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(12-20-2017 09:11 AM)dubcat14 Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 08:41 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  Too bad Broadway Commons was wasted on a generic, under-performing casino. How cool could that spot have been with what's happening in Pendleton and OTR?

I've also felt similarly about this.. that was a prime piece of land wasted. Not to play city planner, but I believed the casino should have been built as a multi-story building that could function in any part of downtown similar to how it was built in Cleveland. Say X levels of parking 4 or 5 levels of casino, a few levels of mixed use/banquet halls, and a hotel on top.

When/if GABP becomes outdated (hopefully not in our lifetime), they're going to be hard pressed to find downtown land.

(12-20-2017 10:56 AM)TubaCat Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 10:12 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 09:46 AM)bearcatdp Wrote:  Spent some time in Europe when at UC in the late '90s in the International Business program in Nantes, France. The streetcar they had in their city was great. They had a North/South train that went through the central business district (center was Place de la Commerce), and an East/West that did the same thing. Most buses crossed the streetcar path also. To get downtown, take a bus or walk (or take the ferry - pretty cool) to the streetcar, hop the streetcar and get downtown or to school. You could also take a bus downtown. It was reliable, on time and pleasant. Nantes is smaller than Cincy and I have no clue how many gov't subsidies the mass transit system received. Mass transit is also part of the culture there and not here. However, I would have started with something like this model when building the cincy loop. It probably would have been expensive but it makes much more sense than putting the train only in areas that you can likely walk to just as quickly.

The thing a lot of people tend to forget about why public transportation infrastructure is so good in so many of these European cities is because they didn't have the auto industry paying their decision makers for years in the 20's and 30's to scrap them and prop up industry (Toledo, where I live currently, had a full street car and elevated commuter train system taken out in the 20's to incentivize Ford and other motor industry companies to build secondary plants here) AND they were all completely rebuilding most of their cities in the 50s, which gave them the ability to reorganize layouts much easier. Our public transportation is building over/has to accommodate an already organized city.

Thanks for pointing out the heavy lobbying/bribing by auto makers to reduce dependence on public transport. That's a yuge factor of which many people aren't aware.

I'm not sure how many remember, but Jim Tarbell raised money to build a facade and paint the dimensions of a proposed Broadway Commons stadium. It was pretty cool to look up at Mt. Adams and the Pendleton neighborhood and think about what could be. Instead, we get a behemoth that completely turns its back on its surroundings.