thebillshark

Why on earth in a city with so many people dedicated 100% to historic preservation is a suburban developer getting appointed to a historic conservation board? http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2006/08/28/newscolumn1.html this is like when the super Tea Party Libertarian guy was appointed to SORTA board. Ryan Lammi that should be YOU on that board!

I saw a small "stop work" document posted in the window of the Argentinean place on Walnut St. (Che) recently. I don't know what that means if anything though. Someone I saw on the internet had a great idea to install one of those parking space parklet things in front of Gomez and Half Cut windows. I can't think of any other place in the city where it would be more useful. So many people on a narrow sidewalk there. I like the walk up windows too because I can use them while walking my dog and save a trip.

I've had the fast food thing happen and I'm not even a frequent rider. Frustrating, but isn't it done to keep the bus on schedule if it's running fast? Does that speak more to a route or schedule that's not set up to be efficient?

You have a point about different sports appealing to different market segments. However I would submit the reason Cleveland has 3 teams is because of history, it was proportionately more populous and wealthy compared to other cities when baseball, football, and basketball leagues were forming than it is today (much like Cincinnati.) Similiarly as an extreme case Green Bay, Wisconsin would never be on the NFL's list of possible expansion cities today. (History, citizen ownership and being the NFL team for all of Wisconsin also helps keep the Packers in Green Bay though.) Edit: when the Browns came back to Cleveland as an expansion I would argue that that was because the team already had a demonstrated rabid fan base so it was already a proven market for the NFL as well as being a historically important area for pro football.

Since Columbus has the Crew it's unlikely Cincinnati would get Major League Soccer IMO. Unless a promotion/relegation system were developed greatly increasing the number of teams which would be really cool. Something like that would bring the nationwide excitement of March Madness (with teams from every corner of the country) to a professional sports league. I think soccer is a sellable sport here in the U.S. and will continue to grow. Likewise since Columbus has the Blue Jackets I don't see NHL here. Perhaps the NBA, but the NBA probably has their sights on growing cities without existing sports teams so they can be the only game in town. Indy's team is geographically close as well. Cincy's NBA loyalty is for the most part with the Cavs, not to say this wouldn't change if we had a team. The Business Courier did an analysis of professional sports and said that Cincinnati's entertainment dollars are already stretched too thinly supporting an MLB and NFL team. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/04/does-cincinnati-have-the-firepower-to-add-another.html Looks like we should stick to developing the World Cornhole Championships!

Today that's the case. But how are driverless cars just around the corner when non grade separated driverless trains are not? There are infinitely less variables to control when you have a vehicle running on track. Whereas a driverless car almost requires sentient artificial intelligence. I think that goes to the power of automobile domination that driverless cars get all the press while we never hear about projects on better, smarter transit vehicles and systems. It's because high tech transit would truly challenge the status quo while driverless cars reassure everyone "Please continue your wasteful land use patterns, burning of natural resources, and de facto racial and economic segregation and everything will turn out fine." Driverless cars (in the way you're imagining them) are not right around the corner. There will always need to be a licensed driver behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle if there is a malfunction. I would tend to agree but that's not what's being presented to the public. Especially by anti transit lobbyists and politicians.

Today that's the case. But how are driverless cars just around the corner when non grade separated driverless trains are not? There are infinitely less variables to control when you have a vehicle running on track. Whereas a driverless car almost requires sentient artificial intelligence. I think that goes to the power of automobile domination that driverless cars get all the press while we never hear about projects on better, smarter transit vehicles and systems. It's because high tech transit would truly challenge the status quo while driverless cars reassure everyone "Please continue your wasteful land use patterns, burning of natural resources, and de facto racial and economic segregation and everything will turn out fine."

Assuming we stick with CAF rolling stock wouldn't a light rail vehicle just be a streetcar with extra segments added? Then the choice between streetcar and light rail (which affects how to build tunnel and track) would just be a matter of planning for demand, if we think a streetcar-sized vehicle will become full at peak travel times. Something we should plan for is driverless train vehicles. Much easier to do than an driverless car which everyone says is just around the corner (I personally highly doubt this and think it's a chimera for anti transit folks.) The Canada line in Vancouver is driverless although it's completely grade separated. My thinking is if you don't have to pay driver cost, instead of having a long train with many segments you can just run many streetcar size trains at high frequency. Maybe every two minutes at peak would ensure everyone gets a spot on the train. Then you save $ on tunnel and track construction costs because it allows tighter turn radii and steeper grades.

Re: OTR Stillhouse, looks awesome all around! We love Pet Wants and I wish them success in this new business venture. Great compliment to Rhinegeist in that part of the neighborhood. Good positive mention of the streetcar and Central Parkway bike lanes being good for business in an Enquirer article. I'll keep them in mind as a possible wedding reception venue if they are open as planned next year.

I make it my rule to never walk pass the Vine Street Kroger. It's way to sketchy for me there. All of the gentrification stays far way from that Kroger and anything past that on Vine. That will change soon. If you want to see the white washing it all starts near the Mercer, and stuff by Race and Pleasant and of course Washington Park. TroyEros you seem really interested in Over the Rhine, but this kind of statement makes me think you don't quite understand it? Vine Street Kroger is fine. Also "whitewashing" has negative connotations just as much as "sketchy" does.

I am shocked by the disconnect between the officers statement and the reality of the events of the video. Before today I believed at least some of the officer's story must have occurred. I will never look at cases like this in quite the same way again. I actually think the lack of ambiguity in this case is actually helping keep things calm in addition to the efforts of our citizens and leaders. It is difficult to imagine that a life can be taken so quickly. Thoughts and prayers to the Dubose family who are handling this with extraordinary grace.

If they can be functionally replaced by the CPD what's the benefit for UC to keep them? They are a cost center, a non-core function of the University, and a financial and reputation liability in the case of a situation like has just occurred. Sounds like the CPD is a better force due to training, the Collaborative Agreement etc. The CPD could always hire in the good officers from the UCPD. And we should be concerned about what may or may not be going on with suburban departments as well.

It seems like a very tense situation is developing… Let's all hope for the least bad outcome. If I was in charge of Hamilton County for a day, here's what I would do in regards to law enforcement: 1. Roll up the UC police department into the Cincinnati Police Department. Create some kind of Cincinnati Police special overlay district for the University with additional manpower dedicated to serve the needs of the University. If Cincinnati Police could provide the same kind of service and response time the UC Police are currently providing, there is absolutely no upside for anyone to maintaining the UC Police as a separate entity. The University doesn’t need to be spending tuition dollars on a non-core function that puts their reputation at risk when an incident like this happens. The City of Cincinnati doesn’t need an additional separate law enforcement entity (besides the county) operating in their jurisdiction where they aren't in complete control of policies and procedures of said entity. Right now it's true we don't have all the details of what happened, but we are seeing what a worse-case scenario could look like. 2. Proactively consolidate and combine suburban departments as much as possible. Many of our suburban communities are very similar to Ferguson. We can't have small town (in mentality and procedure) police departments patrolling what are essentially urban neighborhoods or trouble may strike in the future. Each department needs to be large enough to have dedicated personnel keeping them up to date on all nationwide best practices. And no police department in our region should be in the business of issuing citations for minor offenses in order stay afloat. 3. Bring suburban departments and the county into the some form of the Collaborative agreement. I understand the collaborative isn't magic in preventing bad situations, but from the outside it seems like it was helpful as far as organizational culture is concerned.

^the streetcar will be operational September 2016. There has not been a single slip in the schedule since the the drama of December 2013. I think the construction schedule proposal came in longer than expected when they accepted the construction contract way back in Mallory's term, but I can't remember if anyone originally thought it would be ready by July 2015. Keep in mind the relationship between schedule and cost, a shorter and tighter schedule would mean higher costs to execute. ^^we get the first streetcar in September 2015 and testing may begin in the following weeks thereafter.

Two thoughts: -Do you think the whiz bang architectural renderings that are possible now will make this easier to market than in the past? -The Enquirer should jump on board so they have something to write about for the next 15 years.

I hope they make provisions for future light rail on Wasson Way as well but consider the following scenario. The I-71 light rail line is built connecting Downtown and Uptown with a Mt. Auburn tunnel. Wasson Way is built as a trail and connects to the light rail line near Xavier. Wasson Way would be funneling people from the whole east side to that station at Xavier. You could have Red Bike stations on Wasson Way with a big one at the light rail station, and a huge bike parking facility at the light rail station, or people could bring their bikes on the train if there was room. It would be awesome. This would probably be the order of things happening if light rail was built.

They came for the fall foliage... and murder!

I'm on board with this. The first light rail line in Cincinnati is going to connect Downtown and Uptown as the two "must haves." It is going to need the grade separation between the two provided by the tunnel otherwise it is going to be slower than molasses. Then hopefully uptown you can get dedicated lanes and priority signaling on Jefferson and MLK until it gets over to the I-71 ROW. The "University Station" development near Xavier will be appropriately named because you could have I-71 and Wasson lines converging near there. Even if the Wasson line remains a bike trail for many years that would still be awesome because you could ride your bike right onto a train headed downtown. We should be able to build a tunnel. In Portland John showed us the Robertson Tunnel used by the MAX blue and red lines. It's a long tunnel with a deep station with elevator to their Washington Park which is a large kind of pastoral place that contains the Zoo and Japanese Garden. The line then goes off to Portland's west side which I'm sure is nice but isn't as important to their region as Uptown is to ours. If they can do that there's no reason we can't connect our two MAIN activity centers with a tunnel and a station at Christ Hospital which would have far more activity than Portland's station in the middle of the park.

Yeah Josh Spring immediately tried to delegitimize the meeting by attacking the meeting organizers because the crowd of people in the room didn't look like the people who use the park (meaning the meeting was too white.) He suggested the meeting be held in the park (never mind how that would have worked on a day with the temp in the 80's with a microphone and slide show for an hour long meeting.) The organizers responded that they posted fliers in the park and reached out to people there. To which Josh continued his accusatory questioning "Well why do you think none of them showed up?" It was upsetting to watch because the meeting organizers are clearly making a good faith effort to get community input on this project per an established process. Woodward Theater where the meeting was held is just around the corner from the park.

From what I saw and heard, the planned garage wrapping the SCPA goes away if this plan is implemented, maintaining and creating even more green space than previously planned. The SCPA developer will pay part of the cost towards the underground garage. Even the parking lot space on the west side of the SCPA building facing Sycamore may become a landscaped area.

I went to this meeting and I am about done with public meetings. The plan is good and has something for everyone- keeping basketball courts, new deep water pool, new splash playground, large green space keeping the tree grove, a huge underground parking garage, public restrooms, traffic calming around the park, even additional green space on the west side of the SCPA building. It then proceeded to get blasted by a bunch of speakers really angry over small concerns and non-issues. No acknowledgement of, "Hey this is going to be really awesome after you come in and spend 30 million bucks, so thank you" except for a few speakers.

These are incredible! Very nice. #51 reminds me of the new Dunnhumby (aka 84.51) building. #63 is a really cool pic.

Well I hope everyone working at Toby Keiths is able to find another job quickly... For a music venue, it seems to me they never really connected with the local music scene. I'm friends with a lot of musicians, some of whose bands could have in fit in there, but never saw anyone post on Facebook that they had a gig there. I don't get it, it would have made sense to book a band with a local following at least once in a while either in conjunction with a Reds or Bengals game or on a winter night in the offseason. Maybe that's a function of being a big corporate chain from out of town. But conversely I've never heard about of a show from an out of town band there that I would want to go see.

So would you guys rather have a grocery store or an Apple store go in there? :wink: It's obviously a pretty prominent spot due to the streetcar.

^i know that, but I guess I consider the state legislature to be a lost cause, especially for an individual citizen petitioning an individual member. Resolutions from cities would be symbolic, but my thinking is if cities across the state speak officially and loudly in a unified voice it might be enough to get something done.