knob & tube wiring

 

 

Cincinnati has a ton of this

The student rental situation could be greatly improved if UC created a small agency that inspected and then certified rental properties near the university.  Landlords could charge a small premium to gain this certification. 

 

So the inspection and certification would indicate that a property has:

 

-proper attic insulation

-modern insulated windows or storm windows over original wood windows

-zero knob & tube wiring

-zero roof leaks and properly maintained gutters with nothing growing in them

-a dry basement

-zero lead paint

-annual inspection of plumbing and H/VAC

 

That's what I could think of immediately.  An independent certification by UC would give parents the peace of mind to let their kids live in the houses.  Instead, the endless hillbilly and/or reluctant landlords (women who win rentals in divorces, etc.) are getting away with all kinds of nonsense.  Some of it is malicious, but some of it is just plain incompetence. 

 

There have been multiple attempts to do exactly that. It appears that none of them have gone anywhere. There was something called the "landlord accreditation program" run by UC when I was in college. And then I remember hearing a year or two ago about another similar program being started up. The problem is, I don't think landlords really care about being accredited by UC, and UC is going to drive students towards these mega-complexes anyway.

 

Yep there was one in the late 90's early 2000's when i was on the CUF community council too. Lots of talk, went nowhere for the reasons you mention above. By the time the new students learn that there was better they moved while at the same time new people were already lined up for the crappy places. A never ending flood of new renters gives you little incentive to improve.

One thing I've learned about running a business near a college campus is that an individual student remembers things well, but "students" as a whole forget about things very quickly since they're always moving around, coming, going, graduating.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Yes, I thought of that afterward.

Final landscaping is going in around The Verge today + I saw an Acme Lock van outside, which is perhaps more auspicious.  So they might be moving people in this weekend. 

A new traffic light is being installed at the 3-way intersection of McMillan and "Market St.", which is the short 1-block street in the middle of the U Square development.  There was formerly a short street nearby called Hortsheild or something like that but it was moved and renamed. 

 

This traffic light is a very positive development.  Because of the long distance of the blocks on McMillan and Calhoun, cars have been racing down each.  It's a very dangerous situation with all of the drunk college students darting out into traffic. 

The crosswalk that was there previously was a little scary to cross for that reason. Glad to see a signal being installed.

That is a good development. I stop at that crosswalk for people all the time, and they always look surprised that someone actually stopped for them. 75% of the time they get a few steps out and someone blows by me in the other lane. The combination of heavy traffic, on-street parking, and perhaps the busiest pedestrian traffic in the city makes those few blocks congested all the time but people still try to race through them.

 

The city should also put up "no turn on red" signs at a handful of places around uptown. It's impossible to see around many of the corners without pulling up through the crosswalks and blocking pedestrian traffic.

That intersection (and the one opposite on Calhoun) should be raised. I know a ton of people hate raised intersections, but those spots are dangerous for everyone. Forcing drivers to slow down, even if they have a green light, would do a lot towards improving the pedestrian experience on those stretches.

Every one of those crosswalks around Calhoun/McMillan should have flashing yield signs and some sort of speed bump or Belgian block strips or something in the road to slow cars down. Those little yield bollards plopped in the crosswalk are somewhat effective too.

There was a pretty dramatic increase in the amount of commotion in the area with the simultaneous opening of The Verge and 101 Corry.  That added over 500 pedestrians to the area overnight.  It's going to get seriously crazy when the Kroger opens.  It's unclear what the I-71 MLK ramp is going to do without a 2-way conversion of McMillan and WH Taft/Calhoun.  I don't know if traffic is going to stay the same or go down when UC has events. 

 

 

All great cost-effective and good ideas - such as curb bump-outs, raised crosswalks, signs with embedded blinking LED lights. Is the right lane still a rush-hour only lane? I thought these were kind of useless except for two hours of the day - and people forget to move their cars quite often, making them less effective.

All great cost-effective and good ideas - such as curb bump-outs, raised crosswalks, signs with embedded blinking LED lights. Is the right lane still a rush-hour only lane? I thought these were kind of useless except for two hours of the day - and people forget to move their cars quite often, making them less effective.

 

Yes I think they're still doing that on Calhoun in front of Calhoun and Siddall but not on McMillan. 

 

That intersection (and the one opposite on Calhoun) should be raised. I know a ton of people hate raised intersections, but those spots are dangerous for everyone. Forcing drivers to slow down, even if they have a green light, would do a lot towards improving the pedestrian experience on those stretches.

 

I suggested this for Main Street but the traffic engineer informed me that the city does not do raised crosswalks or intersections on "through streets". I'm not sure but I'm guessing they would not do them on Taft & McMillan for the same reason.

 

I am really hoping that once the new MLK interchange opens, we can get back to the conversation about converting them to two-way.

The DOTE guy really played his hand when he slipped and called Main St a "through street." To me it betrayed the barely concealed bias for preferring through traffic at the expense of a more neighborhood-oriented street, which the residents are pretty obviously pushing for.

...the city does not do raised crosswalks or intersections on "through streets".

 

Now that's a "because it's what the standards say" answer if I ever heard one. 

What a crappy reason. These "through streets" are most likely to be the ones that need traffic calming. People treating them like they're an expressway from Clifton to 71 is the source of the problem.

 

We need to get some 21st Century traffic engineers in this state...

All great cost-effective and good ideas - such as curb bump-outs, raised crosswalks, signs with embedded blinking LED lights. Is the right lane still a rush-hour only lane? I thought these were kind of useless except for two hours of the day - and people forget to move their cars quite often, making them less effective.

 

I used to call those unmoved cars the "Clifton Surprise"

Not once while living in Uptown did I see people actually able to utilize those lanes for driving during the restricted times. All it takes is one car parked in the lane (which there always was) for the whole thing to basically be useless. Out front of UPA is especially bad. It was like there was no restriction at all. I bet the city loved that though. There was always a meter maid out there everyday from 4-6 writing tickets for the 10+ cars parked along that stretch.

 

Someone with some power needs to actually push for urban changes around Uptown. The road network is awful for pedestrians in a lot of spots around UC and the medical campus. Santa Ono knew of the problems and pushed for changes but those never seemed to make it very far and now he's gone. Someone needs to take his place to help slow traffic and make it safer for students/pedestrians.

What Uptown really needs around the UC Campus is not only a streetcar but an underground streetcar or elevated.  That would help that area so much if they had a subway or EL through the dense areas.  In a perfect world, through Mt. Auburn, jog down the southside of campus on Calhoun, turn up Clifton with a stop in between Calhoun and Ludlow, run under Ludlow to the west and surface up at some point past the biz district all the way to Northside.  Then you also have a subway running through Short Vine up to University of Cincinnati Medical with a stop somewhere in Short Vine.

 

One can dream....

I have now been inside both The Verge and 101 E. Corry.  Both are truly embarrassing buildings -- totally illogical layouts inside and out.  Low ceilings and unremarkable details in the common areas.  I am told that the townhouses facing Corry St. are 4-bed, 5-bathroom units.  I assume that that means 4 full bathrooms (one for each bedroom) and then 1 half bathroom for the first-floor common area.  I also assume that the Verge townhouses facing Lyon St. are similar, and perhaps the VP3 townhouses facing Euclid. 

 

The Verge has a bizarre Pee-Wee's Playhouse lobby with crooked doorways, gaudy wall paint, and no artwork or fake plants.  It also now has a heavy metal door blocking the parking garage entrance.  At least The Verge has something resembling a traditional front door -- 101 E. Corry and VP3 have no front door.  What serves as the front door in each looks more like a side door. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The City Planning department just releasted the University Impact Area Solutions Study:

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/assets/File/UIASS%2009-30-16%20Web(1).pdf

 

A bit of context from The Enquirer: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2016/09/30/neighborhoods-around-uc-grapple-universitys-growth/91315148/

 

I've only skimmed through it, but I'm glad to see that they seem have hit on most of the key elements: slowing traffic, adding bike infrastructure, exploring streetcar extension, allowing on-street parking on Calhoun/McMillan even during rush hour.

 

The only big thing that seems to be missing is any discussion/exploration of making Taft and McMillan two-way.

Uptown Consortium spends millions on 6 MLK interchange properties

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/10/10/exclusive-uptown-consortium-spends-millions-on-6.html

Uptown Consortium Inc. purchased six more properties near the under-construction Interstate 71 interchange being built at Martin Luther King Drive in Avondale.

Update on plans for the office and hotel development planned for the SE corner of MLK & Reading:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2017/01/16/reshaping-reading-mlk-corridor-starts-project/96632126/

I noticed tonight that the Piedmont Apts are being gutted and prepped for demo.  This is the ugly 3-floor complex located at the NE corner of MLK and Eden Ave., directly across from the Vontz Center. 

 

In other news, the Sears renovation is coming along and looks pretty good.  The brick facade including detailing has been reconstructed over the new framing.  Windows haven't been installed yet but it should end up looking pretty good. 

The Piedmont Mews location will house the new Neuroscience Institute:

 

NIOSH Looks To Consolidate In Uptown

 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will consolidate three Cincinnati facilities in Uptown. The General Services Administration announced in a release the proposed purchase of a site at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Reading Road.

 

Three NIOSH facilities, the Robert A. Taft Campus, Taft North, and the Alice Hamilton Laboratory will be combined in the new campus. 550 employees work at those three sites.

 

$110 million dollars has already been budgeted for the project. Construction is expected to start in summer 2018. The facility should be open by early 2021.

That is great news for Uptown!

UncleRando[/member] has been talking about this NIOSH facility for just about as long as I have known him. (It took them 9 years to announce their location!) Glad to see that they made the right choice here and stayed close to the core, instead of moving everyone out to eastern fringes of Greater Cincinnati.

Does anyone know which corner? 

NW corner, I believe. The article said all the parcels are owned by UC or Uptown Consortium.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure NIOSH will be taking the whole area bounded by MLK, Reading, Hickman, and Harvey.

 

This drone photo from taestell[/member] gives a good view of that parcel:

 

From the Business Courier: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/13/site-selected-for-110-million-niosh-lab-in.html

“The walking proximity to advanced medical and technical research labs within the UC Research Institute and the UC Colleges of Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, the environmental sciences programs, Cincinnati Children’s, UC Health, and TriHealth, is a huge advantage of the Uptown location," Robinson said. "The Uptown anchor institution’s commitment to healthcare and education makes this a perfect fit in the region’s premier research and innovation hub.”

 

I'm glad to hear Robinson talk about the benefits of "walking proximity"... but from a walkability perspective, Uptown Consortium missed their chance to work with ODOT on a walkable design around the MLK/Reading. MLK is 9 lanes wide and Reading is 7 lanes wide at that intersection. I just don't see very many people being eager to walk across MLK or Reading. That being said, I hope the Uptown Consortium still pushes NIOSH to design their site plan to "face" the street... I would hate to see NIOSH build massive setbacks (like the nearby EPA building).

When the Uptown Consortium talks about walkability, they are still thinking of an urban renewal era type of walkability, where everybody drives in and then can walk from building to building using the skywalks, spending most or all of their time on private property and not ever walking along public streets or visiting public parks/plazas/etc. For the most part, we are no longer building new buildings this way in downtowns, but for some reason, we're still stuck in this era of thinking when it comes to secondary nodes (like Uptown Cincinnati) and especially on medical campuses.

And consider the building that NIOSH is moving from, I think you are on the money, Travis. How many of the people who work for NIOSH walk to Terry's Turf Club or Bella Luna for lunch on any given day? Bad Tom Smith for happy hour? I'm guessing it is a very rare custom for these folks, but I could be totally wrong. I'd love to eat my words if someone knows better.

And consider the building that NIOSH is moving from, I think you are on the money, Travis. How many of the people who work for NIOSH walk to Terry's Turf Club or Bella Luna for lunch on any given day? Bad Tom Smith for happy hour? I'm guessing it is a very rare custom for these folks, but I could be totally wrong. I'd love to eat my words if someone knows better.

The current NIOSH building sets a VERY low bar for walkability, since it's in an island bounded by Beechmont Ave, Wooster Pike, and a wooded hillside. I think it's safe to say the new NIOSH site will be an improvement since it will, at least, have stop lights and crosswalks! Maybe a really nice bar/restaurant at the Terrex development on the SE corner of the intersection will motivate NIOSH employees to brave the two huge crosswalks.

This news of a new NIOSH facility is exciting because it means the removal of one of the worst surface parking lots in Uptown. I hope we can get a decently designed building and that it isn't set too far back from MLK. It's also exciting because it frees up the large building in the back side of Mt. Lookout to be redeveloped. A building of that size would almost never be allowed to be built in that location today, so there is an opportunity for some good density there if the building can be converted to housing.

There's no way that employees of the current NIOSH facility on Central Parkway are walking over to Terry's for lunch. Even though it's literally right across the highway, Google Maps shows it as being an unpleasant 15 minute walk on narrow sidewalks next to speeding cars.

 

I am very curious to see what happens to the old building once they leave. I have no idea whether it's well suited to be converted to apartments.

They need to leave area for the hike/bike path that's supposed to be built on the north side of MLK. It would also be nice to have light rail right of way preserved along the north side of MLK but maybe with all those traffic lanes plus the path they can squeeze that in someday.

This news of a new NIOSH facility is exciting because it means the removal of one of the worst surface parking lots in Uptown. I hope we can get a decently designed building and that it isn't set too far back from MLK. It's also exciting because it frees up the large building in the back side of Mt. Lookout to be redeveloped. A building of that size would almost never be allowed to be built in that location today, so there is an opportunity for some good density there if the building can be converted to housing.

That's an interesting point... I wonder how easily that building could be converted into apartments/condos. I assume the views would be pretty nice, looking out over the river valley. NIOSH also owns 15 acres on the north side of Grandin (in addition to the ~9 acres south of Grandin with the large building and surface parking).

http://www.sasaki.com/project/344/cincinnati-uptownmlk-corridor-vision/

 

It's sad looking at this Sasaki planning study from 2013 on how the MLK/Reading area could/should/might have been designed. In their recommendation, MLK would have had large median with two rows of trees, which would have helped break up the massive expanse of concrete we have today. Uptown Consortium commission that study... but seems like they did nothing with it. Did Uptown Constortium push ODOT on *any* aspect of this project?! 

 

 

A public hearing next week regarding the new NIOSH facility: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/25/exclusive-land-swaps-paved-way-for-110m-niosh-lab.html

A meeting will be held 6-9 p.m. Aug. 1 at Walnut Hills High School, 3250 Victory Parkway, for community feedback on issues to be addressed in the environmental impact statement required by federal law. CDC and GSA representatives will be available to answer questions.

 

IF NIOSH & EPA combine in a new building what becomes of the current EPA site? Does UC take it over? Maybe the zoo, they are pushing that way too. Greenspace? (haha just kidding developers are already probably fighting over it).

 

IF NIOSH & EPA combine in a new building what becomes of the current EPA site? Does UC take it over? Maybe the zoo, they are pushing that way too. Greenspace? (haha just kidding developers are already probably fighting over it).

 

It's a neat idea, but what makes you think the EPA is looking to move/consolidate with NIOSH?

I just noticed there is some major construction happening next to the EPA building where their parking lot used to be. I don't remember hearing anything about it. Are they building a new building for the EPA or are they just building a garage or something?

IF NIOSH & EPA combine in a new building what becomes of the current EPA site? Does UC take it over? Maybe the zoo, they are pushing that way too. Greenspace? (haha just kidding developers are already probably fighting over it).

 

It's a neat idea, but what makes you think the EPA is looking to move/consolidate with NIOSH?

 

Doh my bad i thought they were joining in the new building by the new 71 exit. I just looked into it and  it looks like they are huge in their own right by themselves and are quite proud of their Cincinnati location (2nd largest facility in the nation!). https://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/andrew-w-breidenbach-environmental-research-center-annex-2

 

The new NIOSH facility will consolidate the 3 existing NIOSH facilities in Greater Cincinnati into one location. EPA isn't part of that arrangement.

^That link confused me because it said they only employ 90 people at that building, but then I realized it was just talking about the annex building... here's the main building's page which says they employ 825 people:

https://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/andrew-w-breidenbach-environmental-research-center-awberc

There was a murder late Friday night in the McMillan St. parking lot where Pomodorie's used to be located.  This happened despite the huge police presence that babysits the cruising every Friday and Saturday night:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/09/30/teen-killed-shooting-two-days-before-birthday/719509001/

 

On Saturday night the police blockaded Calhoun St. after the UC football game let out to stop the cruising.  So if you wanted to drive from CVS to Hughes High School you had to go either down Vine to W. Clifton or completely around the UC campus on Jefferson and MLK to Clifton.  They had it shut down from about 10pm until about 3am. 

 

^ In the wake of that, I noticed that sometime this week CPD rolled out those huge, very bright lights and placed them strategically all around Calhoun/McMillan. Today, I saw this announcement:

 

Street Closures

 

District 5 is utilizing Crowd Calming Measures south of the University of Cincinnati Campus on October 6 + 7, 2017.

 

Calhoun Street between Jefferson + Clifton Avenues will be closed from 12:00a - 4:00a both days. W. McMillan between Jefferson + Clifton Avenues will have No Parking 11p - 4a.

 

So they will be closing the same stretch of street again this weekend. That whole area has really become a sight to see on weekend nights. It has to be a huge headache for UC administrators. They've invested so much into those few blocks and on weekend nights the whole area is complete and utter bedlam. I can only imagine the phone calls these 18 year olds living in the fancy apartments overlooking this must be making to their moms, who in turn must be calling in complaints to UC on a near nonstop basis.