neilworms

Par course for corryville :x

I just don't like being called a "wealthy white gentrifier" like I was on Twitter today by this anti-gentrification guy. First of all, it's making an assumption about my income level. Secondly, it's saying that my goal in moving to OTR was to gentrify the neighborhood, eradicate diversity, and turn the entire neighborhood into a playground for other "wealthy white" people, which is the opposite of the reason that I actually live there. Cincinnati is so harsh to change even a lot of progressives can't accept it. My argument to them is that Cincy isn't San Francisco - it will die if it doesn't change which is worse for everyone. I wish urbanism was more accepted there, seeing it change over the last few years is why I follow news down there

I'm confused - http://m.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/03/10/metro-bus-ridership-down-amidst-nationwide-surge.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_cincinnati+%28Business+Courier+of+Cincinnati%29&r=full

Would the second image require any demolition? I am strongly opposed to demolition of the vine street curve, its a unique part of the urban fabric and should be preserved. Oh its just another building is not acceptable in Cincinnati's case, because that is the prevailing attitude for ALL buildings.

I was wondering when they'd finally get rid of that :)

^-Sad but shockingly typical old school Cincinnati :( Progress happens in spite of Cranley not because of him.

^-Oh, that's going to be a mess.

Given that there aren't zoning laws in Houston, it will be interesting to see how this rail (over time) changes the landscape. IF all goes well it might make that place look a little more like a real city (might still be ugly but it will probably be denser).

I guess my frustration is that Cincinnati is literally sitting on a buried treasure that needs to be dug out. A smart city would dig the treasure up first, then focus its priorities once it has claimed the treasure on fixing other areas - taking the resources gained from the "dig" to spread around investment to benefit everyone. Also I said nothing about Hyde Park, that neighborhood needs no help from the city at all and ditto with Mt. Adams. I'm all for the redevelopment of that site, but I don't think it should be a top priority until the city utilizes its severely underutilized assets first.

When I was there I felt LA was gaudy and tacky (lots of neon, and often tasteless loud design though sometimes innovative - lots of Cheesecake Factory type design - no surprise given that its from S. California). Also many more than in other cities pre 1930s buildings had their detailing removed, so very little felt historic - there is a really great before and after photo thread on SSP's forums that shows a ton of examples where this happened. LA's main basin is quite dense, but its been chopped up quite a bit by the mid-century (though its very easy to fix), it particularly surprised me how dense Beverly Hills commercial district was considering how much of a deterrent to subway development that town has been and the general selfish vain attitude that that place is just drenched in.

I'm going to be honest, Bond Hill shouldn't be getting half the attention the crumbling Victorian Neighborhoods in the core should get. The Port and Cranley don't understand what will really sell Cincinnati, they should instead be focusing their attention on Price Hill, Walnut Hills, Camp Washington and other first ring neighborhoods before they are gone. 1930s version of contemporary suburbia doesn't sell the city - what sells the city is what's unique and in Cincinnati its its Victorians.

I feel the exact same way, as bus service is pretty lacking there too. Its a wealthy part of town, so the service has to capture "choice" riders, the expansion of Metro*Plus into this corridor would be a good test/start.

Where would the most logical place be to add a stop? I think in general our transit has too many stops anyways, and the streetcar is just about right considering the density of the area it travels through.

As I've mentioned before I was there last summer, and LA in a lot of ways is like the vision of American suburbia on steroids taken to its most intensely broken ultimate conclusion. Its a very weird place that in the sheer intensity of how it was developed makes it a lot different than most sprawly areas I've been to, I kind of felt like I was in this absolutely massive galactic entity with many suns (dense urban areas) all scattered throughout its orbit. If all of those dense areas were combined into one core it would be a lot like NYC or Chicago. Given the seismic shifts in transit culture going on there I think its eventual outcome will be more like an East Asian city, many dense nodes interconnected by a massive transit network. Its a pretty exciting place to watch develop, even if I have major reservations with its culture which kind of disregards good taste (though at its best it does allow for innovation) but the whole place just struck me as tacky. Nonetheless downtown is fantastic particularly if they fill in some of the gargantuan parking lots. I guess in short at its current state LA is weirdly fascinating to me and with this winter the prospect of actually having a warm weather city in this country with a good urban culture is really appealing to me right now in spite of its trashiness. Oh and the subways are insanely fast, I was amazed at how quickly I could get to Hollywood, or Koreatown I'm too used to the ancient infrastructure in Chicago - the subway under Wilshire cannot come fast enough, and I wish they would immediately get it all the way to Santa Monica. The buses were great too, even the Flyaway bus was a really awesome alternative for not having a direct rail airport connection, 9$ will take you to either Westwood or DTLA on a regular basis (like every hour for Westwood and every half hour for DTLA). If your in town take advantage of that service.

I can't believe I saw such a good editorial for transit in that paper wow, :clap:

Real Estate folks like the @ sign. Did you know that in Chicago there is a company actually called @properties :)

I wish there were more "Individual projects" too. Part of what makes the infill in Chicago look so much better than Cincy's is due to this more patchwork approach (there are exceptions of course).

Part of that national exposure is just how terrible Mike Brown is. People actually know who he is outside of Cincinnati - I usually get into conversations like this: "oh your from the Cincy area, are you a Bengals fan?" "No, I'm not, Mike Brown really screwed over the city and I refuse to support him for it, also the team has for many years been terrible". "Oh yeah I've heard about it". (I've had several conversations like this, and since sports is a socially acceptable thing to be geeky about, lots of people know lots of stuff like this). To bring it back to topic, having them argue over the height of the banks development just makes things worse.

:x Mike Brown is a total asshat. Sadly these kinds of disputes won't be resolved with decent leadership (Cranley now), I have a bad feeling the banks aren't being built anytime soon. I know football maybe popular, but I really felt the county should have just let him leave town, they would have been better off for it.

Coming in a bit late on this.... That's all the more reason for Metro*Plus here, people on this route have options, and if you are going to convince them that riding the bus is a good idea, make it competitive with the car and sell them on the advantages of transit.

Coming in a bit late, but I've had similar thoughts, especially since much of that route doesn't have very great bus service currently. I'd only make one change, make it end in Mariemont, as that would better tie that very walk able city to the rest of these neighborhoods.

I did, which is cool, but it still doesn't = official word from SORTA regarding the project. On the other hand that article does make it clear that it will at least be one of the top 3 places for a route.

Keep pushing for that, though due to the constrained funding I have a feeling that it like everything else would take a while to get implemented. Any rumors regarding expansion of the system? Would love to see one that goes up Hamilton Ave by way of the University (17 route basically). Or at the very least weekend service...

I noticed some nice new shelters put in along the Metro*Plus Route by XU and Avondale, the nicest thing I noticed was a little pole with Metro*Plus clearly marked making the stops very visible, on that pole was a map of the route with all of its stops (like they'd do on a subway or light rail line), a very good improvement towards making the system easier to use. Sadly I didn't get a pic of the pole, but I did manage to get a few of the shelters which were pretty nice, very clearly marking the stops (looks like part of the Avondale one hasn't been installed or is missing right now, still unexpected and fantastic, hope to see this eventually cover the entire line. Sorry about the quality of the pics, they are cellphone pics and I'm still kind of an amateurish photographer ;). Pics Link (too big to attach): https://plus.google.com/photos/101781427411731641409/albums/5963295431020922337?authkey=CLS3vKXHo4Bq

This is something people should be on the lookout for as bicycle use goes up, if riders are irresponsible it could make people actually consider this kind of legislation. Though when one alderman in Chicago proposed such rules he was a) demonized immediately b)laughed out of the room. Yeesh.