edale

That is really sad, and it seems like for downtown it's always two steps forward, one step back. The city has known that Macy's and Tiffany were more than likely going to leave their downtown locations for 5+ years at this point. Meetings were held with Macy's real estate team and several of the large property owners downtown at that time to see what could be done to strengthen the downtown retail district in hopes of not just getting those two tenants (and Saks) to stay, but also to try to draw more complimentary retail around the square and Race St. And what came of those meetings and discussions? Absolutely nothing. TJ Maxx closed, signaling that the remaining downtown retail dominoes were beginning to fall, and the reaction of the city was basically...meh, who cares. The Bortz bros ought to be ashamed of themselves for how they let Fountain Place turn into the shithole it is now. They've had plans to build housing above the Macy's for many years at this point, and they haven't moved on it because they haven't received whatever ridiculous subsidy they feel entitled to. 4th and Race got held up for years, too, which could have added some much needed residents near by, and also added some new retail space which could have created some momentum for the retail corridor along Race. OTR is a lone bright spot in Cincinnati, I think. The city really has piss poor leadership and lacks any sense of vision for a future that isn't the status quo. It's really tiring to witness this stasis. Basically all of Cincinnati's peer cities have done so much more with their downtowns even with so much less potential. Maybe the new hotels (if they actually come to fruition) will help move the needle, but I'm increasingly pessimistic about Downtown Cincinnati.

Paula Poundstone is a regular on the NPR game show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!

^ It was pretty obvious (to me, at least) that @327 was kidding....

^ Good catch! The addition of 200,000 people to the CSA is pretty major. I'm not sure if any federal funding is determined by CSA, but if so, the greater Toledo area might be looking at more federal dollars coming its way as a result of this. Also, I had no idea that Toledo's CSA was smaller than Youngstown's!

I definitely don't think that the park should be made drastically smaller, or that large parts of it should be paved over and developed. Like park land, vacant and developable land is abundant in Cincinnati, and there is plenty of space left in Clifton to develop without paving over the park. I do support adding more amenities to the park, and creating more attractions that will bring life to Burnet Woods without destroying the general feel of the park. I think the CCAC is such an amenity, and I also think the proposed camping non-profit facility is too. I love Burnet Woods, and have taken many very pleasant walks there. The old trees are wonderful, and I appreciate how the park helps make Clifton feel like a little village- a world apart from the hustle and bustle of Clifton Heights and the hospitals. It just needs a little love, imo. Add in some complimentary uses, maybe add a restaurant toward the Ludlow side, make the park more permeable on all sides, install some gateways and new paths and it'd be much better. I don't think it needs to get totally blown up, and I don't think a highly urban park like Washington Park would be a model to follow for a large woodland park like Burnet. I would bet the neighborhood activists opposed to the CCAC going in the park are actually afraid of that very vision, and they see the CCAC as the first step in the inevitable decimation of the park. Such proposals are probably detrimental to achieving anything new or fresh in Burnet Woods, I think.

I saw the article about the proposed Clifton Cultural Arts Center in Burnett Woods, and I really hope that project is able to go forward. The park is a great resource for the Clifton community, as well as the greater Uptown area, but it's been in need of a refresh for quite some time. A lot of the park is very lightly used, and I think it could use the shot in the arm that the CCAC would bring to it. The proposed building design looked to be sensitive to the park surroundings, and I think it'd be great for the general activity of the area. Of course, there are neighborhood 'activists' who are trying to 'save' the park by preventing this, or any other, building from being built in the park. I love Clifton, and I've always said that if I was to ever move back to Cincinnati, I would probably live in the Gaslight area of Clifton. That said, the neighborhood is very frustrating to observe from an outsider perspective. The neighborhood simply needs more people, more density, more attractions, more activity. The new development at the merchant's lot needs to happen. The new CCAC needs to happen. There is an ABUNDANCE of park land and open space in Cincinnati generally, but specifically Clifton. In addition to Burnett Woods, they have Mt. Storm Park, Rawson Woods Preserve, Edgewood Grove Park, and the Jewish cemetery right there in Clifton. Zoom out a little further, and there is Fairview Park, Belleview Park, Inwood Park, and Spring Grove Cemetery like 5 mins away. Plus, so many of the homes in Clifton have huge front or back yards...the whole neighborhood is like a park! It's just nonsense to claim that allowing a thriving neighborhood arts organization to build in the park will somehow rob the people of Clifton of opportunities to experience nature. The troubles of the coop grocery store should be a wake up call to the NIMBYs, but I'm sure it won't be. They keep shooting down new investments and new development and then wondering why they're falling behind other neighborhoods.

The Banks is a major planned development, so of course it was always going to be done at a larger scale than anything we've seen in OTR to this point. I don't really think they are comparable areas at all. I would have liked to see more granularity in the design of the different Banks blocks, but given the expense required to lift the development out of the flood plain, it was almost certainly going to be a job handled by a major development company, and executed at a large, 'super block' scale. When you look at other similar types of development across the country, many have been much more successful than the Banks, even while built at the same or larger scale. Off the top of my head, I can think of LA Live, Columbus' Arena District, and Kansas City's Power and Light District. All are master planned developments built around at least one sports venue, and all are built at pretty large scales. Downtown Columbus, Kansas City, and yes, even LA are or were not exactly bustling places filled with pedestrians, but I think each of these cities have better integrated their new downtown entertainment developments better than Cincinnati has, and I think that has made a huge difference. The Banks will always rely a bit on game day/event traffic, and people who drive in, park on site, and spend their whole night at the Banks establishments, but it could still greatly benefit from enhanced integration with the rest of the downtown area. It's kind of the concept that led to the streetcar- if people have easy movement throughout the basin, the whole area will be healthier. I think the freeway caps can be thought of as another tool to encourage movement, just at the pedestrian level rather than transit. I agree with you that the caps won't be a panacea for the riverfront and downtown, though. Third Street really has next to nothing for pedestrians. Very few dining or retail establishments, and not even much in the way of pedestrian entrances, either. Then you have the hill up to 4th street, so a pedestrian at the Banks has to cross 2 very wide streets (2nd and 3rd), a freeway trench, and go up a hill just to get to the next node of activity. Few people will enjoy that journey. The caps would make it significantly better, in my opinion, but wouldn't solve the connectivity issue by themselves.

I think it's most important to cap the trenches to mitigate noise and visual impacts. I guess ideally you would have construction on top of them, but there is some pretty damning research that links construction above freeways to cancer. I believe the study I'm thinking of looked at these "bridge apartments" in New York: http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3682 I know we have the riverfront parks right in that neck of the woods, but I think something interesting could be done to differentiate the cap parks from the riverfront one. Hell, even a large reflecting pool which could be used as a splashground or something in the summer could be pretty cool. I completely agree that 3rd and 2nd are too wide, too. Simply adding some street parking would help a bit. Sidewalks could also be widened.

Yeah I knew about their one commuter rail line. Not sure I would call that 'transit' though.

I think the development team and the city/county need to do some thinking about why the residential aspect hasn't been very successful. The Banks is a great location- central riverfront, steps away from both stadiums, museums, fantastic parks, river views- but obviously the location in and of itself isn't enough to overcome the other challenges. I think the biggest impediment to success at the Banks is the uncovered highway trench separating it from downtown. The noise from FWW would be enough to keep me away, but also think of the air pollution those people are exposed to living there. The caps need to be a priority, and if we can only do one riverfront project at a time, I'd rather see the caps than the next phase of The Banks south of the Taste of Belgium building. The Banks needs a more seamless relationship with the rest of downtown, and the freeways are a huge mental and physical barrier. I have always thought that the Banks should have at least 2 hotels, and have wondered why the development team has been so hesitant to build another hotel when it became obvious the office pad wasn't going to get built any time soon. I'm inclined to take your word for it that a speculative office building would be a non-starter to get financing, but we have seen speculative office buildings built at Rookwood Exchange and the Kenwood Collection (and I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of). Do those sub-markets have drastically lower class A office vacancy rates than Downtown or something?

I appreciate your insights. How long was DHL even in Wilmington, though? Weren't they there just a few years before coming back to CVG? When they did come to Wilmington, did the city see a big rise in new housing construction, or did more people simply make the long commute? I went to grade school with a couple kids who lived in Wilmington, which I thought was absolutely incredible, but I guess demonstrates that the distance isn't seen as being so huge for some people. I don't think rural Ohio is fated to die, and I can think of a few examples of small towns in the region that are very successful. Yellow Springs and Madison, Indiana immediately come to mind. Yellow Springs is progressive and surprisingly urbane for being such a small town. Madison is very well preserved, and has a charming historic town center with an active Main Street. Both have fantastic state parks nearby, which these towns tout very well. The success of these towns tells me that in order for rural areas/small towns to be successful in 2018, they have to distinguish themselves and carve a niche out that is appealing to people. Your average small town is hopelessly conservative, with a Walmart built at the edge of town that has largely killed the traditional business district. Historic buildings are torn down and replaced with parking lots, and the towns cease to possess whatever charm they once had. The average small town can't do much to lure a big company in, or radically change the local economy. They can, however, work to institute Main Street type programs downtown. Encourage small businesses to open and encourage entrepreneurship among the local populace. Embrace new blood and new ideas. Welcome everyone. Program public spaces in the town centers. Preserve and enhance the natural beauty that surrounds the towns. If more rural communities acted like Yellow Springs or Madison, I think more young people would be inclined to stay and invest in their futures. Just my 2 cents.

^ Yeah, I figured race was a big part of the answer. New Orleans seems to be very popular with white hipsters though, so I don't know if I'd loop it in with the others you listed. Atlanta also had its fair share of racial strife over the years (hell, I guess you could say that about most American cities) but seems to have been able to move past it. Birmingham, Richmond, Memphis do seem fairly rust belty, and I know Birmingham at least shares the industrial/steel legacy with the rust belt cities, too. Maybe some urbanist thinker will come up with a name that sticks for the rust belt cities found in the sunbelt. The Rusty Bible Belt, perhaps?

Um Nashville has NO rail transit, and the voters in 'progressive' Davidson County resoundly voted down a ballot measure to create a rail system in the city. I think your point about the name of downtown is a fairly silly one. First of all, almost no one calls downtown Cincinnati 'the Central Business District'. It's just downtown. It's not like Center City is some kind of fresh and exciting name for a downtown area. SoBro is South of Broadway- another hackneyed attempt at creating a SoHo type of name. And even if the lack of a 'cool' name for the downtown area is holding Cincy back, we have Over the Rhine (OTR for all those clamoring for the acronym naming convention approach) which is one of the coolest neighborhood names in the country. In my opinion, Nashville's success is all about hype. I agree that they were able to successfully leverage their music city image/reputation, and they did a great job at promoting tourism and live music. I think they were successful at elevating their country music image to encompass 'entertainment' generally. They were able to attract musicians and entertainers of all genres away from LA and NY, and with that came the image of being 'cool'. Once that image was solidly established, the growth machine (like what @jjakucyk described) took over. Growth begets growth. Lenders see Nashville as a safe investment, and projects are able to come to fruition much faster there than in places like Cincinnati where gap financing almost always comes into the equation. Couple all this with the macro trend of population/economy moving to the Sunbelt, and you get a perfect storm of sorts. In the early 2000s Atlanta, Portland,and to a lesser extent Charlotte were the boomtowns. Now it's Nashville and Austin. There isn't any magical secret these cities were in on. They did some things right, got somewhat lucky, and had favorable demographic pictures to work with. The more interesting question to me is not why Nashville took off while Cincinnati stayed relatively stagnant, but rather why Nashville got hot while Memphis stagnated.

^ Oof. What a dick. How did he even know who you were? Sounds like you handled it well. I’m sure I would have said something in return that would’ve had me applying to other pizza places the next day.

Damn, that’s a real shame. There’s just not enough population in Clifton to support a store, I guess. I sure hope the proposal to build apartments on the site of the parking lot actually comes to fruition. If the market closes, it should be demolished and redeveloped with a mixed use building. A few more hundred residents right on Ludlow would give a boost to the business district.

Yeah, WHRF was saying that the 'comfort station' (as they called it) was going to become a bar back in 2013.

Yeah, but do they have a pierogi mascot race during Cubs/Tigers games? Pierogies are to Pittsburgh as chili is to Cincy! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pierogi_Race

I really associate pierogies with two places: Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I've had some absolutely delicious ones from a spot in Detroit-Shoreway in Cleveland that I think is now closed, unfortunately. I have tried the pierogies from Babushka at Findlay Market, and they were pretty good, if a little simple. I think this spot will be a great addition to OTR. Cheap, fast, comfort food is always a hit.

^Damn, this project is finally happening huh? I remember it was proposed, and I saw a very similar rendering probably 5 years ago. Glad it's finally happening.

Living in Los Angeles, I can tell you that A LOT of people here would never, ever consider moving to Columbus (or Cincinnati or Cleveland) for any amount of money. There is a real perception here that everything east of California and west of...DC? is a conservative cultural wasteland. I obviously couldn't agree less, but the perception is very much real. Chicago escapes this a bit, but even it kind of gets lumped into the general midwest narrative. This is why I think the Amazon decision is so disappointing. We already have a huge problem with educated (and yes, liberal) people leaving the interior of the country for better opportunities on the coasts. We saw the ramifications of this in the 2016 election, and it's not pretty. Companies need to invest in places like Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, the 3 Cs, etc. Even if they can't convince a bunch of Californians that Ohio is cool, they could keep a lot of Ohioans in Ohio, and that'a a crucial first step to reversing the narrative. Amazon had a unique opportunity to be THE game changer for a city, but instead chose to locate in NYC and DC, where their impact will be minimal. They had people in places from Detroit to Dayton dreaming about the possibility to reverse their fortunes in one catalytic investment, and it turns out it was all a charade. Shame on Amazon.

From the quick look I took earlier this morning, staff recommended a denial of the variance for increased density, but approval of the COA for the design of the building. Basically, they are OK with the height, massing, and design, but not the 15 units. I don't know why a Historic Conservation Board would even get to weigh in on issues like density or use. Their purview should be limited to the aesthetics of proposed infill and alterations/additions, imo.

Pureval never played football in THE PIT! He's just not one of us. Doesn't share our values.

^ Is it good? Filipino friends seem to rave about it, but I agree, the menu looks a bit strange.

Great news that Firehouse Row has started! Appreciate the update.

I’m ashamed of how much of that I watched.