They actually block the sun pretty well, at least at noon and five when I've used them.  In addition to the roof, there are large pieces of tempered glass behind the seating areas, to protect your back from wind and rain while you're waiting.

Security Beefed Up At Downtown METRO Bus Hub

LANCE BARRY | WCPO NEWS

February 27, 2007

 

It was meant to be a part of downtown Cincinnati's revitalization, but after just six months, some feel the new Government Square METRO bus center is taking the city's image in the wrong direction.  The concern comes after a fight between teens Monday night. A 15-year-old girl was arrested.

 

This location may be new, but the problem of teens loitering at METRO's busiest stop isn't.  Even when the stop was under construction, the same issues moved with the stop when it moved in front of the library on Vine Street.

 

Read full article here:

http://wcpo.com/news/2007/local/02/27/metro.html

The obnoxious brats are out there late at night on weeknights, too.

32 truants picked up downtown

BY JANE PRENDERGAST | [email protected]

March 6, 2007

 

A sweep of truants today around Government Square downtown netted 32 teenagers by 2 p.m.  The spot, a hub for Metro buses, has been a source of complaints lately about teen-agers hanging out and being disruptive.  Metro increased security, and Cincinnati police said last week they would be paying more attention to the spot.

 

Read full article here:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS01/303060037

If anyone is curious as to what happen to some of the old shelters from Gov. Square head to Jungle Jim's, they have two of them. They picked the best ones of course, stops to Western Hills and Delhi. ;-)

Government Square in 1920

On the right is now the completely unused Federal Reserve bank plaza and the Chemed Center block in the distance.  The reserve bank and the Federal Building brought some good jobs to the CBD, but their central locations did a ton toward destroying downtown retail. 

 

I mean, has anyone, ever, seen anything necessary happening on that plaza?  Yet the people who designed it and made it happen are now retired with a variety of vacation homes.  But then again they went to college for planning/architecture and I didn't so what could I ever know?

Cincinnati had great downtown retail and plenty of Department stores, long after the 20s.

 

It's funny, some of the goofy people you see at government square. I remember one time this guy was doing that card trick where he rearranges the cards and you guess which card is the one you picked. Except this dude was a bum and only had a board, a small upside-down cup and a cocoa puff. So you had to guess which upside-down cup had the cocoa puff inside. He let some girl who looked about 15-16 play, and she won (a dollar) the first time, then she got over confident and played for 20 dollars in the next round and lost. She turned to her friend with teared eyes and was like "that bum took my hair cut money!!". There's a sucker born every minute.

On the right is now the completely unused Federal Reserve bank plaza and the Chemed Center block in the distance. The reserve bank and the Federal Building brought some good jobs to the CBD, but their central locations did a ton toward destroying downtown retail.

 

 

Downtown retail was destroyed when retailers decided to move out where people lived.  Since very few people who fit the retail companies demographics lived in downtown at the time, they closed up shop.

Let's all remember that downtown Cincinnati has TWO department stores as well as a decent amount of other high end retail stores.  Those two department stores alone mean that the amount of department stores in downtown Cincinnati outnumber the amount of downtown department stores in any other Ohio city (or even a city like Atlanta) by two.  It could be much much worse.

^But how many times have you gone to either of them in the past year?  If not you, your wife/girlfriend.

It's good that there are two department stores downtown.  However, I rarely go to Saks because of the prices.  The selection at the Fountain Place Macy's is nowhere near the selection at their suburban stores.  It's very frustrating to be told "We don't carry that here at the downtown store.  You'll have to go to one of the mall stores to get that."

^Exactly.  What kind of message is that sending, and how many thousands of dollars of sales are lost at the Downtown store?

^You find the same sort of problem at the OTR Kroger.  Nevertheless, I'd be less concerned with the message being sent by limited availability of items relative to other stores, and more enthusiastic with the message being sent by having two profitable downtown department stores.

 

Also, I took a student of mine to shop by a coat at that Macy's two weeks ago.  My uncle, who is a lawyer downtown, said that the key to finding good deals at Sak's is peruse it every so often on your lunch hour (obviously it helps to work downtown).

Nevertheless, I'd be less concerned with the message being sent by limited availability of items relative to other stores, and more enthusiastic with the message being sent by having two profitable downtown department stores.

 

I do shop at the Macy's downtown very often.  Now that they keep cutting back on merchandise, it's hard to convince people that they should come down here to shop.  If I did not live or work downtown, I probably would skip this Macy's and head straight to one of the mall locations.  I am a huge downtown supporter, but this is ridiculous.  It's hard to tell people "Shop at the downtown Macy's, but you won't be able to register for your wedding, or look at the junior's department, or buy women's work out clothing, etc."

Well, that's exactly what I'm saying.  Why *wouldn't* someone just go to the mall locations?  People might come down in numbers during the holidays "just for the experience", but that's not a good thing.

the mall is further away

What does it matter if you have a car...coming from a former driver.

 

If it's got what you want, you'll travel farther.