OliverHazardPerry

It's a shame that we lost Derek Bauman as a candidate. I understand the reason why he had to drop out, but he would have been a big voice for public transit on Council.

What is the context of this "project?" I have an incredibly hard time believing that ODOT is going to spend hundreds of millions burying I-75 in a tunnel through the West End and removing Fort Washington Way West to I-75 North access. They can't even figure out how to build a new bridge over the river (although a lot of that is due to Kentucky). Don't get me wrong, this is an incredible vision. But this seems like someone's idealized dream, not something with basis in reality at the moment.

Troeros might be the only one on here making consistent posts about Somerset, but who ever is in charge of their marketing has been doing an excellent job. I've seen all kinds of marketing on Instagram, CityBeat, and Reddit about this place. It's created some buzz even among some friends of mine offline. People who live downtown and in OTR are excited for it to open.

When the developers say housing units, do they typically mean individual bedrooms or overall houses, apartments, and condos? There are so many open lots in Fairfax and Hough that are begging to be redeveloped in addition to creating some height to University Circle itself. Hopefully developers like Knez can create a nice mix of all 3.

It's official. Cincinnati had its first population growth in 70 years according to the 2020 Census results. A numeric increase of 12,374, or approximately 4%.

These files are meant to be imported into statistical software for redistricting, not for the average geography nerd to peruse via excel. The Census was coming up on some hard deadlines for redistricting and made it their focus for reporting purposes. I'm expecting much more user friendly graphics and tables to be released here in the near future.

The Ohio River Valley, from Mahoning County all the way to Brown County (a county outside of Cincinnati), was an absolute bloodbath in terms of population loss. The entire southeastern 1/3 of the state is in rough shape.

I think it's huge that the Cleveland metro is no longer shrinking. The city will take another cycle, but I'm glad the region is stable.

I wasn't trying to imply there is a conspiracy like money laundering, but that still doesn't make a compelling argument for why the city should bail out a religious organization to the tune of $500,000. The church is using the bell tower as a sob story in order to get their building back sooner. It is not actually about the architecture, but so the church can start holding in person worship services again. Again, it's a beautiful building and I would hate to see it torn down. But I do not want my tax dollars going to subsidize this one denomination over the hundreds of others within city limits.

This whole Save the Bell Tower saga has made me kind of suspicious of the true intentions of First Lutheran Church. How long have they known that the bell tower was basically a Jenga tower ready to topple at a moment's notice? Then they give an artificial deadline to raise an enormous sum of money to save it from imminent demolition. Add in the ridiculous request for half a million dollars from City Council in the middle of a pandemic, despite never having paid property taxes (which is their right as a non-profit, but you also don't deserve to get that property bailed out either). Now the pastor, who is not an engineer, has rejected a cheaper proposal that will meet building code requirements to save the tower. I like the bell tower, don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful piece of architecture that adds a fantastic presence around Washington Park. But something just doesn't smell right with the way this whole story has unfolded.

Thank you for this Geowizical! It really highlights how Cincinnati's downtown is more compact due to the unique geography of the Ohio River, Mt. Adams, and I-75 constraining the surface area for skyscrapers. Therefore, the grouping of the buildings looks "better" because there are fewer possible gaps. Really excited to see Cleveland's skyline change over the next decade. I think the difference in density will be dramatic.

The white infill building just north of Pepp and Dolores isn't part of the Wilkommen project. It was part of the Perseverance project, which is an 100% affordable apartment complex. Still a 3CDC development though! https://www.3cdc.org/project/perseverance/

Delta retired the MD-80s at the start of the pandemic. As a frequent business traveler myself, I prefer Delta as well. But United has made some good improvements to their product over the past 2 years. Their on-time reliability is a bit shaky sometimes, although a good portion of that has to do with their hub locations and their vulnerability to weather delays. Both Delta and United are miles ahead of American though. The few times a year I'm forced to fly American, I almost always have a bad experience.

Lean into the Art Deco style of the statues and they could really have an amazing font/logo. I think the name is perfectly fine and I like that it's got a local connection. Definitely could have been much worse

"The study (singular) that I believe you are referring to showed that sudden stop crashes were higher when there were red light cameras, but that angular accidents were also much lower at lights with cameras. Since angular accidents are much more likely to be fatal, the tradeoff is that with the cameras you have more fender benders but much fewer deadly accidents." Excellent find, thank you for the correction! A reduction in fatal crashes is a good tradeoff for an increase in fender benders. Either way, red light cameras aren't coming back any time soon within Cincinnati, they're currently banned via charter amendment. And the city would have to get voter approval to allow them again.

I disagree with COAST on pretty much everything, but on the red light camera issue I think they are correct. There have been traffic studies that show that intersections with red light cameras actually increase the number of accidents due to people slamming on their brakes. Also, the idea that you can get a ticket without an actual police officer present strikes me as going against your right to cross-examine your accuser in court. How do they prove that you were driving the car? Would the city be required to provide camera calibration records in order to prove that the machine was functioning correctly before a ticket was enforced? I agree reckless driving is a problem, but we ultimately solve this problem by putting in traffic calming/Vision Zero measures like the speed humps going in on Main and Vine, road diets, etc. And traffic enforcement on the highways should be left to the state Highway Patrol. CPD is stretched thin already and has much bigger crime problems to focus on. Another option is to create a traffic enforcement division (like parking enforcement) separate from the police department. Anyways, this is going off topic from OTR development news.

There are too many abandoned buildings and empty lots in the surrounding area without those remediation costs that will be cheaper to develop first. I'm guessing the Shell site will have to be acquired by 3CDC in order for the site use to change within the next decade.

If the owners of the Shell can't make money on the shortened hours, I'm not going to be upset when the gas station closes and doesn't get replaced. However, it does serve a legitimate purpose in the neighborhood during the day. The vast majority of the problems here happen after dark so I think that closing at sunset will go a long way. I live pretty close to the Shell, so it will be interesting to see the effect over the next few weeks. Would love to see the whole property redeveloped someday though, there are so many better uses for that huge parcel of land.

One of the major reasons for all of the problems the Shell has been having is how much land the station takes up. Their parking lot is absurdly large and of course it becomes the spot where dozens of people will gather in the middle of the night. Have them subdivide the lot and sell the west side where the former carwash is sitting there unused. It is one of the worst examples of planning in the urban core. I've been to gas stations in the suburbs located on a smaller footprint. I recognize the use of having a gas station in OTR, but I'm glad the owner is finally acknowledging how much of a nuisance their property had become (probably under threat of lawsuit by the city).

I would park in the Washington Park garage. There are streetcar stops on the northwest (northbound towards Findlay market) and southeast (southbound towards downtown/The Banks) corners of the park. Be sure to bring a mask, since the federal mandate on public transportation is still in effect. There are plenty of brunch/lunch options on a Thursday, almost everything in OTR that offers brunch should be open on that day. I'm not super familiar with the brunch options closer to the river, but Sleepy Bee on 4th Street is always a great option. If you decide to eat in OTR, I would suggest French Crust Bistro which is right across from Findlay Market on Elm or B&A Street Kitchen, which is on Race approximately 1 block north of Washington Park. The only big construction issue for you to worry about is getting across the river when you get back on the road and continue heading towards Nashville. The Brent Spence Bridge (71/75 South over the Ohio River) continues to be a chokepoint since 2 lanes of the bridge are closed due to a repainting project. You can either take Liberty Street east from Washington Park and get on 471 South to completely avoid the issue (but add a couple extra miles to your trip). Or you can get on 75 South from W 9th St downtown, which will allow you to avoid a lot of the backup from the Brent Spence lane closures, but not all of it. I hope you have a good time exploring Cincy! Weather should be pretty nice on Thursday.

The 90s were the peak of when the Millennials were born, but before any of them left the state for college or as young adults.

https://www.wvxu.org/post/cincinnati-police-chief-eliot-isaac-retiring-2022 I'll be sad to see Chief Isaac go next year. I feel like he handled Cincinnati PD's response to the unrest last summer very well in comparison to Cleveland and Columbus. Yes, Cincinnati PD already had better relationships with the community due to the Collaborative Agreement, but Chief Isaac had a calming effect by directly addressing the protestors early on. I know the city is struggling with increased gun violence recently, but I think he has done a great job with the resources he has. Hopefully we can get another well qualified person to take his place.

It's going to increase the foot traffic up that block of McMicken quite a bit in the evenings, which will be good for the area. It will be interesting to see the effect on Grant Park and its current reputation for being sketchy after dark.

It's because Courtyard by Marriott is the official hotel of the NFL as a whole. During the season, there is cross promotion for it in all of the hotel lobbies.

Chicagoland is barely maintaining a stable population and something crazy like 85% of Illinois counties are estimated to have lost population in the last decade. So not a huge shock that they are down overall. I'm really interested to see what the Ohio county breakdowns are for increasing vs. decreasing population. Particularly Cleveland/Akron and the entire Ohio River Valley.