Rusty Shackleford

This makes perfect sense. Here outside Lebanon in Warren County there is a house across the street that has been vacant for over a year - the husband worked in local construction and they moved out. Grass is a foot high around the house, there has been no apparent effort to list the house, yet, the same owners are listed on the auditor's web site. As one commenter in the "very scary" DDN piece above stated, "... banks that don't foreclose, don't have to recognize the loss. ... Therefore, don't foreclose, don't recognize the loss, report great "earnings" and pay yourself a nice bonus." To me this property, and also one with a similar pattern of same named owner ownership but no foreclosure action around the block from us, both seem to be in limbo. This explains it perfectly. The banks probably want to sit on the properties because they couldn't get anyone to buy them at 2/3 appraised value even if they tried.

Classic Dayton neighborhoods at their best, early fall! Very nice.

Inkstop corporate sounds like REALLY nice people, too: :x They are stiffing their employees on the last paycheck and they didn't pay the medical insurance due at the start of September. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/21184232/detail.html Tools. A@@holes. B@stards. May the board of directors rot in hell...

There was one in Mason that I tried when it opened a couple of years ago, because I received a mailer for "big bargains" at their grand opening. I had to return a really junky iPod knockoff that I bought at that sale. The store was nice enough but I never had a reason to go back again. The prices didn't seem that great and the specials were things like used color laser printers that consumed some godawfully expensive ($300) cartridge packs.

I don't know about "is needed", like Dayton "needs" to grow into Cincinnati like it's a preordained blessing or curse, but I realized something else. The name "Cincinnati Premium Outlets" is marketing and copy "magic" at work. It tells a passer-by on I-75 with no ambiguity "this the "THE" big Cincinnati mall." No other title would work in that way. If it was called "Monroe Premium Outlets" or "West Chester Premium Outlets" the average traveler would think "wtf? What is this piddly local thing?" I-75 is a major national travel corridor and they want non locals to stop and get fleeced, er, buy stuff. I think "just a local thing" when driving by the Dry Ridge Outlets and perhaps that is one reason among several why they did not do well. "Dry Ridge" is a meaningless bump in a long road, a local name for a tiny place. It's not "there" unless you're from around there.

Don't get me wrong - the endless hair splitting is exactly why I come here. It's fun. I'm just saying that the intended target of all of this tilt slab warehouse stuff masquerading as a destination are common folks who generally have no clue. They just know that vaguely the place is Cincinnati-ish somehow but they have no idea "why".

And those suburban malls compete with who? It's all sprawl man! What does married have to do with anything? Since when is shopping catered specifically to women?! Your one hell of a "profiler"! I am probably walking into some "fresh" here. :| The outside world (ordinary consumers and citizens outside UO) think of the aesthetic or planned-development qualities of something like an outlet mall as COMPLETELY a background thing. Totally disregardable. You guys focus on these things. The rest of the world doesn't even pay attention. To anyone outside UO, this discussion would be like critiquing waiting room music. Most people just don't think anything when they see "a fake Cincinnati for people who hate Cincinnati." It makes most sheeple think vaguely of Cincinnati, but that's as far as it goes. At least 95% of the visitors to this place will just think "ohhh! price too high!"

Isn't the P.P.B. private property? That's probably the rationale for not maintaining the ped and cycle traffic smoother. "We can do whatever we want, it's ours." It's rather disconcerting to be walking on the downslope on that thing and have bikes whizzing by behind you. Even when it's not cluttered up. I think the sarcasm threw me because the fireworks in the fog were pretty bad.

I'm having difficulty distinguishing actual disparagement from snark and irony. :?

Slaw dogs are a common southern thing. I prefer Chicago style.

Grim.

I saw two pro-casino spots on cable news last night asserting that permitting Ohio casinos would bring $1 billion in revenue into Ohio. I assume this $1 billion would be gross revenues flowing in from users, not $1 billion in net profits or $1 billion in new tax revenue. True? Or is it really quantifiable?

I was going to post that really bad web copy and a cringe worthy exterior mural do not make a bad product, necessarily, but the reviews I managed to dig up of the place were pretty bad. It's like they try to do everything and don't do any one thing (except maybe burgers and dogs) that well.

The initial post for this thread asked for what we "think/feel." I gave that. I don't give a crap if they are a revelation or not. Just as legitimate as any other expression here. Anyway, you just used the word "leader" in the perfect context: leadership. As in, where is the leadership? Certainly not in Ohio in economic terms. Why are we even discussing gambling as an alternative? Let's do it, fine. Get it over with. The "magic job fairy" as you say starts with real leadership. Not endorsing some quick buck BS. Which is what casinos really are.

whether or not that is true, IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH CASINOS!!! Ok, this verges on another facet to the Ohio gambling debate: the saturation of voters' consciousness with an economic initiative of relatively minor impact on the state's welfare as a whole. In other words, US voters seem to be "saturated" by single issues like health care. Or this local/state issue. It crowds out more important choices. Decades ago - 1950s, 60s and 70s - Ohio was king of manufacturing. Ohio had what you could term a manufacturing and R&D culture. We designed and built things here, it was almost Ohio's identity. And we were among the foremost industrial states in the US. Look at us today. Ohio is an exemplar of the rust belt economy looking backward at better times. So we have to build a better future. That sort of thing isn't even being discussed. Instead we have the chickensh*t distraction of allowing casino gambling or not. Westerninterloper: I completely agree. And that is exactly the role that manufacturing filled for decades - providing high-value employment to low-end or non-specialized workers. There is a lot of grunt-work in high tech. It's not all rocket science. Someone has to assemble high tech components, run tests, run manufacturing equipment, clean, inspect, etc. So the choice is really: a "generic" unskilled person works in fast food or service (IE, casino jobs, or the existing service sector) for <$10/hr with no benefits, or he/she works in manufacturing for $15/hr and up with benefits. So maybe I'll amend my original response: I am not exactly for or against casino gambling. Yeah, it could employ some low end people, yeah, it could bring in tax $$. But attaching great importance to it seems to be a sign of fairly pathetic economic development efforts. It leads to nowhere better economically except a bit more revenue for the state to waste as it sees fit.

My opinion is that this state needs much better and much broader economic development ideas than subsidizing bread and circuses that contribute nothing to the arts or to improving people's lives. (IE, bread and circuses is fine to an extent but there's no "art" to a casino.) My opinion is that casino legislation itself is a distraction from more valuable forms of economic development, like green energy, biotech and high tech. The voters' attention is dissipated by arguments about an economically wasteful, lose-lose activity (gambling.) Perhaps a win-win in this vein would be to use the casino license fees to fund economic incentives to locate high-value-job producing industries to Ohio.

Fast forward 20 years. The state continues to lose population, jobs, manufacturing, etc. What are our politicians going to blame then? What will they turn to? The drinking age in Canada? I say lets be an island. While the politicians in other states take the easy way out, let's focus our energy on a competitive tax structure to attract high tech business here. Here, here. We need jobs that produce real economic value. Not simply jobs that keep us from being a net loser to low-tech neighboring states. My position - casinos are, in my view, exactly like any other hospitality business - restaurants and hotels mainly - a subsistence business that employs people at relatively low income levels in low-tech and non-technical work. As already noted, casinos have a 0 complementary effect upon the complexion of the neighboring area. Aesthetically they are usually hideous and they don't add to the visual appeal of the area. They bring in consumers (fleshy mobile consuming pods, that's us!) for specific gambling visits, who don't tend to spend money at neighboring businesses. In place of a casino, think "self contained restaurant complex+hotel". BFD. People sleep and eat there and spend a little money. Hospitality is not where economic value is created anyway. Not to pick on C-Dawg only, but the rationale he stated above sounds like "subsistence mentality". Casinos are "better than nothing." That just sounds sad. IMO - if you can't support a family on the average jobs created by a development, and the profits just go to stockholders and rich b*stards and corporate entities who have majority ownership of the casino - then the jobs created (whatever they are) are not worth a lot of effort to attract. This is all in addition to the negative social effects of pandering to gambling addiction. Maybe the state could profit from franchising gambling licenses but IMO it's not a net plus for Ohio in the long run. It just creates some poverty level jobs for some people and enriches a very few, but exacts a regressive tax on the "users."

A new span alongside the existing bridge would look SO COOL from the bikeway. :) Aside: a few years ago (I think around 2000 or so) when I was riding there I saw a guy paraglide from the bridge down the Little Miami. :-o

I stopped shooting negatives and transparencies about five years ago, when I purchased my first digital camera with better than a 4MP sensor. I found that even with the image pixellation, the quality of the vast majority of my shots with the digital were much better than my (very good) 35mm point and shoot. I was buying the photo CD every time I had a roll processed. So I figured, why spend all that money. I have a box of Fujichrome still in the fridge with 18 rolls in it and no idea when I will ever get around to using it again. I have a Nikon FE2 from 1984. Beautiful condition, nary a mark, even has the gold inspection sticker on it. I carried it on one bike tour in Vermont in 1987 in a handlebar bag. But it's SUCH a freakin' boat anchor. I can't bring myself to sell it and the expensive Nikkor zoom lens that goes with it. But I doubt I will ever use it. And I have a Yashica-Mat 124 from 1972, a birthday present -a Japanese Rolleiflex, basically. To me it's kind of sad to have this "iron" and have no idea when I'd ever use any of it again. The one tangible thing that digital has sacrificed is dynamic range. Silver based film can pick up most shadows in normal scenes, and it takes a lot to blow out highlights. Those areas turn to ink and whiteout with digital.

Nod on the name. Thanks. Dale Gribble is one of my favorite cartoon characters.

You're a harsh bunch. :evil: Or, they give you a bum's rush to authorize the work, they do the work, but the insurance claim is denied and they demand payment anyway. Once they get a signature they're in the driver's seat. Yeah, I considered those possibilities. I shoulda gotten the name of the company and I didn't. He was driving a decent late model US sedan and he wore a tag on his shirt that identified the putative remodeling company. I'm in Warren county and I think the company on the tag said it was in Middletown. He didn't say the name of the company himself in his spiel. I "computed" that it was a scam almost immediately and told him that conversation was over, good-bye. I corresponded with some friends in other parts of the country and apparently this is a relatively common sales practice now. One guy said that most of his neighbors have gotten work done by the same outfit and even supposedly get upgrades to architectural shingles. If it works (and I doubt that it will for very long) it just drives up everyone's homeowner's insurance.

Izzy's used to have a Fields-Gurtle location in the early 90s. I wish they'd bring one back to the Mason area...

I think about it as MayDay stated - I feel like a rude asshole if I ignore the door. And one issue is that the way our front porch is laid out, we are not certain that someone standing at the front door hasn't seen our outline or shadows through the window. I know - if you don't know the person, then f*** whatever they think, right? That seems to be the way most people reason these days. So, I am not most people. Anyway, you guys opining on the error of my ways for even answering the door are hijacking the thread. My real point - ignored thus far - was that this home improvement guy was appealing to homeowner greed. I thought that the proposition he was laying out was dishonest.

At *very* best, door to door is an antiquated sales technique and reeks of high pressure. I can see why they would try this. They have a better chance of engaging a prospect in a conversation. You can easily hang up on a phone call. And home repairs always involve a walk around for an estimate. But, look - I meant the entire premise - getting insurance to pay for a roof that was shot anyway due to age.

We had an "interesting pitch" from a door to door salesman today. The guy had looked at our roof and noted storm damage. True that - some shingles tore off during the hurricane driven windstorm just about 1 year ago to the day. We already have a contractor that we intend to use when we decide to pay for a tear off and new roof. The existing roof is at least 15 years old. Our guy told me that the shingle damage is tolerable but we definitely need a new roof within the next couple of years just due to normal weathering. This guy's "special sauce" was that one of the owners of their company was an ex-insurance adjuster and could in theory get our homeowner's insurance to pay for a complete roof tear-off and replacement. I thought "scam!" because ALL insurance companies assess the condition of the item being repaired for an insurable damage. If you have a dent already and then have collision damage, they make an adjustment for the dent. So, the insurance company would send their own person out and tell us that our roof was near its end of life anyway, and "no pay." The guy was super persistent. I told him that we did not want to continue the conversation, good day. This is a scam, right? It sure didn't smell right to me. It seems to indicate how desperate everyone is for business.