Biking Thru Washington Park Oct 2007

Why 3CDC Roof Blew Off

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.

Real Film

A friend and neighbor of our took this photo last week of the Washington Park garage construction. The concrete structure being demolished underground is the old fallout shelter which was located under the Washington Park School Gymnasium. Taken from Elm Street looking East:

Photo by Rick Calkins. (hope it was OK that I cropped it) w/1950's Carl Zeiss Contaflex I on Efke 50 ASA 35mm film.

Garage Under Construction

 

From 3CDC Washington Park Update

Deepest Winter

 

The dark and cold of January is most difficult at the mornings and evenings. When dusk comes at late afternoon. At our house we have a recurring, never fruitful discussion about possibly going south for a vacation in January.

There is a good book, Frederick, by Leo Lionni, in which a lazy mouse, instead of gathering food, gathers summer memories. Then in the depth of winter he releases these memories to warm his friends. For some reason kids especially enjoy winter themed books.

I find that memories of hot summers don't do much for me this time of year, except increase the longing for winter to end. Better to accept the pleasures of winter: beautiful quiet snow, hot cocoa, soup and warm bread, clothes warm out of the dryer, candle light, reading books under covers or finding camaraderie in a warm watering hole:
 

The Old Washington Park

Late on a weekday evening I hear drunks singing, bottles breaking, an intermittent crazed scream and loud voices bragging and cursing. People have moved the park benches from the pathways of Washington Park into the grass to create living rooms of a sort amongst the brown grass and cracked clay soil of this unusually hot and dry October. In these gathering spots, and along the perimeter, there is a late night party every day. Every day, till long past midnight.

Since Bang's closed it is now at least a 2 block walk to buy junk food or liquor. Some entrepreneurial women have running an black market pony keg out of their SUV every day for the past month, selling pop and snacks, all the while smoking pot and dancing. Their patrons leave litter everywhere and the rat population is exploding.

When walking back here from a trip downtown, it is shocking at the depravity, the litter and even the plain darkness of the streets around the park. It is the last throes of the old park. The maintenance man still comes every day to sweep up and empty all the cans, but it seems like a token gesture of upkeep. No one is maintaining the grass, re-arranging the benches or locking the toilets at night. No one is really policing the place either. It feels like everyone is just gave up and is letting things go. Why try to improve a place that is scheduled to be completely under construction next month? Let the people throw one last month-long drunk party in the park, ...then close it up.

Thankfully it has not been violent. The atmosphere is mostly jovial.

I hear that the Drop Inn Center has become more restrictive on who they admit, and in a month or so it will be cold and rainy, and heavy machinery will take over much of the park. Then what? Some people drive here for the party, so I assume there is an apartment of some kind at the other parking space. But others here are at the bottom, with absolutely nothing to their name. When the weather gets colder, yes I will selfishly appreciate the quiet. But will my peace come at the painful cost of some of these poor souls? Come December the only warm these guys may have will be in their memories. Memories of this unusually hot October, when they sang and drank until late into the night.

Betts House and Music Hall Engraving

The Betts House just announced their next exhibit, and the flyer had this wonderful print on the front.

1880 Democratic National Convention in Music Hall:
 

I'm not sure which wing the convention took place. I know that there was both a north wing called Machinery Hall and a south wing called the Art Hall. The south wing is now the ballroom, and the north wing is now filled with offices and backstage operations.

Several people have told me that they used to attend boxing matches in the north wing. In this Enquirer piece, they do confirm that the north wing did indeed hold athletic events:

In 1927 North and south wings are expanded, including the new Topper Club Ballroom (called Graystone Ballroom for African-Americans). The north wing is made into one of America's finest athletic arenas, seating 6,000 for boxing, tennis and basketball

1946: Wrestling, boxing and the U.C. Bearcats basketball team are among the sports attractions in the north wing...

Anyway, I am not sure who has been running the Betts House lately, but they always seem to have great exhibits. Here is the description of this one:

FROM QUEEN CITY TO PORKOPOLIS: Prints of Cincinnati, 1860-1890

On display October 2 through November 18, 2010, this new exhibit offers views of Cincinnati during its 19th century “heyday” from notable national publications, including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly. The exhibit features historic prints on loan from the Mary Baskett Collection and an anonymous lender.

Opening reception: October 2nd, 5 – 8 pm

[where: 416 Clark Street, Cincinnati, OH 45203]

Archeological Digging

at Washington Park, where the playground was just removed:
 

I have no idea if they have found anything of interest.

Playground Gone

This was a playground a few days ago:
 

Washington Park Construction Starting

Stake for construction fencing 

Berta Propagandist

If you want to change your city, what is the best way to go about achieving such change? Say for example, you wanted to improve conditions for the poor and homeless. Seems to me that there are 2 basic approaches, either you can speak about the need for change or you can begin making the change yourself. There is honor in both approaches. Sometimes a non-profit group, say the Drop Inn Center will do both. They will feed and house the homeless, but also be vocal advocates for change. And in different periods in the organization's growth they will do more of one or the other.

But say you stick with the vocal advocate role, and pride yourself on advocacy and protest. What is your strongest weapon? Truth. It is my contention that if you are speaking truth to power, then you better make sure of your facts. In advocacy, if you lack the facts, if you just demonize and repeatedly attack the enemy without facts, then you become just an annoyance, an ineffective propagandist.

And so I come to Berta Lambert:

Here is Berta, holding a sign claiming something for which he has no evidence at all. It is pure propaganda.

On July 19th, the Park Board cut down a dead tree in Washington Park. My wife happened to be walking by and took a picture as they started:

It was an American Elm tree, planted during a memorial service for Buddy Gray in 1996 shortly after he was killed. I never knew that this was a memorial tree, there was no plaque or anything, but my wife concerned about the trees in the park, took a photo.

That morning when they were beginning to remove this tree, Jim Burkhardt a Manager with the Parks Department was there. Jim is an arborist by training and he said he planted the tree in 1996 at the community's request and now he unfortunately had to remove it. I've met Jim several times at different public forums, and he seems to be exactly what you want in a City employee. He loves Cincinnati, and he is completely dedicated to his work in the parks. Oftentimes his job involves removing dead or diseased trees.

The tree It wasn't very big, it was obviously dead, (click on the picture for a bigger view where you can see the leaves are all gone). Did 3CDC have anything to do with this? Highly unlikely. They have stated at numerous public meetings that they will be removing dozens of trees, many of them older and larger than this. They have not started any of the park renovations. They have no reason to kill a single tree out of dozens they plan on removing. The Park Board completely controls the park up to the point sometime in the upcoming months when construction starts.

How many lies can you fit in one simple sign with only 5 words?

So I also noted some of the other signs Berta was displaying:

And this is another annoying sign. Pat Clifford is nothing if not totally dedicated to the Homeless in Cincinnati. Berta is upset that the Drop Inn Center board is supposedly in negotiations with 3CDC and the City about moving the shelter. But there are no details on this. Maybe they will be going to a bigger location. Maybe they will be getting better facilities. Maybe they will stay. I have no idea, and neither does Berta. I trust Pat and the DIC board to do what is best for the residents of the shelter. They always have.

Later Berta put the tree sign down where the tree was cut. Notice the car parked in the grass!!?? Some things never change.

Cars in the Park

Several types of cars regularly drive in Washington Park. The maintenance man drives his car into the park almost everyday and parks next to the bathrooms while he cuts the grass and sweeps up. The garbage truck drives through the park emptying all the garbage cans and making muddy ruts where the paths aren't wide enough. Weekly, church groups come and encircle the bandstand while they preach in the park. And of course the police drive into the park most everyday. And all of these vehicles must enter the park by driving over a sidewalk curb, and into walk paths that are not intended for cars.

Usually the police come through around 10pm and loudly announce that the park is closed. Mostly they stay on the walkways, but this is not always the case. I can recall many times seeing the police drive into the grass and shine their lights onto sleeping people, telling them that the park has closed and they must go to the perimeter sidewalk.

I hate cars driving in the park. The only real time it is neccessary is when doing construction or emptying the garbage cans. Even then, it seems that the smaller vehicles could be used.

Of course, I'm writing this in response to the tragic death of Joann Burton. A park police officer drove over her while she was lying in the grass of the park before noon last Tuesday. I have no animosity to the officer. He was operating in a system, a society in which the car is an extension of our body, is a replacement for our legs. Although on occasion I will see officers on foot in the park, it is pretty rare. And it seems to me this is less a result of police policy and more a result of our societal agreement that cars are integral to our mobility. And this accident has much less in common with a police shooting than it does the many car accidents that happen everyday.

After all, it is common to read news stories in which someone backs over a family member in their own driveway. By all accounts, he was driving on the walking path, and decided to drive across the grass, but first had to back up slightly. In this situation, he would not have been able to see her on the ground behind his right fender.

The difference between this and a family driveway accident is that the officer is a public servant with powers and authority given to him by the city, and Ms Burton was a poor citizen with no power. Thus, the lawyers will argue the penalties and punishment.

Today in the park, people sit on benches and talk, people walk very slowly to keep cool, and there is the sound of a solitary basketball. Squirrels are eating Ginko fruits. There is cursing and drinking, but also kids playing and people joking and laughing. Life continues here after death just like innumerable days before.

Costs of Washington Park (ing)

Cars are a twentieth century reality, and so far, they continue to be a reality in this century. And as long as personal autos are the dominant form of transportation, then we must have places to park them. In the city, this often results in demolition for surface lots or construction of ugly garages.

And in any form, parking spaces are expensive. The expense is two fold: first is the actual money required to build and maintain parking spaces, and the other is the waste of land. In order to avoid the latter (the creation of huge wastelands of parking around places of public assembly such as sports stadia or places like Music Hall), garages are required.

A simple suburban asphalt parking lot is more expensive than many people think. First there is the cost of the land itself. Then the preparation of the land, the gravel base and the asphalt and lighting. Also there is the drainage. Large parking lots require lots of collection and detention of stormwater, and this system requires design and maintenance. The result is that suburban surface parking lots often end up costing $5,000 per parking space.

But when garages are required, then the numbers really start to get high. $30,000 is a standard quoted amount.

So all of this has been in my mind as I was hearing about the development of underground parking at Washington Park. The area that will get the underground parking was the location of Washington Park Elementary. It now is a large gravel lot and our local swimming pool, which sits empty this year.

At Washington Park, they are building 450 parking spaces for a cost of 27 million. The park itself is estimated to cost 20 million more, with a total of $47 million. But look at that number for the underground parking. If my math is right, that is $60,000 per parking space. Think about the numbers for a minute. At that rate, the cost of the Cincinnati Streetcar is equal to about 2,000 parking spaces!

I am not saying parking under Washington Park is a bad idea. I'm certainly not saying the streetcar is too expensive, but just look at the comparison. Cars are very expensive, and in this discussion we are just talking about the spaces to park them when they are not in use! Nevermind the insurance, gas, environmental destruction, the wars for oil etc etc. This is just parking them somewhere!

My only point is that parking is not free. Someone pays for it. In the city, users must pay for it by paying a usage fee. In the suburbs, it is paid for by the stores owners. But who pays for the sheer ugliness of a 10 acre parking lot? There are many parking spaces at shopping malls that only get used once a year. But the land is ruined for all 365.

I read somewhere recently that "the cost of all parking spaces in the U.S. exceeds the value of all cars and may even exceed the value of all roads."

Parking costs billions of dollars a year.

And all we want is an option. An option to walk and an option to for transit that supports walking and biking.

On a related note, click here to view an expensive underground car park in Budapest.

New Washington Park Website

Just a quick break from my summer hiatus, to notify you all about a new website that is dedicated to events and programming at Washington Park. I was at a community meeting a few months ago in which Emmanuel Community Center was taking the lead on developing programming (with assistance from The Creative Department) for the park after it's much anticipated reconstruction.

Currently the site is soliciting ideas, and the 16 proposed ideas are a good start. I'll try adding some things myself soon.

Week Off and Washington Park

In an attempt to get some work done (and to enjoy my evenings) I am turning my internet browser off for about a week... so no posts for a bit after this.

Before I go, A few thoughts.

First, has the weather been awesome here or what? That early Sunday morning rain storm cleared the humid air out and made for some of the most beautiful weather ever to be had in Cincinnati. Look for the oppressive humidity to return later this week. The only solution for the humidity is... the pool.

We have joined a pool club, and totally enjoy it. We are finding a new summer community to hang with, but are feeling a bit disconnected from our downtown neighbors more already.

Secondly, my wife and I, and a neighbor met with the manager of the Washington Park reconstruction. I guess we were squeaky wheels enough to merit a meeting in which we discussed many of our concerns. We discussed the removal of some trees and we got very specific. My wife especially pushed for the saving of a particular large Linden tree and the Catalpas near the new playground. The guy acted sympathetic, but we didn't get anywhere.

Same with the playground. I wanted to push for more stuff for older kids, but they had already travelled to different cities to see successful playgrounds and had made up their minds on the different play equipment. I still would like some traditional swings, a long rope swing and some ball play stuff like tetherball, basketball or small soccer goals. But none of that is included.

The weirdest aspect of the Park is the elimination of the on-street parking surrounding the park on all 4 sides. What is so strange is that the curb will remain where it is, which means that there will just be 50-60 empty parking spaces surrounding the park. To me, if they are serious on this issue, they should just move the curb out eight feet and create a wide, 20' brick sidewalk all the way around the park, with bollards at the curb. The way it is currently planned, the "no-parking" is just signage, and could be easily changed later.

Generally I like the plan, especially the oval lawn. The overall weakness, I think is that the park features are inward facing, and the perimeter of the park has no seating or assembly areas. I think that this (and the parking issue) are a response to the current problem of people partying while sitting in their cars. I agree that this is sometimes a problem, but I believe it is more a policing problem, not a reason to have empty asphalt surrounding the park.

UPDATE: Picture of said Linden Tree:
 

Drop Inn Center Blog

The Drop Inn Center just entered the blogosphere. Since there is so much talk about their possible move and various issues such as sex offendors, I look for this to be a place for some straight talk, straight from the source:

...It is important not to mistake rhetoric for reality. In the end, no ultimatum given by the City, the School Board or any other group will compel us to move.

3CDC has offered to help us both with improvements to our facilities and exploring new possible sites. We realize the DIC is part of a whole community effort and we also realize it is important for us to explore any opportunity that could potentially benefit our residents. The Drop Inn Center Board and staff are deliberating all possibilities carefully and all policies will be implemented in an appropriate timeframe. As always, the needs and requirements of our residents come first...

New SCPA Photos

Here are a bunch of photos I took yesterday when I got into the new SCPA. The event was a thank you reception for Norma Petersen, a woman who has been involved with SCPA since 1973, and who worked with Eric Kunzel to realize this dream of a new School for the Creative and Performing Arts nearer to Music Hall.

This building is a culmination of years of dedicated work, fundraising, meetings, etc... Although I think the building design has some serious flaws, I think it will be a fantastic place for learning, and I would love for my kids to attend here.

View of parking lot from 12th and Race
 

How the building meets the sidewalk at Race and Central Parkway. Some architects cannot unlearn their suburban instincts. They cannot draw a building right up on the sidewalk, proud, where it should be, instead they must have some grass and shrubbery. Why???
 

How the building meets the Central Parkway sidewalk:
 

Approaching the entry. Better:
 

The entry behind these blocks:
 

What you see when you enter. A welcome desk to the right, theater entrance off screen to the left, and a very wide hall with glass facing the park straight ahead
 

The entry hall, with floating sculpture by artist Jessie Henson, who grew up in OTR on Orchard, and is an SCPA grad
 

Welcome desk inside and outside of glass:
 

Hallway around the theater at Elm and Central Parkway:
 

SCPA Chamber Orchestra playing Vivaldi in the theater. A nice performance space:
 

The theater:
 

Looking East out of a classroom window:
 

View of parking and OTR from cafeteria:
 

The view from this lobby towards City Hall and St Peter in Chains is excellent. One of the best things about the building is some of the views of the surrounding historic buildings. This is a nice space:
 

Dance studio. Yellow glass tints the room in the evening:

Chemistry lab with windows facing downtown:
 

Under the entry canopy looking south:
 

architectural folly:
 

no signature building these days is complete without some titanium:
 

at the front entry along Central Parkway:
 

How the corner of Elm and Central Parkway is demarcated. At least it is not with shrubbery:
 

The Elm Street elevation, mostly blank wall of the theater and gym:
 

More Elm Street elevation, approaching 12th Street:
 

This is what faces the corner of 12th and Elm where the Drop Inn Center is, and Music Hall is this way too:
 

What?:
 

This is the incompleted back entry, which faces Washington Park:
 

Visually interesting. This is kindof a courtyard surrounded on two sides by the "L" shaped building:
 

Across the street, the 1132 Bar, known to regular's as Carl's.
 

Washington Park Mtg Tonight

I can't make it, we have our last soccer practice of the season tonight:
 

Tree Markings

Yesterday someone tagged all the trees in Washington Park with different colored ribbons. My son spent some time trying to figure out what each color meant. It seems that this color indicates trees to be removed:
 

Most of the bigger trees are wrapped with a dark green ribbon, which we assume means "keep". Some of the smaller ones have white or pink ribbons which we think means move, but save for transplant.

You Your Beer and How Great You Are

Good weather means intoxication in Washington Park. Oftentimes it is the kind of drinking that leads to much bravado and shouting. A group of 5 or six people are sitting on a park bench quietly, when all of a sudden, one of them will start yelling, cursing and sometimes slugging one of the others. These fights are usually just one person hitting, and the other person just crouching down covering their head with their arms. The hitting will end, but then the real yelling begins. It is usually something like "why you walking away?" ... " You come over here and say that.." "No, you come over here.." "Don't you give me no %##.."

From my sober perspective, it is all very pitiful. If someone spends all day drinking and doing a lot of nothing, then they aren't likely to feel very good about themselves, and thus their ego is easily bruised.

As I type this at 1:30AM, another loud fight is erupting. This time it is two completely belligerent woman yelling at a cop. I think he stopped to tell them the park is closed and they are saying that they are outside the park now on the sidewalk, "so leave us the f**k alone". They're calling him all types of curse words and getting in his face, getting real worked up and emotional. The cop is alone and stays pretty calm. Eventually, he drives away and they curse at him some more. Now the heavier woman is sitting down with her head in her hands crying. Her friend lights a cigarette and sits down quietly next to her.

Talking with a new neighbor last week, he asked why alcohol was legal in the parks here. He is a transplant and asked the question honestly. "Its not!" I said. "Then why is it allowed to occur so blatantly?" I couldn't explain at the time, but the recent scene outside is a clue.