The Cincinnati Enquirer printed an article today highlighting all the positive things that have happened with the Over the Rhine revitalization efforts over the past year and a half. It is very refreshing to see this neighborhood finally getting the respect it deserves and no longer being constantly touted as a wasteland.
They also highlighted some of the topics covered in yesterday's Over the Rhine Chamber of Commerce annual meeting. One of the speakers, John Barrett, said a few interesting things at the meeting that I wanted to point out. First, he said that "I think this city is low on vision, and our desire to execute frequently results in mediocre results rather than world-class results." I agree with this. The streetcar issue is a perfect example. A lot of people in our city lack the vision necessary to see the potential the streetcar will bring for changing our downtown.
Mr. Barrett believes that a thriving downtown must be a priorty and he made some good suggestions about what we need to do to begin transforming our downtown more rapidly. I'll let you read the article for yourself for those.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Over the Rhine Gets Positive Press
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2 comments:
This is all positive for the neighborhood, I talked about it on my own blog today. But when 3CDC has hundreds of boardups it is a drop in the bucket. I think 3CDC needs to concentrate on doing facade restorations, maybe in conjunction with a building trades program and then make those houses available to Urban Pioneers who will restore the interiors. YOu need more owner ocupied single family housing. I am talking about on Race, Elm and Pleasant. It is hard to make the argument that the neighborhood is "turned around" when you drive on any of those street and see blocks of boarded 3CDC houses. As a historic restoration consultant I know the longer those properties sit the worse they get and ultimately it cost more to restore them.
Good point. The areas you mentioned though are still tough to sell based on the fact that the area is still in rough shape. I think once the street car goes in those boarded up houses are going to turn into hot items. Hopefully it will only be a couple more years before people start migrating to those streets. Perhaps you should speak with some of the people at 3CDC about your ideas. I think a lot of people would like to buy a property that just needs interior restoration.
However, if you look at 12th and Vine street and Republic street there have already been great leaps taken for saving those buildings. Just a few years ago 12th and Vine was in just as bad of shape as Race, Elm, and Pleasant. I think thats what the article was trying to point out.
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