Civvik

The ARE investing in the OTR Kroger. I honestly believe the OTR Kroger works harder to please their customers more than any other store in the city. I've been shopping there for 8 years and yes, it USED to be terrible. It definitely earned its reputation. But the past three years they've been updating their offerings constantly. It seems like every two weeks there are new shelves, or updated registers, or new produce sections. They've got a whole wall of health food options now. They've chipped away at their collection of 40s and added craft beer selections. I get the impression from those of you who are complaining about the store that you've never actually made it beyond the parking lot. Yes...the parking lot is an issue. But as you mention, fixing that issue is a big ticket upgrade. One they can't actually invest in until the local residents start shopping there more. I haven't personally seen their books, but I have heard from a few legitimate sources that the past two years that store has actually turned a profit. There's a chance the store will survive and potential it could expand in the future. Companies like Kroger don't build small urban store like that anymore, so yes...WE ARE LUCKY to have that store still around after 40 years of perpetually losing business. The only way it will expand though, is if the neighborhood gets behind and supports it. GO IN THERE and talk to the manager. They are working VERY hard to cater to the neighborhood. Meh, that attitude is just too sentimental for me. Really. You're talking about supporting this store like its run by a struggling family grocer. This is Kroger. This is Kroger's global headquarters. If Harris Teeter can build a store in uptown Charlotte and Publix can build a store in downtown Orlando, Kroger can sure as hell build a modern urban format store in the basin. As for made it beyond the parking lot. Well, I feel it's a bit beneath me to bite on that one and vouch for my credentials as an urbanist. Getting back to the topic, this whole issue of grocer vs no grocer at 4th and Race strikes me as the same shenanigans that have been going on with a downtown grocery for a decade. It's just too fishy that Kroger is based here, has a lot of influence, and it's 2014 and there's no downtown grocery. Well apparently Kroger is considering building a new downtown store at Central Parkway & Walnut. (This conversation is spanning multiple threads so I'm not sure what was posted where.) I read that as the developer was wooing Kroger, and that Kroger wouldn't comment. Do you read into that as Kroger is interested? You would have a better sense than I would.

Double-posted under grocery stores: Downtown residential project courts Kroger as retail anchor Rookwood Properties: We'd be happy to have them CINCINNATI - Blue Ash developer Rookwood Properties is exploring a downtown residential project of up to $50 million at the corner of Central Parkway and Walnut Street, where Cincinnati’s streetcar line makes a right turn toward the Banks project and a grocery store could literally be built in the shadow of Kroger Co. headquarters. http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/downtown-residential-project-courts-kroger-as-retail-anchor Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,10268.455.html#ixzz3AsYlf0F5

Downtown residential project courts Kroger as retail anchor Rookwood Properties: We'd be happy to have them CINCINNATI - Blue Ash developer Rookwood Properties is exploring a downtown residential project of up to $50 million at the corner of Central Parkway and Walnut Street, where Cincinnati’s streetcar line makes a right turn toward the Banks project and a grocery store could literally be built in the shadow of Kroger Co. headquarters. http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/downtown-residential-project-courts-kroger-as-retail-anchor

The ARE investing in the OTR Kroger. I honestly believe the OTR Kroger works harder to please their customers more than any other store in the city. I've been shopping there for 8 years and yes, it USED to be terrible. It definitely earned its reputation. But the past three years they've been updating their offerings constantly. It seems like every two weeks there are new shelves, or updated registers, or new produce sections. They've got a whole wall of health food options now. They've chipped away at their collection of 40s and added craft beer selections. I get the impression from those of you who are complaining about the store that you've never actually made it beyond the parking lot. Yes...the parking lot is an issue. But as you mention, fixing that issue is a big ticket upgrade. One they can't actually invest in until the local residents start shopping there more. I haven't personally seen their books, but I have heard from a few legitimate sources that the past two years that store has actually turned a profit. There's a chance the store will survive and potential it could expand in the future. Companies like Kroger don't build small urban store like that anymore, so yes...WE ARE LUCKY to have that store still around after 40 years of perpetually losing business. The only way it will expand though, is if the neighborhood gets behind and supports it. GO IN THERE and talk to the manager. They are working VERY hard to cater to the neighborhood. Meh, that attitude is just too sentimental for me. Really. You're talking about supporting this store like its run by a struggling family grocer. This is Kroger. This is Kroger's global headquarters. If Harris Teeter can build a store in uptown Charlotte and Publix can build a store in downtown Orlando, Kroger can sure as hell build a modern urban format store in the basin. As for made it beyond the parking lot. Well, I feel it's a bit beneath me to bite on that one and vouch for my credentials as an urbanist. Getting back to the topic, this whole issue of grocer vs no grocer at 4th and Race strikes me as the same shenanigans that have been going on with a downtown grocery for a decade. It's just too fishy that Kroger is based here, has a lot of influence, and it's 2014 and there's no downtown grocery.

I'm happy to see this, but its pretty obvious this was a political move to keep the grocery from being built downtown... I've been told that flaherty & Collins didn't want to build the grocery store, it was a requirement of Mallory/Dohoney. It was going to add at least a million to their construction cost and the City mandated hours (7am to 10PM) would have given the operator a lot less flexibility than they would prefer. Also, it was going to be smaller than the OTR Kroger. Just want to make sure everyone understands that. OTR kroger is about 30K square feet. This new grocery was going to be 18K square feet (but obviously targeted at a higher end clientele) Losing that grocery, which <b>wasn't on the streetcar line anyway</b>, is fine by me. Smaller groceries work well of stocked right and run well in fact I kind of prefer them. Good example: http://www.wgrocer.com/home.html This is one of those things Cincinnati just doesn't get This is exactly what I love about the OTR Kroger. We could definitely use a second, more high-end, grocer closer to the Square, but the OTR Kroger is a fantastic downtown grocer that we're lucky to have. I agree. The OTR Kroger is a gem most people on here seem to ignore. If everyone in OTR shopped there, it would carry even more higher end products. But instead, most of the residents of the last 5 years drive to Newport while complaining that they wish we had the fabled unicorn-like downtown grocery store. Shop at OTR Kroger & findlay market all the time and they will get better. Cincinnati is lucky to have the OTR Kroger? Compared to who, Dayton?! That store is a silly piece of crap. I'm tired of people adoring it like a pet, and chiding others who choose to go to a better store like Newport. It's not a beloved neighborhood pub, or a quirky statue. It's a f***ing grocery store. I also hear it operates at a loss, predominantly due to theft. I think just the opposite of your assertion. People driving to the big store in Newport tells me they like the big store in Newport much more than shopping at the little store in OTR would tell me they want the big store in Newport. I just don't sense that the Cincinnati center city will ever have the same grocery ecosystem as Manhattan, where many smaller stores succeed. I think it needs a bigger store. This "unicorn" that you have (for some reason) now branded it. This isn't about some cultural failing that new OTR residents have. This is about Kroger not stepping up to the plate.

I just want this :(

I'm happy to see this, but its pretty obvious this was a political move to keep the grocery from being built downtown... I've been told that flaherty & Collins didn't want to build the grocery store, it was a requirement of Mallory/Dohoney. It was going to add at least a million to their construction cost and the City mandated hours (7am to 10PM) would have given the operator a lot less flexibility than they would prefer. Also, it was going to be smaller than the OTR Kroger. Just want to make sure everyone understands that. OTR kroger is about 30K square feet. This new grocery was going to be 18K square feet (but obviously targeted at a higher end clientele) Losing that grocery, which <b>wasn't on the streetcar line anyway</b>, is fine by me. Blah blah blah square footage, timing, etc. Or Two Kroger executives are on 3CDC board.

^ Ha, that's my friend's company.

Maybe you guys can't wait for "towers" to be built in the area, but that's where I live and I don't look forward to being loomed over, and ending up in perpetual shadows! I'm not a big fan of urban canyons, and anyway I prefer the lower-to-mid-rise character of my neighborhood. The Joseph family (car dealership$) own the big parking lot and I know someday, sadly, something really tall may get built there that I won't like. Boy, you would get run right out of skyscraperpage.com so fast your messenger bag would spin off your bicycle.

I'm pretty sure I live in an eternal 2005.

Pot. Bales and bales of pot.

We know now that sugar is almost entirely to blame for obesity. There's a lot in these federal guidelines that are already obsolete, like removing the fat from everything. But still, this is the type of story that shows what happens when you go from promoting an ideal (like nutrition) to making Americans accountable for it (no more federal money for pizza and fries). Americans whine and bitch. It often feels like there is almost no sense of collective responsibility in this country except for things like supporting the troops. Plastering the freeway overpasses with yellow ribbons is patriotic, but promoting nutrition in schools is, I guess, communist.

Sometimes I still run across a Disquieter article that reminds me that this region is still one of the red cesspits of the country. The article itself is just mediocre, it's the comments that drive it home. I put some choice morsels at the bottom. District drops federal lunch program Lunch at Fort Thomas Independent Schools may include more French fries, fewer vegetables and larger portions this year. One thing that won't be on the menu: federal dollars. (...) The 2,800-student district joins a small but growing number of school districts across the country – mostly wealthy districts who can afford to forfeit the money – who have dropped out of the federal program in the wake of stricter nutritional standards. "It is not school's responsibility to feed the children." "Michelle O will just have to go down there and tell those kids they have to eat the food or they will put mommy and daddy in jail ." "Just remember, Future Voters, that the Democrats wanted you to eat crappy food, or starve." And my favorite from the school district itself: "We try not to pass costs on to consumers, but we're still a business," he said. Wait what? You're a business?" I thought you were a school district.

You know there was a lot of political momentum behind saving the streetcar. That same momentum and spirit could go a long way towards fielding a challenger candidate in the next county election. It's been made very clear by the county that they are in it for the suburbs.

I think this issue has opened up a reality that many people don't think about: A lot of people in the region, maybe even a majority, wouldn't really care if these two buildings fell over. They aren't integral to their daily experience like the Reds or widening a highway. This is primarily why I'm ambivalent about this tax. It's entirely sentimental in an age where I feel we should be putting all our resources into repopulating the core, adding transit options, and using the port authority to add employers. Greater Cincinnati just has such deep structural problems: a tiny, impoverished city boundary, antagonistic county, no transit, dozens of fiefdom local governments. Sometimes I think that the burst of growth in OTR and the triumph of the streetcar has given a magnified sense of momentum to the region. They are great gains, but I feel like now is the time to just keep our heads down and focused on the big guns: more urban housing, more urban employers, more transit, making the redevelopment agencies as strong as possible.

Chris Monzel is a COASTer.

Another reason why a city-county merger would be a better form of government. City mayor and council elections seem to work as intended, but county governments and townships are poorly understood by most people and you see so many of them run as fiefdoms.

God these people do not understand cities in the 21st century at all. Providing a pleasant place for hard working families to live is something the suburbs beat the cities at 50 years ago. You will never, ever grow a city in 2014 by making sure the trash gets picked up every week for 50 cents less than the year before while you ignore the things that Millennials want in a city.

Hmmm. We'll see how this goes! Until then, The Eagle is the new Mahogany's. Those sweet potatoes tho. Damn.

I think the point of the museum hotel would have been lost if the museum part wasn't so woven into the hotel part.

This recommendation isn't exactly inspiring, is it? Lots of job hopping. No evidence of an overall philosophy about cities. With Milton Dohoney we had a guy with a long, stable history running two slightly smaller cities with good success. Downtown flourished under his administration, and now he's assistant city manager of Phoenix.

The Prentice Hospital was a landmark building no matter what you thought of the style, and one of the first designed with CAD. Comparing it to a mid-century hotel in Cincinnati that happens to have a brutalist base is just sentimental and silly. I think most of the time, judging important buildings is like the test for prurience in sexually oriented film: You just know it when you see it. Terrace Plaza is a perfect example. It has a fantastic history. But you look at the building and you just go "ugh." It's a dud.

I think there were people in Cincinnati in 1950 saying very similar things about Italianate architecture. Luckily Cincinnati had enough of that around that they couldn’t destroy it all. There’s not a whole lot of mid-century modern around, hopefully we can manage to keep it for future generations who might value it more than some do today. As for furniture, many would say the mid-century modern style produced some of the greatest designs in history. I don’t think many people have to force themselves to like it; they’re the antiques of our generation. Haha. Sorry, I was just referring to architecture. I think Jake took that and ran with it. Personally, I think you can be monolithic and simplistic with a coffee table and it doesn't look oppressive. It's 2 feet tall. A building is another story.

I think there were people in Cincinnati in 1950 saying very similar things about Italianate architecture. Luckily Cincinnati had enough of that around that they couldn’t destroy it all. There’s not a whole lot of mid-century modern around, hopefully we can manage to keep it for future generations who might value it more than some do today. As for furniture, many would say the mid-century modern style produced some of the greatest designs in history. I don’t think many people have to force themselves to like it; they’re the antiques of our generation. I think maybe you missed my point. Certainly people in the 50's wanted to get away from Victorian or Italianate because it was tired, a lot of it was literally dirty and run down, and they were excited about the future. The difference is that those styles were at the top of their game when they were created. They are examples of things that were refined and refined and refined and refined over hundreds of years. They are valuable because they are good examples of what people can craft. Most mid 20th century stuff is crap. The 20th century tore down the 19th because it was old. The 21st should tear down the 20th because it was bad.

Ugh. We are getting into an era where historic designations are coming around to mid-century architecture. My absolute least favorite. To me mid-century simply isn't a pinnacle era in design of anything. It was our whole species lurching forward into the technological age and experimenting with how to express that in design. We were shedding the age of hand-made, ornamented, humanistic stuff. And you know what? Almost all of it is really fucking awful. It's awkward. It's unrefined. It's ignorant. We are just now, in the 21st century, beginning to have the experience, the finesse, the materials technology, to really express "modernism" as a refined design standard. To each his own, but I just have zero attraction to anything beyond the 1930's, and even Art Deco isn't high on my list. In fact, I think the pretend nostalgia that people my age (20s, 30s) have for mid-century modern is so contrived, it's almost trendy.