Eigth and State

I used to be a fan of bike paths and special bike lanes, but I have changed my mind. I now think that everything works better with properly designed streets that accomodate both bicycles and cars. Under Ohio law, bicylces are supposed to ride on the far right side of the road, but they are permitted to ride in the center of the lane if they can keep up with traffic. This can be done on a 25 mph street. Roads with a lot of curb cuts, right turn lanes, highway ramps, and so on are not friendly to bicycles. They aren't friendly to cars, either. Sprawl development is just uncomfortable for everybody.

Immigration is nothing like it used to be. Once upon a time, immigration into the United States was unrestricted. Sometime around 1910, the federal government put restrictions on it. Part of those restrictions include quotas by country. We all know how so many American companies have relocated manufacturing jobs to China and Southeast Asia. What if those jobs had remained in the United States, and Chinese and Southeast Asians had been imported instead? Another federal policy that affect immigration is the minimum wage. Instead of allowing an immigrant to work for a couple dollars a day, the job was outsourced to an asian worker who works for the equivalent of a couple of dollars per day. It's interesting to wonder what might have happened had our immigration policy remained wide open.

Is that Metro bus real or photoshopped? I thought they weren't allowed to do that. :?

I guess Ohio cities are now old enough that ancient landmarks have become attractions.

You are talking about the Kentucky side, right? There was a toll building on the Ohio side that still existed when they built the original FWW. Some Roebling trivia: next time you cross the bridge, look for a little door on the underside of each arch.

The bridge hasn't been repainted in many years. Some repairs were made in the last few years.

If you already have vehicles and drivers, then you are already a step ahead. If you were starting from scratch, I would advise to think twice. My recommendations: Advertise in the student newspapers in your target market well ahead of time; set an opening date; and give away free rides for some time until the business gets established. As your ridership grows, your paid riders will displace your free riders. Try to get a full bus the first few times. Have enough money to keep it going at least a year before you turn a profit. Keep careful records to see how you are doing. If it doesn't look promising after a year, then quit. The University of Cincinnati and Queen City Metro partnered with an experimental service in the 1990's. Three new bus routes between suburban malls and both campuses ran 3 times in the morning and 3 more in the afternoon. After 3 years they decided that it wasn't attracting enough riders and discontinued.

We should have more streets like those. Thanks for the photos.

I am working on a possible preservation of a historic building in Cincinnati I could use some help from the architecture and construction people here. What would it cost to build a new 8000 square foot one story warehouse building? The only utility required is electricity. If you could cite a source it would be most helpful. Thank You.

"Much like the comparisons that the streetcar is somehow equatable to Hitler and Stalin." Well, Stalin did build the Moscow subway, you know. :-D

The Great Miami River was modified in a flood control project following the 1913 flood. The same project also modified the Great Miami River in Hamilton.

^--- Oh, I can't argue with that. I figure the more options there are, the better. I just don't agree that building rail transportation is the answer to almost every problem known to man. :wink:

You are making things complicated. Baggage cars? Pets? Those baggage cars are going to have to be loaded and unloaded very quickly in order to get the capacity that you speak of, and I thought that pets as a rule are not allowed on public transportation.

In all fairness, could Houston have been evacuated any better by trains? In one analysis, it was said that highway planners provided for the possiblity of evacuation in the case of a hurricane way back in the 1950's. Of course, in those days they were figuring on at least 4 people per car. In the case of Katrina, people who could afford to do so took all the cars they could. Families were split up - dad took the SUV with the boat trailer, mom took the minivan, and the daughter took the compact, all loaded up with stuff. They were trying to protect not only themselve, but their property as well. Plus, just about everybody waited until the last minute. Even if you could come up with enough trains, how would everyone get to the station?

Looks like a time warp. Lose the cars, asphalt, and wires and it could be 1860. Thanks for posting.

"Come on guys If it's being warm it has no effect what so ever if someone wants to kill someone. " I thought it was common knowledge that hot weather is correlated with crime. There is invariably more crime in summer than winter. They keep prisons cool to keep tempers down. They say that bad weather is the policeman's friend.

17 hours in one seat, from L.A. to Taipei with a fuel stop in Anchorage, was my longest flight. It was part of a 50 hour trip including 3 flights, a 10 hour bus ride and a few hours of stops.

I'm not looking for a reason to be against casinos. I don't think casinos will help the economy, and I think that any casino will be surrounded by a lot of parking lots. If a casino is built in Over-the-Rhine, the parking lot issue could even work against us if the parking, along with auto-oriented development, starts to displace other existing uses. And I am sure that the casino will do everything they can to to steer customers to the casino WITHOUT visiting other attractions in the neighborhood. For example, they could fence off the property and make the automobile entrance the main entrance, making it inconvenient to leave the casino property. If you don't think it can happen, look at how Paul Brown stadium is integrated with the surrounding neighborhood. The stadium package included laws that prohibit street vendors near the stadium! Be careful what you wish for. Personally, I think if gambling is going to be legal, it should be legal for everyone. Picking a small number of sites for casinos is like a government-supported monopoly and leads to concentraion of power. Imagine if there were 10 or 20 different small-scale casinos in Over-the-Rhine, as well as some more in the suburbs, even in suburban malls.

"I don't understand how that is the fault of the casino." Parking lots and auto-oriented development are not the fault of the casino, but those things come along with it. I would expect that a new casino in Over-the-Rhine will quickly become surrounded by parking lots and all of the auto-oriented development that we are used to seeing in the suburbs.

Anyone know the status or location of the proposed bus hub near the zoo?

"The previous owners of the property you ACCUSED them of purchasing, must have liked the money more than the growing of corn." I don't understand. Yes, obviously the landowners were willing sellers. I'm just saying that large parking lots are not conductive to pedestrian traffic, which is the key to proper urban design. I visit Lawrenceburg often, and I am disgusted by the development that has occurred since the casino opened. I grant you that the riverfront parks are nice. I do not enjoy the miles of sprawl on U.S. 50, buildings torn down for widening, filling of floodplains, etc.

Just about anything is better than a parking lot. Incidently, in Lawrenceburg when the casinos were approved, the casino company bought all of the land they could get. They paved a cornfield quite some distance from the casino, and they initiated a shuttle bus service. They do everything that they possibly can to capture all of the traffic. They certainly don't want to draw visitors to the neighborhood.

I'm not arguing about moral issues. This topic asks whether or not casinos will help the economy, not whether or not casinos are moral. I think that they will NOT help the economy, because entertainment venues do not add wealth to the economy as long as they substitute for each other. They will help the LOCAL economy, but not the overall economy. It will LOOK like it helps the overall economy, because there will be a new building, lots of cars in the parking lot, and lots of activity around the casino. But what you don't see is the slight but widespread downturn in the rest of the economy. Every dollar I spend at the casino is a dollar that I do not spend somewhere else. Will Ohio come out ahead, seeing that Ohioans spend a lot of money in other states? Quite frankly I don't know. A lot of out of state folks buy lottery tickets in Ohio.

The topic is whether gambling casinos in Ohio will really help the economy. I took the topic to ask whether or not the casinos will help the OHIO economy. Of course a casino in Over-the-Rhine will help Over-the-Rhine. A casino any other place will hurt Over-the-Rhine. The casino draws traffic to the area around the casino, and brings tax money to the appropriate jurisdiction. The game is to get the money flowing the way you want it. However, casinos by themselves do not generate new wealth, as a farm, factory, or mine would. If 4 guys get together to play cards, and they each bring $100, then that total $400 may leave in somebody else's hands, but it's still $400. On a larger scale, if a million people per year bring $100 million to the casino, then that same $100 million leaves the casino. Some of it goes to the owner of the casino, some to the workers, some to the local taxing jurisdiction, and some goes out as winnings. But overall, no one actually produced anything, other than a good time. On the average, no one ever goes home from a casino richer than when he came in. Compare to a farm, factory, or mine. You start with raw materials and produce something useful. Workers take home a real paycheck, which can be traded for useful things. A worker at an auto assembly plant can save his paychecks and purchase a new automobile. That is true wealth. Again, the game is redistribution of wealth. If you can get workers to gamble away their hard-earned paychecks in your casino, then I'm happy for you. My guess is that a casino in Over-the-Rhine will help Over-the-Rhine. However, a casino in Over-the-Rhine will hurt Lawrenceburg, it will hurt Newport, it will hurt Dayton, it will hurt the zoo, it will hurt the Bengals, it will hurt Elmwood Place, it will hurt Norwood, and it will hurt Sharonville. It will not help the overall economy.

"1. There will definetly be jobs..." If I have $100 to spend on entertainment, I can choose to go to the zoo, to the football game, to King's Island, to the mall, the bar, or many other places. If I spend that $100 on gambling, then the zoo, etc., will have $100 less in revenue. This is the substitution effect. The casino will substitute for the zoo and every other enterntainment option. The casino will employ 1200 or more people. I can't argue that. However, I am not so sure that it will bring 1200 NEW jobs. It will displace jobs from the zoo, etc. The stadiums were supposed to bring in all this new activity and tax revenue. Hamilton County sales tax revenue is DOWN. I think this demonstrates the substitution effect. What a casino MAY do is displace activity from Lawrenceburg to Cincinnati. This could be good, depending on who you are. (It might be bad for Lawrenceburg.) However, it doesn't generate new wealth. It just shifts the wealth around a little. I don't think casinos in Ohio will help the overall economy. It may help the local economy due to concentration of traffic around the casino.