Civvik

I believe the San Fran region has lost more people this past decade than Detroit.

I don't know exactly what form Cincinnati's "identity" will take as the basin revitalizes, but it will be something. This was on my mind last night as I was eating one of those terribly delicious gourmet hot dogs at The Senate, staring out the window at the sun setting over the colorful buildings across the street. It struck me that I couldn't think of any other city where I could get quite the same experience: this kind of intensely rich Americana. As though hot dogs were some ancient folk food and I was eating a modern rendition, and Cincinnati was actually 900 years old and I was in the "old city." I think this concept can be repeated and expanded throughout the basin.

I think Cincinnati's peers are Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Kansas City. Perhaps to some extent, Minneapolis. Most people I know in Louisville, Indy, Columbus and Milwaukee consider Cincy to be arguably in a higher tier, if only by a little. So that's coming from them, not from me. And I too believe that Cincinnati, if it stays on the trajectory it's been on the last couple years, would certainly become culturally on par with Minneapolis. But never Chicago. Shit, if it were to even approach Nashville or New Orleans in cultural significance, it would have to work its german/OTR/river city heritage to its absolute upper limit.

I hope this is a sign of things to come: An optimistic young Cincinnati native writes an optimistic editorial in the Enquirer, and the FIRST THREE PAGES of comments are all optimistic! City's future exciting if we take risks now I would like to thank Krista Ramsey for the inspiring column "The Millennials just might prove us wrong" (March 26). As a proud 2009 graduate of Syracuse University who currently lives with two roommates - Mom and Dad - I could not be more excited about the future, especially, Cincinnati's future. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100407/EDIT02/4070380/City-s-future-exciting-if-we-take-risks-now

It's fine for now. The discussion is critical to the question of funding.

I don't think he's bashing ODOT, he's bashing highway spending. 3C's an ODOT project.

I see what you did there...

Could you please reference these facts that you have read? I'm curious to see them and it would support your argument that you are not just stating an opinion. Also you use "success" and "have not met the estimates" in the same sentence. Can you elaborate?

Jimmy Johns might be eating their market share.

I wasn't in that vicinity, but I was in OTR at a little shindig at 14th and republic, and I got flicked off by some white suburbanites because I honked my horn at something totally unrelated to them. Sorry, that was entirely irrelevant but I had to say it somewhere.

The delay is curious. They've had nothing but perfect weather. Perhaps a supply issue.

9%

I've never found foreign words or names impossible to pronounce. Hard, yes, but you can at least TRY. I think that the majority of Americans who butcher non-English words do so because they are intimidated and feel terribly self-conscious, so like a 10th grader in Spanish class, they just deliberately say them with a totally English take.

Hilarious!

Good question! I know we are early in the game, but is Skoda the ONLY one being looked at? If Cincinnati wants to buy American, I'm not sure there is an option other than United Streetcar, which uses a Skoda-based design.

I just wanted to say that I just had an "OMG" moment when the math wasn't making sense to me for some reason, and I realized that the 1960's is now conceivably fifty years ago. Scary. @Alabama: Cincinnati doesn't strike me as having a pent-up demand for more trendy, luxury rooms, especially when the Metropole gets redone. And who knows what will eventually go into the Banks. As it nears completion, assuming the economy recovers and doesn't totally collapse, the Banks would strike me as the place to put a trendy hotel...or even OTR, one day. (IE, there's a W in the French Quarter.)

What good is it to argue this point here? Go out and tell people.

Who would have to travel one hour in the wrong direction? Not all minutes are created equal, and not everyones circumstances are the same. When you're driving a car, you're literally driving a car. It's what you're doing for the time that you do it. Riding a train is not something that you do, it's somewhere that you are. You can do all kinds of things while you're on the train. You're not spending time in the same way, so you don't directly compare them. I feel that the speed issue is more about availability and freedom than about speed. What if the trains left once an hour, and it took two hours to do Sharonville-Columbus. That's not a far stretch. That's way better than, say, a train that went from Sharonville to Columbus in 8 minutes, but twice a day.

^And the most ridiculous looking skyline this side of Mobile.

Ok, *now* we've pushed this side conversation into a new page. Back on track or I'll move these to another thread.

Part of the development incentive of a streetcar is that its fixed transit, and you can usually develop with less parking. I would rather developers plan on fixed transit service and wait a bit to make sure its imminent, which I am sure many of them are currently doing. This, as opposed to squandering density. This project is not as complex as the subway. I am usually a pessimist but I don't see why the streetcar would fall apart now.

Prediction: State Repubs squeal until May 4th, then quietly drop their opposition to pass up $400 million.

I feel QCS's girth gives the tower a commanding feel of a taller building.

For some reason things don't tend to get ugly in the streetcar thread very often. But we'll keep an eye on it.

I remember my Niehoff studio was exactly as you describe, only the topic was food. Although we were all students once and some of us still are, I don't lend too much credence to what the student community advocates when it comes to issues (like the streetcar) that are larger than campus life or education. Students just don't coherently wield any political or financial power, even when given the opportunity.