jacerw99

Oops. Somehow missed the response about moving to STL...

I think it's great news for Columbus. All kinds of groups hold conventions all over the country. All kinds of groups hold conventions here--and though I don't share ideals with many of the groups (and it's sometimes annoying to see them flood the streets downtown), I'm glad to have their money here and have the convention center full. And will there really be that much bad press? I highly doubt if the average citizen will even think twice about it. Hell, the Republican National Convention held its convention in NYC, and no one associates NYC with Republicans. I love Columbus--good news!

Least Expensive in Indy's downtown zipcode 46204, where I live: 627 Pennsylvania condo B Indianapolis, IN 46204 MLS ID#: 2569609 $95,000 2 Bed, 2 Bath 1,071 Sq. Ft. Estimated payment: $444 Per Month* Most Expensive: 1 N Illinois St. #2202 Indianapolis, IN 46204 MLS ID#: 2527036 $2,768,750 3 Bed, 4 Bath 6,004 Sq. Ft. Estimated payment: $12,937 Per Month* Most Expensive in the metro area: There is a house in Carmel currently on the market for $16.9 million, but technically Steven Hilbert's Carmel estate (the former CEO of Conseco) is on the market--it could be yours for a cool $25 million.

"If they can't drive there and find a parking space, they won't go there." That is just bizarre to me. Is there that much of a parking crisis in Cincy that you can't park within two or three blocks of where you want to be? America is a weird place...

I have visited Cincy several times, and every time I drive through OTR (and of course downtown). Being from Indianapolis, I am always amazed at the density and quality of the architecture. We have it here too, but not in anywhere near the quantity you have there. As others have said, it is important to remember that the process is a long one... Indy had one of the most lifeless downtowns in the country (IMO) up until the mid-1990s. At one point there was a pigeon problem, and the city literally hired people on the weekends to shoot pigeons on Monument Circle, in the middle of the damn city--and they could do it without bothering anyone, because there wasn't a soul down there. I'm not kidding. My point isn't to make this about Indy AT ALL, but I do think most would agree that we have done a quite admirable job of rehabbing our downtown and making it inviting to both urbanites and suburbanites. What many do not realize is that this process was begun in the early 1980s, and only really became successful in the last five or seven years. That's a twenty-year turnaround. It didn't happen quickly at all, and I'm sure it won't happen quickly in Cincinnati either. The huge advantage you have over us is that you have SO much more potential--what seem to be endless stretches of historical, dense neighborhoods that I would LOVE to have here. Unfortunately there does seem to be a huge disconnect between the surburbs and the city there (at least from everything I read about Cincy), and the downtown businesses need the surburbanites to spend their money in order to stay open... and they have to feel "safe" to do so. Is there really that much crime, or does the local press just sensationalize it? I went to the Cincy Zoo a year or so ago, and drove down Vine Street all the way from the zoo to downtown. I admit feeling a little uneasy at one point on Vine St. in OTR because there were SO many people out on the street and walking in front of traffic... but I never felt like someone was going to carjack me... maybe just walk in front of me when I was going 40mph. Are the suburbanites uneasy because of a real violent crime problem, or just because the majority of the faces they see are black?