Caseyc

The Smale Event Lawn at CRP will be open starting this Friday for St. Patty's Day weekend. Bands, beer etc. That lawn is going to see a lot of action.

On opening night at Lager House I locked my bike up on the hand rail to the right of the ramp as you walk up. Paula Toti then interviewed me as an "urban bike enthusiast." Regardless, that seemed to work well and when I left, several other bikes had followed my lead. That said, I was surprised to not find bike racks. They have them over at the Walnut Street steps, albeit not enough last time I looked.

The new market tax credits awarded a couple of weeks ago were a key gating item on the project. They will now be doing remediation etc. and expect major work to appear in 30-45 days.

They have an ATM right inside the door to the right.

For a bit of perspective, Detroit's murder count is currently 49. Moreover they historically woefully undercount homicides which languish in limbo (e.g. two burned bodies found today not yet classified as "homicides" until cause of death is determined...which often never occurs due to incompetence in the crime lab; this also happens a lot with torsos found in empty buildings or vacant lots). It's not just warm weather.

They were in the building yesterday.

The Ohio Avenue steps to Bellevue are fun and easy, in part because they are sort of broken up into three stages. I really enjoy the Art Museum steps, through the Elsinore gate up to the Seasongood Pavilion. Then walk into Mt. Adams and take the Immaculata steps down to St. Gregory and walk over to the Celestial steps that take you down and over the Parkway to the awesome (and largely undiscovered) Mt. Adams Gate. Then cross Riverside Drive and head down to Sawyer Point.

Agreed, that section of Elm is unbelievable. And when the whole street is finished those buildings will be some of the most coveted in the whole city. That blue house with the beige trim is currently for sale if anyone is looking to buy! Right across the street from the new Washington Park! I went through the blue building. It obviously needs work (although there are residential apartments on 2d and 3rd floors with tenants) but would be an amazing place to live when everything is up and running. It's only $298K. Moreover, the church on the corner of 12th and Elm is $245K.

Model Group has started up on a number of long vacant buildings north of Liberty. McMicken west of main has a bunch, as well as Vine (just south of Robert A's Curve Cafe), and near Schwartz's Point (the quasi-Flatiron multi-sided building). They call it "North Rhine Heights" or something to that effect. This is a good sign.

The parking lot is just plain stupid. There is a lot to the North on 15th that is barely used, not to mention all the space in back that could be reconfigured for a loading dock. Most of time the parking lot is not full (or close to it) and a select few people like to pull right up to the door, then wait and idle for someone to come out with the groceries. A total waste. As for selection, there is nothing wrong as far as basics are concerned. I shop there at least 3 times a week, supplemented by Findlay. Moreover the service there is surprisingly efficient given the few checkout lines they have. I know a lot of OTR people (e.g. Parvis) like to go to the Newport Kroger, which is more of a "Social Safeway" type outing. I don't see the point unless Findlay is closed or I need some specialty items. I may go stake out the Newport Kroger on a Sunday with a clipboard and confront those I know, survey the items in their cart, and then make a comparison re availability of the same items at Findlay and OTR Kroger. Will report back.

Any organization that large is bound to have a few bad apples. Duke Energy is an important corporate citizen and partner with the City. God Bless Duke Energy. $25 million is pretty impressive for a corporation of any size, but particularly moreso since it involves bulky raw materials. Added parallel is that the alleged perpetrators were with the "underground utility" sector. Regardless, the two issues are really...ahem...apples and oranges.

Sure. Thought I already did. This is from someone who works for the city with regard to TOD around the streetcar system:

To me, it sounds like the issue is that Duke considers the streetcar a city owned utility, and thus cannot force another utility to upgrade or relocate at their expense for the city-owned utility. If the streetcar is considered a transportation asset, then the utility must pay. How's streetcars considered in Ohio law (ORC), a utility or transportation asset (keeping in mind that the applicable ORC might date back from the time when the streetcar systems were private) ?. That was my first thought. Exactly, and the threshold issue is whether the Cincinnati Streetcar is a utility under the applicable Ohio statute and caselaw. The Duke letter refers to the "streetcar utility project" in order to fit within the language of the statue. I have not researched the issue, but assume the the City and Duke have. There is probably room for interpretation here, and, unfortunately, Duke's action may be a prelude to some legal jousting, not to mention seeking to regain some perceived leverage over the City in the wake of the utility aggregation hearings. Was the subway project considered a public utility? What about other light rail lines that run close to (although not in), e.g. Cleveland, but perhaps required utility relocations? Like I said, I don't know what the Ohio courts have said on the issue. Secondarily, to the extent applicable, you could look at other states (someone mentioned Minneapolis) however that may be of limited relevance depending on the language of the applicable statutes

This is the main reason they chose this over the Banks. Keep in mind the Banks' office tower footprint also shrunk somewhat over over original plans, which was a handicap.

Excellent news. I take it that Councilmember Smitherman has found an additional $30-60 million then? Otherwise why would he keep repeating that?

Clearly, they realized that our myopic new media can only focus on one issue at a time. Without the coverage, this whole publicity stunt would go largely ignored. Can't have that.

Can anyone cut and paste the full text of the business courier article? See you at City Hall at 2 pm http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/print-edition/2012/01/27/next-cincinnati-streetcar-stop-duke.html

And the comments that were posted Monday are still there. So your point is? Then complain: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=contact. I'm sure that by constantly complaining on UO, that things will surely change on the Enquirer, a site that people hate with a passion yet love to comment and contribute to it. I sent an email to the editor last week just asking for an explanation. As I said before, I suspect it is a technical rather than conspiratorial issue. That said, however, your prior explanation, as well as follow up "fishing" post this morning, apparently had some holes. Just sayin'. No need to get overly defensive. Sorry Casey, it wasn't pointed at you. It was more general than anything. As much as people love to hate the local newspaper, I'm not sure that voicing the opinions here really help out. I did contact their IR staff last week over the Facebook issue, which they seemingly were not aware of the permanent link issue. I'm not sure they can do much about it though, since it's their content management software that is causing an issue - which is a Gannett problem. This happens at the Courier-Journal, too. Right. An IT person (not at Enquirer) said something similar. It really has to do with the incompetent platform on which they run their website.

And the comments that were posted Monday are still there. So your point is? Then complain: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=contact. I'm sure that by constantly complaining on UO, that things will surely change on the Enquirer, a site that people hate with a passion yet love to comment and contribute to it. I sent an email to the editor last week just asking for an explanation. As I said before, I suspect it is a technical rather than conspiratorial issue. That said, however, your prior explanation, as well as follow up "fishing" post this morning, apparently had some holes. Just sayin'. No need to get overly defensive.

And the comments that were posted Monday are still there. So your point is?

Not saying there is a conspiracy theory however I am quite sure that none of those three reasons applied with regard to the countless articles I have seen where comments disappear in their entirety. What I have observed is a simple wholesale elimination after a few days. I suspect there is another technical reason stemming from the typically shoddy website operations of the Enquirer.

Sorry JJ! I didn't put two and two together! Awesome site though By the way, anyone else notice that the Enquirer scrubbed the mostly anti-Smitherman comment section clean from the "Letter: Smitherman has conflict" article? http://news.cincinnati.com/comments/article/20120120/NEWS0108/301200126/Letter-Smitherman-has-conflict Talk about censorship! Boycott the Enquirer!!! It seems that the comments often don't last more than a few days. I have noticed a lot of other articles where this has occurred, although there is nothing in their formal policy or the FAQ's that explains why. I would like to know what the policy is.

This is offensive: Smitherman said the same thing about No on 9 leading up to the 48 election. Does he really think the voters are that stupid? How many times can they use this excuse and not be called out? Also, I like what Curp is doing here. Trying to remain above the fray to avoid any bias accusations...but...we have tried the political process. And won. Twice. We have also elected pro-streetcar majorities t council in each of the past two elections as well as a Mayor who has staked his mayorship on the issue. The political process has been played out as far as I'm concerned.

Dan wrote that at first without even talking to me. He did speak with Smitherman, who told him it was "about the streetcar." When we spoke, I indicated it was not. He asked me why I included the video of Smitherman going apoplectic at City Council last May (which was a streetcar hearing that went badly for him). I said I included that because it demonstrated his fiery, literally over-the-top advocacy (purportedly) on behalf of the NAACP in front of Council. Given that, I had a hard time seeing how he could reconcile his two roles--one as crazy, out of control lobbyist and the other as sitting councilmember. Dan made some subsequent revisions after we spoke. I made it clear to him that I am in no way affiliated with the streetcar, but I do support it, as do the citizens of Cincinnati as evidenced by the two most recent elections. I don't have a problem with the piece. The Courier wanted to call me a "local blogger." I told him that I do not have a blog. He corrected that.

In case you forgot what happened last May....which doesn't begin to capture the Smitherman tirade. I have to think Channel 5 has some even better footage somewhere. http://www.wlwt.com/r-video/27862543/detail.html