BlackBengal

Apples and oranges. You are comparing the interior space of Ford Field and Lucus Oil (both domes) to PBS, which is an open air stadium. The concourses in a dome are fully enclosed and finished. Open air concourses are essentially exposed to the elements. They are always going to look more stark. If you go to other new open air stadiums in the NFL, their concourses look more like PBS than like the pictures you posted. I have been to Cleveland, NY and Denver's new stadiums and they are much more like PBS. PBS could do a little more to upgrade the concourses, but there isn't anything terribly wrong with the way they are now. They are more or less in line with what you will find at other open air stadiums of the same vintage.

This is not correct. MLB stadiums face a variety of directions and MLB does not prohibit any particular orientation. Personally, I would have designed GABP so the batter faces Mt. Adams. Imagine a night game in which the view beyond the outfield wall was of Mt. Adams and the Immaculata lit up high above the stadium.

That is what downtown looked like back then. I have very fond memories of going downtown with my parents in the very early 80s and every block looked like that. That was when a small retail store could survive. There were little music stores, electronics stores, clothing stores, etc. Now all that business goes to Target, Walmart, iTunes, and internet retailers.

I have been to the Yard House in Vegas in the Red Rocks Casino. Red Rocks is a very nice casino in the Vegas burbs that is frequented by mostly locals. The Yard House is connected to the casino, but mostly is accessed from the street. Very nice place. Great beer selection and pretty good food. The place was packed with after-work people on a week night.

I finally had the chance to check out Washington Park today over lunch. It exceeded my very high expectations. The quality of the work is impressive. Just a beautiful place.

I love me some Mark Mallory http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/10/mallory-says-hes-lobbying-dc-officials-to-nix-chabots-streetcar-provision/

So they are protesting the fact that Washington Park will no longer be crowded with addicts drinking Mad Dog out of paper bags at 11 am on a Monday morning?

Totally disagree. WSG was a great restaurant. Food was very good and well priced. I never went there for dinner because it was such a great lunch place that I was there once a week for lunch. When I was DT for dinner I would go to places that I didn't frequent for lunch. Very sad to see WSG close.

The problem with kiddie restaurants like this is that 1) they don't sell a lot of alcohol, which is a huge money-maker for restaurants; 2) when kids are in school, which is a lot, they are dead; and 3) at night when all of the other restuarants are packed with people eating and drinking they are dead. The fact that the build-out is 3-4 times as expensive as other same-sized restuarants and it probably requires about double the staff to maintain the robots, and ice caves and fish tanks, etc. makes these problems even more difficult to overcome. There is no way that this concept would be successful at the Banks. I doubt this concept is profitable anywhere. And to rant a little; I am a parent of two young kids and I would never take them to a place like this. Its over-indulgent. There is no reason a family can't have a great time at a "normal" restaurant like the Lager House. They don't need robot dinosaurs screaming at them while they eat their grilled cheese.

Is there another newspaper in the country that has an agenda of undermining its home city? F*** the Enquirer.

There are plenty of vibrant cities with plentiful parking. Seattle, Denver, Portland, to name just a few. Parking in Chicago is not difficult or terribly expensive. Come to think of it, the only American cities that I would consider to be a pain to park in are NY, San Fran and Boston. This idea that having cheap parking is a bad thing is misguided. There are great cities (NY, San Fran) where parking is terrible, but terrible parking isn't the reason that they are great cities.

Are there any details about the theater? Number of screens? IMAX? Alcohol served? etc. I live in that area and the theater is the only aspect of the project that I am looking forward to. We really need movie theater in this area.

Construction begins in late-June http://cincinnati.com/blogs/developingnow/2012/05/29/mercer-commons-construction-to-begin/

Is the point of the Kennedy connector to reduce traffic congestion on Ridge?

Or your Montgomery Inn?

Is there still going o be a movie theater at Oakley Millworks?

Sounds amazing. I hope it happens.

What would prevent 3CDC from being the developer on the residential portion of the project?

Well you can't expect the Enquirer to bump the story about whether kids should learn about beer steins in school from the front page in favor of the streetcar ground breaking. That would be silly.

This would be great. The Covington shoreline is an eyesore. It wouldnt take much to really improve it. Just put some retaining walls and city parks at the waters edge and the riverfront would look very nice. It is strange that this hasnt been done yet considering the nice properties on Riverside Dr. in Covington.

Unfortunately, this project doesnt make much sense. The main problem in my mind is that the rail doesnt cross many densely populated areas or areas that could reasnably be developed around a rail station. The one exception is the Delta/Eastern Ave. intersection. That station would totally work. But stations along Riverside drive would access an area that is constrained from development by the steepness of the valley leading up to Columbia Parkway. Stations near Lunken and Beechmont Levy get close to big population centers in Mt. Lookout and Anderson, but not close enough to imagine anyone walking from those areas to a station.

Good news all around. I personally thought the design looked fine as originally presented, but it looks like this will be a change for the better. It's been a good month for OTR with the election (and it's implication for the streetcar) and the approval of Mercer.

Denied by the Conservation Board, but they don't need the Board's approval. I hope they just ignore this silly Board and start construction. It's those thoughts that would enable Greenhills to outright flatten the Gamble House, to allow for the continued demolition of OTR - which is teetering on 50% wholesale demolition of its historic stock that threaten its National Historic District designation. There is room for compromise, and we understand that, but we want to try and preserve what's left of the Italianate building stock. The disagreement between 3CDC and the Conservation Board has to do with the design of new construction, not with the demolition or renovation of the historic buildings on site. How does the construction of a modern building hinder the preservation of the Italianate building stock?

Denied by the Conservation Board, but they don't need the Board's approval. I hope they just ignore this silly Board and start construction.

In my opinion, modern buildings look great in the middle of historic neighborhoods. It give the sense that although the neighborhood is old and preserved that it isnt stale. That it is progressive. The Vine St. building would have been a nice addition. I hope they don't throw up some brick crap to satisfy the board.