thebillshark

But to argue with myself- part of the appeal of a modern grocery store over Findlay Market is convenience and space to move around. Sometimes Findlay Market is just too much to deal with. I wonder if a long narrow Kroger shaped like that would get too crowded to use efficiently.

Man that would be incredibly unique and special if they did end up building a grocery in the middle of Court Street like that.

I think there is a Court Street Historic District that would protect those. I think the grocery would go either on the lot on the corner of Walnut and Central or else across Central Parkway where the unused non-historic CMHA building is now. I would think that these guys are just trying to cash in on proximity to the potential grocery (and streetcar and OTR.) I would think these historic buildings are safe but dumber things have happened in Cincinnati!

That would be THE WORST reason to take it down. Liberty Street attratcts riff raff BECAUSE it is desolate. Turning it into more of a no mans land by ripping down trees will certainly make things worse and completely repel the everyday pedestrians that balance things out.

I wonder about the larger implications of this grant for a state like Ohio. For example there is funding for a moonshot project like this now, while ODOT's funding for transit is less than its grass cutting budget for the side of the roads and Cleveland's RTA is struggling and faced with cutting services. It seems somewhat frustrating on the face of things, but maybe part of the intention is to get Ohio to invest more in transit generally. Autonomous (I assume this grant is talking about road-based) transit vehicles would certainly help reign in the exploding legacy costs of a transit system 20, 30, 40 years after it's implemented, but I'll believe it when I see it quite frankly.

Here's my "Cinculator" concept: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/cinculators/ Not sure if it exists in the same alternate Cincinnati universe as the Mt Auburn Light Rail tunnel but it would be cheaper to implement.

Whatever. Tired of this bullsh*t. It looks great in person.

With the Cincinnati Gardens purchased and seemingly headed for demo by the Port Authority, would it be possible for the base of the Terrace Plaza to be renovated to include an ice rink and/or roller derby track? Or would structural load-bearing columns get in the way? This would really mix up the uses downtown which would be good for vibrancy (whether it's economically viable or not is a different story...)

Cincinnati on September 9th, "Green Eggs and Ham" Day You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say. Sam! If you let me be, I will try them. You will see. (... And he tries them ...) Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am! And I would eat them in a boat. And I would eat them with a goat... And I will eat them, in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train. And in a car. And in a tree. They are so good, so good, you see! So I will eat them in a box. And I will eat them with a fox. And I will eat them in a house. And I will eat them with a mouse. And I will eat them here and there. Say! I will eat them anywhere! I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-Am.

OMG those Atlanta pictures gave me a heart attack before I realized they weren't our cars.

I just think that quote shows she doesn't quite "get it" when it comes to living in an urban area, but whatever. I'd rather be surrounded by all the activity in OTR as compared to the northern CBD which is eerily quiet except for its roving bands of junkies at night. I'm glad this development is happening though, it's just the kind of thing the northern CBD needs to add vibrancy to the streets at different hours of the day. Need a lot more of it!

I agree this is bad for the festival. It now will be like any other festival where you're herded between Stage A and Stage B buying $6 beers in between. It's ironic that the first year the streetcar is in operation that MPMF has contracted to such a small footprint.

Just noticed tonight one could combine the surface lot at the NW corner of 7th and Vine with the single story buildings that make up Jean Robert's table and the Garfield Mini-mart to come up with a pretty good site for a residential tower fronting Vine St. It could form a nice symmetry with the Garfield Suites building, and would be across from a Fortune 500 headquarters (Macy's.) Garfield Garage could handle the parking requirements. Other sites would fight to be the new home for Jean Robert's Table, and the Garfield mini mart could find a home somewhere (old McHahn's?) Of course redeveloping the humongous surface lots directly across Vine St. would be pretty nice too! EDIT: just remembered that Fins Feathers and BBQ and a barber shop is in that building too that would also need new homes. That block does have some character & vibrancy already, and there are certainly less active parts of downtown (especially surface lots) that could be developed first... However, the surface parking lots taking up both the NW and NE corners of 7th and Vine are a huge issue.

I wonder how many years in advance the ballroom is booked?

I hope it's Saks, so they can knock the current Saks building down and build a residential tower there too.

I'm not saying it has to happen, but I don't think it's silly either. What stops would you use from City Hall? For southbound obviously 12th and Race. But for northbound youd have to go all the way past the park to Music Hall. 12th and Elm is a corner point on the route map. If one did go in there I'd want it to be on 12th street before the curve directly south of the Park instead of on Elm I think.

Why? It's literally one block from 12th and Elm to the Washington Park/Music Hall stop? Given that the streetcar will be operating in mixed traffic and will not be grade separated, speed is already going to be a concern, and more stops would just further slow down the service. People can walk a block or two. It's two blocks. The thing is people in the NW quadrant of downtown would already be walking a few blocks from/to OTR to use the Music Hall stop so a stop at the south end of the park would be a lot closer for them. It could help revitalize Court Street. The next nearest northbound stop would be 12th and Vine, or else all the way across downtown to Main Street. Also the Trancept will be hosting a lot of weddings, and the Shakespeare Company is there where direct access would be an advantage. I agree that slowing it down is a valid concern though. This would need to be balanced against that once we get some service data.

Gross, and completely goes against the working class soul of the neighborhood. A small independent shop like Original Thought Required is a 1000% better fit for the neighborhood than superficial brand names imported from elsewhere. Maybe there's a place for that elsewhere downtown (Fourth Street I'm thinking) but OTR ain't it.

You wouldn't need a per ticket surcharge. Total reds attendance is 2.47 million, if you figured 5% rode the streetcar before or after as part of this program that would be 123k people. If the Reds paid Metro $1 each that's only $123k, which sounds like a lot but really isn't compared to some of other promotions they do such as bobblehead nights, fireworks and the caravan during the winter, with the difference being the streetcar benefit lasts all season long. Then, if the "take rate" ends up being higher like the 10% you mention it wouldn't matter to Metro, who is already running the cars at a certain level of service anyway.

Thoughts? https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/reds-tickets-should-double-as-streetcar-passes/

No that wasn't me. Randy and the team at UrbanCincy proposed an arena to be connected to the casino, but that was on the other (east) side of it between Reading Rd and Gilbert Ave. I think. Interesting idea though

What they should do, if they had unlimited money, is build a new jail somewhere and consolidate all their offices into a new tower where the jail is now. You could have a few temporary cells in the tower for those on trial at the courthouse (unnoticeable from the outside.) Then they could sell off all the surrounding buildings for conversion into residential.

Now that Pogues Garage is on its way out, I nominate the parking garage across from the Cincinnati Bell building on 7th Street as the worst garage Downtown. It's completely ugly, showing its age, and has no first floor retail. Even worse, it obscures the beauty of Isaac M Wise Temple and Covenant First Presbyterian Church, dominating them size-wise and bringing it's blank walls right up against them. I would hope such an abomination would never be built today. It might be difficult to raze however- probably depended on by a lot of Bell employees.

If you did a music venue why wouldn't you do it outside to have views of the Suspension Bridge, skyline, moon etc.? But I am of the opinion we have plenty of venues & instead need to take advantage of this location to add easy density and population to our city. It's all set up to do so!

I guess springtime goes to everyone's head a little. :)