Civvik

So the walkback has begun...

I don't see Cranley canceling your first phase. He clearly just used the issue to get elected, and I predict that he will "review" the situation and decide that 1A can't be scuttled. Any educated person would understand the severity of canceling a federally funded project today. It's a win- win for him; if the system is successful, he presides over success. If it's not, he gets to say I-told-you-so. For what it's worth, I don't think Qualls really wanted this. As an outsider this election reminded me a lot of the election to replace Ted Kennedy.

Too bad the BC isn't Cincinnati's main newspaper. Their reporting is so professional. I can't believe I'm saying that about the business weekly, but really, it's like the fucking New York Times compared to the Enquirer. Such strange times.

I wonder what it feels like to be Carolyn Washburn, "editor" of a "newspaper" that has no journalistic integrity. 2010: "Strickland's been a good governor. We endorse Kasich." 2013: "Cranley has a lot of problems, and no real plan for the city. We endorse him." As the "editor," I wonder what that must feel like. I'm guessing she feels like a piece of shit.

Anybody who really wants rail transit up here just leaves. Or never moves here in the first place. There's enough other cities in this nation that already have it that they don't mind bolting for it. People aren't as willing to leave Cincinnati at the drop of a hat like they are up here. And that's also why Columbus has so much apathy toward the city government. No need to care if you can just bolt or if you just got here and know you will be leaving again in a few years. Be glad you have people in your city who actually care. I live in Columbus. It will be interesting to see what happens as Columbus continues to grow and densify, which I believe it will. But you could probably say that about a lot of cities. I also agree it will be interesting to see what happens when Cincy's streetcar starts running. What will the cities around it do?

I believed this as well until I went to Edinburgh, UK this past summer. Scotland weather is quite disgusting, but this city has leveraged its intact historic urban fabric (no WWII bombing) and cultural heritage to be one of the most beautiful urban destinations I've ever been to. Londoners can get cheap flights to Spain to go to the beach, but they still go to Edinburgh for its cultural assets. Of course your assertions are true, Cincinnati is at a disadvantage, but it also has many advantages. Edinburgh just reinforced the importance of OTR to Cincinnati's value.

Looking from the outside in now on Cincinnati, it's just baffling to me how self-destructive the politics are. The streetcar project is already underway, and anyone who's not totally ignorant about it must understand by now that it can't (much less shouldn't) really be traded for other city amenities. I've lived in many cities and seen my share of destructive politics. Chicago is fairly corrupt. Florida was just a mess after they elected that Teatard governor. Columbus has every reason to have transit, but is nowhere near it. But Cincinnati takes the cake for the most odd, sad, inbred political landscape I've ever seen. The only explanation I have is that Cincinnati is so insular that hopeful politicians see every little issue as just earth-shattering, while meanwhile there is this minority of leaders with a more objective perspective like Mallory, Qualls, Sealbach...people that get out of town and understand that projects like the streetcar are actually just modest improvements to the city to keep it competitive with other cities. This shit is hardly a revolution.

This is TOTALLY a random thread. But seriously, I call this place Dumpster Manor, because as soon as you pull in you just literally see dumpsters everywhere. It's the most random, bizarre issue in housing ever. I do know a couple people who rent directly from their owner, I'll ask them to pass it along. My intuition as a former site planner is that this place needs maybe 2 dumpsters. Not 12.

U.S. Regions Exhibit Distinct Personalities, Research Reveals Oct. 17, 2013 — Americans with similar temperaments are so likely to live in the same areas that a map of the country can be divided into regions with distinct personalities, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. People in the north-central Great Plains and the South tend to be conventional and friendly, those in the Western and Eastern seaboards lean toward being mostly relaxed and creative, while New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic residents are prone to being more temperamental and uninhibited, according to a study published online by APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "This analysis challenges the standard methods of dividing up the country on the basis of economic factors, voting patterns, cultural stereotypes or geography that appear to have become ingrained in the way people think about the United States," said lead author Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, of the University of Cambridge. "At the same time, it reinforces some of the traditional beliefs that some areas of the country are friendlier than others, while some are more creative." (cont'd...) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131017093459.htm

So based on all this it sounds like something is fishy. Maybe someone on the condo board works for the waste management company...

No recycling. :(

Built in 1988. ~8 cubic yard dumpsters. Sounds like capacity for over 200 units. The kicker: emptied every Monday at 6:30 AM. Since they're all basically empty all the time anyhow , every Monday before dawn you hear "BOOM!" Twelve times.

Twelve. Not six.

I live in a 1980's condo rental in Columbus. This development has 136 units and twelve full-sized dumpsters. This seems laughable to me but I don't remember how many are generally required in multifamily res. They get emptied at least once a week, sometimes twice. The 1990's development across the street has one compacting dumpster for about 280 units. This is in line with previous places I have lived. Anybody know the common suggested number? Cause I'm pretty sure this board is paying like six times what they should be for waste removal.

Love that color scheme!

That's great news, but we really didn't need a streetcar for reform. Cincinnati should reform all of the regulations that hamper development all over the city. Sometimes lenders feel better about zero parking projects when they are within fixed transit walksheds...

I've never thought it particularly useful to memorize the geography of Africa. As late as the 1870's it was presented to Europeans as generally one big blob. http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/photolib/maps/Map_of_Africa_1876.htm It's nothing against Africans. I would no more readily study the fiefdoms of the collapsed Holy Roman Empire as I would the shifting post-colonial lines of sub-Saharan Africa. I think it would be much more important to teach American kids an actual broad history of this continent, and from there one could start to learn the contemporary powers there like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, etc, and where they are located. I also think it would be important to learn about some of the contemporary success stories like Botswana (despite it's high HIV rate) because it would show that not all African nations are post-colonial basketcases, and provide a model of how they succeeded.

I don't know about you, but I've seen lesbians absolutely slay some large meals.

I was raised in Cincinnati and I've lived in or visited a lot of places since then. Reading this series of op-eds made me think about this topic, because honestly I hadn't given it much thought before. -I was recently in the UK where I ended up in fascinating conversation with strangers just about every night we were in a pub for more than an hour. In my 33 years I can't say I've ever struck up a friendly conversation in a bar or club in Cincinnati. Strange, now that I think about it! -I did my undergrad at UC, where I did have 3 or 4 friends that I still keep in touch with on Facebook. I'm now in grad school in Columbus at OSU, where I have so many friends and acquaintances I literally don't have time in the week to keep up with them all. -I lived in an apartment going to UC and said hi to the guy below me a couple times in 2 years. At my apartment here in Columbus, I've met the neighbors on all sides of me many times. -Living in Chicago, a city that I honestly think is not overly friendly, two of the neighbors in my apartment building invited me to housewarming parties, even though I didn't know them at all. They were just being neighborly. I guess maybe I have to agree with these people, then, now that I look back on it. It's hard though, because growing up in Cincinnati and having my family there, I never had any other perspective.

>Nobody has said there won't be any complications surrounding specific utility situations. But one person, year after year, continues to present utility relocation as an absolutely insurmountable obstacle. AKA: Concern troll.

I find this kind of uninformed speculation hilarious.

Just drove down Edwards for the first time in months. The streetscape is utterly, totally destroyed. They couldn't have ruined it more if they tried. Good job, Anderson.

Do you guys know anything about University of Miami? They have a classical architecture track that an old coworker did. It sounded pretty different.

By now I'm just an outside observer, but this looks like a fatal blow. Unless they can come up with $30 million.

The older I get and the more I learn, the more I believe that America's problem is that its policies are just irrational by any political standard. I could give you 100 examples from my old life of urban planning, but here's one from my new life in medicine: It's common practice to offer a woman a tube tie while she's getting a C-section. Rationale: she's just had a kid, she might not want any more, and you're already in there so you're saving time and money. A lot of women do it. But, it's illegal to offer it to a low-income mother. The state is afraid that doctors would "abuse their position of power and sterilize the poor." It's one of the small ways that America now has more births poor single mothers than rich partnered ones. That's a promising future. It's a policy that, like many in America, is a train wreck of "personal freedom" meets "political corretness" meets a massive bureaucracy. And it makes nobody happy.