In my opinion, they should keep all of the trees on the south side that are up against the buildings. These are large trees that shouldn't be removed. They can provide a lot of shade for outdoor dining. Instead we'll probably end up with a bunch of crappy umbrellas set up and people baking in the heat in the summer.

All of this shaded area that the trees provide are going to be exposed to the sun. Just when the sidewalks juts out to provide more dining spaces. Seems really short sighted. Replacing these trees with trees to the north is just going to continue shading the roadway instead of the sidewalk.

I wonder if a lot of the retail spaces will ask for easements to install large awnings into the plaza to make up for the lack of tree coverage

1 minute ago, Dev said:

I wonder if a lot of the retail spaces will ask for easements to install large awnings into the plaza to make up for the lack of tree coverage

I could see them wanting them, similar to the South side of 6th street with Bru, Zablong and the closed olive oil place all having their own defined patios on a really wide sidewalk/plaza, but it would feel more like a community space if it wasn't sectioned off. For security, shade and branding the businesses might want their own awnings/patios.  As long as Avril & Bleh's can keep their grill stand in the summer I'll be happy.

 

 

?This seem a lot more enjoyable than this ?

 

 

I agree 100%, especially because those trees are somewhat mature. Even if you get all new trees they'll need 5-10 years to really fill out. Contractors hate building around trees, but as long as tree protection is included in the budget they can do it just fine. 

Street trees keep getting cut back or completely cut down.  The only example of post WWII trees I can think of that have been allowed to grow is the double row along Jefferson next to UC.  Those trees are starting to get fairly big and they'll be really big by 2030 if we can avoid a 1988-type drought.  

 

About five years ago they cut down the street trees on McMillan because they were getting too big.  Its like...yeah that's the point.  

Ah, 1988. No rain. None. Until about September 1 when it all came at once.

 

Too late.

1 hour ago, GCrites80s said:

Ah, 1988. No rain. None. Until about September 1 when it all came at once.

 

It was wild.  Nobody remembers it because people were sitting in the AC watching soap operas.  

20 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

It was wild.  Nobody remembers it because people were sitting in the AC watching soap operas.  

If it makes you feel better I don't remember it because I was zero years old.

Cincinnati City Council approves Court Street plan, overrides Cranley streetcar veto

 

Cincinnati City Council unanimously approved an $8.8 million project to revamp Court Street downtown between Vine and Walnut streets, widening the sidewalks and removing the median and some on-street parking to make the area more friendly to pedestrians.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/09/02/city-council-approves-court-street-plan-overrides.html

 

Seeing Roxanne at that podium just makes me wonder where our city would be right now if we were nearing the end of her second term instead of Cranley's. ?

This may sound dumb/offensive and sorry if it is!

 

Obviously I am massively thrilled with this big investment and believe it will hugely upgrade the area (I hope they can expand further down court too)!

 

My question is has the city ever thought about going out with an award winning international design firm instead of going back to the same old all the time? (Sorry if any of the designers are on this forum, I think it's beautiful!) I just think it would have been cool to see a designer from say Madrid redesign this area within the specs to see what they could come up with is all.

Dusty Rhodes already lost parking spots on Court for the streetcar substation and now he's going to lose even more? Where will his hundreds of daily visitors park when they come visit him?!

9 East Court Street had its plaster ripped off showing the brick below, and some wierd window infills. 

Neat!  Looks like they did a redress in the 1920s and the original huge double-hung windows just weren't the right fit for the new look, were too much of a heat loss (this is the north side of the building after all), or were too close to the ceiling. 

Both of the market shaped structures have been removed and they have started tearing everything out between Vine and Walnut. The trees on the south side are safe for now but all the rest have been mulched. 

 

Edited October 22, 20204 yr by ucgrady

Progress on the new north sidewalk:

 

With all the construction going down on court street with many office workers still working remotely I am genuinely curious how any of the remaining small businesses on court street are surviving. 

Avril Bleh is probably still doing OK, they are a destination shop and do a lot of wholesale business. Hop Ping Hog and Crzy Monk are probably struggling like every other restaurant right now. I have been to that Great Clips a few times and it was pretty slow; they probably rely on a lot of downtown office workers getting haircuts on their lunch break. I think there are a few lawyers on that block of Court, but their business probably isn't affected by the construction that much. Other than that, there's are a few random small businesses like a tailor and a salon on that block, which are open according to Google Maps, but I'm not sure how much business they really do. There was a lot of vacancy on that block, even before the pandemic and before construction started.

1 hour ago, taestell said:

Progress on the new north sidewalk:

 

opening up those first floor bricked-up bays in the Kroger building for some kind of storefront use would really help this project. I wonder how feasible that would be 

2 hours ago, troeros said:

With all the construction going down on court street with many office workers still working remotely I am genuinely curious how any of the remaining small businesses on court street are surviving. 

 

I know the a lot of places in OTR have been happy to have construction workers from the stadium around to keep them busy during lunch. I would imagine the construction workers on Court Street are keeping some of those businesses alive too.

It probably helps the Kroger food court restaurants a lot.

1 hour ago, thebillshark said:

opening up those first floor bricked-up bays in the Kroger building for some kind of storefront use would really help this project. I wonder how feasible that would be 

If that’s not feasible this would be a great spot for a giant mural. Anything really would be better than a huge brown wall.

Or at least that's the place for some food stalls/carts.

2 hours ago, taestell said:

It probably helps the Kroger food court restaurants a lot.

Has that food court been open? Every time I stop by (on my way to shop at Kroger) it has seemed closed.

I think it might be carry out only right now, but maybe not all of the restaurants are open.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJzEM9GM6BV/?igshid=1i8auos3e1jb3

 

 

The north half of the reconfigured block has re-opened to 1-way car traffic and the northern sidewalk is open.

 

View from Walnut looking west:

 

There's a little pocket plaza at 42 E Court St:

 

View from Vine Street looking east:

 

 

This building at 23 W Court St is west of the reconfigured block. But I'm excited to see its renovation underway. I feel like it was first announced years ago, so I'm glad to see real work getting done on it:

 

Edited April 2, 20214 yr by jwulsin

Thank you for the pictures! Needs some trees ASAP

Just now, küshner said:

Thank you for the pictures! Needs some trees ASAP

Agreed. I hope they have the budget to plant some decently large trees, so that we don't have to wait a decade for any significant shade. 

23 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

Agreed. I hope they have the budget to plant some decently large trees, so that we don't have to wait a decade for any significant shade. 

I think I read somewhere that you should never plant new trees before a cicada outbreak because they will die. Only more mature trees can handle the bugs burrowing in the limbs to lay eggs. So I wonder if they will wait until late June after the bugs die off. On the flip side I noticed on the webcam that new baby trees look to have been planted along the west side entrance of FCC’s new stadium so..

1 minute ago, 646empire said:

I think I read somewhere that you should never plant new trees before a cicada outbreak because they will die. Only more mature trees can handle the bugs burrowing in the limbs to lay eggs. So I wonder if they will wait until late June after the bugs die off. On the flip side I noticed on the webcam that new baby trees look to have been planted along the west side entrance of FCC’s new stadium so..

Interesting... I hadn't thought about cicadas, but I have noticed some small trees around town wrapped in mesh. I looked it up and the Forest Service recommends wrapping young trees with agricultural mesh with small (less than 1/4" holes): https://www.fs.usda.gov/naspf/sites/default/files/naspf/news/mfo-04-16-cicada_508.pdf

 

21 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

Interesting... I hadn't thought about cicadas, but I have noticed some small trees around town wrapped in mesh. I looked it up and the Forest Service recommends wrapping young trees with agricultural mesh with small (less than 1/4" holes): https://www.fs.usda.gov/naspf/sites/default/files/naspf/news/mfo-04-16-cicada_508.pdf

 

Oh that's awesome. Growing up my Dad would always wrap new trees to protect them from deer so it's great to hear they work for cicadas too.

I would absolutely love to see something take the place of the parking lot on Court and Walnut. Have you heard any rumors of any proposed ideas?

7 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

I would absolutely love to see something take the place of the parking lot on Court and Walnut. Have you heard any rumors of any proposed ideas?

They just resurfaced it and put up a new, er, attendant shed, so I wouldn't get my hopes up about anything happening soon. 

 

3CDC renovating Vine, Court street buildings into condos, commercial space

 

 

Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) is redeveloping a number of buildings along Vine and Court streets into residential condominiums with street-level commercial space.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/05/06/3cdc-renovating-vine-court-street-buildings.html

On 4/2/2021 at 2:25 PM, 646empire said:

I think I read somewhere that you should never plant new trees before a cicada outbreak because they will die. Only more mature trees can handle the bugs burrowing in the limbs to lay eggs. So I wonder if they will wait until late June after the bugs die off. On the flip side I noticed on the webcam that new baby trees look to have been planted along the west side entrance of FCC’s new stadium so..

 

Late to this, but they won't have to worry about cicadas in this location. They emerge from beneath mature hardwoods and they don't travel very far. So you likely won't encounter any on this block.

Walked by the new redesigned court street and it looks like things are really coming together! 
 

The historical buildings on those blocks really stand out more with the redesign of the street and looks like a mini European street with a the faux woonerf. 
 

I can’t wait for 3cdc to finish rehabbing those buildings and fill court street with new tenants and really activate court street for probably the first time in decades. 
 

 

🚧 Construction on the Court Street Plaza is wrapping up and 3CDC has planned a weekend of festivities to present the finished outdoor promenade to the community! 🚧 Stop by next weekend, June 11-13, for the unveiling of artwork, a ribbon cutting ceremony and a weekend full of music, food and other entertainment.

The completed project features expanded sidewalks and outdoor dining areas, public art, new lighting, as well as other streetscape elements to bring fun events and activities to this historic business district, located between Vine and Walnut streets. (Photos of construction progress via 3CDC Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53177138@N04/albums/72157716668575902/with/51218599734/)  #OTRisOpen #OTRisOpentoAll #CourtStreet

We had dinner last night at Court Street Lobster and this area is looking really nice. Very cool to see it come to fruition. 

If anyone stops by, can you take a picture of the trees? I'm curious what type they are and more specifically how big they will eventually grow

2 hours ago, Dev said:

If anyone stops by, can you take a picture of the trees? I'm curious what type they are and more specifically how big they will eventually grow

Taken May 30th

2 hours ago, RealAdamP said:

Taken May 30th

I’d love to see kroger turn that section into their entrance to their hq. 

One of the trees has a tag stating that they are Sienna Glenn Maples. They can grow to be 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide! It sounds like a very hardy tree that will not require much maintenance. The fall foliage will have a mixture of yellow-orange and burgundy red leaves.

Edited June 6, 20214 yr by Dev

I like the color of the tactile paving.

 

 

13 minutes ago, Dev said:

One of the tress has a label stating that they are Sienna Glenn Maples. They can grow to be 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide! It sounds like a very hardy tree that will not require much maintenance. The fall foliage will have a mixture of yellow-orange and burgundy red leaves.

grows 3 feet per year. 

Realistically could this court street redesign be applied to say Main Street/vine street otr without slowing traffic down?

 

For instance this Saturday, vine street was pretty packed and it was pretty hard at some blocks to get by because of the sheer amount of pedestrians. 
 

A nice wide pedestrian street like we see with the court street redesign would be so nice to see in otr and really highlight the architecture even more so in my opinion.
 

 
 

 

4 hours ago, Troeros2 said:

Realistically could this court street redesign be applied to say Main Street/vine street otr without slowing traffic down?

 

For instance this Saturday, vine street was pretty packed and it was pretty hard at some blocks to get by because of the sheer amount of pedestrians. 
 

A nice wide pedestrian street like we see with the court street redesign would be so nice to see in otr and really highlight the architecture even more so in my opinion.

The RoW for Vine is 60 feet wide but the road itself is 40. The travel lanes need to be at least 11 feet wide since it's a transit corridor. The minimum width for on-street parking is 7 feet. So that's a total of 36 feet. Moving the curbs in 2 feet on each side probably wouldn't do much for pedestrian access but it's the only option available other than removing on-street parking. That would certainly be divisive.

4EG is opening, “Pilar” an Ernest Hemingway - Key West themed cocktail bar in the new Court St district. Opening this July.

 

Hopefully this is one of many new bars to find roots in court street and we can develop a new entertainment district in the process.