Category: Development

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Development News Transportation

Cincinnati kicks off Uptown street rehabilitation projects

The City of Cincinnati is starting several street rehabilitation projects in Mt. Auburn, Walnut Hills Clifton Heights and Corryville. Auburn Avenue, Burnet Avenue, McMillan Street, Vine Street and William Howard Taft Road will all be affected by the various improvements totaling $2.3 million.

Depending on each street’s current condition they will receive partial- or full-depth repairs followed a process that will grind off the existing asphalt. According to Don Steins, Senior Engineer with Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE), the partial and full-depth repairs will last approximately two weeks.

From there, crews from Little Miami Construction Company will replace deteriorated curbs, construct curb ramps, sidewalks/driveway aprons where necessary, adjust utility castings, and resurface all of the pavement area. All of the street rehabilitation work should be completed by early August, 2010.

Steins noted that this time line might very well change with the potential addition of other Clifton Heights streetscaping work, and said that the DOTE is encouraging drivers to use alternative routes during the reconstruction process. While reconstruction takes place there will always be some degree of access for drivers, and during morning and evening rush hour times all lanes will be open to traffic.

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Development News

Cincinnati Riverfront Park lands $1M gift

The Cincinnati Riverfront Park project has landed a $1 million gift that will go to create the event lawn in Phase 1 of the 45-acre park project. The $1 million gift will be presented on Friday, April 9 at 2:30pm at the Cincinnati Parks Administrative Offices in Mt. Adams (map).

The gift comes from the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trusts for which the new Jacob G. Schmidlapp Stage & Event Lawn in Cincinnati Riverfront Park (formerly known as the Walnut Street Event Lawn) gets its name.

Once complete, the Event Lawn will be built as a green roof to the underground parking garage below, and will act as a venue for special events, performances, and passive recreation. Park officials state that the Event Lawn is also being built to ADA standards so that the space will be fully accessible to all people.

The Event Lawn will be immediately surrounded by pedestrian promenades, with the much anticipated Moerlein Lager House overlooking the site on the east, the performance stage on the western portion of the space, The Banks development to the north and Mehring Way will sit just to the south.

Phase 1 of the overall $60 million riverfront park is currently under construction, on-time and on-budget according to Cincinnati Park officials. The anticipated completion date for Phase 1 is April, 2011.

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Business Development News

Cincinnati Riverfront Park on schedule for spring 2011 opening

The Cincinnati Riverfront Park is currently under construction and progress is being made on the first phase of the project that will be completed in spring 2011. The Moerlein Lager House, Bicycle Center and Event Lawn are all making headway while the support elements are put in place. The project is on schedule according to project manager Dave Prather who gives us the update.

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Development News Politics

Bellevue ‘Smart Code’ workshops begin Monday

You may know Bellevue, Kentucky for its historic neighborhoods and the unique shops in the pedestrian-friendly Fairfield Avenue business district. Or you may know its “shopping center district” with big box retailers and fast food restaurants in an auto-oriented plaza. City leaders want new developments to be more like the former and less like the later. That’s why the Bellevue community is working on a new form-based zoning code that fits with the city’s motto of “Preserving the Past, Preparing for the Future.” The code will reportedly encourage walkability and the mixing of uses in new developments.

People who live, work or play in Bellevue have been able to get involved in the efforts to adopt a ‘Smart Code’ from the beginning. On January 27, the first public meeting featured architect Jeff Raser of glaserworks explaining how the code works. At the meeting, many residents were initially skeptical, not understanding the purpose or implications of the change, but came to understand the benefits as Raser answered their questions.

Raser explained that public involvement is essential if the code is to be successful. If citizens participate now, they have the chance to “prescribe” how new developments should look, feel, and function. Residents and developers will both benefit as new projects get off the ground quicker due to the reduced need for zoning variances and other time-wasting processes.

The next public meeting was held in February, allowing citizens to participate in a “visual preference survey.” Results from the meeting showed that citizens overwhelmingly wanted new developments to better fit in with existing historic structures. They also wanted to preserve public parks, plazas, and views of the Ohio River and Cincinnati skyline.

The last chance for citizens to have their voices heard will be next week, from Monday, March 22 to Wednesday, March 24, when the city is holding a charrette, or public workshop, at Bellevue’s Callahan Community Center (616 Poplar Street). Various topics will be covered throughout the charrette, and open house hours will allow citizens to share any other opinions or concerns they may have. An open house “pin up session” will be held on Thursday, March 25 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., where final results from the charrette will be presented.

Photo courtesy of the Coding Bellevue.

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Development News Opinion Politics Transportation

Cincinnati: A Love, Love, Hate Relationship

This guest post by Greg Meckstroth originally appeared on urbanOut.

Oh Cincinnati, Oh. How I love, love, hate you. Before moving to Indianapolis I spent 2 years living in Cincinnati, Ohio in the neighborhood of Clifton. During this time I gained a true appreciation for what the city is and all the quirks that exist there. What I concluded is that there is a lot to love about the City, but also some things to hate…but more love than hate. Culturally, physically, and emotionally, Cincinnati is an amazingly unique place with a provincial attitude completely different than any other Midwest counterpart. With these oddities and attitudes comes certain social down sides that gives the City a bad reputation and why it ultimately isn’t a creative class destination. Below, I list the positives and negatives of Cincinnati.

Here is why I love, love Cincinnati:

  • Identity: The region has a unique, provincial culture not found anywhere else. Whether it’s the food (Skyline Chili, Dewey’s, Graeter’s to name a few), the government, or the institutions, Cincinnati seems to have retained its sense-of-self in ways other Midwest cities have not. People in the area don’t consider themselves from Ohio, but instead just from Cincinnati. Cincinnati is its own city-state.
  • Local: Locally owned businesses seem to thrive in Cincinnati. While other Midwest towns have become ‘Chain City USA’s’, Cincinnati celebrates their local businesses and builds community around them. What I find interesting about downtown Cincinnati’s renaissance is the number of locally owned establishments fueling the rebirth. Unlike other towns, Cincinnati isn’t marking their downtown’s success by which chains it does and does not have.
  • Community: The sense of community pride in the City is strong. More often than not, people who live in Cincinnati love Cincinnati. Also, since the City is so neighborhood focused, each having it’s own flavor and sense-of-place, people latch on to their respective communities, keep up on current events, and actively voice concerns. More so than other places, Cincinnati citizens definitely care about their community.
  • Density: Cincinnati is structurally America’s oldest inland City and thus developed before the car and in extremely dense fashions similar to East Coast cities. Plus, the City’s hills constrained development, making the neighborhoods even denser (Cincinnati was the densest City in the United States outside of New York for quite some time).
  • Geography: Cincinnati’s hilly geography allowed each neighborhood to develop separately, each with their own business district and each in different forms. On top of this, the hilly, river valley geography provides great views and interesting urban landscapes and juxtapositions.
  • Architecture: The City’s core features the Midwest’s best collection of 19th Century architecture as well as innovative new architecture (hello The Ascent and Contemporary Arts Center).

So enough gushing about how great the City is, because with this love, love comes the ‘hate’:

  • Cliques: Because of the provincial culture, Cincinnati seems closed off to outsiders and their respective ideas. Newcomer’s often describe Cincinnati as ‘cliquey’ and find it difficult to fit in to social circles.
  • Close-minded: The City has a negative reputation with being open to minorities, namely the gay and lesbian population and African-Americans. As a gay man living in the City, I feel this stereotype applies more to the surrounding suburbs than the liberal leaning City, but it nonetheless is a perception problem the reigon has to deal with.
  • Status-quo: While other parts of the country progress on certain issues, Cincinnati seems to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach. If something is proven successful time and time again, Cincinnati will come on board, and probably when other places like New York and San Francisco have already moved on to the next big thing. Thus, the City seems comfortable with the status quo, and progress happens slowly here.

There are plenty of other things to both love and hate about Cincinnati, but my analysis is limited to the region’s provincialism and unique culture. I have to say that I have seen great progress in Cincinnati over the past few years, with current leadership and community activism geared towards ending the status quo, ridding the City of this ‘hate’ I speak of, and moving forward in positive ways. With this progress comes the question: if Cincinnati continues to open itself to other ideas and virtues, can it hold onto its uniqueness?

In general, can a City continue celebrating it’s uniqueness while opening up to the outside? I think the obvious answer is ‘yes’, a City can do this and there are plenty of examples. But unfortunately, there are also examples that point to the contrary. So as Cincinnati moves forward it must be aware of this give and take and find the proper balance in becoming a bigger and better 21st Century City.

For as long as I can remember, I have had this love, love, hate relationship with Cincinnati. However, my ideas are not new and have been examined before. Check out this post by the Urbanophile for a similar take on Cincinnati.

Greg Meckstroth holds a Geography degree from the Ohio State University along with a Masters in Community Planning from the University of Cincinnati’s nationally-ranked School of Planning. Greg currently works as a planner with an urban design firm in Indianapolis.