neilworms

Cincinnati and Southwest Wisconsin (though there its Swiss German) are probably the ONLY places in the whole country that put that level of emphasis on a German-American culture. Everywhere else is a lot more low key because German-Americanness was repressed during WWI and WWII. Cincinnati should trump it up, just like how New Orleans trumps up its french creole/arcadian heritage or Chicago with its Irish/Polish heritage(you think watching a bunch of people with lederhosen in Cincinnati is bad, you should see what Chicago is like on St. Patty's day lol). Frankly Cincinnati should make its German-American culture better known outside of its region. Far more people are familiar with Milwaukee in that regard which IMO isn't nearly as overtly German-American as Cincinnati is. Again like a lot of other things, Cincy could leverage this as a vehicle for tourism, I know Greg Hardman and co understand that but Cincinnati as a whole has a hard time wrapping their head around that concept. (even the Oktoberfest isn't that well known past Dayton as big as it is!) Also, Bockfest is supposedly a festival of German origin what do you expect? The Economist had a pretty good writeup on German-Americans in the rest of the country: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21642222-americas-largest-ethnic-group-has-assimilated-so-well-people-barely-notice-it Full disclosure I'm 1/2 German 1/2 English with a German last name.

One of the reasons I picked Chicago best bang for your buck :)

Is the white building the one that's going in right across from the Target on Division? That one looks pretty good. And yeah New City is architecturally pretty terrible, but its a huge upgrade from what was there before.

I’d bet that a majority of people call everything remotely close to UC “Clifton.” If I tell people I live in CUF, no one knows what that is. I always have to pause for a second before I even remember which one of the “Heights” I actually live in (Clifton Heights). This church is in the weird part of campus that is apparently just called “Heights,” and if they said this church was in “Heights” absolutely no one would know where that is. Sometimes I think we should seriously consider renaming both CUF and Heights to just “Clifton Heights” or else no one is ever going to bother with distinguishing between them. Though Corryville is a different story, those on Short Vine have no excuse. Then of course there is facebook that (at least used to) think everything in the central parts of Cincy is located in Clifton Ohio. Lets just move the old mill down there ;) ---- 11Million dollars though towards proselytizing hmmm... Yes its an awesome old church, but I get wary of evangelical organizations with that kind of money. They will get political eventually, brace yourselves. Also I think from a moral and Christian perspective those large sums of money probably should be used for outreach to the poor and what not - actually helping people in need, though restoring what could have been an dead old church/landmark IS giving back to the community at least.

A complete dump very dirty too. When that area was a gigantic region of public housing it wasn't terribly safe either.

Apple really fixed up that stop it's better than it used to be.

Did you get to go to some of the more southren neighborhoods like Haight-Ashbury, the Castro or the Mission? (or even parts of Pacific Heights or what wasn't urban renewed in the Filmore district) - Basically most of the area you took pictures of was destroyed by the fires from the 1905 earthquake and those buildings are plainer/newer than the ones in the areas of town above that weren't affected by it. Example: https://4feet2mouths.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/2012-08-02-20-bay-area-road-trip-222.jpg

Wasn't saying it was anything great, but its very large scale on an area that was a very large empty field and more than a bit of a dead zone that's lied fallow for many years - what was there before was massive public housing blocks and other mid century junk so I do see this as an improvement. I wish it was better looking, but the alderman there is particularly corruptible and I'm sure the developers lined his campaign wallet.

^-Another cool thing for an orgnization I have a lot of skepticism towards - and them advocating for that wouldn't change my view.

Deiters is old school Cincinnati personified, almost cartoonishly so.

This is one of the most dramatic developments going on in Chicago right now: http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/06/a-field-trip-through-lincoln-parks-new-city-development.php Its filling in a hole left from when Cabrini Green was demolished. I'm looking forward to seeing the final results - architecture isn't special but I'm interested in seeing how it will make that corner a bit more vibrant.

Yes, it is a tragedy that a church is restoring an old church. It really should have been another craft brewery or "reception hall." Its awesome that someone is restoring the chruch. Megachurches from conservative christian fundamentalists sects disturb me though. Even though Crossroads tries to dress up evengelicalism in a "hip young" facade, its still evangelical fundamentalism - I normally don't have problems with religions, but these sorts tend to have problems with everyones religions and try to force there's down everyone's throat and that is a problem.

Don't they have glass now that allows people to see out but not people to see in?

I-71 now has that weird "Atlanta" vibe with midrises meeting the interstate at odd angles. Last time I was there I was reminded of a small scale Culver City just outside LA: http://www.aaroads.com/california/images405/i-405_sb_exit_049_05.jpg

Your forgetting the fact that 3 breweries with taprooms or pubs are along the route (and hopefully more soon - *glares at Sam Adams)

I still see profits here even if the partnership doesn't work out long term. Last time I was in town I tried to eat in OTR and had a lot of options gone because every other place was reserved for a "event" - which were usually the big companies in town paying a lot of money to a restaurant to take over the space. That's a very frustrating thing as a lot of these places should be available for all to enjoy - having an event space like this would help ease that issue. Cincinnati also seems obsessed with closed off private parties, least you know the whole town actually enjoy something that everyone should enjoy :P

Finally tried out Lyft line which basically make Lyft into a share taxi. I attempted to use it in LA but as the driver confirmed it doesn't work so well there because things are spread out. I wound up using It in San Fran which was very nice. An 8 dollar trip costs me 4 and saved me a bit of time over using transit. Probably would have been better to use after bar hopping on a weekend near last call. I'm hoping this makes it into Chicago and other place.

I agree on this, I think the city should subsidize the cost. Its worth the cost since CVG is a complete mess and many tourists only have megabus as an acceptable option without spending a small fortune on airfare.

Well it looks like we now know why Megabus operates out of Buffalo's transit center and not Cincinnati's: From: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/02/13/cheap-megabus-service-thriving-despite-problems/23348859/ Any speculation on why SORTA would be asking such a gigantic amount of money for this? I found another investigative report (pretty darn sensationalist of course) that mentioned that some money is flowing to SORTA due to some of the area beign used for parking leasing :x Finally for those of us who regularly use Megabus, please write Metro and the City to get this resolved: http://www.go-metro.com/contact-us http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/council/contact-us/

Even more impressive would be from Moerlein Lager House to Rhinegeist, with the 21C Rooftop Terrace in between. Cincinnati's core is shaping up to be pretty awesome. Its rumored Rhinegeist will get a rooftop bar as well.

The rate at which some of the blocks along the streetcar route are being redeveloped is pretty solid. Save a massive national recession the blocks surrounding the streetcar line in OTR will be almost fully built-out before Cranley leaves office, assuming he's here for seven more years. The whole time everyone will see the success and keep asking him when it's going to expand. Are you implying that he'll be a two term Mayor? Scary thoughts.

Should this be moved to the projects and development section, instead of architecture / preservation?

The enquirer also had an article on this: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2015/02/07/mt-auburn-renaissance/23032219/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin= Of note/concern: Looking at that street on streetview I don't see how widening it can be done without demolition. Also, I don't think its THAT heavily used a street, its going to kill the pedestrian friendliness of this area too.

There needs to be stops ON campus, and more in places like Highland Ave (I really want to be able to take a bus up the hill then grab a bike and go to the Highland Cafe when I'm in town). I'm also kind of hoping they put a few in Walnut Hills soon to allow for easier crosstown trips.

Its already amazing what's happened so far - DeSales was one of Cincinnati's best underutilized neighborhoods, hopefully there will be more mixed use to fill in some of those gigantic parking craters near the neighborhood too.