jdm00

I see lots of people on Facebook suggesting that Ohio should pay 70% of the cost. (These are folks who are anti-toll and post to the Cincinnati Politics group.) What is the basis of this? Just that Cincinnati is 70% of the population? As I understand it, the bridge is used far more by people in NKY than in Ohio. If we are going to suggest a regional funding mechanism of some sort, I am fine with that--as long as we get people elsewhere to pay for things like mass transit and the stadiums.

Milwaukee's streetcar generally wins a vote, but it is delayed, and it sounds like there may be a ballot referendum on it: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/council-backs-streetcar-9-6-but-final-approval-delayed-b99430093z1-289309501.html

Looks like a big week for the Milwaukee streetcar, with a big vote on Wednesday. Interesting article on the entire thing here: http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-permalink-24722.html

I wish they would enforce it on Mercer--it's no parking on both sides of the street, and people are constantly parked there. It's really not wide enough in many places to have parking on it.

Maybe that relates to murders outside the city? I don't know.

The Atlanta Streetcar opened today. The Journal-Constitution's website had a pretty funny video of a (freelance?) photographer trying to race the streetcar. I wonder if someone there had said that it would be faster to walk/run than to ride it.

Only had lunch at I think it was Bakersfield. It was fine. They are in multiple locations now. By far have eaten more at Palomino over the last 10 years than anywhere else. Never had a bad meal or service. Been to Boca a few times. Filet and Amish Chicken is very good. Funny that you mention Palomino. I like the food there just fine and the cocktails are good, but it's actually one of the places we typically don't take recruits for lunch because we can't get in and out on time. Maybe it's just a more laid back experience there, I don't know.

And if you scroll through to the District 1 stats (includes downtown and OTR), you can see that violent crime in District 1 is down 23% year over year. There were 11 murders in District 1 in 2013; that's down to 5 in District 1 so far in 2014.

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/police/crime-statistics/city-wide-stars-report/ Through December 20, both murders and robberies were down 15% compared to 2013. Glad to see the improvement.

I have no idea what you are even saying here. If you don't know about the statistical work being done by websites like these, I don't know what to tell you. There are reasons that pro sports are moving toward statistical analyses and hiring people like that in the front offices. And while the games may be chaotic, you can track win probabilities to pretty minute levels based on literally decades of statistical analyses and thousands upon thousands of plays and scenarios that track what is going on in a game like last night.

True, though that was something of an outlier. Of course, as a Bengals fan, I will take the points any way they can get them! ;)

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestatsoff2014 This is perhaps an even better example. The Bengals are right in the middle of the league in terms of the number of yards they average per drive, and 15th in the league in terms of points per drive. Certainly not the case that they are somehow overly reliant on non-drive scoring.

And using that stat, you can look back up to 12 years and see there is only one year--last year--where they scored a fairly high number of non-offensive touchdowns. (Last year they were 3rd in non-offensive touchdowns per game.) Instead, they tend to be in the middle or towards the bottom (finishing last or next to last on more than one occasion).

I'm sorry, but this comment is so completely unsupported (and wrong) I am not sure what to make of it. The Bengals are one of the absolute worst in the NFL at scoring non-offensive touchdowns (i.e., scoring via interception returns, kickoff returns, etc.). They are 26th in average non-offensive touchdowns. Or, put another way, the Bengals score a much higher percentage of points as a result of their offensive drives than other teams in the NFL. http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/other-touchdowns-per-game

Bengals fan--and to make it clear (and I think past posts bear this out), I am not trolling you guys--but I didn't see any of the Browns game Sunday. (Obviously I watched the Browns-Bengals the week before.) How did Manziel look? I know the numbers weren't good, but did he seem any more comfortable out there?

Interesting situation for the Browns right now. Browns fans, who do you think gives you a better chance to win? Hoyer or Manziel?

Disagree completely. That tie is as good as a win. With it, the Bengals are essentially two games up on the entire division. One more win to get the Bengals to 9 wins will mean that everyone else has to go 3-1 in their final four just to pass them. It's going to be a pain for one of those teams to win the same number of games as the Bengals but lose out on a spot purely because of the tie.

I think South Shore is a great building. I'm not sure it "created a lifestyle unequaled in the region."

I think there is a big difference between closing 5th street for Oktoberfest and closing Calhoun 6-7 Saturdays a year, mostly because there are plenty of alternatives downtown to get West to East. Close Calhoun and that is going to be tough. Also, not to just be a naysayer, but I don't buy into the idea of "civic pride" in Cincinnati coming from UC football, especially with the Bengals already in town. If we didn't have a pro team people could identify and support, it would be different--but we do, and many people in Cincinnati are not UC alums, and their level of pride in the city is not going to be affected by UC football. (At least mine won't.)

Redeeming myself, hopefully -- total passengers in September 2014 were 509,629 according to flycolumbus.com. That's up from 501,354 in September 2013. (Looks like an increase of just below 2%.) I've not seen the flycolumbus.com site. Interesting information there.

Never mind, I looked for September numbers to update and got a 2013 story! My bad. (Thanks, Google.)

^UC season tickets are $99 a seat in the upper levels near midcourt? I thought my Xavier tickets were a steal, and I pay like 3 times that.

Does anyone have any info on the bowling-themed bar (I'm hoping a bowling alley) apparently going in next to Local's on 7th Street? It looks to be in the old Play space. Spares something?

I can't believe I am saying this, but I think we Bengals fans need to realize that this is the good old days as far as being a Bengals fan goes. Sure, there are three straight playoff trips, but it's really in the talent on the roster more than anything. Manhandling the Falcons despite not having our superstar WR (AJ), our second best WR (Marvin Jones), our (arguably) best defensive player (Burfict), our young TE with loads of potential (Eifert) (and who knows who else I am missing)? Seriously? The chances of that happening in the 90s would be less than zero. Somehow, some way, the team has managed to accumulate a ton of talent over the last five years, and they now have the ability to win games that would have been guaranteed losses for the old Bengals. Marvin Lewis gets a lot of grief, but after 12 years and five playoff trips--and building one of the most talented teams we've had in who knows how long--it's hard to argue he's not the best coach we've ever had. And I don't know if it was the whole weird news conference/near firing/near leaving of Marvin 4 or 5 years ago or what, but something has definitely changed as far as draft results. I don't know if Andy Dalton can get the Bengals to the Super Bowl, but I know that the team has a loaded defense, tons of talent on offense, and seems to be able to physically stay with anybody, and often exert their will on opponents, as they did today. (No better indication of that than the 3rd down touchdown run where they brought in Peko to block with the extra O-lineman, essentially telling the Falcons it was going to be a run, and running it right over them anyway). I am trying to let go my typical Bengal fandom, which normally involves thinking about the negative and waiting for the other shoe to drop, so that I can enjoy this team.

I (and all my neighbors in the HOA) got letters from the city asking us to sign up for a special assessment for the lights on Mercer Street. I assume they will ask all landowners and then total up the frontage based on what they get (i.e., you would vote and you would be down as having the frontage of 33% of the total frontage at your building).