Civvik

Based on Kathy Holwadel's comments and the historic district ammendments, here is roughly what that could look like: I arbitrarily made the condo tower 400'.

Since they mentioned parking, it wouldn't surprise me if what you just described is what they're thinking about.

I don't want to sound like a pessimist, but I don't think a renovated Ziegler Park is going to have anywhere close to the impact that Washington Park has had on the surrounding neighborhood. (Not that anyone here thinks so, but the Enquirer article makes ridiculous parallels.) They could bulldoze Peaslee neighborhood center and plow Yukon Street north to 14th, building a new Peaslee on the new half-block created by the new street. Then a true park with frontage on all sides could be built. The way is is arranged now is just a mess.

The Grand Bohemian in Orlando is pretty nice. A nice addition to any market.

Holy Grail is more of a bar than a family restaurant, so I don't think you can say they make a lot of money serving families. I just think that's what they're gunning for with their very benign Italian concept. Maybe I should have just said they make a LOT of money...Until the Banks is fully built out I can't really blame anyone for going after the family/Reds game market. There isn't quite enough activity yet on non-Reds days. GE is a great start in the right direction. I don't blame them at all. The important thing about The Banks is they got the street grid and park right. People can knock themselves out chasing whatever market demand they think is there. America at its (actual) finest.

Wicker Park has a major hotel project in the works to actually replace what was previously a large class b or c office tower: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141022/wicker-park/northwest-tower-hotel-pushed-spring-2016-underground-parking-nixed I know a few friends that work there, there isn't any major office space, but instead its scattered throughout the neighborhood. Daytime traffic IMO is also driven by people who work flexible schedules, freelancers to support the very large design/advertising industry and nascient tech industry as well as financial industry workers who work later shifts. Scattered offices do help but they aren't the whole picture. Wicker may also be about the same size of OTR, but in terms of urban form its a larger, denser, more intact version of Walnut Hills with more old industrial space like you'd find in Camp Washington on the west side of the neighborhood. That's why a road diet project timed to start when south OTR is building out would be a great project to keep things moving north.

I think that argument is a bit extreme. Wicker Park, for example, is a fairly successful neighborhood and almost the exact same size as downtown and OTR at 21 million square feet. It has no hotels to speak of, except for a couple of hostels. It also has no significant office users by Chicago standards, although I'm sure there is plenty of daytime employment space in the general urban fabric.

Holy Grail is more of a bar than a family restaurant, so I don't think you can say they make a lot of money serving families. I just think that's what they're gunning for with their very benign Italian concept.

I feel like owners are going hardcore for the "family who's just here for a reds game" market.

They own everything on the Kroger block. And almost none of the rest. Which kind of makes me wonder...what are they thinking about that Kroger block? Do they think Kroger will make a move?

I think a better question is: Why did Cincinnati TIF a class-A skyscraper? My guess is that the powers that be see it as spending money on the city's image. And they really, really wanted a new skyscraper after a 20 year drought. I do struggle to see how this arrangement isn't just socialism with another name. It's not just W&S's project, it's the people's project!

What public money was spent on QCS besides the $3.7M for streetscape improvements? Out of the $322 million for the project, American Financial contributed $318. There were TIF bonds that were issued by the port, but besides the $3.7M the city paid out for the streetscape improvements, the city has gotten that back in just 6 months after opening due to the $7.7M in annual tax revenue. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/05/26/daily31.html http://urbanup.net/cities/ohio/cincinnati-ohio/downtown/queen-city-square/ https://cincyopolis.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/wtf-hamilton-county-board-of-revision-the-real-cost-of-30-year-abatements/ Ok PAlexander, I went to the web address supplied and it's a blog where somebody appears to be ranting. There is the portion what I think the person in the blog referred to as subsidies or what is commonly known as a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) which is $54M. The TIF bonds in the case of QCS are from the taxes that would've gone to the city coffers, but instead go towards repaying bonds. No money is coming from the city and going to the QCS project. It's just deferring city taxes on the tower for a period of time in the beginning. So in the beginning when the city taxes are paid on the building it gets re-routed to repaying the TIF bonds. The TIF bonds are essentially borrowing against future increases in real estate taxes. You can see the financing details broken out here: http://www.eaglerealtygroup.com/pdf/052808QCSPortAuthorityApproval.pdf Let me get this straight because I don't really understand how this works: The port authority actually owns QCS, which they paid for by issuing bonds, which W&S immediately bought. So W&S used "their own money" to pay for QCS. However, the bonds will someday come due, because bonds are just debt that someone holds. So the port will have to pay W&S back. They will have raised a lot of the money from the lease income that W&S pays to the port. But $54 million of it will be raised by the TIF, aka diverting the increase in property tax on the improvements (new building) into a fund, which will then be paid out to the bond holder...W&S.

Last time I checked, 3CDC does not own many buildings north of Kroger. Actually, the number of parcels they own north of Liberty in general, compared to south of Liberty, is surprisingly small.

Not built to last, but easily repairable.

See, here I thought reading the BC headline that Cranely was going to veto the more expensive option. But no, he's going to veto the cheaper option so he can force cutbacks to the service in hopes that it makes the project fail. Can you be arrested for failing as mayor to perform in a fiduciary capacity?

If landscaping looks lush and full as soon as you put it in, you're doing it wrong.

What about 12th and Vine? That garage has never been full any time I've ever used it.

I honestly think that what will ultimately do in the surface lots will simply be driverless cars. Unless you're going to regulate them out of town or tax them out of profitability, parking lots will always exist becuase the car itself and its influence on urban form is what makes it economical to own empty land in the center of a city. It is both the problem and the solution to its own problem. A never-ending circle.

The city budget to $800,000 is an average salary to $40. Dull yet opinionated and entitled Americans fret over absolute numbers with weak grasp of scale or context. That said, pushing through the union contract is a political loser. I once again agree with Amy Murray.

My mom is a 17 year real estate veteran and she says she has no idea what the market is doing right now. She thinks "its still trying to figure itself out" and everyone is waiting to see what is going to happen. She has young clients right now who want to buy, for instance, in the established northeast suburbs but have been out-bid on every purchase offer. Like those areas are in a Las Vegas style housing bubble. Meanwhile, properties in slightly less desirable areas just sit. She has others - baby boomers - who would live downtown but feel there is nothing available. None of her clients are interested in buying new construction in far-flung areas.

Oh, look, it's the poverty debate. Whites need to pay up! No, blacks need to buck up! No, whites need to pay up! No, blacks need to buck up! https://youtu.be/T0K14HBSWw0?t=31s

The banks would have taken a long time to complete either way, probably longer if there wasn't leadership that valued compromise and professionalism like Mallory did. Remember that the whole stadium agreement was completely and utterly dorked up and required the co-operation of a lot of different parties with competiting interest. The old Cincinnati way was to whip up an argument over every little detail to the point where people were just yelling and screaming at each other, the city needed leadership that was more mature than that pettiness and was willing to get things done. Think bigger picture too - what's a better asset to the city from a big picture perspective? A one of a kind neighborhood with a history that rivals that of many a tourist destinations and frankly is the ONLY neighborhood like it in the whole Midwest or a new neighborhood between two stadiums. Both are important, one would be key to the success of Cincinnati as a region, Cincinnati WAY undersells its historic and architectural assets - and OTR is a neighborhood that could if marketed correctly put Cincinnati into the national consciousness. Right now people look at Cincy from outside Cincy as a typical boring Midwestern city, a fully revitalized OTR is the opposite of that. I guess its because I grew up just outside of Dayton and have been traveling since I was a young kid that I see the potential when a lot of people in Cincinnati are incapable of understanding it. Even before I dove deep into the history of Cincinnati I knew something was different about it - looking at the buildings pretty much told me that as no other city around it has buildings like Cincy does. I would also throw out there that it came to be realized in the early 2000s that sports stadiums, especially football stadiums, are not good economic anchors. They didn't fulfill their promise as magnets for jobs and housing, because that's not what stadiums do. I believe this is part of the paradigm shift in urban planning and real estate development in general that took place last decade; it's really the basics that redevelop neighborhoods: walkability, proximity to jobs, good historic fabric, targeted financial incentives, and investments in appropriately scaled infrastructure. It's not IMAX theaters, football stadiums, ferris wheels, etc. I think Mallory did have a bit of a "chase the cool things" streak, but he was chasing the right ones.

When they arrive, will they just sit in the barn? Or will they take them out onto the streets? Or can they not do that until the whole line is energized?

Saying Cranley has been moving things along during his term is frankly disingenuous. I think we all know that. But to say that Luken had a failed tenure is not true either. He is a smart man and he did understand that the city would redevelop from the inside out, beginning with downtown and OTR. 3CDC was born under his tenure, and the police collaborative agreement after the riots.