northsider

I was really bored at work, so I took a break and walked back to the park because I wanted to see what it looked like after the hoopla was over. Still pretty hoppin', especially the musical fountain and the benches around the gazebo bandstand. Continued to be a really mixed crowd - college students, some hipsters, some OTR old timers, some homeless folks I've seen a bunch around town (including local celebrity Almost No Teeth Bad Singing Homeless Guy, who was giving an enthusiastic if inexpert performance for some of the college kids). Very chill. The way the park offers views of the streets around it is just incredible. It's going to be just as successful as the new Fountain Square, if not more so in some ways. now I'm impatient for the Music Hall renovation to get started! Because when you see Music Hall from the park now, it looks a little shabby.

oh, I agree that uncritical boosterism isn't what's called for, and I totally agree that the streetcar still faces a LOT of hurdles and opposition. I just think that the streetcar is especially vulnerable to shenanigans by anti-urban forces, and that holding up the streetcar's woes as a symbol of why Cincinnati's not actually going to go anywhere seems a bit myopic.

Man, what a dour article. He's right that this conflict is a problem, but he neglects to lay the blame squarely on where it belongs: the modern Republican party, which has apparently decided that all pro-urban policies are somehow redolent of socialism. He's also really quick to become pessimistic about the progress of the city based on the streetcar's troubles, when the streetcar is in fact a unique target of opportunity because so many of the funding streams for it are from outside of the city.

No sombrero guy that I could see - like I said, the protest was a big bust. :laugh:

I'm sorry to have offended people - my point simply was that OTRCH people do not appear to be involved with this protest, and thus I don't think that OTRCH should be blamed for it. I don't think we should hold OTRCH accountable for the actions of those who work with OTRCH sometimes. And incidentally, the protest seemed to involve 15 people at maximum, and the most common thing on their signs was "WHERE'S OUR POOL". Trust me, they were absolutely dwarfed by the rest of the crowd, which was very diverse and very excited about the park.

and now I'm back at my desk. I'd estimate that well over a thousand people were at the park, maybe more. Really diverse crowd. Very very upbeat mood on the whole. The fountains and the play area are HUGE hits with the wee set. As for protesters, there were maybe about fifteen people with signs that I saw, and by far the most common thing I saw on signs was "WHERE'S OUR POOL." I kinda wanted to go up to them and say, "it's about four blocks away on Sycamore." :-P There was no chanting or disruption that I could see, just a few scattered folks with signs. As protests go, it was a bust.

The vibe and crowd are great. Get here NOW!'

Look, this "guilt by association" thing is silly. Yes, some people that work with OTRCH are involved with this misguided protest. but OTRCH is not supporting this protest and is collaborating with 3CDC. It's unfair to OTRCH to hold it accountable for what people who aren't even part of OTRCH are doing.

At the gym this morning, the TVs were tuned to Channel 12 and they had a story about the opening. Very positive tone, actually. They very much encouraged people to get down to the park for the opening and spent some time talking about all of the neat features. Magically, they managed to talk about something happening in OTR without bringing up naysayers once. Side note: apparently some of the Choir Games events have such high demand that they're already shifting venues around in the city... so I guess that's going well!

See, I didn't even know that it extended past the Ludlow viaduct - the path forked - one fork leading to the sidewalk, the other leading back to the creekbank, but it was gated off. So you're supposed to walk on the sidewalk of Dooley, then take a left onto Elmore and get back on the trail there? that... doesn't seem very logical. I know they're supposed to put in a bridge for the trail to link up the new section along mill creek road that you mentioned with the rest of the trail. Hopefully the recent grant money will help with this!

Oh my goodness, I took an evening walk on Sunday down to the trail via Old Ludlow, and I saw a blue heron in the creek. It caught a fish, noticed me, and flew away with its prize to perch in a small tree near the railroad tracks on the other side of the creek! The juxtaposition of the pastoral and the gritty make the trail a pretty unique experience - it's going to be amazing once it extends all the way down to the Ohio.

Good. I don't mind smoking on city sidewalks because either the smoker's moving or you are, but it's harder to get away from smoke on the square. And smokers can just move to the sidewalk to have their nicotine, then come right back to the square. (Recent ex-smoker here)

Performing some threadcromancy because hey, the Mill Creek Greenway Trail is open now! At least a portion running from Salway Park (by Spring Grove Cemetery) down to just past the Ludlow Viaduct. I went to check it out this morning and was pleased. Saw about ten other bikers/walkers/runners, and this was all before 8:30 am. I also saw lots of goldfinches, rabbits, geese and ducks, and even an oriole. The signage, benches, and trashcans they have for the trail are really sharp looking with cutouts of cattail plants. If I have one complaint, it's that it's hard to know exactly the extent of the open trail right now because the Mill Creek Restoration Project's website isn't updated enough.

Huh, the Choices website says they're working with 3CDC on 1421 Elm: http://www.choicescafe.org/pages/programs/ . It's the second one on the page.

To be fair, some of the changes could be "effecting [sic] the lives of us who live here" in a positive way. The flier doesn't say. Also, some of these organizations do really good work. OTRCH has rehabbed buildings into clean, safe affordable housing, and some of their initiatives like Recovery Hotel and Buddy's Place are aimed at combatting homelessness by getting folks off the streets and trying to address the root causes of their homelessness. We need organizations like OTRCH if we're going to improve life for everyone in the city by reducing homelessness. The Mohawk Area Development Corporation is a weird one though - they don't even have a website. in 2012.

Hmm, this is a good point. and I imagine that the rent for a restaurant at the Banks ain't cheap at all - in order to be profitable, you'd really need to be able to sell booze and stay open late. I can't even imagine an Applebee's making it in the space. anyway, it would be interesting to know who all is making the calls on which tenants get put into the retail/restaurant spaces at the Banks and what their goals are. Personally, if we're going to put in national chains into the Banks, I'd rather that they be real destination retailers/restaurants that aren't already currently in the Cincy burbs. The Mall-ification strategy for downtown failed miserably back in the day - in order to attract people from the suburbs, you can't just offer a rehashed version of what's already out there in the 'burbs. you have to offer something unique.

Fix'd. :-P I question the economics of a kid-focused restaurant in the area - isn't part of the draw of the Banks supposed to be that it's a late-night kinda place? But I do hope that more restaurants open up that are like the Lager House and kid-friendly. Also this is where I could rant on and on about the ridiculousness of American parents who want to continually (and ONLY) give their children kid-centric experiences and how it's bad training for life, and it's a valuable experience for kids to realize they can have a good time in spaces for adults. but that's a mite OT. ETA: I should have read back farther. BlackBengal made all of my points, but better.

The P&G courtyard is a really lovely oasis (especially for P&G employees) and it's perfectly fine on the Sycamore side - a nice bit of variation. But on the 5th street side it really sucks the potential liveliness out of the street because of how long it stretches (and that it's opposite the Masonic building and the Taft, two large wide buildings without a lot of street-level interest). Because of the raised walkways, you don't get to see any activity in the courtyard from 5th, which is problematic from a street-level interest point of view. Anyway, the other nice thing about dunnhumby expanding in Cincy is that dunnhumby employees are exactly the type of people you want moving to Cincy - generally smart, ambitious, and creative, and if the sample of dh employees that I know is any indication, they often have a high level of interest in city living.

^^^ What do they even want at this point? I mean, I still expect that homeless folks will hang out in the park, it will have shade and public restrooms. It's just that now lots of *other* people will be hanging out there too. I get really frustrated with activist types like this when their solutions seem to be to continue an untenable status quo. I'm glad the city and local organizations are putting more money and effort into the Homeless to Homes initiative and trying to address root causes of homelessness, instead of just keeping sites that are the city's heritage and treasure as glorified squatter's zones.

I work with dunnhumby as part of my job, and I've been in their current offices many times. Their current offices (which they built) have a very modern feel with an open floor plan, huge windows, tall ceilings, etc. All of the materials I ever get from dunnhumby are really nicely designed - appreciation for the power and uses of design is something that's a huge part of their company's outlook. Their corporate culture is really nice, very focused on flexibility and sustainabillity, and extremely flat - their salary structure has only seven levels that stretch from new hires fresh out of college all the way up to the CEO. My guess is that dunnhumby will have a surprising amount of say in how the tower turns out. They're an essential partner at this point for Kroger and also consumer product companies like P&G, and they're growing like gangbusters - keeping dunnhumby in town and happy is key to helping to continue to grow Cincinnati's reputation as a center for marketing, branding, and consumer research.

I really like the off hour parking idea, although i suppose that could be a headache during Reds or Bengals games. It's curious that Third Street has just as many lanes and yet it feels way safer to cross.

And of course, after Reds games is when you'd have the most pedestrian traffic! I haven't been down in the area after a game lets out - I wonder if they use police to allow people to cross? I'm sympathetic to the safety issues involved, but it's a bit frustrating that the new pedestrian-friendly development in downtown isn't always pedestrian-friendly.

So I've been doing a lot of walking down to the Banks and the park trail at lunch during the week, and I have to say, the fact that you can only cross on the west side of Walnut over 2nd is really, really dumb from a pedestrian standpoint. We currently have two streets that feed into the Banks and you can't cross over one of them both ways?

I've really loved the video updates. We're lucky to have the park system that we do!