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Does anyone know of any agency in Cincinnati/Hamilton County that will test your soil for lead? I found this resource: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/health/pages/-36378-/ where you can scrape off paint from your walls and have it tested for lead. However, nothing for soil. My friends always plant a vegetable garden in Clifton, and have no qualms with eating all of the produce. But back when I worked in Lower Price Hill, one of my supervisors warned me against eating urban garden vegetables because of the link between old housing stock + lead paint getting into the soil. I would feel much better about having the soil tested before I make plans to dig up the front yard!

Hi everyone, I don't know where to start..but basically, I'm looking for interesting small scale interior spaces in Cincinnati. I'm a student at UC in DAAP taking an elective studio (Cinema & The City) where we make short films. For the current project, we're shooting a ton of different spaces and editing them together to make an ideal sequence of space to move through. So my partner and I are on the search for places to film. The problem is, all of the noteworthy interior spaces we know of are huge, like the rotunda at Union Terminal, or atriums that span several floors, churches, etc. What we are looking for are small spaces you can move through (hallways, corridors) that are interesting/odd/whimsical/etc, or end up somewhere interesting. So far we have used the waterfall inside Khron and the ice cave in the Natural History museum. We are looking for things like long narrow hallway corridors with weird shaped windows, or rooms/bathrooms that are entirely one color (floor, ceiling, furniture, etc), sculpture/installations inside buildings..ornate hallways/rooms, spaces that have a retro/period feel (intentional or maybe jsut because they havent updated furniture in 40 years).. The way we have the film set up is elevator doors opening, and each time the elevator opens you're in a new scene/or on a "new floor". So with Krohn for example, the elevator doors open in our movie, and then all you can see is this waterfall that fills the entire frame. Then we walk up to it, go around the little path that goes into the structure of the waterfall and everything is dark. Then we go to a clip inside of the "ice cave" at Museum Center and its dark so it seems like you're still in the waterfall, but then we exit through the cave and you see the blue glowing cave. So we're looking for spaces that somewhat connect..like maybe a hallway that is entirely red, with a door at the end of the hallway. So we film the hallway, and then we cut to a scene of another room in another building that is also just one color. Anyway, I thought I'd post here to see if anyone know of interesting/different spaces in office buildings downtown/hotels/anywhere. I can post a link to the film when we finish :)

I don't know if this is the right thread for this...but I filmed in the old abandoned Crosley building in Camp Washington for a school project a couple weekends ago. I'm studying Urban Planning in DAAP and I'm in an elective studio called Cinema & The City.. Heres a link to the project, its about a minute and a half long. The assignment was to abstract the space, but you still get a feel for what the building is like.

I have to be honest - Liberty St. is the easiest place for me to find free, always available, on-street parking near my apartment. But I would gladly give up my parking to have the street narrowed. Right now Liberty is such a barrier (edge?), I'd love to have a narrow street and infill development. Infill on Liberty would help connect everything south of Liberty with everything north of it. Also: No matter what time of day, or how fast/slow I drive..if I am traveling east or west on Liberty by bicycle or car...I hit every single light at every single intersection. I don't know if it's poor timing (driving from downtown to OTR up Main St or whatever, I can hit a million green lights), or if my timing is off...but I have never been able to travel Liberty without hitting at light. Maybe better light timing could mean less congestion, and there wouldn't need to be so many travel lanes?

I think that's a really good way of looking at it. If developers don't come and renovate 100+ year old buildings now, the buildings could decay within the next 100 years and be gone forever. On the other side of the coin, people will be pushed out, no doubt. It's happened to friends of mine who moved to OTR just a few years ago, when rents were cheaper. Of course it will happen to long time residents too.

Where does one find a comprehensive list of all the empty buildings? I have no idea, so I did a quick search of "for sale" multi family buildings in the 45202 zip code. Of 463 listings (vacant land, multi family buildings, SF buildings, condos, etc), only 57 are multi family, and this was all of 45202 not just OTR. If each building had 10 units, and each unit housed 5 people, thats room for 2,850 people. I always hear the "400 vacant buildings in OTR" but I wish I could find accurate numbers.

I think I want to do mine on gentrification in OTR in general...and what happens all the people who get pushed out of the neighborhood.

There is a Staples where Reading Rd meets Liberty! (471 entrance from Liberty)

The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure a similar plan was proposed when the Union Center exit was built on I-75. I'm an urban planning student at UC, currently on co-op. Today at work I was looking at project sheets for projects my employer has done, and saw a really great plan for a downtown/town center infill for West Chester. It was supposed to be mixed use, apartments, commercial, etc at "the new I-75 interchange". I graduated from Lakota and lived in West Chester 98' - 2003, and even though there is a lot at the Union Center exit that wasn't there in 2003, it looks like what was built is waaaaaay different than the mixed use center that was proposed. Anyhow I guess my point is, I hope whatever is proposed for the new 1-75 exit will actually more 'urban' than suburban.

<<Lois Parker, manager of Grammer's, said the next step is a beer garden, expected to open at Grammer's this summer. That should generate the revenue to get the kitchen running full steam.>> I love outdoor drinking/dining, and I live only a block away from Grammer's. This would be absolutely wonderful for me, but I have heard Grammer's is pretty expensive - can anyone confirm? I'm a student on a budget (partially why I moved to OTR...), it would be great to hear the place is affordable.

I went out to see the damage today and took some photos. The first two are from the Walgreens parking lot, the second two are from Inwood Park. Sorry they are so big/the quality is crappy. I dont really know how to use a camera/my camera isnt that great. <img src="http://i28.tinypic.com/bgd1er.jpg"> <img src="http://i27.tinypic.com/opo19f.jpg"> <img src="http://i31.tinypic.com/2cmndch.jpg"> <img src="http://i28.tinypic.com/300bj89.jpg">

My first thought was: TGI Friday, or Applebees? <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/2236268192_b98947afc5.jpg?v=0"> A photo I took after the fire was put out :-(

I forwarded your email on to just about every dean for every college at the University of Cincinnati. I asked them to forward it on to their respective listservs...I have no idea how successful it has been, but I'm hoping some new people get intrigued by it and show up. As of right now, I have yet to receive an e-mail about the open house tonight from anyone in DAAP. All the 2nd year urban planners have a class tonight from 5:00 - 5:50, I'm going to try and get someone to drive me and some of my classmates down there after class!

I'm out walking quite a bit! Even if it's just down to Kaldi's and back, or one of the corner stores, or to friends places over on Jackson, or waiting for the bus. I would be out even more if there were places for me to go too. Some of the businesses aren't open all the time though, and sometimes I feel like a nusiance for just browsing and not buying at the antique store or the vintage poster place, etc. I used to jog down Main and around downtown, but that got old really fast because it's been so hot and smoggy this summer. Maybe when the real fall weather comes and the new bars on Main are open, I will be out more!

I agree. When I was young, I used to drive down to Short Vine and see shows at Bogart's & Top Cats, shop at Scentiments Rock City, get coffee over at The Buzz, and I remember buying cds at various shops on the street. This was probably 2000 or so. By the time I transferred to UC for school, which was January 06', it had already reallllly gone done hill. All the places I used to shop were closed forever or had moved to Northside (Scentiments Rock City). In September 06' I moved over to Short Vine (cheap rent), and the general atmosphere got worse in my time living there. It got to the point where I couldn't keep my windows open at night because of the noise, and I was calling the police when I'd look at my window and see fights breaking out just so I could sleep. My landlord was also basically a slumlord, and another building on the street was ordered to be vacated by the city. I moved as soon as feasibly possible.

I'm excited about this! Especially since I live on Main 8-)

David Byrne's "True Stories"!!! Imagine a sparsely populated dot on the map amidst farms and cornfields. But then the farmland turns into subdivisons, a shopping mall pops up...and meanwhile the town is trying to celebrate the state's sesquicentennial with a "Celebration of Specialness". But you have to wonder, what really is special about this place, what makes it different than any other slice of suburban sprawl around the country? Now imagine that chilling tale told as a comedy set to the music of The Talking Heads, complete with dance routines! I wish I could convince one of my professors to show this film in one of my urban planning classes...

The bus didn't come at all, or you got on and then the bus literally couldn't climb the hill? With all the construction going up W. Clifton Ave, riding the 17 lately has been scary.

I third a Mexican grocery :clap: That would be wonderful!

What brought you to Frisco? Are you familiar with the DFW area? I moved to a neighboring mega sprawl suburb of Frisco called Plano in December of 2003. I was 17 and lived there for about 9 months, until I went off to college. The suburbs north of Dallas are the epitome of sprawl. Frisco is basically just a newer Plano and your estimate of it being about 5 years old is pretty accurate. In 2000 Frisco's population was 33,000 and a 2006 census population estimate for the city is 88,000. As for Plano, In 1980 the population was 72,000, in 1990 it was 128,000 and the 2006 census estimate has the population at 266,000. Contrast that with Mason, which had a 2000 census propulation of 22,000 and West Chester (45069) at 43,000.

I'm a student at UC, and I seem to remember hearing about the mounds during my first campus tour or something like that. I heard UC gets more funding from the state of Ohio based on the square footage of the campus, and so building the mounds ads more surface area. This may just be one of those campus legends though. Funny nevertheless.

I have a huge map a friend of mine gave me, UC's urban renewal plan from the 1960s. The map shows all the parcels surrounding campus, and the buildings on them, back when Bishop St. was the western border of campus and it extended all the way to McMillan and MLK was called St. Clair. The map has certain parcels bolded, designating "to be acquired". I also came across a book the other day called Cincinnati Steeples, Streets and Steps, from the 1960s. It's a collection of sketches from around Cincinnati and there are a couple of what the artist describes as "pitcheresque streets" around the UC campus. One example is Crofton Drive, "a small byway running off West St. Clair near Jefferson Avenue. It is a suburban alley that is unexpectedly picturesque as, warmed by sunlight, the high stone walls, twisting steps and abundant trees throw shadows across the narrow lane." Looking at a map, that street was probably razed for the EPA. It just makes me so sick to think of all that was lost. I wish I could at least see photos of what everything looked like back then.

Ooh, I thought Don's Crankshaft used to be on Liberty, and it was torn down, and now only old signs are present. I didn't know there was something else entirely on Liberty. I've only been in Cincy for about a year and a half, and am new to OTR. I still wish there would be infill in that space on Liberty, instead of another surface lot. The backs of all the buildings visible from that lot are in pretty poor shape and make the buildings/neighborhood look uncared for. Plus there is already a ton of surface parking in that area. If people in the new apartments across the street, I wish they could park in the lot on the southwest corner of Liberty & Main. I never see any cars there ever. As for the Shell station, I wonder how it could be improved. I don't think I've ever seen a gas station that I cared for. Shell does blare loud classical music though. I heard from a couple friends businesses on Short Vine used to do that to deter people from loitering.

Does anyone know whats up with the eyesore to the east of the Freestore Foodbank, with the Don's Crank Shaft signs? I see portable toilets on the lot, I'm guessing for the people who are doing rehab work in the building next door. Infill would be nice. I hope the parcels don't end up as more surface parking.

Yes I did find the forum from the facebook group :wave: Thanks so much for posting the links, I didn't even know this forum existed! I'm pretty stoked to see the project progress. I'll visit this forum often. (...I hope I did the quotes corretly)