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I've always thought the combination of topography and architecture made Cincinnati a unique urban landscape to explore. The small streets and lot sizes coupled with the hills provide for hidden pockets of the city to exist just steps from highly-trafficked areas (e.g. Little Bethlehem). Numerous times walking or biking around I've come across streets that I didn't know existed even though I've gone by them countless times. Here are a few of my favorite hidden streets. Google Maps didn't bother to drive down any of them so I linked as closely as I could. Foxhall Ct (CUF) https://tinyurl.com/y9cvjflw There are two houses with sweeping views of the Mill Creek valley down this street that can be mistaken for a driveway. Old McMillan St (CUF) https://tinyurl.com/yc6bndaw Again, thought this was a driveway for a while. There are four houses tucked down there. I'm assuming this is where McMillan terminated before they removed the Fairview Incline and extended McMillan down to McMicken as a replacement route. Sohn St (CUF) https://tinyurl.com/yafyflpk Down the steps here are four houses, accessible only from the staircase. Van Lear/Ohio St Steps (OTR) https://tinyurl.com/yceov48e Van Lear is hidden enough, but again, there is a house that as far as I can tell is only accessible from the stairs leading up to Bellevue Park. East Pueblo St (Mt. Auburn) https://tinyurl.com/y9btydtf Down at the end of Walker is another street that looks like a driveway with two houses. It's totally disconnected from the rest of Pueblo St. I'm sure there are other good candidates out there. I'm especially fascinated by the stair-streets. Any other instances of those in the city?

He's the second coming of Peter Bronson. Or is that too harsh?

I knew about those demolitions but wasn't sure if they were building additional homes fronting Ringgold. Or were they torn down just to create backyards/garages for these?

Biking around last week and got a shot of these new townhouses on Slack St. Looks like all that was there previously was this bungalow: https://tinyurl.com/y73k8caf

Getting back on topic, new PDF with the latest design plans for "The District". Lots of details here: https://res.cloudinary.com/courbanize-production/image/upload/v1/timeline_events/lvrrvxjlfzmrhi6qdqdk The views on top of the high-rises could be pretty special.

Yeah, I was surprised at that. I like a lot in the proposal, but it seems like that building would be really easy to convert into a hotel.

Here's info on the Deaconess development: http://res.cloudinary.com/courbanize-production/v1/timeline_events/yojdkiaxeargg56tdv7y From the story on Business Courier: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/08/03/here-s-what-s-being-planned-for-the-former.html 180 hotel rooms, 750 housing units, 100,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of retail space.

Where is the actual news about the delay? I'd like to contact council but would rather have something substantial to go on rather than rumors. If it's true that the stadium is the issue, I think FCC fans could get rallied to support the road diet.

The truly irreparable damage was where the street grid was lost, mainly from I-75 and west to the trainyards. That is never coming back. Even if it ever becomes something other than light industrial, it will still have a suburban-feeling streetscape. But I take solace in the fact that many other pockets of the city that suffered destruction still have their 19th century street layout, and could, in theory, be rebuilt on a human scale. It often doesn't happen that way, but at least it's a possibility. It's all you can do to keep from losing your mind looking at a photo like this and thinking we could still look like Philadelphia does, except our brick was painted bright colors and had flamboyant cornices.

Downtown/Mt. Adams/NKY:

I posted the uncropped monster photo over in the histroical photos thread: https://www.urbanohio.com/forum/index.php/topic,105.msg928837.html#msg928837

This is an amazing overhead from the 40s (I think) that can be zoomed in almost to the degree that modern-day Google maps can. It stretches from Clifton Heights (check out Nippert and St. George) down to the beginning of downtown. I have another that shows downtown that I can post. It also includes almost all of the lost West End, so be prepared to shed some tears. edit: here's a direct link if people can't see it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/57rhnyju4q4fpr5/cincinnati%20overhead%20west.jpg?dl=0

You can see on this zoomed in overhead how Renner St used to connect to other streets. Also looks like thee were stairs going up to Klotter towards the western end of the street. There also appears to have been buildings fronting the alley between Renner and Mohwak.

Agree about more steps down to the Mohwak area. It would also be great if the city reconnected Renner St back to Byron and even that little stub of Klotter east of Ravine. You can see the outline of the street on maps, but in reality it's fenced off and totally overgrown. It would make Renner and Mohawk in general less isolated. There's also an alleway between Renner and Mohawk that's completely overgown. Last time I was on Renner I also noticed some crumbling stairs on the north side near where that lot is for sale. Not sure if those were public stairs going up the hill or just the remnants of a house that used to sit there.

It's my understanding that the original Cilantro was perfectly viable. The owner sold it to spend more time with his family, and the new owner tried to change it into a weird steak warehouse. Now they're just reverting it back to the original Cilantro with some menu tweaks and different ordering setup. It's always been our choice for a good dining option on McMillan that doesn't feel like it overtly caters to students. But yeah, here's hoping it stays....

About the Public Radio building, a friend forwarded me a response they received that details their thought process of taking up the lot next to City Hall. I agree that having public radio there is much better than a parking lot, but it still seems a little disingenuous to hear their excuses about being part of a mixed-use development due to having "music, performance, public discussions and debates." There are tons of bars throughout the city that are directly above or adjacent to bars that play music until 2am. But seems like this is a done deal, and at least it seems they'll have a coffeeshop as part of the building...and yet another downtown plaza.

This may be getting a little far down the road, but with all this development coming to Straight St near Clifton, I wonder if there will be any demand for the vacant and underused parcels near the bottom of Straight St along McMicken and Central Parkway. For example https://tinyurl.com/yc74dvjd https://tinyurl.com/yaj7bobh https://tinyurl.com/yddh5sov

I wonder if there's any chance of having a restaurant/bar/shop/anything on the side facing Central Parkway that could be open year-round. That would make the stadium less of a dead space during the winter months.

According to the Cincinnati Preservation Collective on Facebook, the flatiron building at the top of Sycamore is being stabilized by the city and land bank. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1179273,-84.5089054,3a,75y,272.83h,94.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sewqgNiSK4UTqwD7bjUzVPw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's great to see some work going into Hamer St. That area around Hamer and McMicken is really charming. Not many streets left in the basin with the human-sized width of Hamer and Back.

It's true, most of my disappointment is from knowing what could have been. If you had just told me 2 years ago Cincinnati would be getting an MLS franchise and the stadium would be in Oakley, I would have been ecstatic. But all the talk about an urban stadium, "between UC and the river", as Berding said, etc, got my hopes up that we could he a model for how to incorporate sports with dense urban centers.

That rendering is so depressing. To go from the lively neighborhoods surrounding Nippert to this...I mean, are those semis idling to the right of the stadium? What is it going to feel like to walk around this thing? You have the din of a highway, a semi-vacant railyard, and then Sam's Club with some "Urban Living" superblocks sprinkled around. Hoping it ends up in Newport.

For what it's worth, I was canvassing yesterday for Yvette in Northside. All the people we met were white, unlike last time when we were in Bond Hill, and all said they were supporting Yvette. I don't know what metrics they were using to determine who we should talk to (maybe they were previously already identified as Yvette supporters), but I came away feeling pretty positive. Still think it will be close though. Turnout, as always, is key.

The forum was down while Blink was happening so I missed out on hearing people's thoughts. I didn't see an existing topic for it, but if I overlooked it, feel free to move this. Personally, I thought it was a huge success. I've never seen so many people in the basin, and what made it feel different was that people were actually walking around, not confined to a specific "event zone" like with other big gatherings like Oktoberfest. It caused people to actually navigate the city on foot, and the light installations and murals emphasized the buildings and architecture we have. In effect, the city itself was the event. I mean, the city was so alive that when I walked by the shabby Chinese restaurant on Race ("eat as if you were in China") that usually looks abandoned, and they actually had their doors open and lights on. Looked straight up 1965 inside. The foot traffic up north of Liberty, mainly on Pleasant, was crazy. It was possible to walk around and miss the installations and just feel like you were in a Cincinnati with two or three times the current population. The new murals are pretty great also. They compliment the existing Artworks murals nicely, since they feel a bit less safe and more surreal. The streetcar was obviously packed, but moved slowly due to all the traffic. Insert usual complaints about the current administration's complete ineptitude at managing transit issues.