jdm00

Crud. Just saw it at Hardball Talk.

Where are you hearing this?

http://votersfirstohio.com/ Right. Like I was saying, the only "redistricting" plan is the one you have been discussing.

Averaging 29,155 per game for the season. Still 17th overall but climbing nicely. The highest we could reasonably expect to get at this point is about 14th, which would probably need to be over 30,000 per game. Colorado is 13th but they average 33,000+ per game. http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

Bunbury is reporting attendance of 15,000 for the first day. I hope that the event does well--would be nice if it caught on and built up its popularity.

This is not actually correct. The playoffs have expanded from 8 teams to 10. There will be two wild cards in each league. Those two wild cards would play in a one-game playoff to determines who gets into the Division Series. So as it stood at the break, the Reds would have been playing in the "play-in" wild card game (probably hosting it, I assume).

Re: Parking--the farther from the river you are, the cheaper it will be. I am guessing you will be able to find a spot north of 6th with little problem (and probably for under ten bucks). There is a Macy's garage at 7th and Vine that has a big space, or there are surface lots near 7th/8th as well (over closer to Sycamore and Main). The farther down you are, the more expensive it will be. Food-wise, I'd recommend the Gateway Quarter as well. Depends on the budget. If you want the best food in town (IMO), go to Jean Robert's Table on Vine between 7th and 8th. Nicholson's is a nice Scottish pub on Walnut north of Sixth, and Nada is a sort of high-end Mexican across the street from it. Otherwise the Gateway Quarter recommendations are all good. Where to go besides the Banks/Washington Park? If you're at the Banks you can take a walk across the river on the Suspension Bridge and see Main Strasse in Covington. Staying out in Blue Ash, you will be doing some driving no matter what. You could head over to Indian Hill and drive through the winding wooded roads (no downtown to go to, but it gives you a sense of the place). Of the inner-ring suburbs on the east side, I would say that Mariemont is the most interesting. It's on US 50/Columbia Parkway (called Wooster Pike out there), but you could get down to it pretty easily from Blue Ash with a GPS. Closer in, I recommend Mount Adams/Eden Park. O'Bryonville has a nice little business district, and, though many may be loath to admit it (sometimes including me!), Hyde Park is probably the most prosperous city neighborhood and has a lot to offer if you are just wanting to go somewhere and check stuff out. Also, if you are into baseball, you might want to check out the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. I have heard it said it's the best baseball hall of fame outside of Cooperstown. Have fun!

Having been there several times, it's not surprising that it's the primary entrance. I walk over 14th, but that's because it's the closest to my residence. There is not a lot of activity (yet) up on 14th that people will be walking over from to the park. And walking in on the 12th street side takes you by a lot of folks near the Drop Inn center.

I like the rink at FS and would keep it there, mostly because there are plenty of other things to do around the FS that people can build a trip around. Right now, there are still more shopping, eating, and entertainment options at FS. I think you're likely to have people spend more time downtown by having it at FS. If you put it in Washington Park, people would likely come to skate, and leave after they did that. (Especially because the shops/dining on Vine are not visible at all from the park, unlike downtown where you can simply look around and see other activities to do.)

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/DONE-overall-crime-down-cincinnati Crime is down thus far this year -- violent crime down 9%, murders down 37% from last year's pace. Looks like the city is currently on pace for a number of murders somewhere in the 40's. That would be a great reduction.

Some quick online research doesn't show anything but the redistricting plan that biker16 was discussing.

Sorry--in reading David's post, I assumed that it was about the same plan. I'm not aware of any plan to have no districts, and in fact I doubt that would even be legal under the constitution. Since David was relaying what he was told by the signature collector, who talked about changing the district process and making it more likely independents would be involved, I assumed it was the same proposal.

Yeah, I don't think this is about disenfranchising rural voters. It's about setting up a different way of drawing up the districts so that they make more sense. Iowa has the best system I've read about--non-partisan, divides everything as evenly as possible geographically. It results in Iowa having a bunch of competitive House races, as opposed to here, where you know for most seats that Democrats or Republicans are going to cruise to victory.

Any updates on this?

^F-35 engines are made by Pratt and Whitney. Congress kept trying to fund an "alternative" F-35 engine built by GE, but it was ultimately abandoned.

OTR, I think you're a bit off on the mindset of the folks living in Butler and Warren counties. I have a very close aunt who has lived in Hamilton for 30+ years. She has spoken in the past of how folks in West Chester identify far more with Cincinnati than with Butler County; in her words, many of them are surprised to find out that they live in Butler County. And working downtown with a lot of people who live in the 'burbs, I can say that they understand the importance of Cincinnati and want it to succeed. There are many reasons that people live in Butler or Warren counties beyond simply an anti-urban bias. I thin kwe'd be better serve to work with them to improve the entire region instead of viewing them as the enemy.

That is a ton of surface parking around it. Agreed that it is a good thing it is not being built in this form in downtown C-bus.

I am glad for the good work OTRCH does. You should take my comment for what it's worth--Appleaday said (either in this thread or the other) that the planned protest embodied a different philosophy than those of the past (paraphrasing here). The Josh Spring email in the other thread certainly seems to be the same position that has been advanced by many in OTR for decades. My comment should be read for what it is: disappointment that the protest seems to be the same philosophy as we've seen in the past, and noting that the one OTRCH representative who posted here has not been around to explain the differences in approach (since the Josh Spring email text was posted). In the future, I'd appreciate it you'd take my posts at face value instead of reading into them a negative intent that's not there--I don't do that with yours, Northsider.

So it appears that the current pace is for under 50? That would be a nice improvement.

When the Josh Spring comments were posted in the Washington Park thread, it sadly appeared to be a case of same-old, same-old. Appleaday has not been around to offer any further insight into what is apparently a protest along the lines of what many here were expecting.

For comparison's sake, have the MSA estimates come out?

Not to get involved in this grudge match you apparently seem to have going on here, but I took it that Keith was talking about city projects as opposed to private development (his examples in Cincinnati being the Streetcar and OTR revitalization, which is primarily pushed by a non-profit but has had significant city involvement/investment/assets involved, such as Washington Park). I haven't clicked on all those links you just noted, but if they are primarily private projects, I'm not sure that is responding to his post.

From Coney Island in Cincinnati last evening.

I'd suggest focusing a little less on where they "place" vis a vis the other MLB teams and looking at the actual numbers. Their current pace would put them in line for a season that would be one of the top ten all-time for the Reds, and if the attendance continues the upward trajectory of the last couple of homestands, they could be looking at drawing 2.4 million plus on the season. That's something the Reds have only done five times in their history. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/redsatte.shtml

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance Cincinnati's 17th out of 30 in MLB, so that's not that bad. In the past few years, it's been consistently below the average marker, but not by THAT much, generally. http://espn.go.com/nfl/attendance/_/year/2011 Dead last (32nd) last year in the NFL. But I think the Bengals' crap attendance last year had more to do with fans feeling crapped on by the Brown family (season tickets-wise). Historically (you can scroll back), it's been around the 20-23 marker, which isn't great, but it's not awful. I think "can't support two pro teams" is an overstatement, but yeah, the Bengals' attendance especially isn't great. But I do think that has more to do with the Bengals' (and the Brown family's) reputation than with a lack of enthusiasm for pro sports. Sorry if this is way too off topic. Supporting an NFL team is not entirely dependent on attendance. One reason the Bengals are so profitable, despite what attendance may be, is that they have very favorable lease terms. Also worth nothing that the Reds are just on the cusp of being in the top half attendance wise. They are about 2000 people behind the Braves at number 14. They are far, far from the bottom (drawing about 10,000 fans per game more than the Indians).