Gordon Bombay

Yeah, this always confused me. Just to clarify, @DEPACincy—NOTL had an IMAX theatre where @savadams13said, but this was before "IMAX" was a marketed technology in regular movie theaters. I.E. It was its own attraction showing specific IMAX films unrelated to the operation of the AMC theatre nearby. These days, the AMC theater (and most modern megaplexes) boast an IMAX screen/projector (or a screen capable of showing mainstream films filmed in contemporary IMAX (i.e. Avengers, etc.), not really sure what the technology breakdown is). AMC at the levee also advertises their current IMAX capability on the side of the building facing the river. The original IMAX theater at the Levee was a standalone attraction focused (I think) more on specialty films (similar to the Museum Center and Air Force Museum's attractions). If I recall, it was short-lived, but I remember a rerelease of the animated "Beauty and the Beast" film being advertised there in the early years. If I recall, there was once a proposal to make the shuttered, standalone IMAX theatre a performance hall for the Newport Symphony Orchestra, but nothing came of it.

Agreed, @Pdrome513! So glad it works far more consistently.

Moved Downtown in February and use the streetcar/Metro a lot. Overall, things seem improved from year's past. However, there are still some glaring issues that seem easy enough to fix. Transit app is much more accurate now, but not always 100% reliable (in a twist from years past, I now have way more issues finding real-time bus info with this app than I ever do streetcar). Arrival signs on stations are still hit/miss as to whether they're working or accurate. Nick Lachey recordings are still often mis-timed or reading sponsors that long ago dropped out. Frequency seems good, but I wonder how much of that is due to less cars on the street as WFH continues for many. Every weekend, I encounter folks still using the system for the first time as they explore around town. They always seem impressed. Thank the transit gods that those awful TVMs are turned off.

Went to catch a streetcar last night near the Aronoff... ...sign said 27 minutes, app didn't have any vehicles on tracking (which you have to know just how to use a third party app in order to track it), so I just walked to the Riverfront. At The Banks, the "transit" app still wouldn't track it, but that was because it won't let you see the "other line" based on where you're located (a problem since the streetcar launched). EDIT: Train was super clean.

Its been my experience that during multiple community meetings I've attended (both pre and during levy) that it has been referred to as "BRT." While not exclusively used by all officials, I've heard some public folks refer to it (and the 3X because it can kind of use the highway side lanes) as "BRT Lite:" I would argue that both of those lines don't even meet the criteria to even have the BRT term near them. If anything, they're simply express routes or in Metro Plus' case: a frequent regular line. It's certainly not fast or "rapid." My point is, many of the people involved with this whole thing are ignorant (either willfully or by circumstance) of even modest improvements being done in other cities. While I'm happy to see some improvement, I'm very skeptical of what will actually emerge. As @JYP said—the devils is in the details, but when it comes to politicians (and aspiring politicians) and business folks who have demonstrated a clear lack of understanding when it comes to transit (in addition to bungling the streetcar for several years now), I have no real confidence. Even if everything in this levy happens: we may finally have transit on the level of.... Indianapolis? And that's if BRT is built properly.

Even if a Biden presidency occurs and even if that administration is overwhelmingly pro public transit, what gives anyone the confidence that SORTA, this city, or this county is going to do anything meaningful? These people still call Metro Plus "BRT."

It'll be nice having the crappy jokes from ODOT's twitter feed right in the heart of the city, near the sports parks. "Don't FUMBLE, get a designated driver." "Buckling up is a HOME RUN."

@OldBearcat Thanks for sharing that CAGIS map, that's super helpful! Sounds like that link was the initial part of the system constructed then? @Ram23: I truly wonder if Saks does good business. I always forgot it was there and occasionally found myself in need of quickly grabbing nicer clothes for some meeting or function I had forgotten about (as I worked in jeans and sneakers). Macys always came in handy or I'd run across the river to Target. I always forgot about Saks. Speaking to another friend today, apparently the PNC building also has a badge reader on its skywalk—you can still access other parts of the block, but to get into that particular building, you need to go to the street and take the elevator back up. Thanks for the link on the 5th/Race building. Gonna dig into that later. And in regards to the Sheraton: I think originally both buildings that are/were the Millennium were both Stouffer's once. Stouffer's built the Inn (older building) first, then added the second tower and it became "Stouffer's Cincinnati Towers." Looks like they became Millennium/Sheraton before joining as one Millennium. So here's another random question, two questions actually: of art! 1) A reader on Facebook pointed out that there used to be a Yoko Ono art installation near the Skywalk/Contemporary Arts Center (I think the old CAC by Gov. Square). It was a "a single black line and had some saying." Anyone remember this or have a picture? I feel like this question was made for @jmecklenborg 2) Anyone know whatever happened to the weird art piece at the center of the Tower Place food court?

I should've known to check Urban Cincy. I also should've texted you and @taestell, but I'm usually writing this crap at 3 AM. Thank you, @JYP!

There's nothing particularly significant about December of 2008 aside from the fact that it's when I once made an attempt to photograph and document what remained of the Skywalk system in Cincinnati. The original feature on my website was Flash based and when it went away, I never bothered restoring it. Then I got the idea to re-share the photographs and actually found myself noticing how much the city has changed in just over a decade, how much I originally enjoyed shooting/writing about stuff like this, and it brought up a question I had. I'm not trying to simply post here and push you to my website, but if you want to read the full piece it's here. My main reason for sharing here on UO is a question that came up as I was finishing up the post for my site. I'm hoping some folks might know/remember and I hope this UO post starts a discussion. I'd love to hear about the Skywalk in its heydey. Background: I originally shot these photographs not with artistic reverence in mind, but rather as a documentation. When I wrote the original 2008 post, I noticed that I had missed some parts of the Skywalk. 10+ years later, including five years working Downtown daily and I realized I missed even more. In addition, the system has had segments removed over time. As I was writing this 2020 post, I was studying one of the "maps" I documented: ^ The day I was out shooting these, the convention center was closed so I missed the Skywalk bridge between it and the Millennium Hotel. The circle shows a gap in the system. I don't recall what building was once here and I believe it was demolished for the failed attempt at luring a Nordstrom Department store (today it's the 84.51 headquarters). On the eastern side of that gap, over Race St. was the closed Skywalk bridge from Macy's/Fountain Place: And to the south of that gap, was another closed Skywalk bridge from Saks Fifth Avenue over W. 5th St. towards what was then an empty lot (again, now the 84.51 Building): ^I pulled that screenshot from Google Street View. It shows this bridge existing in 2007, but gone by 2009. I don't think it was there when I was shooting in December 2008, but I could be wrong. All this to say: these dead ends/bridges converge on one point. If there was once a building there with Skywalk connections, the map would've looked like this: And if those connections existed, at one point there was also a bridge over Vine St. that continued over Fountain Square to Walnut St. (demolished during the Square renovation). That means the map would've looked like this... ..which means, one could've (theoretically) at one point walked from the garage at Central/6th all the way above ground/through buildings to the riverfront arena and down to the riverfront (a bridge did connect to the skywalk system over Fort Washington Way to Riverfront Stadium which itself was connected to US Bank Arena). Like this... Does that seem right? As a kid, my interactions with the city/Skywalk were pretty limited. 2008 was the first time I really tried to go looking at it. Here in 2020, I still have questions haha. Also, some other interesting tidbits: • I've read that the first segment of the Skywalk was built to connect the convention center with Fountain Square. Technically, a connection like that still exists today. But I don't think it's the original one? • If you look closely at the map above, you can see how Fountain Square was modified with a sticker hastily placed over it/over the former northern Vine St. bridge. • Below the Millennium on the map, a Sheraton Four Point is denoted. Where was this at? Was this part of what is now the Millennium? Anyways, I hope this spurs some conversation. When I threw these up again, I thought it'd be a quick post, but here I am quickly sucked back into a world of seemingly insignificant local infrastructure history. Again, if you want to see the full post, it's on my website here. There's also questions about the weird Skywalk above "shapes park," a look at Tower Place, and other random stuff along the way. Also some pondering on whether or not Music Hall's bridge was once envisioned as part of a larger system.

This. 1,000 times THIS. Especially for FC Cincinnati and connecting people with the other attractions in town. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for various power brokers around town, but also... the app is rough, the signs are still hit or miss, the fare machines are awful, arrival times are iffy, etc. All the issues from Day 1 could've been fixed.

Let's be honest—while their sports motifs are certainly a good marketing ploy, that's not the reason their ridership "smokes ours." Theirs is operated properly and always has been from the start. Ours has had the "leadership" of a dis-interested transit board who then kicked it to the city. By the time ours got going, and with very few championing it on level where any real change could happen, who was going to get the Reds or Bengals to sign on as sponsors? Our streetcar doesn't even hold sponsors when it's running under the best of its hampered operations.

To be fair, I don't think that's what they're trying to accomplish. Rather, it seems like it's a revenue opportunity to help offset the RTC's operating costs. I.E. They have the space... may as well offer downtown parking spots whether those people use the bus or not.

Yes, the suburban park and rides are free. I would imagine this would not be, though, as it's not similar to a suburban park & ride. If anything, it's comparable to/is a Downtown parking garage. A good idea would be making the circulator/parking shuttle included with paid parking. Streetcar too.

I'm curious how they intend to physically structure the parking, but this is probably a great revenue idea for them. If they market Metro*Plus as an easy to way to get between uptown/downtown—could be really cool.

Agreed on the Central Parkway alignment. If you're in the CBD and heading towards all the stuff on Main St, taking the streetcar is a great option. But if you're heading back... you have to go way out of your way to catch a Southbound car. Then you have to hope that car is going to show up in a reasonable amount of time.

I mean—I get it (and you know I respect you), but quite simply that's not the way the world is going. It's not an obsession with "apps" so much as it's convenience. I'd rather buy 10 day passes and have them ready at will without having to carry tickets, cards, or cash. This is the way every other system works. The issue is that the app, while it works, isn't great or easy to understand/use. Especially if you're downloading it for the first time and have arrived at a station where ticket machine isn't working. Speaking of which... another reason why cash is moot in this case: our ticket vending machines are awful, always have been, and apparently will continue to be. Ok, boomer. ?❤️ This is my favorite post.

Tried using the Streetcar on New Year's Eve. Per a days old tweet, it was going to stop running at "normal time" (which when you dig through the City's awful website, you can find out that the normal time for a weekday is midnight). So it allegedly stopped running at Midnight. On New Year's Eve. We skipped some plans since we couldn't rely on it, had no response from their Twitter account, and an Uber was going to be too ridiculously priced (nor could we get a decent bus route at the time we were going to need). Found out the next day that apparently the Streetcar was still taking on passengers after midnight. It's New Year's Eve for crying out loud. Why not have the thing run and have signage at every stop? Also, the integration with the Transit app. While it's nice to have ever service in one app: the payment process is slow and cumbersome. It was way easier to store your CC info and quickly buy tickets on the previous app. Transit does offer real-time tracking, but it's still inconsistent and the signs at stations are still bad. And the payment machines are still terrible. Look, we all knew the city was going to poorly manage this thing after the "divorce," but the streetcar has never been properly managed since its opening by any oversight group. Is anyone going to do something soon? It's like a bad joke to have seen this opportunity wasted for what will be four years in September while Kansas City and all these other cities have success. Cincinnati is so milquetoast these days.

Have you ever been on Main or Vine streets in OTR?

And here, once again, we have the typical Cincinnati attitude. The powerful know best, we can't do anything above and beyond (or even on the level of our peer cities), and we must railroad through 1980s style projects at the behest of our wonderful old-money benefactors.

Turner Field bums me out more than any of them. That stadium was truly great and had some great character/history (not to mention, since it was originally built to hold 100,000 people, all the concourses and areas were wide and never too crowded). Such a shame and sham that the Braves left. Thankfully, Turner still has life. Globe Life Park... I still can't believe that. And the original stadium is staying for the XFL team (until that league folds).

No doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that the entity known as The Bengals view it as "mid-life" and could be looking to leave soon, before the entire development was seen through. Just for the record, I think there's better use for the land. Normally I'd agree—look at the diverse range of politicians who supported (and opposed) FCC's new stadium—but I don't know if The Bengals could buy the kind of good will they had during their last stadium campaign (even with how bad the team was then). FCC was seen as a few things: a chance to embrace a sport on the rise, something with overwhelming fan support, re-affirmation that Cincinnati was/is a "major league" city, etc. The Reds are beloved, have a history tied to the city that goes well beyond sports, and they're generally good community partners. The Bengals...well...even once they got their new stadium, they've been bad on the field and continually seem to lack any awareness of community relations. It only gets worse ever year. I truly believe that if The Bengals threatened a movie, there'd be some people wanting to keep them, but I don't think they'd be embraced by a majority.

PBS is "mid-life" and yet The Banks is still not fully built out and what tenants are there, are... well it's hit and miss.

Are these efforts even going to help?

Yeah, it's certainly no Norwood. ?