Civvik

I have emailed every member of TRAC and city council. I hope you all do the same.

Hello UO. If I may: Mallory has proven to not be a hothead. I would think he is letting the state situation play out and working behind the scenes on the council transition. There has been a lot of political drama the past few weeks but the project hasn't been declared dead. You'll have to keep your wits and see how this plays out.

No, they are only framing out the apartments, to my knowledge. However, the area directly across from the baseball stadium and directly north of the lager house along Main is envisioned as a hotel.

The view from Christ Hospital gives the perfect vantage to compare Carew to QCS. They are about the same, with Carew's (I can't bring myself to say the next word because it will start 18 joke posts) clearly taller than the tip of QCS.

Love the last one.

A hotel.

And, let's face it, on the other side of Clermont county there is nothing while Warren/Butler counties are sandwiched between Dayton and Cincinnati and therefore benefit from two loci of sprawl. I believe that's true for 75, but not for 71. It's simply a distorted perception of access since no freeway goes through Indian Hill. (ie, the route from Goshen to Cincinnati is as fast as South Lebanon, but there is more development in South Lebanon.)

Whichever one is less steep I hope. UC kids will walk to Vine, just like I did every day.

The demand would be there from Clermont County, but this has been a chicken and egg issue since the alignment of the original interstates. River topography coupled with politically powerful rich communities standing between downtown and Clermont County has prevented a consistent development pattern there. We are probably at a point in Cincinnati's development where it's a moot point, but from an objective perspective, there is no rational reason that proximal land with a low transportation cost remains undeveloped in the eastern suburbs while remote land in Warren county continues to develop at a high transportation cost.

There must be more to this story than we know.

Google link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=columbus+ohio&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.957999,76.904297&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Columbus,+Franklin,+Ohio&ll=39.977913,-83.00343&spn=0.000531,0.001173&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=39.977916,-83.00369&panoid=x8BYg1v-Xft3fp0oNVlUMw&cbp=12,37.29,,0,0.68

This site plan doesn't strike me as too terrible. Only slightly worse than High and Warren in Columbus, imho, and that arrangement doesn't feel "anti-urban." There's a big difference between 60' of surface parking and half a block. This looks walkable, it addresses the street in some fashion, etc. You could easily put that 60' of parking behind that retail, but Northside isn't a class A retail location, and it never will be. If this arrangement means making the neighborhood a stronger destination because they have an easier time attracting retail, that's a reasonable trade-off in my book. You can't justify throwing your hands up over 60' of parking.

I know that's just your personal opinion, but opinions aren't always well founded or rational. Utility lines on poles are a liability as well as a sign of poor aesthetics. I can't argue with someone who thinks that blood vessels on the outside of their body are beautiful, and it might make for easy access, but the benefits stop there, to be sure. I don't know if the comparison between varicose veins and power lines is a fair one. My point was one of general appearances and how they relate to a sense of place; cities do not need clean, or have a proper aesthetic. I'm not saying I want to settle for less than perfect, in fact maybe I was a bit reserved when I just said "I don't mind" above ground utilities. I appreciate the anti-perfect apperance in certain places. I do concede that in order for it to truly have an impact, the opposite does have to exist. There are certain places buried utilities would be logical... but I don't know if Oakley and OTR are those places. The historical nature of the neighborhoods doesn't lend itself to the sterile urban aesthetic that downtown might. * But do remember, I'm a guy who sneaks into abandoned buildings and takes pictures: (http://zfein.com/photography/) I have prints of these hanging all over my apartment. I have what I like to think as a "modern romanticist" aesthetic appreciation when it comes to urban architecture :P I wasn't referring to varicose veins, but literally external veins. But semantics aside, all I can say is that I hope you're never on the urban design board of where I'm living!

Death of the homeless woman conversation has been moved to Current Events. This forum section is for projects and construction. Do not post coincidentally related news stories in this section, as it leads to off-topic discussion.

I know that's just your personal opinion, but opinions aren't always well founded or rational. Utility lines on poles are a liability as well as a sign of poor aesthetics. I can't argue with someone who thinks that blood vessels on the outside of their body are beautiful, and it might make for easy access, but the benefits stop there, to be sure.

^ These are challenges, not excuses. Plenty of other industrialized countries do it, and continue to do it after the fact. It is simply a measure of what people value. IE: Power lines in public realms but not in quasi-private ones (subdivisions.)

Will be moving this OSW discussion to Restaurants.

My iPhone died on Wednesday, 10 days after the warranty expired. The apple store simply gave me a new one, no questions asked. That was a nice gesture, considering I just bought a Macbook after 20 years of PC ownership, and my finger was on the trigger to return it. (Didn't mention anything about that, though.)

I'm not a fan of heavy programming. I think it should and will evolve to serve whatever crowd ends up hanging around there. BUT if I had to place my bet, I would think that 6th and Walnut area or OTR will become the grown up part of town, while the Banks will be more family oriented, mostly because you'll have a heavily programmed city park surrounding it.

I think the banks could support a range of food and entertainment options. Not sure I could classify it as "adult" or "family," seems like it could be anything to anyone. Not so sure about a range of retail options, but I'm not a retail expert.

Welcome!

You bitches is crazy. Deweys and LaRosa's are apples and oranges. And Adriaticos is over-spiced college schlock, we used to eat it in my dorm at OSU!

I know this might sound bizzare, but I am sometimes concerned that there is something in our environment that is making us less intelligent. Like Rome and lead, version 2.0. It seems as though the tactic of posing the same redundant questions over and over, even in the face of sound answers, is sufficient in neutralizing an issue and maintaining sufficient doubt and paralysis in the general public. Health care reform comes to mind. Or climate change. Or the streetcar. And I don't mean expertly muddying an issue as to create confusion. It's almost like you could convince people these days that the grass might actually not be green, if you just persistently ask what color it is.

The massive column of vehicles crawling across the Hamilton-Clermont line at 5 PM beg to differ.

From Downtown Johnstown, Inc.: Town Hall/Opera House Cupola Project The Johnstown Town Hall/Opera House Cupola Restoration Project involved the repair and new construction of the ornamental structure rising from the roof of the village’s town hall. This decorative cupola served as a belfry for over 125 years. A restoration project was initiated in 2008 by Downtown Johnstown, Inc. Phase I which included purchasing materials and constructing and reinforcing the roof structure. Lift costs for the crane used to install the new cupola on May 7, 2009 were also included in Phase I. Phase II involved the purchase and installation of four large windows, the finishing of exterior detail work and the installing of a support post to match existing posts. The work was completed during the summer of 2010. On July 10, 2010 the Johnstown Town Hall/Opera House was re-dedicated to the community MORE: http://www.downtownjohnstown.org/town-hallopera-house-cupola-project.html From This Week News - Johnstown: Dedication honors new cupola, old town hall