Can the Enquirer sink any lower.

they would be better off pulling quotes off this forum.

At least it would be intelligent.

They will post anything that will get a reaction. I mean, everyone has a right to their opinion, but a newspaper should have enough journalistic integrity and responsibility to not publish articles that zero relevance to anything, not to mention they make no sense.

its pure garbage.  it accomplishes nothing

I'm biting my tongue really, really hard. 

As a life long Nyer who is shortly moving to Cincy, I always wondered why so many Cincinnatian's disliked their own city and had such a whoa is me attitude. I'm sure there are several reasons but the Enquirer is a big reason, IMO.  What a joke of a newspaper. Thank god I'll be able to get the Sunday NY Times delivered and I can read the NY post online :).

I wish city beat was a full scale newspaper...that would put those enquirer goofs in their place

J. Michael Skaggs  was my speech professor at NKU.

I'm not sure what's worse - the fact that this man teaches media-related material, or that someone pays him to teach media-related material.  Am I the only one that takes severe offense to the (tongue-in-cheek?) comparison of torture and the Banks???

I always wondered why so many Cincinnatian's disliked their own city and had such a whoa is me attitude. I'm sure there are several reasons but the Enquirer is a big reason

 

You can also add the anti-city, fear-mongering 700WLW as another huge reason.  There is a good opportunity for another newspaper to steal market share... (sigh) if only the beacon wasn't a bunch of no-talent ass-clowns...

 

In my parent's neighborhood, at least half of the people their age (40-55) haven't been downtown in ten years for anything other than sporting events and they ALL receive the enquirer and listen to WLW.

 

^I second that!

I read the enquirer and listen to 700wlw and spend lots of time downtown!

You know, perhaps we should just collaborate and make an urban development/city life blog. Seriously. Get the news out there for real.

There is a good opportunity for another newspaper to steal market share... (sigh) if only the beacon wasn't a bunch of no-talent ass-clowns...

 

I heard a lot of people bemoaning the loss of The Post this year because it offered an alternative to The Enquirer.  But to be honest, I grew up in this town and always thought that The Post and The Enquirer were morning and afternoon versions of the same paper.  I never understood why anyone would get both.  They always seem to have the same articles and the same pictures.  It was only after The Post announced that it was closing its doors that I found out all of the history behind it. 

 

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see a second paper existing in Cincinnati.  Not a new one, anyway.  This says nothing good or bad about the city, it's just that the age of the newspaper is pretty much over.  There's not market demand for two or three competing papers anymore, because anyone who wants a 2nd or 3rd paper can now easily pick up a copy of the New York Times, Chicago Sun, USA Today, or whatever they prefer.  And that's not even counting what the internet and TV have to offer as a new source.  I'd love to see a new 2nd paper in this town, because The Enquirer is just awful, but I don't think it's going to happen.

When I first moved here all the blogs were negative also. Over the fast year a whole new batch of positive bloggers have popped up. Cincinnati has so much going for it.

I'm trying to enjoy it for all its worth before it becomes cool and hip and then we'll all be complaining about how it used to be, back in the early 21th century when it was affordable to live downtown and you didn't have to wait in lines for your favorite restaraunt.

Lets all enjoy it and live in the moment while we can.

This is so far away from the Banks, but oh well. The Post really went into terminal decline around 2000. 20 years ago it had all the best writers and comics.

 

I think competition will come from the creation of CinDay as the Dayton Daily News has been pushing south and Enquirer is trying to push north. We have something similar here in Virginia where the Norfolk and Newport News papers sort of complete and sort of overlap. It is like having 1.5 papers.

I read the enquirer and listen to 700wlw and spend lots of time downtown!

in spite of, not because

haha. Fair enough. I get pissed when people are negative about dt. Whenever people make incorrect negative statements I tell them they have no idea what they are talking about, and if they did ANY research/reading up on the subject, their opinion would be totally different.

When I first moved here all the blogs were negative also. Over the fast year a whole new batch of positive bloggers have popped up. Cincinnati has so much going for it.

I'm trying to enjoy it for all its worth before it becomes cool and hip and then we'll all be complaining about how it used to be, back in the early 21th century when it was affordable to live downtown and you didn't have to wait in lines for your favorite restaraunt.

Lets all enjoy it and live in the moment while we can.

 

+1  We are attracting a better class of resident! Nothing against the locals but I really think something is wrong with about 70% of them!!

Is it in the water? Will I be like that in 25 years??

1221, I will be moving within the month and a NY native.  My wife who is from Cincy keeps telling me I will be good for the city b/c she agrees with your opinion on the locals.  Sometimes I think they need to wake up into reality...many of them live in their own miserable/provincial world.

1221, I will be moving within the month and a NY native.  My wife who is from Cincy keeps telling me I will be good for the city b/c she agrees with your opinion on the locals.  Sometimes I think they need to wake up into reality...many of them live in their own miserable/provincial world.

 

+1  We are attracting a better class of resident! Nothing against the locals but I really think something is wrong with about 70% of them!!

Is it in the water? Will I be like that in 25 years??

 

Yeah, this is what we need more of in Cincinnati................

1221, I will be moving within the month and a NY native.  My wife who is from Cincy keeps telling me I will be good for the city b/c she agrees with your opinion on the locals.  Sometimes I think they need to wake up into reality...many of them live in their own miserable/provincial world.

 

 

This is not an issue limited to just Cincinnati. A good bulk of midsize urban areas with large suburban areas are afflicted by this very problem. Too many suburbanites want to move farther and farther away from the urban core and then piss and moan about inner city decay, not realizing they are a key contributing factor by not supporting the core.

 

Another factor is flat out lack of regional cooperation. Everyone wants a piece of the cake, but not help bake the damn thing.

Everyone wants a piece of the cake, but not help bake the damn thing.

 

That just blew my mind!

ronnie, i agree and to be honest midsize areas in Europe have a large degree of provinviality as well (probably moreso than the US).  I guess I was spoiled in NY b/c the area attratcs so many people from all over the world.  It isn't even the provinciality that bothers me b/c like we have agreed, that exists all over; its more the self defeatist attitude.

Keith,

Thanks so much for your email. I am very excited to be at this point regarding the Banks. We set up the Banks Working Group last year to take the politics out of the details and decision-making phases.

 

What is before us may not be a perfect plan, but it is the result of years of planning and compromise. I am honored to be able to be a part of this historic project as a city leader.

 

As for Streetcars, I too am supportive of this proposal. We are going to get the financial details from the City Manager by the end of the month. I am hopeful that the plan will be able to withstand the scrutiny that will come because of the large price tag.

 

Again, thanks for your email.

 

Leslie

^Seems like the typical political response to just about anything you may have said regarding the subject(s).

Lawyer to oversee Banks

www.enquirer.com

BY JANE PRENDERGAST | [email protected]

Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney announced this morning that he has hired a former Lexington city lawyer as his new assistant and charged him with overseeing The Banks development project.

 

David Holmes starts work Monday with a salary of $128,000, according to a release from Dohoney’s office. Dohoney also has assigned Holmes responsibility for other priority economic development projects and to spur more investment in neighborhoods...

 

Banks: 24 floors, or 30?

Building Cincinnati, 11/19/07

 

A local law firm has expressed concerns over a difference between the Banks' planned development district (PD-43) and the master development agreement, both of which were approved by City Council earlier this month.

 

Joseph Trauth Jr. of Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL has sent a letter to City Planning Commission Chairman Caleb Faux stating that, while the master development agreement signed by the City, Hamilton County and project developers Riverbanks Renaissance, LLC imposes a height limit of 20 leasable floors and four floors of parking, the approved PD-43 still allows for a height limit of 30 stories.

 

The letter was also sent to all City Planning Commission members, the entire City Council, and Mayor Mark Mallory.

 

Planned Development Districts usually are established to simplify the development process of a large area of land containing multiple parcels. The establishment of a PD gives the City Planning Commission and City Council the right to approve or to deny all concept and final development plans.

 

PD districts also establish the zoning for the site and become part of the Cincinnati Zoning Code.

 

Trauth believes that PD-43 should be amended, which would require an act of City Council. Legislation to do so would have to go through the typical City Planning Commission-Economic Development Committee-City Council channels.

 

A report from City Manager Milton Dohoney is expected by mid-December.

 

http://www.building-cincinnati.com/2007/11/banks-24-floors-or-30.html

 

If this is built at 30 perhaps we will get some heigh back into the old CBD.

Urban Design OK with Banks' plan

THE ENQUIRER

 

 

A board that reviews project designs for Cincinnati said it agrees with developers on the vision for The Banks riverfront development.

 

The city's Urban Design Review Board met with Atlanta developers Carter Real Estate and the Harold Dawson Co. on Thursday...

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071207/NEWS01/712070433/1056/COL02

It keeps on chugging along...

Some interesting bits have surfaced.

 

December 07, 2007

Housing at The Banks Will Be Geared to Multiple Income Levels

— Kevin Osborne, Posted at 06:11 PM

 

Developers of The Banks assured a city design panel Thursday that the proposed housing, shopping and office district along the Ohio River won’t include just upscale condominiums but will also contain more affordable rental units. AIG/Carter and Harold A. Dawson Inc., the Atlanta-based developers selected by Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials to build The Banks, met with the city’s Urban Design Review Board to discuss preliminary plans. Comprised of local architects, the board serves as an advisory panel to the city manager.

 

To read more: http://blogs.citybeat.com/porkopolis/2007/12/housing-at-the.html

Great article.  This combined w/ the streetcar will transform the city.

Good! I am glad to hear that this project won't be entirely upscale, which will lead to greater diversity of retail and dining opportunities. But I believe that this is not a mixed-income development, correct?

I'm liking it. No, at least not like City West mixed.

^Curious- what's your problem with City West?

 

Developers told the panel that access to the park would be clear and open to the public. Also, several sidewalks throughout The Banks would be 20-feet wide, larger than standard sidewalks, to promote the use of sidewalk cafes and encourage pedestrian traffic.

 

I'm seriously concerned about this.  They need to make sure that there is adequate building height, and also some good trees edging the curb, otherwise this will end up feeling like a fancy strip mall.  To be honest I'd rather they just keep the sidewalks the same width as they are in downtown, or perhaps just make one east-west street kind of bigger, like how 8th street is.  Freedom Way would be the best place for it.  I'm even more convinced now that outsize sidewalks throughout the Banks is a bad idea now than I was when I started writing this post.

 

I don't think it will be a fnacy stip mall.....just for the fact that people will be living at the banks.  I was just in Chicago last week and stayed with some friends in Wrigleyville\Lincoln Park and it would be nice if the banks ended up with that kind of feel.  The density of people and time are gonna be the determing factor in the success of the banks.  The catch is, is that most attractive urban neighborhoods are organic and not created.

Glad to see they are going forward with the rental apartments as part of the project. This should help the project move forward even with condo sales in the US being down. I have notice recently that many projects throughout the US are turning their condo plans into upscale apartment plans to get the financing going. This will also help diversify its residential base.

I don't have a problem with City West, in fact, I think it would be an interesting place to live especially South of St. Joe's. I was referring to the fact that City West has the subsidized low to moderate income housing while the Banks may have a range of places I don't see them angling for the subsidized home crowd.

^Understood.

Riverfront parking may get costlier

BY JESSICA BROWN | CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

December 10, 2007

 

DOWNTOWN - Parking rates may be increasing soon for those who park in Cincinnati’s riverfront lots for their downtown jobs.

 

Hamilton County is considering raising parking rates $5 for monthly parkers and 50 cents for daily parkers with the exception of the lot closest to Paul Brown Stadium.

 

It will remain at $50 a month to encourage people to continue using it...

 

Banks ready for architects

Developers to send closed-bid invitations to architecture firms

BY KEITH T. REED | [email protected]

 

"The architects who will lay out the first pieces of Cincinnati's biggest riverfront project will be chosen in the coming month.

 

The developer will send invitations to bid on the initial residential and retail portion of The Banks, the oft-delayed housing, shopping and office project, to a select group of design firms in as little as a few days, said Bailey Pope, vice president of design and construction for the Dawson Co...

 

 

It would be a nightmare to manage probably but I would like to see a half dozen architects chosen with no one firm allowed to design to neighboring buildings. I think this would eliminate any "lifestyle center" feel to the place.

Totally impractical to accomplish though, I would think.

It would be cool if some sort of documentary was made for the banks project to be shown on one of those channels like discovery, discovery science, history, TLC, etc...

This is exciting!

I'm really glad that they are showing a strong interest in local talent.  I would hate to see them scratch some back of a buddy of theirs down in Atlanta or something.

I'm really glad that they are showing a strong interest in local talent.  I would hate to see them scratch some back of a buddy of theirs down in Atlanta or something.

 

Fortunately this is rarely the case, especially with a development (and developer) this big.

Hamilton County has begun doing soil testing on the site for Phase 1 of The Banks.  This is the first step in a time line of events that will take place for groundbreaking to occur in Q1 of 2008.  This groundbreaking will be for the parking garages and other related infrastructure that will life The Banks out of the flood plain and up to street-level.  From there AIG/Carter will take over and develop the hundreds of apartments and retail space that will make up phase 1 of The Banks.

 

More Information:

Soil-sampling set for Banks - Cincinnati Enquirer (12/25/07)

Finding financing for The Banks - Cincinnati Enquirer (12/30/07)

I can't wait until they start breaking ground for construction!!!

Any word on the soil samples yet?

Any word on the soil samples yet?

 

I doubt you'll hear anything about the results.  It was a sexy story to talk about the first sign of progress...the results of that soil sample aren't quite as sexy to talk about...especially if nothing out of the ordinary turns up.