State of the City

Mayor Mallory gave his State of the City speech last night at Playhouse in the Park. How was it received? How does his vision gel with where we are headed? I was very pleased to see a Streetcar Plan from Downtown to Uptown was high on his list.


Read the speech here(doc).

Reader Survey: Fifth and Race

There's currently no proposal at all for the large lot at Fifth and Race (for those of you not sure, we're speaking of the parking lot adjacent to the Millennium Hotel that stretches along Race between Fifth and Sixth). That gives us the opportunity to do our own creative thinking about what should be there. As Grif correctly points out, there's plenty "to do" downtown (I'd add Music Hall and the CAC to his list), but there's always room for more. In no particular order, what would you build at Fifth and Race if the decision were yours?

• Condos
• A grocery store
• A movie theatre (the kind that would show Rambo)
• An "indie" movie theatre like the Esquire
• A bowling alley/nightclub like the former Jillian's
• A really big Chipotle (sorry, that's just me fighting my own substance abuse issues)
• A gym or health club

Of those, the condos are my least favorite. My thought is that the space should be either (a) something that the neighborhood residents need/want; (b) something that will draw people downtown; or (c) some combination of the two.

Some Monday CinTV Fluff

Queen City Survey ponders TV ideas set in Cincinnati. The 6 given are actually pretty good. I was thinking of a period drama set in the 19th or early 20th Century, call it Pork Journalism and set it is as a drama through the eyes of a Cincinnati Post reporter.

New Blog: OhioFirstPolitics

OhioFirstPolitics will be covering the Ohio 1st Congressional district race. Give it a read.

I Wanted a RED Pony!

There is no pleasing the Enquirer, especially the headline writer for this article Too many restaurants?. What the article lacks is a comparison of how many restaurants used to be downtown and how many are there now. It also incorrectly lumps in dinner restaurants and lunch restaurants in its "analysis." Lunch places like Potbelly and Ingredients are not anything for Jeff Ruby to worry about. I wonder how much of this story stems from talking to Ruby. In the article Ruby sounds like he has no clue what is happen downtown. He tries to be cute with the "San Quentin theory", which fails to recognize that Downtown is growing and more people are eating dinner every night of the week.

Also either Menelaos Triantafillou's is talking about making Downtown a full "neighborhood" where you can get the dry cleaning after dinner or he has never been downtown:

“The number of restaurants is one question, but more important, what else is there? If people go to dinner, and they want to do something else afterward – which is what humans do – there needs to be something else to see: shops or theater. There needs to be synergism,” said Triantafillou. “You see it now around the Aronoff, with Nicholson’s, Nada, the Contemporary Art Center. Think of other cities or, for example, Clifton, where there are all the amenities you need to enjoy a nice night out. That’s what downtown needs.”

Has Menelaos been downtown before? You have over 4 very popular nightclubs, the poison rooms, 4 live theatre companies (and Playhouse up the hill), Arnoff, Taft, Fountain Square, the Blue Wisp. You could drive to Mt. Adams or NKY if you prefer. There are tons of things to do after dinner downtown. That is clearly not an issue. If the guy means there is not a movie theater, than I am going laugh my ass off. Seriously, people don't go to Nada and then want to see Rambo.

Fifth and Race: Back to the Drawing Board

Once again, Eagle Realty has failed to deliver on promises for the Fifth and Race site. This time, it appears that the City is unwilling to grant it another extension, and Eagle will no longer retain the development rights.

Eagle looks to blame the City for its failure to come up with $3.8 million in funding. I'm curious about the nature of that money. Surely it isn't the case that Eagle had secured $96 million in funding, and the City wouldn't close the remaining gap to get to $100 million, is it? Or is this one of those situations where an initial $5 or $6 million was needed at the outset, Eagle wanted the City to foot half or more, and there was no guaranteed source for the balance of the $100 million? Anyone have the details?

Cranley Doesn't Get It

john Cranley has never understood urban transportation. If it doesn't get him votes on the Westside, then he's going to "question it". If the Streetcar plan included rebuilding the Price Hill incline, John likely would vote twice to approve that.

If you want to know about the streetcar, how it will help the city, how it will work, check out www.cincystreetcar.com.