Cincy1

We have bought from there a few times and got the same postcard. I assume they are closing, but we were going to take a look as the prices are 50% off. I am a little bummed about it, but "we lost our lease" is a little cryptic. Did they choose to discontinue operations or is the landlord looking for another use for the building?

Awesome news - I guess we will finally find out the actual height, although I would be happy with 689 ft. I agree that this will have a great effect as it will be so visible. I wonder if they actually have some prospective tenants - some details will apparently be given tomorrow afternoon.

Does any developer do more talking and less development than Eagle? I really think they have good intentions, but either do something or get out of the way.

This looks like a very cool city, and I have read a lot of good things about the highly educated population and atmosphere. This also seems to be heating up for offshoring as companies look for redundancy outside of India, Malaysia etc. I know my company currently has this on their radar, and I am hoping for a chance to visit.

Damn - Fountain Square has ESPNU, and I don't - they must have the premium package. Great shots.

Having gone to Ohio State I am still hoping the Bucks sneak into the title game, but having grown up a UC fan this does not sit well with me at all. Those damn losses to Louisville and Pitt really hurt, but I think there was concern of how the Bearcat fans would travel. I think in Charlotte against another BCS school they would have done well(not sure UCONN and USF travel especially well either). Now it looks like, as you pointed out, the 23rd ranked team in the BCS gets the 4th place CUSA team - that should be enough to rally the fans....

^^ Then why make a statement that this is an unfortunate aspect of Cincinnati life - it seems that it would be more appropriate to say American life unless you have examples to the contrary. Also, I think there has been some effort in Evanston with DeSale's crossing. Of course we would want more, but much of this is market-driven. There is an increasing demand in Oakley, and the investment is following.

I know we have gone around the horn on this one previously, but according to DCI for Cincinnati. They project 4,292 for 2007: CBD Greater CBD 1999 2957 4971 2000 3102 5148 2001 3248 5693 2002 3590 6383 2003 3653 6647 2004 3704 6962 2005 3786 7445 2006 3980 7785

Cool shots - I can't remember the name of the area in the first picture, but weren't many of those buildings restored to look traditional (or new altogether)? If you get a chance there is an observation deck on the Main Tower (I think) - it is a circular glass building, not quite the tallest in the city. It looks like you got to go on a boat tour also. I tried to do that two different times, but couldn't because of weather. They had a sign for "high seas", which I thought was interesting. I absolutely love the look and feel of European cities - thanks for the photos.

Great photos - I have made leisure stops in both Frankfurt and Paris on the way to India the past few years, and the European rail system is awesome. I especially like the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt, which is a very cool structure. I did find it a little confusing on which gleis to take, although it would help to speak German. It is massive and has a large retail portion running below the main platform. How cool would it be if the US had local, regional, and national service like this?

Was Levi Jones playing in quicksand out there? I thought he was a first-rounder, but Palmer had no time due to the lack of blindside protection early on. It set the tone and once they were behind it was over. It seems the offense and defense never put together good series back-to-back - if they score the defense gives up a quick one and if the defense holds the offense goes three and out. I can't help but wonder how the defense would be with projected starters, but it seems Lewis will be on the hot seat shortly regardless (at least in the minds of fans and media). Considering he stuck with Dave Shula until he was something like 15-61 Mike Brown will probably stick with Lewis over the long term though. What really bugs me is not necessarily losing, but the fact that throughout a game they do so many little things wrong. They harped on it during the game, but this currently is a very undisciplined team.

I saw this and did not take that much offense, but I thought he said that "it went downhill since he left", inferring it would have been better if his grandfather had stayed. I think Jon Stewart is actually pretty funny, and I did not see this as a major slight, and if it was, big deal. Anyway, it is interesting that there is another Cincinnati family that produced a president - all we need is a Canadian connection to cover the NAFTA block.

The last number I heard for Cincinnati was 54 year-to-date. This might be slightly off but it should be close.

It's nice to see the point of view from someone not from here. I am definitely not one of the negative natives, and I am noticing a slow change in the overall outlook from that group. I have said it many times - it seems like at least half of the people I now meet are not from here, and that is good as you start to get a population with different points of view and ideas. Can you post a link? What evidence are you basing this statement on? dmerkow, you there?

I was going off the comment "over the last 4 decades". I think in the long term you will see that the area has been consistent. The last year was not great, but the reason is because of the manufacturing sector - I think it has declined since 1999. The other companies are indeed producing growth, and this is not just Fortune 500. On the flip side the losses in manufacturing are not just Fortune 500 either (e.g. Cincinnati Gear in Fairfax). My point is that the manufacturing sector is becoming a smaller percentage of the overall economy, and as that continues to happen the overall growth will improve because this is the only sector declining in jobs. There was a report by the Ohio Dept of Job and Family Services last year that had the projections on job growth through 2014 and those numbers are pretty interesting. Slow population growth is indeed an issue as most economists agree that companies would expand even more quickly if we had more in-migration. There is a good sign in that the net domestic migration was down to -1280 last year from a peak of -4794 in 2001 (we were on the plus side until 2000). This is more than offset by positive international migration, and natural growth adds more. Hopefully we can get back on the plus side in this category, but I would like to see a comprehensive program that actually sells the city. This can be tricky because I think the biggest reason people move is still for a job, but it could not hurt. It is interesting that not every metro with above average growth has a positive domestic migration, they are just getting a lot of international migration and people are having a lot of babies.

I would ask how you define stagnant. We certainly have not been a boom economy over the past 40 years, but I think we are pretty consistently growing. I think it is 1-2 percent a year, but I would have to check. We might be losing ground to the West and Southeast, but if you look at markets above and/or to the right of us geographically it is not bad. I always hope that someone locally will come up with the next hip, explosive company, but I would not consider the overall economy as stagnant. One other thing to consider, we have been driving down the percentage of manufacturing jobs in the local economy for a few years now, which has been the consistent drag causing the slow growth. The other job sectors have created more than enough jobs to cover those losses and create an overall gain. The faster we get rid of the old economy jobs like Ford etc., the sooner the new jobs will create faster growth. I would hope we always would have some manufacturing jobs, but I am happy that we are down to about 120,000 jobs overall. Soon they will only be about 10% of the total. I agree that we should have some mechanisms in place that deter sprawl though.

^ No, the Tata jobs will consist of 300 that already exist in the US. Cincinnati has a very small operation already so some of those 300 are local, but the other 700 are all new to the US and Cincinnati.

...and the spot taken by Tata was the number 1 ranked spot for NIOSH. The number 2 is in the city so this could boost the chances of staying within city limits.

I saw this mentioned previously so it might need to be merged. Clermont County is getting some big wins with 1000 new jobs here, and TQL growing rapidly: Tata to open headquarters in Clermont CountyBusiness Courier of Cincinnati Indian information technology firm Tata Consultancy Services has committed to opening its North American headquarters in Greater Cincinnati, the company said Friday. News reports say the company will occupy more than 150,000 square feet at Miami Township's Park 50 Technecenter in Clermont County, but the company has not confirmed the location of the facility. Clermont County officials said they would issue a statement this afternoon about the news. Tata could become one of the county's largest employers. Read More...

This is awesome news - if Xavier actually gets a "college town" area they will be even more successful. It really seems like both city schools are stepping up to raise their profile.

This could end up being something spectacular, but this architect really seems to like the boxy look. They are distinguishing their buidlings by the decorative skin I guess.

I can't decide what is irritating me more, the time it is taking to get this project started or the recycled Kay-Why cheerleading on a discussion about the Banks. The Cincy threads seem to attract a lot of trolling from surprising sources in general though...enough ranting. My opinion is if council flinches now, this will go down the drain. I still do not understand why they have not just broken this into smaller pieces. Maybe if the garages get built they could still parse it out, but if this falls through the city's already strained relationship with developers will be damaged so much that they will get very little future interest. Castellini really needs to step up and mediate this before it is too late.

Nice article in the Post - unfortunately I might not make it this year: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/LIFE/709250367 Oh so cool Midpoint Music Festival puts Cincinnati on music scene map By Rick Bird Post staff reporter BRUCE CRIPPEN/The Post Coletrain Motion from Chicago played at a 2005 Midpoint Music Festival pre-party. Bands from around the nation and the world will be at this year’s musical gathering in Cincinnati of unsigned groups. Look out, Cincinnati. We might actually be getting cool. The sixth annual Midpoint Music Festival, Thursday to Saturday, has become something of an overnight sensation that has suddenly put Cincinnati on the hipness map. Only 6 years old, it has quietly grown into the largest music festival in the Midwest devoted to showcasing unsigned, independent bands and has turned into a festival that needs to be reckoned with by the national indie music community. Click on link for article.

Interestingly the Enquirer says nothing about the reason for the move being a decision by the landlord. Has that been confirmed, and is the paper blatantly ignoring this?

To me the building and location were a huge part of the atmosphere for Federal Reserve. I find it hard to picture it anywhere else. Anyway, they were asked to leave so you can't blame them for taking the bargain basement rent, although I am not sure it is good that NOTL has to be so aggressive to get a business to locate there. That is the MO though, and I guess they are generating enough rent to pay the bills. 8 months on the dead pool, and I doubt a second location will ever come to fruition.