Jeff

I surfed into that Nashville transit site. Wow. Man, if Nashville can do this, I cant see why we cant have this in SW Ohio.

yeah, Twin Creek is fairly new. It is south of Germantown, and is mostly prairie and hills...the high points actually have a nice view over the valleys. There is a plan to construct or aquire a greenway or bikeway to connect Germantown Reserve, Germantown proper, and Twin Creek..which would make Germantown a great recreation destination as a base of biking, or as a goal. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The Glen Helen area is great. It is actually close to some European walking/hiking experiences Ive had as there are sort of landmarks on the trails and a dining/drinking place as the goal. For landmarks there is the Yellow Spring itself, the piney woods, the Horace Mann Monument set back in the field...and then its possible to walk into John Bryan Park along the Clifton Gorge, to the mill in Clifton as the goal, which has or had a little restuarant or sandwhich shop, as a place to rest & eat/drink, before hiking back to Yellow Springs.

Well...if one staff's a plant with inexperienced workers on long shifts, doing dangerous work,it gets pretty risky for accidents, I guess.

I don't know about living there but I am really sold on Findlay Market as a place to go food shopping. I and my partner went there on a Saturday a few weeks ago and picked up some good stuff, especially that great little spice booth at the end of the market. Since my SO is a big foody and loves to cook this was a godsend for him. And we stocked up on veggies and meats and also stopped off at that German place on the south side of the market. Had soup and sanwhiches at that little cafe on the north side. I noticed that some of the buildings around Findlay Market are under development of some sort. That would be a great place to live over, Findlay Market, due to the street life. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I know its not OTR but we also enjoyed the Betts House. Thats why we went, based on the thread here on the Betts House, I wanted to go see it. We recieved a little guided tour of the house, and I spent quite a bit of time studying all the old maps and that time line they have up in their exhibit space. The neighborhood around the Betts House is pretty interesting too. Closer in than OTR, perhaps just a bit of the old West End still survives in those few streets. So, after the Betts House, since we where in the area, we went up to Findlay Market....which is going to be a must-stop stop during our future Cincy visits.

(the one in Chicago, not Philadelphia, and including Palmer Square) Part of the Bouelevards system Logan Square/Kedzie Blvd/Palmer Square arrangement... Re-design. The column was designed by the architect who designed the Lincoln Memorial in DC, and commemorates th Illinois statehood centennial. 1890s...terminus of the Logan Square Branch of the "Metropolitan West Side Elevated". End of the Line. For rail fans..the Logan Square L, showing the terminal, bus transfer, and some equipment from the 1960s: old PCC cars from the 40s/early 50s (made from cut-up PCC streetcars), and air conditioned Pullmans from the 1960s, dating from the same time and from the same manufacture as the Cleveland Rapid Transit "Airporters". This and the Lake Street L was the way we got to the Loop when I was a kid. Take the bus to Kedzie, walk up Kedzie, and catch the L from this station into the Loop. Logan Square today... Around the square Milwaulkee Avenue, looking south toward the Loop and Bucktown/Wicker Park Logan Boulevard Kedzie Bouelvard, heading south toward Palmer Square and then Humboldt Park The Logan Square Auditorium (on the top floor..based on the posters and handbills its a punk/alternative rock venue). Note Johnny's Grill...typical 'busy corner restaurant' of the old days (1960s) in Chicago, some still survive in these outer neighborhoods Walking south on Kedzie toward Palmer Square. A big building, now a church Peaking down a side street, to show you all some Chicago "greystones" Back to Kedzie (lined with apartments) The concept behind Kedzie and the other boulevards is a wide central traffic lane, flanking landscaped lawns, and one-way-streets for local traffic. Big houses on Kedzie Boulevard (all on the west side for some reason) The wide flanking lawns. The planting inaturalistic, not formal like the French bouelevards. I think this and the other "west parks" was relandscaped by Jens Jensen in the years prior to WWI. Apartments And more big houses The end of Kedzie Bouelevard at Palmer Square and looking in to Palmer Square Palmer Square isn't really a square, it is a rectangle When I was a kid living in Chicago my folks had freinds here on Palmer Square, living in an apartment, & I used to play in that park with their kids. The guy was from Kentucky and was a truck driver, and had a CB base station, which was my first intro into CB radio. Courtyard apartments. Palmer Square is lined with apartments and single family houses Palmer Square "breaks the grid", so where sidestreets meet the square, they put a sidewalk through. Heading back north up Kedzie to Logan Square Fullerton, looking west. One of the busy streets bisecting the neighborhood. I used to live west on Fullerton, and we took the bus here to take the Logan Square L into the Loop. More courtyard apartment buildings Back at Logan Square Wrightwood intsects the square. Looking West. This was a shortcut from Cragin east to the Northside, as it was a through street (meaning it wasnt blocked by the railroad embankments the cut up the city), and didn't have a lot of traffic. So you could keep moving, though not as fast as on Fullerton. The Norwegian Lutheran "Minnekirchen". Logan Square had a sScandinavian community at one time, Norwegians and Danes. Also a lot of Poles that moved up Milwaulkee from Bucktown (mostly to Avondale further north, though). Then in the 1960s and 70s the Puerto Ricans moved in, more towards Palmer Square. Now there are a lot of Mexicans here, and also gentrifiers, though the "gentrification" (probably not a right word for whats going on) has been going on in spurts since the 1970s as this is just such a nice and convenient neighborhood. It never really got all that bad, though there was some gang action here in the 60s and 70s. Looking north on Milwaulkee, towards Avondale and then the Six Corners shopping district, and then Jefferson Park/Portage Park. The L was extended as a subway under Milwaulkee and opened to Jefferson Park in 1971 I think. Then in the 1970s it was finally extended all the way to O'Hare. I remember this street all tore up when they where building the subway. There is also a big neighborhood movie theatre a block north of here, "The Logan". The Eagle/El Aguilar. The most famous resident of Logan Square was L Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz (and other Oz books). He eventually moved to Hollywood

Hell, they should have left it as the Moraine Embassy Apartments...at least some folks would have had some housing, and the Embassy would have had a landlord.

I guess one could see what is happening in Dayton as peicemeal urban renewal, one house or structure at a time, rather than the wholesale clearances of neighborhoods that one saw with the 1950s/1960s urban renewal programs (like the one that replaced Cincinnati's West End with Queensgate, or what Dayton tried did with the Haymarket area). The end result may look like an "old school urban renewal" wholesale clearance, yet I think it is more likely just to see a decreased density in existing neighborhoods as houses come down. Then there is also this small scale and not-well-reported replacement going on with new housing. This pix is an example, of a board-up (which would be a "priority 2 tear-down"), next to a brand-new house. And, if you look closely, one can see a brand-new house immediatly to the right of this apartment building. Also, one can also point out renovations in this area...obvious cases of new siding and windows and roofs. I know that there is that vacant property land bank being proposed by MVRPC, but if there is a market for this land...someone is putting up new houses in the heart of the city, and someone is buying them...maybe this trend should be encouraged somehow, rather than letting property lie fallow. Or, after tearing down a board-up, sell the vacant lots cheap (maybe a "dollar-lot" program like that old dollar house program) to people who live next door to the lot, as a way for them to increase their property holdings...they could have the opportunity to build a new house on the lot, sell the lot, or keep it as maybe a garden area for a big vegtable garden or something. I don't know..I'm just some shmuck with a camera, not a planner or urban policy wonk. It does seem, though, there are opportunities here to make lemonade out of real estate lemons.

The Little Miami trail in Waynesville goes all the way up to Yellow Springs, and on into Springfield. Downstream, it heads over close to Cincinnati.

Interesting that our manufacturing numbers are higher than Michigans. This small-to-mid sized sector is big in Dayton, too. Tho the firms are smaller, collectivley they add up to a big economic impact. its this small to midsized sector that plays a big role in the Dayton economy, too...collectively these smaller companys add up to a big em

Who is "San Mar Gal"?

And today the front page headline in the DDN was "Delphi Wants to Close Four Local Plants", with a sub-headline.."Vandalia to stay open, but must be more productive".

For the Jerry Springer end-of-show homily: examples of urban regeneration in the same InnerWest neighborhood...

my favorite abandoned house is this inner-city estate

Inspired in part by this thread All of these, except one, are from the "Innerwest" area of Dayton. A gallery of urban abandonment. ...originally a Lutheran church: ...tree-lined Broadway. Much of this street is abandoned: ...not sure what is happening with the greenish-yellow one. Either its being renvoated or the renovation has stopped and its now vacant" ..elsewhere in the Innerwest area: ...industrial abandonment: ...this one has already been torn torn down: ...the fate of inner Dayton: ...areas that have been mostly torn down and are returning to nature/open space, with a one or two abandoned buildings still left ...this house is occupied, but surrouned by open space; from urban neighborhood density to "country farmhouse": ....End State; returning back to nature: ....Deciduous Temperate Woodland Savanna ecosystem: ....Wetland Ecosystem: ....Picturesque tree-lined country lane:

I used to Columbus every summer for ComFest, and usually stayed dowtown. One time I was at the Westin over off of Capital Square, and decided to explore downtown a bit, on foot...so I walked due east of the Capital to, i guess, the public library. Lots and lots of surface parking, but also some intriguing remnants of what used to be a neighborhood at one time. What i thought was suprising was the parking lots so close to the capital. That stretch of lots running due east could be a fantastic neo-traditional urban redevelopment or housing project, focusing on the capital. Also, looking at some old maps (I've become more interested in Columbus history) it seems the areas that are mostly lots (the part of town within that freeway loop) was some of the oldest parts of the city...perhaps it was all housing like German Villiage at one time?

"Strategically Located Parking", just like Dayton.

I like Germantown and Sugarcreek. The neat thing about Germantown is that it has that deep forested valley of the Twin Creek, with an overlook platform so you can look over the wooded valley. There is also prairie country on the west side of park, on flatter land. There are trails through the prairies, and from one location you can look across the rolling country and see Farmersville in the distance. And the place is close to Germantown, one of my favorite little towns around here. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Sugar Creek is smaller, but it has a really impressive prairie. . There is a creek valley and forest there as well. And deep in the woods are three 550 year-old oak trees..the "Three Sisters".

I think for Cincinnati the observation deck on Carew Tower. When we lived in Chicago we always took visitors to the top of the Sears Tower or Hancock. Cincinnati is fortunate to have an observation platform on its tallest open to the public.

I'm curious as to whats driving the Phoenix economy.

The place I used to like was Rons. They cut up the pizza into smallish square slices. Rons had a delivery operation here in Centerville and I used to order -in a lot from them. Sausage Mushroom and Pepperoni. very cheesy and tomatoey and gooey. The Centerville operation closed a few years ago, and the closest Rons is the original place in Miamisburg. Havn't really found a good replacement yet...Cassanos is too salty, and I dont like Marions for some reason.

I stopped at that chili place recently. Its pretty bad. As for the Arcade, turn it into a big wholesale chicken market for all the chicken places in town.

I giver her a lot of credit. Surfing around her website, or her various websites, I'm really taken by this independent DIY spirit going on: Never been to college, doing her own thing...has her own band, does her own art, has a sideline of making band pins/buttons, writes a music column for some paper in Lakewood, knows enough about computers to put up her own website, takes better pix than I do. I'm impressed. I also appreciate that she appreciates these obsolete and derelict industrial environments on their own terms, or as sort of an aesthetic of ruins or decay, somewhat like that "Fabulous Ruins of Detroit" website, or those "New American Ghetto" books....I feel a real sympatico with where she is coming from with that.

I love this pix of her. Caption: "Welcome to the Rustbelt"

...plus a little bit of Bucktown, from a recent visit to Chicago. I was up there for a show at the Mexican Fine Arts Center, and architecture show at the Art Institute, and to catch Billy Bragg and a venue in Bucktown. This visit starts with the usual Pilsen shots on Calle Diez y Ocho (18th Street), but spends more time in the oldest (eastern) part of the neighborhood, around Halstead and Canalport Avenues. Harrison Park, and oldtime Chicago neighborhood skyline.... Side street..... Funky attic treatment on this two-flat 18th Street. Cafe Mesitzo was a new find..they just opened at this location...its sort of an art gallery/performance space/bookstore/cafe for the more bohemian/artistic chicano crowd...sort of like Cafe Jumping Bean further east on 18th... heading to the eastern side of Pilsen. This is sort of neat. This used to be a German Lutheran church (based on the German writing on the plaque over the door). It burned, and, according to some folks at SCC a local developer took it over and saved the facade, but turned the basement into a sunken garden/private park. This part of Pilsen is a block off of Halstead and is ungoing gentrification. Three-flats.... Housing here probably dates form the 1870s and 1880s.... Moving even further east, in the vicinity of Canalport avenue, between the Dan Ryan expressway and the South Branch of the Chicago River....you can see the angle of the river reflected in this factory.... lift bridge visible in backround.... I thought that these might have been pre-fire, but a poster at SSC said probably not, though there are prefire cottages scattered around, the neighborhood was mostly rebuilt in the 1870s-1890s since the original housing was so poorly constructed. Example (maybe not a good one) of new infill (there is starting to be more of that in this area), and, behind it an unsual for Chicago 19th century house, unusual in the way the roof runs parallel to the street.... @@@@@@@@ On to Bucktown, via the old Logan Square L. Milwaulkee Avenue, once the main street for Chicagos Polonia, now hipster ground zero. The place where I saw Billy Bragg is on the right, with the big "Liquours" sign. Crappy venue (I'm used to the intimate Dayton clubs). note the infill on the left..there is a lot of that going on here..teardowns and infill.... two early commericial buildings...note the particularly tall false fronts hiding a gable roof. Sort of "wild west"....you see this construction approach every so often in the city and out in the old suburbs and countryside in Chicagoland... And, what is an old Chicago neighborhood without some sunken houses. They are really not sunken, just that the street grade has been raised...3 to 8 feet depending on where you are at. In the poorer outlying (at that time) neighborhoods, the houses where never raised and lots filled in, thus have this sunken appearance. ..in parts of Pilsen the houses are nearly a full floor below grade. These look to be about three feet or so...(but note the infill housing to the right...they didn't raise the grade of their lot.... Political mural....with the traditional "anarchy & revolution" colors of red and black.... Ghandi and Che, together at last! (somehow I don't think they where coming from the same place, in terms of politics & strategy?) Not in Bucktown,but sort of fits...Anarchist agit-prop group in front of the Art Institute. ...back to Bucktown, the ubiquitous Chicago corner tavern....thought I understand these are a dying bread. City scenes with watertowers...interesting to compare and contrast these houses with the types we have in old Dayton. ...and, finally some shots of the neighborhood landmark, this wonderfull art deco flatiron building....here from the L platform (with those antique lights...where do they get the bulbs for these?) ...from Milwaulkee ...from North. closer the spire, with bas-relief figures... The Paris of the Midwest.... (be sure to see this painting in the Art Institute when you visit Chicago)