edale

I thought there were 4 expansion teams that were going to get bids, no? Are two already locked up?

Why is Ye Olde Trail Tavern a terrible name?

All of this money and infrastructure just to support a stadium that MIGHT get the FC in the MLS seems so incredibly stupid. FCC games are already a ton of fun, and their crowds help provide business to the places around UC that could definitely use the business bump in the summer months when the kids aren't there. The parking already exists, and fans seem to really love Nippert. My question, then, is why the hell are we building yet another stadium to try to get to MLS? What benefit does the MLS bring? Cincinnati is already a major league city, and has been for years. We don't 'need' an MLS team in the way that a city like Columbus does to prove that we are a big league town. Furthermore, I don't think the presence of the MLS does much at all to advance the recognition of the city on a national stage- people simply don't care about it like they do NFL, NBA, or MLB. We could potentially be squandering a redevelopment site that could house and/or employ tons of people so we can build a stadium and parking facilities that will be used a handful of times per year. We're introducing extreme traffic into one of the City's most desirable parts of town, and placing a stadium in a location where there could be very little spin off development. All for what? To feed the egos of the Lindners and other team owners? To help placate an inferiority complex of Cincinnatians who are desperate for external validation that their city is big and important? I genuinely don't get it.

Would you have heard the same line though if Bauman was supportive of Cranley? I'm not so sure... I do hope he wins next time, he's everything you guys need, plus I think he has crossover support from people who normally won't vote for someone with his politics due to his ability to talk plainly (even about sophisticated issues), his personal one-on-one style of selling himself and his background as a cop/son of a preacher. I see him as future mayor material if he can get his vote totals up / not screw up when in office. He's abrasive as hell. I think he's highly unlikable, though I do agree with most of the policies he supports.

There was a vote coming up to sell the ROW, rezone all of the property, and allow for this huge expansion to go forward. She didn't have the support to postpone, so why would Children's negotiate with her? I think this vote is the reason she lost, but pretending that she could have played her cards differently and Children's would have conceded anything isn't very realistic IMO. These items don't come up for votes in a vacuum, you know. Waiting to attempt to do something at the last minute when this issue was up for a vote was precisely the problem. A seasoned politician would have been able to see that there was friction between the community and Children's, and would have taken that opportunity to paint him/herself as the mediator and leader who can make the project work for all involved. Get the media stirred up about this issue, work with community leadership to get them placated or at least agreeable, and then tell any and every media outlet about how your behind the scenes work resulted in both an expanded hospital and whatever community benefits were agreed upon. It's as much about creating and selling a narrative than actually getting things out of Children's. They don't want the bad publicity of being the bully kicking around the poor black neighborhood its in. So you seize on that (particularly as a black politician) and paint yourself as the adult in the room.

I'm disappointed that Yvette lost, but not surprised, as I think she ran a pretty bad campaign. She repeatedly came off as unpolished and naive, and she simply made too many mistakes along the way to be taken seriously by many voters. The Children's situation was a total blunder, and was totally unnecessary. That issue actually could have sealed the deal in her favor, if she had approached the situation a bit differently. Rather than attempting to do a last minute shakedown of Children's, which ultimately resulted in nothing new for Avondale and cost her untold political points, she could have worked with Children's to get some very modest concessions for the community. This would have allowed her to frame herself as the politician who is able to both facilitate the expansion of one of the region's economic drivers, while also looking out for 'the neighborhoods'. Her bumbling of this pretty easy political issue made me really question if she was ready for primetime. Ultimately, I wish PG would have run for mayor. He no doubt would have easily beat Cranley, and then we would still have Simpson on council. I think his aim is for higher office, but I think Mayor is the next logical step for him, and I honestly think he would be a pretty great mayor. Finally (apologies for the scatter brained post) I wonder what effect Blink had on this election. From everything I heard, it was a rousing success, and left a very good impression of the city in basically everyone who attended. That, coupled with the announcements of projects going forward (Skyhouse, Kroger tower) probably left a lot of people thinking that the city was in pretty good hands with Cranley. It seems like most people forgot about how villainous Cranley was during the streetcar cancellation saga.

I don't like to make assumptions about people's sexuality, but I think it's pretty safe to say Tamaya is in the LBGT community. So we now have two gay council members! That's kind of an accomplishment for a conservative town like Cincinnati!

Lol you’re awfully dramatic.

^ yeah, I seem to remember Qualls had a very hard time courting black voters last election. There seemed to be some odd alliances in that election. I predict these election results will look similar to the Mallory elections.

^Totally agree, but the government coming up with corny branding slogans that no one will use anyways does not enhance a city's culture. I don't care at all that Laure was behind the whole 'city that sings' thing, but it just seemed like a lot of her ideas and initiatives she supported were fairly silly. In a city with terrible childhood poverty metrics, a weak transit system (at best), rampant disinvestment in numerous communities, etc. her pet projects seemed out of touch.

Main (or any of the streets in OTR, save for Liberty) doesn't seem that hard or dangerous to cross, but I think the real benefit of the curb bump-outs will be the expanded sidewalk space. The crowds get quite large in this part of Main on weekend nights, so creating a bit more room to handle those crowds is smart. Buses stopping in the travel lanes will also help to slow traffic, which is another positive.

Unfortunately, she also undertook some really stupid initiatives, like branding Cincinnati "The city that sings". I think she's fine, but probably focuses a bit more on the cosmetic issues than I'd like a council person to. It would be great if we could trade her for Murray.

Ouch. That was painful to watch. He sounds like the mayor of some small town in Mississippi.

I think it would be cool if they kept Blink going downtown and in OTR, but have a few isolated installations scattered around select neighborhoods, too. That way, neighborhoods would get to benefit from some increased foot traffic and have some lasting public art to show from it, but they wouldn't have to carry the burden of providing parking and accommodating the crush of people that downtown is better equipped to handle.

Los Angeles uses police officers to do fare enforcement on the trains. It used to be county sheriffs since the Metro is a County entity, but now it's LAPD officers, for some reason. I'm generally not a fan of having cops do stuff like that, but their presence is actually usually welcomed here, simply due to the amount of crazy and homeless people (and others) who routinely cause disturbances at stations and on the trains.

Other than Windsor, have any of those projects actually begun? The Firehouse Row proposal has been around forever. I think it might actually have a chance of starting soonish, but who can say. The redevelopment of Anthem definitely has not started yet, and it's in EWH, not WH. I will say it seems that the tide is actually starting to change in WH, after years of talk and hype with very little action.

I think Bauman has good intentions and will advocate for the things that most urbanists care about, but I find him very hard to like. He is confrontational and acts like he is an authority on everything he talks about. Granted, it's been several years since I've interacted with him, but I was decidedly not a fan. But maybe we need a bullish figure like him to carry the flag for progressive causes?

Why the hell did Pittsburgh's mayor donate to Cranley? All the developers and companies that got incentives or subsidies (Medpace) are big time donors for Cranley, too. What a transparent pay to play system we have in Cincinnati, though I assume this is the case just about everywhere, sadly.

I can’t remember what email address I was using when I registered (I was in high school!). New username who dis?