bfwissel

A month or two ago I was at a Safety Sector meeting and the new head guy on the beat mentioned that his goal was to do less"putting up barriers and just hoping things get better" method of policing and actually focus on doing his job by making arrests. I sure hope this kind of attitude sinks in with the rank and file officers.

The law doesn't affect businesses that get most of their income from tobacco products.

Doerr Alley is already capped at 12th Street, so its only use at the moment is as an entrance to a parking lot. I'm not sure the loss of the alley entrance at Central Parkway would really be a loss. Could anyone explain to me what the issue is removing Doerr Alley for use as a ramp?

Doerr Alley is already capped at 12th Street, so its only use at the moment is as an entrance to a parking lot. I'm not sure the loss of the alley entrance at Central Parkway would really be a loss. Could you explain what you mean that it's unacceptable to remove Doerr Alley for a ramp?

Right now this abandoned location is a prime spot for drug dealers/users and various other riffraff causing trouble. If you don't believe me try walking by in the late afternoon to see the drug dealing first hand. Better yet, talk to the people at Tender Mercies as I know they've not been happy with the activity in Doerr Alley. Having that site rehabbed would be a godsend.

Sure, but this would just be a phase 1 leg right? Seems like getting it over the river would be the priority.

The Vine Street Kroger has regular drug dealing going on in their parking lot. We stopped by on Sunday to pick up something quick and immediately saw someone with a Kentucky plate pull in, a dealer enter his car to make a transaction and then the buyer promptly pulled out. When talking with others it sounds like this is a pretty regular occurrence as the management of that Kroger refuses to police their lot and the sidewalk in front of it. The police are extremely frustrated by their lack of concern with the safety of the area. Kroger is certainly not a good neighbor.

It is also possible to block those losers when you see their ridiculous posts. You'll never see their nonsense again and if there are only a handful of them then you've solved the problem. That being said, I totally understand giving up Facebook as it is quite the time suck.

I'm looking to buy a Dell computer and was shocked to see you can make purchases on their site with Bitcoin. I'm a little frustrated that I can't pay for the PC with belly button lint too *wink*.

Ugh, I hope that's not an issue with our unit. We just found out a few weeks ago that we're within a ninety day window to finally get FiOptics. If we'd have to rewire our whole building I'm thinking we'd go with Time Warner as much as that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

XUMelanie talked with the guy, Dragon I think his name was, and apparently he's trying to get a restaurant in there. He also said he'd be kicking out the ghetto store that's part of the building to get the restaurant more space. Take all this with a grain of salt though as I'm not exactly sure what he's got lined up. I know he's really unhappy with all the drug dealing that's going on just outside his place and he does seem like he's genuinely trying to help clean up the corner. Then again, the crack bar and ghetto store were part of the reasons why the corner got so bad in the first place, so again take all this with a grain of salt.

The sidewalk on Main next to the building has been blocked for so long now that I've just stop walking near that part of downtown. I really wish they would either finish up or re-open the sidewalk until they figure out what they're doing.

You should probably get a Business Courier subscription. Best news source by far in Cincinnati.

"The city and the county want $37 million from the state to build 760 more garage spaces in phases 3b and 3c" and UC's just pondering the idea of moving some if it's academics to The Banks. "Some members of Cincinnati’s legal community long have considered it ideal for UC’s law students to be near law firms and the courthouse" and UC has been promoting co-op experience in the last few years. That's pretty much it.

I'm a big fan of OTR and our family has lived in the neighborhood for almost ten years. However, it is most certainly still a very crime ridden and dangerous neighborhood. It has gotten a lot better over the last decade, but to pretend it isn't a dangerous place filled with drug dealers/buyers, armed robbers and extremely disrespectful people is being dishonest.

What exactly do they want to do with that alley space? Build new construction to cover that gap? I'm sort of confused... Sounds like an outdoor area for their company. They'll need to block off the area at Republic Street, so I'm guessing a combination of walling and gated area. They wouldn't be doing any buildings as it is only a leased space.

On the 1300 block of Vine Street is a park area known as Imagination Alley. Apparently the back side of the "alley" (really just a gap in the block due to demolished buildings) that reaches Republic Street is a top 5 crime hot spot in the neighborhood. Cintrifuse (who owns an adjacent building) is looking to lease out the whole "alley" in order to block off the back half for private use (and thus reducing the crime there) as well as maintain the Vine Street half as a community park. There are clawbacks in the leasing agreement with the City in case the community doesn't feel like the park is being maintained well, or the private leased area is causing issues. Last night at the OTR Community Council meeting most people were against blocking off the "alley" and were hostile to this agreement. Ultimately it was decided by a 13 to 9 vote to delay supporting the project until more details about the private use are made public, although, most people were against the project in general. More people who want to see progress including better public spaces and decreased crime in the community really need to start going to these OTR Community Council meetings. As long as the old guard is able to dominate the conversation and hold up improvements to the community the progress will be stunted.

According to some sources it sounds like the majority of the operations should be move from the Drop Inn Center by October 16th as well.

I believe there is a twenty year annuity on top of the initial $8.3 million purchase price.

I see people hanging out at the streetcar shelter when it's raining, because they are covered unlike most bus stops. I actually think most of the loitering at stops will go away once the system is in use. I'm not sure the streetcar stops will get any better once the system is running. More and more I've seen people using loud boom boxes, sleeping, drinking, smoking crack, selling loose cigarettes and panhandling in the bus shelters downtown and in OTR. Now I'm increasingly seeing the same behavior in the streetcar shelters. If we really want to make mass transit a priority in the city there really should be some efforts to crack down on this behavior.

Also, the streetcar shelters seem to be facing the same fate as the bus shelters which is becoming a place for people to panhandle, drink and do drugs.

That Shell station is a hub of crime in the community. The 2,000 number actually seems pretty low to me. I'm sure it's that way since it doesn't include crime that goes unreported.

*Wolf Whistle*

I heard back from 3CDC and they were not sure as to the exact moving date of the Drop Inn Center to the Barron Center for Men in Queensgate. They did seem to indicate this Fall possibly in October, so it does sound as though they are likely a little behind the planned September move.

Has anyone heard any news if the Drop Inn Center is moving next month to Queensgate as noted by 3cDC on their website? I sent a message to 3CDC yesterday afternoon, but haven't heard anything yet. It seems to me that we should have heard a definite date by now if they were on schedule.