I posted a couple paragraphs of response on the Urbanophile website, but the gist of it is that I'd take high-quality urban sameness over low-quality suburban sameness any day. 

I think this is especially a problem in new construction, and it's extremely visible with our local chains like Senate, Eagle and Bakersfield. These are easily repeatable, and when they find themselves in new construction they are generic (another example is Condado in Short North vs it's more generic forms in Easton / the Banks).

 

It's only the unique eccentricities that come from a 100 year old building in a 100+ year old neighborhood that really make these places truly unique. That is exactly why OTR will always be more interesting to me than most other Midwestern enclaves.

I think this is especially a problem in new construction, and it's extremely visible with our local chains like Senate, Eagle and Bakersfield. These are easily repeatable, and when they find themselves in new construction they are generic (another example is Condado in Short North vs it's more generic forms in Easton / the Banks).

 

It's only the unique eccentricities that come from a 100 year old building in a 100+ year old neighborhood that really make these places truly unique. That is exactly why OTR will always be more interesting to me than most other Midwestern enclaves.

 

Sort of like how all the Chipotle restaurants in new buildings are trying to hard to pretend like they're old, and they do a better job than most (the exposed bar joists and ductwork you can get in any new commercial building works with the industrial aesthetic they have), but it still comes off as a bit forced.  The Clifton Avenue location was their first one here, and it's definitely the coolest.  But it's also the only one in an old building. 

 

Don Pablo's, which has been a fixture at Rookwood Pavilion has also recently closed.  That's kind of an interesting and sad situation because they based other new locations on the design of the Rookwood (LeBlond Machine Tools) power house.  Unfortunately, being a strip mall, it's unlikely that anything but another chain is going to be put in there. 

To be clear, I have no problem with these types of establishments even if have become a bit cookie cutter looking. I will seek out good pour-over coffee from a third wave coffee shop before going into a Starbucks any day. The existence of these places is indeed a sign that the general public's tastes are improving.

 

The reason it came up in this thread back in February, and the reason Aaron Renn posted an article about it, is to point out that these types of places simply aren't enough to make your city successful. Every mid-size or larger American city now has great coffee, great artisanal donuts, great hipster tacos, great BBQ served on butcher paper, etc. It is now considered par for the course to have great food. The cities that thrive will be the ones that can push beyond this and play up the actual uniqueness of their city.

Don Pablo's, which has been a fixture at Rookwood Pavilion has also recently closed.  That's kind of an interesting and sad situation because they based other new locations on the design of the Rookwood (LeBlond Machine Tools) power house.  Unfortunately, being a strip mall, it's unlikely that anything but another chain is going to be put in there. 

 

I would LMAO if the former Don Pablo's space became a Bakersfield.

Don Pablo's, which has been a fixture at Rookwood Pavilion has also recently closed.  That's kind of an interesting and sad situation because they based other new locations on the design of the Rookwood (LeBlond Machine Tools) power house.  Unfortunately, being a strip mall, it's unlikely that anything but another chain is going to be put in there. 

 

I would LMAO if the former Don Pablo's space became a Bakersfield.

 

We have too many breweries but it would make a great brewery.

Don Pablo's, which has been a fixture at Rookwood Pavilion has also recently closed.  That's kind of an interesting and sad situation because they based other new locations on the design of the Rookwood (LeBlond Machine Tools) power house.  Unfortunately, being a strip mall, it's unlikely that anything but another chain is going to be put in there. 

 

I would LMAO if the former Don Pablo's space became a Bakersfield.

 

We have too many breweries but it would make a great brewery.

There's no such thing as too many breweries

So, cities are getting better, and the public's tastes are getting better. Small businesses with some degree of  uniqueness are thriving instead of everybody going to TGI Fridays? Sounds like a good thing to me.

 

It's TGI Friday's by any other name. These quasi-local restaurants are all unique in exactly the same way. Chains like Skyline and Gold Star are fixtures and borderline ubiquitous around Cincinnati, but they're far, far more unique than places like Senate and Bakersfield, which have parallels in every city in the country. 

 

Since the 90s there has been an explosion of the bohemian junk shop aesthetic in local bars and restaurants which melded with the industrial chic look (concrete floors, exposed ductwork, bare Edison bulbs) to create 99% of what goes on today.  Meanwhile the hipster wannabe bohemian style has shifted from "make believe trucker" to "make believe bicycle messenger" to " make believe craftsman".  Beards, copious forearm tattoos.  Look at me, I can write code with one hand a wittle with the other. 

I'm starting to notice a rift between the make believe craftsmen and the surging '90s sportswear crowd.

What exactly is the "make believe craftsman?" Are these the guys that pretend to be blue collar guys but couldn't fix a leaky faucet?

I really am not fond of Aaron Renn or his blog these days. He seems to be quite critical, and often rehashes the same points over and over again. Also, I see that the famous troll Matthew67 is a PROLIFIC commentor on that site. He spams almost every article with his same old bullshit about Cincinnati and its dastardly elites. Guy is a total whack job, but people who are unfamiliar with his unhinged rants probably believe everything he posts. What an ass.

The reason it came up in this thread back in February, and the reason Aaron Renn posted an article about it, is to point out that these types of places simply aren't enough to make your city successful. Every mid-size or larger American city now has great coffee, great artisanal donuts, great hipster tacos, great BBQ served on butcher paper, etc. It is now considered par for the course to have great food. The cities that thrive will be the ones that can push beyond this and play up the actual uniqueness of their city.

 

In fairness, it's also OK to evaluate whether a city is even keeping pace, as well as going further to get additional differentiation.  It might seem like every little city has a few decent craft breweries and independent restaurants now, but that's not actually the case.  Same with high-quality housing in the urban core in and in walkable first-ring neighborhoods.  Same with more fundamental, infrastructural level concerns like public transit, ridesharing, etc.

 

Honestly, I think those bread and butter level amenities that don't necessarily differentiate one mid-tier city from another are actually more important than "play[ing] up the actual uniqueness of their city."  For the vast majority of the American population, life is still local for the vast majority of the year, even if you take an annual vacation or occasionally visit family in friends in another nearby city on the weekend.  Therefore, the fact that other cities might also have good craft beer is less important than the fact that my own city does, because in my day-to-day life, what matters isn't whether my city is drawing in thousands of tourists to experience Akron beer but whether I get to experience it regularly as a local rather than making a more more expensive and time-consuming trip to another city.  I don't need to fight over whether the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Towpath Trail, or the MetroParks Fall Hiking Spree, are truly "unique" or really aren't differentiated from other bike and nature trails and programs in other regions.  What matters is that they're here; if other cities have high-quality versions of those things, too, so much the better.

So, cities are getting better, and the public's tastes are getting better. Small businesses with some degree of  uniqueness are thriving instead of everybody going to TGI Fridays? Sounds like a good thing to me.

 

It's TGI Friday's by any other name. These quasi-local restaurants are all unique in exactly the same way. Chains like Skyline and Gold Star are fixtures and borderline ubiquitous around Cincinnati, but they're far, far more unique than places like Senate and Bakersfield, which have parallels in every city in the country.

 

Well, you picked the most unique fast food chains in Cincinnati (which, most cities have nothing like Skyline or Gold Star in terms of uniqueness) and put them up against two of the most formulaic 'hipster' restaurants in Cincinnati. I think the general trend still holds that people are eating at more unique/creative places than they were 20 years ago.

There have always been tons of independent restaurants, bars, coffee shops, breweries, etc. in every city, it's just that that few of them last more than ten years.  There was an entire crop of microbreweries that rose and fell in the 1990s.  But now there's no denying that there is one dominant stylistic trend for interior décor and the exact same sort of people can be found in any of these places nationwide. 

 

Read Don DeLillo's White Noise from 1985.  All this stuff -- locally sourced food, etc., was not only happening by then but was parodied by the author decades before it went mainstream, i.e. expanded to yupsters everywhere.  This stuff was all going on in college towns and around colleges in big cities the whole time, it just didn't expand much beyond that. 

 

Yuppie stuff goes in and out of style.  The search for the next -ster trend is the yupster id, it is an unstoppable primal force.   

 

Interior design and design in general has always had its trends.  This can be seen in restaurant interiors with exposed ducts and industrial motif.  In residential design it's about open floor plan, barn doors, granite counters, and stainless appliances.  People's attire and hair style also trends.  I don't think it is anything different now. 

Interior design and design in general has always had its trends.  This can be seen in restaurant interiors with exposed ducts and industrial motif.  In residential design it;s about open floor plan, bard doors, granite counters, and stainless appliances.  People's attire and hair style also trends.  I don't think it is anything different now. 

 

 

The general shift has been away from old-timey and ornate woodwork with a restaurant trying to prove how much history it had with 8x10 glossies of famous people who had been there and so on. 

 

The big recent trick has been getting rich people to overpay for cheap food.  Steak is out, tater tots are in.  So one night of the week the yupster drops big dollars for artisanal health food, then the next $9 (or rather just 9 on the menu) for 11 cents worth of tater tots topped by 23 cents worth of avocado. 

 

 

I really am not fond of Aaron Renn or his blog these days. He seems to be quite critical, and often rehashes the same points over and over again. Also, I see that the famous troll Matthew67 is a PROLIFIC commentor on that site. He spams almost every article with his same old bullshit about Cincinnati and its dastardly elites. Guy is a total whack job, but people who are unfamiliar with his unhinged rants probably believe everything he posts. What an ass.

 

Thank You! for this post. I agree he just seems so damn critical and well, sort of a smug know-it-all these days.  I am glad I am not the only one who has noticed this. And it is not only that he is critical, it is that he is so critical of certain areas while ignoring the same things happening in other areas. I am waiting for his post he alluded to about finishing his thoughts on Columbus, and I know that whatever is said there will be a backhanded slap to go with it- a sort of "Bless their heart" kind of thing.

 

 

 

* I could also quite happily go through the rest of my life without ever again hearing anything about Cincy's alleged 'incestuous' economic, social, and political elites.

 

*Also looking at his latest post this morning, it is always that whenever he posts something and gets some flack for it, it is that the readers/responders did not 'get it' or are defensive-never that he himself might have gotten it a little wrong or worded things the wrong way.  Never a 'maybe I might need to think about this some more' or anything like that. He will often just double down quite defensively himself.

And I wish that, since he is writing in a blog, he might actually proofread his work and not just rely on spellcheck or something. There is a big difference between 'find' and 'fine' that spellcheck, etc. will not catch. Just sayin' and all-it bothers me seeing that in blogs and also on news sites. And Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati are not "radically different cities". They may have differences, but they are not radically different. Moscow and Karachi might be "radically" different.

 

^I think academic-types and armchair "urbanists" don't like him because he doesn't just go along with the prevailing sentiment on whatever issue. 

^I think academic-types and armchair "urbanists" don't like him because he doesn't just go along with the prevailing sentiment on whatever issue. 

'

What I have noticed is a change, as in the part of the post I quoted- "these days". Maybe in the last year or less? I did not used to see it this way. Despite my critical "venting" post, I still enjoy reading his blog despite my criticisms. I would hardly think he (or anyone here) would care since I am not a "target demographic" for either site. I guess actually seeing a post that caught what I had just been thinking a bit brought out a bit of the "let me get this off my mind" in me.

 

Have you noticed any kind of "change" in the last year or so in his blog posts? I actually find myself agreeing with him on 'unpopular' things like his critical take on Nashville and it's failed mass transit plan. Is it less the individual specific parts and more the presentation of general ideas?-I am not sure.

I don't read his blog religiously.  I have met him 2-3 times in real life and he has a "hard" personality that I think turns a lot of people off but I'm used to those kinds of people. 

 

Too much of the writing on Citylab, Streetsblog, etc., reads to much like it was written by committee.  I think Angie Schmidt is pretty pragmatic and frankly pretty funny.  But too many of the other people are unwilling to upset the blob. 

I like his blog. I got into a thing a couple years ago reading a lot of city-lab then kind of realized I was reading the same exact stuff almost everyday. I like Renn's take because he kind of goes city to city with his criticisms and also praise at times. He gives a more objective measure or at least more interesting for myself then City Lab at least was a couple years ago, where it seems to concentrate more on the biggest cities. Just my opinion.

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

One other thing that Aaron Renn has going for him is that he usually approaches issues from a fiscally conservative perspective, similar to Strong Towns. It's nice to be able to point to people like him and show that there are good reasons why we should make certain investments in our urban areas, like improving public transit with BRT-quality bus systems, and it will have a positive ROI; and that spending billions on widening highways in the suburbs typically doesn't. I don't agree with the people on that side of the aisle 100% of the time but it is important to have conservative pro-city voices, especially when so much of the country thinks that only "granola-eating, latte-sipping, Nancy Pelosi-worshiping libs" live in cities.

Pretty sure Renn is a Trump supporter, and his Twitter is filled with conservative BS hot takes. He comes off as an insecure Hoosier who made his way to the big city and now thinks he's hot sh**. Pass.

 

Beyond that, I think his blog is generally lacking in nuance. For example, his post about domestic migration in Indy, Columbus, and Minneapolis was basically just a graph and a quip about how these cities need to step their games up. There was no discussion about how these cities have managed to grow despite domestic migration challenges, or any sort of analysis really. I don’t expect long form journalism from a blog, but for someone who seems to take himself and his blog super seriously, it’d be nice to see some more thought provoking content than graphs and generalities about the Midwest. His piece on the sameness of cities was really dumb, I thought. Oh, there are interior design and culinary trends that are taking root nationwide? How novel! I didn’t see much critical thought in that piece. It was something I’d expect to see on buzzfeed or something.

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

 

So country music is now "low class culture"? ELITIST SNOB!!! lol.  I think Cbus should then go for state fair stuff(we could be the "it" city with food on a stick), and bowling.

 

*He mentions Indy a lot but is often not very kind to it. I will never forget how he described the city as 'built on the cheap' and with significant parts of it looking like a small rural town because of lack of sidewalks, curbs, storms sewers, etc..  He posted pics of his own street I believe as an example.

 

I will admit he is not afraid to call out things as he sees them. Maybe being in NYC has made him even a bit rougher. I am now kind of hoping he has forgotten about his upcoming post on Cbus. That crazy guy who used to post here, got banned from here(and other sites) and is now on City Data and spars with jbcmh81 has enough negativity towards the city for everyone.

The price of success:  170 Clevelanders protest property assessment increases. The area is going to hear more of this as success spreads.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/08/cleveland_residents_upset_with.html

 

My justsdiction reassess property every five years and phases the increase in over the same period.  It keeps the protest noise level at a dull roar. 

One other thing that Aaron Renn has going for him is that he usually approaches issues from a fiscally conservative perspective, similar to Strong Towns. It's nice to be able to point to people like him and show that there are good reasons why we should make certain investments in our urban areas, like improving public transit with BRT-quality bus systems, and it will have a positive ROI; and that spending billions on widening highways in the suburbs typically doesn't. I don't agree with the people on that side of the aisle 100% of the time but it is important to have conservative pro-city voices, especially when so much of the country thinks that only "granola-eating, latte-sipping, Nancy Pelosi-worshiping libs" live in cities.

 

Market Urbanism is a good follow for the same reason. I like to get analysis for urbanism from a broad political spectrum.  It makes it easier to shut down the pro-sprawl noise makers.

Pretty sure Renn is a Trump supporter, and his Twitter is filled with conservative BS hot takes. He comes off as an insecure Hoosier who made his way to the big city and now thinks he's hot sh**. Pass.

 

Beyond that, I think his blog is generally lacking in nuance. For example, his post about domestic migration in Indy, Columbus, and Minneapolis was basically just a graph and a quip about how these cities need to step their games up. There was no discussion about how these cities have managed to grow despite domestic migration challenges, or any sort of analysis really. I don’t expect long form journalism from a blog, but for someone who seems to take himself and his blog super seriously, it’d be nice to see some more thought provoking content than graphs and generalities about the Midwest. His piece on the sameness of cities was really dumb, I thought. Oh, there are interior design and culinary trends that are taking root nationwide? How novel! I didn’t see much critical thought in that piece. It was something I’d expect to see on buzzfeed or something.

 

I guess you're referencing this article: http://www.newgeography.com/content/006071-northern-cities-need-ramp-it-up-attraction

 

I've had run-ins with him on this particular issue in the past, because the numbers are misleading.  He uses numbers from the IRS, which are not considered to be as accurate as Census figures, and those don't agree with his numbers whatsoever.  The chart that he uses shows negative net out-of-state domestic migration for Columbus in 2015-2016, but the Census shows the direct opposite.  Adding up the counties for the metro area, Columbus gained 2,756 in that time according to the Census, almost all of which ended up in Franklin County.  That total more than doubled from the previous period.  The numbers for domestic migration overall have been trending upward, not down as his chart shows. 

Why he uses the less-reliable figures has always annoyed me, especially when he uses them to make condescending posts like that.

Another point of contention is that he makes it out to be only a Midwest thing that most cities/metros attract most domestic migration from their home states, but that's true for the vast majority of national metros.  It intentionally tries to create an issue that isn't one.

 

 

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

 

So country music is now "low class culture"? ELITIST SNOB!!! lol.  I think Cbus should then go for state fair stuff(we could be the "it" city with food on a stick), and bowling.

 

*He mentions Indy a lot but is often not very kind to it. I will never forget how he described the city as 'built on the cheap' and with significant parts of it looking like a small rural town because of lack of sidewalks, curbs, storms sewers, etc..  He posted pics of his own street I believe as an example.

 

I will admit he is not afraid to call out things as he sees them. Maybe being in NYC has made him even a bit rougher. I am now kind of hoping he has forgotten about his upcoming post on Cbus. That crazy guy who used to post here, got banned from here(and other sites) and is now on City Data and spars with jbcmh81 has enough negativity towards the city for everyone.

 

You are talking about the Minneapolis guy, I assume. 

I was waiting for you guys to start going at it on the Kunstler forum but it got shut down before you ran into each other.

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

 

So country music is now "low class culture"? ELITIST SNOB!!! lol. 

 

My parents moved to Nashville in the 90s, when the TNN Dance Ranch was the city's image and that creepy Gary Chapman guy.  My brother saw that guy buying drugs in the Green Hills Mall parking lot. 

 

 

 

 

Has Kunstler contributed anything to urban design discourse in the last...5 years?  He's gone all-in on the long emergency, financial shenanigans, and various economic rants, which is fine in small doses, but not when it's 100% of your shtick. 

Not much. That's why I stopped going.

I don't read his blog religiously.  I have met him 2-3 times in real life and he has a "hard" personality that I think turns a lot of people off but I'm used to those kinds of people. 

 

Too much of the writing on Citylab, Streetsblog, etc., reads to much like it was written by committee.  I think Angie Schmidt is pretty pragmatic and frankly pretty funny.  But too many of the other people are unwilling to upset the blob. 

Angie's always struck me as carrying on the Bartimole tradition.  The latter day "you damn kids get off my lawn!" one.

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

 

So country music is now "low class culture"? ELITIST SNOB!!! lol. 

 

My parents moved to Nashville in the 90s, when the TNN Dance Ranch was the city's image and that creepy Gary Chapman guy.  My brother saw that guy buying drugs in the Green Hills Mall parking lot. 

 

This was Nashville in the 90s:

 

...but look at 'er now!!!

 

 

^Yeah Aaron Renn now lives in NYC but still covers issues in and around Indianapolis, which otherwise would receive zero attention from any nationally-known writer. 

 

So country music is now "low class culture"? ELITIST SNOB!!! lol.  I think Cbus should then go for state fair stuff(we could be the "it" city with food on a stick), and bowling.

 

*He mentions Indy a lot but is often not very kind to it. I will never forget how he described the city as 'built on the cheap' and with significant parts of it looking like a small rural town because of lack of sidewalks, curbs, storms sewers, etc..  He posted pics of his own street I believe as an example.

 

I will admit he is not afraid to call out things as he sees them. Maybe being in NYC has made him even a bit rougher. I am now kind of hoping he has forgotten about his upcoming post on Cbus. That crazy guy who used to post here, got banned from here(and other sites) and is now on City Data and spars with jbcmh81 has enough negativity towards the city for everyone.

 

You are talking about the Minneapolis guy, I assume. 

 

Yes. He is just unhinged really. I have rarely seen anything like it. He stalks that Columbus development thread on City Data like some hungry vulture. I am not a member there and just read posts and am not that familiar with the rules, but I don't see how he gets away with that obvious trolling. While I read posts there, I would never be a member of a site like that.

Pretty sure Renn is a Trump supporter, and his Twitter is filled with conservative BS hot takes. He comes off as an insecure Hoosier who made his way to the big city and now thinks he's hot sh**. Pass.

 

Beyond that, I think his blog is generally lacking in nuance. For example, his post about domestic migration in Indy, Columbus, and Minneapolis was basically just a graph and a quip about how these cities need to step their games up. There was no discussion about how these cities have managed to grow despite domestic migration challenges, or any sort of analysis really. I don’t expect long form journalism from a blog, but for someone who seems to take himself and his blog super seriously, it’d be nice to see some more thought provoking content than graphs and generalities about the Midwest. His piece on the sameness of cities was really dumb, I thought. Oh, there are interior design and culinary trends that are taking root nationwide? How novel! I didn’t see much critical thought in that piece. It was something I’d expect to see on buzzfeed or something.

 

Ugh! I did not need to know this!

That Matt guy has some crazy comments on Urbanophile always trashing Cincinnati. I see some people who I think aren't from this board defending Cincinnati to him, same thing that happened here obviously to a smaller extent.

 

I think there was an article about how some small cities seem to have a lot of traffic or something similar. Matt made some comment like: "the only reason Cincinnati has traffic is because the city has a really big problem with people cruising the streets for no other reason than to cruise. Most of all the traffic is from that, otherwise there is no traffic in Cincinnati."

 

It's like dude, are you serious here? Maybe Cincy has less traffic than other big cities sure, but to say it is from people cruising? Maybe just because the metro is 2.2 million and I-75 is a massive highway. This isn't Peoria, IL

 

Edit: Found the quote for laughs:

 

"Matt says

 

August 3, 2018 at 2:43 pm

 

I wonder if Aaron experienced small town cruising. Cincinnati isn’t a small town, but it has few traffic issues as a slow growing medium sized metro except for cruising in certain parts of town. Downtown Cincinnati is filled with what we used to call “hooptie cars” when I was growing up. I don’t know if that term is still used but we used the term to mean large garish customized cars with extremely loud music driven by young black men aggressively cruising select locations over and over again. They drive continuously around downtown and other central neighborhoods endlessly. It creates real traffic issues and some dangerous situations where there would otherwise be none. I’ve never seen the police engage any of these drivers. When I was young, hooptie car drivers drove as slowly as they could and sought to engage people in other cars and those walking. They’d even park and try to lure young women to get in and take a ‘ride’ with them. Now, there’s no free parking on the streets in central Cincy and young women seem to have gotten smarter and don’t engage the hooptie drivers. Now, they drive as quickly and unpredictably as they can in a game of chicken with other drivers and pedestrians. They’re the only real source of traffic congestion and accidents in parts of Cincinnati. Cincinnati’s hooptie car scene is larger and more aggressive than any I’ve seen in an of the six cities in which I’ve spent significant periods of time. Some Cincinnatians don’t even seem to realize that the hooptie cars are the source of traffic congestion."

 

Jesus, the real reason Cincinnati has more traffic than say, Columbus, is that the placement of the roads is constrained by terrain. Lancaster is congested in the same way and has no hoopties.

He is just unhinged really. I have rarely seen anything like it. He stalks that Columbus development thread on City Data like some hungry vulture. I am not a member there and just read posts and am not that familiar with the rules, but I don't see how he gets away with that obvious trolling. While I read posts there, I would never be a member of a site like that.

 

I sent an email to Aaron Renn re: that "Matt" guy but he obviously didn't do anything about it.  I don't waste my time engaging "Matt". 

 

BTW I was booted off City-Data for "trolling", when in fact all I was doing was correcting the trolls and complaining to admins about the trolls.  The admins were fooled by the actual trolls.  That site is just unbelievably bad. 

 

 

Is that "Matt" guy serious or is he just Cincinnati's version of Ken M? I could never really tell.

 

Not to get too far off topic, but I've been in 3 car accidents in my life, none of which were my fault, but all of which were caused by folks driving what you might call "hoopties" so maybe he's on to something there. None of the other drivers had insurance, which was a pain. Only one guy bothered to show up to court - wherein he refused to testify, did not cross examine me, and based his case entirely on a bizarre and unfruitful cross examination of a sweet little old lady in her Sunday best who surprisingly showed up as a witness. His argument hinged on the nuance of who had hit whom, though he slipped up by admitting he had run a red light.

^I don't doubt he is incorrect about the Hooptie scene, but my point was that he was attributing all of Cincinnati's gridlock to Hooptie cars, literally makes no sense and is patently false. I had never heard that ever in my life but he passes it on as fact:

 

"Some Cincinnatians don’t even seem to realize that the hooptie cars are the source of traffic congestion."

I think we've stumbled across Cincinnati's elusive brand. Hooptie City!

 

For real, though, I would have to visit a place if this were such a big thing there. It sounds like a sight to behold.

His complaint is a little dogwhistley.

What Makes Rent “Affordable”?

America’s standard metric compares rents to incomes. That doesn’t tell the whole story.

https://slate.com/business/2018/10/rental-affordability-metric-complicated.html

 

 

The Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota has released this new report and interactive map looking at how neighborhoods are changing across America. I would recommend playing around with their interactive map, it's really fascinating.

 

The prevailing idea that Cincinnati is gentrifying and a lot of displacement is happening as a result is just not backed up by the data. There are a handful of very small sections of the city (and Northern Kentucky) that are rapidly gentrifying, but far more examples of neighborhoods that are seeing a rapid concentration of low income residents, and where middle and high income residents are moving away. (The study notes that there are only a small number of cities, "primarily located on the eastern and western coasts," where gentrification/displacement is the prevailing trend rather than concentration of poverty.)

 

The "fastest gentrifying" area in Cincinnati's urban core is the SW quadrant of OTR, which gained 288 middle-to-high income residents but lost 1396 low income residents between 2000 and 2016; meaning it went from 84.7% low income in 2000 to 63% in 2016.

 

Compare that to one of the districts in Westwood, which lost 1779 middle-to-high income residents but gained 3058 lower income residents; meaning it grew from 21.6% low income in 2000 to 50.5% in 2016.

You can pull up a map of your neighborhood, city or metro area and census tract data using a map tool in this article....

 

The Neighborhood Is Mostly Black. The Home Buyers Are Mostly White.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/27/upshot/diversity-housing-maps-raleigh-gentrification.html

I found this video to be pretty impactful.  It's impossible to miss the bewilderment from all who are shown here by the lightning-fast redevelopment of Austin...and the way that the rich people moving in both a)like being around "authentic" people to show off to their rich friends elsewhere b) don't actually give a damn about them.