thebillshark

This plan may be necessary or good news even but it doesn't excite me. I already know the powers that be in Cincinnati can get together a boatload of TIF money and tax incentives and make a project like this happen. I won't be excited until one of these surface pay lots gets replaced by a residential mid rise (with minimum public investment) because then I'll know the dynamics and attitudes around here are truly starting to change.

^good point. In DT/OTR/Pendleton there's about 14k people. It's really a small town. I think we could add 10,000 people in this area and use the new tax revenues fill our budget gap with the side effect of changing the mentality of our whole city and metro region. But when I look around I see fierce resistance to change from all quarters. The CBD in particular looks stagnant or regresssed with with one highly planned project happening every two years and little to no organic growth happening.

^thanks for posting that one ColDayMan[/member] This is another 187 apartments going up in the suburbs like it's no big deal. Whereas for all the hype downtown and OTR haven't added a large number of units recently save for when SCPA apartments opened. When are we going to start adding the raw numbers downtown and what is the city doing wrong that the growth isn't happening?

Question for Phase 3 (south of the new apartments and GE building.) is it possible that the built footprint of whatever comes next could extend farther south than the parking garage infrastructure that is in place? If a hillside is built in that south lot up against the parking garage, could something be built on top of it? (I know that the garage is to lift the building out of the floodplain)

IMPORTANT NOTICE for OTR residents: memberships to the OTRCC expire the day before the March meeting. Please join or renew your membership at the upcoming February meeting on Monday at 6pm at the OTR Rec Center to make sure you can vote on important issues in the neighborhood for an entire year! http://otrcommunitycouncil.org/its-time-to-renew-your-membership-to-the-otrcc/ Otherwise if you let your membership lapse, when you do show up for a meeting and sign up you will not be able to vote on issues at that meeting and will need to wait until the next meeting to be able to vote. There are sure to be issues before the council that people will have strong opinions on, and there's no telling when they'll be on the schedule, so you need to plan ahead and join to make sure your voice gets heard!

Jake- I think this is the solution to Findlay Market's search for parking. I took a look and even just a two level structure could fit about 250 spaces, without even extending as far as over as where the tracks loop around the building. This would be the perfect fit for this area, hardly even noticeable to anyone besides the streetcars and Rhinegeist trucks, yet steps away from Findlay's current parking lot, the front door of Rhinegeist and the new brewery and several streetcar stops. I would scrap the idea for apartments, because I think they would be quite awkward to fit there, and spark a contentious debate about market rate vs. affordable housing, either of which would be fine but both would probably be too costly compared to the opportunity cost of developing on another site (market rate or affordable.) especially given height limitations. Solar panels forming a canopy on the top level would be a nice touch, perhaps we could claim our streetcar runs off of renewable energy in that case.

Not only that, but the president of the local transit workers union was complimenting the police and fire departments on the blockages. That's right, the head of the transit union is in favor of rail transit being blocked. Aren't the streetcar drivers in the union themselves?

The current stadium is only about 400 ft wide, to expand it to 500 ft would require disrupting the street grid to the east. I think it would hurt it and here's why. First, Central Ave is long & straight and does a good job connecting the West End from top to bottom on into downtown. Second, it would require demolition of some high quality historic buildings that could easily fit back into the neighborhood by filling in missing teeth. Third, it would truncate 15th street as an east-west connection. Fourth, the way you connect the neighborhoods is to add people along the border IMO. My vision is to add larger apartment blocks in the area west of Central Parkway to add raw numbers to our population. They could be like the construction taking place Uptown (aka nothing fancy architecturally) order to provide affordable market rate places for young people and service workers to live. These folks will then build a customer base for everyday neighborhood type businesses and the streetcar. Please check out https://cincinnatiideas.com/ballet-flats/ Edit: here's the original post Gordon Bombay[/member] was referring to: https://cincinnatiideas.com/2016/08/15/reconnecting-the-west-end/

The only other sites that I've heard mentioned is the Ovation site in Newport and the milacron site in Oakley. Because of the Corporex connections Berding has, that one seems like a legit contender, though it gets more complicated with the new traffic circle and new Route 9 layout. Of the options discussed here the casino location is definitely still the best. What if the Linders gave the Browns an equity position in FC Cincinnati in exchange for the practice fields? Its kind of a win for everyone. The Browns diversify into the fastest growing pro sport (especially important if CTE and other health risks threaten the long term viability of football by discouraging youth participation and drying up the talent pool at the college and pro levels) and they turn an asset that produces essentially no revenue into one that does. If you need a practice field literally next door to the Bengals stadium, you would probably have access to the FC Stadium (FC's last home game is Sept 16; Bengals first home game was Sept 11). Then you buy a new practice field in Queensgate. (edit: turns out the practice fields are owned by the county, so essentially you would have the Browns assign their lease of them to FC) At least to fit the dimensions of the Crew stadium (500x600 ft.,) you would need to reconfigure Mehring Way which passes under the Clay Wade Bailey bridge in that area. Maybe not impossible but might take some doing.

Hey all, I dropped the Columbus Crew stadium into a few sites around town we've mentioned here for a possible FC Cincinnati stadium using screenshots from Microsoft Maps for Widows 10. I tried to keep the scale as close as possible by confirming dimensions using the distance measure tool in Google maps. First is the casino. Would require removal of Court St. and some design around the parking garage but overall feasible. Close to OTR for the fan clubs. The big footprint wouldn't harm the urban fabric too much further, due to it being at the edge of the neighborhood, but would be extremely close to everything. Could be part of a larger overall effort to transform eastern downtown. Second (I think I was the only one suggesting this) is the Glencoe Hole. Walkable from Uptown (with an uphill pilgrimmage march possible form OTR.) There would be some serious terrain challenges with this site. Perhaps the stadium could be built atop its own parking garage, to keep it closer to elevation of Auburn Ave. Though a long shot, it's interesting that this site would be accessible by a light rail stop if John Schneider's Mt Auburn Tunnel comes to fruition. ( https://cincinnatiideas.com/uptown-light-rail/ ) Third is IRS site in Covington. This site is simply huge. It is incredible what a waste of urban space this IRS facility is plopped down right in the middle of the beautiful walkable historic neighborhoods of Covington. The stadium fits easily here, even with a convention center expansion. Even with both, it looks like the site could get split up with some cross streets and mixed use development added. I looked at the Hudepohl site and the Bengals practice field, but the Crew stadium didn't fit in easily with the street grid.

https://cincinnatiideas.com/2017/02/07/historic-preservation-a-link-to-a-different-kind-of-economy/

This kind of study strikes me a little like tunnel vision by people who would stand to land some subsidies if the recommendations were acted on. Couldn't we instead build tourism by protecting our historic architecture? (#savethedennison) Couldnt we expand tourism by having a more vibrant downtown (by adding 1000's of residents?) but no, here we have the 1980's solution, get locked in an arms race with competitor cities and expand the convention center. Tailor made for Cranley and the rest of the old guard

Random idea: solar companies should put some big solar installations in by Washington DC airport and other big city airports so that when government officials and businessmen from flyover country visit they see them and get normalized to the idea and encourage solar back home.

^ https://cincinnatiideas.com/2016/07/25/why-west-siders-should-be-rooting-for-streetcar-success-more-than-anyone/

What downtown really needs is a good "Bark Mulch Area".... Seriously though, it seems to me that section of Main has drug activity going on there. I don't think a pocket park there is a good idea (beyond the tremendously BAD idea of tearing down the Dennison.)

The weird way that it's worded, "between UC and the river," almost makes you think they are thinking about the Glencoe Hole or something.

To this I would say, choose your battles. The casino already forms a huge monolithic site wedged in between neighborhoods that is backed up against a highway that is itself backed up against the hillside of Mt Adams. By adding to this monilithic site, you're not really affecting much, and maybe you are preventing a monolith from taking over elsewhere. Plus if you reconnected Gilbert to Eggleston by tearing down the overpasses as mentioned above you're adding important connectivity where it counts, to the eastern edge of downtown, and freeing up land for development. You would also be saving the city maintaince costs of the overpass.

Wow, this is the first time I've noticed how useless those Gilbert Ave overpasses are. Not really geographically necessary, just saving cars 20 seconds entering and exiting downtown. They should be removed to encourage development and to simplify the street grid in that area making it easier for walkers and bikers. If Gilbert connected with Eggleston, I see no problem with removing that section of Court Street either.

^^Gordon Bombay[/member] flip it 90 degrees and you got it. You could even maintain the circle drive on the south side the for the casino for access purposes and connect it directly to Court, Court Street would become a cul de sac with the entrance off Eggleston.

I think you could still do a soccer stadium if you removed that part of Court St. too. The "short" side of the stadium would be along Eggleston and the "long" side would be along Gilbert. It may be possible due to how the corner of the garage is cut away on the south side there. The garage may still cut into one of the corners of the stadium, but could be designed around.

"Activist investors" are raiders and looters.

Too bad... it seems like they could have fit this in quite easily, if they had thought about it just a few years ago when they designed the casino and garage, and if they were able to move Greyhound down to the RTC.

Are you thinking take out Reedy street between Court and Eggeleston? You'd lose 2 buildings then- though they're pretty non discript and disconnected from the Urban fabric already. As long as the triangle building on the corner remains, I could live with that. Pluses include dramatic view of Times Star building and P&G Towers. Easy access from Main Street OTR and Pendleton bars. Perhaps the Lindners should call up Dan Gilbert and have him invest in the team and become part owner so they could work on parking/events together with the casino. If a Mt Adams air gondola touched down somewhere in the area it would really be a tourist destination. Would really be bizarre to have the jail right across the street from such a large entertainment complex.

Specifically what if you did this. Better or worse access/connectivity? More expensive than a new viaduct? Better/worse for Fairmount?

Political suicide thought experiment: Could Cincinnati get by without a WHV? First it's unclear whether the viaduct built the Fairmount neighborhood or murdered it. In the suburban age the area has definitely become a high speed pass-through for cars from the rest of the West Side. (Although being in a valley with old school heavy industry next to a rail yard probably didn't help it.) Would taking out the through traffic help the neighborhood come back? Second traffic may be able to be redirected to the 8th street and Hopple street viaducts to get to the main destinations of downtown and uptown as well as I-75. But would of that add too much travel time to some commutes? Could other road connections be improved on the west side of the mill creek to counteract this? Thinking about the West Side, it seems an issue is it's got too many arterial roads randomly zig zagging and crisscrossing, and not enough Main Streets and sustained grid patterns. This is of course caused by geography. Two of the big ones (Queen City and Harrison) come together at the WHV, so it is an important connection...