DEPACincy

In fairness, I wouldn't call Boi Na Braza a national chain. They have three locations total. The other two are in Texas.

Yesterday evening, 3/18.

A view of the construction of "Academy on 4th" from Newport on the Levee this afternoon, 3/14.

Most campuses now understand that walling themselves off from their urban settings is not a good move and have worked to rectify the situation. Both Penn and Drexel have done a ton to better embrace their West Philly setting and it shows. Go to Google streetview and use the slider to see the difference. It's amazing how much they've opened themselves up to the community.

It's such a shame that it is surrounded on three sides by stroads. The designs of MLK, Jefferson, and Clifton are anathema to urbanity and represent what is wrong with planning in Cincinnati. UC could be an urban campus on par with Penn or Harvard if its surrounding streets tied it to the neighborhoods instead of creating a moat around it.

SEPTA Key in Philly is accepted for bus, trackless trolley, streetcar, subway-surface, subway, elevated, commuter rail, and light rail. Can we count all those separately? ? No monorail or ferries though. Unfortunately the River Link Ferry is run by DRPA.

Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out how what PG said was bad. He privately, to a friend, expressed that it was low for Smitherman to use his wife's cancer for political gain. That seems like a pretty reasonable idea to express and one most would agree with. And it seems even more reasonable now that we have Smitherman blatantly proving that he is willing to use his wife's cancer for political gain.

FWIW, in my professional life, I have come into contact with open meeting laws a lot (not in Ohio). In those cases, I was regulary a party to email exchanges with elected officials in lots of different municipalities. Both myself, and the municipal solicitors, found ourselves constantly reminding the elected officials not to email each other as a group. They often forgot, or simply didn't know they weren't allowed to. We tried our best to make sure it didn't happen. This was also the case with after-meeting conversations in the parking lots. In most cases the governing board consisted of five or seven members, but in some cases it was three. In those cases, it's really hard to keep reminding two individuals that they are not allowed to discuss municipal business ever outside of a public meeting, because they constitute a quorum.

Because the judge ordered all messages between any of the five to be handed over to the plaintiff as a part of discovery. At that point they became public record. But those text messages – as well as others pulled into the case during court proceedings – also reveal discussions about city contracts, board appointments and a litany of gripes and personal attacks on fellow city officials. Thousands of additional texts between individual council members were released Thursday after the court hearing. Those texts became part of the case because Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman wanted to get more information about the secret group conversations. Ruehlman’s decision to release all the texts publicly stunned the council members because the texts they sent to one another outside the group did not violate Ohio open meetings law. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/07/cincinnati-texting-case-council-members-admit-breaking-law/3089766002/

And it is quite expensive despite being MASSIVELY SUBSIDIZED by VC.

You have to start somewhere. Do you think Philly's numerous streetcar lines, subway lines, and commuter rail lines just popped up over night? In Philly, people disparage the system constantly. Some of the gripes are legitimate but some of it is just not realizing how good they have it compared to most people in the USA. But when the system isn't working or needs improvement their response isn't BURN IT DOWN like it is here, it is "how do we make it better?" That's the difference between world class cities and a place like Cincinnati. Too many people her don't have any aspirations to make things better. The status quo is good enough.

Exactly! In Philly, transferring from light rail to the subway was never an issue because one came every 10 minutes and the other every 4. And they timed them so you had enough time to get from one to the other but that you weren't waiting very long. Get off subway and light rail leaves 5 minutes later, so you have time to make the 2 minute walk and 3 minutes of cushion. But the transfer only added 5 minutes to your commute.

Are these texts supposed to be some kind of smoking gun? Council members don't like Cranley! They were concerned about the effects of the stadium on the West End! They criticize WLW! Greg Landsman wants to pay his share of the settlement! Wow, these are some really revealing text messages. I'm sure it'll sink their political careers. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/03/07/city-council-texts-heres-what-they-say/3082165002/

This isn't really true. When I lived in Philly tons of suburbanites would take commuter rail or light rail into the city every day for work and then get to their final destination using a bus, streetcar, or subway line. I did the opposite for awhile and took the subway to the end of the line and transferred to a light rail line to get to my job in the suburbs. When you have an expansive system that is easy to use you get used to doing that.

How accurate is Google maps in regard to arrival times? Right now it says I could grab a train at The Banks at 11:43. Is this realtime data?

It seems so stupid not to index. They know it is necessary and it saves them from the political fallout of doing this again in a few years.

If the demand-side is the issue then the streetcar's problems will sort themselves out in the long-run. More people are moving into the CBD and OTR every day. As more apartments come on line there'll be more potential riders.

Unless, @ColDayMan is referring to something that I'm not aware of, there are no stations that are free all the time. However, during special events SEPTA will run free trains at certain times. An example would be the Sports Complex station after an Eagles game or a big concert. Or 5th Street/Independence Hall station on the Fourth of July. These are usually sponsored. So you'll see advertisements that say "Take SEPTA to the Eagles game courtesy of Miller Lite!" or something like that.

This is a bit of a problem I think. When I lived in Philly, the subway would come every four minutes during peak hours so you didn't need to know the schedule. You'd never wait more than a few minutes. But during non-peak I knew when certain trains would come off the top of my head because they adhered very well to the published schedule. Evening trains would arrive at my station on the sixes, so 7:06, 7:16, 7:26, etc. That was very convenient and easy to remember. If the streetcar was consistent that would boost ridership. I'd like to be able to go to the Library station and know that a train will arrive at 7:02, 7:17, 7:32, and 7:47.

It depends. Places like Atlanta, Raleigh, and Austin have huge and growing black middle class populations. So no, I don't think moving to Huntsville or Jackson is going to increase their quality of life, but targeted areas are better. Also, lots of blacks are moving to the Northeast, and places like Philly, DC, and Baltimore have booming black middle class and upper class populations. Look at Prince George's County, a majority black county, as an example. They've added over 100,000 people since 2000 and it went from a median household income of $55,000 to $78,600.

Yes, I believe this is the case. The land will be given back to the adjacent parcels.

I don't think a new arena and a soccer stadium are attracting the same acts. The soccer stadium is more likely to compete with Great American than the arena. Acts like Zac Brown Band might see it as an option. Last year they played Cincinnati and their show is too big for an arena the size of US Bank so they played in front of a half empty GABP. The soccer stadium would've been a more appropriately sized venue.

I was the one who made the spreadsheet ?

Currently live downtown and this is what I do. I drive my car a couple of times per month, usually to go to Kroger. It is parked in a garage that is a 10 minute walk from my apartment.

The problem is that a lot of the retail and restaurant establishments don't cater to the demographic that lives in the neighborhood. The clubs rely on people from elsewhere to patronize them. Places like Mt. Adams Tavern and Blind Lemon do just fine. More places should cater to people living there and people going to the museum/shows.