Civvik

Elegantly biased, as usual. Here we have four declarative statements in pro vs con. The two pro are stated as facts, see the bold. Only one of the con's is stated as fact, while the other is stated as marginalized ("some") opinion ("they believe.") This is important because ironically, the statement that they present as marginalized opinion is the only one that can ever be legally decided upon as being an indisputable fact with concrete future ramifications. I think the Enquirer knows this, and have purposefully attempted to muddle and marginalize the point. It is also, arguably, the same reason the last one of these was defeated two years ago. "Argument for: The city simply can't afford to build and operate a streetcar when a $33 million deficit looms in the 2012 budget. Also, the project won't be the catalyst for economic development touted by city officials and project supporters." "Argument against: The streetcar will jump start economic development by creating jobs, attracting new residents and boosting tax revenue. Some opponents are against adding this new rule to the city charter because they believe it as overly broad and puts undesired restriction on city government for nearly a decade."

With the evolution of downtown and the Gateway Quarter of OTR, I'm having a hard time figuring out where The Banks is going to fit into the picture retail-wise. The Banks was conceived in an era of silver-bullet waterfront/brownfield transformations in the 90's that has somewhat gone by the wayside now that 15 years has passed and the place still isn't fully realized. Not that it's a bad idea, but now we have a pretty spectacular grassroots transformation of downtown and OTR underway that has the potential to blow away anything that The Banks can provide in terms of cultural depth and historical meaning. I almost wonder if they shouldn't just focus on mainstream residential product and the less glamorous retail that serves it, like an urban format grocery. Not to say things like Ruth's Chris can't exist in that environment, in fact something like that is appropriate. I just don't think Freedom Way is going to turn into the Champs Elysees of Cincinnati, or even Louisville's 4th Street.

Quite a falsehood about why black men get shot.. This is not a falsehood at all. Drug crime is by far the biggest factor in black male deaths, even when it is secondary to gang violence, it's driven by drug economics. What else would you propose kills most black men? For that matter, at least drug-related gun crime is something that has a chance of being reasonably solved by policy changes. "Racism" or "our capitalist, dog-eat-dog society" are far less likely to be easily solved and lead to a reduction in crime and crime-related deaths.

First off, and this is just my experience, but I feel like nightlife is becoming increasingly mixed between gay and straight. You can go somewhere like Adonis, which is east of town off of Kellog Avenue, and see mostly gay people. Or you can go somewhere like Below Zero in Over the Rhine and on many nights see a mix of gay people, straight women, and some (sometimes lost) straight men. Also, too, you see many more gay people at predominantly straight downtown spots lately, or at hot spots that aren't really night clubs, including pretty much every establishment in the Gateway Quarter (which would include A Tavola, The Senate, The Lackman) and places like Neon's.

Someone can't own a spa and be interested in old cars? The most knowledgeable car buff I know is a 400 pound gay man.

What the...I don't even...

A program like this should be expanded to all sorts of neighborhoods, not just struggling urban ones. It sounds like a nice bridge between renting and owning, and if they pass anything like the tight lending regulations they are talking about lately, people way beyond half of median income are going to need it.

The cladding has arrived! Thank the good lordie. The concrete was starting to get a little harsh.

Christ, even Mark Miller's horrendous gaffes get turned into COAST press releases by the Enquirer. Just where IS rock-bottom with these people?

Cincinnati is not behind, vain, old or tired. It's a failed experiment, like most other American cities.

LOL. I'm totally going to work for the Enquirer, and all my articles are going to be like this: Is Santa Real? ENQUIRER September 1, 2011 CINCINNATI - Leslie Ghiz thinks Santa might be real. We asked her about it, and she said she wasn't sure. "I was just wondering," said Ghiz in a phone interview this morning. Mark Mallory was unavailable for comment. Copyright 2011 The Enquirer

It's only 100 units. 200 g-spots per unit should get them something decent. Not luxury, but decent.

Well put.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/developingnow/2011/09/01/oakley-station-developer-files-bankruptcy/

This is the Enquirer, child. They made the word cloud before they even posted the article. COAST sent it to them last week.

I really do wish this movement the best.

I'm moving out of the region in 9 months, and haven't been in the urban planning profession now for 3 years. However, it's things like those listed above that fuels most of my emotional disconnect from Cincinnati more than anything in my own circumstances.

My spidey sense thinks that Western Southern agrees with you, and thinks that the only realistic location for this was Lytle Park.

In most Cincinnati media, "high-rise" could mean anything over 4 or 5 stories.

I think this food-poverty discussion is closely related to IQ-poverty. Here is a nice article from the NYT on this topic. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/opinion/16kristof.html And at that, I think this might be drifting a bit off topic.

Hate to sound like an old codger walking uphill in the snow, but I used to carry 4 to 6 bags of groceries from the Jewel at Addison and Broadway to Irving Park and Lakeshore all the time. And I'm scrawny. The human body is surprisingly capable of just wandering around carrying shit. I believe this skill is responsible for our proliferation over the entire planet. And shopping malls. Then I found Peapod, and ordered all my groceries. But I don't think they have that in Cincy.

Chinatown? I guarantee you no millionaire Chinese investor is going to buy his way into America to come to Cincinnati and open a bubble tea shop and live in the basement. This is 2011, not 1980.

I'd also like to remind everyone that 3CDC is non-profit. In light of that, you have to heavily discount - if not reject- that they are somehow motivated to tear down buildings to squeeze a bit more profit out of a project. Their reasons for these demos are probably much, much more to do with design logistics and creating a product that is marketable. And maybe even to avoid taking out other, more contributing buildings.

Are not the reasons to preserve ALL the buildings already implicit in this issue? In essence your desire would result in an infinite feedback loop of pro-vs-con. Kinda similar to the same mentality that COAST uses with the streetcar.