Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Trashin' the Larry

I was hesitant to respond to Larry Gross's Column in last week's City Beat, but in the end I am going to put out the basic problems with Larry's points and what I believe he is missing:
  1. Criticize Cincinnati all you want! - The problem Larry misses is that when you are gloating with "I-told-you-so" blog posts and articles, you are not criticizing, you are bashing the city.
  2. Larry's basis for attack was flawed! - Larry missed the points I was making that soon after restaurants and bars close something reopened in its place, something he failed to note. Granted that doesn't always happen, but the vast majority of the locations Larry cited had something similar reopen within a year.
  3. Larry missed how he's stuck in stasis! - Larry, get over not have a movie theater downtown. We have many more theatres showing live people on stage downtown and in OTR than existed in the 1970's, no???
  4. Playing the NKY vs. Cincinnati game is more bashing! - When you pit Newport and Covington as the bizzaro Cincinnati, then you are attacking, not criticizing. What is the basis to say that Newport, Cincinnati, and Covington shouldn't be thought of as the unified central urban core of the Metro area? Why aren't they thought of as complementary, not competitors?
  5. What gives with the rest of the column? - Ok I don't know how mentioning me or Nick Spencer does much for the point of column, and I know even less how including references to my blog post titles and background on Rick Hines adds anything. I guess that is just adding some of the backstory to the non-blog readers out there, but I don't know that it helps much.
I hope that Larry wants the downtown and the city to thrive, as he stated in his column, but claims don't supersede acts. When you add to the negative perception of downtown using flawed comments and you fail to put into perspective the fears people have of downtown and OTR, you feed the beast. When you provide no suggestions for improvement, you look like you are enjoying the perceived decline.

I am embarrassed that people who have lived here longer than I have refuse to maintain a positive attitude and look at change not as a negative, but instead as what we need. You can't go home again Larry. Your old Cincinnati died 30 years ago. Join us in building a new Cincinnati.

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