neilworms

Old School Nintendo games are shared culture for millennials. Either super or regular depending on the age - everyone my age knows Mario.

First off people from NYC are the absolute worst when it comes to being provincial about their place and viewing anywhere that isn't east or west coast as worthless. Secondly I love trolling coastal people with photos of the sleeping bear dunes as it defies all expectations of the kind of lack of natural beauty people expect out of the midwest. I'm a transplant to Chicago and I'll admit that yes Ohio is backwards in a lot of ways* and culture is harder to come by, but I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that media is so hyper concentrated in a handful of "cool cities" who tend to reinforce that idea creating a vicious cycle - perhaps if these regions who hog cultural capital wouldn't be so darn smug about their area being the only areas having value maybe it would help level the playing field a bit. A favorite thing of mine to do is call New Yorkers out on a national urbanist facebook group about their BS and they are just oozing with it, its one of the ugliest forms of provincialism I've seen. *A good example IMO is over thanksgiving I went to a suburban brewery in Cincy and saw people unironically enjoying a smashmouth cover band even to the point of singing along with it (the band was also unironically playing the song). A week later a coworker of mine who lives in suburban Chicago said in an unrelated conversation "no one takes Smashmouth seriously anymore" and I started laughing and said, well I've got a story for you... (of course there are more political examples I could give but I figured a cultural one would be a good illustration - like local radio stations in Cincinnati still play the same playlists they did back in the late 1990s, its insane - local radio up here isn't great but at least they've moved on and play different terrible or overplayed music though all radio is controlled by companies at the national level so ?).

Maybe not so much now given how unaffordable San Francisco has become and how many reports I've heard of bohemians leaving for cheaper spots. I was in Northside over the holidays and I'd say it still has a its Bohemian feel, its just not quite as rough around the edges as it once was it hasn't reached a tipping point like say Wicker Park did circa 2011 and there was a mass exodus of hipsters to Logan Square.

Cincinnati shares with Baltimore its combo of East Coast and Southern, they just are expressed a bit differently with Baltimore having a bit more of a hard edged east coast personality to it but tempered by people calling you hon. Cincy also has this large Appalachian influence that makes it pretty distinct from Baltimore. I'm also really fascinated by Baltimore as well, kind of in the same way I'm fascinated by Cincy and St Louis.

That was totally a luck of the draw for me, I was looking for larger Italianate structures on image search and came across that. I'll add that town to my list of places to check out.

@JaceTheAce41 I have a pretty high end computer, i5 processor, 32 gb ram and a 1080 video card. When I get home I can dump more detailed specs for you. I'll consider adding in the patch at least just for display / presentation purposes. I like knowing where the pollution is worst so I can plan accordingly, but I agree that when shocasing a city it looks a lot better with out the brown blotches of smog. I'll do another update once I fill out Over the Rhine (the last part of the basin for me to complete) and start work on Northern Kentucky (I'm starting with Newport because its relatively easy to model out). Because the basin gets kind of tedious to work on I also did a decent chunk of Walnut Hills as well. I think the most fun thing I've worked on are the rail systems, its really fun to see how rail really worked in Cincinnati and what issues there were with the system - I've even had to adapt a few things due to early mistakes I made and assets not working right for the space I provided them. With Central Union Depot for instance I had to go with a station that has underground rails because I had already developed the area and when I attempted to clear it out nothing fit right - heavy rail was really shoehorned into Cincinnati - it was prior to development on the hillsides first and foremost a walking city . If I had to critique jjakucyk's website (as fantastic as it is - and keep up the great work btw) its that its a little lacking on Northern Kentucky information - when I start work on the green line I'd like to know exact route descriptions - like where does the 11 - Fort Thomas leave roadways and go onto its own ROW, and where is the "Bonnie Leslie Trestle"? Nkyviews has a lot of great stuff on it but its organized really poorly.

Its kind of amazing how blind people are to the urbanism that's right in front of them...

I also want to note that Brackett Village doesn't need cornices to be accurate to the vernacular. Its really paying homage more to federalist style rowhouses that are dotted throughout the neighborhood that predate the large Italianate buildings that were built as Cincinnati increased to its maximum density. I'm generally okay with a mix of old and new buildings, but in Cincinnati the contrast is so huge in quality, and given Cincinnati's cultural/economic importance now vs its golden age its not going to get the best infill in the world. I'm less frustrated with the infill situation in Chicago for instance because a lot of the new stuff is of significantly better quality due to economics and architectural pedigree of the city than it is in Cincinnati and the vernacular in victorian neighborhoods in Chicago also tends to be a lot plainer too.

I actually overall don't mind these, I have a few nitpicks here and there but feel like that captures the feel of what OTR was. If you are going to go modern then do something that references the old and plays around with it without messing it up too much, Quan Happa's building for instance is a really good example of that:

I think its better to have something cohesive that can be consistently marketed to a public at large. I post pics of Cincinnati to a national urbanist group on facebook and get utter astonishment at what they are looking at because most people don't even know a city with Cincinnati's caliber of historic architecture even exists in the Midwest. This is stuff you guys can leverage, but for some reason don't know how to when the pictures sell themselves! Its frustrating though when you see infill and its very low end stuff, you've seen better infill elsewhere but so much of Cincinnati is just grateful to have development when they can do better.

I never got that argument. Its one thing to argue that we don't have the craftsmen we used to, but why the hell is there a problem with honesty?

The problem with breaking up the mass is getting post modern messes like this: I'm okay with it being one solid building. There are examples of this even in old neighborhoods, I don't know why people think that all architecture has to be fine grain so they fake it on non fine grain architecture. I still wonder why someone can't recreate a building like this (with a just a bit less detailing), hollywood set designers can do it architects can too: This also is an example of a non fine grain building that was built in the age of small lot sizes. A few of these done right won't hurt.

If style is an issue why not take a page from the Wood Companies in Columbus and make it a bit retro in design:

As ugly as it is, its interesting how dense this new development is - poorly planned yes, but weirdly makes the area gain more of an urban form long term. In short its still ugly but its better than the shit that preexists the new stuff. In a sense its better than Cincinnati where 90% of all infill is complete shit in the shadow of top tier old architecture... though you know Cincinnati could remedy itself by preserving more stuff...

I'd say the commercial district is denser than anything in Detroit outside of its downtown or new city, the commercial district intact really reminds me of wicker park, and the housing nearby is pretty close to what an outer Chicago neighborhood is like like say old Irving Park. Its not as dense as OTR by a long shot. Here's a few closeups of the commercial district: Shots of the neighborhood:

Its not as dense as it used to be due to huge amounts of demos. Here's what it was historically:

Yeah you are right the only thing worth keeping was the church which was demoed earlier...

Here we go again sigh...

Astroturf park. Again the Josephs are morons.

Its a 15 minute walk, which IMO is about ideal if you want to have a march that's a celebration. I'll agree on it being too small though, Rhinegeist, Tafts, or Sam Adams would be better. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/rhinehaus,+East+12th+Street,+Cincinnati,+OH/1500+Central+Ave,+Cincinnati,+OH+45214/@39.1091342,-84.5215996,776m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x8841b157e2d0885f:0xcb6afbd31518dd1f!2m2!1d-84.512426!2d39.1085039!1m5!1m1!1s0x8841b3ff865ba26b:0x90a5497c1e41023f!2m2!1d-84.5219203!2d39.1109084!3e2

I think you should start early as getting people on board for such stuff can be difficult and the earlier you start the more likely a coalition will be built.

Given the local culture will they care about this as a potential asset though?

I was thinking the same thing when I checked it out on a visit to Cincinnati back around Thanksgiving. Also that tap room is extremely convenient to the streetcar, I think the issue is more cultural if Cincinnatians will use the streetcar - IMO it wouldn't hurt to incentivize its use on game days. Given transit usage percentages I don't see it being crush loads ala Boston's green line which already struggles with overcrowding on normal days. Seeing the subway get usage for this would be amazing but its totally a pipe dream.

I'm still shocked that Junkers Tavern wound up being a hipster dive bar even though that happened a while back...

I'll see what I can do, probably not anything fancy where I narrate (though I'm considering it) but just an overview.