mohr37

Not sure how much this will affect this situation, but none the less... Lerner agrees takeover of Villa Aston Villa's board have accepted a £62.6m takeover of the club from American billionaire Randy Lerner. A club statement on the Stock Exchange said a stake of 56.85% of majority shareholders had been secured by Lerner at 547 pence per share. Four consortia had been linked with the club but the Villa board have recommended 44-year-old Lerner's offer to shareholders. Doug Ellis, 82, chairman from 1968-75 and since 1982, is to stand down. He has been the target of constant supporter unrest in recent seasons, with fans upset at his lack of financial backing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/4789693.stm

The UC library archives has a copy of this and I was able to scan most of the images for a project I was working on a few years back. I can't figure out how to upload images larger than 1000x750 on photobucket. And I'm too cheap for pbase or any of the other hosts. So if you would like the actual image size I would be more than happy to email them to you. And the General Park Plan is absoluetly amazing when viewed at full size. jmeck is right, these hand drawings blow the shit outta any computer GIS made images. I can only image how much time they spent on these.

I've been sitting on these images for quite a long time and thought I would share them to those who have not. Enjoy Cincinnati 1907 And finally the overall General Park Plan Added bonus, 1925 Plan birdseye

I also wish Nick well in whatever is to come. I've only been to alchemize 3 or 4 times, not my type of bar, but had a good time and will most definately check it out once it reopens. Nick, even though I'm upset that OTR has lost another business, I still greatly respect you and everything you have done for the City (PLEASE bring back Desdomana). That being said, what is so bad about alchemize moving to Covington, other than the OTR factor? Covington is no different than say Corryville or Northside. Covington is facing many of the same problems that Cincy faces. Putting it in the same group as WC and Blue Ash is ludicrous. Some people need to put aside their Kentucky hatred and take off the blinders. Covington and Newport are not the devil and a business moving there is no different than moving from neighborhood to neighborhood. Covington and Newport are just another neighborhood in the city, IMO, and just as an important key in developing a better quality of life in our city. And of course Covington was going to be more involved with these smaller businessses than Cincy, they are a much smaller city with less fluff to worry about and can focus more on small business. With alchemize and Madhatter right there along with hopefully a Madison Theater under new management, add a few more music venues then Covington can really have something going on.

I have to agree, a coffee shop that would be open almost 24/7 would be a great addition to the square. My idea....a coffee shop directly on the square, one similar to this one in Birmingham, England. And yes, Popeye's biscuits are the best ever.

I don't know if Grasscat has covered this one and I just missed it in his earlier posts, but: 2907 Glendora Ave (behind the Short Vine Dominos) is being rehabed and has a sign on the side saying "Affordable Loft Style Condos." Can't quite remember what Realtor is doing the listing but next time I go by I'll check

I wonder if the people at the Enquirer and the majority of their readers realize that these are all just ESTIMATES. They are basically using the rates at which the city decreased from say 1990-2000. I'm not saying that the City is not losing population, but I really don't believe the city is loosing THAT much. Additionally, 300,000 by 2010. I really don't see it getting that low.

FY07 TRANSPORTATION FHWA - $39.1 billion (3.5 bil. more than 2006) FAA - $15.2 billion (1.4 bil more than 2006) Amtrak - $900 million (270 mil. less than 2006) What a crock of sh*t http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=624&Month=6&Year=2006

Yeah calling the Fairfield Village Green a square is disrespectful toward downtowns and squares. I also think it's quite humourous that these people think they can just plop down a "downtown" wherever there is open space for one, regardless of the people or the past.

Sometimes I think we get a little too worried about these 'fears'. Am I a bit worried right now? Sure. And I'm sure the business and property owners are too. But we Americans, and all humans, can be impatient people, especially us that care so much and have invested our time and money in these places. Cities evolve and devolve. They go up and then they struggle. Like life in general, they are a roller coaster. While everybody talks up about how Portland, San Fran, and even Columbus to some extent are so far ahead, and they rightfully are in most aspects, they too will find themselves on the down slope of things one day, even though it may not likely not be in our lifetimes, at least in the Portland instance. Downtown and OTR will one day see the light again. It may be later this fall in the form of development spurred off from the new Fountain Square, it may be from the likely impending transportation crisis, or it may not be until we are long gone. But because we, I should say you guys, have spent the last 15 or so odd years trying to revive Main and OTR with only little glimpses of what could have been, it is not a total loss. In reality it is only a second in the life of a city. Great Cities are not built instantly. The evolution of a city is slow and messy. I greatly appreciate everybody's efforts who have tried to better the area. But we must not stop now because a number of others have decided to head toward today's greener pastures. We must continute to work for the betterment of our community, not just for our lifetime, but also the future.

I ran across this on the SSC forums. I have a dream... The gargantuan, five-level terminus took more than 10 years to build. Allan Hall, Berlin May 27, 2006 EUROPE'S first custom-built railway station in a hundred years has opened in Berlin as a statement of faith in the capital of reunited Germany and of the future of railways in an aircraft age. The Hauptbahnhof — Main Station — is a cathedral dedicated to the iron horse, a dollop of gigantism in the heart of a city reinventing itself. Even those who never travel by train will be impressed with the architectural shock-and-awe that this Goliath inspires. Tallest, widest, grandest, boldest — it encapsulates the kind of grandiosity that a previous German ruler called Adolf Hitler plotted for a new super-Reich capital he was to call Germania on the site where Berlin still stands. Those are the parallels the critics of this $A1.2 billion project like to draw. But mostly the reaction to the Hauptbahnhof is one of pride intermingled with sadness at the departure of a much-loved halt further down the road where the big express trains have pulled in since the end of World War II. Zoo Bahnhof, which affords travellers the odd glimpse of the llamas and buffaloes at the adjacent animal park, now becomes a regional-trains-only ugly sister to the spanking new Hauptbahnhof. Germany's single most ambitious building project after the collapse of communism, goes online in time for the World Cup, which kicks off on June 9. Its statistics, like its location, are impressive. Built on five levels it will handle 300,000 passengers on 750 computer-controlled trains a day that arrive and depart at intervals of just 90 seconds. The station is the culmination of a dream for Berliners interrupted by bloody wars and partition. The city fathers have always wanted a New York-style Grand Central Station instead of the plethora of terminals that once dotted the landscape. Now it has one to rival New York's station as a symbol of the newly confident, economically resurgent Germany. It has been under construction for 11 years on the former no-man's-land between East and West Berlin, adjoining the death strip and old minefields that kept the two Germanies at bay for 40 long years. Passengers will see the German Parliament, the Reichstag, nearby, together with the washing machine-shaped Chancellery, official residence of new German leader Angela Merkel, although she continues to live in a small flat some distance away because the Chancellery — like the station to some — is too grand for her. The no-man's-land past of the station has been carried to the present: there is little infrastructure. But within the steel-and-glass colossus there are 80 restaurants, bars, underwear shops, perfume boutiques and chemists on three floors. The station will be the greatest rail junction in Europe, the nexus for trains travelling on all points of the compass in a back-to-the-future revival of the mode of transport that still gives the plane and the car a run for their money on the Continent. "There have been critics, about style, about costs, about everything, but this is a magnificent achievement," said a Deutsche Bahn spokesman. BIG PROJECT — BIG STATISTICS ■ 500,000 square metres of reinforced concrete used in the construction. ■ 1500 kilometres of cables keep the lights on and computers up. ■ 9000 fire sprinklers installed. ■ 1200 loudspeakers inform passengers of arrivals, departures, delays and cancellations. ■ 54 escalators and 49 lifts move the passengers through station. ■ 900 jobs have been created as a result of the construction. ■ 45 homes could be powered for a year through the electricity generating-cells on the roof. and more detailed photos here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=355904

There is going to be an open house on the status of this project on this Wednesday, May 24 from 5:00-7:00. I'm planning on attending this event and hopefully there will be some new images and progress to report. Found the link from the City's park site: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityparks/pages/-13873-/ There is also a pdf from the Parks Department showing a couple of small new images and some modified cost estimates. http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityparks/downloads/cityparks_pdf13900.pdf

Deal on the Banks? BY KIMBALL PERRY AND CLIFF PEALE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Hamilton County and Cincinnati officials have called a 5 p.m. news conference to make a major announcement on the Banks. The announcement comes after several days of closed-door meetings between the county and city and Reds owners Bob Castellini and Tom Williams. Castellini and Williams were attempting to mediate an impasse between the two governments that has stalled the proposed $600 million commercial, retail and residential neighborhood between the two riverfront sports stadiums... www.enquirer.com

I also agree with your LED statement. I think that it just gives that "big city" feeling (not that we aren't already). These are the types of things that are people magnets that will draw people to that area. An experience the 'burbs and Newport can't rival. Is it October yet?

Thanks alot for the update. The 580 building renovation will be about a million times better than what was there. Especailly that corner on the 3rd redering down. If only the Cincy press cared about this project as much as we urbanohioans do. They should have a weekly update on the progress or something similar.

I missed the "River" part in the site plan. I guess they meant to call it "Retention Pond Crossing." But that doesn't sound too well.

Agreed. Foster, imo, is probably the best of the starchitects. From the British Museum to the New German Parliament, they are all much better pieces of work than what Gehry has ever done. But what do I know, I'm not an architect. In the perfect world, I would have Foster design the new Brent Spence Bridge in Cincy. His Millau Bridge in France is awesome.

Don't you guys know that Lakota schools are the example. Who needs schools with character and durability? Prison schools are so nice. West Chester rocks :-P

Thanks moonloop. I guess that answers half of my question. I wonder what locations the drop inn center is looking at relocating to.

^ There currently is a big surface parking lot there, although I believe there are a few buildings on the corner of 12th and Race. I just wonder what the drop inn center will do with themselves. Considering that sex offenders are not alowed within 300 yards (correct me if I'm wrong) of a school building.

Anything is better than those army barricks. NIMBYs (shakes head)

Yes, that would be it.

I too saw one of these buses yesterday driving home on I-74. They even have the big $1 logo on the side. Looked way nicer than a Greyhound. I just may have to ride one of these things in the coming weekends.

There is a quote I heard once that can best describe OTR "Out of adversity, comes creativity"

Excellent pics as always Monte! Union Terminal rotunda = my favorite room in Cincy, with the Hall of Mirrors Ballroom a close second.