1400 Sycamore

It has all of the charm of the IRS Service Center in Covington.

Saw a truck unloading pallets of material at the ole Short Market vacant lot today. NW corner of Liberty and Sycamore.

Not to be disagreeable, but under used green space is fantastic in an urban area. It is relaxing, quieting. When every park is filled with basketball players, crowds of people, events, concessions, it is not a plus. Although Ziegler Park is a tremendous asset, Cutter Playground (its predecessor) was loved by all of the residents for its untamed beauty and lack or disciplined landscaping. And, the lack of use of Ziegler Park is the best thing about it.

Probably one of the most profitable locations as a % of sales because the paraphernalia and dilute spirits and cigars all have enormous markup, there is no competition and no shoplifting (which is the biggest profit killer in OTR retail.)

Why would one think it is operating at a loss?

I would say that the station is owned by Pat Gilligan who owns boatloads of Sheel stations and convenience food marts. But, is the the operator of this one? Probably but not sure.

People who are surprised by the continuance of this mess at Shell do not know how the Collaborative consent decree works. But, anyone who explains it, no matter how accurately is a racist. So if you don't know, ask your favorite cop what the problem is.

I did say $1100 inLoveland because that is a 1 bd there. But, I agree. a company owned UDF would be great.

OTR residents with cars do not use the Shell. During the daytime, workers in OTR and service people use the gas station part. And, I would not characterize OTR residents as "wealthy." The economic circumstances of a person who works in the CBD or CUF districts and pays $1450 for a 1 bd in OTR compared with $1100 in Loveland are not really all that different. I think the $0.79 per mile is a pretty good number for commuting and if a person lived in Loveland and worked in the CUF, they would spend about $700 per month on car gas and insurance. We have tenants who don't own cars for that very reason.

If the Shell station would just close from 8PM to6AM the problems would be decreased substantially. One can debate the legitimacy of providing drug paraphernalia and alcohol in a gas station, but, the number of drunk/drugged encounters at night time escalates the situation. I think they are open 24 hours which is really questionable. Still, it is a target rich environment even in daytime because every visitor has money and most have a car and cell phone. Just about every visitor in a car gets pan handled, sometimes aggressively. I could tell war stories endlessly over the antics the locals play at Liberty Shell. You would not want your mom to happen in there accidentally after the Symphony or the Ballet, I promise you. Maybe the crowds from FCC will reduce the troubles?

Like most inequality in bureaucracy, the bigger one is, the less one has to take risks. If a billion dollar multi national company is promoting something, it doesn't take a genius politician (including the elected judiciary) to want to be on their side of the table. But when Joe Schmo is trying to cut the same corner, he may have to put his money up front in the form of contributions to the right pacs. Sorry to say it, but it is just the way it works.

The 2001 riots were not even a blip on the screen for residential development. The bar people may have stayed away for a while, and everyone asked if the rabble was at the door, but many of the the most enduring conversions occurred in the early 2000's. Take for example Crawford Lofts which was one of the most successful condo conversions of the era which occured in 2002. Olson started Urban Legacy right about then.. 2002 or 2003 for the series that includes vast properties without a missed beat as far as it seemed to me.

Is that picture window in the garage?

At the risk of beating a dead horse, maybe I can help. When properties go vacant. Even for months, the windows get broke immediatly, doors come off plumbing fixtures disappear, trash mounts up and it is painfully apparent that they are vacant. And, they stay that way until they are renovated. Historic has renovated hundreds of them in OTR and none in Pendleton despite owning a number of units. Take a walk through Pendleton. I think I know every building. 70% of the units have not been renovated by anyone other than Tom Denhart in the last 70 years, except for the recent conversion to market rate lux. And, if you find one that shows the signs of vacancy from before the surge to market rate lux, please post up a photo. I can tell you that when Model and the church people took over Denharts Pendleton buildings they were occupied. The Franscians had people in there for free and Model had Project Based Section 8 where they could put in anyone they wanted and they would only pay $25 a month. The buildings that did not qualify had rents in the $200-300 range. As far as Verdin's Art Center is concerned, I don't know a single artist that moved into Pendleton to be near the Art Center other than the bootleg lofts that sprang up inside until they got some overnight rules in place. I say this because we did have a studio in Pendleton for a little while. I think I knew everyone in there in the 90's even though the wife was in Gallery 99 in Mt. Adams in the 90's.

I am not sure I would agree that displacement is a necessary element of "gentrification" as opposed to being either or both a casual and causal factor, but, either way, I am quite sure that there has never been a time when spaces in my area (13th to Liberty and Sycamore to Broadway had more than a smattering of vacant units. Maybe a couple at 13th and Van Seggern.

Most of the Main St bar zone had its residential units above done in the 2003 range. When I got to 1411 Sycamore St in 1998 and the next 5 years or so most of the units were "gentrified" on Sycamore, Mansfield, Orchard, 14th and Broadway. The 2001 riots meant exactly zero over here on the Pendleton side of OTR. Didn't affect anything. But, i agree that without 3CDC Vine St. north of Central Parkway was not happening.

Historic released a number of buildings to Model but I am not sure if the plan is economically sensible. I mean, you can't spend $300/sq. ft. on properties like Gateway cost and have it work long term unless 3CDC is going to let these be rented or sold below cost.

That is an interesting perspective. I have never really thought about how 3CDC compares with the truly private development by scale. I'd like to know that. I see little pockets of 3CDC here and there but I admit not having any sense of the overall scale. Most of what I am familiar with from 3CDC are lovely, helpful, but not economically sound.

Mmmm, not exactly. 3CDC was formed in 2003. All the shouting was over as far as "gentrification is concerned. The pioneers had done their work and everything was underway, Main St. was a done deal, Buddy Gray was murdered in 1996 by one of his anti gentrification nuts. Of course no one much but Historic had ventured north of Liberty. But, 3CDC was late to the party, looking more opportunistic than trailblazer.

The Cincinnati Milling machine photo shows this was an industrial corridor. There are railroad spurs all over the area and north into Norwood. Madisonville was a town. Oakley was factories and factory housing. Cincinnati Steel Products was a client so I was very familiar with that intersection. And, the truck traffic does not originate there. It comes down Madison and now turns right on the new Kennedy connector. Oh, and someone suggested Duck Creek as the access to the highway but it is at the very end one way opposite to the access and only allows a long series of turns to go South or West.

I think the attached is from jjackucyk's website, right? Looking across Madison Road.

Haha! I'd had to laugh because this area was heavy industrial now light industrial since McKinley was President. The gym and the coffee shop and the apartments are the newcomers. But, more to the point, using both existing lanes on both Kennedy and Madison, the longest diagonal from curb to double yellow lines is 37 feet. So, although you are apparently a CDL expert, I'm sure one of the architects can tell us if that is enough room for a 53' trailer and a tractor to turn - ignoring, of course, the legality of using all the existing lanes.

Sorry. I think you only took it as condescending because you haven't had to use all three lanes to change the radius of a tight corner like Kennedy and Madison. But, you should really just go over there before you theorize on the routes which you have completely mixed up.

Its the access to I71 from Madison Rd. You probably haven't been there much since you didn't notice the new 4-6 lane access roads. They go from Kennedy to Millridge to the highway.