CityKin

Adriatico's New Location

2012-01-16T23:58:00.002-05:00

We tried to go to Adriatico's yesterday. It looked like they were open, but they were just doing deliveries. They said the restaurant will hopefully open Thursday.They just built a new building next to Pomodori's. After decades of being a delivery or take-out only location, they are now offering seating with dozens of beers on tap. Can't wait.

[Where: 113 West McMillan Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219]

Another Walk 2

2012-01-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

A New Years walk is turning into a bit of a tradition with my son. I love the quiet companionship on a cold day walk. First came upon the recently demolished 1314 Vine Cornice laying on ground

Stones intended for Washington Park to match old stones around perimeter

SWC Walnut and Mercer, demolition happening this week

Somehow never noticed this doorway before

This nondescript building on E 14th hides an upscale residence

This is a very strange building, seen from Findlay Street is kindof an annex to the building at the corner of Vine and McMicken

[where: 3 West McMicken, Cincinnati, OH 45202](rear)Vacant and condemned buildings owned by a church located in Washington DC,,, What a waste..

Northern end of Findlay Playground

Two vacant houses on the northernmost stub of Republic Street

private alley between Vine and McMicken

Only a few buildings on lonely Kirk Alley, heading up to Ohio Street Steps

This single family house with an unusually huge front yard at 104 W Clifton backs up against Kirk Alley above. It is for sale for $110K

Steps that once went somewhere

Looking back down 100 steps, Ohio Street

Mulberry in the distance. I was reminded of the area to the left which a commenter on a previous post said was called Little Bethlehem.

When at Adriatico's last week, I noticed that their delivery map listed some sub-neighborhoods that I had never heard of, including Little Bethlehem and Jerusalem...The blue line is zip code boundary

The same map had Frenchman's Corner near Brighton Corner (but now under I-75) and Rohs Hill at the top of Straight Street

Civil war era house at high point on Ohio Avenue in bad shape.

(where: 2210 Ohio Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45219)It had been a gray cold day, but just as the sun set, it broke through the clouds

On the way back down the hill, we found fossils on the steep cliffs of West Clifton Ave.

Son really wants to climb this cliff. Maybe next time.

Almost home, Prince of Peace church with moon,

Texting vs Radio = Transit vs Cars

2011-12-31T15:32:00.001-05:00

Texting while driving is, in essence, a wake-up call to America. It illustrates our real, and bigger, predicament: The country is currently better suited to cars than to communication. This is completely bonkers.By all means, we should ban texting while driving, or at least try. But we need to work urgently on making driving less necessary in the first place. Let’s get our hands off the wheel and onto the keypad — where they belong.

-Clive Thompson

Not Back Yet

2011-12-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

Seen near Hartke Hardware yesterday:

On Hiatus

2011-12-01T23:00:00.001-05:00

Hope to return soon

Mayberry Growing and Moving to OTR

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

My favorite restaurant, Mayberry, which has been in a very small space at 915 Vine for several years is expanding and moving to 1211 Main Street in Over-the-Rhine, which was the Couryard Cafe. Best of luck to the chef and owner, Josh Campbell.Before he opened at 915 Vine, this was there:

Hide Freeways

2011-11-22T04:00:00.000-05:00

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2011/10/ohio-highway-cap-at-forefront-of-urban-design-trend-retail-complex-atop-columbus-expressway-offers-m.html/

More Highway Waste

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I recently drove most of the eastern portions of I-275. I noticed that miles and miles of precast concrete sound barrier has been installed and continues to be installed. A quick internet search shows that these walls cost in the range of $3 million per mile, and effectively reduce the sound by 4 decibels within a few hundred feet of the walls. But the walls also sometimes bounce sound and have negative effects further out.

I understand that living near a interstate sucks and that they REDUCE property value, so I can understand the lobbying to mitigate the hazard. But no walls are proposed to help residents anywhere near downtown.

I once considered living on historic Dayton Street in the West End. But the house was on the western end of the street, and the highway noise was oppressive. I've never seen sound barriers on any of the western half of I-275. Just wondering.. Why would Milford, Loveland, Indian Hill, Blue Ash and Springdale get more attention than say Colerain, Harrison, Mt Airy and Northside? Gee I couldn't begin to guess...

But despite the inequity of the chosen locations, is this really an important priority for transportation dollars? Seems extremely wasteful to me.

In related news: Parking lots and highways kill cities.

Also related, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is decreasing for the first time in the history of the automobile, and Millennials have less interest in cars than previous generations.

Also, car / truck oil consumption graphs here. And why we should dismantle freeways here.

High Security

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Security camera with antennae at corner of 13th and Vine.

Ugliest on Upper Main

2011-11-20T01:00:00.002-05:00

Yes, it is green. Real green.
[where: 1722 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]
I have no idea who Michael Chambers is, but he owns some ugly stuff.

Coptor Video Warsaw

2011-11-19T13:00:00.002-05:00

Apparently there were some riots in Poland :

"Several thousand right-wing nationalists and football fans were opposed by about nearly 2000 anarchists, anti-Nazi and gay-rights activists as they tried to stage a march in central Warsaw."

I would love to figure out how to make videos like this. another coptor video

Afganistan Video

2011-11-19T10:57:00.001-05:00

Wow. Watch on a full size screen if possible:

Afghanistan – touch down in flight from Augustin Pictures on Vimeo.

American Quirks

2011-11-08T12:11:00.001-05:00

Things foreigners find strange when visiting the US:.

Those yellow school buses from the movies are everywhere!

Windows that only open straight up (and not in/out)

Cities where streets follow a grid. And almost all streets allow cars. As a European I'm accustomed to look for the city center; a place where there are no cars, where streets are meandering, where there are terraces to sit outside and have a coffee. A place that's amenable to walking, to hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere. I did not find such a space in the american cities I've been to. And it prevented me from enjoying the place.

Riding a bike is dangerous and an enterprise, not a mindless means of transport.

Working people are afraid of medical bills.

Catching the bus seems to be an activity reserved exclusively for disabled and poor people.

The surbuban parking lots! Yeah everyone's heard of them, but nothing will prepare you for the overwhelming size and quantity

The importance of team sports in American schools is surprising. My friends' children were involved in football, wrestling (unheard of in British schools), football, basketball, baseball ... with coaches for all those sports and a massive amount of parental involvement.

The lack of pedestrians. A couple of weeks ago I got off the bus in Worthington, OH and walked about a mile up High St and then down some residential streets back to a friend's house and I did not see another pedestrian - this was at 5pm on a weekday, on a street with wide, wide sidewalks. When I told my friend where I'd walked from, she was truly shocked. She thought I was weird to get the bus downtown in the first place because only poor people take buses

American drivers are far more likely to stop and let a pedestrian cross the road, even when there is no marked crossing. Possibly due to the novelty of seeing someone on foot.

Unless you live in a big metro area, if you don't drive or at least have a car, you'll be hard put to get food or other necessities

The huge amount of text-based road signs we have in the U.S. Every mile or so you're barraged with information about the speed limit, the next exit, the name or route number of the road you're on, and other miscellaneous information. In the UK you can drive for miles with no signs at all, and when you do see them they're likely to just be symbols of some sort.

Walking across the road in the wrong place can be a crime.

Stores have their own parking lot and you cannot run errands in medium towns without driving between different shops.

Lawyers have much more cultural cachet than in almost any other country. The idea that lawyers are on a par with doctors as far as people with high-class occupations. Note the perennial appeal of law school, or of lawyer shows on television. Also, a majority of elected officials have at least graduated from law school, whether or not they actually practiced as a lawyer for any significant amount of time. (Compare this to the number of engineers in power in China.)

Power lines above ground.

People look at you weirdly if you tell them you walk to work.

Homemaking as Art

2011-11-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

While folding laundry I was thinking about how to build some shelves for the towels. Then I imagined all the different nooks and crannies in which I could build some custom shelves, And I start to imagine the whole house fitted with structures to hold all of the physical memories of our growing children; clay sculptures, pinewood derby cars, soccer trophies, class photos, valentines day cards, favorite sea shells, etc... and in the kids room, shelves everywhere filled with toys, books, puzzles. What a wonderful place this house could be if I could just start adding some shelving..Sometimes you visit a house, and it really has that lived-in beautiful family feel. It may not be the cleanest place, but it is full of life, happening now. Happening every moment it is filled with growing children. There are pets, toys, and half-completed projects all over the place. The kitchen is like a big pantry, full of stuff at arms-reach for the cook of the house. And sets are gathered around the kitchen with homework books on the counter with the splattered cookbooks.Recently, a former classmate had his house published in an architectural magazine, and when my wife and I saw this, we laughed, because in our mixed up confused life, it seems so empty it was absurd:

I may not want a house that is spare and white as this, but I do think it can be purposely built and continually improved much more than we have done so far. Our house now is more of a jumble of backround thoughts that were never completed. I want to do better in this regard. I think a good home, whether an apartment, a condor or a house, needs constant attention. Never-ending repair, rebuilding, and improving, similar to the constant attention a child demands... or your spouse. And I guess what I am making peace with is that this is a worthy project. Worthy of just as much attention and respect as a career. Home-making is an art, like any other. So give it the attention and hard work that it deserves. That is why,even though it has just turned midnight, and I could expand on these thoughts for another hour, I will now stop this writing and go give some love and attention to some shelves in the bathroom.BTW; below are two images of the Soane Museum in London. This was the personal house of Sir John Soane. He was an avid collector of antiquities and he was continually rebuilding and improving his house to display his incredible collection:

Slow Cars When Near People

2011-10-31T22:48:00.002-04:00

It’s a sad fact that you have to get out of your car, occasionally, and at those times you’re vulnerable if you’re anywhere near a street. -Michael van Baker

Popsicle Test and Halloween in OTR

2011-10-31T07:01:00.001-04:00

"A neighborhood works if it is possible for an 8-year-old kid to get a Popsicle on his or her own and return before it has completely melted." - Scott Doyon, more here

There has been some discussion on urban parenting blogs about the above described popsicle test. I have to admit that we thought 8 was too young for our son, at least in OTR, to walk to the corner store. One of the bloggers also brought up the issue of Halloween. It seems to me that a good neighborhood for Halloween is a neighborhood with mostly single family houses relatively close together, with sidewalks, lampposts and trees with freshly fallen leaves etc.

I was talking today to a friend who grew up on Republic Street in the 50s. He said back then there were a lot more small shops on Vine Street and that they would dress up and walk around to all the different stores. He said the church/school organized a kind of parade too in the daytime. In the 90s, before we had kids, when we lived on Elm Street, my wife used to sit out on the front stoop and hand out raisins and peanuts to kids. There were more kids than you might think venturing up and down OTR streets. But many of the buildings are apartment buildings without easy access, and there are fewer stores than there were 50 years ago. That combined with the abundance of vacant buildings, this is not a great place for Halloween. Tonight, we are headed up the hill to Fairview Avenue. We have friends there and it was a lot of fun last year. But next year we may try to stick it out here.

This blurry photo is from Halloween last year on Fairview Avenue. Some people in that neighborhood really make an effort to give the kids a treat.

Looking in Junky Store

2011-10-30T22:04:00.002-04:00

Building Types That Caused the Recession

2011-10-26T05:43:00.000-04:00

“We built the wrong product in the wrong location, and nobody wants it any more, that’s the reason for the housing crisis, and therefore the mortgage crisis, and therefore the Great Recession.”

“A number of things are positive about recessions – and this is for all recessions – and one is that it gives businesses a chance to rethink their strategy, they’re forced to rethink their strategy,” he says. “That’s a very positive thing. Now will those old dogs learn new tricks? Some have, some won’t. And those that don’t will go bankrupt after their federal stimulus money runs out.”

- The Atlantic Cities

36 Years Ago

2011-10-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

On October 25, 1975, Evel Knievel successfully jumped fourteen Greyhound buses at the Kings Island theme park in Ohio. Although Knievel landed on the safety deck above the 14th bus, his landing was successful and he held the record for jumping the most buses on a Harley-Davidson for 24 years. The Kings Island event scored the highest viewer ratings in the history of ABC's Wide World of Sports and would serve as Knievel's longest successful jump at 133 feet (although the Caesars Palace jump was longer, it ended in a crash). After the Kings Island jump, Knievel again announced his retirement. -Wikipedia

In 1975, I was the age my son is now. Back then it seems like we were immersed in a burst of cultural consumerism. I'm not sure if it is gone in general, or just from our family because of our lack of TV, but I wonder what references will remind them of 2011. Will it be anything like Mork and Mindy, Idi Amin, Love American Style, Dean Martin roasts, streaking, dead baby jokes, wacky packages, the Ohio Players? Or will it be more wholesome and serious pursuits like protests in Piatt Park, the Choir Games and Middle Eastern revolts on YouTube?

Occupy to Rebuild Downtown

2011-10-19T13:15:00.004-04:00

....In recent years, complete idiots became respected developers overnight and were making millions doing, mindless assembly line development. It was not hard for some of the brightest among us to be caught up in this....

That's not where the future lies.... the city can be built starting with the building and the street, assembling into blocks, growing into neighborhoods and then connecting into an ecosystem of a city.

... a DoTank, which is like a think tank except, instead of wasting time talking about what should be done, they get out and do it. Every city -- every neighborhood -- needs a DoTank.

... Something's not working on your block? Fix it. Need to make change in your neighborhood? Do it. The fractal nature of it means that we don't need to wait for the government or for some well-funded developer to come in and transform everything...

This was the approach we used when we were a much poorer country. It is an approach that allowed us to build some of the most beautiful places the United States has ever seen, places we destroyed with the heavy-handed approach we've used in the auto era. And it was a financially-resilient system...

"It used to be build it and they will come. Now it is occupy it and it will be rebuilt."

We have a lot to rebuild. If we embrace the financial implications of this transition, it will no doubt be scary, but we can put ourselves in position -- nationwide with a loose coalition of doers -- to start repairing the individual lots, buildings, streets and blocks that will ultimately form the neighborhoods that will make this country truly strong... -Charles Marohn, Engineer

Obesogenic Motorgenic Cincinnati

2011-10-17T06:40:00.001-04:00

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. - Romans 7:19

I believe this newly invented word obesogenic is helpful in thinking about how our environment and culture affect our individual bodies. I have had times in my life in which my environment was much healthier, and as a result I was physically much healthier.

For example, in 1986 (I think), I lived for a few months in Spain. While I was there, I had no access to fast food, junk food or even any dairy products. However, I ate whenever I wanted and drank whatever I wanted. I found when I returned home that my clothes were all loose and I felt fantastic. My tastes in food had even changed. Since then, I have tried to recreate that diet, but it is difficult because diet is so integrated into our culture and lifestyle.

I find more and more that the idea that we are all independent and that we are each as individuals totally responsible for our well-being to be false. Yes of course I am responsible for my own actions, but it is an acutely American way of thinking that disallows common action for improvement.

For example, I hate bike riding,... at least in Cincinnati. Yes the hills are one reason, but mostly I ride in the basin, so that is not the main reason. It is just way too dangerous, especially with children. And to take two kids with me on bikes is a huge ordeal. Just getting 3 bikes out the door with 3 helmets and bike locks and lights if it is dark, is just ridiculous. And downtown is not much different than many suburban areas (except that you have a garage to keep all the bikes). I really don't see that many suburban kids out riding beyond their cul-de-sac... because cars rule and it is too dangerous. Nothing like this.

I saw an item a few weeks ago a woman was prosecuted after her son was killed by a car while jaywalking. Frankly, I don't think jaywalking should even be a crime on any residential street. The prosecution of this poor woman is just an indication of how backwards American thinking is about walking vs cars. Cars rule, period.

We live in a motorgenic environment. Motorized vehicles rule our public streets and pedestrians and bicyclists are scared and pushed to the fringes. This attitude ruins cities. It destroys shopping streets, public spaces, streets and sidewalks.

Cars and walkers can only successfully mix if the actions of the car are restrained and the actions of the walkers and bikers are liberated.

We need to change from a motorgenic environment to a muscle-powered, socially oriented, pedestrian friendly environment.

‘We live in an obesogenic environment – a plethora of fast food outlets, reliance on cars, and offers enticing us to eat larger portions …’Professor Mike Kelly – as quoted in the Telegraph 8th October 2003

Join the movement to move your feet

Mr Rogers at Congress

2011-10-16T22:43:00.000-04:00

Fascinating clip

Jaques Tati

2011-10-15T14:47:00.000-04:00

Never saw any of Jaques Tati's movies, but he was referenced in some article I was reading, and found some youtube clips interesting. One of his themes seems to be disorientation in buildings, especially modern buildings:

modern buildings

Traffic

House

Play Time (1967), shot in 70mm, was the most risky and expensive work of Tati's career, and it bankrupted him. It took nine years to make and he had to borrow heavily from his own resources to complete the picture. ForPlaytime, Tati fabricated a set (dubbed "Tativille") on the outskirts of Paris that emulated an entire modern city. In the film, Tati and a group of American tourists lose themselves in the futuristic glass-and-steel of the Parisian suburbs, where only human nature and a few views of the city of Paris itself still emerge to breathe life into the city. Playtime had even less of a plot than his earlier films, and Tati endeavored to make his characters, including Hulot, almost incidental to his portrayal of a modernist and robotic Paris - Notes for Class Discussion

Keller's IGA Reconstruction

2011-10-14T22:19:00.000-04:00

In Progress

The floor plans posted outside had a couple interesting features: a beer cave in the back and a cafe type sitting area at the front entry.

Will Sprawl Recommence?

2011-10-14T08:57:00.003-04:00

“What were seeing right now is an inability to look at how we live and how it relates to our problems, and financial problems,” said Kunstler Tuesday during a speaking engagement with the Congress for the New Urbanism. “Production homebuilders, mortgage lenders, real estate agents, they are all sitting back now waiting for the, quote, bottom of the housing market to come with the expectation that things will go back to the way they were in 2005.”

But despite massive government expenditures to restart the old economic engine driven by suburban homebuilding, recovery is elusive, Kunstler said. The author of “The Geography of Nowhere” and “The Long Emergency” argues that suburbanization has been a multi-decade American experiment, and a failed one. - Streetsblog

Photos from another Walk

2011-10-11T12:00:00.004-04:00

Scene on lower Ohio Avenue, in OTR

if you want to buy one of the junkiest buildings in the city, call this number.

[where: 2012 Ohio Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Interesting pink building, I think for sale

[1808 Republic Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

steps from Ohio, Van Lear to Vine

exploring

Anton and George Zimmerman, 1883

Once the corner of Poplar and Buckeye, now the corner of Frintz and E. Clifton

Frintz was Poplar

short little basement entry

Buck Rogers type lintels

Believe it or not, this beauty is on Peete Street

The lower half

[where: 102 Peete Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

A Conservative on Streetcars

2011-10-09T09:15:00.002-04:00

...the ripping up of streetcar lines and their replacement with buses also ripped the urban fabric. Most people like riding streetcars, but almost no one likes riding a bus. The substitution of buses for electric streetcars drove most former streetcar riders to drive.

When people took the streetcar to town — and every American city or town with 5,000 or more people once had streetcars — they also spent a lot of time on Jane Jacobs’ all-important sidewalks. There, they performed multiple functions: eyes on the street, office worker, restaurant diner, shopper, theater-goer and more.

Once they drove into the city, their time on sidewalks dropped and with it shrank the number of roles they filled. They drove as close to their (usually single) destination as they could, parked, and walked only as far as necessary. When their business was done, their car drew them like a magnet and as soon as they could press the starter pedal they were gone. Stores, restaurants, and theaters moved to the suburbs where parking was easier. In time offices followed, and the city’s sidewalks emptied except for the occasional beggar or wino. My home city, Cleveland, lost its streetcars in 1953, and the downtown’s decline began. If Ohio had tumbleweeds, they would now blow down Euclid Avenue.

Cities such as Portland, Oregon and Kenosha, Wisconsin that have brought streetcars back have found the sidewalks come to life again. So have shops, theaters and restaurants. Streetcars are pedestrian facilitators, more so than subways. People walk, take the streetcar, then get off and walk some more.

Cities need streetcars. They are not a cure-all; if people do not feel safe on city sidewalks, nothing will move them to walk there. But if a city can restore order, streetcars are more likely to fill its sidewalks with people than anything else.

- William Lind is director of The American Conservative Center for Public Transportation.

Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

2011-10-03T22:58:00.002-04:00

great little film by urbanist William H. Whyte:

Up and Down Entry

2011-10-02T23:53:00.002-04:00

I love this kind of dual entry. You see them around OTR here and there. This one is on Mulberry

UPDATE

Visualingual thought of the above as a moat. This reminded me of the invention below:

Steven M. Johnson has a few books, and I got one for myself, and the kids have a lot of fun looking through the ideas. Very cool.

Density Increases Wealth

2011-09-28T17:41:00.000-04:00

....We’re both happier and more productive when we’re interacting with other people in person. And so high-density development patterns have the same kind of productivity-enhancing benefits that free trade does. Tall buildings, walkable neighborhoods, and a good transit system reduce the average cost of face-to-face interaction in exactly the same way that steam ships and low tariffs reduced the average costs of shipping goods to the other side of the world. In both cases, the result is greater wealth, on a per-capita basis.

....we’re just coming out of a half-century in which the benefits of density were severely underestimated. For decades, urban planners pursued policies that systematically undermined our cities. Limits on density destroy wealth in exactly the same way that limits on free trade do. There’s a lot of work to be done to allow cities to reach their full wealth-creating potential.
-in Forbes

Music Hall this Morning

2011-09-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

I'm not posting much, but I am still here, plugging away...

Welcome to New Granada

2011-09-27T13:32:00.002-04:00

Mr Rogers

2011-09-19T12:22:00.001-04:00

I loved this anectdote, but the whole article is worth reading for sure:

...a boy, no longer little, told his friends to watch out, that he was going to do something "really big" the next day at school, and the next day at school he took his gun and his ammo and his earplugs and shot eight classmates who had clustered for a prayer meeting. Three died, and they were still children, almost. The shootings took place in West Paducah, Kentucky, and when Mister Rogers heard about them, he said, "Oh, wouldn't the world be a different place if he had said, 'I'm going to do something really little tomorrow,'" and he decided to dedicate a week of the Neighborhood to the theme "Little and Big." He wanted to tell children that what starts out little can sometimes become big, and so that could devote themselves to little dreams without feeling bad about them...

more Mr Rogers here

Street Artist Ron English

2011-09-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Ron English can often be found sitting on a stoop on Main Street, sketching on cardboard or writing his thoughts on a sheaf of paper. For this post, I googled his name and came up with a great post about him. If you see him, say hi, and if you like what you see, buy a drawing.

I like his art quite a bit, but this is not the best example:

The High Bridge on Cincinnati Southern RR

2011-09-13T01:55:00.001-04:00

I had a post a few years back about Shaker Village near Lexington.

The Cincinnati Southern Railroad passes near Shaker Village, and there is this incredible bridge over the Kentucky river gorge that we have seen it often from below. This past weekend, we took a detour and went to the top of the far side and saw this:

high bridge

Description front

plaque back

Fun

2011-09-11T02:24:00.000-04:00

Sunday Walk

2011-09-09T09:00:00.004-04:00

View Sun Walk in a larger map

A couple weeks ago, on a warm Sunday afternoon, we had nothing to do, so we explored a bit. We first headed up Vine and then turned up some steps by Smiling Sams Furniture and ended up above Mulberry Street in a quiet valley. I don't know if this area has a name, but it is a nice quiet area with lots of potential. Then we continued on through the edges of Mt Auburn and circled back down to Pendleton and OTR:

Vine and McMillan

Peete Street, end closest to Vine

steps from Peete dead-end to Mulberry

Rice Street forgotten home

Looking up Winkler with Christ Hospital parking garage on top of the hill

116 Winkler forgotten and overgrown

120 aqnd 122 Winkler Street

136 Gage Street

Looking back over quiet valley of houses tucked behind Vine Street Elementary (currently Rothenberg)

Dramatic Gage Street steps with tall stone retaining wall connect to Mt Auburn behind Christ Hospital

Along our walk we met some people and talked with some, but generally it was quiet and not many people around. Every time I take a walk like this I am also amazed at how many vacant buildings are sitting there waiting to be rehabbed.

path to Jackson Hill overlook

view from Jackson Hill is not kept trim like Ohio Street and Fairview and Eden Park overlooks

there is a sharp cliff on either side of this grassy path in this rarely travelled section of Jackson Hill park. There are remnants of a asphalt path and stone steps down the hill to Rice Street, but it is totally overgrown.

grassy knoll in Jackson Hill park

hacking through the thicket

We hack our way through the weeds and came out in someone's backyard on Dorsey Street. I wouldn't recommend others take this route, but we were exploring and sometimes things like this happen.

Dorsey St, insular IMO

heading back up to Mt Auburn

steps from Mt Auburn to Goethe in OTR

this horribly ugly modern house at the end of Eleanor Place has moss on flat roof and needs maintenance all around, but has a Jaguar parked in the driveway.

ugly house again

path from Walker Street to Filson Pool

not a kid in sight

pool building Mt Auburn

steps down from Mt Auburn to Prospect Hill

resting

Neighbors in Liberty Hill take care of the spaces along the steps

down steep hills of Liberty Hill

stone stoops on steep hill

raised stone stoops

last set of steps down from Liberty to Pendleton

Krohn-Fechheimer Co

13th and Broadway, what a pitiful building

Positively no Loafing Ms Sophie says

No Loitering

Garden at Union Terminal

2011-09-09T00:07:00.000-04:00

Old Phone and Old Light Switch

2011-08-30T00:42:00.001-04:00

[where: 1305 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

1833 Sycamore

2011-08-28T15:02:00.002-04:00

Peeking in Keyhole

Condemnation Orders

shattered

Southside

Infrastructure Cult

2011-08-15T14:17:00.003-04:00

We need smart infrastructure, not just wider roads:

...we want our infrastructure maintained. In fact, it's the common denominator of a Strong Town. But the reason why we can't maintain our infrastructure is not because we lack the money or are afraid to spend it. It is because the systems we have built and the decisions we've made on what is a good investment are based on the kind of ridiculous math you see reflected in this ASCE report. We spend a billion here and a billion there and we get nothing but a couple minutes shaved off of our commutes, which just means we can build more roads and live further away from where we work. - Charles Marohn

Jewel Weed

2011-08-13T06:42:00.000-04:00

Often while exploring in wooded urban areas you will find this weed. I remember it from my childhood, and the kids love the exploding seedpods which explode at the slightest touch. The seeds have a good nutty taste:

Frayed Window Ropes

2011-08-13T06:17:00.000-04:00

Time to make some repairs:

End of Another Summer Means Change

2011-08-12T07:15:00.001-04:00

Summer break from blogging is over. The air finally cooled somewhat and the kids are preparing for the first day of school next week. Our children had a memorable summer full of exploration and swimming. I am so thankful I get to relive some of my childhood with them. Unfortunately much of our summer was NOT spent downtown. Our swimming hole is not downtown anymore and we took a looong vacation to the beach. In addition, there is major construction all around our house this summer in Over-the-Rhine. I love construction, and it is fun to watch with my kids, but when the construction is right outside your window and is everyday, very early and very loud and dusty, and when that construction goes on and on and on for months, you tend to spend even less time home.

And the continuing transformation of Over-the-Rhine and the over-saturation of coverage of this change in various blogs and on Facebook/Twitter leaves me feeling a bit like an outsider in my own hood. Well, maybe not an outsider, but definitely not an insider. I have no insider information about what is going on here, and other people seem to have a lot more interest and knowledge of the developments of 3CDC or what new shop is opening etc…

And… I have changed. I don’t find myself pondering the same questions that once crowded my mind. For example, I am much less interested in politics. I know my political beliefs and I am very comfortable and solid in my beliefs but I don't really want to write about them. Similarly, I am as much interested in discussing the pros and cons of raising children downtown. I already know it is great raising children here, it is a settled matter in my mind. My kids are getting a fantastic education in the public schools, and they are loving their city and their neighborhood. I liked writing about those things more when I was still figuring it out.

Interestingly, my son was resistant to our looong summer vacation. He is a lot more connected to OTR than you'd think a 10 year old would be. He was upset that he missed the Downtown Dash. His loves to run… and take long exploratory walks. He says his favorite activity is when we take these long exploratory urban hikes. And he likes to work and be helpful around the house. When we miss our regular activities, like our walk to church, both the kids are upset. It is strange, because they just love regularity, our neighborhood and walking more than I would have ever imagined.

I'm hoping the blog will evolve to include more creative writing like yesterday's post, hopefully some longer pieces. Thanks for reading.

A Child Forgotten

2011-08-11T09:18:00.002-04:00

We only wanted the best for you.
Truly, but time was too little and
Spaces too big, and the driving too fast.

And where is your father?
Where is everyone?
Each is alone in a tin box.

I had a nightmare that I was boiling,
Boiling in the sun.

The pool was empty,
And the trees were bare.

I work in a windowless box,
Learn in a flat warehouse.
Can you see the birds sing, from your classroom?
Can you hear the leaves, as they fall in hot August?

Why do we live with so much space between us?
Its impossible to navigate this nameless space.

Can we go back to the womb together,
Mother and daughter, like twins
Arms around each other?

Before you were born, when I was still a child
I knew what mattered then.
Glimpses remain deep in my brain.

Why don’t we embrace,
Embrace like the days before you were born?

It takes a strong muscle to keep us together,
The muscle of the forearm or the womb,
Or the tongue.

And your name remains on my tongue,
But my arms and womb are empty.

A Birthday Thought

2011-07-20T06:10:00.000-04:00

"Youth is not a period of life, it is a condition of the spirit, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, an intensity of emotion, a victory of courage over timidity, a taste for adventure over comfort. One becomes old when one abandons one's ideals."
- Douglas MacArthur 1945

Noodling

2011-07-16T08:52:00.001-04:00

Down south, great fun for dads and sons:

Bellevue Market at Party Source

2011-07-15T08:30:00.001-04:00

After last week's blog post complaining about Findlay Market raising prices for the farmer shed, I had to visit the place several of the displaced farmers have moved to: the Bellevue Farmer's Market in the parking lot of The Party Source. First off let me say that whoever owns The Party Source is a genius. They have a prime location right across the river from Cincinnati, right at the exit to 471 and they have a well run store with a wide selection at good prices. Every time I visit, they seem extremely busy. Try going there on a holiday weekend, or almost any day in December, and the place is packed.

But the area is bland. The Eat at Joes across the street is ugly, heck everything across the street is ugly, the Justin Scott Memorial Hwy is wide and ugly, and the traffic pattern is becoming more and more congested and unpleasant. Is a place like this a good place for a farmer's market?

Well maybe. It didn't seem so busy, and the farmers all had lots of stuff left to sell at early afternoon. Talking with a couple of them revealed that they had much better sales at Findlay Market. The problem with Findlay they say is that the smaller farmer's could no longer afford $300 to setup at Findlay. Yes, the larger farmer can. For example, Backyard Orchards is setting up at both Findlay Market and Bellevue. He can do this because he has a unique product and lots of it, plus he has a son who can watch the second stand. But the smaller sellers, including Turner Farms and 3 or 4 others have moved to Bellevue. The produce diversity at Findlay Market has suffered as a result IMO.

There were some crafty types selling stuff here too, but the produce selection was pretty good. It just didn't seem like the farmers had enough shoppers.

overview of setup

Ugly road

apples and peaches

string beans and garlic measurer at Turner Farm stand

squash

Tree of Life

2011-07-13T11:01:00.001-04:00

Can't wait to see this.

Highway Widening

2011-07-12T00:40:00.001-04:00

Widening work on I75 south of Mitchell is just begining

Pennies on the Track

2011-07-10T15:42:00.000-04:00

Recreating my childhood with my son

Boys All Cry

2011-07-08T19:31:00.003-04:00

My Childhood is Not My Son's

2011-07-07T10:33:00.002-04:00

I saw in the paper today that the festival in Pamplona is beginning this week and that they will be running bulls through the street. And if your like me, when you hear the word "Pamplona", you immediately get a picture of Ernest Hemingway in your head. It’s strange how certain words have immediate connection to vivid images.

For example, this week we got our first watermelon. And as I take my first bite of watermelon, I see my childhood friends (two boys, who in this post will remain unnamed). It seems like my brother and I had watermelon at their house all the time in the summer.

An image comes to my mind of us 4 boys, all sitting just outside their front door in the bare dirt where a bush once lived. (This is the same dirt in which we found their frozen cat one February, and the same planter in which we once mutilated a catfish as we tried to de-bone it.) In my mind, we are sitting in the hot shade, in wet cut-offs, with watermelon juice on our chins and our bare feet in the dust of the barren planter. We have seed spitting contests, then spit them at each other, then return, running and jumping back into their rusting round pool.

I was lucky to have an absolutely beautiful childhood. My friends and I had tons of free play time away from any adults. We did everything a kid could want. We were allowed to wander and to experiment and to sometimes get seriously hurt. But it was wonderful, and those memories sustain me to this day.

And as I’ve written before, I sometimes worry that my children are not allowed the same free time. I never did much in the way of organized sports, partly because it would have cut into my freedom. I certainly didn’t relish going to soccer or baseball. In fact I think it was more like dread. Soccer was OK, but I hated running laps or standing at the plate for fast pitch baseball. My son on the other hand truly enjoys his sports. He loves a competitive sport and a demanding coach. Is this is because he does not have the freedom I once had?

My wife and I try to give him as much freedom as a 10 year old can have. No doubt, he has seen much more than I did at his age. He knows how to navigate the city, knows an extremely wide variety of people, and he likes to help me build and repair things.

In the summer, he and his sister live at the swimming pool. They go early in the morning for swim team, and sometime stay until evening. They don’t just swim. They play capture the flag and kick the soccer ball. They eat there and meet new friends there. They do much of what I did, except less dunking and throwing of rocks ... and yes their watermelon is seedless.

So yes, I worry about my son, but I also need to recognize he is not me. He is a different personality, and he is living his own childhood, not mine. And if I step back an look at him growing into a young man... I think he's turning out alright.

Admit It You Screwed Up Now Fix It

2011-07-03T08:54:00.008-04:00

Dear Findlay Market Managemment;

You have screwed up. You raised fees and many of your farmers have left and are now selling other places. I can think of at least 6 farmers that are not at the market this year.

A person should be able to go to your market at 1-2pm on a Saturday in July and find a farmer who has tomatoes, cucumbers and berries. But yesterday, they were all gone or sold out. Where is our apple guy? Instead you have new vendors selling wildflowers, socks and banana bread. Come on.

Admit it. You goofed. Time to backtrack and get those farmers back.

Those First 2 Years Are Killer

2011-06-29T12:26:00.005-04:00

"The average baby demands adult attention of one kind or another every twenty seconds. New mothers lose an average of seven hundred hours of sleep during that first year. Marital satisfaction plummets 70 percent, while risk of maternal depression more than doubles..." - David Brooks, The Social Animal, page 35

Twenty Years Ago

2011-06-24T04:32:00.000-04:00

.... Sander Hall was demolished

CAC Monday Night Crafts

2011-06-21T10:02:00.002-04:00

One Night One Craft at the Contemporary Arts Center

Here are the Monday night events for the rest of the summer. Some of the classes would be great for kids, and a lot of families are making free admission Mondays a regular family visit, so you are likely to meet other downtowner families. Classes are Mondays 6-8pm and although as always, Mondays are free admission, some of the classes have a $5 material fee. I've heard rumors that there is a cash bar at some of these events:

June 27th 6-8pm Book Making Bonanza!
Make your own journal or sketchbook with a few simple instructions from local artist Annie Stephens.

July 11th Paint Your Yoga
Yoga instructor, Ann Ducharme, will guide us through simple yoga asanas (postures), and then show us how to translate those poses through painting with sumi-e ink using meditative strokes.

July 18th Seed Bombs!
Join the people behind VisuaLingual as they help you explore your inner guerilla gardener through the creation of seed bombs.

July 25th From Ply to Play
Woodworking enthusiasts, Joel Armor and Joe Civitello, employ combinations of both traditional and non-traditional woodworking methods for functional furnishings with an emphasis on repurposing materials. In this week’s class, the boys will ensure that no materials go to waste as they turn wood scraps into crafty works of art using image transfer techniques. Feel free to bring small Xerox images of your liking.

August 1st Mud Cloth (Bogolanfini Modified)
Fiber artist and 2001 Post Corbett Award winner Judy Dominic will teach you a dying technique based on the traditional black and white dyeing technique of bogolan fini (mud cloth) from Mali, West Africa. See what sorts of colors you can coax out of the various dirt and clay of our area. Bring a white shirt (100% natural fiber - cotton, linen, ramie; prewashed, no softener in wash or dry), some dirt from your yard or wherever you see a nice dirt color and an old newspaper. Feel free to contact the instructor with questions: judy at judydominic dot com
Shirts will be on sale in the UnMuseum that day.

August 8th Stick 'em Up
Are you tired of postcards falling off your refrigerator because they're being held up by wimpy magnets? Well, have a beer or a pop and save the cap. The ladies from the Cincy Craft Cartel will show you how to make magnets using bottle caps and your favorite images. Bring your own materials to make it personal or use some of ours!

August 15th Henna Tattoos
Always wanted a tattoo but wanted the freedom of a temporary one? Learn the traditional Indian art of temporary Henna (Mehndi) tattoo designs from artist Sneha Nirody, who has been classically trained and creating Henna designs exclusively for brides and wedding parties for over 10 years.

August 22nd Paper Craft
Join Jessica Wolf of local craft company Paper Acorn for a surprise craft session. Her handmade paperwork was featured in Martha Stewart’s Summer 2010 Wedding Magazine and she is well known for the creation of intricate paper boxes, luminaries, and garlands. Come see what surprise she has in store for you.

King Shu

2011-06-19T01:00:00.001-04:00

What was once a supposed comedy club:

Is now apparently a shoe store:

Court Street is strange

[where: 36.5 West Court St., Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Rick Barr

2011-06-13T10:06:00.005-04:00

Rick Barr, the guy who published a blog with many historic photos from the Catholic Telegraph, died last week. Below are three (of many) interesting photos he posted. These are all demolished:

Sacred Heart Italian church at 527 Broadway

St X Commercial School, 520 Sycamore

Teacher's College, stood directly the east of St George's in Corryville

The Catholic Telegraph has been continuously published in Cincinnati, since 1831! I would love to see more of their extensive archives published online.

Cincinnati Park Nursery

2011-06-10T06:41:00.002-04:00

I happened upon this nursery and greenhouse yesterday. It is owned by Cincinnati Park Board and they raise plants for the Cincinnati Parks. I never knew this existed, and it is in a very odd location. Can any reader guess it's name/location?

UPDATE:
Yes, as a reader guessed, this is the Warder Nursery, located in Finneytown, but owned by the City. I did find some info:

A 1998 Cincinnati Enquirer Article says:

Warder Nursery will be developed into a park, with both recreational and green space, after the Cincinnati Park Board agreed Thursday to sell or lease the area to the township.

The park board passed a resolution at its meeting that allows the township, where Warder is located, to either buy it outright or lease it for 10 years.

The primary stipulation is that the area not be developed into something other than a park. The township has said it would develop the 42 acres into both playing fields and green space, possibly with hiking trails.

The trustees were pleased with the outcome of deliberations that began more than a year ago, as were township residents who had been behind a grass-roots effort to preserve the area more than two years ago.

...Warder Nursery is in the southern part of the township, just north of the Cincinnati city limits. The 49.6 acres have long belonged to Cincinnati and in recent years, the park board has maintained greenhouses on the property, where they propagate plants for Krohn Conservatory and floral displays throughout the city.

Under the agreement, Cincinnati will keep and maintain the greenhouses and about 10 acres of the property.

Since most of the acreage is unused, the park board had been approached in recent years by housing developers expressing an interest in buying the property.

That prompted the civic association and township residents to explore ways of purchasing the property and keeping it out of developers' hands.

The trustees have said they will soon decide whether to buy the property outright for about $720,000 or lease it over 10 years for about $920,000.

Proposed
Design for Warder Park

Here is the site on Google Maps

View Larger Map

This Blog on Summer Vacation

2011-06-09T07:56:00.003-04:00

In these long days of June, I seem to spend every free daylight minute playing with the kids. We all fall asleep exhausted at 11pm. This summer schedule leaves little time or energy for blogging.

Posting will be very limited for the next month or two.

Enjoy your summer.

Bike Videos

2011-06-04T00:20:00.003-04:00

In honor of my youngest learning how to ride a two wheeler:

You gotta see the guy carrying 4 kids and the mother carrying a baby who pulls a fold-up stroller out of the carrier!:

Quiet Reflection on the Day

2011-06-02T20:48:00.002-04:00

There was a poem I wanted to write
It was forming in my mind
when my son yelled at his sister

There was rat I killed this morning
Jumped out of the garbage then down my leg
The damn flashlight was dead from kids clicking it

There is an old broom I keep under the stairs
And I swept the rat hard out across the tiles
He bounce against the wall and out onto the street

There was life in his eyes as he lay on the asphalt
And I was thinking how I liked this little rat
as the sedan tire rolled over him

Rack Photography

2011-06-01T14:50:00.003-04:00

Local photographer Ron Rack has some amazing panoramic photos of downtown Cincinnati locations. You gotta look at them. I especially like Fausto Ferrari's Barber shop:

Ron's studio is on Main Street in OTR. Rack Photography has been in business for 22 years.

For Memorial Day: About the National Anthem

2011-05-29T22:50:00.000-04:00

The Ugliest Building in Downtown Cincinnati

2011-05-29T00:26:00.001-04:00

UPDATE
a wider view puts this building in context, just south of the Courthouse!

Substitute Teachers

2011-05-25T16:03:00.004-04:00

Do CPS teachers take more sick days than the average teacher?

It seems to me that a teacher should schedule elective surgery for the summer months, not miss the last 10 days of school! Decades ago, when I was in elementary school, a substitute teacher was an extremely rare event. My kid's teachers miss more school than any students!

5th Annual OTR 5K This Saturday

2011-05-17T11:05:00.002-04:00

The 5th Annual OTR 5K runs this Saturday, May 21st at 10:00 am. You have until midnight tonight (May 17th) to register online. Winners in a number of categories will receive a medal designed by Rookwood Pottery. Unfortunately since they have no Clydesdale, or Super-Clydesdale class there is no hope for me to score a medal. Who am I kidding, even with those classifications I would likely be out of luck.

The fun starts at 12th and Vine and includes runs down parts of Main, Liberty, Central Parkway and other OTR streets. You can check the map on Runkeeper.

I'm not sure where music will be set up, but they promise:

Cincy Brass
The Hiders
Faux Frenchmen
Comet Bluegrass Allstars
The Cliftones

There will also be more than 30 vendors and artists including the following food vendors:

Dojo Gelato – Gelato!!
Sweet Peace Bakery – Vegan Baked Goods
Cafe de Wheels – Burgers, Fries, & Cubans
Joe’s Diner on Sycamore – Smoothies, White Chicken Chili, Burgers
Enzo’s OTR – Panini Sandwiches, tea, lemonade, baked goods
Chili Rocks Spicy Delights – Geotta Coneys, BMT Coneys, Coneys and Chilies
Mr. Gene’s Dog House – Hotdogs, fries, onion rings, wings, hot met
Taco Azul - Tacos from a truck! Authentic Mexican street food
Christian Moerlein Beer

Should be a blast. I am "running" (my running nickname would be Molasses... I run slow all the time, and not at all when it is cold) and look forward to the event.

Be sure to check out the details on the GoOTR.org site.

77% of Parents Happy with Public Education

2011-05-16T12:13:00.004-04:00

"Memo to suburban voucher opponents who ‘support public education’: you’re already sending your kid to private school. You’re just confused because your tuition fees came bundled with granite countertops and hardwood floors."
- E. D. Kain
After this snark, he goes on to say that school choice and vouchers are not really the way to improve poor school districts.

Blogger Down

2011-05-13T14:50:00.001-04:00

Blogger has been down for 24 hours and posts from the past 2 days have been erased. I will try to repost soon.

Little Things Matter

2011-05-12T12:29:00.001-04:00

"In one study, we were watching newlyweds, and what often happened with the couples who ended up in divorce is that when one partner would ask for credit, the other spouse wouldn't give it. And with the happier couples, the spouse would hear it and say, 'You're right'. That stood out. When you nod and say 'uh-huh' or 'yeah', you are doing that as a sign of support.."
From the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, page 25

Why 3CDC Roof Blew Off

2011-05-12T10:43:00.000-04:00

As I watch 3CDC repair the damage to their building on Race Street I have been pondering why the damage was so extreme. And then, while looking at the picture below, the cause became apparent. Here is a picture from the Washington Park construction website from April 7th. The roof that blew off is circled in red.

Now the most obvious thing in the photo is the huge excavation in the foreground. I was at my windows watching the gusts of wind as they came in after midnight April 19-20th. The gusts came from the West, gained speed in the hole, and blew upward across Race Street, where it blew off the roof of 1400 Race and blew slates off of Nast Trinity church, and blew down a street tree.

This hole was previously covered with 3-4 story buildings, and later a school. All of the clustered buildings in OTR collectively buffer the winds and protect each other. It is clear that the removal of this buffer allowed the winds to damage buildings that had previously been buffered by buildings and park trees.

Mayor Mallory Will Not Run For President

2011-05-10T17:30:00.000-04:00

...and he does not have a dog...

Auto Imprisonment

2011-05-10T10:11:00.001-04:00

Americans work two hours every day to pay for their cars.

So True

2011-05-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

This happens to me all the time. Loved this essay:

...thinking about the clock of my life ticking away every day while I’m sitting there, just waiting to be somewhere else, I feel the gulf between my body (where I am) and brain (where I want to be) widening. The two growing further apart, until I’m only aware of the distance between them. Some mornings in the shower I hear voices left over from my dreams, and they seem to have strongly held opinions, but I have no idea what they’re saying. Sometimes at night when I am reading a book to my kids, I realize that we are halfway through the book, and my mouth has been saying the words, but I haven’t been paying attention to them whatsoever, and have in fact been thinking about something completely unrelated. I lose that time, even though I’m right there....

417 Hopkins

2011-05-09T09:40:00.000-04:00

While riding bikes with my son Sunday, I noticed this building in the West End that I had never noticed before. It caught my eye, because it is a very nice stone building that is obviously divided between two owners. It is in the Betts Longworth area, in a strange cul-de-sac that was created long ago when the streets were re-configured during some urban renewal program.

Curious, I looked up the ownership, and found that the building is actually made up of two 16 foot wide lots. That is a pretty skinny lot. The right side has a long history of solid ownership and slowly rising value, and that the left side has passed from one absentee owner to another for years.

That might be the end of the story, except that I did notice one funny blip in the ownership history. In September 2001, Jackie Shropshire sold this vacant half to Jeffrey D. Blovits for $98,000! A few years later is was sold for $5,000 and then later for $1,000! Googling Shropshire, I came up with the fact that she was part of the Black United Front, which was a political organization prominent during the 2001 riots. Then I googled Blovits and found this (tragic / comedic) description of himself written before the mortgage meltdown:

Jeff Blovits is the branch manager of the Westerville Franklin Bank, a mortgage franchise location of the publically traded ssb out of Texas. Jeff has been in the financial services industry for 12 years as bank manager, underwriter, and mortgage lender. His innovative mortgage planning concepts are paving the way for countless clients to improve their financial lives.

I wonder who wrote the appraisal for that $98,000 loan.

An Excellent School System with No Testing

2011-05-09T09:12:00.004-04:00

...I finished the film feeling a bit angry – angry that for all the talk of school-choice in our current education debate, the choices available to me and to my children (not to mention the countless people far less fortunate than myself) are really false choices. No matter whether you attend a public school or a charter, you are really bound to the modern testing regime....

The problem, I think, with the current conception of charter schools is that they create even more losers and winners than the status quo. In Finland there is a certain base-level of quality that every school is require to meet. Teachers are treated as professionals and teaching is an exclusive, competitive field. All students have free transportation and free meals.
- E. D. Kain

I really want to see this film.

Birds and Bees

2011-05-05T17:00:00.000-04:00

Instead of waiting and dreading the birds and bees discussion, We're trying to foster some open discussion early, so that sex and reproduction is not seen as such a taboo subject. So I heard about this book on a Dan Savage podcast, we bought it and have read it several times. The drawings are great and there are two characters that carry the story and keep it light hearted. Highly recommended:

It's So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families
Robie H. Harris (Author), Michael Emberley (Illustrator)

1608 Hoffner

2011-05-05T11:04:00.001-04:00

Saw this building being demolished yesterday in Northside.

Liberals Who Support School Choice

2011-05-05T09:15:00.004-04:00

I like to see open minded people on the right and the left support policies that are not doctrinaire. There are many conservatives for example who support rail and better transit options. Here see see some on the left support more school choice:

...American liberals have been reluctant to embrace school choice, fearing it will drain resources from government-operated schools. Yet isn't it even worse to support a system that rewards concentration of the rich in exclusive suburbs segregated from the poor? -John Norquist in the Wall Street Journal

Maurice Sendak Still Kicking

2011-05-04T16:34:00.002-04:00

"I take kids seriously, they have a lot of things wrong. They protect their parents. Children are brave little creatures."

(about his new book Bumble-Ardy) "... both his parents die on the first page, don't ask me what I was thinking."

"I have to lie down, have lunch, go get a haircut, make believe we have a purpose to living, I'm still living. I can still listen to an opera."
-Maurice Sendak

High School Student Art at Library

2011-05-02T23:56:00.006-04:00

Some great art by local high school students on display currently in the Main Public Library lobby:

- Maddie Sabatelli, American Hipster

-Dan Riemen, A Grizzly's Chortle

This one is fantastic

-Jack Wirth, Big Book of Seek and Find

Garfield Then and Now

2011-04-30T11:30:00.000-04:00

Etching of Garfield Statue from 1890 City Directory

Garfield Today

Friday Vid

2011-04-29T13:00:00.001-04:00

Free Gifts to Bloggers

2011-04-28T13:00:00.001-04:00

Do any other bloggers here receive offers, discounts or tickets in trade for promotion of products on your website? I get email offers from time to time, but I have never been interested in doing this. I'm kinda anti-consumerist, so it goes against my nature to promote purchase of anything, especially more junk. However, yesterday I was made an offer that I could not refuse, tickets to Cirque du Soleil, and I have never been and don't even know much about it and am excited that blogging finally paid a single tangible reward.

Review next week.

Million Dollar Bill

2011-04-27T07:52:00.000-04:00

Found Item. One Million Dollar Bill. Handed to me by some anonymous stranger on Fountain Square. The message in small print is that money does not buy happiness, God does.

..son tried to spend it at several stores:

Insincerity Quote

2011-04-26T23:26:00.000-04:00

"There is, especially in the American media, a deep belief that insincerity is better than no sincerity at all."
-Christopher Hitchens

Night Terrors

2011-04-26T09:01:00.004-04:00

Last night, I was up reading The Alaskan Bootlegging Bible and trying to imaging what wine made from milk whey would taste like. It was past midnight, it was deadly quiet, even with some windows open. Wife was working the late shift.

Suddenly my daughter stumbled out of bed and began walking around the house. No one in our house has ever slept walk that I know of. I went to her, and she came over and clung to me very tight. She was murmuring and crying and was in the middle of a terrible nightmare. She had a cold sweat and was extremely frightened and would only say "I wanna go home".

I laid her back down, but she soon got back up and clung tightly again. I held her for a long time, rocking her like she was a baby, and finally, I had to lay down with her to get her comforted and back to sleep. I say back to sleep, but really she never woke up. This was all an extended nightmare.

In the morning she was her cheery self again. I asked her if she remembered any dreams. She paused and got this dark look on her face. She said the nightmare was about everything around her growing really big or getting really small, while she stayed regular size. Doesn't seem scary to me, but maybe this dream is an insight into the deeper fears of a six-year old.

Storm Hits Race Street

2011-04-20T18:15:00.002-04:00

Uprooted street tree

Roof and masonry wall blown off above 3CDC's new offices. This renovation was just completed and the damage looks pretty severe. The roof structure was old, but parts of the 4th floor were removed to make lofts and the structure altered in the renovation. There was insulation all over Republic Street, and it looked like a lot of water got in and reached the occupied areas on the first floor. I'm sure someone will have better photos.

Lots of slate was blown off Nast Trinity Church, it was all over the sidewalk

Kids Crave Own Space

2011-04-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

Kids making their own space under a table at "Just Crepes" last Sunday

Whittling on Stoop

2011-04-19T23:44:00.001-04:00

Couldn't get more all-American than this

I Wouldn't Live There If You Paid Me To

2011-04-19T06:56:00.001-04:00

These words often enter my thoughts. Listen at your own risk.

Old Addresses

2011-04-18T10:00:00.003-04:00

In the 1890s the street numbering system in Cincinnati was changed. An ordinance was passed in 1891, but the implementation seems to have taken at least half of the decade. In the old method, addresses started at 1 on a street and just went up one number at a time, one for each building. In 1891 Council passed a resolution requiring that each lot or each 25 feet be designated a number, and that the numbering start at even 100s at each cross street. In the photo below, you can see that 1424 Republic Street was once 110 Republic Street. ...Except back then it was Bremen Street, but you get the idea:

1895 addresses on Bremen Street

By 1900 the addresses were much simpler:

Renumbering of the City notice in the 1895 Directory (click to enlarge if you want to read):

Seen on Walk to Market

2011-04-17T00:41:00.001-04:00

If a blogger doesn't blog, does he still exist?

Despite fewer posts, I am still living a full and rewarding life in OTR. I think I am sliding away from daily posting and moving closer to weekly posting...or maybe not. Hard to say. One thing is for sure, I need a camera. My good one has been busted for a while and the cell phone photos are such low quality.

Speaking of low quality pics, here are a few:

Church Prays at Pump for Lower Prices

2011-04-12T16:46:00.000-04:00

Only in America

Harry Appel Furs

2011-04-12T13:00:00.000-04:00

Harry Appel Furs. Three locations including Vine and McMicken and 1200 Main.

Gem of the Highlands

2011-04-11T21:47:00.003-04:00

Did you know Norwood calls itself "Gem of the Highlands"? This is their logo at a little park in which my daughter has been assigned soccer games:

The Case for Having Kids

2011-04-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

Here's an interview with author of a new book “Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids”. Read the whole thing, but I agree with all these suggestions to make parenthood more enjoyable:

1. While parents often lose sleep for years, getting kids to sleep through the night is not hard. Real experiments confirm that the Ferber method — let your baby cry in his crib for 10 minutes, briefly comfort him, leave, repeat — works wonders.

2. Improving kids’ behavior isn’t hard either. Experiments confirm that clear, consistent, mild discipline — like putting kids in the “Naughty Corner” — works even on difficult kids. The problem is that if parents stop imposing discipline, kids soon revert to their old tricks.

3. If neither you nor your child enjoys an extracurricular activity, stop doing it. If the alternative is a little more TV or Xbox, that’s O.K.

4. Supervise less. Lenore Skenazy’s Free-Range Kids makes the case better than I ever could.

Riot Recollection

2011-04-08T12:17:00.003-04:00

Ten years ago, my wife and I lived in a fourth floor walk-up at the corner of 12th and Race. Timothy Tomas was shot dead by Officer Roach right in our block on Republic Street. The morning afterwards, we began to hear about it. At that time, Republic Street was drug dealing dangerous, especially the corner at 13th Street, so we did not go back there much but would only pass quickly while going somewhere else. Over the next day or two, the shooting site became a shrine and attracted large crowds.

That day, I walked over to Rohs Hardware and could feel the tension rising fast. Instead of drug dealers on the corner, there seemed to be men posted at 13th Street to guard the shooting site, and in the hardware store all the guys were talking about the anger on the street. I remember one black man who was at the counter buying saw blades saying he didn’t know what all the anger was about because Timothy Thomas shouldn’t have run. Needless to say, this was not a common thought in OTR. The tension continued and then on Monday protestors took over council chambers and assembled around the police station behind Music Hall.

I may be wrong in my recollection, but it seems that the “riot” didn’t really start in earnest until the next day, which I guess was a Tuesday. On that morning for some reason, I was home with my wife and we heard a lot of yelling and cars honking. As we looked out our window, we saw cars driving from the shooting site, with guys hanging out the windows, yelling, holding beers in their hands and waving their shirts in the air. This crowd then went down and created a ruckus on Court Street and knocked over the hot dog stand. From there the rioting spread up through Over-the-Rhine and got much worse.

Our downstairs neighbor was Mrs. Young. She was an elderly white woman who was dying of cancer. She had lived most of her adult life here and raised her children at 12th and Race. In the hallway, she told me she was heartbroken that the police had “shot that poor kid.” But the riots soon affected her as rocks came through her window the next day.

That night and the following night the police did not come north of Central Parkway. We could see for example the ransacking of the 1132 Bar as it occurred. It was ransacked several times and all the liquor carried out, and each time, your could see police cars a block south, but they would not come up to 12th. Sirens, shouts and gunfire filled the night.

On the second day of rioting, in the morning while it was still quiet, a small group started to assemble across the street from our apartment, in Washington Park. One guy was getting up on the corner yelling “TEAR IT UP, RIP IT UP!” over and over again. I remember a similar guy trying to stir up action after the Rodney King verdict, and even wondered if it was the same guy. My wife went down to try to talk to the guys before he got the crowd got too big. She tried some reasoning like “your only making things worse for yourself” etc…, but they just told her to go away …or get hurt. Humorously, one guy who was very drunk was trying to protect her from the others. He was telling the others to leave her alone because she was visibly pregnant (9 months). It was the beginnings of a uncontrollable mob, and we retreated back inside.

I did gain respect for Bill Baum then. He was our landlord, and he came out the next day and replaced his broken storefront glass where the GI Joe Store had been with new glass. Other owners were putting up plywood even before it was broken, but Bill believed in keeping the glass, and I liked that about him.

When the curfew was implemented it hard for my wife to get to work, because she worked evenings. Eventually, I think on Friday, we escaped to spend a night at my dad’s house out in the country just for a bit of rest. We returned after one night away, and we continued our life in OTR, albeit more cautiously. A week or so later our son was born.

The riots were an ending ... an exclamation point ending of the half-century of decline in OTR and they were also a cry-out from the underclass in Cincinnati who had little to lose. But while the decline in OTR may have continued for a few years more, the political will to change the the neighborhood changed that week.

Brutalism

2011-04-05T06:35:00.001-04:00

...gets its name from the French word "brut", concrete, of which this rough-formed concrete is a prime example:

Photo taken at Hyatt Hotel, Columbus, OH. See Wikipedia article on Brutalism.

Posting will be minimal for the next couple days for Spring Break...