thebillshark

Cincinnati preservation collective looking for like minded applicants to the Conservation Board:

Heh. Maybe they saw this: https://cincinnatiideas.wordpress.com/mcmicken-ave-development/ By the way guys this is my new website.

I'm for the conversion. Main is definitely lacking the intimacy of Vine St. and I think this is a big reason why. Main St. is great, but it still needs some help, there are too many vacant storefronts. Walnut should be converted at the same time too. I hope that conversion to 12th St doesn't cause backups for the streetcar turning left onto twelth fighting with southbound cars turning right onto 12th. Ideally the streetcar would be in the right hand lane there and it would have been possible to convert to 2 way all the way to Central Parkway but that ship has sailed. Re: streetcar extension to Mt. Auburn tunnel using Main, if we ever actually get our act together to build it, we could change the streets back to one way with dedicated transit lanes. This would probably be 10-15 years from now anyway so we'd get our time in with Main and Walnut as two way streets. Had this crazy streetcar thought today: could we use the existing stub outs, and have them turn into Findlay Playground where they enter a Mt. Auburn tunnel at a downward angle to get below grade? You'd still have the "double back" issue but would avoid traveling on Vine (and the lights and traffic.)

My thoughts exactly. I think it would be detrimental because the streetcar is on the left side of the street between Central and 12th otherwise you could make Main 2-way all the way to the Central Parkway.

Good question. I think it may be hard to justify the cost of this as transit alone, considering our great need to improve our basic bus system. So maybe a partnership with some kind of company would be a good move as you suggested. This would certainly be more unique and useful than a giant Ferris wheel. Pros would be the line would be shorter (less expensive) and maybe the casino would help pay for it. Cons would be it would be further away from the heart of downtown (both hotels and employers), less expansive view (wouldn't see river) and it may not be perceived as family friendly if tied to the casino. Also the jail would be way too prominent in the view & cut the terminal off from downtown a little & limit development possibilities.

This is my concept for an air gondola to Mt. Adams. These terminal locations provide central locations in both downtown and Mt. Adams that are easily accessible to pedestrians. This is especially important on the steep hillsides of Mt. Adams. The line between them wouldn't have to travel over any buildings (save the KZF Design Building located next to the downtown terminal.) The terminals themselves may have to be three or four stories tall so the gondola cars could clear obstacles. This gondola line could accomplish several things: • It would bring Mt. Adams out of isolation from the rest of downtown- an isolation that may have once been beneficial to Mt. Adams when downtown and OTR were in decline, but as downtown and OTR continue their renaissance, is sure to hurt Mt. Adams businesses. • The gondola line could work in conjunction with the streetcar and Redbike to expand car free commuting options for residents. (as well as all other types of trips) • The gondola line could form the centerpiece of a "Bucktown" neighborhood (the historic name for the area) of condo towers in the empty lots on the eastern edge of downtown. • Finally, this would be an exclamation mark for the city's tourism industry as the views would be unmatched for hundreds of miles. It would put a day in Mt Adams, Eden Park and the Art Museum on the "must do" list in any Cincinnati tourism guidebook and in walkable reach of downtown's hotels.

#thisisSODOSOPA

This looks relevant http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/webcontent/wcms1p-114547.pdf

^seems like an almost intractable problem. How is this playing out in many other cities across the country then, where the downtown population is growing by the thousands? Jake mentioned Nashville? And as the city grows couldn't the remaining lots start charging like $20 a day, making the problem even worse?

Perhaps and in those cases those companies could really increase the profile of their own headquarters by surrounding it with development, and get help from tax breaks to do it too. I was thinking more of the little lots such as the one next to Knock Back Nat's on 7th. Seems pretty central to everything

I'm concerned now that there's some kind of systemic issue causing surface parking lots to be worth many times their weight in gold. Cincinnati is a conservative town, to be sure, but this is downright pigheaded obtuseness with these demographic tailwinds, sky high demand, low interest rates and the streetcar one year away from operation that downtown surface lot number one has not been redeveloped yet.

Did a drive through of the west end, and boy that neighborhood is in sad sad shape. There are pockets of redevelopment (and Dayton Street is pretty nice), but other than Betts-Longworth, the neighborhood needs a TON of work. Real shame too because there are more single family houses and generally the housing stock was more affluent than was in OTR - so there is a lot more detailing when it survives. Theres a few different sections of the west end- I think OCtoCincy[/member] is referring to the City West townhomes from the 90's that are ready to move into. The north end of the neighborhood has similar issues to OTR to where it's going to take a lot of money to restore historic buildings one by one.

To my understanding (if all goes to schedule) the streetcar will be a factor, that should help with distance issues. One other observation - now that the core is getting populated again Cincinnatians need to start driving like they are in a big city - the slow driving drove me nuts - lots of unecessary traffic jams due to tepid drivers - I'm concerned about the streetcar getting stuck for this reason. ^Disagree. Slow driving downtown makes it safer for pedestrians, Redbikes & horse carriages. The trend is towards slowing things down- "20's Plenty" movements are afoot in cities in the UK. I do hope all modes of transportation will be deferential to the streetcar and get out of the way though.

Yeah totally agree, the problem is no one in the area was even close to having a mindset to make that happen 20 years ago (and even today very few do.) Sprawl was viewed as progress; ie. "Look at the nice new Wendy's they built" and the city was completely written off for dead. A lot of folks in their prime career and family raising ages back then came of age when crime was a big deal in the city and it was a place to escape from. If you could subtract 20 years of sprawl from the area it would help for doing things like building a light rail connection to Dayton since there would be less stuff in the way. And the resulting sprawl from such a line might have been more dense and less auto oriented in character at least. Also a good move back then would have been to consolidate the Dayton and Cincinnati airports somewhere along I-75, which would have changed the land use and supporting infrastructure being built in the northern suburbs. They would have ended up even bigger and more powerful, but it would be in a way that produced more growth for the entire region due to the airport being bigger and more companies locating here. But the municipalities in Greater Cincy were and are still way too fragmented to make a growth boundary happen. They can't even stop poaching companies from each other with tax deals. Some kind of truce in that arena may be helpful and feasible. Not much we can do now except to fight this horrible Eastern Bypass idea which will sap the vitality out of our existing neighborhoods and suburbs. It's a zombie 1970s 1980s concept that doesn't acknowledge any lessons learned from all the years of sprawl without growth we've had, and will put us in the hook for huge infrastructure maintnance cost while doing nothing to spark overall growth.

^^that was my first thought as well.

^^the article doesn't say this, but at the last community council meeting where I saw this discussed, the plan was to renovate the existing building for "workforce" housing (which I think is housing with some income restrictions but not necessarily "low" income.) north pointe could definitely help their cause with a map and details of exactly what their proposal is.

I wonder if Trump will benefit from the chaos. Or alternatively if the Congress takes a hard right, if Kasich will benefit from being a more moderate/sensible candidate.

^the sensible compromise to make would be to install basketball hoops in the parking lot of Rothenberg School. If the people behind the protests are interested in sensible compromise. The folks concerned here about the welfare of the children need to keep in perspective that this development will welcome new neighbors who will have the time, money, and political influence to further improve Rothenberg School. Ending economic segregation is the best way to give the kids a chance to succeed. That's why I'm generally in favor of developments like this while maintaining percentages of low income and affordable housing thoroughly mixed into the neighborhood. I think Beasley Place and Brackett Village are two great examples of the later.

^That's behind a pay wall, but being from Ohio it's unimaginable to me for people to be complaining about 3,000 jobs. Just that intro alone is enough to turn me into a frothing at the mouth conservative. These companies really should consider the Rust Belt...

Actually I really like the idea of a giant video board on the 6th and Vine corner. You'd be able to see it all the way down 6th St. including by the CAC, Aronoff and all the fancy restaurants. Would feel very big city.

I walked passed the other night, and from the north side of 6th street, the thing is that massive blank wall is incredibly forboding. It is also incredibly dark (although that may be because the building is mostly abandoned.) All the interesting features of the hotel can only be viewed from above. This is weird but I also feel like the sheer equal-and-opposite mass of it keeps me from looking up at the Cincinnatian Hotel, which is detailed and interesting, when on Vine south of 6th St. I understand that the Terrace Hotel is a landmark but it does seem to have some legitimate urban issues with it, even if activated at street level. Right now it creates a low activity zone between Vine and 84.91. I would be for activating the wall in some way, taking advantage of the fact it is a massive blank wall. Rock it if we're going to keep it. Perhaps do a permanent block long Lumenocity style projection show of P&G and Macy's commercials. If that's not practical at least put up video boards on the corners as Ryan suggested. It would certainly give that area (the heart of our downtown) more of a Times Square or Shibuya feel to it. May help with Race St. retail corridor too.

Seattle's app worked great. In Portland I used the text message feature on bus stops a few times that also worked great. I've been burned the past two times trying to use Transit App in Cincinnati. Over July 4th weekend going to Northside, it said a bus was coming that never showed up, and then the bus info disappeared from the app. We drove and somehow saw the bus coming up Hamilton Ave. as we parked. Then on Oktoberfest, it said the next bus wasn't coming for a long time but it showed up within a minute (thankfully.)

Truly the pride before the fall. Glad we could chip in on that scoreboard

^agreed, a fast moving light rail trunk line with connections to bus lines would be incredibly useful.

Buses always do the heavy lifting in a transit system in terms of ridership, even in places with decent rail service. We should strive to improve our bus system so that it attracts more ridership. Buses should reliably running every 10-15 minutes on routes that make sense with clean, well lit, and safe shelters and vehicles with service on nights and weekends with low fares and smartphone apps that work etc etc. We need to improve bus service to a point where any "bus stigma" is pure snobbery.