DEPACincy

Yep! Notice most of his examples are from elsewhere. There's very few places in the US outside of Philly and Boston where you can find these types of streets. People in Philly usually walk right down the middle of the street because it is rare to encounter a car. There's also examples where the street has a brick or cobblestone treatment.

Yea, this is a good elaboration of what I was trying to get at. In Washington Square West in Philly there are some rowhouses that are only 16 feet wide, and the cartway width is only about 18 feet wide. It sounds oppressive because it is incredibly dense but it is actually quite lovely, and one of the things I really love about Philly.

It's not a regional dish. It's something that 2-3 very small restaurants that nobody had ever heard of had on the menu. I had had "hot" or Cajun chicken from similar places before. It's like saying the Bahama Mama is a "regional dish" in Columbus. I'd wager that the majority of people in Columbus have never been to Schmidt's and don't know what the hell a Bahama Mama is. No, that's not correct at all. It's a regional dish that has been served in dozens of restaurants throughout black neighborhoods in Nashville for decades. Just because white people didn't know or care about it until very recently doesn't make it less of a regional dish.

Cincinnati Chili is probably the king of true regional American foods. People actually eat it all the time, unlike the various regional foods that are eaten mostly by tourists. Also, the Hot Mett is little-known outside the Cincinnati/Great Lakes region. Like, people haven't even heard the word "mett". There is definitely an opportunity for a brander to simply start calling them "Ohio Hot Mett" or something like that. I'd say this is all true, but I'd add the Philly Cheesesteak as another true regional food. Sure, you can get something called a Philly Cheesesteak anywhere in the country but it won't taste anything like what you get in Philly. I'd also throw in pork roll for NJ and scrapple for Southeast PA/Delaware. And of course scrapple's close cousin from Cincinnati, goetta. I don't think anyone knows what goetta is even an hour drive from Cincy.

I've only occasionally heard them called "hot metts" in Cincinnati, but I have seen them listed as such on menus further north. I know I've seen them listed on menus as "Mettwurst", but I couldn't tell you where. My grandmas still say "Bratwust" with a v-German sound, and never say "brat". I think there has been a steady push away from German pronunciations in Cincinnati because it reminds people of their square relatives. Hot mett is just a mettwurst with spices. They sell the variation at Findlay Market, Great American Ballpark, and multiple golf courses I frequent on the east side and in Northern Kentucky. https://www.queencitysausage.com/index.php/article/top-selling-products-2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince%27s_Hot_Chicken_Shack So they added the word Nashville to the front recently for branding purposes. That doesn't mean it isn't real, or that it didn't originate in Nashville. It's still a regional dish, even if it was mostly among the black community until a few years ago.

I think you're right about Mayfair and Oxford Circle. It's the neighborhoods that took the rowhouse, a fundamentally urban housing type, and tried to add suburban touches that didn't age well. So in Mayfair you see a lot of rowhouses with a small front yard. It's super ugly. Northeast Philly is full of "airlite" rowhouses and it's horrible urban form. Looking at both Philly and Baltimore, some of the most popular neighborhoods are old-school classic rowhouse neighborhoods with great urban density. In Baltimore I'm thinking Fed Hill, Canton, Fells Point, etc. In Philly there's Fitler Square, Washington Square West, Society Hill, Queen Village, the list goes on.

I wonder how much cell phones have hurt card playing, especially solitaire. But are high school and college kids still sitting around playing Euchre? Classic card games are still popular. And niche card games are more popular than ever. Things like Exploding Kittens, Cards Against Humanity, Apples to Apples, etc.

So I 100% agree with the idea you're espousing, but I think that your examples of Baltimore and Philly rowhouse neighborhoods aren't good examples. Rowhouse neighborhoods are actually quite dense. In fact, South Philly is one of the densest places in the United States. It is much, much denser than any of the downtown areas of any city in Ohio. Some Census Tracts have upwards of 60,000 people per square mile. And it's not struggling at all. It is the definition of a mixed use neighborhood, with vibrant commercial corridors and commercial uses on many corners. It's also extremely diverse and has some great neighborhood parks. South Philly is basically the model urban neighborhood and it has zero skyscrapers.

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/13173/smog-absorbing-canopies-over-motorways-are-being-considered-in-the-u-k

Classic example of someone telling everyone else how they should live. He's actually bemoaning people in the UK using 40% more living space per person than they did in the 80s, most would call that an improvement in living conditions. But when we all use 40% more living space we all suffer from the externalities associated with that. It's not like they were living in Mumbai slums 30 years ago. They already lived in first world conditions, more living space isn't really that important to an individual at a certain point from a well-being perspective but it does come with all kinds of environmental and quality of life effects for the rest of us.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/soccer/fc-cincinnati/2018/05/30/fc-cincinnati-futbol-2018-usl-fussball-2019-mls-expansion/655354002/ I don't like that it sounds so close to foosball for sure but I actually like that it will honor our German heritage and I like it written out as Fußball Club Cincinnati. It's not just that we have had German immigrants, it's that they played a role in shaping our culture in a way that very few other cities can claim. Milwaukee might be the only other major city as "German" as Cincinnati is.

It's not a conspiracy. Read Dan Hurley's book from 1981 or 1982. It outlines how after the "failure" (actually, the sabotaging by neglect) of the subway project, Central Parkway was reimagined as a "cultural corridor" in order to keep the center of downtown from moving north from Fountain Square (there is simply no question that the American Building was the beginning of what would have been a skyscraper-lined boulevard rather than the non-event that Central Parkway became). The cultural corridor was put on ice because allowing OTR to descend into chaos after WWII served the same function of scaring away investment along the Parkway. Plus, the parkway was completely cut-off from the expressway network. Logic dictated creating ramps to and from I-75 and I-71 to either end of the east/west section of the Parkway, but neither appeared, and that wasn't by accident. With the formation of 3CDC we saw the blue bloods unite to at last redevelop OTR on their own terms. That's why SCPA was moved to a new building on Central Parkway -- to use up that lot that otherwise could have been a big for-profit development that could have competed with downtown. Now we see Lindner/Cranley/3CDC acting to fill in Central Parkway north of the elbow with Lindner/Cranley/3CDC-approved stuff. Whatever collusion among the business elite happened a century ago has nothing to do with MLS or FC Cincinnati. MLS prefers urban locations, so Newport or West End. FC Cincinnati wanted to be in Cincinnati proper, so Oakley or West End. Only one of those neighborhoods made both lists. There's not some grand conspiracy controlling every decision.

So you guys are telling me the 2 main neighborhoods making up the Short North... are not in the Short North? K. There are these signs all over the area. I could only find a picture of this one, but I know they exist in Italian Village also. I also think that even Harrison West and The Circles also have signs like this that say "Short North" on them. Again, the High Street corridor may be thought of as the heart of the Short North, and it is, but that's not all of it. It was originally the entire area just north of Downtown south of 5th, several blocks on either side of High. Italian Village is the east side of High, Victorian Village on the west side. Why do you guys think that both neighborhoods have development commissions that have a direct say in development along High Street? Even the Short North Block Watch includes 6 different areas- High Street, Vic Village, Italian Village, The Circles, Harrison West and Dennison Place. Yea, others have addressed this already but parts of Victorian Village and Italian Village are in the Short North, which was an informal term originally used disparagingly to refer to the stretch of High Street just north of downtown. Go to Google Maps and type in all three and it'll show you the boundaries. But you're right that many people use the term to refer to different things. That's why I stated that neighborhood boundaries are semi-arbitrary anyway. Actually it seems everyone has said a different thing. The people that actually live there know where they live, they put in on their neighborhood signs, its on their websites... but what do they know. No, nothing said has been inconsistent. It is a Venn diagram, like jmecklenborg pointed out. Short North is the mixed-use area along High Street, extending one block in each direction. Victorian and Italian Villages are residential neighborhoods to the west and east of High, but they overlap with the Short North area. Now that Short North is trendy it's popular for people to use that term for a much larger area, but it hasn't been traditionally used that way. For example, I have a friend that lives in The Circles. He tells people Short North because they know it and they don't know what The Circles is half the time. The Circles are traditionally not part of the Short North since they are north of 5th. The civic association and block watch groups for all these nearby neighborhoods call themselves Short North because it's popular, that's all.

So you guys are telling me the 2 main neighborhoods making up the Short North... are not in the Short North? K. There are these signs all over the area. I could only find a picture of this one, but I know they exist in Italian Village also. I also think that even Harrison West and The Circles also have signs like this that say "Short North" on them. Again, the High Street corridor may be thought of as the heart of the Short North, and it is, but that's not all of it. It was originally the entire area just north of Downtown south of 5th, several blocks on either side of High. Italian Village is the east side of High, Victorian Village on the west side. Why do you guys think that both neighborhoods have development commissions that have a direct say in development along High Street? Even the Short North Block Watch includes 6 different areas- High Street, Vic Village, Italian Village, The Circles, Harrison West and Dennison Place. Yea, others have addressed this already but parts of Victorian Village and Italian Village are in the Short North, which was an informal term originally used disparagingly to refer to the stretch of High Street just north of downtown. Go to Google Maps and type in all three and it'll show you the boundaries. But you're right that many people use the term to refer to different things. That's why I stated that neighborhood boundaries are semi-arbitrary anyway.

Pic 3 isn't either. That's Italian Village. So three pics of three different neighborhoods. Though neighborhood boundaries are semi-arbitrary so I'm not sure the point.

Since this may have been lost in the argument, everyone should read these articles posted by mu2010. They shine a little light on the disagreement at hand.

There is a lot of talking past each other here but I don't think there's as much disagreement as it seems. I would venture to guess that the weighted density (mentioned by someone else) for most neighborhoods in Cincy and Cleveland is higher than in most Cbus neighborhoods. So it's true that the experienced density for most residents is higher. Cincy and Cleveland also have a more nodal development pattern so that contributes to that experience is well. Columbus also has more single-family detached zoning and Cincy and Cleveland have large areas of undevelopable land and industrial areas. These factors all also contribute to the fact that LA is a denser metro than NY even though the lived in experience of most New Yorkers is that they live in denser neighborhoods where they can walk places and people in LA tend to drive everywhere. The NYC metro has very nodal development patterns, with neighborhood density peaking around transit stops/transportation hubs/commercial districts. To a lesser extent Cleveland and Cincy are built that way too. Walk Scores provide some context too: Cleveland 60 Cincinnati 50 Columbus 41 Just looking at Downtown Walk Score: Cincinnati 93 Cleveland 91 Columbus 82 That doesn't mean that Columbus doesn't have dense, walkable neighborhoods. Of course it does. And it's gaining more every day. It's just a historical fluke that Cleveland and Cincy developed mostly in a different time and under different conditions. I'd also add that there's a term geographers use to describe the effect of how it can be very difficult to compare city populations and densities. The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modifiable_areal_unit_problem

Context matters. All of those college towns are doing quite well compared to the surrounding areas. Most of them wouldn't exist without the college. Columbus would still have state government and be located in a very strategic position along major Interstates with lots of flat, developable land.

I get the Business Journal in the Youngstown area at work two times a day in my email and that article showed up. It's an interesting read, and it goes to show you just how bad Southern Ohio is really doing. Hopefully there is a slowdown with the more official numbers in the 2020 Census. Aren't the fastest growing areas in Cincinnati on the Kentucky side? HUGE difference between Southwest Ohio and rural Southern Ohio. One of the faster growing counties in the Cincy area is on the KY side but the three fastest growing counties in absolute terms are all in Ohio. What is happening in Adams County economically has nothing to do with what is happening in Cincinnati. Population change between 2010 and 2017 for Greater Cincinnati area counties: Warren County, OH +15,416 Hamilton County, OH +11,543 Butler County, OH +11,516 Boone County, KY +11,366 Clermont County, OH +6,624 Kenton County, KY +5,393 Campbell County, KY +1,877

This is true, though I'd note that the ACS methodology has gotten better over time. Also each year they revise the numbers for years prior and they usually become more accurate. So the 2012 and 2013 numbers released in 2017 should be more accurate than they were when they were originally released.

The problem with this is that it adds 15 minutes to your commute even if you time it exactly right. So let's say it actually adds 20 minutes to your commute on average. That's 40 minutes per day lost. People really value their time.

Not actually that crazy of an assertion. A lot of respected theoretical physicists basically agree. Maybe "almost definitely" is too strong.

No one knows or cares about Blink outside of the region. Its a pretty awesome thing you've got, but doubt anyone even from Indy would know about it ;). Even when Cincy does stuff well it undersells itself. This isn't true at all. I had friends come from Columbus and NYC to go. I had other friends in NYC, Philly, DC, and Chicago mention that after hearing about it they'd like to come when it happens again.

E I don't know how to us this blog, but 1. the sidewalks will still be functional (you can walk on them). Some will be inside out of the weather (24/7/365). Sounds attractive to some walkers. 2. Leave all the "beautiful historic buildings" in place. There is existing retail and apartments. Attach the glass cap to the historic buildings. Or, just leave the facades. 3. Only closing one block; Plum, a useless street at present. Tearing down the Albee was necessary. Since Cincinnatians seem to want to live in some idealistic past, not only can they stare at the real facade of the old Albee they can stare at colorful lighted LED Albee facades.... think Blink. Now we have a beautiful new convention hotel, an enclosed air conditioned walkable park/exibition space and beautiful preserved historic buildings. A street is the basic building block of a city, in a way a mall enclosure is not. A street is a fundamental element that people have tried and failed with gimmicks to replace (think skywalks.) Psychology your proposal, if it was not someone’s destination, would be seen as one big superblock to walk around, not through. That you describe that section of Plum Street as “useless” suggests we have irreconcilable differences. I would grade the west side of Plum an “A” for strength of building form and diversity of uses. There is even a new condo project underway on the south end of the block that will combine old & new construction. The parking lot on the east side of the street obviously needs to be redeveloped though. Additionally we had a mall in Carew Tower and it failed and had to be redeveloped, and Columbus had a mall downtown that was razed and redeveloped, so a downtown mall is not the kind of project that has been historically successful. This would be taking bunch of separate buildings with different owners that can reinvent themselves over time (a robust configuration) and combining them into one big fragile project probably getting government aid. The kind of project that in ten years headline writers will be writing things like “What’s the matter with convention place mall?” And “Convention place mall fails to attract tenants” similar to the problems we’ve seen at the Banks or Newport on the Levee. So, our historic buildings are not just about living in an idealized past, they are about maintaining a robust urban form that we know can stand the test of time. (Also, welcome to the forum... hope you don’t mind the vigorous debate right off the bat! You’re quite skilled with the graphics) You are right a street is not a building. Yes some people's ideas were fails. But, now I've given you a perfectly good solution (or we could wait for the new bridge to be built then build all the way to the mill creek). There was the guy called Bucky and he said we should put a big glass dome over an entire city. It hasn't been done yet, but another one of his ideas was built in Dubai (?) Dreams come true it could happen to you. But indoor malls downtown have been tried time and time again and failed. You just need to line all the streets around there with ground floor retail. Think of it as an outdoor mall. No need to overthink it. And the more streets the better. We shouldn't be getting rid of any. That's how you get that fine-grained urban scale that everyone loves. Think Boston, Savannah, Philadelphia. The shorter the blocks the more interesting it is for pedestrians. https://ceosforcities.org/small-blocks/ These are at the same scale. One is way more pedestrian-friendly.