thebillshark

Lots of talk of a "pocket park" to replace the Dennison by the Josephs in the new packet. That's a terrible idea. As Jane Jacobs pointed out, parks take on the activity level of the streets around them. I hate to say it but from Sunday though Wednesday evenings upper downtown is mostly dead from Seventh Street north to Central Parkway. There are however a lot of itinerant junkies walking around, and I fear a pocket park in this area would become a place to shoot up. What the area needs instead is residents (eyes and feet on the street) in a revamped Dennsion.

Camp Washington is really cool, if you go to the Hopple Street Shell station in the morning you get a real good sense of the neighborhood waking up for a hard day's work, probably headed to Johnny Cash or Mike Rowe style jobs. As far as living there I'd actually be worried about some of the leftover brownfield pollution in the soil, especially if I had children. The Crosley building itself was involved in the manufacture of early radios and WWII prox fuses, so I bet there's some nasty chemicals residues left behind there, but I'm sure with the proper techniques it could be remediated.

Seems like too long of a time considering the rapid changes in the area. I guess the question is will it happen before a broader change to city policy towards surface parking lots? Current policy is "Owners please sit back and enjoy your low-maitenance cash machine."

^Those were listed at ridiculously high prices and also isolated from any redevelopment going on, I wonder what they sold for.

This column about baseball is completely a result of the decline of walkable neighborhoods and the rise of auto dominated exurbs. But the general public has no idea about it and lacks the vocabulary to talk about it. Urbanism gets painted as some wacko liberal idea when it made a lot of our traditional American ideals (such as small business) and activities possible. Check out this article from The Cincinnati Enquirer: Doc: MLB needs backyard ball, but that summer's passed http://cin.ci/1TuwwFX

^The thing about redeveloping any of the housing projects in the West End is that there is no political will or funding for replacing the sheer numbers of units there. The projects do serve a function in providing housing that is desperately needed and the capital investment has already been made in them. There is also the concern about uprooting a community that was already traumatized once when the original neighborhood was torn down for I-75 and Queensgate. I'm not saying it will never happen but it would require an incredibly deft hand, compassion, and loads of cash.

This is the stable that houses the carriage horses for downtown. Every once in awhile there is a Facebook flair up with people alleging the animals are being abused by being housed there, but the facility is inspected by the SPCA. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/12/carriage-horses-focus-of-cruelty-debate-/5439297/

As long as we get light rail as far as Xavier, I don't really care about Wasson Way re: light rail. A hike bike trail connecting to the Xavier station would be an asset in and of itself. If there are some common sense moves to protect for it we can do now, fine, otherwise it's too far in the future to worry about. I'm more concerned about maintaining a rail ROW on the north side of MLK. Wasn't clear to me if the rendering of the new UC neuroscience building would do that. Basically since there is no plan for light rail it's hard to argue for people to maintain theoretical ROW as that area develops even though it's feasible now before they start building a bunch of stuff.

Last night I noticed there's a for sale sign on the window of the Davis Furniture Building even though it's not on Zillow or anything. Does that start some kind of ticking clock for the owners seeking demolition? (i.e. Must be listed for sale for x amount of time?)

In three dimensional space, velocity is a directional vector, so any change in direction counts as acceleration even if your numeric speed remains the same. Since people feel the forces caused by acceleration, you couldn't go anywhere close to your top speed in places where there are curves in the tube. This would mean slower travel through metro areas and higher land acquisition costs due to the need to maintain a straight path no matter what's in the way. So calculating travel times between cities is way more complicated than just looking at speed and distance which is what that news article above did.

^A good example of two sites that could accommodate denser development if parking requirements were satisfied by spaces in my proposed underground garage!

The planned above ground garage would have demolished the rear of two historic buildings and dominated the block, so I'm glad it didn't get built. I echo jmicha[/member] 's call for a taller, multi unit building at the corner of 15th and Race than is currently planned. Really it could extend along 15th Street all the way to the cut in for the alley that will serve the condos that are currently being built. My concern is that 3cdc will be reluctant to do this with the limited amount of parking available in Washington Park garage. There are also many vacant lots in the vicinity in the same situation. Over the weekend I posted this on Downtown and OTR Neighbors Facebook group: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/liberty-and-race-underground-garage/ The new concept it introduces from 3cdc's old 15th and Race plan is an underground garage that extends underneath Pleasant Street all the way to Elm. I really hope someone from 3cdc reads it and considers it carefully. I think it is the only way to build out the surrounding neighborhood to the density we want, under the current parking minimums for development (which should be reformed someday under a more progressive administration.) And, the garage would serve a few blocks on both sides of Liberty, especially possible once the street is narrowed.

How do those work? Is the buyer responsible for paying the full amount of the delinquent taxes?

Oh no! Needs to leave room for light rail! https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/uptown-light-rail/

The rear addition looked like something from a shantytown.

It seems there are opportunities for 1,2 or even 3 smaller pocket parks along the way as well, particularly if they would be mandated with new infill. A cool open space/experience corridor in the making. I like your idea for some kind of corridor but I would advocate for new infill development over new pocket parks. The existing pocket parks tend to become dog poop swamps. Also I have have to call the cops on several occasions on bad human behavior in the pocket park behind my house.

Cincinnati native Aaron Lavigne says Call your Mom this Mother's Day:

I think it would be really easy to develop the south half of the block as opposed to the whole thing. The south half is just surface lot and one level of parking deck. Seems like you could demolish that just that half of the garage without affecting much. Then the issues are that new development would face the ugly electrical equipment to the south and the satellite dishes in the roof of the WCET building may have to be adjusted or re-aligned depending on the height of the new stuff. That whole area is an example of all the urban renewal stuff Jane Jacobs warned against. That circular amphitheater park seems designed to be separated from any street activity. As a result you can never tell what's going on in there- skateboarding or vagrants taking naps. The awkward cincinnati parks maintenance garage across Central Ave. needs to be demolished so Hopkins St. can be reconnected to Central Ave. Looks like Hopkins may have been originally cut off as part of the plan shown above.

Rabbit Hash[/member] taestell[/member] I want to dial back a little what I said about road dieting Central Parkway. Looks like there is some further steps you could take like addressing too long turn lanes and double turn lanes to return some green space to the median. I think at this point a lot of what is needed to bridge the CP divide is pedestrian activity along it driven by new and repurposed structures facing it with a mix of uses. Like this: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/ballet-flats/

^^ I don't get a road diet. We've already added bike lanes. What else could be done? If CP is a barrier, it's a barrier as old as our city, dating back to the canal. Isn't a wide boulevard also a legitimate urban form? What if CP was lined with taller apartment buildings?

^exactly. Washington Park garage is already full more often than not when there is an event at Music Hall. If they want to keep an entrance to Music Hall directly facing Town Center Garage, so be it. (As much as I disagree with the anti-change, anti-urban tone of the enquirer commenters) Town Center Garage is an interesting play- do we develop the neighborhood around it and take advantage of its underused capacity to support denser development in the surrounding neighborhood? Or would that make it harder to tear down and replace with a more urban friendly structure someday? In any case when the streetcar opens you will be able to park there for $2 and access almost any destination Downtown including the stadiums.

That's interesting but I think the current order of projects is appropriate. One, the garage going in under Cutter Playground as part of the Ziegler park project enables the SCPA renovation to take place without building that ugly above ground parking garage that was going to wrap around the building. Two, it will give Main Street a boost and link up with redevelopment efforts going on in Pendleton. If you recall the failed Cincinnati park levy had 5 million in it for Ziegler, yet the project continued without skipping a beat when the levy failed, so maybe if they got that money the Liberty project would have received some seed funds or something. The Liberty narrowing is such a huge project, and has the possibility of opening up so much space for development that I'm sure must have the support of 3cdc. Hopefully it's part of their five year plans or something. Also it's probably a good thing we seeing how the rest of the neighborhood is developing and will see the streetcar begin operations before jumping right in- otherwise we might not build what we end up wanting. As an aside I cannot look at Liberty without seeing this now: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/liberty-and-race-underground-garage/. I don't think we'll get the density we want without it.

My understanding is that no final decisions have been made relative to the shutting down of the streetcar during any specific event yet?

Target start date of Sept. 1st now (but point taken) http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/04/11/heres-when-the-streetcar-could-open-how-the-budget.html

^^^this is funny that you say that we are a poster child for getting it done right. Previously streetcar opponents would yell and scream (and still do) that we didn't have a special improvement district for tax purposes set up to pay for streetcar operations. But the thing that Flynn came up with instead, rolling back a portion of the typical tax abatement given to new development and property improvements for neighborhoods served by the streetcar, is actually pretty innovative and may very well enable streetcar expansion to other neighborhoods. But the Mayor has already proposed alternate uses of any abatement rollback in non-streetcar neighborhoods.