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I'm Travis. I'm interested in cities, politics, technology, media, music, and more. Visit my "real" website at travisestell.com and follow me on Twitter and Flickr.

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We don’t have a Subway on the corner, we have a Fork Heart Knife. We don’t have an Applebees, we have Neon’s. Those are the kinds of places, I think, that local people want.
Chris Seelbach (OTR resident and 2011 city council candidate) on the state of Main Street in Over-the-Rhine.
Pockets in the hillsides are largely settled by an overflow of inhabitants of the Over-the-Rhine area… On the street level, each house juts up straight from the sidewalk. Many of the front windowsills support boxes of petunias. To one side there is usually a doorless hallway leading under the second story to a series of frame side porches, with steps zigzagging up from porch to porch. In the rear is the precipitious backyard, in which flowers and vegetables are often grown. Steep streets lead part way up the hillsides to these communities, but the principal means of access are the flights of wooden and concrete steps pressed against the slopes. On market days (at Findlay Market) women with huge baskets on their arms go down to the basin early in the morning and come back slowly up these steps, setting down their heavy baskets and shopping bags every few flights to catch their breath.
The WPA Guide to Cincinnati (1943)
Great before-and-after of 12th & Vine in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati.

Great before-and-after of 12th & Vine in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati.

There are no apartments available for rent in OTR.  Tell me about it.

I currently rent an apartment in OTR and will be moving at the end of August. My current landlord sold the building and the new owner is going to live in the unit I’m renting.

Anything that gets listed on Craig’s List is rented two days later.

Cincinnati’s mainstream media is finally catching on to what’s been happening over the past few years. People want to live in real neighborhoods where they interact with real people. People want to have things to do within walking distance. People don’t want to have to drive for every errand. People want to live downtown.

Pho Lang Thang at Findlay Market.

Downtown Cincinnati population up 12%

Gina Gartner of Downtown Cincinnati, Inc.:

In addition, the growing residential community, from The Banks to Over-the-Rhine, is actively engaged in making downtown a great place to live.

This is the key. Everyone I know who has moved to Downtown or OTR loves those neighborhoods, loves the positive changes that continue to take place, and is involved in activities that help the city keep moving forward.

A lot of people in my generation grew up in places where there was not really a “neighborhood”. And now they’re discovering how awesome it is to feel like you’re part of a real community, have lots of friends nearby, have fun things to do within walking distance, and be surrounded by great architecture and history every day.

City haters are going to keep on hating, but they can’t change the facts.

It’s extremely hard to find apartments for rent downtown. The 300 units at The Banks filled up as soon as they opened. And I don’t see any reason why new units won’t continue to fill up as they become available. Mercer Commons will bring 155 more residental units to OTR. Future phases of The Banks and other 3CDC projects will keep the number growing. And there are several buildings downtown that could be converted to apartments or condos when the demand gets to that point.

We’re even starting to get to the point where the mainstream media is taking notice. Of course, they often follow it up with a sensationalist anti-city story, but we’re headed in the right direction. They’re realizing that you can’t write off the city any longer. And that you can’t have a strong region without a strong urban core.

Great photo by 5chw4r7z of the groundbreaking of Mercer Commons, the biggest project so far in the revitalization of Over-the-Rhine. Nineteen crumbling buildings will be renovated, and new office, retail, and residential space will be constructed.

Great photo by 5chw4r7z of the groundbreaking of Mercer Commons, the biggest project so far in the revitalization of Over-the-Rhine. Nineteen crumbling buildings will be renovated, and new office, retail, and residential space will be constructed.