chinkley

Chris Seelbach is reporting on Facebook that he was the only dissenting vote today on whether to grant W&S a 100% 12 year tax abatement for their new hotel in the Anna Louise Inn. The. only. one. Edit: "where" to "whether"

^^ i've looked at the idea of the tunnel creating a Y with exits on Main and Lang. It makes sense to me, especially since the walnut-liberty-main turns would be potentially greater than 90 degrees. But I also agree that John's drawings seem to indicated a single tunnel without a Y. Hence the worry about preserving ROW space.

Throwing this out there: I'm kinda surprised that no one has brought up how mass transit will factor into whatever new ROW is proposed. At the meeting, it was stated that Liberty is lightly used by Metro, which leads me to think that it isn't a concern. However, what if one of the option were a dedicated bus lane starting at Liberty and Reading, and ran east until Walnut before turning south? If the ROW were shrunk a little as well to allow more housing, then that could be a good metro route through the middle of Over the Rhine -- both north/south and east/west, as well as the middle of downtown. Additionally, if the streetcar is to make it to uptown, and John Schneider[/member]'s tunnel is given serious thought, then the rails will have to somehow get from walnut to main, and Liberty seems like the logical option. If we narrow the street too much now, won't that impede the ability to dedicate some ROW to the light rail?

Thanks for the clarification. my mistake.

According to the Biz Courier, the most congested part of the local interstate system is NOT the Brent Spence. That honor is reserved for the meeting point of 71 and 75 in KY, and the meeting of 75 and 74 in Camp Washington. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2015/11/these-cincinnati-interstates-are-among-the-nation.html

Travis looks like your option has no parking at all? Bold move, sir.

^^ Exactly my suggestion! Get some cones and see what happens.

I am all for the proposal of 1 lane in each direction, plus a dedicated turn lane. However, I was at the meeting last night and I got the distinct impression that the city DOTE is heavily biased towards the status quo. They were very cagey about reducing the current traffic flow, and half-hearted about the bike lanes as well. There was no discussion of what effect reducing speed to 25 or 30 mph would have. I also meant to ask about the idea of testing things out with traffic cones and chalk. Seems like that would be a great, cheap way to test the proof of concept of bike lanes and fewer over all lanes.

We heard 5/3 is going in on the corner interesting choice... they already have a location a block north on Court and Main. are they getting out of that one?

Seems to be a fair bit of work being done on the ground floors of the Schwartz building on Main St. the small shotgun space on the left is going to be a photography studio. The other two (middle and 9th st end) are boarded up, but sometimes the door is open and and you can see that partition walls are going up. Main st between 6th and Court has tons of potential.

I'm a little unclear on the design aspects. The Sycamore side is supposed to be all apartments, with ground floor commercial? 7th and 8th St sides will have garage poking out?

^^ I would say you are unfortunately correct. Probably less expensive for the developer to do it that way. I'm happy about a taller building, but I think I would rather have a more hidden garage (both underground and because the apartments would be closer to the street), all things being equal

Are you actually advocating for eliminating the extension? What would be the benefit of doing that? Eliminating it entirely would be expensive, reduce connectivity, and increase congestion on all other streets. What would you do with the right of way after you eliminate the extension? Reconnect the north-south streets, for starters. Don't eliminate it completely, perhaps, but just make it one way each way. Make it a park. Put in housing.

Biz Courier editor is in favor of stopping immigration, too. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/feature/5-things/2015/11/five-things-you-need-to-know-today-and-i-cant.html

UrbanCincy has an informative piece on the history of Liberty St before and after its widening in 1955, as well as their own recommendations moving forward. They bring up Jeff Speck, who was recently in Cincinnati and gave a series of recommendations regarding ways to make our streets more friendly for pedestrians. I would also add that UrbanCincy's design is in line with "Plan Cincinnati", a document that seems to have been forgotten at City Hall these days. http://www.urbancincy.com/2015/11/could-narrowing-liberty-street-unlock-development/

I understand that the new interchange will really shift how people access Uptown, which in terms of Liberty could have the positive effect of allowing for traffic calming measures. At the same time, I agree with jmicha that the additional lanes on Reading and MLK will not create a "sticky" environment for pedestrians or dense building styles. I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're all kidding ourselves that that corridor will ever be anything but surface parking, crappy 7-11s, and a few large garages--if we continue with the current mindset of cars cars cars.

I rode the 43 up Reading to North Avondale yesterday evening, and couldn't believe how depressing the stretch of Reading along Corryville is. It's a blasted wasteland. I couldn't help but wonder at the meager amount of taxes all that land generates for the city. You are totally correct in comparing these renderings to other high way interchanges. Where is the development at Reading and Liberty?

I would be in favor of the greatest frequency possible, which would seem to be 10 minute headways. I'm also in favor of an 8/830 start time on weekends.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/11/10/when-it-comes-to-transit-cincinnati-lags-behind.html So many thoughts on this article. I can't even fathom Columbus paying for 25% of our transit costs. I also struggle to understand why the 10 largest cities in the state haven't banded together and put forward a coherent argument for why the state should fund more transit.

It's great that so many arts institutions will be located in one place. It should help keep many of the bars and restaurants in the area busy. I do also think that their move is a sign that things are not great for the western half of the CBD at the moment. While the areas around Fountain Square and The Banks are doing well, the western half of the CBD doesn't have much going on. It is crazy how for such a seemingly small area, the difference in energy level and feel between just a couple blocks is huge. 6th and Walnut has a ton going on with people crossing between the aronoff and the bars on the west side of the street. But go just two block over to race and one block up and you would think that aliens had abducted every single person in downtown. Totally dead. I would say that Race, Elm, and Plum are very, very quiet still.

^^ That's being built at the SW corner of Hamilton and Blue Rock, no? a train could probably swing left over from hamilton and stop just on the southern side of Blue Rock, across from Hoffner Park. I'm imagining an island platform with a switch so trains could change tracks as needed once leaving the station. Problem is that the station isn't that deep into Northside. Also, the design would preclude in-line extension of the track.

The people proposing the Eastern Bypass do not actually believe that it would reduce congestion on the BSB. They just want the money to be spent on a new sprawl-inducing highway instead of fixing the existing infrastructure. Henry Fisher, who is proposing the idea, owns Fischer Homes and would love nothing more than a whole bunch of new interchanges in exurban Cincinnati where he can buy up cheap farmland and build new subdivisions... like it's 1950 all over again! I love the double standard: it's ok for an exurban home builder to be pro infrastructure that will raise the value of his property, but heaven forbid someone buy a building on race street and then be pro streetcar

I love the Clermont Commissioner's comment about how he doesn't care if the BSB is fixed or not because it's "in another region." Dude, right back at you for anything in your county.

Great picture, Travis. 8th Street is seriously gorgeous, and has great potential. Once the new apartment building is built at 8 and Sycamore, that'll really help connect everything and give it a more "canyon"-like feel.

I agree that that would be a great spot for a red bike station, but I'm going to argue for my idea :wink: I wonder if a red bike station would fit on the north side of 12th, where there is a smaller curb bump-out.