from gentrification in Ohio when even Dayton can't escape the barcade takeover! That said, seeing "cool" hipster stuff opening that far east is probably a bellweather that Huffman's next on the list for Extreme Makeover Dayton Edition.

Just came here to post about this... this could end up being pretty cool. Glad to see the building got saved.

A fairly uncommon angle on the downtown skyline:

It'd be great if this ends up being a "legit" Chinese restaurant or something, kind of like how all of the good Japanese restaurants ended up in Florence because of the Toyota plant there.

Dayton Arcade granted $20 million in housing tax credits The Dayton Arcade redevelopment project was granted massive housing tax credits, showing the project taking a large step forward. On Wednesday, Miller-Valentine Group was granted$10 million — $1 million in annual tax credits over 10 years — from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency toward affordable housing geared toward artists, as part of the planned mixed-use redevelopment project at the historic downtown arcade. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2016/06/15/dayton-arcade-granted-housing-tax-credits.html

Eh, who needs high speed rail when you can just build another ring road around Huston. Those aren't subsidized, after all. :wink:

Yeah, townships in Ohio still exist underneath the municipality as a "paper township" even though the township government is abolished as soon as the township is annexed or incorporated. I think Ohio is the only state that does it like this, and honestly I still don't fully understand it.

Just might pop over tomorrow or sometime in the next couple of weeks and take some photos. It's been a few years since I've been there.

Dayton's not allowed to have nice things :cry:. I say RTA should just string some wires and run the trolley buses single-file down the bike path that's there now! I'm actually kind of glad that the downtown loop didn't really get off the ground. I can see what they wanted to do, but I think a routing from the Wright Brothers museum on 3rd through downtown and then jogging south on Wayne would be better than a circulator. That said, downtown has wide enough (and empty enough) streets to either street-run trains or to just give them their own lane.

Really, really looking forward to seeing this move forward. Mostly because I'm selfish and want to take pictures inside :evil: but seriously, incredible buildings like this don't deserve to be left inactive for so long.

It's been six or so months since I last shared some Cincinnati photos, and thanks to our relatively mild winter I was able to get a few good shots over this last span. Enjoy! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. An honest-to-god Japanese house in Mt. Adams. Totally caught me off guard when I found it. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Went on a tour of the MOF back in April (?), which was cool to see. Loved this woman's expression. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. I adore this building. 33. 34. 35. 36.