RiverViewer

Seems to me like using that lot for a residence is a hell of a lot more inappropriate than using it for a Valvoline or a car wash. That's some major traffic rolling through there, and there's a frickin' gas station across the street, and as many joggers as you see in Hyde Park, you don't see them jogging along there in retail/traffic central. When you're sitting right next to 30 acres of surface parking lots, claims that residential is the only appropriate use ring just a little hollow. That said, I would much rather see some other type of business in that spot...I don't imagine a foot-traffic business would do very well there, since it's just so right on top of crazy-intersection traffic - but still, a car wash would stick out in that spot... Say, regarding this: Haven't I seen them selling christmas trees in that spot in years past? Anyone else remember the enormous spike in rear-endings that gets reported around this time of year in Hyde Park? Anyone? Beuller?

We went with friends to dinner at Nicola's tonight, and as we pulled onto Liberty after we left, we wondered why there were a ton of cops in the rear-view mirror...turns out an undercover cop was shot, or shot at, not long ago: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051202/NEWS01/312020028 Police officer hurt in OTR shooting A Cincinnati police officer was injured Friday night after a man opened fire on the officer’s unmarked car in Over-the-Rhine. The officer, who was not identified, was taken to University Hospital. It was unclear if he was injured by a bullet or flying glass, Lt. Bruce Hoffbauer said. His injuries were non-life-threatening, police said. Hoffbauer said two male undercover officers and a female officer in the unmarked car had observed the suspect carrying a gun near the corner of Race and Green streets shortly before 10 p.m. The man fired five or six shots at the officers, and a male officer in the car returned fire. Hoffbauer said the suspect might have been wounded, but did not know how many shots officers fired. Dozens of uniformed and undercover officers swarmed the area, shutting down streets and going house to house looking for the suspect, who was described as a black male wearing a leather jacket, dark pants and carrying a dark handgun. SWAT officers were concentrating on the area of Pleasant and West Liberty streets.

Let's hope they notice all the tall trees obstructing the view off most of the Ida Street Bridge...very cool...

That shot from the '37 flood is amazing...just hard to imagine water that high...

Let 'em in...I'd like to see the borders defended, but a very open immigration policy. If I were king, I'd seal the borders, grant a complete amnesty to all the illegals here today, and then make it much easier to come here.

Aargh...pretty much impossible to do without checkboxes, at which point I'd check every box, from filthy commie hippie to jackbooted fascist, depending on the issue: Super-far left on free speech, FCC regulations, gay rights, immigration Moderate left on social security, welfare, social justice Moderate right on the economy, tax cuts, free trade Way right on the war in Iraq and the war on terror (though for highly lefty reasons...but that's a different discussion) A jackbooted fascist on crime and punishment Makes national elections arduous for me these days...

I can look around for the data...if it's handy, it isn't too hard to put together. If you know of a link, post it, and I'll play with it tomorrow or over the weekend...going to bed now, though!

You can see definitely the top of it westbound on 50, but I haven't picked it out eastbound on 50 yet because of Twain's Point... Are there any plans to light it up at night? That would look pretty cool...

Apropos of nothing, I wanted to figure out when we had the largest number of living presidents. I probably could have found this list somewhere, but tinkered around and assembled it myself. It shows the total number of presidents, the date range for that set of presidents, and the presidents. Largest number living at a time was 6, which we've had three times - first in 1861, from Lincoln's inauguration until John Tyler died (in January 1862), then not again until 1993, from Clinton's inauguration until Nixon's death (in April 1994), and then in 2001, from Bush's election until Reagan's death (in June 2004). And the fewest presidents - we've had only one living president (meaning only the current president, no former presidents still alive) six different times - Washington, John Adams, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Hoover and Nixon. To keep things straight, I assumed all presidential transfers happened at midnight - for example, even though Kennedy died 11/22, I don't count LBJ's term as starting until 11/23. Presidents Begin End Presidents 1 03/04/1789 03/03/1797 Washington 2 03/04/1797 12/14/1799 Washington, J. Adams 1 12/15/1799 03/03/1801 J. Adams 2 03/04/1801 03/03/1809 J. Adams, Jefferson 3 03/04/1809 03/03/1817 J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison 4 03/04/1817 03/03/1825 J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe 5 03/04/1825 07/04/1826 J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams 3 07/05/1826 03/03/1829 Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams 4 03/04/1829 07/04/1831 Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson 3 07/05/1831 06/28/1836 Madison, J. Q. Adams, Jackson 2 06/29/1836 03/03/1837 J. Q. Adams, Jackson 3 03/04/1837 03/03/1841 J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren 4 03/04/1841 04/04/1841 J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, W. H. Harrison 4 04/05/1841 03/03/1845 J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler 5 03/04/1845 06/08/1845 J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, Polk 4 06/09/1845 02/23/1848 J. Q. Adams, Van Buren, Tyler, Polk 3 02/24/1848 03/03/1849 Van Buren, Tyler, Polk 4 03/04/1849 06/15/1849 Van Buren, Tyler, Polk, Taylor 3 06/16/1849 07/09/1850 Van Buren, Tyler, Taylor 3 07/10/1850 03/03/1853 Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore 4 03/04/1853 03/03/1857 Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce 5 03/04/1857 03/03/1861 Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan 6 03/04/1861 01/18/1862 Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln 5 01/19/1862 07/24/1862 Van Buren, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln 4 07/25/1862 04/15/1865 Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln 4 04/16/1865 06/01/1868 Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, A. Johnson 3 06/02/1868 03/03/1869 Fillmore, Pierce, A. Johnson 4 03/04/1869 10/08/1869 Fillmore, Pierce, A. Johnson, Grant 3 10/09/1869 03/08/1874 Fillmore, A. Johnson, Grant 2 03/09/1874 07/31/1875 A. Johnson, Grant 1 08/01/1875 03/03/1877 Grant 2 03/04/1877 03/03/1881 Grant, Hayes 3 03/04/1881 09/19/1881 Grant, Hayes, Garfield 3 09/20/1881 03/03/1885 Grant, Hayes, Arthur 4 03/04/1885 07/23/1885 Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland 3 07/24/1885 11/18/1886 Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland 2 11/19/1886 03/03/1889 Hayes, Cleveland 3 03/04/1889 01/17/1893 Hayes, Cleveland, B. Harrison 2 01/18/1893 03/03/1897 Cleveland, B. Harrison 3 03/04/1897 03/13/1901 Cleveland, B. Harrison, McKinley 2 03/14/1901 09/14/1901 Cleveland, McKinley 2 09/15/1901 06/24/1908 Cleveland, T. Roosevelt 1 06/25/1908 03/03/1909 T. Roosevelt 2 03/04/1909 03/03/1913 T. Roosevelt, Taft 3 03/04/1913 01/06/1919 T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson 2 01/07/1919 03/03/1921 Taft, Wilson 3 03/04/1921 03/03/1923 Taft, Wilson, Harding 4 03/04/1923 08/02/1923 Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge 3 08/03/1923 02/03/1924 Taft, Wilson, Coolidge 2 02/04/1924 03/03/1929 Taft, Coolidge 3 03/04/1929 03/08/1930 Taft, Coolidge, Hoover 2 03/09/1930 01/05/1933 Coolidge, Hoover 1 01/06/1933 03/03/1933 Hoover 2 03/04/1933 04/12/1945 Hoover, F. D. Roosevelt 2 04/13/1945 01/19/1953 Hoover, Truman 3 01/20/1953 01/19/1961 Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower 4 01/20/1961 11/22/1963 Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy 4 11/23/1963 10/20/1964 Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, L. B. Johnson 3 10/21/1964 01/19/1969 Truman, Eisenhower, L. B. Johnson 4 01/20/1969 03/28/1969 Truman, Eisenhower, L. B. Johnson, Nixon 3 03/29/1969 12/26/1972 Truman, L. B. Johnson, Nixon 2 12/27/1972 01/22/1973 L. B. Johnson, Nixon 1 01/23/1973 08/09/1974 Nixon 2 08/10/1974 01/19/1977 Nixon, Ford 3 01/20/1977 01/19/1981 Nixon, Ford, Carter 4 01/20/1981 01/19/1989 Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan 5 01/20/1989 01/19/1993 Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush 6 01/20/1993 04/22/1994 Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton 5 04/23/1994 01/19/2001 Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton 6 01/20/2001 06/05/2004 Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G. W. Bush 5 06/06/2004 11/25/2005 Ford, Carter, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G. W. Bush

I put together the population data with the homocides by neighborhood...it really moves Avondale down the list, since it's such a large population, and moves some small populations up a good ways. Population data from 2000... Neighborhood Population Homocides H/1K Pop Over-The-Rhine 7,638 10 1.31 Fay Apartments 2,453 3 1.22 Walnut Hills 7,790 9 1.16 Sedamsville-Riverside 2,223 2 0.90 Camp Washington 1,506 1 0.66 Mt Adams 1,514 1 0.66 CBD-Riverfront 3,189 2 0.63 West End 8,115 5 0.62 Avondale 16,298 10 0.61 Bond Hill 9,682 5 0.52 South Cumminsville-Millvale 3,914 2 0.51 Mt Auburn 6,516 3 0.46 Winton Place 2,337 1 0.43 Evanston 7,928 3 0.38 Kennedy Heights 5,296 2 0.38 Northside 9,389 3 0.32 South Fairmount 3,251 1 0.31 Winton Hills 5,204 1 0.19 College Hill 15,269 2 0.13 West Price Hill 17,115 2 0.12 East Price Hill 17,964 2 0.11 Westwood 35,730 3 0.08 Hyde Park 13,640 1 0.07

Most Catholic churches will give a discount for parishoners, which means church attendance, but not necessarily regular contributions. They may ask you to drop your envelope in the basket, just to maintain records that you're there every week, but they couldn't care less if there's nothing in it because you can't afford it. I know that was the explicit policy of one church I worked at for a year or so, and from everything I've heard while "on the inside," I've never heard of a place where that wasn't the case. Other parishoners are happy to pick up the slack by subsidizing tuition (or other churches in better-off neighborhoods are), as long as folks are following through on their end by going to church.

Aaargh...hopefully a real developer will get involved in this at some point. To be unable to make this project work, when you're right in the shadow of Christ Hospital, with UC a walk away and downtown a (longish) walk away, and the neighborhood a pretty tight, self-contained little area - I mean, this is such an opportunity, and these folks are just wasting time while buildings decay. Aaargh!

PigBoy and I were having an off-topic discussion on this in this thread...some links to the 1980 court case between Ohio and Kentucky, then later to the 1991 case between Indiana and Kentucky...it's actually the 1792 low water mark (based on the premise that Virginia ceded all the lands "north of the Ohio," I guess to the Western Reserve, back in the day...since there was land north of the Ohio going all the way down to the low-water mark, that resulted in the wacky boundary definition.

Yeah, for Christ's sake, I just want to be on top of a fucking bridge - I can wear a goddamn costume at home.

I went googling for a story on the Riverview on Hackberry, and ran across this press release from last February that CMHA is installing a MESH system in for controlling its doors - nifty touch-screen, voice prompts, security imaging, etc., etc. I don't know anything about entry systems, but it appears that CMHA is embracing high-tech on this. Also ran across this interesting story from 1999 about how bad living conditions were in CMHA properties...I wonder if things have turned around? Are there still problems at the Riverview with "living conditions, security, poor management and drug use"?

A super-quick response from the principal, Melody Dacey: Thank you for your nice message and interest in our school--after all, it is your school too!! We have been discussing tours with our construction manager. There are all kinds of requirements, both city, and insurance, to be met before folks other than staff may be admitted for tours. We are very excited however, to have just received notice that our official ceremony will be the morning of January 12th, and that evening, we will have an open house for everyone. I certainly hope you will come and I will get to talk with you. Please stay in touch!! Woo hoo! I'm definitely planning on going to that...Grasscat, are you in?

I'm emailing Riverview to ask them, and will report back! Oh, and I ran across these pictures on the school's website, including interiors. The colors in the hallway kind of freak me out a little...don't know if I could deal with seeing that every damn morning...

Have you heard of any Open Houses for any of these? I'd love to see Riverview...

Ah...sorry, I'm slow.

^I have absolutely no idea what that means.

Ach, if I had any willpower, that would probably be a fantastic idea. But there's no way I'd ever actually use the bike without the payoff of views and feeling like I was moving somewhere...I've always been able to do physical labor all day long, but never able to sit in a room and lift weights or run a treadmill or anything like that...no willpower...

Hmmm...I think I'm a little tall, would have to get that rear height adjusted... Actually, I picked out the model I want - it's a comfort bike (I'm way into comfort), with wider tires, seat suspension and tire suspension, eight gears, etc...I forget what it's called but it's around $280 or so...so right now I'm just setting money aside, and I'll probably buy it before too much longer...of course, I don't know if it's wisest to decide to take up bicycling just as the weather starts to get cold...not a whole lot of encouragement...but probably better now than putting it off, and putting it off...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for another in-depth update...these things rock out! I can't believe that driveway still has access to Columbia Parkway. I get nervous sitting in the left-hand turn lane to turn onto Kemper - I can't imagine trying to turn left into that driveway from the high speed lane! And making a right-hand turn involves a super-sharp turn - you definitely cannot do that at speed, you'd have to be nearly stopped...I just don't see how a judge can decide that such a dangerous situation is preferable...

You to ColDay: That's not true. "Most" have not come since 1990 - as of 2000, less than 25% of them had come since 1990. You say his argument would work if the population was "sizable" in 1980, and best I can determine (see above posts), the 1980 population was probably about 2/3rds the size of the 2000 population. That's plenty to be explained by agricultural immigration followed by chain immigration and natural population growth over 20 years - sounds to me like you're right, ColDay's argument works. If you've got numbers disproving that (which is certainly possible - I don't have a Toledo MSA number for 1980, just a best inference from state growth, and a solid number for 1990), I'm all ears. Look, people move for economic opportunity. Once there, in an established community, they become a part of the community, even community leaders. None of that is surprising, we've seen it all throughout our history, in every state and every city since the 1600's. But asserting that Latinos came to Toledo since 1990, and for reasons of political acceptance - well, that's an interesting theory, but you've gotta give me something more than bald assertions to be convincing, that's all I'm saying. And when your numbers are wrong, or at the very least suspect and unsupported (they've doubled in 10 years...they've mostly come since 1990...), you can't be surprised when I ask you to support your argument with something other than your assertions. ...especially when you assert things like this: Lorain County blows Lucas County out of the water for Hispanic population. In fact, as of the 2000 census, there were actually slightly more Latinos in Lorain County (20,308) than there were in Lucas County (20,279), despite the fact that Lorain County only has 2/3rds as many people as Lucas County (294K vs. 450K). Really, it sounds like you don't know what you're talking about, but you keep on talking. Please, I'm not looking for much here, I'm just looking for some facts to back up your assertions, that's all. Maybe show me how Toledo was more accepting during the primary time of Hispanic immigration. Maybe show me why the immigration can't be explained by economic factors. Maybe show me how "there are Latino's in power today" had any effect on immigration in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Or maybe show me any reason to believe that you don't first build an ethnic community, which then gains acceptance and eventually produces leaders; but rather, that you can create an atmosphere of acceptance first, make a few leaders second, and then attract the community. Anything, please, help me out here...

Dude, come on already. You said Cincinnati is hostile to diversity; since your argument has been that Latinos move to politically welcoming environments, I took it to mean you thought Cincinnati was less diverse, which we both agree is not the case. Piling up evidence of its supposed hostility to diversity is a bit beside the point. So, would you care to address the other, unambiguously false assertions you've made? You've dodged them at least twice now...