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There's a reason why the streetcar didn't go too well over at either the NAACP or COAST (two groups who almost never agree on anything): it's a horrible waste of money that benefits the land speculators who bought up all the properties along Vine St. - and only those people, at the expense of the entire city.
OMG, private development in the city!? For shame on those developers. Ironically, that "horrible waste of money" was doing exactly what it was intended to do.
That's the only thing you're right about -- in this quote, anyway.
For the record, I want to see the entire city be strong, vibrant and progressive, not just one or two neighborhoods. Does that make me a ... what was it? ... oh, yeah, a "backwards tea party fanatic"? LMAO.
How exactly do you propose to revitalize the entire city all at once? You guys complain about the millions for the streetcar, but where are you going to come up with the tens of billions to fix up all neighborhoods in need at the same time? It will just never happen that way, so in reality, what you're saying is that if you can't have it all at once, no one should have it.
And I didn't specifically call you a tea party fanatic, I said that if you wanted to throw your hat in with them, there will be consequences.
How exactly do you propose to revitalize the entire city all at once? You guys complain about the millions for the streetcar, but where are you going to come up with the tens of billions to fix up all neighborhoods in need at the same time? It will just never happen that way, so in reality, what you're saying is that if you can't have it all at once, no one should have it.
And I didn't specifically call you a tea party fanatic, I said that if you wanted to throw your hat in with them, there will be consequences.
I've lost track of what's already been spent just in local funds on the streetcar project. What I can say for sure--having worked professionally in revitalization of areas similar to the inner ring suburbs like Northside, College Hill or Madisonville--is that you could spread that sum of money over a wide area AND beef up the parts of municipal government that support thriving neighborhoods--and have dramatic results. Even more dramatic if the entirety of the streetcar funding--for which the sky is apparently the limit--were likewise committed.
As I've already said, I have a feeling a lot of the voters who turned out this week get that reality. You can do as much tea party namecalling as you want, maybe it's just people who want adequate city services and to maintain and protect their property values.
A question about the majority of this progressive young hipster demographic that "we" want to descend on Cincinnati. Are the majority of them willing to come into an area that they perceive to be on the upswing and invest of themselves (meaning time and sweat), or do they want someone else to put all the work into making the area what "we"want it to be and then they will flock in and drop big bucks into the outstretched arms of the developers? What will happen in a few years when the newness has worn off and they see another area with more glamour and glitter calling to them? Will they have the tenacity to stay and keep the area up, or will they move on to the next area (city) that calls to them, following the next wave of "progressiveness"?
You need both... native residents and the city willing to invest, and new people coming to the city as well bringing their own money and ideas. It can't be just one or the other.
It doesn't matter if the "newness" wears off if the neighborhood still has all the attractive features that revitalized it. The "hipsters" may find a new location, but there will be others that take their places as the gentrification process matures. I brought up the Short North before. It has reached maturity and a lot of the "gritty cool" factor it had at one time has been more or less fading for years as prices and rents keep rising. Those original gentrifiers, as well as a new wave of artists and entrepreneurs, are now moving on to cheaper neighborhoods and bringing them back one step at a time. That doesn't mean that the SN is in decline. Far from it, as developers continue to fill every available lot they can find, and in some cases, are now starting to buy older, smaller buildings with plans to replace them with much taller mixed-use projects.
You need both... native residents and the city willing to invest, and new people coming to the city as well bringing their own money and ideas. It can't be just one or the other.
It doesn't matter if the "newness" wears off if the neighborhood still has all the attractive features that revitalized it. The "hipsters" may find a new location, but there will be others that take their places as the gentrification process matures. I brought up the Short North before. It has reached maturity and a lot of the "gritty cool" factor it had at one time has been more or less fading for years as prices and rents keep rising. Those original gentrifiers, as well as a new wave of artists and entrepreneurs, are now moving on to cheaper neighborhoods and bringing them back one step at a time. That doesn't mean that the SN is in decline. Far from it, as developers continue to fill every available lot they can find, and in some cases, are now starting to buy older, smaller buildings with plans to replace them with much taller mixed-use projects.
Not trying to be rude, but why are you even on this thread, your from Columbus. You seem to be very concerned about this for some reason. I understand you can go wherever you want on city data but still
Not trying to be rude, but why are you even on this thread, your from Columbus. You seem to be very concerned about this for some reason. I understand you can go wherever you want on city data but still
And you aren't even from Ohio! Start going all over city data and letting people know why or why they shouldn't engage in a thread conversation; get to work, you'll be busy.
And I would applaud Cranley for standing up to Obama, Ray LaHood, and the rest of utterly misguided folks who think a streetcar is the silver bullet that will save Cincinnati.
Nobody thinks that. Your caricatures of people who disagree with you are tiring.
I've lived for going on 14 years within the city limits in an inner-ring suburb. I'm good with the trash pick-up and winter street clearing. I haven't had to use police or fire, although the reports about the newly implemented fire station brownouts with inevitable increased response times are concerning. What I DO have extensive experience with is code enforcement and support for neighborhood revitalization. Code enforcement is beyond lacking, more along the lines of abysmal and nearly non-existent. I won't get into specific stories here, but if you could hear some of them you'd either find them laughable or unbelievable. In the case of one problem neighbor, they repeatedly dealt with a complaint by phoning the neighbor, asking if the situation was occurring, and when she said no, closed the case. Does that seem like effective enforcement to you?
If the neighborhoods around a thriving urban core are rotten, Cincinnati cannot move forward. I really believe Cranley's election was partially a statement on that.
Thanks for chiming in. I haven't had to deal at all with code enforcement. It sounds like there is room for a lot of improvement there.
Our neighbor parks in the grass, which I find tacky, and I've heard is against code, but whatever.
Thanks for chiming in. I haven't had to deal at all with code enforcement. It sounds like there is room for a lot of improvement there.
Our neighbor parks in the grass, which I find tacky, and I've heard is against code, but whatever.
Indeed. That's indeed a "whatever" type situation, and you better pray it's as bad as it gets for you.
The situation we were in would have basically made the sale of our house impossible, had we needed to sell at the time. We did get the problem corrected eventually. There's no doubt in my mind that if we hadn't hired a well-known attorney who specializes in that type of work that the City would have simply continued to ignore us indefinitely. As it was, after about $4,000 in legal bills we felt lucky we didn't have to have him go further with filing the legal paperwork by which a citizen can FORCE action on the part of the city to do their job.
Another code violation in my neighborhood just goes on year after year. In that case, the neighbors complain over and over. The inspectors respond by driving by every few months and dutifully reporting that it has not yet been corrected.
So there's code, but no enforcement. And that's what accounts for a LOT of the neighborhood blight around town, and even crime that sets in in blighted areas with deteriorated and abandoned properties. Room for improvement is a ridiculous understatement, and the $25 million spent already on the streetcar would go a long way toward hiring a few actual working staffers and taking a few of the most egregious cases to court.
This dude is a fool. Most people speaking here do not even live in the city, myself included. I work with urban and economic development in urban areas. Cranley is acting like the idiots I saw while in South Africa: corrupt and it's their way or no way at all.
This guy from Dayton... have you been to Cincinnati? There is a lot more to development in Cincinnati than OTR and downtown. Columbia Tusculum, Hyde Park, Clifton, etc. Yet, we always here in the media that OTR and downtown are booming. It's easy to focus on one thing when that is all you hear about 24/7. Good and bad news sells as long as it's popular. Damn, read the pathetic newspaper you guys have and read the comment sections about anything downtown or OTR and you have 120 comments in one hour, it sells and gets readership whether it's Graeter's expansion in OTR or new condos at The Banks. Read a story on new apartments in CT and no one cares because no one ever talks about these neighborhoods, but it doesn't mean they aren't going through great things themselves.
I feel bad for Cincy. You guys had it really going for you, but I promise you momentum will change. This guy is just like Kasick, he thinks he has what it takes to make Ohio (or Cincy) cool, but he is what pushes the young people away with his ideas. He will focus development to where he wants it in his part of the city, and everything that was national stories for gentrification and renewal will actually go to cities who get it. This isn't a conservative or liberal issue, this is about bringing back one of the nation's most beautiful cities to what it should be. Hey Kentucky, you can have Cincinnati, you guys fit well together.
Cranley wants to work with the people pro streetcar on other things? Yeah right, this guy's who political campaign was nothing but the streetcar, and wanted nothing to do with COAST, but he is their spokesman now. I really hope I am wrong, but so much of the change that was happening in Cincy will now only benefit Cranley and his cronies. Wasn't he the guy who moved jobs out of the city?
The streetcar will now cost about as much to destroy it instead of actually finishing it... how asinine. You want to talk about less spending? He had how much voter turnout in this election and he thinks he knows what the city wants? Most voters probably just gave up and plan to leave the city in a couple years anyway. This guy is going blindly about everything, doesn't know the facts, and is letting this new powertrip go to his head. Cincy will decline to about 45,000 and become irrelevant, even your big companies could careless about the city. To all those young urbanites, I hear Pittsburgh and Cleveland are doing good things these days.
I truly wish you well, Cincinnati. Forget the streetcar, honestly. With a guy like Cranley, he is the type of guy off-putting to developers and new residents alike. I really hope you can keep going a positive route in terms of urban and economic development, but I am really doubting things with the man you have in office.
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