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And if you look at INDY just 100 miles away skywalks and their downtown mall is sucessful.
While I agree that Cincy could learn from Indy, Circle Center lost Nordstrums. So they can't exactly be that successful losing their prime anchor store.
Indy is the last place Cincinnati should look to for a successful city model: a few intact downtown blocks, a mall, and the only other vibrant neighborhood is 6 miles away. No streetcar, but I'll give them credit for connecting the two via bike lanes and trails.
Urbanophile did an entry titled, "Cincinnati's Culture of Self-Sabotage", where I commented that he could have just as easily swapped "Cincinnati" with "Ohio". This is basically the citywide version of the statewide Kasich 3C Corridor debacle being played out again. These guys and their backward conservative Ohio base (who are neither chill nor down-to-earth, despite what you've been told) don't grasp the fact that this infrastructure is going to be built: period. They can't kill either of these projects or future ones, they can only put them off and only for so long.
What Ohio boosters here are missing as far as the streetcar vs bus is that there are other cities which give you options to get around should you wish to: ride a train, ride a bike, walk, or take the bus, not just bus it or walk even if the bus system was top notch. I ride the bus plenty myself and like it fine, but guess what? I have other options for getting around the city and I take them. I don't have to take the bus to go to the east or southeast sides of the city: I can choose to also take LRT. If I want to go in any other direction including those I don't have to choose the bus: I can ride on one of the two best bikeway networks in the nation to just about every corner of the city and to St Paul, although the same can't be said of St Paul.
I only bring that last point up, because I foresee a similar scenario to that of Minneapolis having forced St Paul's hand to install progressive transit played out at a state level with Ohio and surrounding states: Mpls had to built the light rail and then get St Paul on board, not the other way around. The same goes for them getting bike infrastructure to connect to ours. you can see the lower level of commitment due to good connections directly between the cities, but within St Paul proper bikeways are few and far between: they don't even have bike lanes downtown for god's sake, so when their arm isn't being twisted by an outside force they're not going to get it done. Just like Ohio. S0, other states are going to build pressure and force Ohio unwillingly to its sh#t in gear and get it built to be connected with the 1st world or be left out altogether and just like St Paul did in both instances Ohio will likewise not be able to hold out any longer, cave in, and then find it very useful. The sad thing is that conservative Ohio is fighting a battle that can't be won, yet again (i.e. gay marriage, etc).
And here's what a prominent Cincinnati booster with both feet on solid ground has to say in contrast to some of the head in the clouds Cincinnati/Ohio boosters here on citydata on mass transit and bikeways:
So with that in mind just think of how much longer of a way to go Cincinnati will have the with next four years spent undoing what little progress has been made (hint: add more "o"s). (And no, I had no personal influence whatsoever on his inclusion of Minneapolis in that list; it's not our fault we rock.)
The minute you mention "Portland" in any positive comparison to Cincinnati, you've lost all credibility in my eyes.
Regardless of what you say here, the fact remains that John Cranley has been elected by a wide margin because the people of Cincinnati want to see change from the course Mallory/Qualls has put the city on for the past decade. And he has a wide mandate, both at the ballot box and in the incoming city council, to enact his agenda - which includes but is likely not limited to:
(1) Killing the streetcar
(2) Killing the parking sellout
(3) Firing Milton Dohoney
And those in my opinion are three excellent beginning steps to righting the ship that is Cincinnati and setting it on a course for the future.
And if you look at INDY just 100 miles away skywalks and their downtown mall is sucessful. I might add Indy has no streetcar.
What they have are a couple of 'line buses' that are circulator buses that run in small med loops and can take you from anywhere in the main downtown to white river park. The buses give them the flexibility to change and tweak the routes as needed.
Whats the big difference in Indy and Cincinnati and why is it sucessfull? They have worked very hard to Preserve, protect and restore not only their in downtown neighborhoods but near downtown areas like Holy Cross, Woodruff, Cottage home, Northside, Meridian Park etc and now they are working on bringing back even more neighborhoods even farther out like Fountain Square, Haughville and eastside neighborhoods farther out.
City leaders understood you can not have a vibrant city, and grow your urban population, without having more than ONE neighborhood. They didn't put all their eggs in one basket but rather created incentives and a cultures that embraced historic restoration. INDY was a disaster in the 1980's.. now they host superbowls.
We need to think in a more "plural manner" and not throw all our eggs in one basket(neighborhood). We should be working in Lower Price Hill, West End, eastside and westside to put programs and policies in place that encourage people to come in and RESTORE. Our permitting system here is a disaster and there are 3 seperate inspectors that cover the same neighborhoods. One for code issues on occupied buildings, one for vacant buildings plus the Permit inspectors. Other cities have 1 inspector covering an area, but this being a "good old boy city/keep those city employees fat" we have to spend two times as much and have three?
Indy which I'll be the first to admit can't hold a candle to Cincinnati Architectural just hosted the NATIONAL Historic Trust conference. Our preservation group here is a old lady red hat society.
We need leadership and frankly Mallory has done ZERO for neighborhoods other than OTR. Time to rock the boat and shake things up . If nothing else Cranley understands this with the Incline district. We just need to be developing on a larger scale.
Indy's mall is successful relative to downtown malls (which is a very low bar), but it still likely does not have a long-term future in its current form.
Skywalks are just ways for suburbanites to never have to be on the street in an urban setting... or to avoid the 30 seconds they may be outside in less than ideal weather while crossing a street. They're awful at improving street-level activity, and as a rule, seem to be built with absolutely zero thought to design.
The minute you mention "Portland" in any positive comparison to Cincinnati, you've lost all credibility in my eyes.
Regardless of what you say here, the fact remains that John Cranley has been elected by a wide margin because the people of Cincinnati want to see change from the course Mallory/Qualls has put the city on for the past decade. And he has a wide mandate, both at the ballot box and in the incoming city council, to enact his agenda - which includes but is likely not limited to:
(1) Killing the streetcar
(2) Killing the parking sellout
(3) Firing Milton Dohoney
And those in my opinion are three excellent beginning steps to righting the ship that is Cincinnati and setting it on a course for the future.
Cranley was elected by a "wide margin" because 72% of the city's population didn't bother to vote. His agenda is awful and so are the agendas of those who actually support him.
The minute you mention "Portland" in any positive comparison to Cincinnati, you've lost all credibility in my eyes.
Regardless of what you say here, the fact remains that John Cranley has been elected by a wide margin because the people of Cincinnati want to see change from the course Mallory/Qualls has put the city on for the past decade. And he has a wide mandate, both at the ballot box and in the incoming city council, to enact his agenda - which includes but is likely not limited to:
(1) Killing the streetcar
(2) Killing the parking sellout
(3) Firing Milton Dohoney
And those in my opinion are three excellent beginning steps to righting the ship that is Cincinnati and setting it on a course for the future.
The minute someone chimes in from Dayton regarding Cincinnati politics, you've lost all credibility in my eyes.
Cranley was elected by a "wide margin" because 72% of the city's population didn't bother to vote. His agenda is awful and so are the agendas of those who actually support him.
That 72% doesn't care about their city, plain and simple. They made the choice to toss its future away and revert to 80s-90s era city policies which is going to be a boon for the burbs and cities outside of Ohio that offer amenities which Ohio cities like Cincinnati don't. With all the locals from Ohio I run into up here I can say this city won't mind a new surge of disillusioned Ohioans.
You see, that's the difference between real cities and posers: people in real cities not only vote but get out and show support for progressive game-changing projects. They are engaged wherever they need to be in order to make things happen, unlike your typical Ohio city which relies on apathy. The greenway streetcar over here isn't even up for a vote, but citizens including myself show up to increase the odds that it happens and when lots of people are vocal they tend to get what they want more often. Oh, and we voted for a mayor that is, surprise, supporting our first new streetcar line to connect to our light rail lines (yes, that's right: all both of them). When you get back to Columbus have fun touring your imaginary streetcars in the 3Cs and pat yourself on the back again for getting little to nothing done.
Indy's mall is successful relative to downtown malls (which is a very low bar), but it still likely does not have a long-term future in its current form.
Skywalks are just ways for suburbanites to never have to be on the street in an urban setting... or to avoid the 30 seconds they may be outside in less than ideal weather while crossing a street. They're awful at improving street-level activity, and as a rule, seem to be built with absolutely zero thought to design.
Indy downtown mall is one of the most sucessfull in North America and that includes suburban malls.
Skywalks allow Indianpolis to move huge crowds from the various parking garages, through venues like circle center malls where most retail is on the upper floors, to sporting events and the convention center. FYI Indianapolis downtown has 75,000 parking spaces downtown. Indy also has one of the most sucessfull Convention Centers in the country. The skywalks prevent street level traffic/pedestrian gridlock during sporting event and conventions.
As to the other poster who intimated indy next "Vibrant" neighborhood is 6 miles away (probably refferring to Broad Ripple), has obviously not seen Fountain Square, Mass Avenue, Old Northside, Holy Cross, St Joseph, Herron Morton, Fall creek place, the Canal District, Woodruff place, etc.
A vibrant neighborhood is more than Bars and trendy shops. Its a place where people buy a homes and establish connections with others around them.
But getting to this city and this election, The people who voted in this election I bet own their homes, have kids in school and probably have to balance a checkbook every week. Unlike an election with a presidential cycle, they were likely not looking at a suggestion ballot nor bused to the polls from the projects.This election was really about neighborhoods and not just one neighborhood at the expense of all others and about fiscal responsibility.
For this city to be sucessfull we have to explore all our assets and we need to leverage not just one asset but several to have a sucessfull city that attracts a variety of people to our city. For example most of the people moving in and restoring in my neighborhood, are not from Cincinnati, not interested in living in the density of OTR but want to be close. The others are people who were 'pioneering" in OTR a few years ago and are getting priced out of their rentals or can't afford the propery taxes as prices are going through the roof.
I can tell you one thing I know for fact; since 2009 when my neighborhood was formed, through a historic home tour attended by people from several states, launches of 3 save not raze projects which have received state and national attention for theior approach, over 3.4 million dollars in private investment in our community at a grass roots level, the outgoing mayor (or his staff) never responded to ONE email on any community issue, nor followed up on any concern from our community. Too busy traveling the world at taxpayer expense, to take care of his own back yard.
That is a serious defect in leadership in my opinion.
That 72% doesn't care about their city, plain and simple. They made the choice to toss its future away and revert to 80s-90s era city policies which is going to be a boon for the burbs and cities outside of Ohio that offer amenities which Ohio cities like Cincinnati don't. With all the locals from Ohio I run into up here I can say this city won't mind a new surge of disillusioned Ohioans.
You see, that's the difference between real cities and posers: people in real cities not only vote but get out and show support for progressive game-changing projects. They are engaged wherever they need to be in order to make things happen, unlike your typical Ohio city which relies on apathy. The greenway streetcar over here isn't even up for a vote, but citizens including myself show up to increase the odds that it happens and when lots of people are vocal they tend to get what they want more often. Oh, and we voted for a mayor that is, surprise, supporting our first new streetcar line to connect to our light rail lines (yes, that's right: all both of them). When you get back to Columbus have fun touring your imaginary streetcars in the 3Cs and pat yourself on the back again for getting little to nothing done.
I wonder if we could start some kind of petition or vote to see who actually wants you, perhaps one of the most smug, self-satisfied hipsters ever to post on the internet, to continuously come onto an Ohio forum and talk about MSP. What would be your guess on how that vote would turn out?
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