12 hours ago, Ram23 said:

Part of the problem is that OTR has too many parks, in general - but the big concern is that many are in sparsely populated parts of the neighborhood with few businesses and permanent residents, which means fewer eyes on the street. This ultimately induces, or at least enables crime. The city should close Grant and Hanna, sell the land, and use the proceeds to turn Findlay Playground into an attractive, accessible, inviting, and safe public space. It's 300 feet from Grant and around 1000 feet from Hanna, there aren't a lot of reasons to maintain all three, particularly when parks and/or park improvements are needed in other neighborhoods. Not to mention, the area in question is a 10 minute walk away from Washington and Ziegler Parks, two of the nicest parks in the city, and a short streetcar ride away from the world class Smale park.

 

 

I kind of agree.  I'm old enough to remember when there were buildings along Vine Street where the Findlay Playground is now.  Vine Street really isn't the place for a park.  There should be buildings there.

Maybe Findlay could be redeveloped given its context, but I am wary of any city giving away public spaces to private developers, it should be done in very rare cases.

47 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

Maybe Findlay could be redeveloped given its context, but I am wary of any city giving away public spaces to private developers, it should be done in very rare cases.

 

Findlay should absolutely be redeveloped. As other have noted, you could build a seriously dense Mercer style project their. 

 

It's interesting to note that Findley Playground used to be the hotspot for crime, but when they closed that park it migrated to Grant Park. 

 

If Findley park reopens does the crime return back to Findlay Park?

 

I know there is only so much police can do, but why not have police guards, maybe 3-5 that solely guard and protect that area 24/7. Like a night watch. 

 

Clearly it's the epicenter for crime in otr currently so why not have officers face down the crime and keep the peace. 

 

 

I see it both ways:

 

North of Liberty doesn't have a signature park like OTR and Pendleton.  Findlay park is right next to the market, and the market is looking to expand parking options.  Why not kill two birds with one stone and give it the Washington/Ziegler treatment? Thus allowing for Findlay parking lots to be redeveloped while all the parking moves to under Findlay park.  I can't imagine a better one-two Suburban Family Sunday punch than some shopping at Findlay market, lunch, and letting the kids play at Findlay park before heading home.    Also, IF the streetcar ever gets extended to UC, it will be going by the park constantly, adding even more eyes to the area.

 

If we feel like giving in to crime and selling off the park, then it better be a damn good proposal in order to bring density to the Northern Liberties. At least 6 stories tall, no built-in garage, unless it is underground.

Edited August 22, 20195 yr by 10albersa

19 hours ago, tonyalexander said:

 

Not true at all. Quite a few people working in the resource marshaling & planning stages on this one. I'm sure there will be more to come soon and all the folks in this forum will be great people to have your ideas and efforts involved!

 

I renovated and live in a house a block from Grant Park and am part of a partnership that owns a bunch of properties around it so I'm very invested and active in the direction we're going up this way. We've been working directly with the City and CPD at the highest levels during the recent crime spike but as other have mentioned, there are no easy or quick answers. We all know most of these issues get much better for everyone when abandoned properties get developed, new businesses open, and there is more activity around. All that is in process by us and others but just takes time. The area around Grant Park will look much different in 12-24 months, just as lots of areas just like it did all over OTR this past decade.

 

Is the plan to still keep it a park? Do you know? 

I would like to point out that after redevelopment of Ziegler park, you can now find children of various income levels playing on the equipment, and in the swimming pool.  So it is possible to create a successful mixed income neighborhood, and park.  It just isn't easy.   As was mentioned above, we clearly need to get the buildings rehabed/repopulated on McMicken/Clifton first.  Then pick the one neighborhood park to spend the money on.  Whether that is Grant or Findlay.  The Rothenberg academy also has their playground on Clifton almost right next door to Grant Playground.  

On 8/22/2019 at 10:05 AM, troeros said:

 

Is the plan to still keep it a park? Do you know? 

 

As of now, yes for both parks (though I'm not in the day-to-day loop). I've heard some other ideas for Findlay specifically but they are all in the "park/community" wheelhouse as well. The current planning combines Findlay and Grant park redevelopment. It's one initiative.

Old Anchor spot has a new tenant 

 

https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/crown-republic-owners-plan-to-open-steakhouse-in-former-anchor-otr-space/

 

no complaints there

I guess causal steakhouses are the current restaurant trend? No complaints from me, I'll give it a try.

11 hours ago, taestell said:

causal steakhouses

These places sound ~iNtElLeCtUaL~

 

Will we finally unify mechanics and relativity? Are butchered cows behind the big bang? Can't wait to find out.

Haha, meant to type "casual steakhouses" there, but also interested in this more existential variety.

To beef or not to beef, that is the question.

18 minutes ago, BigDipper 80 said:

To beef or not to beef, that is the question.

 

I choked on a steak last December and had to have it removed, at great expense, at a hospital.  $7,200, before insurance, to be exact.  So I'm done with steak. 

https://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=629513

 

 

I think I’ve drawn this before, but I’m on jury duty and bored to death with a new iPad and want to draw it again. Parking garage under a new Findlay Park just north of the market with an entry aligned with Pleasant. Extend Republic through existing Findlay Playground and infill with affordable housing along New Republic and Vine Street. That’s the idea.

Is there currently a lot of activity going on at the 5 points corner in Northern Liberties development wise? I don't get around there very often anymore to check it out.

^Every corner building is currently occupied or currently being renovated. The only exception is the white wedge building with the corner store. I believe the upper floors are vacant and the storefront is the only use. So not completely empty, but definitely not at full occupancy. That building was sold in April 2018 for $0. Not sure if it actually changed hands or not, but I believe I remember it being on the market.

EDIT: The building is listed as Pending on real estate sites. The asking price was $599,000. That's all the info I have about that building.

 

All of the buildings along Republic at Findlay are also renovated and occupied. There is a lot of movement happening at this intersection.

28 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

I think I’ve drawn this before, but I’m on jury duty and bored to death with a new iPad and want to draw it again. Parking garage under a new Findlay Park just north of the market with an entry aligned with Pleasant. Extend Republic through existing Findlay Playground and infill with affordable housing along New Republic and Vine Street. That’s the idea.

 

Yeah that is a pretty logical layout.  A few years ago I came up with the idea of building a parking garage + apartments above the streetcar storage yard.  The width is perfect for standard 60-foot garage decks and could be accessed via the short stub of Pleasant St. that currently exists north of Findlay St.  

 

I seem to recall that the center section of the Findlay playground is large enough for a fenced-in soccer field + a fenced-in basketball court but I am going by memory and am at work so can't look at it right now.  

 

 

 

18 hours ago, ryanlammi said:

^Every corner building is currently occupied or currently being renovated. The only exception is the white wedge building with the corner store. I believe the upper floors are vacant and the storefront is the only use. So not completely empty, but definitely not at full occupancy. That building was sold in April 2018 for $0. Not sure if it actually changed hands or not, but I believe I remember it being on the market.

EDIT: The building is listed as Pending on real estate sites. The asking price was $599,000. That's all the info I have about that building.

 

All of the buildings along Republic at Findlay are also renovated and occupied. There is a lot of movement happening at this intersection.

 

Thank you, that's great news.

 

What about these buildings on the 1700 block of Vine. Didn't some of them win some tax credits and does anyone know if anything is going on with them?

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1155865,-84.5165582,3a,75y,230.86h,95.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s79725Ev2NLUjWKeKgrEsIg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

1725 Vine is permitted, not sure when they will start full on construction. Per inspector's notes they have started some framing: https://cagis.hamilton-co.org/opal/apd.aspx?entcode=cinc&ezstdadrtag=1725||VINE|ST|GJ1469732493|||CINC|CINC|00940008039101725V|009400080237|009400080391|CINCINNATI&APD=2016P07163

On 8/27/2019 at 7:47 AM, jmecklenborg said:

 

I choked on a steak last December and had to have it removed, at great expense, at a hospital.  $7,200, before insurance, to be exact.  So I'm done with steak. 

https://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=629513

 

 

 

Is there anything that hasn't happened to you? lol

I took a few new aerial shots of the Meiners/Behlen renovation and the OTR Kroger site. If they are able to acquire that grassy lot from Marilyn Wade, they have quite a lot of space to work with for some new infill.

 

 

 

makes you realize how tiny the old kroger was

The new downtown Kroger won't be very big by modern Kroger standards, I think someone said it would be about 1.5× or maybe 2× the size of the OTR store. The biggest improvement will be the quality and the selection. Kroger corporate leadership doesn't care about the OTR store but they will care about a new flagship urban store a block away from their HQ.

Look at all of those air conditioners on the roofs.  I hate the noise of AC units, especially since so many people run their AC when it isn't even hot.  At least they're up on the roof - all around OTR, the atmosphere of back patios and balconies are spoiled by air conditioners.  

28 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

Look at all of those air conditioners on the roofs.  I hate the noise of AC units, especially since so many people run their AC when it isn't even hot.  At least they're up on the roof - all around OTR, the atmosphere of back patios and balconies are spoiled by air conditioners.  

 

We live in Hyde Park close to St Mary's it is I believe, and they have a massive AC Unit behind their building. It literally is the loudest AC Unit on earth, and made sense why the hosues selling directly across the street are cheap compared to rest of Hyde Park.

 

I think there is a continuous hum in the urban core that you don't even notice since it is constantly there, would be weird if everyone turned them off all at once or if all the power went out, how quiet it would be. I think you get a glimpse of that a little bit when you are in the middle of Wash Park.

So what will we do about main St at night. The traffic is a nightmare on weekend nights. 

 

A women even stopped her car in the middle of traffic on main to jump onto the roof of her car and dance for drunk public crowd. 

 

The sidewalks were equally bad, too many pedestrians and people had to walk on the side of incoming traffic because not enough space to walk.

 

Main St literally reminded me of times square NYC last night with how chaotic and bustling it was. A good thing but a bad thing when the infrastructure doesn't support that level of activity.

Wow - "too many pedestrians". I've honestly never ever heard or thought that before in Cincinnati. A happy milestone.

lets pedestrianize main

36 minutes ago, jim uber said:

Wow - "too many pedestrians". I've honestly never ever heard or thought that before in Cincinnati. A happy milestone.

 

Obviously a good thing, but it's not good when cars can't move because pedestrians are walking into incoming traffic because lack of sidewalk space.

Sorry, I’m unmoved. Somewhere between getting kicked in the head by a horse or run over by a stampede of pigs going to slaughter, and achieving the “right” to unfettered and safe movement at any time, our cities died. The occasional need to walk out of bounds and maybe disrupt traffic doesn’t sound at all panic inducing, to me. 

 

By the way I was also on Main Street last night and hadn’t given a second thought to it, till your post. Just different reactions I guess. 

Main Street is totally clogged with cars every Friday and Saturday night. A lot of that is due to uncourteous Uber and Lyft drivers stopping in both lanes to pick up and drop off passengers. The city recently enacted a new rideshare pickup/dropoff zone near LouVino to try to alleviate this. Maybe some drivers haven't got the memo yet, or are just ignoring it and stopping where they want anyway.

 

As for the insane crowds of people... every vibrant city has a street like this. It's not a problem to solve per se, it's just something that exists. If that type of crowd is not your scene, don't go there on Friday or Saturday nights.

59 minutes ago, taestell said:

Main Street is totally clogged with cars every Friday and Saturday night. A lot of that is due to uncourteous Uber and Lyft drivers stopping in both lanes to pick up and drop off passengers. The city recently enacted a new rideshare pickup/dropoff zone near LouVino to try to alleviate this. Maybe some drivers haven't got the memo yet, or are just ignoring it and stopping where they want anyway.

 

As for the insane crowds of people... every vibrant city has a street like this. It's not a problem to solve per se, it's just something that exists. If that type of crowd is not your scene, don't go there on Friday or Saturday nights.

 

I obviously enjoy the vibrancy, hence the reason why I’m down there.

 

Im just making the argument that it poses a risk for pedestrians and slows down traffic, which is already at a snails pace.

 

Its chaotic, but disorganized chaos. Pedestrian should have enough space to maneuver, but do not and hence use the street as an extended side walk which is dangerous when incoming traffic is using that space for there vehicle to maneuver.

 

Again, I’m very pro vibrancy and I love how many people I saw in otr that night. I didn’t like people almost getting hit by cars because they ran out of side walk space.

Edited September 2, 20195 yr by troeros

It is a good problem to have. Perhaps if surrounding N-S streets were converted to 2-way, that would assist. 

Congestion is typically a good thing for pedestrian safety. The problem is that on nights like that, cars do not respect the newly installed crosswalks, so pedestrians have no choice but to weave between stopped cars to cross the street. All it would take is CPD putting an officer or two on the street there making sure cars don’t stop in the crosswalks.

 

I do think making Main and Walnut both two way would go a long way to solving the problem. Right now drivers don’t feel guilty stopping in a travel lane to drop off a passenger, because there are 2 travel lanes. If you made it a two way street with only 1 travel lane in each direction, it wouldn’t happen as much.

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/september-9-2019-staff-report-and-attachments-1-5/

 

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/september-9-2019-staff-report-and-attachments-6-8/

 

New infill for 1407 Race St presented by 3cdc, along with a few OTR rehabs, and approvals for the Taft Ale Housing outdoor dining patio + Sugar and Spice outdoor dining area. 

3CDC really should have proposed a new location for the garden before pushing this project.  I agree that this project should go through, a garden doesn't belong on a major thoroughfare, but the backlash is going to be immense...

4 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

3CDC really should have proposed a new location for the garden before pushing this project.  I agree that this project should go through, a garden doesn't belong on a major thoroughfare, but the backlash is going to be immense...

 

Seriously don't understand why they don't move this public garden to a portion of Washington Park if it's such a big deal.

 

 

As an aside, I've noticed this trend of alot more faux historic infill being proposed for otr lately. Before it was this clash of modern with some historic design elements but lately it's been heavily faux inspired...

 

I'm almost wondering if buyers are more interested in historic properties/faux historic properties than modrtn structures in otr...and maybe this is what is pushing the change? 

3 minutes ago, troeros said:

I'm almost wondering if buyers are more interested in historic properties/faux historic properties than modrtn structures in otr...and maybe this is what is pushing the change?

 

My guess is the developers know it will pass the HCB without complaint, so they copy/paste the same plan on these empty lots.  I would prefer we see more modern mixed into OTR.  Or at the least, do what the Rennen & Beecher Flats did and mix in some big windows to give these buildings a modern touch.

2 hours ago, troeros said:

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/september-9-2019-staff-report-and-attachments-1-5/

 

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/buildings/historic-conservation/historic-conservation-board/september-9-2019-staff-report-and-attachments-6-8/

 

New infill for 1407 Race St presented by 3cdc, along with a few OTR rehabs, and approvals for the Taft Ale Housing outdoor dining patio + Sugar and Spice outdoor dining area. 

The only remaining 3 story outhouse in the city is proposed to be demolished for a residential deck at 20 Findlay Street (Item #8)

1 hour ago, mcmicken said:

The only remaining 3 story outhouse in the city is proposed to be demolished for a residential deck at 20 Findlay Street (Item #8)

Fascinating... what's its current condition? It seems like a lot of OTR was built just as modern plumbing (my building from 1870 was built with a single, shared wet closet per floor) was becoming standard. Were multistory outhouses the default prior to plumbing?

19 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

Fascinating... what's its current condition? It seems like a lot of OTR was built just as modern plumbing (my building from 1870 was built with a single, shared wet closet per floor) was becoming standard. Were multistory outhouses the default prior to plumbing?

Have never been inside but it is 3 story brick. You can see it if you walk down Rowan Ct on the south side of Rookwood.

 

My understanding is that multi story ones were still pretty rare. Actually, most OTR buildings were built without plumbing, but the shared toilets were added later.

Here's a photo of the outhouse behind 20 Findlay St:

So the developer who proposed the new mixed use developement at (near) 1200 race, which requires demo of 2 otr buildings has requested from the HCB a 12 month extension. 

 

I'm guessing this means the project is not dead as I presumed  and was just a technical delay because of the screen printing shop.

Which project is that? I havent heard anything about this

7 minutes ago, seaswan said:

Which project is that? I havent heard anything about this

Steiner development project across from Washington Park. Had potential to be a great looking building til NIMBY and OTRCC got heavily involved in trying to destroy it into another faux historic building

On 9/1/2019 at 5:50 PM, seaswan said:

lets pedestrianize main

 

I know that was a big trend in the 1970s and 1980s as a way to give business districts a leg up on competition with suburban malls (e.g. Middletown OH, St. Albans WV, Ithaca NY, Louisville KY, North St. Louis, MO, etc.), but most of these pedestrian-only zones failed for a variety of reasons. I'm interested in the more recent concepts in London, in which the street is raised to the level of the sidewalk, with no marked lanes or sidewalks. Pedestrians co-exist with vehicles. It's still unclear long-term if this reduces accidents, but it certainly does slow down speed.

So what's going on with the building at 1400 Sycamore? There's a really ugly faux storefront painted on the front that wasn't there before. I can't tell if an exterior facade was removed and this is what was underneath, or if it's a new project. It's not flattering, though, and I would be shocked if the city approved it in the last couple of years.

14 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

So what's going on with the building at 1400 Sycamore? There's a really ugly faux storefront painted on the front that wasn't there before. I can't tell if an exterior facade was removed and this is what was underneath, or if it's a new project. It's not flattering, though, and I would be shocked if the city approved it in the last couple of years.

 

I know the artist who did it. I believe it's an ArtWorks commissioned piece. 

 

I was curious if there was going to be a tenant but Apperantly it's just residential.

wow. It's one thing when Keep Cincinnati Beautiful paints temporary storefronts on plywood - which I appreciate because I know it's temporary. This is just odd.