neilworms

Yet the city has draconian sign laws... :/

Also here is what was demoed pictures are worth a thousand words to those who get caught up in the rhetoric about it only being fast food places: http://cincinnatimonocle.blogspot.com/2012/01/photos-of-calhoun-st-and-mcmillan-st-in.html

Chicago or St. Louis-type strips of row houses with rounded roof lines, walk-up style with basements, plus a strip of OTR-type row buildings survived until about 2003. Not only were historic buildings bulldozed, but the area lost individual ownership. So instead of a bunch of individual owners of individual businesses, aka "fine-grained urbanism", we have big-time ownership, professional management, and the national chains that come with it. Bor-ring. I am stunned that 10+ years after this disaster, people still defend it. U Square is hideous, period. Now people want more. You say hello and I say goodbye. Historic walkup basements (all four of them) and the photo someone else posted only shows that nothing was lost here. Camp Washington, Northside, in fact any number of neighborhoods have buildings that look like this. It wasn't a historic neighborhood. People didn't drive from St. Louis or Chicago to admire Cincy's architecture. OTR is probably historic, Union Terminal Historic, Tusculum area historic, The Taft Home historic, and maybe even the zoo could be considered historic. For me historic means something happened at this location. And we should remember it. There is an international urbanist group where I posted a beautiful shot of OTR, and only like 500+ people have responded to it positively. Only that and no comments from people admiring the tenements or anything like that. ::) I also posted some unlabeled photos of places like East Walnut Hills and CUF and people were asking where they were, with an interest of OMG I didn't know this existed in the midwest.

Yeah a younger person might, but then would learn their lesson the first time they get sick or injured and can hardly get back into or out of their unit. Doesn't always work this way in larger cities, I think Travis is right on this.

Property values get high enough and people will... though at a discount to everything around it.

Cranley proposing to set fees that high for permits is ludicrous - the proposals he tossed around would have made OTR have some of the most expensive permit parking in the whole country - way more than what I spend in Chicago to park on a permitted street.

International (excluding USA): 1) Toledo Spain (so much history such a great natural setting) 2) Buenos Aires (incredible blend of architectural styles - parisian buildings with italian details, moorish revival houses side by side with english tudors, a bit chaotic and bursting with culture) 3) Kyoto Japan (Japan's most interesting city great blend of pre-modern, pre-war and post-war - has layers of history unlike other Japanese cities) 4) Tokyo Japan (futureworld - better at night than day, awesome train system and Shibuya is the most insane nightlife area I've ever been to) 5) Vancouver (Weird blend of Tokyo and Seattle - natural setting is unbeatable) *Honorable Mention* Melbourne Australia - the laneways, peak British Empire Victorian grandeur and tons of culture like if Boston and Portland Oregon had a kid USA: 1) San Francisco (natural setting, Victorian architecture, cultured and vibrant) 2) Boston (most European of American cities also very vibrant) 3) New York City (diversity, architectural grandeur) 4) Chicago (most livable of these cities not as much character as what's above but enough to be happy with it) 5) Philly (so much history) *Special Mention* Cincinnati - has all the ingredients to be way better than it is, deserves way more love.

From what I know of Seattle, I do suspect that the First Hill Streetcar, as-built, was a bit of a mistake. A streetcar on First Ave. makes a ton of sense, and having that then turn east on Jackson also makes a ton of sense. But the circuitous way in which the line gets to Broadway is the killer of the functionality of this line, both now and after the First Ave. mile is built. Right now, the Broadway section and the Jackson section of the First Hill line no doubt function as two separate services, with very few people using the meandering connection between the two areas. I predict that the Jackson St. area will really take off after the First Ave. section is built, but the section of the First Hill line that is actually in First Hill will continue to serve lukewarm ridership. Seattle is really crippled by its innate road configuration and the fact that so many single-family homes are situated so close to its downtown. The table has been set for a hellish housing shortage since single-family homes, no matter how humble, will protect their neighborhoods to the detriment of the region, to the end. Just like San Francisco. What I've noticed is that it seems like Seattle is doing a lot more to densify and improve transit than San Fran did. I'm not sure its enough and NIMBYism is rampant, but they seem better prepared than SF. See: https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/9/29/16386922/seattle-apartment-vacancy-rate See also: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/free-amazon-echo-2-months-free-rent-2500-gift-cards-seattle-apartment-glut-gives-renters-freebies/

Only if the owner of Mariano's is invovled...

Agreed 100%, its the thing I love most about checking up on OTRs progress when I'm in town.

I've mentioned this a 1000x before but every major city in the midwest has advertisements on the Chicago L to visit them except for one and that one is Cincinnati. Columbus has these weird ads on trash cans, and even Kalamazoo was talking about how you can get beer there. Kalamazoo.... :/ Cincinnati is like if Boston was trying to be Indianapolis and then even falling at that. You guys aren't even mentioning Spring Grove Cemetary, the Beer Tunnels in OTR, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the Freedom Center (which is actually loved outside of the region by people who know about it) or even Mt Adams. Cincinnati is terrible at promoting itself - pictures of the neighborhoods sell the city, that's all that's needed, then you can talk about how the breweries are undiscovered gems of quality form a city with a deep brewing heritage, your city's promotion writes itself and the people who sit on the chamber are too stupid / provincial to see it.

Mike Brown is scum.

Compare "Nashville Hot" against actual regional food: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=nashville%20hot%20chicken,Cincinnati%20Chili,Italian%20Beef,garbage%20plate (Italian Beef is going up in popularity due to Als opening up locations in LA)

The smallish tacos are more authentic too.

Thai is trendier as a whole, though Ohio weirdly missed out on that. There are more thai places in NYC and Chicago than Chinese now...

I also think its misguided but there are fans in that age group of which I am a part of. They were huge when I was in high school.

As long as MEMI doesn't get its grubby little paws on it, I think it will continue to grow. MPMF was such a missed opportunity - I don't think it was unprofitable either, I think it was more of a product of NEMI lacking any kind of creative bone in their bodies.

No one knows or cares about Blink outside of the region. Its a pretty awesome thing you've got, but doubt anyone even from Indy would know about it ;). Even when Cincy does stuff well it undersells itself. But they will care about an abandoned theatre and subway with a water main in it? Not sure what you expect to be done with these places to make them tourist attractions. Also if you do some research on the Emery you'll know that it has more to do with UC and ownership issues and a lot of people aware of its history want it to be saved. We also celebrate a lot of our history here, so I'm not sure what you mean by that statement. Plus it's awfully bold of you to act as if you understand every outsiders perspective of our city. On top of that you're almost always being a turd on here. Think about other cities you've traveled to with the level of history that Cincinnati has note what they do to sell the fact that they are historic places of note - see Charleston, Savannah, Boston and San Francisco for good examples (though the later two are way larger and the former are way smaller). I just feel that given what Cincinnati has - it severely sells itself short. Even STL does a bit more to promote itself for its rich history (even if the city itself was far worse impacted by the post industrial age than Cincy was). Even in a place that has less history, Seattle does a ton to promote the Seattle Underground as a unique attraction - something that the subway could be promoted as in a very similar way. Everytime the Subway gets brought up on national level publications there is a lot of interest around it - people love these kinds of stories even if the subway itself isn't the most attractive thing - its a unique piece of hidden history and people eat that up unless they are John Q I've Lived in Cincinnati my whole life. On threads on "New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens" a popular urbanist discussion group on Facebook with an International Audience, I've shown pics of Cincinnati and got responces like "Wow I never knew it was like this, or so unique" etc. You have way more than you guys give yourself credit for and IMO that's much to the detriment of your city's cultural well-being.

No one knows or cares about Blink outside of the region. Its a pretty awesome thing you've got, but doubt anyone even from Indy would know about it ;). Even when Cincy does stuff well it undersells itself.

The mere fact that one of Americas most culturally unique cities with one of the largest collection of very beautiful historic homes and oddball attractions that are shunned and hidden away (the Emery, The Subway etc) instead of celebrated speaks volumes in itself. I don't think Convention Center tourism is the most important for Cincinnati but I do feel that such a city should stop trying to hide how beautiful it is or how rich its history is and start sharing itself with the rest of the country. Maybe it would help build pride in the things Cincinnatians should actually have pride for in their city - the things that make it unique. IMO tourism for Cincy for me is more of a cultural than economic issue as Jake mentioned the economy isn't that big for tourism, but at least getting yourself out their in the national consciousness so that the next random hollywood film (last example being Isle of Dogs) doesn't assume that you are anywhere midwestern USA could do volumes to make the city stand out more against its many other midsized peers as a place for nationally touring cultural events that you guys miss out on all the freaken time. Make those events want to go to you instead of Columbus which has a reputation for being surprisingly fun or Indianapolis which just is central and good at promoting itself.

And yet Yvettes actions were framed as why won't anyone think of the poor multi billion dollar hospital.... absolutely disgusting.

Did Detroit have the kind of attendence that Cincinnati got? Saturation matters more than market size IMO, particularly for a sport that traditionally isn't popular in the US.

It really frustrates me too because I'm pretty weary of Berding handing the keys of everything to FCC and screwing over the city (Just like he did with the County on the Bengals deal), but I'm not against FCC having a stadium either or the West End getting some attention and investment (though frankly Nippert would have been way better and a smarter move would have been to use the leverage of international press as a means to negotiate with FCC to use Nippert, but IMO that's too outside the box for Cincy's elite who could just brooker a crooked deal anyways given that the mayor is friendly to them :/).

Could happen to Cincinnati too if things don't change. Say some activist investor screws up P&G and then starts wanting to make it a more dynamic company... Your city is pretty fragile right now, particularly with the leadership it has, the moment the house of cards falls the whole city will fall. Matthew is writing some great stuff and I hope that's a mentality that gains some strength.

He is 100% correct about Chicago and doesn't even live here btw.