RiverViewer

We can't all be "Sweet & Innocent" like you!

My point was (intended to be) that I can favor jailing criminals without believing crime is caused by "genetics or social or cultural depravity" - I'm sure I didn't put it clearly enough, since I was obviously kinda pissed at the guy's implication, but that was what I was trying to say...so yeah, even if the guy booked on murder or rape doesn't walk, I still don't want the guy booked on assault or breaking and entering to walk either, and it's not because I think crime is genetic or some other ignorant nonsense. It's because I think people who beat other people up or who steal from them ought to go to frickin' prison...

Ooo - the 490 skyline shot! That was one of the first skyline views I ever really dug! When I'd take 71 S out of town, I'd normally take 77 to 490 to 71, just to spend a little time with that view! I'd forgotten about it until now - thank you so much for posting it!

That earlier shot from across the river? I cheered that one almost as much as the punt-fumble-recovery!

There was a shot tonight on the Bengal's game of folks skating at Fountain Square, with the fountain behind the ice rink...it was absolutely fantastic! Looked great...just needed the fountain to be more prominant, but I'm sure redoing the 5/3rd facade will have a huge impact on seeing it - won't be dark-against-dark anymore...

"The people who are affluent think that building jails is the way to reduce crime, and that comes from fear and ignorance," he said. "They think crime is either driven by genetics or social or cultural depravity." Personally, I think crime is driven by goddamn criminals. I've been poor, and I've known plenty of poor folks, and none of them raped, robbed or killed people. That's not to say economics is irrelevent - by no means - but please, don't tell me that wanting to lock up rapist sons of bitches and murdering assholes makes me an ignorant racist, because all that tells me is that you're utterly full of shit and have no grasp on reality.

We beat Denver and we'll own the tiebreaker between both Denver and KC...if we win everything but Indy, we'll have to make the playoffs...

You shouldn't even be going to any games, Ink! What was your record last year? 0-fer-15 or something? I say allow smoking everywhere as GABP if it gets us some friggin' wins!

I suspect at this point that the potential payoff of getting more retail and office space in there is worth holding on for a few years, seeing what happens. Once you invest in a few townhomes and a strip mall, you're kinda tied in...but playing the waiting game now does make sense - all it costs to wait are some property taxes and the opportunity costs of the money. Meanwhile, you've got an appreciating asset mitigating both of those losses, and the potential for a ginormous payday if you can get the homeowners to sell in the next five or ten years. Of course, that's assuming that you can't build around them. Here's a post I had upthread: Note - I think that $1MM/year in taxes thing is way, way, way off...how many properties were there? I can't find the number off-hand, but 67 sticks in my head...taxes on each developed lot were around $3K-$4K/year...so if there were 67 lots at $4K/each, that's $268K/year; even 150 lots at $4K is only $600K...and I'd assume they can request a re-appraisal of the land value, and get the per-lot taxes down to the $250 range, like the other undeveloped lots are, and drop the tax bill into the tens-of-thousands range. By the way, this reminds me of the brilliance of Uncle Rando - 'The Chateaus at Rookwood Exchange':

Do you mean on Edwards Road or on Edmonson Road? Reading is at least a mile and half away from the sight, on the other side of some pretty dense happy-Norwood housing...

I blame the gays.

Very interesting stories...thank you!

"Q?" or "8<" - absolutely hilarious! That's truly brilliant...LOL... Funniest damn thing I've read all week!

Great idea! Where are the photo's being displayed? (Sorry no constructive criticism comes to mind, just compliments on the concept and its execution!)

I thought Dantonio was taking the UC Band with him too...hope you enjoy Michigan, Neville!

Are we talkinga about the Kroger behind the mall? That's an awfully convenient one for me to stop at on my way home from work, so I guess I'd prefer they not close up - I'd use that Kroger infinitely more than I'd use a Crate & Barrel - but I have no doubt I'm a tiny minority in that, and I really don't go there very often anyway... With these new stores coming, I really hope something is done to improve traffic flow and parking there. Going there is a stressful experience, and it usually consists of a several hour trip. The extended left-hand turn lane to get onto 71N helped a ton, but the whole Kenwood/Montgomery area is so bad it's almost funny. That extra light up by Trio's? WTF? Horrible, horrible intersection...I avoid the area like the plague when it gets near Christmas...

From ColDay's Cincinnati Aerials (Part II) thread: Xavier: UC: Cincinnati State: ...obviously things like plantings aren't best judged from 1800 feet aloft - but man, those plantings must have been awesome to make it the #1 urban-landscaped university in the frickin' nation, 'cause nothing in that picture strikes me as especially special...

I still say "prolly" instead of "probably" if I'm speaking quickly...not sure if that's regional or just me being lazy... My favorite is my grandpa, from Norwalk, who says "pert-neer" in place of "almost" - as in, "I pert-neer finished making wood for the winter, but I might go out one more time." I believe it's a contraction of "pretty near," but I can't be sure.

Almost makes Cleveland look like Columbus!

...and it makes Portsmouth look like Paris...

I don't think Nick would mind me reposting his comments from the comments thread over at Brian Griffin's blog - Brian had a post on this story... Nick's first comments: Bob Schneider, who is as responsible as anyone for the death of the Main Street Street District, has a pretty selective memory about this stuff. The fact is that the riots drove away most of the original Main Street customers. That's generally common knowledge, but Bob and other property owners didn't want to accept it. They kept charging boom-time rents, even though the district was clearly losing business. This put a lot of pressure on the bar owners to find some way, any way to pay the bills. So some of the venues started farming out nights to independent promoters. These were usually hip-hop oriented events, and many never had a problem. It depended greatly on security presence, cover charge, and dress code. But there were some really bad ones, too, and they did help seal Main Street's fate. It was tough for these bars-- the huge crowds these nights brought in kept them from being evicted, but then a shooting occurs and no one knows what to do. If the property owners had been proactive and thought long term, they would've lowered the rents on the anchor bars after the riots. Then the bars could've spent a little more on promotion or reconcepting, and brought in crowds themselves. Most people don't understand just HOW expensive it was to run a bar in that district, how greedy the property owners were(and Schneider was the worst of the bunch). It made no sense when you could just move out to a neighborhood (like alchemize did) and pay a lot less in bills and get more business, or move over to the Levee (like JHall did) and pay only slightly more but see a massive increase in customers. ...and then a follow-up comment: One more note: Laure is right to focus on North Main, which is the most successful part of OTR, due to condo developments. But it would be a mistake to think that's the answer for the southern blocks (where the entertainment district was), for a couple reasons. One, Schneider, Stough, and Lenhart (who own most all of the bar buildings) STILL want 5-10k per month for those storefronts. Most of the North Main tenants are paying less than five HUNDRED a month, and many don't pay rent at all. Two, the floors above the bars already had pricey renovations into office space during the Digital Rhine era. So, no one will be converting those into condos. Its tough to understand what the future is for that part of OTR, which is a pretty critical gateway. If the Emery Theatre were home to a major arts magnet of some kind, you might see a couple get filled by restaurants or something. But no new bars are going to open down there unless something new is added to the mix.

LOL! Absolutely fantastic!

Does that mean we might get a MayDay apartment in Cincinnati too? Woo hoo!

There's a tall building straight ahead, and a slightly shorter matching building to the left of it. The Ascent is going up immediately behind the slightly shorter matching building.

In case you haven't seen it yet, and for future reference, here's PRidgeFlyer's Ice Rink thread from Thanksgiving weekend 2006...