chinkley

Funny but to me the streetcar seems both larger and smaller than I was imagining it to be. First thing I noticed was how tall it is. Guess I'm used to seeing subway cars only from the waist up, so to speak. This thing is impossible to miss, that's for sure!

I seem to have parklets on the brain recently; everywhere I walk around downtown I'm looking for spaces where benches and/or greenery could be added. This probably started because I got lunch at Gomez during the week, wanted to sit outside, but didn't want to walk to Washington park. I ended up on St Mary's steps. Where do you all see the possibility of adding a parklet to Cincinnati's greater downtown, either in "dead space" between buildings or on large sidewalks, or through the removal of a traffic lane / parking spaces? I think a prime candidate would be the space just north of the 12th and Main streetcar stop, which is currently labeled as a no parking area. Between the on-street space and the sidewalk, one could easily add 6 tables, like at Findlay market, or create more permanent bench seating, like in a restaurant. Such a space would be perfect outdoor seating for Gomez, Lucy Blue, Goodfellas, and any restaurant that opened up in the Davis building. Additionally, this space is ideal because it does not eat into any existing parking spaces, thus avoiding that particular fight.

I know you do, and I appreciate it. I don't even think it was the Enquirer's fault: I think Metro left it out of the news release that it sent out. Which is truly mind-boggling and really makes me question the organization.

pardon for the double post. Metro is having a "listening session" next wednesday, the 12th, at MORTAR, as reported in the local rag. They have very kindly highlighted the fact that there is on street parking, as well as garages, nearby. They seem to have missed the metro bus routes that go through over the rhine, or the red bike stop at 12th and vine. The irony is too much to handle. http://local.cincinnati.com/calendar/event.asp?ProdID=182766

the quote says "averages 28,000 ft2", so theoretically the Cincinnati one could be much smaller, and other one much larger.

Also, the article is very misleading and unhelpful. Was the study only concerned with the jobs within HamCo that metro doesn't reach? within southwest ohio? or the entire "greater cincinnati region"? How many jobs out of the total is 75k? Additionally, I think it's a terrible idea for metro to have the mindset that it needs to be chasing after jobs all over the suburbs. This really dovetails with public policy, but if you as a company want to locate in the middle of nowhere, then you should have to deal with any hiring problems that arise due to lack of access.

perhaps also a good time to discuss how woefully bad the region is at integrating jobs into existing communities, instead of continuing to spread out.

I ate lunch on St Mary's steps today, and noticed that the old Circle A building is open and seeing a little activity. Anyone know what's going on there?

Chris Wetterich has a nice write-up of Jeff Speck's visit to Cincinnati last week: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/10/bike-lanes-two-way-streets-parallel-parking-should.html My takeaways: Harry Black might not have read the whole of Plan Cincinnati yet. He also views bike infrastructure as a "nice to have", and insists that the additional money the city has taken on through debt will only go towards cars. Which is pretty ironic, seeing as cars do way more damage to roads than bikes do. In all, he seems to view the prospect of a big redesign of downtown streets (seeing where two-way streets and bike lanes can be done, for example) as just too big a hassle to worry about. Much easier to borrow money and pave roads for cars.

Such a stupid generalization, that there aren't any streets where a bike lane (added with or without removing a car lane) wouldn't snarl traffic. And in case anyone thinks the above tweets are just sick humor: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/us/albuquerque-road-rage-death.html

"We don't know how much it will cost until we spend all the money building it. You guys cool with that? It's a road project!"

^^ actually a part of Evanston. Gasp! :-D

Jake I agree with you on the barrier that the hills put in place to making Red bike more than an inter-neighborhood circulator tool. However, I work downtown on the river, and see multiple bike every day at lunch in the riverfront parks, and while I'm walking home to over the rhine (and use it myself a couple times a week). So is Red bike really a "transportation" tool, in the way that metro is? Maybe not. However, I would argue that as a fun, recreational tool that has brought people outside and allowed them to explore the downtown (and uptown) parts of the city, Red bike has succeeded. In terms of generated goodwill, and spin-off spending, I think that it has more than paid for itself.

Courier is reporting that Red Bike has had its 100,000th ride earlier this week. Almost exactly a month ago, at the year anniversary, it was at 88,400 rides. Almost 12000 rides in 30 days is about 400 a day! That's huge.

guilty. at least twice a week.

I think the 2-way conversion would help alleviate a lot of the congestion that exists there on Friday and Saturday nights since lot of the traffic is frivolous cruising and idling cabs/uber/lyft cars who feel free to idle since there is an open lane. Eliminate a few of the parking meters and do a 10-minute pickup zone for the uber and lyft cars. That's cute Jake. Take away parking meters and lose all that revenue? Where do you think you are?

City manager wants to spend some surplus FY 2015 money on turning Main into a 2- way street north of 12th. $125,000. Seems like a lot of money to me. What has to happen that would make such a seemingly simple thing, so expensive? http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/10/06/how-cincinnati-s-city-manager-believes-the-city-s.html

How much of that is because they're used as parking for big companies, such as Kroger or P&G? Sale might not even be a possibility in that case.

I understood it to be the city, which is coterminous with the county. and yes, over 7 years. this is the article: http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/09/27/death-gentrification-guilt-le-bok-fin/ credit to the Urbanophile for the find. edit: 106 thousand people. not 116.

Its also amazing how much has been lost. Cincy was more on par with Philly, Boston or Baltimore in its heyday. Read a great article today about Phiily and how that city has gained 116,000 24-35 year olds since 2007. 116 THOUSAND. That's more than a third of Cincinnati's total population. The comparable # for us would be around 25,000 people. Can you imagine 25000 more people living within the city of Cincinnati? Makes me wonder, a) what aren't we doing to attract those 25000 people? (Philly not exactly being a glitzy city in the cultural zeitgeist, much like us), and b) good god. This is big league stuff.

drives me nuts when articles are written with "Cincinnati" in the title, and then the company / place in question is not actually in the city.

It's also nowhere near the road

If you want to see a physical manifestation of why bus ridership has a stigma in Cincinnati, go to 4th street between Main and Sycamore at 5 pm. You'll see a couple things: 1. A large crowd of people waiting on the sidewalk outside of wendy's for a Tank bus to arrive. 2. No seating or shelter of any kind. One could wait in the wendys, but I'm not sure what their position on that is. 3. About 25 feet over everyone's heads, an enclosed skywalk that goes from Atrium 2 directly to the garage on the north side of 4th. Rail by definition has to have physically built stops. For a subway, this obviously means underground, which is protected from the elements. Even at-grade rail seems to go hand in hand with a sheltered stop. On the other hand, a bus stop can be literally anywhere. Google Streetsblog's roundup of depressing bus stops. If our transit agencies and cities invested money in making the bus stops more sheltered and noticeable, then I believe much of the stigma -- and the dehumanizing nature of standing in the heat or pouring rain -- would go away.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/09/bengals-valuation-jumps-50-percent.html In other news, the Bengals' valuation has raced past the $1 Billion mark. Operating profit up to 56 million a year.

Yes. Please.