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neilworms

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Everything posted by neilworms

  1. The plans for Washington Park, the "Gateway" portion of Vine St, the new SCPA all pre-date Mallory. I liked him alot but that does change the facts of the matter. Even found mention of the Mercer Commons project from 2004 which surprised even me. Enjoy the reading! Good plan for washington park. (2004, Jun 12). Cincinnati Enquirer Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/237396510?accountid=39387 Korte, G. (2004, Mar 18). City votes $2.5M for condos. Cincinnati Enquirer Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/237401554?accountid=39387 Boost OTR homeownership. (2004, Mar 26). Cincinnati Enquirer Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/237405826?accountid=39387 The plans were there, but would they have been done on time for the neighborhood to be turned around? Would it have been executed as well? There are a lot of good ideas on the books now too but I don't see as much progress as what happened in Cincy under Mallorys watch. Washington Park for instance probably would have happened, but maybe the CPS school would have torn down a block or two of houses like they wanted to originally?
  2. Exactly what I was thinking, it looked like an old school urban auto dealership. Looks somewhat like what you'd see in Motor Row in Chicago: https://www.google.com/search?q=motor+row+chicago&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS750US750&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXu47I-8zVAhVmjlQKHXszAXoQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1903&bih=551&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=x7jhpNg2rehSwM:
  3. They weren't going to do stuff with it until the Banks/Fountain Square was done (which btw with the Banks, read the thread on that in this forum and note how it was a shouting match until Mallory stepped in and got stuff done so it would have taken far longer to get off the ground too). As a result I'm sure more of OTR would have been lost too...
  4. Most cities in the country would dream of having what Cincinnati has even if its a diamond in the rough. Tearing down this stuff is throwing the entire baby out with the bathwater. I grew up in Dayton, I know what a more average American city looks like, Cincinnati isn't it! I do waver on a few projects, but I think their should be scrutiny and that's what their isn't here, and that's what drives me nuts about everything that's been happening in uptown over the last 20-30 years.
  5. But they save Childrens lives! Because they do that it doesn't matter that they charged me 300,000 for a major operation on my child (which 20 years ago costs like a couple thousand), or that they are literally allowed to do whatever they want to the neighborhood ;)
  6. The only reason why the downtown basin is on the right track was because Mallory (who is hated by some members here for no good reason other than he scares them and makes them have to clutch their pearls because OMG he did things differently!) pushed back on what the powers that be wanted. The powers that be wanted 3CDC to focus on the banks, he forced them to focus on OTR. There was a good healthy push and pull instead of our institutions should be respected because they have authority so lets let them do whatever stupid idea they want to do. Its a shame that uptown and downtown couldn't have gotten the same kind of TLC. Downtown provides Uptown with workers, but wouldn't it also make sense to have some of those workers walk to work from their own neighborhoods too?
  7. Yes it was bad optics, but I used to live in Corryville and watched the institutions of uptown totally mess up that entire area. Yes it was not a good neighborhood but in the case of that area there were especially unique townhouses that were torn down instead of restored for exceptionally bland infill. The Uptown Consortium was pushing for this stuff for years and while I do appreciate that Corryville and Clifton Hts is nicer now, they killed the character of the neighborhood, they could have gone about it in a way better way. Its like the powers that be in Cincy would never mine for gold because it was too dirty and the people they don't like live next to the mine. They've never had a gold mine in their community and mining would be a scary affair so might as well just plow over the mine and build something they are more familiar with like corn farms or tree groves. That's the mentality I'm seeing here (and I see it over and over and over again). Anyways, this part of Avondale isn't as nice architecturally (though their are a decent number of solid brick buildings here) as Mt Auburn or Corryville or Clifton Heights, but I want someone to stand up to these institutions, they are literally ripping the heart out of Cincinnati and turning it into everytown USA. I think Cincinnati would prefer being everytown usa over being I don't know a city people out side the region actually care about and an asset to the nation like say Charleston and Savannah are?? Also the design of this plan which plows away an necessary number of houses for an open field/token trees is terrible. Why didn't anyone push back on that? Its bad design and the area is destined to be a dead zone people don't want to go to. While there is room for a yuppie condo development, IMO they aren't going to do it because people like this like parks better than they like urbanity.
  8. This is more of Uptown Consortium's usual junk, their vision of uptown might as well be a suburban office park - if they weren't tearing down beautiful old townhouses/mansions I wouldn't care, but the fact that they are bothers the heck out of me. Yes the Children's hospital does good work (and yes they are a non-profit but so are most other hospitals which are price gouging us to death - lots of hospitals seem noble but there are really horrible people running them). None of these people should get a free pass, the fact that pushback is seen as evil speaks volumes about Cincinnati's inability to do the right thing for its unique and slowly suburbanizing/dying urban neighborhoods. If this costs Yvette the election, then I'm out of this forum, Cincinnati can continue to dig its grave.
  9. How is this high quality? It is a huge flat brick wall with large plain openings, a cinder block façade facing the alley, and hardly any natural light to 75% of the units. I don't see why everyone on this board loves it so much ... other than it is dense. I've seen enough of similar infill projects in other cities to know that it will look pretty good (Devil is in the details and execution, I'm hoping it will be good as I think the same guy did the really great condos in Mariemont). Yes Cincinnati is not the only place with bad infill but I do feel that a lot of the great infill I've seen elsewhere modern and faux historic has not been built too much.
  10. Cinder block looks way better. Particularly with larger boxy buildings like this. It has a more substantial look to it, though I'd only really use it in back.
  11. This is one case where I don't agree with the conservationists. This is an extremely high quality infill building, the fact that they don't like Cinder Block bugs me too because isntead of cinderblock they'd probably use vinyl instead which looks far far worse.
  12. There is a massive cultural problem in Cincy regarding bus use. I've seen it in other cities but none as urban as Cincy is.
  13. However there is a healthy density these buildings could house and that might be higher than what's happening. I'd be happy if its comparable to the density of say Wicker Park in Chicago- enough to keep the neighborhood vibrant and self sustainable.
  14. If you don't hate the people of Clifton then don't make up some childish name for them like "Cliftonoids". Talk about petty.
  15. All your tribalist comments about "Cliftonoids" are oozing with the smell of a small minded old school Cincinnatian ;) (whatever that smells like does risk adverse negativity have a smell?) Ah, your personal insult betrays you. You should learn that this adds nothing to the discussion other than showing your weakness. Ironically, it was small mindedness of the Cliftonoids that caused this debacle. Nostalgia for a day when suede patch jacketed bearded gents and Mama Cass moo moo attired ladies, each with a copy of the Rolling Stone or Mother Jones in their cart carefully selected a bunch of organic greens, caused these folks to be blinded to the realities of modern shopping. Hence the failure of an experiment that should never have been conducted. You are personally insulting a whole neighborhood. I'm surprised this forum lets you get away with it. Its downright bad. How would you feel if I said that your neighborhood was full of old conservative crumugeons who have no concept of reality because they love to wallow in their own stereotypes of the world around them without taking anytime to actually talk to people or experience and think about how different people or places act? Of course not because your own viewpoint is the ONLY right one and the only one we should all follow ;)
  16. All your tribalist comments about "Cliftonoids" are oozing with the smell of a small minded old school Cincinnatian ;) (whatever that smells like does risk adverse negativity have a smell?)
  17. I'm going to agree that its better than last year setupwise, but its still not a festival that would bring me down from Chicago like the old format was ;). On the old format they could have gotten walk the moon to play in the mockbee to reenact their old music video ;)
  18. http://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-hero-who-duped-ohio-into-believing-limp-bizkit-was-having-a-concert-at-a-gas-station 'nuff said hahahahaha.
  19. New guys who run this have been pretty bad at community relations. Look at their twitter. Also there would have at least been some kind of peep out of them by the end of may under the old ownership. I don't see the festival having many more years to go. Way to go old school Cincy for doing what you do best.... :/
  20. They don't BUY anything. All money to rent and into mouth. How many young workers in Cincinnati make around 60K-70K/year? That's the real question, 1200/mo is pretty steep for Cincy but if the amenities justify it then I could see someone making that kind of salary affording it. You can buy a 4-family apartment building in more than half of Cincinnati's 52 neighborhoods for significantly less than $1200/mo. Yeah and I'm not so sure what's on offer is worth 1200/mo. Free parking, and many other perks would have to be included to justify the cost (maybe). Its a good location and one of the few areas in Cincinnati where you could easily hop on a bus with great frequency to get downtown in a short amount of time as its a 5 min walk to reading road which has the most frequent bus service in the city. (though noone making that amount of money in Cincy would do it :/).
  21. They don't BUY anything. All money to rent and into mouth. How many young workers in Cincinnati make around 60K-70K/year? That's the real question, 1200/mo is pretty steep for Cincy but if the amenities justify it then I could see someone making that kind of salary affording it.
  22. I think you're on to something. Those old (often) Victorian-era stations with wrought-iron turnstiles, exposed wooden platforms (with a few heat lamps for winter which oftentimes are inadequate given the size of the station crowd or are simply not working), while cute and interesting from a historical, preservationist POV, don't necessarily connote to the kind of creature comforts modern commuters expect -- commuters nowadays want to be moved in speed and (relative) comfort and are not particularly interested in their transit system's historical attributes. The L is comprehensive and extensive in many ways, but is antiquated and even slow, in many sections such as the Brown Line and parts of the northern Red Line where trains literally stop every few blocks. Plus there are other antiquated L aspects which slow down trains, such as the frequent level (as opposed to banked) 90-degree turns -- often to squeeze in between close buildings -- which force trains slow to a crawl. In one actual fix to this condition along the southbound Green and Orange lines between Congress and Harrison Streets, CTA actually rebuilt a section of track that contained adjacent 90-degree turns weaving from Wabash St into an alley between Wabash and State Streets into a diagonal elevated track over the parking lot which affords a faster, safer trip -- but that's only one such straightening out, if you will... many more slow/sharp curves exist, dating back to when the L was built in the 1890s and early 1900s. I'm sure many Chicago commuters would rather fight the auto traffic in their own cars or opt for nearby Metra stations, even though the latter is more expensive and less frequent. Also consider that if Metra didn't have many in-city stations, there would be even more motivation to ride the L, not less. Ok there is tons to dissect here: Temperature: Chicagoans are a hearty lot, and cold / snow doesn't stop them quite as much as it does people who live in Central to Southern Ohio - people know its miserably cold and will bundle up appropriately. Low ridership: While total miles are good, the L is very much a hub and spoke model, and there are tons of gaps. Those gaps are filled by a bus system, so the bus system gets way higher ridership than the L does for that reason. Problem is the buses stop probably more than any other bus system I've ridden, stops are like a 5 min walk apart, which makes the system incredibly slow. In the past there were more express routes, but they've been slowly withered away to either not existing or barely existing. If the L was more of a network, ridership would be way higher but there are parts of town that don't really get served well by the L and even areas on the southside which have terrible transit service and terrible bus service. Best solution given IL structural budgeting is to implement a good BRT System on Ashland or Western which are wide roads capable of handling the addition of these lanes, sadly the city decided to half-arse a system in the Loop before this and the more needed system has since stalled out. Metra inner city stations: Metra is being really dumb about these. There is this guy who has been advocating for the "Grey Line" for years to basically allow CTA level services on the Metra Electric because it covers more of the south side than the green and red lines do. Sadly due to bureaucratic inertia and territorial-ism (even though Metra and the CTA are supposed to be united under the RTA board they NEVER talk to each other hence the reason for their not being shared fare schemes, though at least you can now buy tickets through a smartphone app, its still stupid). The infrastructure of the ME is wonderful but metra will always neglect it. While Hyde Park gets good service even on saturdays all other parts of the line are stupidly underserved. Its frustrating, I also really wish that the rest of hte system would run smaller trainsets at off peak hours so that they'd have less train crew and still be able to offer better services when its not rush hour but again they are very old fashioned about the way they operate (and some lines do have freight interference which makes this impossible).... I could go on for hours about the problems with Metra.
  23. So I swung into town, and managed to in my limited time check out EMC which looked like another attempt at an upscale urban market. After a few poorly thought out start ups (that little market in downtown which carried only a handful of produce) this is the real deal! Its exactly the kind of pedestrian oriented upscale Market OTR needs and Chicago has had for years, I'd high recommend swinging by there and they even are open until 8pm on most days :) - they are right off the streetcar as well. http://www.citybeat.com/food-drink/the-dish/article/20862562/emc-fills-a-grocery-niche-at-findlay-market