thebillshark

Amazon not really doing an HQ2. More like an HQ2a and HQ2b? Choosing Long Island City neighborhood of Queens NYC and Crystal City VA across from Washington DC: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/technology/amazon-second-headquarters-split.amp.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share#click=https://t.co/Rh59izh7cV The HQ2 was always such a weird concept (a second headquarters equal to the first? 50k new jobs from thin air?) that I was skeptical they’d go through with it as advertised. Meanwhile by going to these gilded coastal enclaves they’re not doing anything to help their image as an extractive company for flyover country...

Great article about the history of the Segway company up to present day scooter sharing with a Cincinnati reference to boot: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/30/tech/segway-history/index.html

I’m a fan of a new beer Sam Adams has out called “Sam ‘76”

Being “from” OH-1 is a meaningless concept because it is a gerrymandered, disjointed, non sensical shape lacking geographical or cultural cohesion. Have any House seats in the entire state changed party hands since the redistricting after the last census almost ten years ago? This is democracy?

This spat is blue bloods vs. blue bloods so should be interesting how it turns out. If FCC just waited a year for the IRS site in Covington to open up they would have had things a lot easier!

Drivers prefer using the streetcar lane on that block of Elm because they don’t like driving on the cobblestone. So if this was done northbound cars would probably merge back over to the streetcar lane almost immediately after the intersection (but the streetcar would have an easier time turning at the light, provided no cars were stopped ahead of it at a red light waiting to go straight on 12th towards CP.)

To me reliability and on time performance is the key to everything. There’s a lot to do to repair a soiled reputation in this regard. I’d be interested to see the number of streetcar-hours of service per month between this year and last to see if we ran more streetcars more often a year ago. I know they have been in the shop a lot this year and we have even dropped below our minimum service targets for streetcars in service a few times. Anecdotal and no doubt a bureaucratic impossibility, but I probably would have ridden the streetcar x10 times more when I lived downtown if they allowed dogs. I was up on the fourth floor so any chance to combine another errand with dog walking was great for me and I ended up patronizing dog friendly businesses.

Bonus points for connecting it to the Liberty Street subway station

That’s just now on the market? I thought that was completed a while ago (I posted an Instagram pic of it in June 2017 assuming it was completed & occupied. Had flower boxes and everything)

Areas of interest/potential/ongoing development in the Cincinnati Opportunity Zones: -FC Cincinnati stadium and surroundings -the Banks -lot south of Convention Center being eyed for new hotel -Skyhouse Cincinnati site -US Bank Arena -Casino & big triangle lot -downtown south of Fifth Street (includes PNC aka Central Trust Tower recently proposed for renovation, Carew Tower, Western and Southern land) -Queensgate -MLK interchange area/“innovation corridor” -most of Over the Rhine. Left out are some portions north of McMicken and also west of Ravine that could use some help -bizarrely the historic part of the West End is left out despite its high poverty rate

They got what they need for the stadium. The only thing I don’t understand why they didn’t get is the cell phone tower lot facing Central Parkway. Maybe the owner is holding out for too high a price. The two buildings along Central Parkway to the south of Galena Alley that aren’t included, “Mozart Garage” (whose sign is in FCC colors) and an office building, have both been recently rehabbed and are in great shape. Maybe someday upper stories could be added to those structures

How on earth is this still undecided with the groundbreaking so soon?

Great news! I was really surprised to read that this building is 73% vacant.

Historic tax credits are by far the best way to support economic development in this state. Historic renovation is likely to involve small and local contractors. The buildings are likely to be supported by existing infrastructure instead of requiring new roads and sewers and parking lots, so it’s very efficient for government budgets. Historic buildings are more likely to host locally owned small businesses once renovated as well. This program should have been quadrupled in size, yesterday.

I’d be really interested in this information too. Just how much is this last minute obstacle really an obstacle? Is it being presented as insurmountable when it could be dealt with with a small (cheap) modification to the plan?

News coverage follows UrbanOhio discussion: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/10/04/architect-shares-bold-idea-for-one-of-downtown-s.html re: the original Reztark design, agree with @jjakucyk, @jmicha, and @ajknee. I think the tower looks nice but there’s lots of problems with the stuff at ground level. I would add the following: 1. The wedge shaped plaza doesn’t pass the “Tuesday night in February” test. Shiny happy architectural rendering people are actually a scarce resource in real life. I don’t think that’s a space that would draw them in. 2. The rendering looks like it is heavily dependent on retail to draw people in. I don’t think that’s a good call this day and age. 3. There looks like there might be two or even three levels of retail with some kind of staircase/ramp to a second level parallel to the sidewalk on the Fifth Street Side (requiring twice the pedestrian activation.) For modern, post modern, and later buildings to incorporate these kinds of mezzanines, cat walks, skywalks, plazas etc. this almost never works. (Check out the “urban renewal” era plans for the area behind Music Hall https://cincinnatiideas.com/2016/08/15/reconnecting-the-west-end/ ). I’ve said this before, but the street is the basic building block of the city, what people have invented to dileneate and provide an interface between public and private space. (A street, in this regard would fit Nassim Taleb’s concept of “Lindy” -something likely to continue for a long time because it has been around for a long time.) 4. The south sides of the Huntington Building and other adjacent buildings might need renovation to look good as is shown in the rendering. I think @ajknee‘s addition to the rendering provides a simple fix to many of these issues though. The rounded shape of the tower is then appealing because it’s on a block that’s already crowded with big square buildings.

I don’t think 3cdc cares about that one bit. I think they might want to avoid the politics of a project like this. Urbanist projects are easy targets for reactionary politicians and voters. You have to think deeply from multiple perspectives to understand the benefits of a project like this vs. being a “common sense” motorist who will complain about the “idiots” who slowed down their trip through the neighborhood by 30 seconds.

^looks like the website also has renderings for a redo of rookwood commons which to my knowledge isn’t happening anytime soon & those projects don’t list a client like some of their other projects. Looks to me like it’s just some sort of conceptual exercise.

This is the best review/summary of the latest Star Wars movies I have read

I think the core of Walnut Hills has a lot of competition from other city neighborhoods that currently offer stronger versions of similar things (for example, a more expansive business district, condition of housing stock, an established square or park.) An advantage Walnut Hills would have due to its location is connectivity with transit to Downtown and Uptown, if we had any sort of decent transit system. There is still work to do on streetscapes there. For example heading east parts of McMillan are still one way as well as the Woodburn bend. Gilbert could use some street trees and perhaps a road diet. Because there are so many main corridors going through the neighborhood, rebuilding a decent streetwall along each may end up making the neighborhood quite dense. The redevelopment of the Kroger looms large. McMillan and Kemper could be a really strong corner.

This year’s team was pretty entertaining despite their losing record. They had the ability to beat good teams, had some good stretches and had some personalities to root for. When they go back to a playoff worthy record I’ll be a super fan again.

Me too! As someone that hung out in the neighborhood a lot over the past decade plus, I’m utterly shocked that it’s fetching these East Side type of prices. I think Crawford Avenue has a lot of potential. If you connect Dane and Chase to Crawford, then maybe add another cross street or two (New section of Pullan or Apjones?), you’d have a great walkable/bikeable link to the business district. You could redevelop those lots and warehouses with a mix of different housing types. And it would be a peaceful street having the cemetery on the eastern side with that side of the street already being lined with mature trees.

^an aside- given Northside house prices right now there’s probably a serious opportunity for someone with the capital to buy up that seemingly underused light industrial stuff on the eastern edge of the neighborhood and replace it with houses and apartments.

CPD should build a new district 1 HQ at the northwest corner of Ezzard Charles Drive and Linn Street. (Don’t ask me where to find the money...)

If they shrank it from the north, I would be less interested in shrinking the right of way and more interested in a design that created bike lanes with bump outs for pedestrians. The appeal of the current plan for me is to have buildings facing the street again on the south side.