Civvik

I am sure Eighth And State is a very nice and interesting person. So if you want to listen to pure speculation, only a fraction of which is informed or validated by professional experience, then by all means continue to be interested. You're not wasting my time doing it, so be my guest.

Those commentors could have been Duke stockholders. Corporate America is extremely sensitive to stockholders, comparable to how government is sensitive to voters. If public perception is that Duke is using stockholder's assets to subsidize the utility relocation for Cincinnati Streetcar project, then Duke's stock price could be negatively affected. Duke will likely do anything it can to protect its stock price, and that includes playing hardball with the City of Cincinnati. I'm not 100% certain that Duke would be obligated to provide power in this instance. If you think Duke doesn't have a choice, I would like to see documentation for that. I think Duke and the City of Cincinnati have special contracts for street lighting and things like that, and at the minimum the sale of power for the streetcar would probably be negotiated. There IS something that Mallory has to lose, and that is goodwill with Duke. Suppose that Mallory is working with Joe the Duke utility coordinator, and Joe the utility coordinator is publicly accused of being "unreasonable" with regard to the 8 foot separation thing. Suppose that they negotiate, or go to court, or whatever, and Mallory wins. Now, suppose that Mallory wants to hook up the streetcar to the Duke grid, and Joe the utility coordinator is the man assigned to do the job. Do you think that Joe the utility coordinator is going to go out of his way to make Mallory look good? A bad relationship with Duke could delay this project by a year or more, assuming that it does in fact actually get built. The Duke issue is very important. My humble opinion is that playing hardball isn't going to make things better. I don't think that Duke is scared one bit at a lawsuit from the City of Cincinnati. This one is a concern troll magnum opus.

Guess we couldn't be too German...maybe world war ii is still Too Soon.

We don't need to stack mid rises in every neighborhood node in town. There is nothing wrong with Ludlow, in my opinion its working as intended for the neighborhood it serves, minus the grocery being finished. The fact that it used to be one of the only urban havens in Cincinnati in the 90's says more about how far the other urban hot spots have come -and still need to go- than it does about the "decline of Ludlow."

Isn't the Streetcar supposed to go down Short Vine for some stretch? Why couldn't it just stop at the side of the Kroger? Of all the uses/tenants we ever planned for, groceries were the most difficult. Theaters will use garage, anchor stores will use garage, small tenants don't give a shit where they go as long as the tenant mix and anchors are suitable. Grocery is a douchebag. He always wants to be visible from the state highway with 300' of surface parking in front of the main entrance. You ask them to be creative and they whine about low profit margins and that urban format stores don't do as much volume.

When are they picking the manufacturer for the vehicles?

They could put in big permanent planters that have brackets for removable fencing that fill in the spaces during reds games. Solves both problems.

With the first opening of The Banks, it's now over 6,000. 300 new units, mostly leased up, even assuming a very low household size of ~1.15. It's amazing what one project can do to a rebounding downtown. That goes for any of Ohio's cities.

I feel like I am the only one on this board that is not unrealistically optimistic. The streetcar project is NOT easy; at least not as easy as it's made out to be on this board. One of the issues is that Duke wants 8 feet. I'm sorry, but I don't think that accusing Duke of being unreasonable is going to make this issue go away. Accusing Duke of being unreasonable is the ONLY thing that will make the issue go away. That will occur in negotiation, or in a court. You really need to learn how to solve problems, my man.

It is in the Ohio Revised Code. That means the streetcar is, according to state code, both a motor vehicle and not a motor vehicle. In other words, a bunch of dusty old bullshit.

They should string a new arena up on the wiremobile. MOBILE-RENA. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Yes, it is due to fire code. I think the place will be much better on the weekends when they weather gets warmer and they have a little more capacity. The Banks is just going to be a weird place until more parts of it come on line.

If you don't want to wait 2 hours at Moerlein, don't go on a Saturday. Probably won't be able to for a while.

I was unaware that transit ridership had grown so fast as to be a primary cause of depressed driving rates for 16 year olds. I think it's probably due more to economics. Child poverty has held pretty steady since the 80's at 22% or so. What this doesn't clarify is whether or not families above that line have shifted expenditures away from their teenage kids to patch other budget holes, like their own increasing transportation, housing and healthcare costs. It also became more difficult to get a driver's license at 16, at least in Ohio, in the 2000's due to some new requirements. There's also just the general sense that America is "slowing down." It's getting older, it's purchasing power is reduced, it's facing more international competition, it's shifting its focus somewhat back towards existing places rather than paving new ones, it's not even as physically active (even among children, with scary obesity rates.)

I rather think that it keeps us out of a dubious list, large cities that don't have transit. In addition to all the wonderful benefits it will provide, of course.

I guarantee you it's not. This project is far less intensive than the original concepts before the real estate crash. At least, that's my belief based on glimpses of the most recently available site plans.

WOW. How sad is THAT? I wonder why? Looks like Smyjunas and his trash in Oakley win another round? How typical Cincinnati. Then again, the Rookwood area is already choking from traffic and convoluted access. I don't personally see the area blossoming into any kind of intense urban node without transit. I was wondering how they were going to handle traffic for a 16 screen theater.

I Intersections have more than one side?

PS if you mosey on up South Boulevard to the north, there's some pretty sexy infill. Including a Lowe's wrapped on 3 sides with condos.

I can't either. I think it borked out. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=charlotte+nc&hl=en&ll=35.192653,-80.873896&spn=0.003931,0.00457&safe=off&hnear=Charlotte,+Mecklenburg,+North+Carolina&gl=us&t=h&z=18

Doing a double rail line boulevard with light rail is kind of a big deal, at least with modern precedents. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=charlotte,+nc&hl=en&ll=35.190697,-80.874841&spn=0.003931,0.00457&geocode=+&hnear=Charlotte,+Mecklenburg,+North+Carolina&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=35.190564,-80.875316&panoid=9XSzej_-DE1USa9FaSkytg&cbp=12,54.83,,0,3.27

Fantastic article, full of information.

On the contrary, I think this conversation is great: It's a sign that the area is truly revitalizing.

There is actually kind of a hipster core that shows up at various OTR and downtown spots every weekend, I'll give you that. I know some of them. But that's all I'll give you. People seem to forget Cincinnati is a big city. Its topography and insulated neighborhoods belie the true size of the metropolitan area. It is a Munich, a Warsaw, a Tel Aviv. On any given evening there are scores of different kinds of people patronizing the new places in OTR. The most confounding thing about Cincinnati, as with many American mid-sized cities, is there flabbergasting untapped potential. It's absolutely NOT the same 100 people showing up in OTR every Saturday.

Perhaps their long-term strategy is to set a restrictive precedent while they march up Vine with redevelopment, then see how everything turns out when the neighborhood is substantially repopulated. I can see how this is a prudent thing to do, when I look at things like the CURRENT AT THE BANKS sign. I mean, who needed that?