troeros

I wasn't sure where to put this..I was at Mecca on Friday. Was pretty jammin. Live dj, fog machine up the wazoo. It was really hipster-edgy but it worked. Definitely a different type of bar that does something different in otr. Anyway, I snapped some videos to my story on Snapchat, and one of my closer friends replied, ,"wow cool bar! Where is that at?" I replied OTR and gave him the address and he decided to check it out last night. He's a UC student from Korea and is single, so he decided to go check out the bar since he was bored and had time on his hands. Unfortunately I later got a text from him saying that after leaving the bar, on his walk back to his car he was stopped by a homeless man who was walking in his direction and proceeded to point a gun directly at his stomach. Needless to say he was mugged. He said that as soon as he gave up his wallet the guy sprinted north. Fortunately, the man didn't take his phone (probably got excited about getting the wallet that he didn't even think about his other belongings.) My friend doesn't venture to otr alot, so when I asked him where this mugging occurred he was a bit unsure. All he could tell me is that it took place close to a gated fence with a large grassy lot and that it happened almost immediately after he left the bar. He noted that the bar was pretty dead and he decided to leave realitively shortly after he got there. He said he parked his car in a large parking garage next to Vine St, so I'm guessing he was walking down Walnut to get back to his car and that the large grassy lot was the space behind the Vine St Kroger on Walnut. Anyway, this whole point of this post was really about how angry I am at the Wade family. I know they are going through a divorce, but for Christ sake it's been over 4 years! What divorce takes over 4 years to finalize?! Meanwhile, Mecca sort of sits in no man's land. That last block of Walnut St next to grammers bar is easily the sketchiest remaining block left in South liberty. The buildings on that block have not been touched in years. And it's almost pitch black with very little illumination from the over head street lamps, making it the perfect opportunity for a crime to occur. Especially since there is very little pedestrian activity on that block, except for the bar crowd walking to and back from Mecca. It makes me angry that the original Wade plan for that site is dead and his wife will probably sit on those buildings until 3cdc or some other developer gives her the money she wants. Which could be another 5 plus years... In the meantime, I wish 3cdc or the city of Cincinnati could do some street scaping for that block of Walnut. At least have some brighter lights that illuminate the area better at night. If you walk down that block at night it can literally be pitch black at times. It creates an extremely univiting atmosphere and leads for crimes like these to more likely occur. My friend was obviously shaken but he seemed in good spirits. He immediately cancelled his cards and filed a police report. Hopefully there are active cameras on that block and could possibly identify the scumbag who did this.

Let's be honest. These studio apartments will probably ranged in the $1,200 a month range. People are who throwing down that much cash a month will want a dedicated parking spot for that much money. I get it honestly. On street parking in Pendelton is getting more and more difficult to find nowadays as well.

The developer said they will apply for permits in January and will begin construction shortly after. Regarding this new project, I'm not sure if ground floor retail is really necessary in this area of Pendelton. It's sort of an location that doesn't really have any type of retail/business district. I'm glad this project will be dense. 56 new residence in Pendelton is pretty sizeable.

This pace of development lately is nuts! I have to ask...is this because of FCC as a catalyst for these long abandoned lots to be developed...or is it because otr has finally, "arrived" so to speak.

There are sizeable ethnic enclaves of middle eastern, Indians, and Mexicans all over the northern and eastern burbs. How do we make our urban neighborhoods appealing like Northside and OTR to these ethnic enclaves liking in the burbs is the bigger question. Just look at the strip malls by the sharonville Kroger... Nothing but Indian restaurants, grocery stores, koeran bakeries and a dedicated Asian grocery store. This is what OTR and our urban neighborhoods desperately need so badly. But how do we make there families stop and go yeah this is where I will move my family and locate my new Indian grocery store? Is it because Cincy public school districts are god awful perhaps? I know alot of families who pick there neighborhood solely because of school districts, and until Cincinnati public schools imrove you will have a hard time attracting families who maybe want to live in an urban enciroment like OTR, and be able to walk to there Kroger corporate job on a daily basis but care more about there child's education...which cincy is piss poor in doing so at the moment.

Question...if Hamilton County was to build a 500 parking space gagrage on one of the larger Findley market parking lots (which I'm assuming would be the area for it, if they choose that route), would this be equivalent to the parking garage structure on sycamore street where it's elevated versus underground? Ive always envisioned for that Findley market parking lot for a dense structure that would be a continuation of the market. I really hope it won't be a massive parking garage with 0 ground floor retail/units for residents.

That perspective can be somewhat misleading since Nashville and Columbus don't really have large urban neighborhoods like OTR. Funny enough, walking around the old town of Havana City center sort of reminded me of otr. Lots of abandoned buildings being revitalized and repurposed again. .

Yes, Vine in 2012 is nothing like what it is today. Even in 2012 it still felt like walking around otr was somewhat of an edgy thing to do. It was still in the shadow of it's crime ridden past. It felt like true momentum was built when more of the restaurant corridor was filled out. Especially on neighboring intersection streets like republic/Walut/race, etc. Still a long ways to go, but if anything otr has very much shed it's previous image of being the scary big bad wolf neighborhood. Look on r/Cincinnati on Reddit and you will see it's one of the most desired places to live in Cincy, and one of the most popular areas to eat, drink and party. That alone is the biggest difference from where we are at today and from where we were 7 years ago.

I wasn't around during the 90's. Was the main investment in otr at main St? Because looking at Google maps the majority of otr looked like a warzone.

To be fair, it took 3cdc to be the first pioneers to invest in OTR and show a proof of concept. You can definitely see a wave of new investors both local and out of state begin to invest in otr. I will argue that while the gentrification of otr hasn't necessarily exploded compared to some east coast city neighborhoods, you can still see a quite intense push that's only been increasing year over year. I would also add that walking in otr during 2012, compared to today is literally night and day. Even in a year, just by adding a handful of restaurants and businesses, main Street feels so much more active and lively compared to last year when it was mostly dead during the day and weekdays. OTR is about small battles IMO.

I noticed for Wade St/Central Parkway future development, the document noted "Convenience/Food Market" How much do you want to bet one of them will be a UDF convenience store that will appear eerily similar to the new UDF store on Short North in Columbus? If FCC follows through with the future development phase, I will be truly impressed. Adding a hotel, new residential, bars/restaurants, banks, Daycare, Office Space was something that West End, and Central Parkway needed. Even with the rapidly gentrifying state of OTR, I would've have never envisioned West End developing all of these institutions on its own in a 10-20 year time span. So for all of those naysayers about FCC being located in the West End, I say god bless FCC and the Lindners making the West End attractive and viable again.

Hopefully something can be done with that space soon. I was driving at 7pm from the CBD, I've never seen it more dead. I always complained about the CBD looking like a ghost town, but this is on a different level. It's sad, because it's nearing christmas. We should have way more high end shops and businesses with holiday window displays, and expressing the holiday spirit. Instead, they are all bustling at the kenwood mall, and downtown (aside from OTR) is dead as a door nail. The only people I was able to see are passed out heroin addicts sleeping on the corner of the street in the cradle position. Pathetic.

So some news in the latest HCB packet. The building that was badly damaged in the fire at Findley Market, will be renovated, into a event space, and ground floor retail. It's currently being used as gated storage. It also appears that Queen City Radio attempt at a Pendelton Bar by the corner of 3 points Brewery has been denied. Not sure what they will do this with this building now. Unfortunate. I get that Pendelton is a more residential neighborhood, but adding establishments that have people roaming at every time of the day only creates more eyes on the street, and a more safer surroundings. Nothing worse than walking alone in a sleepy neighborhood. https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/december-3-2018-staff-report-and-attachments-4-5-only/

Finally. Feel like this project has taken forever to get off the ground.

The last few paragraphs is why I fought so hard for fcc to land in the West end. Having a new block of development which could hotels/food markets is great for the West end and otr. Tourism is becoming a very big reality for otr and Airbnb units are flooding otr. Some of that could be tampered down some if we could see some hotels in the West end by Central Park way.

Does anyone have more information about who owns the now vacant and boarded up properties on main Street ( the side past Goodfellas) where the former shelters we're for old saint Mary's. It's such a prime location and main Street is growing rapidly now thanks to urban sites. Extremely surprised those collection of buildings are being left abandoned and boarded up still. I'm extremely curious who is sitting on those properties.

Losing Lachey's at that location sucked. They were pretty big advocates for OTR, and were one of the first reasons why suburban moms would come down with their girlfriends to OTR during the earlier days of the revitalization. Q102 would also promote them alot, and do live shows from the bar, and would just give positive airtime about the neighborhood as a whole. Granted, as a bar it was nothing special. The food was decent at best. Drinks were typical. There was probably a reason why they were dead most of the time, while 16 bit a few blocks down on walnut was always packed. The shooting probably didn't help their business situation, but from the many times I walked by they were always slow and dead for the most part. Just way to many options in OTR, and Lachey's did nothing special aside from being owned by a cincinnati celebrity and hold occasional radio shows inside the bar.

Did anyone attend the Pendleton council meeting regarding Queen City radio 2nd bar in Pendleton? Did the community council approve and support the second bar?

Bezos must be a low key country music fan I guess.

HCB Staff has denied the demolition of 819 Elm St. To recall, the developer wanted to demolish the historic building in place of a taller, more dense unit building with an additional child care center. On one hand the HCB is right, they ownership had ownership of the building since 2012 and has made no effort to preserve the building what so ever. Also, there are plenty of surface lots nearby that could be redeveloped, so I'm not sure why they are purchasing and attacking a historic building in a historic overlay district, when there are so many unused surface lots nearby. Is it really that more expensive to purchase a large surface lot instead, and redevelop that lot, rather than to go through the hassle of getting approval from zoning board and the HCB?

1505 and 1513 Republic St were approved for Rehab for a total of 15 units in the latest HCB Packet. Good to see some added density being added lately into these historic rehab projects. I swear 3-4 years, most of these historic structures were all being converted into Single Family Homes, lately it seems most of the conversions have been for dense multi units.

So how do we make "Cincinnati being famous for just being famous"...

When will CVG experience a true renovation? Many first time visitors to cincinnati are coming out of CVG. CVG is our "gateway" in some respects, as most airports are. The old 80's style carpet..the dead stores inside the terminals...Its kind of depressing and looks like an outdated abandoned mall in many respects.

With Pins opening next week this will change the foot traffic for Main ST OTR forever. So many times, you will go to Main St on the weekdays and the pedestrian traffic would be sparse at best. Pins in columbus is always packed even on the weekdays. Look at 16 bit on walnut st, and how that one spot creates such foot traffic because it's such a huge and popular draw...same will apply from now on with Main St.

I mean I get that, but Portland and Austin (IMO) have had the same memorable effect (if not more so) and I would argue that while they are experiencing resonating growth, it's not in the same league compared to Nashville. 2. Sure, but many large Nashville projects have faltered as well, just look at their recent failed public transit project. Also, I don't really think acronyms matters for the success of a downtown. I've met many out of towners who thought OTR was our downtown the first time they came to cincy. When cities rise, it's because they are pulling in jobs. Industries look at the city, and say I want to move their. What's making these industries move to Nashville...none of those reasons DEPACincy really ring true IMO.