Jeff

The Terminal Tower bears a resemblance to those "stalinist" skyscrapers they have in Moscow and Warsaw. I have to say that white skyscraper from Columbus is excellent, especially the way the details erupt at the top of the tower (bas-relief fascis?, Indians?) .And the one from Youngstown is also quite good for deco. I lreally ike the massing on the Carew Tower, but I think that building, and the adjacent Netherland hotel really shine on the inside. The outside, above the ground and second floor base treatment, seems to be a bit restrained, probably due to the brickwork.

Also, Im suprised that Dayton, at least, doesnt have a better national rep for its bikepath system, which seems pretty extensive.

Looking at the ODOT map, it looks like it will eventually be possible to cycle from Xenia and Dayton down into Cincy. That would be really cool. Not sure how long it would take, though.

Those renderings portray a very pleasant, almost European space. I'm not that down on the current configuration of Foutain Square, esp that skywalk/elevator thing. Its sort of neat to be up there with an overview of the square, the fountain, and the Carew Tower in the backround.

Does anyone find it ironic that this kind of museum is going up in a city that has developed a national repuatation for racism and conservativism? BTW, there is actually already a pretty interesting (tho small) museum on the African-American at Wilberforce College, near Xenia.

I'm totally opposed to gambling, aside from small stakes charity stuff like bingo in the parish hall.

Dayton has a ghetto airport? Since when? Yes, its very low key, but we are not talking about a big regional hub here... My experience with Lambert wasn't that bad. My worst was Philadelphia. The place was congested, under construction, and was surrounded by a chain link fence topped by concertina wire. Welcome to The City of Brotherly Love? Uh...I dont think so...

History of Deutsche Post World Net ..well, chalk one up to neoliberalism and globalization.

DHL was an American company, but it was bought by the German post office. I was wondering about this when I saw those ads with those yellow DHL trucks. Yellow (and black) is the color of the "Deutsche Bundespost"...it dates from the old "imperial colors" of the Holy Roman Empire. Turns out the Germans privatized their postal service, and spun off the telecommunications buisness to the private sector too (known to us as "T Mobile"). After the privatization the postal service started buying up expresse and airfreight operations, like DHL.

There was actually a book on the Mill Creek published a while back..."The Mill Creek..An Unnatural History of an Urban Stream", by Stanley Hedeen.

Hmmm...flying from Springfield to Dayton? And tornados in the Miami Valley...there was that tornado in Xenia. Incidentally, another pop culture figure from Kettering is the political cartoonist Ted Rall.

...after looking at that aerial I didn't know there was another shopping center behind Rookwood Commons.

I think its interesting that the Cleveland system survived into our time. Most rapid transit systems outside of the East Coast (exception being Chicago) where abandoned in the postwar years. Both Milwaulkee and I think Rochester, New York had something similar to the Cleveland system, but abandoned them in the late 40s or early 50s. I think the Cleveland system actually expanded during the postwar era, with an extension to the airport?

The proposed light-rail line for Louisville was also cancelled due to lack of funding. The light rail system I'm familiar with, in Sacaramento, California, is pretty sucessfull, and is expanding. http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_sac003.htm Sacramento MSA is actually around the size of Cincinnati, but is mostly low density post WWII suburbia. There are older areas that predate WWII, but they are not large vis a vis the rest of the built-up area. So its interesting to see the sucess of light-rail there.

Anything to be closer to Toronto. Thats one great city.

Here they are again (and you can see the Scioto in this pic too): ...and theres the Great Seal State Park, where one can hike through the scenery depicted on the seal. Yes, Chillicothe is alto more interesting than I thought. Some nice old architecture there. I like that county courthouse.

Thanks..Im going to have to look for Jackson Square next time im in Cols. Doing some websearches on downtown, and it seems the area I was on the fringes of was not Old Towne East but something called the Discovery District Also, check out this presentation on a downtown Columbus developement plan. Some really interesting stuff here (lots of graphics), including a discussion of residential issues, and a comparison with Cincy & Clevo. A Buisness Plan for Downtown

Wheres' Jackson Square at? When I was in Cols last year for Commfest I stayed at the Hyatt on Capital Square, and decided to explore the adjacent neighborhood. I walked east of the Capital, up to the library, and then back. That neighborhood looks like it was an interesting residential area at one time...still a few surviving houses and apartments, almost all converted to office. Also a lot of parking lots. I think theres a real infill opportunity there. The street pattern is pretty odd there, too..sort of like secondary streets or alleys in the middle of the blocks.

I was suprised by that downtown Columbus population number, too. Even the area you mention, the area demarcated by the interestates and the Scioto, doesn't seem to have too much housing, from what I recall.

Heh..i go there for their after-holidays sale! Seriously, If I could lose a few pounds I would be shopping there more often as I really like Saks (& Brooks Brothers). Really worth a shopping trip downtwon (as well as the "House of Shirts" on Main St.)

During my Cleveland vistit of a few years ago I made a point of visiting this neighborhood. I have to say the backstreets around St Stanislaus reminded me alot of my old neighborhood in Chicago, which was also built around a "St Stanislaus" (tho the architecture of mine was sort of deco romanesque, not Gothic). Theres also a Polish neighborhood in Toledo, on LaGrange Avenue, thats still somewhat Polish. There was one in Dayton, too, on Valley Street, around St Adalbert (also a Lithuanian and Hungarian community in the same area..Old North Dayton), but thats long gone, except for the parish churches, a grocery, and a restraunt.

Are there metrosexuals in Ohio? Would be these the folks who shop in the mens sportswear dept. at Saks in downtown Cincy?

Good grief,,that big clock reminds me of the old Plamolive clock across the river from Louisville....

The movers and shakers around the national park always had some concept of a heritage rail developement, or at least an 'interpretation' of the Wright Brothers using the interurban to get to their flying field. The husband of a former coworker of mine was a railfan, and did an overly optimistic study that used the heritage rail concept as the basis for the beginnings of a light-rail system for Dayton. Then, the scheme was cut wayback to the the Huffman Prairie/Wright Dunbar line, and even that proved too expensive (the engineering to bring the through the Route 444/Kaufmann/Sringfield Street intersection, then over or around Huffman Dam was just too involved), so we have this rump line as the end result. ***** Interestingly enough, I ran across an old study at the Wright State library, from the early-mid 1970s, to put in a light rail line from downtown Dayton to Centerville, following the right-of-way of the old Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern narrowgauge line. The study was fairly detailed, including track layouts and schematics of stations. I suspect this concept arose out the controversy of constructing I-675, which I heard the City of Dayton opposed at the time. If built this would have been one of the earlier light rail lines in the US.

The movers and shakers around the national park always had some concept of a heritage rail developement, or at least an 'interpretation' of the Wright Brothers using the interurban to get to their flying field. The husband of a former coworker of mine was a railfan, and did an overly optimistic study that used the heritage rail concept as the basis for the beginnings of a light-rail system for Dayton. Then, the scheme was cut wayback to the the Huffman Prairie/Wright Dunbar line, and even that proved too expensive (the engineering to bring the through the Route 444/Kaufmann/Sringfield Street intersection, then over or around Huffman Dam was just too involved), so we have this rump line as the end result. ***** Interestingly enough, I ran across an old study at the Wright State library, from the early-mid 1970s, to put in a light rail line from downtown Dayton to Centerville, following the right-of-way of the old Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern narrowgauge line. The study was fairly detailed, including track layouts and schematics of stations. I suspect this concept arose out the controversy of constructing I-675, which I heard the City of Dayton opposed at the time. If built this would have been one of the earlier light rail lines in the US.