neilworms

Everywhere in the central area (downtown to Northside) and on the east side has growing rent. I'm not sure what you are talking about here... Also there are tons of high value Freeway Adjacent properties in other cities. Freeway adjacent will lower values a bit, but when there are enough other amenities nearby to offset that and a shortage of new housing with an urban footprint in a walkable part of town they will still command a premium.

Cincinnati doesn't yet have an affordability crisis until you see neighborhoods like Covington, the West End and Clifton Heights fetching those kinds of values or higher - its not a problem. In fact the fact that neigborhoods so close to downtown didn't fetch good values in spite of their advantages was an issue. Right now the inflated prices downtown will help out some of these neighborhoods which could be on the verge of completely collapsing, look at the West End or Walnut Hills for good examples. High market prices cause other areas to go up in value by proximity its a law of real estate in a healthy market. However long term something will have to be done to address this affordability issue, for now these high rents in centralized locations are a good thing for Cincinnati on the balance. The banks is expensive because people are willing to pay a premium for new construction right on a park with a river view (yes the river is brown but there are properties all over Cincy that fetch higher values for river views) in between new stadiums. Sports fans are a fanatical bunch and I'm sure its no different than why Wrigleyville has relatively high rents, though in this case the supply of housing is more constrained and that's largely due to local developers having attitudes that are creating the situation like the Dennison - being completely and utterly out of touch with what the market wants because they are too conservative and risk adverse to see the writing on the wall.

Everything here reads like it was written 50 years ago they even cite a 50s era urban renewal plan, what decade do they think they live in!? Besides there is already a glut of class a space. This reaks of parochial good ol boy politics Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

Though I have one additional question - Columbus Ohio has way better infill than Cincinnati does, are housing prices that much higher there?

Its even more a wash if you live in an expensive market with good transit. You either don't need a car or have one and barely use it (like I do). Your car expenses are SIGNIFICANTLY less in this case - I actually think I have more money left over esp when gas prices were super high than I would had I stayed in Cincinnati and had more reason to fix/repair/gas up/buy a new car than I do now. Add that to probably about 10,000 less per year with my same job and I'm sure I would be worse off had I stayed. Chicago though is still relatively cheap by national standards so not sure the same math would have worked in NYC or especially San Francisco. I wish parking reform would happen in Cincinnati it would really help the development potential of that city, some of it needs to be paired with better transit, but even then the parking requirements are through the roof for what's needed - in most areas city streets could handle overflow parking just fine its only in areas like Mt Adams where that is a problem. (It would also teach people how to better parallel park as well).

You don't have to be high end to look consistent at least... these CR things are such messes.

Yeah I feel the same way about this and STL kind of gave me an idea of what riding light rail would be like in a place like Cincinnati as physically the cities are of similar size (though Pittsburg's light rail would probably be more comparable given similar topographies). The light rail while not perfect, was really handy as was the frequent and now competitive with driving Amtrak service it now has and its only going to get better in the next few years as the whole line outside of Chicago's freight congested core will be 110mph service! Another crazy thing about STL is that even though there isn't a proper pharmacy in downtown like a CVS or Walgreens that keeps normal hours, they have a proper urban grocery and a movie theater - its like STL has everything Cincinnati needs (including said convenient Amtrak link to Chicago), even though I'll agree Cincy is a much stronger and more vibrant city now... Another thing STL has got is some incredible urban suburbs - Clayton, University City and Maplewood are all pretty great places and all have light rail service too - I think that's a major detriment to the core though because all of those places offer an urban lifestyle without the ills associated with the big city - Clayton for all intents and purposes is STLs defacto downtown. I knew you'd have more examples ;). I know so much more about Cincy than I do the city I grew up closest to heh.

Absolutely hideous. Stick to a single darn style, I'd be happy with a staggered window building over this junk :/ At the same time, I was actually curious to see how this looked when finished, happy to see a corner filled in with something at least...

Kenyon-Barr while not perfect was in way better shape than the Brighton/Dayton Street area of the West End is today, see for yourself, these are photos taken of the area before it was torn down for "Queensgate" a failed industrial park. Racism was more an issue for the neighborhood being "blighted" than actual blight: http://victorianantiquitiesanddesign.blogspot.com/2010/11/cincinnatis-lost-neigborhood-kenyon.html Even though Dayton is older, it really didn't take off until the early 20th century - it was a tech innovation hub built more around rail and roads than around canals and the rivers. In fact part of the reason for the streets being so wide in Dayton was due to it being along the National Highway and connections to it were built wide to allow goods to be transported that way. The oregon district, the triangle and the wright bros historic area on the west side are really the only spots in town I can think of that reflect an older city. Much of the rest is similar to Indianapolis or Des Moines (the hilliness is similar to Des Moines too).

. Generally agree. Looking at what the city is like now (I took a weekend trip a few months ago) versus what it was historically (the Missouri History museum did an excellent exhibit on what STL was like in its peak year of 1875 with plenty of photos and illustrations) I'd argue St Louis is like if Chicago and Cincinnati had a kid. Areas like the Central West End had the large 1920s-1950s apatment towers of Chicago's lakefront mixed with smaller buildings that felt a lot like Clifton's gaslight district (more ornate than Chicago's low rise stuff). Also I feel that beyond all the Louis Sullivan designed buildings (Chicago School architecture) of Washington Ave where there are currently parking lots, previously there were tenements like you'd find in OTR - sadly there is none of that left, urban decay is a big issue in STL but I also feel the city was absolutely ravaged by midcentry urban renewal large empty swaths of the city with occaisional clusters to remind you of what used to be there. Its one of the saddest cities in the United States considering what it was and what it now is - sadder than Detroit because Detroit besides downtown never had the kind of architectural treasure that is literally crumbling to the ground like whats happening in STL. I do feel Cincinnati in 1930 was denser than STL (I use that year because that's before the arch grounds were cleared). Soulard's architecture is like all the smaller older buildings in OTR with the stars on the sides and the sloped roofs minus all the later large tenement buildings. The two cities I'd argue are cousins though, but culturally STL felt more Great Lakes than isolated river town like Cincy does. (Though the beer scene in STL really reminded me of Cincinnati's - very German focused and STL had German named streets that were renamed in WWI just like Cincinnati). Its a fascinating place. Soulard: http://www.stlouiscitytalk.com/2010/06/soulard-neighborhood.html Older buildings (long gone) from Cincinnati - lower Mt Adams really looked like Soulard on a slope: http://s3.amazonaws.com/ghostsofdc/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/05/27223621/4a22276u-1024x816.jpg Also none of this in STL exists anymore :( - http://www.stl250.org/userfiles/com.stl250/image/1880%20nw%20from%20Old%20Court___Source.jpg http://s148.photobucket.com/user/warwickland/media/stlouis.jpg.html -- Des Moines to me felt like a more desolate version of Dayton (smaller regional pop with less traffic) that was in a little better shape than that city - wide roads, lots of frame houses. I went there when I was in college. Typical Midwestern IMO.

Your wrong about the cab's they are one of the cheapest in the country and I use them more often in Chicago then other places for that reason.

Brimingham Alabama is another pretty good example of early 20th century urban form which is enhanced by the hills/mountains around it if you look in the right parts of town its more impressive than you think it would be with many early skyscrapers nestled in valleys. Sadly its not in such good shape/pretty run down almost rust belt because they tried to capitalize on the late 1800s industrial boom without adapting to a post industrial world the way Atlanta did. As to the 1930s-1950 I'd argue they were a transition time, not as much got built in that era (though Cincinnati did well during the depression and has more of it than most cities do) - there are plenty of parts of town with brick boxes that are built to an urban form some of which with great art deco/moderne detailing while other areas like much of Roselawn are built to a more suburban/bungalow kind of feel. Some of the oddest neighborhoods in Chicago are ones that were built ~1950 but were plotted out in the 1920s so they have a very similar mix of large apartment buildings and small bungalows but built to a much less ornate form than would have been built pre-depression (prectically nothing was built in the 30s in Chicago). See Skokie IL for a good example of that. Even a good chunk of Mariemont was built in the 1930s-1950s though it was planned in the 20s and it more reflects that era than the ones that followed it with some plainer but still fairly ornate tudor style apartments built in the 50s believe it or not! Probably the most interwar architecture you'll find is in LA which never really stopped growing during the depression - there are a lot of really great art deco era apartment buildings in and around Santa Monica for instance which were built in the 1930s and 1940s. Even the outer areas like outer sunset/richmond of San Francisco have this eras architecture built to an especially urban form - rowhouse style - I think the only other area in the US that has architecture of that era to this density is Queens, though I could be mistaken. I do wonder if not for the depression / war would suburbanization happened like 15 year earlier?

Don't forget the old deaconness site, which IMO should be upzoned to allow for more student housing as to take pressure off of further neighborhood encroachment.

Even more stupid is that LA had a subway ban for almost 20 years...

Agreed completely. I think it was passed mainly for political purposes so the 2/3rds majority required to pass a tax on California referendums could be met... the only good aspect of it will be connecting to Ontario airport which it won't do for many years... The expo live on the other hand is one of the most important transit projects in the country

The foothills extension has been open for a month: https://www.metro.net/projects/foothill-extension/ It was kind of weird how the gold line foothills extension got the announcement first when the far more important Expo line extension took a while to finally say when they were opening - it opens next month. I can't wait to ride it the next time I'm in SoCal.

Luken was a POS mayor, he can go to hell. That quote from Aaron Renn is spot on too - same reason why I encourage tourism too Cincinnati as well, the inbred provincial types need to be overwhelmed with outside ideas and drowned out.

The best point that article does bring up however is the advantage of dedicated lanes. I'm concerned with the streetcar that might be difficult to implement given its geometry.

I stayed in that area once for a cheap hotel near Manhattan. The bus service there is ridiculously good, with tons of express and even privately run jitneys going to manhattan like every 10 mins 24/7, your friend probably shouldn't have to walk so far...

Cta: Pretty sure the declines in Evanston are due to the really sad shape the purple line express is in - it has the longest slow zones in the system making it barely an express

Also if you are in Chicago they own these places: AliveOne, Easy Bar, Esetell's and The Owl. I wish they'd open a keystone up here - love the mac & cheese.

π@thebanks

Isn't there a bat in NYC that already does this?

The ped bridge looks like its on an old rail viaduct. Seems like a good idea though its a touch far from OTR/Liberty hill.

I'm looking forward to the redevelopment of the lots/suburban style spots to the north of wrigley, but to the south is another story they are going to ruin the character of the neighborhood...