Cincy1

This is awesome news, and a relief to most educated people in Cincinnati. I am always struck at Phil Burress and how nasty he is about anything he considers to be against his "normal" view. On a somewhat separate subject, his underhanded tactics to pressure hotels over adult movies and adult stores is borderline criminal. If you do not want the stuff (not that I would either), simply do not purchase it and the market will vote by keeping the place in business or not. His reaction to porn always seems over the top, and I guess that is because he is a self-admitted addict. It's like putting a militant, recovering alcoholic in charge of liquor licenses - he could not control it so no one else can have it.

I am glad they made the announcement on this - I know a real estate agent who knew about these but she made it clear they wanted to be completely quiet about this until the announcement (although I was very tempted to mention this previously). She said the developer wanted to make sure they sold enough prior to the announcement so that it would be ready to go quickly. Adding the 6 floors on top will really create some nice views.

Not sure if this has been added somewhere else, but this is an update on FACS: Federated jobs overshoot goal Company hires 90 more people than planned for credit division Cincinnati Business Courier - July 28, 2006by Lisa Biank FasigStaff Reporter Federated Department Stores Inc. has overshot its hiring goal for its credit division in Deerfield Township, creating 90 positions more than the roughly 200 it had expected. The chain, which is about halfway to adding another 200 jobs at its headquarters downtown, ended up bringing total employment at its Financial Administrative and Credit Services (FACS) to 2,250. Federated had expected total employment to come to 2,160, spokesman Jim Sluzewski said. http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2006/07/31/story4.html

I think it is probably good that the new bar is not going to Covington (at least at the initial location). I think it is near the Madison Theater, which seems like it has gone bankrupt twice in the past three years. It might just be one of those cursed locations. This area just does not seem like a long-term solution and as has been mentioned, the closing of Jillian's does not really add to the allure. Additionally, the whole Covington Landing entertainment complex is gone. I think Covington, around Main Strasse, has a nice little collection of local bars but the places outside of this area do not seem to last.

Great news! I am glad they are finally starting to announce tenants. It will be interesting to see what goes in the new streetscape of the 580 building. Joseph-Beth would be ideal somewhere in this mix. As for a movie theater, it would be nice to get a first run stadium development, but I would not mind something like the Movies that was on Race. Show some classics, independent, foreign etc. - they used to get some pretty cool premiers. Of course they seem to be targeting a larger market but I think there is always room for something like this. Once all these places on the list open, I think they will create a lot of synergy with Palomino, Ruby's, Redfish, Nicholson's, Bella etc.

Good to see Cincinnati has exported entertainment to other cities - I had seen a lot of it around OSU on football Saturday's the past few years, but I never thought the city's contribution to other places would be something called cornhole..... Also in typical Enquirer fashion, since the ranking was not terrible it is a small blurb.

Cornhole is a Cincinnati thing....while the name does suck (or not), it is fun because everyone can play and drink beer. Here's a goofy article about it, but I remember seeing UC students playing it in '96 or '97 so the Enquirer is obviously behind. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/07/14/spt_worlds_best-kept.html

I am probably being overly optimistic, but I think there is some good news for Cincinnati in that even though unemployment is up there are also more people working. It might be more people re-entering the workforce, but it is also a sign the region is growing. We just need to start creating more jobs.

This has been discussed ad nauseum previously, and it is difficult to understand exactly how the rankings are done. I think the two years Cincy was 39th all the category rankings seemed pretty good except for the "buzz", which is obviously subjective. That being said, having lived with the very low rankings it is nice to be see a move up last year and this year. If for no other reason than perception. I personally put little value on this but unfortunately the average reader does not ask these detailed questions. Columbus seems to have a good string on this list - good for them. Cleveland obviously has a lot of good things to offer singles so I would not be too worried about this - the real damage could come from how the Plain Dealer covers it, if at all.

I think this has been discussed before, but they along with places like Indianapolis and Charlotte were big winners when they went from metro areas to CSA's to define population. Look at how much land St. Louis gets - ridiculous. It also shows that Cleveland is very dense in that even with Akron, the area only covers 3600 square miles. That seems impressive to me.

We went to the Reds game last night, and walked up to O'Malley's afterward. I was struck by the number of windows that are on the alley side of this development. It looks like a lot of work is getting done on these, and I think they going to really have a "big city" feel.

I am losing it because I think it is Talking Heads since it sounded vaguely familiar but cannot say for sure. I am not an expert on the band although 77 is a great album. Unfortunately it is harder to research some information for things pre-internet, but I appreciate your quick response.

It looks like the crane is still up for Atrium II on this, but it is hard to tell. This looks like a clip of an old music video in which Cincinnati was one of the downtowns - MTV used to play it, but I can't remember who it was by. I think the song was "Cities".

They are indeed already there, since 1996 I think. If you have not gone, it is the second best steak (to Ruby's) downtown.

Jeff - I should have been clearer, but I was considering any change in boundaries as annexation, and you are right. I did not see this posted yet, but this is another reason I like the Business Courier - they seem to have a better perspective and at least look for measurable solutions: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2006/06/26/editorial1.html City must reverse population loss Cincinnati Business Courier - June 23, 2006 We could wax about the good and the bad in the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, detailing Cincinnati's continuing population-loss plight. But here's what's new: The census bureau released on Wednesday new population estimates for cities with populations greater than 100,000 for July 2005. The figures are an update of numbers released a year ago. Cincinnati was not the city that lost the most population by percentage during this period. We did lose 1.6 percent, or more than 5,100 residents. But St. Louis and Norfolk, Va., lost more. When you look at the numbers over the 2000-2005 period, Cincinnati is at the bottom, but we share that position with Detroit, each losing 6.8 percent of our population during that period. Detroit lost more than 64,000 residents; Cincinnati lost nearly 23,000.

I would say photos like these are worth the wait - amazing. The clarity and colors are unbelievable, and you definitely have a knack for capturing a street scene.

^ About .6% a year, not great but not horrible. But I completely hear where you are coming from. We need more officials that welcome everyone with open arms.

Yeah, this whole piece pissed me off as they chose three cities that have all annexed in recent years and range from 225-361 square miles in size. A more appropriate comparison for Cincinnati based on the city and metro would be Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, or even Atlanta. These are cities that have not annexed and are closer from a historical perspective.

I'm a little surprised the Enquirer did not have a follow-up article, but this is a pretty good one from the Post. I actually thought the free tickets to the show were limited to 1500, but I might be wrong.: Not your father's convention center 'The Duke' makes its Cincinnati debut with a message: The buttoned-down Queen City is ready to rock By Rick Bird | Post staff reporter The expanded, remodeled downtown convention center held its grand reopening ceremony Thursday night heralded as "the house that everyone built," with state, city, county, and corporate money paying the $150 million tab for the project. Politicians and business leaders praised the project that came in two weeks ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget. After the usual self-congratulatory remarks, something very different happened at the traditional downtown booster event. The building rocked. The speeches gave way to rock 'n' roll, jazz, R&B, Cajun music and jam bands as music shook and echoed off the halls of the 750,000 foot sprawling structure now known as the Duke Energy Center. Edgy jam band Rusted Root drew some 2,000 concert-goers to a free show as the opening also featured two hours of all-star band lineups with some of the region's finest local musicians. Read full article here: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/LIFE/606230367

^^ I am not a regular listener, but I checked in at lunch to see what old Bill was spewing and he was going on about whether or not he has an impact on people leaving the city. I sent an email and basically said that for the educated person no, but for his many followers who take everything he says as fact yes. Additionally, for those around the country and who listen to XM he might be the only impression they have of Cincinnati. I added that I realize he has to exaggerate for ratings, but to at least once in while say something positive about the city. It is unbelievable how much he drums on the crime issue (and always equates the entire city with the worst neighborhoods), but I asked him to look at some historical numbers for St. Louis as an example. Again, like people posted earlier I think people here should go to big city to see real crime for some perspective.

All I can say is Amen, Amen, Amen - Paul knows his stuff. A lot of people worked hard to get people to support Broadway, but the fact that the Reds were against it as well as big business probably doomed the campaign. Only Clifton, Hyde Park, and Mt. Lookout supported it by vote count. They went so far as to bring in a "developer" who wanted to reserve Broadway for a 1000 housing units (or something ridiculous) just before the election. The project conveniently disappeared after the vote.

This simply goes back to the point that if it is not dealt with nationally, the immigrants will just go to other places. There is a comical beauty to the whole situation. The jack ass in Butler County and apparently the morons in Warren County cannot see the big picture, so they want to show off their backward ways and make things tough on illegal immigrants, and by extension all Hispanics in the area. Way to go Cleveland! BTW, the city is losing population not the metro, but actions like this will help to remedy the problem.

I do and you may be right - I thought the date was later but time flies.

I (one of many, many people) worked with a friend of Jim Tarbell's to get the site option on the ballot by collecting a lot of signatures around the city. Unfortunately, the position of having the stadium at Broadway Commons was apparently not articulated well enough and people voted for the riverfront. Neon's opened in '91, I think, and Japp's and Rhino's started within a couple of years after that (it's hard to believe it started with just 3 places). By '94-'95 it had most of the bars/clubs opened so I would say this was not influenced by the possibility of a stadium as that idea came later. When the idea was floated, there were a lot of people looking at warehouses/buildings who were planning on jumping in on the speculative loft market, but unfortunately it did not happen. Hell, Peter Bronson was even on board after getting information on the transformation of the LoDo area in Denver. There has been some writing on whether the riots would have hit that area like they did if the stadium had been built there by 2000. I consider putting the stadium where it is one of the bigger blunders the city has made in the past 20 years. At least they have created entertainment business for Kentucky, but the Ohio side has seen very little benefit, other than the In-Between expanding, and GameDay opening. As owner of the Reds, I will say Castellini is giving me hope for the riverfront that I have not had in 6 years.

Riverviewer - Great photos although I not so secretly hope Jefferson Hall sees the same fate of Empire and Fat Fish Blue. What section were you in? I was in 522 and it looks close to that. Good to see a sell-out tonight even though they lost. I took my daughter and sat next to 5 drunk college guys. They were actually pretty entertaining and made sure to say "ear muffs" when anything inappropriate was going to be said.