Tag: opinion

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Up To Speed

Young black men in America still often viewed as invisible or a threat

Young black men in America still often viewed as invisible or a threat.

In the wake of the George Zimmerman ruling the nation has begun a serious discussion about race  in America, and the standing of young black men in our communities. While racial progress has been made throughout our nation of immigrants, young black men are often viewed today as a threat in our cities or, perhaps worse yet, not seen at all. More from NextCity:

One of the main tragic factors in the George Zimmerman trial verdict, one that existed well before Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin last year, is this failure to see young black men in our cities — and when they do register, we see them as threats. It’s a cognitive failure to which Zimmerman was especially vulnerable when he chose to follow and kill Martin, but he is not alone in experiencing it.

…it was people of color in central Florida communities like Goldsboro and cities like Sanford and Osceola who turned out big last November to vote, helping President Obama win Florida and, ultimately, reelection. Afterward, Mitt Romney’s campaign aides said they lost because “voters they never even knew existed” turned out in these communities. Those invisible voters were mostly African Americans and Puerto Ricans from the depressed areas Williams referenced.

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Up To Speed

Does Place Matter if Taxes Are Low?

Does Place Matter if Taxes Are Low?

In Meredith Whitney’s new book, the Fate of the States, she predicts a resurgence of economic growth in the Midwest. This growth she explains would be due to these state’s low tax burden, limited government restrictions and other incentives. To prove her case she highlights the percentage of growth in states such as Texas, Florida and North Carolina. Next City’s Brady Dale provides a more pragmatic view towards the author’s claims in his review of the book. Read more at Next City:

For example, in one chapter Whitney attempts to argue that growth is robust in her favored states while it has been hobbled by shortsighted policy in economic deadweights such as New York and California. The growth rates she gives are for Louisiana (16 percent), North Dakota (27 percent) and Iowa and Nebraska (11 percent for both).

It sounds attractive. A young person might like a shot at a piece of a 10-plus percent growth rate, right?

Hold on. Does a worker want a part of a percentage or a part of actual money? Because these numbers look a bit different. Let’s turn those rates-of-growth into real dollar values, using data from the U.S. Commerce’ Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. California’s growth was very bad in that time, no question. North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska each made some nice money, ranging from $8 billion to $12 billion. Louisiana did better, at about $23 billion in growth. None made as good a showing as New York, however, which clocked in at $89 billion in growth, from the height of the recession to deep into the recovery.

 

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Up To Speed

The Myth of the Suburban Revival

The Myth of the Suburban Revival

Recent economics data released from the Brookings Institute have shown that job sprawl has spread outside of metro downtowns, including Cincinnati. Planning theorists however are at odds as to what this means with New Geography’s Joel Kotkin claiming the “triumph of suburbia” over the center city. However; his assertions seem to be based on several false assumptions in the market and does not take into account the millenial generations preference for walkable neighborhoods. Is this a City vs. Suburb debate or as Robert Steuteville claims a walkable vs. auto-dominated debate? More from Better Cities & Towns:

In his analysis, Kotlin ignores many inconvenient facts and trends that don’t fit his narrative of an inexorable, historical march to lower density in generation after generation. Real estate values have declined in the automobile-oriented suburbs relative to compact, mixed-use neighborhoods. There’s a growing preference for rental housing, and multifamily development has recovered far more quickly than single-family development. Multifamily development has taken on a new character in recent years. In the 1990s it was garden apartments in the suburbs. Now it is being built in urban, transit-served neighborhoods.

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News Opinion Politics

EDITORIAL: Long Trail of Referendums Limit City’s Budget Options

Congratulations, Cincinnati, on earning the honorable distinction of being one of the worst budgeted cities in the country. However the city did not earn this coveted distinction by lack of competent leadership, instead it was earned through the gradual tying of hands of government officials through a series of voter referendums.

To start, Cincinnati’s budget woes did not come from one single project or expenditure; it came instead through a series of political promises, bad decisions, and some funding conditions that are beyond the city’s control.

Most recently, the State of Ohio cut over $20 million in funding to Cincinnati when it reduced its Local Government Fund. Additionally, the elimination of the estate tax fund subtracted another estimated $15 million from the city’s projected revenues. If these funds were in place, the budget would be balanced and the recent parking modernization and lease plan would not need to be on the table.

Realizing as early as 2006 that the City’s budget position was headed in a fiscally unsustainable direction, City Manager Milton Dohoney proposed to spin-off Greater Cincinnati Water Works into its own entity. The deal would have created a regional water district, similar to the Northern Kentucky Water District, and would have generated $6-12 million in annual revenue for the city with increases over time.

Cincinnati Skyline

In 2009 COAST and the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP successfully led a campaign to put the issue on the November ballot. It may be difficult to recall but that’s because another issue dominated that year’s election, Issue 9. So as Cincinnatians for Progress and other Cincinnati voters rallied together to fight for rail transit in defeating Issue 9, Issue 8, which prevented the sale of Greater Cincinnati Water Works, passed with very little debate.

Again City leaders were forced to find another way to plug the budget gap. To address the budget shortfalls of 2010 and 2011, City Manager Milton Dohoney asked City Council to levy a trash collection fee to help address the budget shortfall. City Council rejected the idea, echoing the concerns of their constituents, which is reflective of representative democracy in action.

But that wasn’t enough for some, so in 2011 as progressives were once again fighting against another anti-rail ballot initiative, Issue 48, Issue 47, the referendum banning the city’s ability to levy a trash collection fee, passed with little debate. Again, both referendums came from the same two groups.

So in a classic stroke of misdirection, every strategy that the city has attempted to use to climb out of a budget deficit has been met with a referendum, making it more difficult or impossible to fix the problem.

The latest, the parking modernization and lease deal, may likely be met with yet another referendum. And signing the petition being circulated will put the issue up for a vote, but not before the City of Cincinnati is forced to lay off 344 employees, close pools and cut other services.

The reason this is happening immediately is due to the change in the City’s fiscal year, which now starts on July 1, and with the temporary restraining order placed on the City by Republican Party-endorsed Judge Robert C. Winkler with regards to using emergency ordinance procedures, City officials will now need to have a budget in place by June 30 to allow for the 30-day waiting period required. If new revenues are not found, then services will have to be cut.

The narrative that the City of Cincinnati is continually unable to balance its own checkbook does Cincinnati and the region no good, and is flat out untrue. The suburbs, the townships and the three states that Cincinnati is connected to need the city and the heart of the region to be vibrant, successful and attractive. Not for our own sake but because this city is still climbing out of the riots, still in fly-over country and still associated with the Rust Belt (undeservedly so).

City leaders have worked hard to retain and attract talent to the region, creating a new neighborhood in The Banks, building a new skyscraper, and rehabilitating Over-the-Rhine. Out-of-towners don’t think of West Chester when they hear Cincinnati any more than people think of Southfield when they hear Detroit. The condition, reputation and quality of the actual city itself is the magnet that draws economic growth to the city, to Sharonville, West Chester and even to Anderson Township.

The City has a right to govern itself by choosing the people that lead them not in the single-mindedness of an endless referendum cycle. That is the nature of representative democracy, one that our nation’s founding fathers recognized 225 years ago and one that we should preserve today.

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Development News Opinion

GUEST EDITORIAL: Horseshoe Casino Fails to Deliver on Urban Design

The completed Rock Gaming/Caesars joint venture boasts a list of features one would expect of a casino: 354,000 square feet, $400 million price tag, restaurants, bars, a 2,500-space parking garage, and space for business meetings and conventions. None of these features should come as a shock to anyone that’s ever been in a casino.

The touted difference between Horseshoes Cincinnati and Cleveland and casinos elsewhere, is that these have been deemed “truly urban” casinos. Well, if locating in a downtown is all that’s needed to make something urban, then mission accomplished. But since a downtown is a living collection of buildings and spaces, whether something is truly urban has more to do with how it contributes or detracts from its location. And since casinos are not known to be particularly friendly urban creatures, the most recent example being CityCenter, it’s worth looking at some of the concerns expressed to the unnamed Las Vegas starchitect Dan Gilbert imposed.

Cincinnati Casino
The only actual limestone you will find on the site is the wall coping around the lawn- note the whiteness of the caps compared to the synthetic stucco below.

The first thing I think of when I look at the new casino from any angle is tan. Why in the world is it so tan? Color wasn’t something that was a key talking point for the casino, though the Urban Design Review Board has now made that a priority at The Banks, but the tan-ness of the building really dominates all other exterior features. This domination lies with the use of synthetic stucco to emulate limestone. The issue here is not with modern building technology, but that it was misused in both color and implementation.

The implementation failure lies in the lack of any ornament within the stucco. One of the main reasons for using limestone is that it is one of the best stones for showing carved detailed, as can be seen just blocks away at 30 E. Central Parkway. Why try to emulate a limestone building if the only way you do that is by using fake alternate panels and stopping there?

These two issues with the exterior of the building can be summed up in one way: the Messer Pendleton Bid Package required $5,033,623 for exterior metal framing/stucco, and $6,967,980 for interior wall framing and drywall and $2,268,821 for painting and wall coverings. The casino allocated an amount for the interior walls almost twice that of the exterior walls.

30 E. Central Parkway

The second oddity that stands out is the number of offsets, particularly on Reading Road. Offsets are a common feature of large single-story buildings, like Wal-Mart and Kroger, to break up the mass of these behemoths. But what’s the goal here? To confuse the pedestrian or neighbor across Reading into thinking that these are multiple windowless buildings? Admit you’re a grand building like Music Hall or Union Terminal. Walking west down Reading is like passing by massive stone boulders. There’s no beauty or nuance to the walls save for two large brick panel insets and foundation plantings.

“With the strong support of this very active, urban-focused community, our team has been working for more than a year to ensure that our project does not prosper alone but also benefits the surrounding neighborhoods and region. The outward facing design and pedestrian accessibility will rejuvenate this part of town, while putting thousands of people into good-paying jobs.”- Dan Gilbert- Chairman, Rock Gaming.

“Outward facing design” is a catchphrase that was repeated throughout the design process. What does that mean? To this project it means having one main entrance and restaurants with windows and a patio, quite the accomplishment for typically fortress-like buildings. But to say the design of the project is outward facing because of the openness of only 360 feet of the entire building’s facade and at only one of the intersections surround the site is like saying a restaurant near the entrance of a mall is outward facing because it’s on the exterior of the building.

Reading Road Quarry
Richard Rosenthal was right about his concern over a “gully-like” feeling down Reading. In fact, it’s a quarry.

Urban design was really were there was the most input from local groups on how the casino will most likely affect the everyday life in the public realm around the casino.

Terminated vistas – views that focus on a deliberately chosen object or scene – is a historical design concept used to draw people towards a building and create the appearance that destinations are closer than they appear, encouraging pedestrians to walk.

In the case of the casino, the site’s prow-shaped western end at the corner of Central Parkway, Reading and Eggleston creates the opportunity to terminate the view looking east down Central at the casino entrance and the developer has taken that opportunity. Again, as with the offsets, there is a lack of grandness to the view as the casino is dwarfed by the height of the buildings leading to it down Central, rendering it almost insignificant.

Central Parkway Vista

The view down Pendleton towards the casino would sad if it wasn’t so tan. No pedestrian connectivity, no windows, not even roof treatment. Nothing.

While the focus of activity for the casino will be at its entrance and new lawn for the county jail, the opportunity for Pendleton lies in what happens north of and down Reading.

From the site’s layout, you can see that building coverage isn’t great on either side of Reading Road for certain spans. And oddly enough, the casino chose to build near the street for the span west of Pendleton where there are no buildings on the north side of Reading, and then chose to back away from the street for its loading docks for the span east of Pendleton where there are buildings on the north side of Reading. And since Rock Gaming owns the stretch on the south side of Reading, it’s extremely doubtful that organic infill development ever occurs in this area.

To end where the casino does, urban casinos are not uses that fail for any reason other than over taxation. When the casino opens and rightfully provides a local opportunity to keep the poor man’s tax from leaving for Indiana or Las Vegas, let’s be careful not to confuse its popularity with quality.

This guest editorial was authored by Eric Douglas, a native of Grand Rapids, MI who currently lives in Covington’s Roebling Point neighborhood. Eric is a member of the Congress for New Urbanism and earned a Bachelors of Science from Michigan State University. Since that time he has worked for Planning, Community Development and Public Works departments in Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Detroit. If you would like to have your thoughts published on UrbanCincy you can do so by submitting your guest editorial to urbancincy@gmail.com.