thebillshark

Do you think he would stop something in progress because he thinks it *might* compete with something he came up with that *might* happen someday? Does he really think that his ideas are that much better than everyone else's?

Here's how I would close off streets down at the Banks for a festival. If Oktoberfest wants to grow larger they should consider this move. You could put up some seriously humongous beer tents on the flat lawn by the river. Music stages could be on the Schmidlap lawn, by the Freedom Center, and by the river on each side of the Suspension Bridge. Mehring way would be closed so people could freely travel between booths on Freedom Way and the great lawn by the river. It would be neat to incorporate the Roebling too. I think you would get good vehicle traffic flow around the festival area. And of course the streetcar would be there to take festival goers to all points north (to German landmarks like OTR and Rhinegeist.) You could even set up something on Fountain Square so the Genius of Water doesn't get lonely. 5th Street is way too cramped for Oktoberfest as it is. If Oktoberfest were to expand down at the Banks it could get nationwide recognition like the Kentucky Derby or Indianapolis 500.

That's the worst form of parochialism there is. This mentality must be defeated for Cincy to prosper. Millenials, outside investors, businesses et al have no interest in or patience for a place that's run like that. I think this is why I became such a strong streetcar supporter in the first place.

Wouldn't moving the festivals to the riverfront be more efficient for the Metro buses too, that are subject to detours away from Government Square? Wouldn't it also be more efficient for those that are driving to the events to cruise around downtown and find a garage to park in without the festival blocking their path? Seems like this is a ploy to 1. appeal to Cincinnatians's natural visceral rejections of any changes whatsoever and 2. present the streetcar as useless to those who only come downtown twice a year for these festivals.

There's been an update since the link I posted in the 3cdc Annual Report: http://www.3cdc.org/files/2015/03/2014-3CDC-Annual-Report.pdf "Like Washington Park, Ziegler Park – located between 13th and 14th Streets, just west of the old School for Creative & Performing Arts – has suffered from years of disinvestment and is in need of a major facelift. Revitalizing the park would greatly benefit the surrounding community and serve as a catalyst for redevelopment of the nearby business district. Recognizing this need, the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC), the Cincinnati Park Board, and 3CDC have once again teamed up to breathe new life into this underutilized – yet promising – greenspace. 3CDC took the lead in assembling a professional design team of glaserworks, Human Nature, and Brandstetter Carroll to discuss how the park could best meet the needs of the community. Initial design ideas for renovating the park were compiled and reviewed during two community input sessions, held in February and April 2014. After hearing the community’s responses, the design teamrealized the need to reevaluate the scope of the project, specifically in regard to the parking demands of the neighborhood. Since that meeting, 3CDC and the design team have been working to find feasible, effective ways of meeting the community’s requests. A third public input session is expected to be held during the first quarter of 2015, after which the design of the proposed project will be amended again, and a final master plan and budget will be drafted." Also the park is supposed to have a more active focus with pools and courts than Washington Park.

Two separate ideas. If 3CDC decides to build an underground garage below Cutter Playground to serve the surrounding area, that would eliminate the need to build the 2-story parking deck for just residents. Concepts are here: http://www.3cdc.org/files/2013/02/OTR-Work-Group-4.15.14-NXPowerLite.pdf Page 27 and up (edited)

Good news! I really think a flight to Japan would have put Cincinnati in the running for the Toyota headquarters.

I would love to see a big increase as well, but on the other hand I am also glad this program hasn't become politicized and targeted in the legislature like everything else.

I'm definitely not complaining, this what we have been waiting for all along, but I am a little shocked about how quickly the feel of my block of Race Street north of the park has changed with the opening of Taft's Ale House. It's generating a ton of foot traffic all evening long. It's become a little Vine-Street-like, even though that's the only thing on the block open at night, but I guess that's because the capacity inside Taft's is huge. Should be interesting to see it change once again once the Zula burger place goes in and 15th and Race project is completed.

Everyone I pass and overhear in OTR these days is trying to explain OTR to the person they are with. It doesn't bother me except when they have the details wrong.

That's true. As much as I love Half Cut I only go there for growlers when OTR Kroger is closed. Or when I have to combine trips with walking the dog and I can use their to-go window.

Theres also a Cincy Blues fest at Sawyer Point in August. And Whispering Beard Folk Festival in Friendship, IN that is put on by the guys from the Crow's Nest. I really like that one cause it's BYOB!

The time frame is still open to submit bids to SORTA right? Isn't there a potential for companies to raise their price if they know exactly how many other companies have submitted a bid and who they are?

I still think Jake should write the mayor suggesting this idea. Is the CH&D ROW through Northside the one that lines up with Vandalia St.? If so the Gantry (probably among other stuff) is now in the way. I noticed for the first time that there was what looked to be an old ROW going directly through the heart of Northside browsing Zillow the other day.

Wasn't there a time limit to land a hotel at the Banks? Does this mean control passes to another developer?

Jeez, I would think getting a hotel put in right across from the Reds stadium would be an easy sell. What the heck is the problem?

Even as economic development it doesn't make sense. The stated purpose of the bridge would be to have automobile traffic pass through South Cumminsville as quickly as possible from the highway exit to Central Parkway. Well, thousands of cars go through South Fairmount to use the Western Hills viaduct each day, and that certainly hasn't helped the neighborhood any. And what sense does it make to put student housing (with children) on a fast moving auto oriented street like that? When it could be located in Northside instead which is just as far from Cincy State, is already connected by a viaduct, and has great transit options? Take the $20 million city contribution to this project and use it to fund Dr. Owens' student housing vision directly.

So...people who then won't need the bridge? Couldn't they put that somewhere in southern Northside just across the Ludlow viaduct where's theres already buses going by every ten minutes going right to Cincy State? It would good to give a South Cumminsville a shot in the arm, but is this plan going to shut down productive industrial businesses that are now open? (The red hatching on the diagram?) That's kind of the identity of the neighborhood right now anyway. I like revitalization, but maybe it would be more effective to pick a few strong areas (like Northside) and concentrate resources there instead of completely trying to change the identity of a place like South Cumminsville with a sky bridge over two highways. At least slap some bike lanes on the thing if it ends up happening.

What will Green Township's contribution to this project be since that is the direction most of the students are coming from? A 15 minute time savings is a stretch. Coming from that direction to Cincy State you could use the brand new Hopple connector or also use Beekman to go through the new Colerain Ave. intersection to go through Northside. Even highway happy ODOT planners didn't see the need for another route until politicians got involved. This bridge will have to maintained into perpetuity as well.

Really glad it's not dance club cause that's really not my speed. But I would say dance clubs are almost strictly patronized because they're new and have the least amount of staying power of any kind of business. (Think of everything that's cycled through 7th street, the shelf life is two years tops.) I think going with really nice classic decor (one would even say timeless!) was a good choice.

I don't think there's anything subliminal going on with "OTR" vs "Over the Rhine." The true attempt at rebranding was with the term "Gateway Quarter." I doubt that that term will have staying power. It seems expressly created to have the following conversation back circa 2010: "Isn't OTR Dangerous?" "Well, the Gateway Quarter is nice though." Seems unnecessary and obsolete with the progress of the last two years.

It is way, way too early to worry that OTR is turning out this way or that way or to say that it is all this or all that. Take a walk north of Liberty on a Saturday morning sometime and check out all the abandoned buildings. Look down the back streets and alleys. Check out along the Parkway and McMicken and up the hillsides. The scale and variety of abandoned structures is mind boggling. South of Liberty, there are still multiple abandoned and underused buildings on every street, some of them huge and hulking. There are vacant lots waiting for infill development. Someday when we reduce our auto dependence and embrace transit there are many small surface parking lots waiting for infill as well. If OTR ever got back up to a population of say, 30,000, there'd be no way you could describe the neighborhood as "only for tourists." There's be no way it would only be rich people either. If it was 30k rich folks all clustered together I'd say somehow the economy of our entire metro region got a lot better to allow that to happen and somehow our schools got a lot better too. I'm a little frustrated (by things I've heard and seen away from this forum) that there seems to be a backlash brewing against redevelopment. The changes so far have been visibly dramatic but really modest in scale. Other cities have revitalized urban neighborhoods that sweep for blocks and blocks in all directions. We have a strip of good restaurants and some condos around Washington Park and people are wondering if the neighborhood is "built out" and saying OTR stands for "Only the Rich." The dynamic we are seeing is, and I've described this before, is that it takes so much capital to renovate an abandoned building that of course the final product is going to be priced high. So, there's abandoned/soon to become uninhabitable and abandoned buildings, and newly renovated building stock that's expensive, plus a certain percentage of affordable housing mandated by council to get tax breaks. But there's hardly any semi-aged market-rate housing stock that we see in other neighborhoods that make up a "normal" real estate market. That's just the way it is. There's some of it in the form of apartments on Main Street that a blue collar twenty something can afford, but if we want to keep those that way the best thing to do would be let developers build as many upscale units as possible so the Main Street units aren't up converted to get higher rents. That's the dynamic right now but things will even out over time as a wide variety of supply comes online and the newly built stuff ages. Also Downtown and the West End are there to make sure the market doesn't become too skewed. For example a new tower just across the Parkway in the CBD could be a relief valve for OTR prices. I really think the worry should go in the other direction, that the Cincinnati metro population and economic growth won't be enough to completely "build out" Over the Rhine.

Not to give too much away, but it's the grand finale of the Queen City is Haunted tour.

This is exactly what Cincinnati should do. The bus system will always do the heavy lifting in our transit system even with streetcar extensions and one or two light rail lines (which we don't even have currently.) Increase frequncies and add real time arrival data. This is how we can reduce auto dependence and enable density.