Civvik

^ It's progressing, yes, but its just concrete right now. Other than satisfying our compulsive urge to click the webcam, rest assured that you're not missing too much yet. Once things look truly different plenty of people are gonna be on here taking pictures.

The issue is caught up in a political dispute inside of a state government entity called the Controlling Board.

^Let's keep this above-board, people.

You persevere, because this is a political arena and not a controlled debate, so you have no choice. You also clarify the opposition who has an agenda and the opposition who does not. There is a difference between the campaign of misinformation against rail and the deep down issues that trend the general population one way or the other. I only speak for myself, but I truly think that this issue, like many, will be battled emotionally. And I think that Ohio is currently in a kind of collective mild depression. Afraid, unwilling to take risks, unwilling to invest. We aren't even talking about a whole lot of money here, relatively. I have never experienced overt hatred or even much rivalry toward Cleveland in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is incredibly insular; if anything I see apathy towards northern Ohio, but its the same disinterest that Cincinnati feels towards more or less everywhere else. Part of this of course is the political climate in southern Ohio, but part of it, I think, is that the region doesn't feel connected to any greater urban heirarchy. Maybe Chicago. But, well, this is about connecting Ohio, not Cincy to Chicago.

Is the epoxy what makes the rebar green?

Civvik, can you explain why northern neighbor Michigan $upports and is upgrading Amtrak lines through its State? Is not Michigan more car oriented, spread out and less densely populated than Ohio? ... I think the answer is "yes" to all 3. On top of that, none of Michigan cities, most notably its largest metro area, Detroit, which is bigger by far than any Ohio metro area, lacks the "complentary infrastructure" you speak of.... You're really reaching, Dude (assuming you're a dude). The mentality of people such as yourself totally befuddles me and supports the metaphor that Ohio is an "island" when it comes to passenger rail -- physically and mentally. Sorry, "dude." I am reaching because I am attempting to get inside the heads of Ohioans who are obstinately against rail. If you knew me, you would know that I am far from a rail hater. I don't expect you to know me of course, although if you would read that post more thoroughly, you would notice the "while I support 3C" and the particular choice of "understand" the opposition as opposed to "agree with" them. We cannot dismiss the opposition as entirely ignorant and irrational, however tempting it may be.

Any self-selective barrier to the actual clicking makes it less representative. But I'm really just bitching, because I'm lazy.

And again, to play my broken record, while I support 3C, I totally understand Ohioans' resistance to rail because the combination of proximity and density of destinations and absence of complementary infrastructure brings up too many doubts. IE, we are simultaneously too close, too far, too dense, and not dense enough for this to make intuitive sense to the average person.

Won't let me vote without registering. This automatically means its not very scientific.

A billion dollars will have been spent to reconnect the riverfront to downtown. That's why access should be as high as possible, by a diversity of modes. This does not mean the streets cannot become pedestrian at certain times. It's certainly a special place. But again, cars are not enemies, they are just one more mode of transportation.

America does not have a good history with pedestrian streets. Most cutting edge planners now tend to favor streets that accommodate many forms of travel; bike, ped, car, mixed ROW rail, whatever. Part of being urban is being accessible, even to cars. Just because America devoted nearly everything to cars does not mean they are inherently bad or even anti-urban. They are just one more way to get around. In this sense, the Banks planners did not miss the boat at all.

^ I would. I've got to have my Chipotle. Did anyone notice how the rendered aerial is totally embellished with buildings that aren't in the site plan? Was there going to be more of a lifestyle main street at some point in this process?

New Office Tower On Schedule, Nearly Full CINCINNATI -- The Queen City Tower will add about 1 million square feet of office and retail space downtown, and developers said most of that space has already been filled. "Our goal is to be pretty much totally leased up by the time we open the building next year," said Tom Stapelton, of Eagle Realty. http://www.wlwt.com/news/22709383/detail.html

Yeah I can also say that I think out of 7 of us, I was the only one happy with my meal. And they had run out of a bunch of stuff. It was kind of a mess. But I loved seeing Vine so active at night.

Attempted to have dinner at the Senate last night. My party started trying before 8 and they were still on an indefinite wait two hours later. We ate at Lavomatic, which was also full. Good times.

^ I have edited the above post to remove needless testing of Mods' authority, while preserving the relevant parts of the response. We hope you're enjoying your stay at UrbanOhio. Have a great day. :)

Actually, if I may, I believe in the idea that our advances occur when we stop fighting nature and make a more honest attempt to understand it. Agriculture, germ theory, flight, all products of a quiet and persistent observation of nature, and a great deal of modesty. Hunting, exorcisms, jumping off cliffs in bird suits, all expressions of our will to push against nature before a better paradigm was discovered. It's my opinion that our tenacity is simply our will to survive, not our source of power. Our power comes in understanding systems.

^This was an interesting read, but it's hard for me to take seriously someone who compares Hiroshima to the march of the Nazis.

It doesn't matter how heroic the job is. Demographic realities prevent a solvent retirement system as we know it. And on that note, let's try to get back on topic! (I know there's not too much to talk about while we wait for the next funding announcement.)

Old people will just have to keep working, or the economy collapses. You don't get to work for 35 years and then retire for 35 more, unless you're socking away massive savings. There is no debating this. It's like debating the oxygen supply in a sealed room.

That was nice, Jack threw the mayor some softballs. For once. The poor man deserves it. He's doing good for Cincy.

Frankly I don't think there is anything Ohio can do. We can't copy Pennsylvania's turnaround because I fear we would need a 5M+ metro with lots of national universities to spark a biotech/services renaissance. Our weather sucks. We're kind of broke. On the other hand, necessity is the mother of invention. Many people in Ohio like it the way it is, or they can't afford to leave. I tend to believe that Ohio would be better off with one large city; that in a post-industrial economy our flock of mid-size cities is more liability than asset. But if I were God and I could push people and resources around within the state, I don't even know where I'd start. Would I go for direct competition with Chicago, and make another Great Lakes metropolis in the finest Burnham tradition? Would I capitalize on the Midwestern image of Columbus, and build a clean, flat, highly educated metropolis that competed with Minneapolis, Boston, and Seattle? Or would I think outside the box and create Munich on the Ohio River, supercharging Cincinnati's unique setting as a "southern northern" metropolis, more conservative than the rest, but with great natural beauty and a high-tech economy.

Well, I guess all I'm saying is that it sounds like this charrette didn't have a strong goal, in the form of deliverables to a client. Were there deliverables? Was the client clearly defined? "The community" is not clearly defined. A one-time open community event on any topic is destined to bring out the drum-beaters. I say this purely out of empathy. In all the charrettes I've ever worked on, 90% of my time was spent keeping people on task. Several times I've had to give people an ultimatum to focus, or leave, because they hijack the process.

I disagree. The "particular interest" in the charrette was the community. This was the community input to the developer, who can take that input or not. The quality of the input is in question from this charrette due to those giving due in large part to their own unresolved issues, not those receiving it. Sorry you'll have to rephrase that, I don't understand the last sentence.