RiverViewer

That is the lower wall of the old double-reservoir at Eden Park: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.112073,-84.493275&spn=0.00467,0.007113&t=h&z=17 It's the wall holding back the water in this picture:

I only have one word: definitive. This is the most all-encompassing Cincinnati thread I can remember! And then when you went from the Basilica to Columbia Tusculum, I just thought, "show-off." Then after hitting so many spots, I was thinking, "what the hell hasn't he hit? Well, the Museum Center, and Northside..." Keep scrolling - ah, there's Northside...aaaaaaand there's the Museum Center! Fantastic pictures, and just a comprehensive tour...thank you so much for posting this!

Holy crap! What fantastic pictures! You have details here I hadn't ever really looked at before - the place where all the cables enter the columns, for one thing - that's just fantastic stuff! I love this bridge...

Fantastic! I love this kind of thing...I do have one question, though: I mapped out the route of the Mill Creek between Mitchell and Mill Creek Road here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2653283 ...and I only come up with 2.4 miles...any idea where the 3.4 mile figure come from? That's a pretty big disparity...maybe it's a typo in the story?

^THAT is funny...

I live in Walnut Hills, so I'm curious if you remember which street you were on? I'm guessing it was said in an intimidating way? Or was it really that you looked confused, and he was helping you find the right street or something? I hate hearing my 'hood wasn't welcoming to you!

Very funny stuff!

It's amazing how the strawmen start falling when we veer off-topic...

^THAT is some funny stuff...

But it's not the exact same service - cashing a $300 check at a bank where you've got $500 on deposit is a VERY different service from cashing a $300 check at a corner store where you've got nothing but your promise and the paycheck for a job you may have just lost. If a rich guy walks into a payday loan place, he'll pay the same thing a poor guy pays; and if a poor guy goes into a bank, he'll get Totally Free Checking like anyone else. I know, because I've been plenty poor, no job, new in town, and I walked into a bank and got Totally Free Checking. Only had $50 to open the account. The interest rate on my credit cards is pretty much the same today as it was when I made $6/hour, 30 hours/week. And I don't think you break this cycle by eliminate financial options for the poor. As I said, folks will always need short-term loans to pay the rent or a car loan or buy groceries until the next paycheck comes in. Used to be they could go to a payday loan place, pay a $20 fee, and get $150 or $200 for a week - now they can't. Now they'll hock their stuff at a pawn shop, they'll pay a $40 late fee to their landlord, they'll bounce a check, or they'll ask a favor of the guy in the neighborhood who always has money... Hey, I'm right there with you. Let's fight poverty, let's encourage businesses to open, let's patronize them, let's build good public transit, quality schools, etc., etc. But let's not just make ourselves feel better by cutting off options for actual poor folks.

If these were 300% loans, I'd agree with you, eliminate them. But they're not - did you actually read what I wrote above? It sounds really nice to say we should get them the same loan terms others get - but high risk loans require higher interest and fees - if six loans out of every hundred go bad, you've gotta charge 6% above the going rate simply to break even. It's really just simple math, and wishing it were different doesn't change it. Hell, I've got A+ credit, and I still paid something like 11.9% APR on a signature loan I took out to buy a car for a friend a few years ago - the car was too old for a bank to accept as collateral, so it was that or self-finance. That's twice the rate my mortgage is at, and far higher than my HELOC, but it's unsecured. I wish high risk folks weren't high risk, I really do - but it's almost definitional here - we can't just mandate that they be more reliable at paying back their debts...

I subscribed to the podcast, and friggin' LOVE IT! Fantastic stuff...listened to the most recent show first (the 12:00 one, which despite its short length did give me a good recap and update of current projects and issues), and then started back with the January shows, working my way forward. You do a great job hosting, and Jake and Randy are both fantastic guests...I'll give more feedback as I listen to more episodes, but yeah, this is some great stuff!

Your memory serves you quite well, as always! From Wikipedia's entry on the Seneca Nation's land claims: Construction of the Kinzua Dam forced the relocation of the Seneca from 10,000 acres of land that they had occupied under the Treaty of 1794. They were relocated to Salamanca, New York, on the northern shores of land flooded by the dam. Dam construction was approved by President John F. Kennedy in 1960 after he was elected, breaking a campaign promise to the Senecas. The Seneca commenced an action to reclaim land that allegedly was taken from it without the approval of the United States on August 25, 1993, in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. The lands consisted of several islands. In November 1993, the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians moved to join the claim as a plaintiff which was ultimately granted. In 1998, the United States intervened in the lawsuits on behalf of the plaintiffs in the claim in order for the claim to proceed against New York in light of its assertion of it immunity from suit under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. After extensive negotiations and pre-trial procedures all parties to the claim moved for judgment as a matter of law. By decision and order dated June 21, 2002, the trial court held that the subject lands were ceded to Great Britain in the 1764 treaties of peace and that the subject lands were not owned by the Seneca at the time of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua and that New York's "purchase" of them in 1815 was intended to avoid conflict with the Senecas over land it already owned. This decision was appealed and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the trial court's decision on September 9, 2004. The Senecas then sought review of this decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which was denied on June 5, 2006.

Crappy cell phone picture of my first crocus of the year, from this morning!

What a great picture! Those blues are so stunning!

This is my first, so I can answer that question in probably five or ten years!

As you might guess, I love it! But that doesn't mean it's a good idea!

What a great thread...lending a great photographic eye to a pressing issue - go Rob! Hope you opened some eyes at the meeting!

Ooo - yes. That is truly impressive...largest stained glass window in the hemisphere, if I remember correctly? Gorgeous...

Yeah, using Kenwood for that doesn't weird me out either. I mean, I'd prefer "Whetsel Towers" or "The Views Of Madisonville," but nothing wrong with Kenwood to my mind.

I would very much echo the Key's Crescent thing - it's easy to find, right off Madison to the south, and it's a little loop - if you miss it, just turn in at the next street! And on the back side of the street is a friggin' castle, which you can easily see from the street. Just park on Madison and walk the little loop...very, very impressive place.

I have a friend who's doing it - he doesn't work in a shop anymore, but he's got all the gear, the sterilizer, the ink, etc. Just a private thing...in fact, I probably wouldn't have gotten it otherwise - part of why it's so cool is that it's my friend doing it, and his wife's design. I'd thought about it for years, but then when I enlisted in the Army, that pushed it over the top for me - seemed like EVERYBODY had a tattoo, and any fringiness I'd associated with them went completely out the window...in fact, I'd wanted to put this one on my forearm, but my wife vetoed that.

The fact is, you cannot simply legislate away the need for folks to get short-term bridge loans. Folks have always needed short-term bridge loans, and it will be interesting to see where this need ends up getting met. For many folks, I imagine it will be credit cards (where you'll pay a cash advance fee probably higher than the one the payday loan guys charged, plus 21%+ interest on it, with no incentive to pay it off right away - at least the payday loan can't float for years (there are already laws restricting rolling them over)); for others who don't have access to collateral-free credit, it will be pawn shops, where they'll have to put up their personal possessions at a tremendous discount (quick quiz: what's the APR on a $300 TV that gets hawked after 10 days for a $150 loan?); and others will go where the money is - organized criminals, local loan sharks, etc., where they'll pay in interest and possibly services. Oh, and others will just pay the late fee to their landlord (another quiz: what's the APR difference between the 10% late fee on your $450 rent and the $20 fee on the payday advance loan?). I wish folks never needed short-term bridge loans, and I'm happy that when I did, I had friends with money who could help me out...unfortunately, legislation won't get rid of the need, nor provide friends with money...it seems to me that all this law does is it eliminates another option for those on the margins already.

I was never a race runner (hell, I was never an anything runner), so my first race was this past Thanksgiving Day 10K here in Cincinnati, and there were between 10K and 15K people - with that initial massive bolus of humanity, our first mile was 10:20, while our last mile was 8:15...

Does this make me the biggest friggin' dork on the planet? It's not done yet - a little more white in the water, some highlights - but this is the idea... Who else out there has a tattoo?