neilworms

I'm not sure if the Lakefront-Megabus thing is lasting too much longer, lots of trips I can't reserve after about mid Feb. On the flip side, after Jan 9th they are going to be offering direct service to UC right off short vine (at Jefferson and University/the circle at Sigma Sigma Commons), should be good esp for those students taking late night trips after metro service has stopped: http://us.megabus.com/BusStops.aspx (pull down the Cincy stop and another city and you'll see).

^-Do they realize that building with Christy's/Lendhardts is a mansion that was built by Christian Moerlien himself?

This is exactly the kind of small market that has been popping up all over Chicago over the last 10-15 years, it would do great to have something like this downtown to supplant what's already there. Might also put pressure on the Kroger to carry better stuff...

Pretty awesome place, I was espicially shocked to find Okonomiyaki there, that's something that quite literally I've only seen at a japanese grocery/food court catering to Japanese expats in Chicagoland. We wound up doing an Asian fusion night spent 45 mins having a drink at Kaze, beating the cold then going across the street to Quan Hapa to get our food. Kaze was beautiful, to top it off they awesome in the bathrooms too, plus they were even playing Akira on the tv screens :P. Me and the owner of Quan Hapa just hit it off, I was talking about how Okonomiyaki is served with this weird cabbage like stuff that moves (some kind of fish thing, I forget the name) - he also mentioned an interest in doing hot pot and seemed very open to trying different things. Not only that but the beer selection was fantastic and exotic too - beers I don't even see at pan asian places in Chicago or even San Francisco (one place in NYC had stuff like that) :).

I'm not sure I agree, I think if a route connecting to a major shopping/job center like what's going on in Rookwood to another job center the university which will be a hub where you can transfer to relatively frequent service downtown and it's advertised, then you've got something...

Yeah this probably should be on the SORTA/TANK thread. This would also be an excellent way to attract "choice" riders who are pro urban and pro transit but don't ride it because it doesnt' work for them. I still think there needs to at least be a poll to see if people are more supportive of Metro Moves 10 years later -> Gas prices are way higher, the middle class is more receptive to bus riding with new curbside operators like Megabus (this is the first time I've taken it to Cincinnati and about 1/2 the bus was cincy people and 1/2 indianapolis people anecdotally) and the county is now more liberal as a whole voting for Obama in 2 elections.

Agreed and they are somewhat addressing this with the route changes, you should check it out here (this guy really deciphers what's going on clearly: http://cincymap.org/blog/the-new-transit-plan/ ) Also the estimates I was telling you about were from Downtown! I couldn't imagine if it was something where I really did have to go crosstown :P.

Oddly enough Chicago's system makes too many stops too - so many places where the bus stops every fricken block just for one person per stop, when it would make way more sense for it to stop once every 3 or 4 blocks. Also even odder is that San Fran has a few orange posts still left in Chinatown where they really don't have room for better bus infrastructure. As far as Cincinnati's system goes, now that its on Google and there is the wonderful frequent transit map, you start to realize that many key urban neighborhoods like Oakley, Hyde Park, Columbia Tusculum and Mt. Lookout have terrible service with buses often only coming to those places once every half hour or so. The only line where buses run at levels of a larger transit system is 4 which goes up reading road and in close second are some routes through Price Hill and obviously the 17 and the 19 from downtown through Northside. When I lived in the city the thing I noticed was that the system was good for getting uptown to downtown and vice-versa and not much else. Generally the rule of thumb in Chicago is that it takes 2x as long to get somewhere by bus than it does by car, in Cincinnati just playing with Google maps a bit, I've noticed that it can take 3/4x time and these are areas still in the city limits! Also as I'm visiting family and staying downtownish, I grabbed myself a 10 ride pass - it really comes in handy and is a fantastic step in the right direction - plus I know enough people who live along the 17/19 that its useful to use. I'm really happy that Metro has taken baby steps like these into the 21st century.

The only bus dominated system I've been really impressed by is Seattle - lots of express routes everywhere - more efficient than the non train parts of Chicago's system. Metro is making strides to improve itself, but still have a ways to go

Traffic is already so bad in the city that concerns about additional traffic are at the point of diminishing returns (plus its better than truck traffic that was there beforehand - it seems that when an area gets yuppified enough people start complaining about the silliest things). That and most people (at least who I know) who live in areas like Wicker don't drive that much - enough things can be got within walking distance/train/bus/bike that there isn't much use for a car other than specific instances (for me its going far north in the city to places like Devon Ave - though I hope that BRT is done right and done fast so that I can finally have a good way to get to the north side without going the wrong way on EL trains).

^-I guess there is some confusion, I was talking about the 5 story one in Wicker Park being proposed. Most of Wicker Park is late 1800s but there are larger post 20th century buildings scattered throughout. I know most of the 1800s ones are 1-4 storys (a few taller on Milwaukee and the post 1900s stuff tends to be larger).

Though if you look at the schedule on Megabus' site it shows it stopping in Cleveland when you do a Cincinnati->Buffalo trip. Might be something to email Megabus about.

Seems like Lakefront Lines is also offering 2 extra Cincinnati-Columbus trips as well. Glad to see that one back after megabus yanked the Cincy-Pittsburgh route. That's one I would have used a ton in college, may even use it over the Christmas holiday to meet my Columbus friends. :) Now if only they could do a 3C route.

That doesn't make any sense, even in the mansion area on Hoyne it wouldn't be a big deal as long as they weren't tearing down a mansion for it. Aren't there like 5 story 1910-1930 apartments scattered in the neighborhood anyways?

Knowing how long it takes anything to get done here, I think they are probably right on Target (yes unintentional pun, harharhar). I seem to remember the Uptown Target taking FOREVER to get going as well as the one in the Loop. By the time both of them opened I was either living or working in less convenient places to get to them even though when I heard about them it seemed like a great thing.

Its crazy but the Chicago stop has a lot of the same issues, the McDonalds right next to it is a hotbed for crazy stuff - I see an army of police there all the time and have heard many a story of flashmobs and fights. At least on that Stop I've pinpointed the source, there is a particularly rough YMCA in the same building as the Foot and Ankle clinic. Its crazy because again its the gold coast, and not only that but also a huge touristy/suburbanite nightlife district. I'm glad they are cleaning up the Clark/Division stop, I think its the last really decayed red line stop - I still remember Grand looking like something out of the third world and now its quite a showpiece for the rest of the system. I think Rahm's administration has done positive for the design of new stations - the ones put in under Daley have a lot of issues esp the brown line stations without proper shelter and already rotting wood.

I can see it happening. In Chicago there are already two 80s themed cafe's that I know of and in a lot of other big cities there are old style arcades melded with bars or Barcades (as the original one in brooklyn was called).

I have a friend who grew up in Hammond (the daughter of Polish immigrants). Its not really as nice as Valpo or Merrillville, but not as bad as Gary. She told me also that it has some of the worst pollution in the country... its still a depressing place to drive through. The thing that gets me the most about the post apocalyptic stretch of Tollway in NW Indiana is Wolf Lake. Who in their right mind would want to fish/go boating in that lake? You can see a captain planet villains hideout on the other side of it, tons and tons of very nasty industry - and yet I see people all the time on it. Weird.

Good point, though its not much different than the Banks, which was really popular. Also in larger cities there is plenty of residental mixed in major entertainment districts. Walk down Milwaukee Ave on a warm Friday night in Wicker Park, Chicago, and you'll see people partying on in the apartments above the bars in addition to people drunkenly hopping from bar to bar.

I think that's fair. Lets cheer for urban revitalization across the board.

Its great news for Dayton I'm not denying that at all :)

My numbers were including OTR, I guess that's why they are off. I remember a similar debate about how Indianapolis counts its downtown versus how Cincy does. Does Dayton include the Oregon District or Webster Station in its numbers? Nonetheless its similar numbers and people should be using this as an argument for a proper downtown grocery in Cincy.

Agreed, just that Cincy's situation is frustrating and the counter argument on that is that there isn't enough population. Then here comes along a city very nearby that has a fraction of the downtown population and they are able to get a proper urban grocery. Perhaps Cincy should be courting Constantino's instead of Kroger. Would serve Kroger right if that happens :P.

WTF? Why Dayton and not Cincy which seems to be way ahead of Dayton (though this is good news for Dayton :P)

There is a pretty good blog post that goes into details about the new routings courtesy of the guy who brought you the frequent route map: http://cincymap.org/blog/the-new-transit-plan/