jdm00

My parents are about as awkward and un-urban as can be, and we have never had any problems in OTR. But I live there, and I guess maybe that's why I take a very different view than some. I don't walk around just hoping to avoid having people who are likely long-term residents talking to me or having to interact with them. In fact, I am far more likely to say "how's it going" or comment on the weather or whatever it may be. I've lived there for four and a half years now--and believe me, when I moved in in 2011, it was nothing like it is today--and I've never gotten hassled by anyone, and I have a 6-year-old daughter who interacts with everyone she sees in OTR. Maybe I have just been lucky in my experiences--that is always possible--but if you visit an urban environment in fear of getting hassled, I think you are much more likely to have that experience.

They seemed to really be feeling the nerves today, or something. But have to be happy that they could play so poorly and still beat a pretty good Steelers team on the road. This is certainly the type of game the Bengals would have lost in the past.

Where is the new construction on Mulberry, TroyEros?

There's definitely been a bunch of scraping, of that much I am certain.

Hardwood floors are done, tile work is nearly done, painting on the outside has begun.

I guess I wasn't clear, and I don't know what she actually did or not as far as the restoration. But my place on Mulberry Street required full compliance with the OTR historic district guidelines to be able to do any work on the house. It wasn't something I chose to apply to myself. It's located in the district and you are stuck with it. Like I said, I don't know as far as her actual location what the requirements were. Perhaps she didn't have any and is in Prospect Hill or Pendleton technically.

I assume Jessie had to comply with the OTR historic district guidelines. (I can't recall whether she did or not.) Assuming that is the case, she should definitely get to say it is OTR.

^Well, to be honest, there is a lot less talent on the team the past two years than Dusty had. My problems with Dusty were never related to things like motivation or getting the team on board with his concept. Instead, I didn't like the outdated approach to the game--not understanding the importance of getting on base, never using his best relievers when it mattered most, blindly trotting out guys to play every day that had no business doing so, just because they were veterans. He manages baseball like it is still 1984, but the game has progressed a ton since then (a lot of it thanks to understanding and using advanced statistics). But if you think that the current team has anywhere close to the talent that the 2010 or 2012 teams had, I don't know what to tell you. The Reds had a run of something like 65 straight games started by rookies to end the season, which was either the most all time or since 1900 (I can't recall which). Unless those rookies are the Oakland Big 3 of 15 years ago, that is not a recipe for winning baseball.

6-0 going into the bye week. Not much to complain about. I take back my statement before the season that I would trade Andy Dalton straight up for Jay Cutler.

Thanks. It is going very quickly now. I think the hardwood may be installed by the end of the week. They are moving fast!

^Stainless.

Wow, over a month with no posts. So, tile floor in the kitchen is done. Cabinets are in. Tile floor entry way and in one of the bathrooms are done. More tile put in this week. Hardwood floor install starts today. And painting of the exterior should start next week. A lot of stuff coming together.

They don't break it out by specific incident, but I am pretty sure it counts as a homicide. (I was using "murder" colloquially there--not every one of these homicides would lead to a murder charge, I am sure.)

Through September 26, there have been 49 homicides in Cincinnati, compared to 54 last year through the same time. That means the murder rate has dropped about 10% this year. I think there has definitely been an increase in shootings, but it doesn't seem to be translating into an increase in murders. The 49 number is pretty much right at the 3-year average.

The price spike in Over-the-Rhine 2013-2014 caused a lot of people to overpay for stuff by late 2014 and continuing into 2015. I think a lot of people are assuming that Cincinnati real estate prices are going to take off as they have in the inferior built environments of Nashville, Charlotte, etc. but they aren't. There's way too much good product in the other neighborhoods that is priced fairly or undervalued and there are far too few people moving into this region with inherited money. No doubt many more who have collected large inheritances are moving out of Cincinnati than moving in. I won't get into the inheritance angle--I don't know how anyone ever finds any information on that kind of claim--but I think OTR housing prices are much more likely to end up on a Hyde Park or Mt. Adams trajectory than to stay flat. There are certainly plenty of other neighborhoods with good "product," but in the end, it's about location. There's a reason that housing prices in Hyde Park are a multiple of neighboring Madisonville, and there's a reason that even after years and years of really positive development, Oakley is still significantly more accessible than Hyde Park. The West End is very interesting, because it is so close to OTR (especially City West). At the same time, because of Music Hall and Central Parkway, there feels like a significant border between the two that makes the relatively close distance between them seem farther than it really is. All that aside, people in Cincinnati (and plenty of other places) have proven that they will be more than happy to drive up the prices of neighborhoods significantly, even though there are plenty of other places with similar product. That's why you see huge old houses in Price Hill that you can get for cheap, but if the same house was in Hyde Park it would be a million dollars. Just because someone could buy 2, or 4, or 8 houses in Westwood for the price of one condo in OTR doesn't mean that they are going to. Most people don't make housing decision like a commodity. Too many other factors go into it that are "soft" factors and don't necessarily make sense. The prevailing price of homes in many areas of Cincinnati is still significantly below that of peer cities like Columbus and is in reality on par with Portsmouth, Middletown, Hamilton, Richmond, etc. This region still has way, way more housing than it needs with vacant lots all over the place and hundreds of move-in ready homes for sale in 2015 in Cincinnati and immediately across the river in Covington and Newport for $50,000 or less. Latest data from the National Association of Realtors has a median home price of $128K in Cincinnati, $136K in Columbus. There are certainly plenty of neighborhoods in the metro area that have home prices below that, but guess what--there are certainly plenty of places in Columbus, too, that have home prices below their median. For comparison sake, the median in Cleveland is $110K, Youngstown is $72K, and in Toledo is $80K. Do you have some data to support the idea that *average* or *median* home prices are lower than places like Columbus? I am sure there are plenty of specific listings online that are lower, just like there are hundreds of homes listed on line that are higher than the average or the median. But averages and medians do a far better job of giving the picture of a region. http://www.realtor.org/topics/metropolitan-median-area-prices-and-affordability

The price spike in Over-the-Rhine 2013-2014 caused a lot of people to overpay for stuff by late 2014 and continuing into 2015. I think a lot of people are assuming that Cincinnati real estate prices are going to take off as they have in the inferior built environments of Nashville, Charlotte, etc. but they aren't. There's way too much good product in the other neighborhoods that is priced fairly or undervalued and there are far too few people moving into this region with inherited money. No doubt many more who have collected large inheritances are moving out of Cincinnati than moving in. I won't get into the inheritance angle--I don't know how anyone ever finds any information on that kind of claim--but I think OTR housing prices are much more likely to end up on a Hyde Park or Mt. Adams trajectory than to stay flat. There are certainly plenty of other neighborhoods with good "product," but in the end, it's about location. There's a reason that housing prices in Hyde Park are a multiple of neighboring Madisonville, and there's a reason that even after years and years of really positive development, Oakley is still significantly more accessible than Hyde Park. The West End is very interesting, because it is so close to OTR (especially City West). At the same time, because of Music Hall and Central Parkway, there feels like a significant border between the two that makes the relatively close distance between them seem farther than it really is. All that aside, people in Cincinnati (and plenty of other places) have proven that they will be more than happy to drive up the prices of neighborhoods significantly, even though there are plenty of other places with similar product. That's why you see huge old houses in Price Hill that you can get for cheap, but if the same house was in Hyde Park it would be a million dollars. Just because someone could buy 2, or 4, or 8 houses in Westwood for the price of one condo in OTR doesn't mean that they are going to. Most people don't make housing decision like a commodity. Too many other factors go into it that are "soft" factors and don't necessarily make sense.

Great pictures. I always wondered just how impressive the skyline would look in ATL if you could put the high-rise buildings in downtown, midtown, and Buckhead all together. Would be pretty amazing.

Everything I've seen about the Caterpillar news places the layoffs they just announced as related to commodities, but not farm commodities. Specifically, they were referencing the slowdown in mining and oil/gas as the reason for their projections.

Through September 12, there have been 48 homicides in the city. There were 53 through the same period last year. (All this according to the latest STARS report.)

That photo must have been taken from the air. Definitely NOT from the Garfield Suites (since you can see the Garfield Suites in the photo). Yeah, I could see that. Was trying to figure the provenance since the posts kind of made it seem like it was connected to the Garfield Suites somehow.

So that picture is taken from a helicopter or plane, right?

Jskinner, what did your son end up going with?

^Hasn't been in the 40s since at least 2003, my first year there (when we fell to like 53 and were all up in arms about it).

I don't think OctoCincy is saying that it should be done by committee, with some meandering route. I think his point is that we should create the desire for the streetcar to extend to the UC area, and get everyone on board; then when that happens, you bring out this plan. Once a plan is in place, there is plenty of ammunition for critics, as opposed to a goal of "let's extend something here."

Dude, your bike is ruining the awesome paint job! ;) The cornice looks fantastic, and the continuous sills came out absolutely great. When the whole thing is painted, it's going to look like dynamite. I may have stopped by at lunch, and they may have been laying the tile for the kitchen...