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I guess the question is if Johnny Rockets a destination location, or is it a place people go to when you're at The Banks or at Newport on the Levee and happen to be hungry.

Downtown Residents Council - The Banks Open House Tonight (9/29) 6pm-8pm Currents at the Banks will be having a get together for Downtown Residents Council members and residents at the Banks. They will be providing food and non-alcoholic drinks (bring your own alcohol - BYOB).

I was at the OTR Community Council meeting last night and apparently there is a plan to have an entertainment district set up in a section of OTR I believe near the Gateway Quarter that will allow ten businesses (not bars, but dining locations) to either open up shop or expand hours. The district will basically allow businesses to afford and be able to acquire liquor licenses that are right now too expensive and nearly impossible to get. I believe Laure Quinlivan is sponsoring the idea of setting up this district in the Liveable Communities Committee some time soon. Below are a few of the places I remember off the top of my head that were mentioned. Anyone have any firm details on this? * Lucy Blue moving to Main Street and expanding hours * Wine and some kind of specialty food dining * Taste of Belgium expanding hours ... This may not be the right spot for this, so please move as you feel is appropriate.

I got to see a presentation on this project by 3CDC and the architect/designer last night at the OTR community council meeting. Paint me impressed! I know there is concern on a lost historic building, but it seems as though the grand scale of the plans (including saving many, many other buildings) easily makes up for the loss of one building. If they build the streetcar and I can talk XUMelanie in to it, I'd be in interested in making one of the condos on Vine Street our future home.

The Newport Ducks tour guides also make many, many wacky and inaccurate claims like that President Garfield made his inaugural address at the location of his statue in Piatt Park.

I thought the $4.4 million was just the income taxes. Does anyone know what budget pot the $2.4 million in tax breaks comes from (i.e. capital)?

Our community council did see a "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill" liqour license application come up about a month ago, but that's all I've heard in forever.

We felt it here in Cincy. It felt like I had a few too many adult beverages.

The Downtown Residents Community Council board and membership both unanimously voted in support of Cincinnati Union Bethel and their stewardship of the Anna Louise Inn. It is a recognition that they have been great neighbors for over 100 years despite the lies and half truths put forward by Western & Southern (who BTW have decided not to speak to our organization or answer questions about their stance on the matter while CUB representatives have made it a point to present their case and answer questions on many occasions). Has anyone heard how the motion to dismiss ruling went today?

FYI - John Schneider (with Cincinnatians for Progress) will make a presentation on the "Ballot Issue Blocking All Rail in Cincinnati for a Generation" at the next Downtown Residents Council meeting tomorrow (August 9th). Time/Location: Main Branch Library - Third Floor Tower Room @ 6:00pm

Does anyone have any leads on a CPA that focuses on tax services that you could recommend? Our Downtown Residents Council just this year got its 501c3 designation and will need end-of-year tax filing help as well as needing some questions answered regarding large pass-through transactions we'd like to do. Please feel free to move this if this to a different thread if this is in the wrong place

Last night I attended a budget presentation (facilitated by Invest in Neighborhoods) by Lea Eriksen (City Budget Director) and Milton Dohoney (City Manager). Some scary loss of revenue issues were brought up: 1) in the next two years we will be losing a total of ~$25 million per year from the operating budget due to Kasich's state budget cuts (halving of state local fund and loss of Ohio inheritance tax revenues) 2) due to City Council's change in policy of not maintaining the city property tax amounts we will lose over $3 million per year in operating tax revenue Another thing noted was that while public safety (police and fire) budgets have been maintained and even slightly grown since 2000, other areas have had their operating budgets cut 20% to 40%+. The public safety operational budget now comprises nearly 70% of the operating budget. When you have an over $28+ million operational budget deficit created from revenue cuts by Republican members of state/city governments AND you can't cut public safety due to Republican and some Democrat opposition what can be done?

The presentation by Judi Craig with Parsons Brinckerhoff on the streetcar project last night was mostly more of the same for anyone who has done any research on this project. I think the whole thing was designed to give people information on the project who were not really familiar with the basics. The only new thing was that the people at Parsons Brinckerhoff will be walking door to door to each of the businesses along the line in the next week or so to discuss how this will affect their business (very little impact). The thing that was the most dispiriting was that there will be no tracks going into the ground until Spring at the earliest (utility work is supposedly going to happen in the Fall, but then again this was supposed to start a long, long time ago). It is really hard to get excited about a project that for various reasons has been delayed more often than I can count. When talking with a couple of people after the meeting, there was some real doubt expressed that this project is ever going to happen due to the consistent missing of deadlines. Downtowners have been big supporters of this project, so it's disturbing that (at least anecdotally) morale appears to be dropping.

FYI - Judi Craig with Parsons Brinckerhoff will be discussing the Cincinnati Streetcar Project at the next Downtown Residents Council meeting on Tuesday, July 12th. Time/Location: Main Branch Library - Third Floor Tower Room @ 6:00pm

Hard to believe the ground breaking was only 3 years and 3 months ago

Yesterday XUMelanie and I walked down towards the river to check out Riverfront Park on the way to take the lil' one to Sawyer Point. I'm in awe of how quickly The Banks is coming up, but it is still very much a construction zone. We tried a couple of different routes to get us to the Event Lawn, but kept running into construction barriers. We really didn't try very hard since it was only a side trip and we had a stroller, but I was still a bit disappointed. Hopefully in a few months more will be completed and signage will be a bit better. I'm very much looking forward to having a picnic lunch at the park with the family :).

That's the same thing that Ghiz and Monzel say all the time. Does anyone really believe that they are pro-streetcar? If so, I've got a some magic beans to sell you.

Anyone know if Kevin Flynn is still pro-streetcar?

Honestly, I feel more free with the smoking ban in place. I'm actually free to go to many places that before I could not go before. I'm free to take my child many more places that I could not before. Smokers are still free to smoke outside all they want. All the anecdotal evidence that the smoking ban has hurt businesses (in general) I think is overblown. I have an equal amount of anecdotal "evidence" that the smoking ban in Ohio has led to more people going to Ohio restaurants and bars. A high level business manager I know told me a few weeks ago that they do not take clients out to restaurants in Kentucky anymore because of the smokers there. Are there any numbers behind the claim that the smoking ban has hurt businesses. Let's face it, poorly run businesses that relied entirely on smoker customers have been hurt. However, other businesses could easily be doing better getting more business from the non-smokers who are now free to go out without risking the health of themselves and their family.

I would recommend trying out Nada (@Walnut and 6th) for brunch (reservations recommended). http://www.eatdrinknada.com/main.html

Most of the presentation from Zac Humphries from Messer Construction on the 21c hotel was directed at downtown residents concerns/questions. The only thing I think people may care about here is: 1) the permit to block the sidewalk and one lane of traffic in front of the hotel on Walnut Street is one year from start of construction 2) no blocking of the alley behind the building will be necessary (and trucks will be instructed to park as to not block traffic through the alleys) 3) the construction schedule is for 18 months from their start last month

Zac Humphries from Messer Construction will be presenting on the construction plan/schedule for the 21c Hotel at tomorrow's Downtown Residents Council Membership meeting (see http://www.ilivedowntown.com under the "calendar" section for meeting time/place/agenda). Note: He will only be speaking on the construction. He is not an architect nor associated with the owner/operator of the hotel.

Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that more people die every year than by criminal violence by a high multiplication factor. Makes sense to me that there should be a decent focus on highway patrols to promote safety and decrease fatalities/injuries.

I believe the 4th of July fireworks on Fountain Square will actually be on Sunday, July 3rd. Supposedly there will be someone other than Rossi doing the fireworks this year with some cool new effects :-).

The push to add an anti-rail measure to the Cincinnati Charter is being supported by the Cincinnati FOP and firefighter unions (they were at one point helping to collect signatures). I'm always surprised that these unions are so anti-rail. Is it really a conservative bent against rail, or is it something else (like misguided selfishness that it would take money out of their pockets)?