neilworms

Yeah, this is going to awful, I frequently use the halstead bus as a shortcut to get to the north side - I've got a feeling backups are going to make this quite a bit more difficult once this project comes online :(

I'm surprised that the 606 a project to create Chicago's Bikeable version of the High Line hasn't been discussed here. This is an old railroad viaduct turned into trail/linear park (the park is the 606 the trail is the bloomingdale Trail after the rail line the preceded it) that stretches from Ashland Ave in Bucktown all the way over to Ridgeland Ave in Humboldt park. Its been a bit overcrowded due to it opening recently, with way too many dog walkers and strollers to be an ideal bicycle route, but its a really pretty park and riding on it in spite of the crowds is a lot of fun: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150610/humboldt-park/whos-using-606s-bloomingdale-trail-at-3-pm-on-weekday Here's a video of it from one of the editors of Streetsblog Chicago: Here's the official website: http://www.the606.org/

Take the same experience make it grungier and you get Portland. I did a vacation in all three and I have to agree with jmicah Vancouver was the nicest. Seattle other than capitol hill and downtown wasn't all that urban.

And how, why does the mayor have such a yearning to see this fail when he basically called a truce after he was defeated by council and agreed to make it a success? He's a giant sack of ****. I mean seriously there is no other good explination of it. I can't believe ANYONE would defend this scumbag.

Even crazier is how Vancouver can show that even a region about the size of Cincy's could be incredibly vibrant if done right...

I have a feeling that insurance will cover the damage, if you've been following OTR this has happened in the past.

Even that has a silver lining as ideally some of those buildings should be converted to Residential since demand is so high for it. I'm kind of shocked so many are hotels and not residential.

Considering the pile of absolute garbage that Mallory was handed to fix at the beginning of his term and the results he mostly delivered, he was a great mayor. Perfect, no. But definitely a great mayor as he moved an previously immovable rock.

BTW if you have an iPhone there is an app called surgeprotector which will tell you what the surge is and where it is. Also pick up Lyft - often when uber is surged Lyft may not be check both apps

Those are normal big city prices. A lot of people around here are used to real estate being dirt cheap, but in our revitalizing urban neighborhoods, those days are over. Its still lower than Chicago ;) and Chicago is probably the cheapest of the large cities in the US (and arguably the developed world)

That's problemmatic, because it would blind them to the potential asset that OTR would be more so than if they actually lived in a real community (even if said community was nothing but mansions and a small commercial strip). Cincinnati is TERRIBLE at leveraging its assets that's why its the mediocre podunk town it is to everyone who doesn't do business with P&G directly and lives in the real world that exists outside of the 275 outerbelt (and past West Chester/Mason) - its largely forgotten on the national consciousness exactly for that reason and that's not right. Cincinnati could very easily be elevated to the next level it if wasn't for these fundamental cultural problems. It could be a dynamic and growing region that could attract talent. Right now its super tough to attract talent there largely because it doesn't sell what it has and the Business community has a very poor grasp of what it could sell in the broad sense. Mallory actually tipped the community towards selling its assets, probably caused a lot of upset amongst those who were used to things being broken, but that's what happen when things change. Cincinnatians absolutely suck at dealing with change and I'm sure that's what brought Cranley to the foreground.

But if Pepper won, GE wouldn't even consider locating in the city of Cincinnati as it was a complete and utter hot mess that was really going to be another Detroit the solid regional economy wouldn't have fixed a completely and utterly crippled center city. Also, don't confuse Detroit's situation with Chicago's. One city is truly dead because they put all their eggs in one basket from an economic standpoint the other is 1/2 Detorit 1/2 New York City and still has a thriving and diversified economy. Chicago's biggest issue is what to do with the unskilled workers, not how do we actually attract industry here. Frankly a lot of it IMO comes down to Illinois not having vocational programs (totally shocking) in its schools, so a lot of workers who aren't college material aren't getting the skills they need to go into decent paying jobs in today's economy. Both have budget problems, but the hole Detroit is in is far deeper and more dire than Chicago's which IMO long term will climb out of it (though it will be painful). Also didn't a lot of the fiscal mess of Cincinnati come from 2 things - large per-capita police force (Cranley's fault) and the state cutting back on city grants and what not (Kasich)? Finally a lot of the statements from Cincy's business elite are probably pretty detached from reality - I mean come on - look at Indian hill, anyone who lives in a community like that where the houses are so cut off from everything and the town isn't really a town because commercial development is banned would have a very warped sense of reality. I think that's one of Cincinnati's business communities biggest problems IMO - they are too cut off from everyone else, more so than in other regions where at the very least you can see their opulent wealth from the highways that pass by there mansions. (heck in Chicago the elite aren't even above riding a commuter train to work everyday, as I spent several years riding the Union Pacific North Line and I can tell you some power players rode that train.)

Or something really frightening could happen like this: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150112/lincoln-park/lincoln-park-megamansions-on-rise-including-one-on-seven-lots Lincoln Park's population has been going down for decades because of rampant NIMBY-ism, mostly due to fears of traffic, "character" and all the usual stuff. It's going to keep going down as the neighborhood becomes more upscale and multi-unit buildings become single-family or more mega-mansions are built, which is a frightening trend. I wouldn't be surprised if Mt. Adams exhibits a similar dynamic, and possibly Hyde Park too. Considering that these are "Mature" early gentrifiers (Lincoln Park started back in the 1970s) they tend to have older people living in them (there are a ton of families that send their kids to either magnet or private schools in Lincoln Park for instance). I'm hoping that with the generational shift in living preferences this trend doesn't continue - you read most of the comments on that DNAINFO article and people are disgusted by it - its literally just the people who are property owners in the neighborhood pressuring the alderman to promote these NIMBY policies. Hopefully some kind of reform can come into place to stop this - it seems like there is support for it from most Chicagoans from what I can see. The problem is, would Cincinnati support increased density? I don't think there would be as much of a desire for it due to the more suburban oriented culture of the region... I can totally see this happening in Mt Adams and I've read articles about either Hyde Park or Oakley starting the NIMBY drive already (though what you see happening in Lincoln Park is probably 20 years down the road at least).

Or something really frightening could happen like this: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150112/lincoln-park/lincoln-park-megamansions-on-rise-including-one-on-seven-lots

I agree, and since this is basically using a "Chicago neighborhood model" here's a good example of a garage that has a deck on it -its a cool feature (flip it towards the alley): https://www.google.com/maps/@41.894757,-87.663987,3a,44.1y,111.98h,82.96t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s5Ywd9gSlwQBHFmSK912dYg!2e0 Granny Apartments are too radical for Cranley to ever accept. Its kind of a shame because OTR used to have tons of them, I remember being struck by them as a kid the first time we drove through OTR thinking where would people get to their cars from them - lol.

Its called a neighborhood in transition - OTR is a particularly dramatic example of it because of its mostly top down managed gentrification, boarded up buildings next to boutiques is the stage its at right now, however as things continue to transition people who commit crimes will see OTR as a less safe place to do their deeds and will move elsewhere - most of the reason why crime happened there is due to the levels of abandonment - there weren't eyes on the street watching people. As to part of the crime comment, poverty causes less crime when its less concentrated its a good thing that its scattering and is not entirely concentrated in OTR (though OTR does have a percentage of housing set aside for lower income residents). Eyes on the street + less abandonment + less concentrated poverty (but still a mixed income neighborhood = less crime for all).

If handled right, chasing after the right cool things makes your city a cooler city ;). We all know Cincinnati is a cool city, but does the rest of the world know? Is Cincinnati doing everything it can do to fulfill its deserved status? My answer would be no on both counts.

I will give you Mallory was more of the vision person but he did not know how to get things done in a safe manner that protected the integrity of city finances. Often times, he was scattered and was difficult to work with per many influential business leaders. This cost the city a number of significant opportunities during his tenure. That being said, in 2007 he was what the city needed, he was a shot in the arm and #1 cheerleader. By 2014 though, we did not need him and a third term would have taken the city backwards. Cranley is less visionary but he understands the finances and mechanics to get things done. He knows how to work the inner workings of the system. He has the contacts and trust in the business community, and he has the experience as a developer to know what is feasible and what is not economically feasible. It may mean we have to dial back on the shiny objects but it will mean that more things actually go from vision to fruition. The city needed one more term of Mallory to get the city to a superstar status. The finances could have been cleaned up once the city was there (and the city would have been in a MUCH better position to do so when it was there due to increased tax revenue from investment and tourism). You do realize Cincinnati was on the verge of getting some unbelievable national press? Cranley set the city back 5 years IMO. (After he set the city back 10 due to his poor handling of the public safety meeting which led to the riots). You give him way too much credit. Cincy would have been focusing on stage 2 of the streetcar instead of some dumb bridge to Cincinnati State that costs just as much, focused on form based code to better revitalize neighborhoods and play to the assets that Cincy already has (its historic housing stock hopefully prevent more U-Squares), focused on improving bicycle infrastructure, a proper urban grocery that would have scared Kroger into actually being competitive in the core, as well as continued neighborhood investment with an urban instead of suburban bent. Wasson way could very well ruin the possibility of light rail on an excellent corridor, the MLK interchange is totally an old school way of thinking of economic development - one that is awkwardly trying to put walkable neighborhoods on top of a fundamentally auto oriented development and finally Liberty Street which is way underutalized would have been turned into the urban corridor that it deserves to be - its my understanding that was cranceled as well. (Don't get me started on the pump house either, yes it was a croney move, but the resulting benefit would be yet another one of those underutalized amazing buildings in Cincinnati of which there way too many of ACTUALLY being put to good use!) I tend to agree with this more than anything. It seemed like so much more was happening in terms of development and announcements, etc. Maybe I am wrong and that is just my perception, but it seems like things are moving slower development wise and I am not certain if that is the Mayoral change or not. The Cincinnati State bridge seems like a complete waste of money. The city would do better to put that money into it's urban core because that is the future of the region. I always felt that if the city could re-develop the whole urban core up to UC, that it would be a huge boon because of transit options and because young people want to live in a city. No other city in the MidWest besides Chi-Town has that old school Chicago / New York type urban fabric that Cincinnati has in Over the Rhine / Downtown / Mt. Auburn up to Corryville / CUF / Walnut Hills. Pouring more money into that area as investments is the best thing the city could spend it's money on, whether it is the streetcar, street makeovers, more funding in the development pot, etc. This is a turnover effect that thankfully is already starting to pay off. Don't get me wrong, I think that the Incline Public House and possibly even the new theatre up there could be a decent investment, just because it will bring West Side people into the city who maybe wouldn't go otherwise, but the matter of fact is that people want to live in an exciting urban environment, employers are increasingly looking to locate where people want to live, and Cincinnati has the goods to make it happen in the urban core. Pitting the center city against the neighborhoods is just bad policy, period. Look at what all the investments have done so far, as revenues have increased consistently over the last 1.5 years. I also get the feeling that Cranley will never be happy until much of this development receeds. It wasn't his doing (or his buddies) and he's mad as hell that this happened. I'm glad Mallory set so much into motion that I don't think Cranley will throw it all out of wack, though Cincinnati needs to watch him like a hawk. Its part of why I'm glad things like UrbanCincy exist now and people like Ryan Messer exist just to do that.

I will give you Mallory was more of the vision person but he did not know how to get things done in a safe manner that protected the integrity of city finances. Often times, he was scattered and was difficult to work with per many influential business leaders. This cost the city a number of significant opportunities during his tenure. That being said, in 2007 he was what the city needed, he was a shot in the arm and #1 cheerleader. By 2014 though, we did not need him and a third term would have taken the city backwards. Cranley is less visionary but he understands the finances and mechanics to get things done. He knows how to work the inner workings of the system. He has the contacts and trust in the business community, and he has the experience as a developer to know what is feasible and what is not economically feasible. It may mean we have to dial back on the shiny objects but it will mean that more things actually go from vision to fruition. The city needed one more term of Mallory to get the city to a superstar status. The finances could have been cleaned up once the city was there (and the city would have been in a MUCH better position to do so when it was there due to increased tax revenue from investment and tourism). You do realize Cincinnati was on the verge of getting some unbelievable national press? Cranley set the city back 5 years IMO. (After he set the city back 10 due to his poor handling of the public safety meeting which led to the riots). You give him way too much credit. Cincy would have been focusing on stage 2 of the streetcar instead of some dumb bridge to Cincinnati State that costs just as much, focused on form based code to better revitalize neighborhoods and play to the assets that Cincy already has (its historic housing stock hopefully prevent more U-Squares), focused on improving bicycle infrastructure, a proper urban grocery that would have scared Kroger into actually being competitive in the core, as well as continued neighborhood investment with an urban instead of suburban bent. Wasson way could very well ruin the possibility of light rail on an excellent corridor, the MLK interchange is totally an old school way of thinking of economic development - one that is awkwardly trying to put walkable neighborhoods on top of a fundamentally auto oriented development and finally Liberty Street which is way underutilized would have been turned into the urban corridor that it deserves to be - its my understanding that was cranceled as well. Don't get me started on the pump house either, yes it was a croney move, but the resulting benefit would be yet another one of those underutilized amazing buildings in Cincinnati of which there way too many of ACTUALLY being put to good use! Things like the pump house are a boon to tourism, because frankly Cincinnati until OTR started turning around was a city of look at those pretty but crumbling buildings, yet there is pretty much nothing else of value there - a city that's fun to look at, but not fun to play in and was (and still is to a strong degree) unfriendly to outsiders. Had Cranley gotten what he wanted with the streetcar he could have set the city back to square one on a whole lot of stuff and that would have been incredibly reckless to finances as well as the ability for the city to get anything done with the feds help.

The banks would have taken a long time to complete either way, probably longer if there wasn't leadership that valued compromise and professionalism like Mallory did. Remember that the whole stadium agreement was completely and utterly dorked up and required the co-operation of a lot of different parties with competiting interest. The old Cincinnati way was to whip up an argument over every little detail to the point where people were just yelling and screaming at each other, the city needed leadership that was more mature than that pettiness and was willing to get things done. Think bigger picture too - what's a better asset to the city from a big picture perspective? A one of a kind neighborhood with a history that rivals that of many a tourist destinations and frankly is the ONLY neighborhood like it in the whole Midwest or a new neighborhood between two stadiums. Both are important, one would be key to the success of Cincinnati as a region, Cincinnati WAY undersells its historic and architectural assets - and OTR is a neighborhood that could if marketed correctly put Cincinnati into the national consciousness. Right now people look at Cincy from outside Cincy as a typical boring Midwestern city, a fully revitalized OTR is the opposite of that. I guess its because I grew up just outside of Dayton and have been traveling since I was a young kid that I see the potential when a lot of people in Cincinnati are incapable of understanding it. Even before I dove deep into the history of Cincinnati I knew something was different about it - looking at the buildings pretty much told me that as no other city around it has buildings like Cincy does.

If Luken had his way the Banks would have been done by 3CDC and OTR would have been a long term goal - at which point more of the neighborhood would have been lost. I give Luken credit for one thing and one thing only, starting 3CDC, which is IMO exactly the sort of organization I felt would get Cincinnati out of its hole, if directed right - an org that took advantage of the large business community. Thing is there needed to be pushback on their plan, and Cincy wound up with something better due to that happening. Also in regards to the Police agreement, read the article in the Atlantic, Luken felt that the feds needed to leave even when there was way more work to be done. He was not helping things.

I cleaned it up a bit. The opinions stand. Cincy was a hole, Mallory performed a miracle.

You are wrong. The city was completely crippled by an inane inability to get anything done on anything in the last years of Luken. The banks were a hole, OTR was still crumbling (I have a feeling it was Mallory's leadership that allowed 3CDC to go to OTR and not the banks), there was still a hostile relationship between the black community and the police. Also, the police were NOT doing their job. Cincinnati was a miserable smoldering pile of a city back in 2006, you are in denial if you feel otherwise. Most of the cities problems came down to people having petty fights about petty junk, and Luken's admin encouraged it. Cranley is a return to that, difference is now enough people KNOW that something different is possible and there is WAY more pushback than it was. Cincinnati was literally just taking the junk it was handed and not doing anything to fight for having a better city. Frankly my opinion was that Cincy itself was well on the path to being completely and utterly hollowed out frankly due to ZERO leadership from the establishment who was all too comfortable with things being beyond broken. To put things into perspective (I know this is a long article) read this report from the Atlantic regarding how a change in leadership ultimately improved community police relations (it also led to the banks being developed and pretty much every other "futuristic" idea from being actually implimented in Cincinnati. Pepper WOULD NOT have moved things foward). Here's the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/cincinnati-police-reform/393797/ (Nice when you get a non rag of a paper doing deep investigative journalism isn't it?) Finally most of what Mallory did was get the city back on track to where tax revenues would be up due to investments. That did have an impact as evidenced by the surplus Cranley foolishly spent on police that he received this year. Investments were the name of the game here, not foolish spending other than a few things like Mahoganys. Also Cranley DIDN"T KNOW ABOUT GE initially, it was negotiated by other parties. Read the paper.

They already managed to sneak them by in Bellevue...

Cranely isn't a genius, he just knew how to build a coalition and advertise to that coalition. The Enquirer being the rag that it is endorsed him, as did other key stakeholders. Why they supported him baffles me, but I just view it as a symptom of a culturally ill city that doesn't fully understand that the Mallory years were good medicine.