chinkley

My favorite thing is that our zoning code prohibits the type of building that we say we want. Case in point: code requires a 25 foot setback from the back of the lot, but owners want a variance to have only a 5 foot setback. Staff recommendation is to grant the variance, since doing so will maintain the historic and visual continuity of the neighborhood. I've also noticed in other packets where there is a request for a front-of-lot setback variance. It's things like this that leave me really frustrated with my city, and wonder why we can't just change the code to reflect what we want.

Eric Avner of the Haile Foundation pointed this out on Facebook and was attacked by Cranley for even suggesting that some of the saved money go towards anything streetcar-related. Source?

Aside from 1905 Bigelow (which is pending) all of the other parcels are owned by different owners and don't appear to be on the market... so I have a feeling this is a very preliminary idea/plan. Mt Auburn has some large tracts of vacant land, like at the corner of Josephine and Carmalt, that could support infill. Will be interesting to see how this proceeds. Mt Auburn has a lot going for it (nice architecture, close to UC and hospitals, close to OTR and downtown, some nice hillside views)... but one major weakness is that it has no "center" or business district for retail. Where are you going to go if you want a coffee or a bite to eat? In terms of pure distance, it's not very far to Short Vine or Calhoun, but it feels insurmountable to walk due to the design of McMillan and Taft as thoroughfares. Mt Auburn needs its own mini retail center, even if it is just a few storefronts. The City has been talking about funding "improvements" to Auburn St, but I haven't seen any proposals about how (if) they're going to make it more conducive to pedestrians and retail. I don't think the city has plans to make Auburn Ave more conducive to pedestrians. DOTE wants to widen it, actually.

While I realize the competition for state dollars among the 3-Cs, on it's face, seems like an issue for Cleveland, I think it goes deeper than that. In John Hickenlooper, Denver had a progressive, pro-transit mayor who is now governor of Colorado. Cleveland is dysfunctional regarding transit: we have a transit chief who I don't believe is committed to rail transit growth along with a fractured political and business community that doesn't seem to believe in, or care much about, mass transit. In Denver, leaders are All In regarding transit. Consider the below quote from the Politico article cited by KJP: How the $7.6 billion FasTracks project saved Denver from a dreaded fate locals call “Houstonization” is the story of regional cooperation that required the buy-in of businesspeople, elected officials, civil servants and environmentalists across a region the size of Delaware. Their ability to work collectively—and the public’s willingness to approve major taxpayer investments—has created a transit system that is already altering Denver’s perception of itself, turning an auto-centric city into a higher-density, tightly-integrated urban center that aims to outcompete the bigger, older coastal cities on the global stage. Consider what such across-the-board cooperation has reaped: Denver is unveiling a shiny new and widely praised network: 68 stations along 10 different spurs, covering 98 miles, with another 15 miles still to come. But beyond the light rail system, metro Denver has had 100,000 people move to it in the past decade. They've created a place that people want to go. Meanwhile, Ohio grew by 1.7 % between 2000 and 2010. All legacy cities except Columbus lost population.

^ Also exactly why I'm not terribly excited about random high rises like the Skyhouse or whatever on East Pete Rose way. vast majority of people living there will Uber to Fountain square, let alone Senate or Washington Park.

Blows my mind that south-eastern Ohio was uniformly gaining population for that decade. seriously, what?

Is anyone else confused by what is happening on that map in the downtown area? what's with the little green appendix that shoots up to the north east? Relatedly, I'm incredibly frustrated that the Google Maps Transit layer only shows heavy rail lines. edit: correct syntax

FANTASTIC. You've really captured the color buildings in our city. #34 is just trippy.

Only if we get to have NKY's river cities

From that angle it almost looks like Race burrows down under the parking lot and under Mehring Way to reappear just south of the road, by the river. Would be a cool pedestrian feature but totally unnecessary and expensive.

ToB is expanding. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/05/17/taste-of-belgium-expands-in-otr.html

This is an observation totally based on my own perceptions, but I feel like there are more muslims frequenting the market now than in the past. I am there every weekend to buy groceries, and sometimes multiple times a weekend. I now see at least one person or family member wearing a hijab on every visit. Personally, I am thrilled at this development and hope that they are finding the market experience to be a rewarding one. I'm also curious as to what shops they are using, particularly for meat. I would love to see a halal shop open up to hopefully draw more muslim cincinnatians to the market.

Yeah right. I'll only believe it when the building is up and they're selling their first avocado. I'm getting pretty tired of the last decade+ of grocery rumors that end in nothing. Not to mention that the attitude that until they build a new, spec grocery store at CP and Walnut, they won't have entered the urban market, is incredibly naive and really just shows how far the blinders are pulled over their eyes. They already have urban stores. They're just terribly designed and do absolutely nothing for the neighborhoods.

Beautiful! The restaurant at the top must have some killer views, and the terrace above the hotel proper would offer a great place to spend time as well.

" An out-of-town developer purchased a downtown Cincinnati office building for nearly $3.3 million and plans to renovate the property. " http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/05/12/downtown-cincinnati-office-building-sold-to-become.html

That's starting to sound like a land value tax.

Kudos to Chris Wetterich for asking the questions he does, this time regarding City Hall's dependency on the earnings tax to pay for stuff. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2016/05/does-cincinnati-depend-too-much-on-its-income-tax.html I'd like to see the city settle on a slightly higher property tax amount and then stick with it year after year. Possibly to be reviewed every 5 years or something. A tax on parking lots / garages would also be a game-changer.

Ohhhh boy, thanks. good call there. Annapolis is the capital. I knew its rail line was recent, so politically it's in the same position as the other cities I mentioned.

(Greater) Boston is in a truly unique place regarding transit in the US, in that it is a state capital city in addition to being the largest city in the state and the only one with rail transit. That's not the case for NYC, Philly, Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, SF, Seattle, Cinti, Cleveland. Really only Denver and Baltimore are in the same situation as Boston. I don't know the history of Baltimore's early attempts as subway rapid transit, so conceivably but for a few different choices, it could be in the same situation as Boston; a capital city in possession of a legacy transit system.

A friend of mine who worked in Atrium has mentioned that it's a popular after-work place for people in that part of downtown.

no. this one: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1297685,-84.4739486,3a,75y,133.67h,87.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sncntmzqjncNl373LN2wcWA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I attended and was very underwhelmed with DOTE's whole presentation. Within the first 5 minutes they made it known that given current traffic levels on Main street, which they recorded twice, it was "impossible" to turn the street 2 way. They could not say if some capacity could be absorbed by Sycamore, nor did they take a serious look at converting Walnut at the same time, to maintain an equal number of north-south lanes. Beyond a 2 way conversion, the City presented few concrete ideas for calming traffic and reducing excessive speeding, which DOTE frankly admitted happens with relative frequency. The only person that really spoke in favor of maintaining Main as one way in expectation of extending the streetcar/light rail was John Schneider. The City people said they'd never heard of his Tunnel plan. Basically, DOTE took a look and decided that inconveniencing bar hoppers getting dropped off at 12th and Neons by 30 seconds was too big a hurdle to overcome, despite requests from the Business Association and many residents.

what about the alley (currently paved over) that bisects the parking lot from 7th to 8th streets? Would a developer have to buy that or whatever to build a building on it?

Dennison is really that much smaller than 21c? any idea what the actual square footage of each is?

I really hope that a trend doesn't develop to cannibalize the first floor of buildings for parking. That will not add to street life at all, which is what makes urban living interesting in my opinion.