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How would you even know you were harassed by a secret occult group? It'd hardly be a secret if you knew about them.

Well, there were over a dozen assaults during Taste of Cincinnati, there were running gun battles for three consecutive days from May 30th-June 1st, there is a serial armed robber on the loose that has been involved in at least four robberies from May 27th-June 21st (male black, 20, 5'10", 150 lbs with beard displaying black handgun), there was this murder in broad daylight, and various other incidents that are too numerous to list here. Given that you are unaware of these incidents validates what I've been noticing is that too much is going unreported and/or whitewashed (through pressure from some groups/individuals) in the local media. The police are very much aware of the issues and they are responding by utilizing CIRV and providing safety tips. However, clearly more needs to be done. The Mayor and organizations vested in trying to bring more people downtown are trying to misrepresent this as a minor issue hoping it will just go away. You would think John Cranley would have learned from his disastrous handling of the Timothy Thomas debacle that these things need to be handled with transparency and with some immediacy.

There has been a huge, huge uptick in gun violence as well as general assaults downtown in the last few weeks. From a couple of people in the know I've talked to, they claim the media is being leaned on to downplay the recent issues. I've lived on the border of downtown/OTR for over eight years and this is the worst I've seen in all that time. There appears to be no leadership in addressing the issue. Instead there appears to be a concerted effort to whitewash the problem and address it by giving people safety tips. Safety tips are fine and dandy, but where is the effort to actually resolve the problem? Is Nero going to stop playing his fiddle for a bit and actually lead?

I've posted this anecdote in another thread, but... someone I know talked the the manager there and suggested that they stay open late on weekend to serve the OTR bar crowd. Their response was "hell no." Apparently they still subscribe to the old school "OTR is dangerous!" way of thinking and don't realize how much money they could be raking in. The guy who manages (and I think owns) that Skyline on Court Street and Vine Street lives downtown. The Court/Vine part of downtown is still quite a bit sketchy and I wouldn't doubt it if part of the reason they aren't open later is due to safety concerns. However, I'm sure the biggest reason is that the location makes tons of money from the lunchtime crowd and he/they just don't feel running the place at night with a full crew to capture a much smaller group of night customers. When/If Court Street starts getting a makeover (including getting rid of the ghetto liquor store) and that section of OTR/Downtown gets more development, I'm guessing he/they might give night hours a go. P.S. I believe the Skyline is open until 5pm.

I do use Turbotax, but I was wondering how I handled local/state estimated taxes as well as such things like partial electric bills for the time we were getting the place ready for rent.

Cincinnati I believe collects taxes on income earned even from rent. I think Ohio does the same. I thought you had to pay it quarterly in the quarter it is earned, but I'm honestly not sure.

As part of Ohio law there is the following: Any security deposit in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, shall bear interest on the excess at the rate of five per cent per annum if the tenant remains in possession of the premises for six months or more, and shall be computed and paid annually by the landlord to the tenant.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a financial tax guy/gal that I could help me make sure my books are good for renting a condo in Cincinnati? I just want to make sure I'm above board on the below and wanted to pay an hourly CPA type person to help me out. How/When do I pay Cincinnati/Ohio Tax? How exactly do I do the 27.5 year building depreciation including for a partial year? When and how much do I pay the tenants their interest on the deposit they put down? Can I report certain expenses (including partial expenses) to the IRS?

Wow, some of these individuals like Michael Patton are complete nutters. This doesn't bode well.

Cincinnati Bell moved out of that location to go to Norwood to get tax breaks and is now returning to downtown Cincinnati to get tax breaks. Seems like the biggest winner here is Cincinnati Bell and the biggest losers are local taxpayers.

The special guest speaker is none other than Kevin Flynn of all people. I left the event out of a newsletter I author just for that reason. I'm not sure what exactly they are going to discuss exactly, but if you want to sign up for Believe in Cincinnati updates you might want to try their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BelieveInCincinnati .

Balwin Alley at 12th Street

In very short order the alley behind our condo in OTR is going to be capped off on the north end. It'll be a bit more difficult to get our car out of the parking lot behind our home, but I'm hopefully optimistic that the nearly daily calls I need to make to police about drug dealing/using in the alley will decrease dramatically without easy access to the alley. Unfortunately, dramatic things like this will need to be done in the short/mid-term to make the community safer.

Wouldn't the location of the elevated park be the biggest issue? I understand the New York City High Line is quite popular, but isn't that because it is closer to residences and businesses than the Western Hills Viaduct? The viaduct is quite a large span that is mostly above an active industrial rail area with little in terms of businesses/residences on each end. It would have to serve as a destination park and I'm not convinced that it would be all too popular given the other great parks in the region.

This thread is starting to hit an Urban Ohio all-time low spreading horrible rumors and making light of a terrible situation.

Thanks John! We are pretty happy with our new home (short-term/mid-term public safety issues notwithstanding), but the sheer amount of construction work over the last couple of months has been a bit crazy. We're looking forward to the end of the summer when everything is firmed up at 12th/Race. All in all we're very much excited about the streetcar coming to fruition soon after so many years of struggle, but the shaking and sounds of what seems like a Sherman Tank at 6am will not be missed :-).

Does anyone know exactly how the 12th and Race intersection of the tracks are going to turn out? We recently moved very close to that intersection and I'm at a loss to determine how the track is going to be laid out. Is it simply just a place where the tracks cross at a 90 degree angle, or are there going to be curves to segment out the north/south loops in case one section is blocked? Are there any issues with it being the one place that has a cross-over point?

When I was looking for a job some five years ago I told the IT placement firm I was only entertaining businesses in downtown Cincinnati, so that I could maintain my quality of life walking to work. That didn't stop them from trying to tempt me with two jobs way outside of downtown, but when they realized I was serious they quickly found me a job downtown. I can't imagine having to drive to work anymore. I'm really glad I'm in an in-demand field that allows me the option to be so choosy.

Wow, a Dillard's AND a Dick's Sporting Goods. Two rhinestones in the tin crown that is Liberty Center.

Our background is that we have a nice single floor condo on the under construction streetcar line in Cincinnati (across from a stop). We moved a few blocks away to a three floor brownstone to handle our growing family. We would like to return to the original condo once the kids move out as we really, really loved living there. We're also concerned that the home prices are jumping up so quickly in downtown Cincinnati that we'd be priced out of our neighborhood by the time we retire. However, the whole idea of being a landlord even for just a single upscale condo is a bit scary given all the potential issues and complexities with being a landlord.

XUMelanie and I are becoming landlords for the first time and thought a thread here discussing residential rental business in Ohio's cities would be a good fit. I know at least one other poster here is very passionate about the subject and this could be a place to discuss strategies, lessons learned, answer questions, etc.... Please let me know if this is not a proper topic for UrbanOhio, or if it is mis-categorized.

There was an effort in our condo complex on Central Parkway to limit the % of rentals (unless a financial hardship could be shown). The idea was that an ownership building would be a better place to live than a complex that becomes a defacto rental property (over time more and more units are being rented by the owners). The effort failed with not enough people voting for the amendment. Now that we've bought another place in OTR (for our growing family) we've ultimately decided to rent out our current unit making the "problem" worse.

I'd guess that'd it be easier to cut off the financial motivation to have them around and avoid 1st Amendment/legal arguments, but that is totally a guess.

I believe they were trying to get rid of the hideous concrete benches (with shabby ads) that were all over the city.

There was an art exhibit of an arm ripping away paper that itself has been slowly coming off the building. I'm not sure if that was intended as part of the art exhibit, or if it was poorly installed. I'm thinking more the former than the latter.