jdm00

I'm feeling good about this news. If they approve it to go ahead with the downtown loops and uptown, I'm okay with that to. It may be more ambitious, but a little ambition at this point is a good thing.

hohum -- just curious -- where are you going to law school? UC?

I saw it, then forgot the name of the company. D'oh!

I own a home in Pleasant Ridge (moved back into the city from Sycamore Township last summer). Just got my tax bill in the mail this week. Obviously in an ideal world I would love to be able to take light rail downtown to work. The streetcar--though not a mass transit method per se--is a first step to getting the region on the road to improved transit options. Sure, there is risk involved, but the payoff if it succeeds is tremendous. There's momentum for this project, which can build on the momentum created by the Fountain Square redo, which to my eyes has been a huge success. Going downtown any night, and especially on the weekends, is a treat now. Throw in other projects like the Banks, good things happening in OTR, Queen City Square, etc., and the city really seems to be headed down the right track....

Sorry, I'm confused. Those four figures only add up to 98,000 people. What am I missing?

It will beef up the skyline as viewed from Kentucky, but it's going to have a huge impact as you look at it coming down 71. Nice images, Ronnie.

Wow, that is going to be massive! Great to finally get this announced.

^And with Nada and Oceanaire coming on line soon, it may be reaching critical mass (in a very good way) for downtown dining nightlife.

Well, my wife and I went to Via Vite last weekend (sorry I didn't say hi, David). Great food, as we expected. The service was not quite up to Nicola's levels, but it was fine, and we really just chalked that up to everybody working out the kinks of the new place. Also, it appears that Greater's is now staying open a little bit later. We went to McCormick & Schmick's last night with a group of friends, and went to Greater's afterwards. We got there at 9:30, left at 10:05. I think they closed at 10:00. They were quick, courteous, and luckily there were more seats than I anticipated. It's going to do killer business in the summer. On an unrelated note, with all the buzz around Fountain Square, we are going out downtown on a really regular basis. In the last two months, we've been to Via Vite, McCormick's, JeanRo, and Nicholson's. Fountain Square and environs are really becoming option number 1 for dining, even though we live in Pleasant Ridge.

Thanks for the heads up. I actually park in Lot D for $3/day and it's not a bad walk at all. My only concern before was if they take out these lots for the Banks. Where exactly is East Garage? Is it by the so called Transit center? It's at Broadway and Pete Rose Way--the pie-slice-shaped garage. It's just a couple blocks up Broadway to 3rd Street (right at Queen City Square). I think a fair amount of folks who work at the Atrium buildings work there.

cincySAL -- if you're looking for parking near 3rd street and don't mind walking a little, you might try the East Garage. I believe it's still $3.50/day.

Are you interested in the public school systems?

As I understand it, the parking garages on which the Banks are being built will be available for parking (residents will have separate parking, or at least that used to be the plan, right?) And there are plenty of places around 3rd street for far less than $15. The Western-Southern garage is 8.00/day max, and cheaper on a monthly basis.

Sounds like Cincinnati/Columbia Twp.

P. Ridge is great.

Is the Morton's going to have any signage? It seems to be directly above Boi Na Braza.

Went to Boi Na Braza with a group of six for lunch yesterday. Service was very good. It's actually quicker for lunch than you would imagine, because you don't have to order and you just wait for the meat to be brought around (much quicker than, say, lunch at Palomino's). Food was very good. I think they said they have something like 15 varieties of meat that you can try. I thought the filet, the bacon-wrapped filet, and the lamb chop were especially good. And the mashed potatoes were awesome. Price was reasonable; I think it was something like $28.00 per person. (Watch out on the soft drinks, though -- two 8 oz. bottles of diet coke were $2.50 each -- no free refills there). The only drawback with doing it for lunch is that you are worthless at work the rest of the day. It's definitely an experience. It compares well with a Brazilian steakhouse I've been to in midtown Manhattan.

Nice showing in the paper, John!

This is absolutely true. And many of the jobs such as P&G are located out there as well when they have traditionally been closer to the core. They now have the infrastructure as Thomasbw mentioned, the jobs, the restaurants, the shopping, the schools. Now contrast that with the inner ring. I don't know that you can paint all the inner-ring suburbs with the same brush. There are certainly differences much akin to the neighborhoods in the city proper. As for the schools being unable to compete with the non-inner ring suburban schools, I don't buy it. Places like Wyoming, Mariemont, Indian Hill and Madeira are just as highly-regarded--if not more so--than the Lakotas and Masons. These communities should focus on their unique positives -- schools that are just as good but smaller, so your child won't be one of thousands at a big suburban high school; proximity to the best of the city (15 mins to downtown) and the suburbs (more accessible to Warren and Butler cos. if you want to go there); and, in some of those places, charming and historic housing stock. Of course, if someone wants to live in 2500 square feet of new construction outside of Hamilton County, they will do just that.

It looks like there's still a ways to go on all Via Vite, Boi Na Braza, and the, uh, screening thing they're doing on the smaller 5/3 building. I actually saw inside a little on Boi Na Braza and was a little disappointed it wasn't farther along -- but hopefully it's just finish work that won't take much time.

Rando, I can tell by your comment above you must root for the Bearkittens. I'll let that slide, though! Not sure why you point out Stanford as a some sort of bad team. They made the tourney this year, have a strong tradition, and have been a #1 seed in the tournament within the last ten years. They're actually a very good program. Of course, Redford was just the prelude to Xavier landing Kenny Frease, a 6'11", 255-pound center from Massilon. It came down to Notre Dame, Kentucky, and Xavier (plus he received scholly offers from nearly every big-time program in the midwest). He's currently the #4 rated center in the '08 class and is rated as highly as the top 20 by some services (generally he's rated between 30 and 45 overall in his class). Xavier's '08 class is going to be a top 10 class, and if they land Yancy Gates from Withrow -- who wants to be a true power forward, playing next to a true center (like Frease), they will probably have a top 5 nationally recruiting class.

Well, that's not a bad thing. $238 roundtrip to NYC is a good deal. Too bad LaGuardia is such a dump.

Some might say infamy! ;)

The NFL in general seems to be a sort of special case -- can survive on very little $$$, and I don't know this for certain anymore, but as recently as a couple years ago each NFL team basically broke even before selling a ticket, given the lucrative TV contracts that are shared equally. Do the TV networks and national advertisers basically subsidize the NFL in any given market?

Having looked through the last couple pages, I'm a little confused. Is the retail discussed on the last page that's already signed/sealed/delivered supposed to open in April? And it seems to be a long time for the announcements that were coming "shortly"...forumers want to know.