bfwissel

That area of Vine and Court Street is still a bit dodgy especially at night. The owner of that Skyline is a downtown resident and talking with him makes me think he has a good business head on his shoulders. Until Court Street is cleaned up a bit I think any safety concerns are valid. I really doubt he's missing out on tons of late night business since his business is a bit removed from the trendier parts of OTR. Besides, I'm sure he does plenty of lunch business to make a good living.

My office looks out over the skywalk on Walnut between Fifth and Fourth Streets. Yesterday they were putting up a catenary pole pretty close to the skywalk and it hit me. How is the catenary wire going to handle the skywalk obstruction? The whole thing is really messing with my brain for some reason every time I look out that window.

With the bar closed for almost a month and the police picking up some of the big offenders recently, it has quieted down quite a bit. I still see drug dealing and some nonsense occurring, but it's about half of what it used to be. Given that it has improved that much in a month is pretty impressive. I'm hoping once/if someone rehabs 1132-1130 Race and the Drop Inn Center moves, that the area will get even better. Here's hoping!

Did Captain John give an update on the 12th and Race work they've been doing during Monday's OTR Community Council Meeting? I was deathly ill and couldn't leave bed much less make the meeting.

That bar has been a focal point for drug dealing in the area for decades, so the area isn't likely to get cleaned up for at least a little while. Certainly if a more responsible owner rehabs the building, puts in better lighting and doesn't cater to criminals it would make the area less comfortable for the dealers. The crime could also be decreased on the north side of the street if Urban Sites were to get some tenants for the empty storefronts and/or puts up some cameras.

It looks like the crack bar at 1132 Race may have closed a couple of weeks ago as well. If it has truly closed and someone buys up and rehabs the property there it would greatly enhance the Race Street corridor all the way down to Central Parkway *fingers crossed*.

I should note that the NorthePoint developers did give a presentation at the February meeting. At last night's meeting they were just re-presenting the motion and did not do the full presentation again.

Project in the North-east section of OTR for 21 new family townehomes ($400K-$600K) as well as nine workhouse units (~$900/month) in a to be rehabbed building to be built on mostly empty, crime-infested land that also included the removal of six basketball hoops. It was rescinded because of a technicality on the vote at the last meeting caused the vote to be invalidated. They voted on it again last night, but this time Josh Spring organized more people to show up including bringing in kids to parrot his view of why they should not be allowed to go forward with the plan. The developer was trying to work with the community to save two of the hoops, but those that showed up didn't want to lose any of the hoops nor allow "those people" to live in the neighborhood.

The letter of support for the NorthPointe project was rescinded.

In front of our home on Race Street they just added back a missing pole for a parking meter, but just fifty feet south one of the parking kiosks was also just installed. I'm really confused about how they are going to implement the kiosks if they're actively adding/maintaining the existing pole infrastructure.

The heavyset while male ~50 years old that used to also dress with a clown nose? He's mellowed out a bit and no longer goes to such theatrics. Hopefully, he and others don't attempt to use the streetcar stops to harass people.

Yes. The LLC owns all the property down 12th Street to Baldwin Alley. They're definitely doing some work there, but I have no idea who's doing it nor what the timetable is.

Does anyone know who's doing the redevelopment on the north-east corner of 12th and Race? It looks like they're redeveloping the property, but I can't find any details about the project anywhere. There is a serious drug dealing/abusing issue at the corner and I was hoping to contact the developer to see if they were open to putting in camera(s) on their building. The auditor's site says it's owned by 9487 DRY FORK ROAD LLC, but of course that could be anyone.

I did a followup a few days ago with 3CDC and they noted that the Men's Drop Inn Center construction in Queensgate is on track to be done/online in the Fall. This should help the development of this and other nearby properties.

The Business Courier is also saying the Gorilla Glue company is getting a huge sum from Ohio to move to a new location from Madisonville to potentially Sharonville. Does anyone have any information on possibly losing this company to the northern burbs via an Ohio tax break?

I was just thinking that. Plus, water pipes would have to be engineered to have heating elements on the side to keep them from freezing.

The issue is that it is a rental property. You just can't get a line of credit on a rental condo (it immediately disqualifies you). Now if it were a rental house then there are no issues getting a line of credit. That's my frustration especially since this is a luxury condo with no encumbrances.

True, but a simple (or not so simple) condo questionnaire filled out by the HOA should weed out the bad actors. With big banking now it seems like there is little room for making loan decisions based on merit.

I believe you are right about the secondary market being the issue which would explain why nobody is willing do to these lines of credit anymore. I'm just frustrated with affects this has on owning urban properties and with the no exceptions attitude. You think being first lien holder for less than 20% of the properties value would mean something. It comes off as using an elephant gun on a horsefly.

I couldn't believe it, but we recently tried to get an equity line on our $250K rental condo that we own outright and were turned down. Apparently, there are very few lenders (if any) that are willing to do equity lines on rental condos no matter whether or not they would be the first lien holder. If it were a house they would have been willing to loan to us. I'm thinking this negatively affects urban areas greater than the suburbs as a greater percentage of urban properties are condos than the suburbs. Anyone else have any lending issues when it comes to urban properties over suburban ones?

I'm still holding out for the grocery at Walnut and Central Parkway to replace the loss here. That way the OTR Kroger could go away and be replaced with something better.

I think it is a mistake to think the Over-the-Rhine is safe with all the new development going on. OTR has made significant progress, but is still an extremely dangerous place and will be for many years to come. I know we like to stress the progress that is being made, but it is foolish to ignore the many remaining issues. It is best to warn friends and family who are planning on coming down to OTR to stick with groups and avoid some of the worst areas of the neighborhood after dark.

Yeah, at 12th/Race there is an extensive system of tracks that allows the north and south loops to run independently if need be. Calling the northern loop the OTR loop is a bit misleading as there is about 5 blocks of track in the southern loop that is in OTR, but I guess I'm just splitting hairs.

Would anyone sign a petition much less vote against the streetcar if it does go a little over budget? There is no way there are enough people stupid enough to buy what he is peddling.

I remember having great difficulty changing our provider to First Energy last year (representative acted like I was bothering them trying to switch). We just purchased a new condo this year in OTR and it looks like the electrical charges (not distribution charges) were defaulted to Duke Energy. Has anyone else had these problems with getting First Energy as the provider and having new service default to Duke?