Tag: opinion

Categories
News

NIMBY Tip of the Month (9.07)

Have you ever heard the complaint about how a bike trail, walking trail or stairway is going to bring crime and problems to someones property. The same can even be said for when people complain that crime and the inevitable fall of the neighborhood is near because of the addition of a potential bus stop (or other public transit stop).

Maybe my ‘crimedar’ (and yes I do have a trademark on the ‘crimedar’ slogan) is off, but I don’t understand the philosophy behind this train of thought. Is it that criminals are going to ride their bicycles or take a jog to your house to clean you out? Or is it the fear that criminals will use these trails as loitering points to case out your home? Like I said…I must be missing something.

Don’t be fooled; these people (fronting as bicyclists) are really pushing drugs!

While we’re on the point of crime I’ll bring up this other point…do criminals have a code of conduct to solely commit their deviant acts only within Cincinnati city limits (or any city for that matter). I often hear how “dangerous” cities are…but at the same time people in places like Delhi Twp, Cheviot, Madeira, Green Twp, etc make these very same claims. Do criminals really walk down the street…stop and realize they are about to cross into *trumpets sound* Delhi Township and think “I need to head back…I’m getting to far from home base?”

This may be less of a tip and more of a question for those NIMBYs and suburbanites of the world who feel they’re superior to everyone else. So please sound off and tell me of your tragic criminal experiences with bike trails, walking trails and the proliferation of crime that must exist right at the city limits.

Photo Credit:
http://hazon.org/photos/2002NY/44_On_the_bike_path

Categories
Business News Politics

Don’t Trash The ‘Nati

It is not often that I read the Opinion Section of the Enquirer…but today for some reason I felt the urge. You know that urge to test your toughness and stomach for what is typically ridiculous commentary. But today however, I was pleasantly surprised. Laura Kleckner had a wonderful piece discussing the University of Cincinnati and the neighborhoods that surround it.

I am a student at UC and trust me, I understand the urge to go out and party…and even get a little crazy. But it is often easy to overlook the fact that the neighborhoods that surround UC are exactly that – NEIGHBORHOODS. People live there 365 days a year, raise families there, make a living there and get to live their American Dream right there in those very neighborhoods.

Charlton Place – Jefferson Street

Unfortunately many college students have little respect for their surroundings and think of college as a non-stop party (some, not all). If you would like to experience college this way fine, but at least have some decency and try not to trash the neighborhoods that people have worked very hard on to clean up/improve.

urge UC students to be more respectful and work with community members to make the neighborhoods, surrounding UC, better places for everyone. Don’t trash the ‘nati.

Categories
News

9.11.01 – In Memory

It has been six years since the fateful day of September 11, 2001 and it may be easy to forget the pain, grief and agony that struck the lives of so many. It was more than two superstructures being brought to their knees…it was an entire nation that was taken back and stunned by the events that transpired.

I’m not great with words, but I thought it should be mentioned. Here are some pictures I took of the towers about 1 month prior to their collapse. 2,973 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001 as a result of the attacks. Please remember.

Categories
News Politics

700 WLW continues to embarrass Cincinnati

If it isn’t enough to have the Cincinnati Enquirer running the show in print media…Cincinnati has to deal with these clowns dominating the air waves at 700 WLW. Now if it were a one time thing I would be upset, but most likely move on without really getting steamed. But it almost seems as though 700 WLW and Clear Channel Radio advocate this kind of shock radio that 700 has become.

The on-air “talents” seem to do nothing more than spew outrageous comments that are meant to aggravate/irritate. Much of the time their on-air hosts are uninformed on the topics they discuss and merely insult anyone who questions them or calls them out on this.

More recently the station has gone from being just uninformed shenanigans to just pure trash. If you remember back Andy Furman seemed to start the disturbing trend when he called Bengals WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh a “racist” for not appearing on his talk show. I don’t have the time or patience to go into all of his nonsense, so I’ll leave it at that.

Not too long ago 700 I guess thought they needed an encore presentation when they plastered billboards all over Cincinnati depicting what was meant to be a Mexican. The billboards did a great job at perpetuating a stereotype that is not only a broad generalization, but not even correct for many Hispanic immigrants. The Hispanic community blasted 700 WLW for inappropriate behavior and demanded that the station right its wrongs. They promised improved relations and that they would work towards improving Hispanic relations.

Fast forward a couple of months…and 700 comes out with a new line of promotions. This time the promotions offered “helpful phrases” to communicate with illegal aliens. Once again the station was doing a great job a perpetuating stereotypes of a particular segment of society…a segment of society that they had just made a promise to work with. Truly amazing!

I guess they’ve had enough of the Hispanic community for now, and have directed their attention back to the professional athletes in Cincinnati. The news now is that Bill Cunningham made bold assertions that Adam Dunn was playing drunk for the Reds. Adam Dunn felt the comment was out of line regardless of whether Cunningham was joking or not (which he said he was).

Personally I don’t go for this shock radio junk. Give me some good programing with people who actually know what they’re talking about and don’t have to rely on outrageous statements and colorful remarks. What I want to know now is why Clear Channel Radio hasn’t done anything to counter this behavior? They had no problem cracking down on censorship stuff, but when it comes to shock radio there appears to be little or no accountability.

If you would like some accountability from 700 WLW please contact Clear Channel Radio and let them know how you feel. You can reach Sanda Coyle regarding you concerns with the trash that 700 feels they can get away with. Once again,

CONTACT SANDA COYLE: sandacoyle@clearchannel.com

Categories
News

Three wishes

Well it seems as though my last post brought up some people’s wishes for downtown, and what they want to happen. So, I thought I would throw it all out there and ask everyone to comment on what their Top 3 wishes for downtown are. They could be anything, from development projects, to culture changes, to new/different laws, etc. Go wild…I want to hear from you.

I’ll start with my Top 3 in no particular order:

1. The creation of a transportation hub along 2nd St (as has been proposed). This could be a hub for light rail, streetcar, bus, bike and have tie-ins to the potential high-speed rail system in Ohio and the Midwest. Why is this in my top three…well great urban centers are the center of cultural, economical, political and transportation services (to name a few). Cincinnati fairs quite well in most of these…and is quite honestly the center of transportation services for the region…but it is a sad system of services to say the least. So my wish for downtown is kind of a cop out wish for the entire region (but it’s my blog and I can do it).

2. How about an open-container policy for downtown. Now I understand that you need to restrict it someway…so create some sort of open-container district based on the location of the popular bars/clubs downtown. You could even have more than one district…and in those districts vehicular traffic could be closed off. This would give downtown a huge advantage over all of the other bar/club districts in the region and really make it a hot spot for activity after the sun goes down.

3. ZERO parking requirement…yes, you heard me right. No parking requirements. This is obviously a controversial proposal, but it has the potential to pay off big time with massive downtown development. This is one of those rare occasions where I think government is out of its element by mandating parking.

If a business or developer thinks that their project can succeed with less parking, no parking, or more parking then let them make that call. My bet is that people will error on the side of less parking, but if you want to sell condos and market them with 2 spaces then you’ll build your two spaces per units…but if you think you can do it with only one space per unit, then go for it. This could potentially lower the upfront costs of many developments that eventually are killed by the costs of parking.

So have at it and let me know what your wishes are, and what you think of my brilliant ideas.