Cincinnati Naysayers? Don't let that door hit you on your way out of town!

I look at Cincinnati and often ask: what holds this city back? After much thought I've reached certain conclusions. Basically a few small groups and certain people ( some our own elected officials) hold this city back. They are people whom have always "lived here" and made their assumptions about Cincinnati's future based on a flawed belief that things are 'just the way they are" or "things will always be that way".

So for those who believe that let me debunk that view.

"Fresh rioting began at dusk Tuesday, when arsonists set fire to the Findlay Market, an open-air market in Over-the-Rhine" Cincinnati Enquirer

Welcome to ground zero in inner-city decline: the Over-the-Rhine district in Cincinnati, Ohio. Reason.com, November 2001

I did a little research one day I spent hours reading news accounts about the months after the riots. Everybody, EVERY major news outlet, EVERY reporter , EVERYONE interviewed thought the riots were the end of OTR and Findlay market. One interesting assessment I read was from a local who said at the time "The city should just bulldoze all of it and build an industrial park!"

Today, when I want to go down to Findlay Market to pick up a pound of Pastrami, I have to plan my trip. No, I'm not getting into a Humvee, or putting on a flak jacket. My major concern is "Will I find a place to park"? It is that busy! If you are at Findlay on a weekend , you are making your way through a crowded market, listening to the street musicians looking for that new and exciting food you haven't tried, or those fresh vegetables.

In fact, the first time I ever visited Findlay Market in early 2008, I was literally blown away by it. It was one of the things that 'Sealed the deal' on Cincinnati. We had a 'fact finding' trip, Cincinnati was a city we were considering moving to from Indianapolis. We talked about Findlay Market all the way home. "Do the people who live there realize what a Jewell they have"? We compared it to the Market in Charleston SC or New Orleans. To think that Cincinnati had something this cool, and the architecture, can you believe the architecture! More importantly we could see the future, the things that locals can't see yet. Carriage rides in the area, trendy galleries and antiques shops on Race and Elm. Historic walking tours leaving Findlay Market every hour taking people on trips through the narrow streets talking about the architecture.

"Crazy you say, Never gonna happen!" Then you must be from Cincinnati.

I knew in the back of my mind that there has been "some trouble" in Cincinnati years back, something in the news about that, but I was looking at what I saw and convinced this city is going places. Riots? What riots?

The facts are that people are moving to Cincinnati from all over the country. They either don't know about the riots or they don't care about the riots, or they were just kids. They don't care about how Cincinnati "used to be' or what store ' used' to be downtown, they take it as it is NOW. They see a new condo project coming on line every week, a new business coming to town, a new eatery opening up. They didn't grow up here and its not 'relevant' which side of town is better 30 -40 yrs ago, or who had the better football team, or what neighborhood was white or black. They are living in the PRESENT not the PAST.

That was then and this is NOW! Time has come to put the past behind us and get about the business of building the future.

People say "Nobody is going to come in and fix that, its in Avondale!", or "No one will invest in Westwood there is too much Section 8". "Price Hill is a poor white trash dump, are you crazy? or

"Fairmount, that a gang infested , Section 8 hellhole."

We have ALL heard it, the "naysayers', the "I've lived in Cincinnati all my life and let me tell you the way it is!" These are the same people who thought they should build that highway through Columbia Tusculum years ago because it was run down, or who thought people were 'Crazy" to build in Mt Adams? "Who would want to live in that place?" Or who still believe Mansion Hill across the river is still a bunch of tenements. These are people who have permanent "blinders' on. They can't see what is going on before their own eyes, they have NO CLUE. They populate the City Data Forum boards putting down Cincinnati Urban Neighborhoods to ANYONE who asks about moving to Cincinnati. It is time to stop wasting our time trying to convince them they are wrong.

Who holds Cincinnati back? Well I will tell you. Its groups like NAACP, still resentful about the riot that happened years ago. It is COAST, with its head in the sand, fearful of any change in status quo, and yes its some members of our own city council and government. Maybe a little ashamed about their old neighborhoods and they look the other way when the bulldozers tear down parts of Fairmount, Avondale , Westwood and other urban neighborhoods, while they collect their 70,000 a year salary for their part time job. They want "new and shiny"and resent that they are 'stuck' with that "Old City". Never mind that Cincinnati's "ace in the hole" is it's historic neighborhoods.

To those "Naysayers" I say this, If you don't like Cincinnati..... LEAVE! Don't let the door hit you in your Keaster on the way out! Lead, Follow or GET OUT OF THE WAY! Go to someplace like Detroit, bulldoze all you want, see what REAL decline looks like. I'll buy you a one way ticket!

I, and a lot of other people, have houses and neighborhoods to restore, businesses to build, and we no longer have time to waste arguing with people content to live in the past!

New Book on Findlay Market

Arcadia Publishing will be officially releasing a new book on Findlay Market by Liz Tilton at the end of July. The book Cincinnati's Historic Findlay Market covers the history of the market established in 1852.

The book has numerous images of the market from private collections and should be an excellent read. The book is priced at 21.99 and will be on sale July 27th according to the Arcadia Publishing Website. http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738560533

This book is part of the Images of America series and there are a number of books in the series including books on Over-the Rhine, the Golden Age, and the Cincinnati Subway, among others.

The Great Commercial Building Quest Continues!

Over the weekend, we once again looked at some commercial buildings in our "Quest" to find a location for our design and antiques business. Our realtor, Cathy Frank at Comey and Shepherd is definitely an "old house person", and understands what our needs are. She was instrumental in helping us find our Knox hill project and she has been a great help with our commercial building quest. She isn't "afraid" of old buildings like some realtors are. I've worked with a lot of realtors in many cities over the years and Cathy is one of the best!

Our building quest took us to the Brewery District. We have narrowed our site selection to the area around Findlay Market, Brewery district and the West End. Given the nature of our business we want to be in the middle of a neighborhood revitalization and feel those areas best represent both short and long range business opportunity.

The phrase "you cant just a book by it's cover" often comes to mind when looking for commercial Victorian buildings. Sometimes you have a great facade and a basket case interior , other times you have horribly remuddled facade and decent interior space.

Our first stop was a 4 story commercial building, This was one of those odd "angled front" buildings and sometimes, that is a great feature, other times it leads to an unworkable floor plan. The first building we looked at was the case. It was clearly overpriced for condition, but as we have learned, asking price is more of "wish" that a reality for many of these buildings.

The second building was strong "Maybe?" . The price wasn't bad for the square footage and the interior still had a decent staircase that you could actually walk on. So many buildings have staircases that wouldn't even meet code and are unsafe for most people to use. Putting a staircase into an old building is often a major undertaking. Unfortunately the space was just a little too small for us. It would have been workable in the short run but we would quickly outgrown it.

Our third stop was laughable. The owner of the building met us met us to show it. Said it had some "minor" water issues but was getting a tenant for the second floor whom was moving in this week. I guess to convince us it was "cash cow". When she handed our realtor Cathy the key and waited outside, I had a "feeling". When we entered, water was raining down in the first floor retail space. This has been explained, in advance, as a broken pipe that was now 'fixed". My experience told me it was instead a major roof leak and I imagine a few feet of water in basement. Roof replacement isn't a dealbreaker so we proceeded to the second floor where we came across the overwhelming odor of gas. Apparently the last tenant (who maybe left because of the leaky roof?) had taken the stove and not properly closed the shut off. Had it not been for the fact that a gazillion windows were already broken out allowing the gas to escape it would have blown up and taken out the entire block. We quickly exited the building and advised the owner that she better get the gas shut off immediately if when wanted to have building left to sell.

Our final stop was building that our realtor had been told had had a lot of work done to it by the listing agent. It was nice ( on the outside). At first glance the front room wasn't bad. It had a nice tin ceiling and some wainscot. However as we moved further into the building the "possibilities" were fading fast. The rear of the structure had major structural foundation issues and would have to come down. The stairs leading to the upper floors (they yanked out the railing I assume to be modern) was so steep that without a total tear out and rework would never be rentable. The "lot of work" upstairs consisted of tearing out the original window trim slapping drywall over everything and replacing the original trim with #3 pine boards, you know the kind with knots you use a stringers for a ceiling? They finished the space over the back of the building that would have to come off as well.

The electrical was all outside "wall track runs" The plumbing work that had been done was PVC, and we instantly spotted the fact the drain runs were slanted in the WRONG direction, When I went to the top floor, they took out a major structural beam to gain attic space, I assume to create another rental unit and the roofline already showed a major bow. We came to the conclusion that some people shouldn't be allowed to go near an old building. If they had not done any of the "improvements", the building might have worked, but we would have to undo everything they did, and then spend thousands on getting the proper woodwork back into the building not to mention the major structure work required by their removal of a load bearing beam!

We all had a good laugh and just realized it was not our day! Maybe next time.

A day in the city

Saturday was a rare occasion. Normally we get up early, load the jeep with tools, drive from Indy to Cincinnati, work furiously until 3-4 in the afternoon and then drive back and are exhausted. While we did stop by the house as I had to take measurements for ordering kitchen cabinets, we spent the day just exploring Cincinnati.

It was a work/pleasure sort of day as we met our Realtor and she showed us a commercial building and we also looked at another house, most of our day was just driving around. We are getting closer to finding a building for the business.

We stopped at Findlay Market of course. While there were few outside vendors, traffic was actually brisk inside the market. We picked up a couple of pounds of Pastrami and some fresh vegetables. The one thing I know is that Findlay Market is one of the reasons we chose Cincinnati and in my opinion the city needs to do more to promote it.

There is a lot of renovation going on in OTR, there is clearly more to do. My suggestion for OTR Chamber of Commerce, lobby the city to get rid of the parking meters North of Liberty, or at the very least free parking on Saturday. It will bring more people and businesses in to OTR and that in the long run will result in a stronger tax base.

While I applaud church groups need to help the poor and pass out food and clothing a city park is not the place to do it. As often is the case on the weekends church groups were out in the park in front of the Music Hall passing out stuff. Indianapolis effectively banned this practice and it has vastly improved the city's downtown parks. They are cleaner and people feel safer in them. Also the homeless people were just walking in front of traffic in the middle of the block and we saw one very close miss. I understand churches wanting to help but this is not the way to do it.

As always I am looking at architecture and Cincinnati's architecture is world class. The city needs to get the word out. I took tons of photos and I posted just a few on this blog. We drove around Over-the Rhine,Price Hill, Faimount and Clifton and found great houses and buildings everywhere. It was a sunny, albeit cold day yet people were out enjoying it.

So today it is back to work on projects. I am revising our kitchen layout slightly based on the measurements I took over the weekend and I will start building pre-cutting the components for the basement stairs and the other 20 or so ongoing projects for the house. Saturday was both a busy yet relaxing day, I cant wait for warmer weather though.

Historic Restoration: A delicate balancing act.

I haven't posted the last couple of days as I have been writing a restoration plan for a client. Between client meetings, tons of research and design time, I've been busy. At the same time one of the boards I regularly contribute to have had a plethora of posts.

Couple that, with me working on restoring Doorknobs a Newel Post and other assorted things for the Knox Hill Project, and, well, you get the idea.

One of the things I have been doing is "looking" for a building to house our antiques business, our design showroom and a historic litho Art Gallery in Cincinnati. I've narrowed potential areas down to OTR and West End. The vast bulk of our business is by appointment but in many ways we will be 'destination/tourist' kind of business as well and we want to have some regular hours and we want to be close to historic districts where many of our clients come from. So I have been going through the MLS, Craiglsits, and the web, trying to find "the right building" for our various enterprises. We had found one building earlier last year, only to get " outbid' by an "investor type" who has no intention of doing anything with it other than sit on it until he can find someone with deep pockets to buy it.

Therein the rub, we would love to be in the Findlay Market Area, It is one of our favorite places in the city. Most of the buildings are 'cost prohibited' in the area around it, as the owners want far more than the buildings are worth and basically figure if they go downhill enough some "preferred developer" or 3CDC will come in and pay their ridiculous asking price. 3CDC has been a godsend and a curse to OTR. They have done some great projects, yet have far too many buildings sitting. Because they own so much, it has "inflated' the real estate market to a point that many buildings we could restore have such a high cost per square foot for acquisition that it is cost prohibited.

So Saturday, we drive down to "look around' some more for some tattered, faded 'for sale' signs and hope that 1.) we can find something 'with potential, and 2.) Someone with a realistic view that a 2-3 story building that needs total restore is not worth 2-300K.

I got to see the first installment of the "This Old House" restoration project last night. A Brownstone in in Brooklyn, New York. It promises to be an interesting series as the owners are adamant about preserving as many historic details as possible. You can also follow the project on their website:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/current-house-project

We also plan on Driving around some of the neighborhoods and taking pictures. Our usual Cincinnati trip plan is get up at 5 AM leave at 7AM , drive down, work like crazy until 3-4 PM then drive back to Indy, eat dinner and collapse. Tomorrow is strictly an exploration day, driving neighborhoods. Walking some as well, ( yes I know its winter, but that doesn't stop Old House fanatics like us), and maybe some antiquing. I am still looking for some staircase parts.

Oh and if anyone out there has afalling apart commercial building near Findlay and doesn't want a million for it , please let me know.

Meiners Flats Update

Danny Klingler has started a new blog site dedicated to saving the Meiners Flats building which we reported on earlier. There has been almost 5000.00 in pledges and there is lobbying going on to try to convice the city to put the 100,000.00 in demolition funds towards stablization. To keep up on this please go to the site: http://meinerflats.blogspot.com/2008/05/meiner-flats-building-is-slated-to-be.html

UPDATE: Meiners Flats saga continues

The Meiners Flats saga continues as the historic structure has been mentioned on the online version of National Trust for Historic Preservation website as a Preservation 911. To date more than 20 people have made monetary pledges to save this historic structure. You can read the complete article on their website: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/todays-news/cincinnati-could-lose-1875-bui.html

BOOK REVIEW: Cincinnati Over the Rhine

'Cincinnati, Over the Rhine' Arcadia Publishing, provides a fascinating look back in to the history of the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. The book covers the early days and devotes a large section of the book to the German Settlement and culture of the time. They also cover the later years of the area as the german immigrants moved to the suburban neighborhoods to be replaced by poor applachians and african americans.

Other historical events of note are also covered such as the Cincinnati Centenial Exposition of 1888 and the failed construction of the subway system in the early 1920's.

Overall I found the book to be an excellnt resource for history buffs and the book left me wanting more information. This book is part of a series published by Arcadia Publishing http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/index.html . For those not familiar with Arcadia publishing they have a huge library of titles covering just about every major city. This book was just one of 16 books they publish on Cincinnati that cover such diverse topics as The Golden Age to the History of Mass Transit.

This book along with the rest of the series is available from Arcadia's website, you can also find them sometimes cheaper on Amazon and on Ebay. Overall, great Book and I am sure I will be buying the rest of the series.

Grass Roots Effort to save Meiners Building

There is a grass roots effort to save a historic structure at 1500 Vine Street fron the wrecking ball. I have been asked to pass this along to any preservation minded people I know. I think saving this building has great merit.

1500 Vine Street (aka 1502 Vine Street), known as the Meiners Building or Meiners Flats, has been surrounded by City barricades since March. A roof collapse, combined with bricks and pieces of cornice falling to the sidewalk below, have forced the City to order an emergency demolition. Built in the 19th century by the Meiner family to advertise their skills as stonemasons, the building has sat vacant for over 20 years. Eldon Sundberg and Big Dog Properties have owned the building since 2004 and have made no improvements to the property. With only a 10 day window for action, the deadline for pledges has been set for April 23. Jim Tarbell is heading up the effort to save the building, and Klingler says that additional funding is in the works. No estimates have been released on the costs of shoring up the building. "Its removal would leave a gaping hole at the northern end of Vine at a time when reinvestment is fast approaching from the south," Klingler writes.

There are two pledge pages set up at Pledge Bank one for people willing to donate their economic stimulous check:

http://www.pledgebank.com/1500Vine

And one for people willing to make smaller donation of 10.00 at http://www.pledgebank.com/Over-the-Rhine

Big Day and weekend in OTR Brewery District!

Today is a big day in the Brewery District as there is the unveiling of a new Ohio Historical Marker that commemorates the area's brewery history.

Also the "big news" is the groundbreaking for "The Cliffside"a luxury loft condo complex in the 200 Block of West McMicken. This developments is huge in that it will spur redevelopment in the area which has sorely needed an infusion of capital.

If that's not enough it is also The SOLD OUT Prohibition Resistance Tour is Friday and Saturday AND the historic the Brewery District reopens the doors of the Moerlein OTR Ale Haus from Saturday, April 12th through Sunday the 13th, 2008. The Moerlein OTR Ale Haus is located in a new location at 116 W. Elder St. on Findlay Market Square. This four-day event will introduce the NEW MOERLEIN BARBOROSSA DOUBLE DARK LAGER as well as the highly popular OTR ALE. The Moerlein OTR Ale Haus will have the following hours of operation:
Saturday, April 12th : 10AM - 7PM Sunday, April 13th : 11AM - 7PM

Just one more "sucess story" for OTR and Brewery District

Gentrification, urbanization and the diversity factor

I must say that the topic of this discussion I owe to a friend who came a posting on the city-data site about urban turnaround in Cincinnati that essetially stated that Cincinnati had shot itself in the foot because due to rampant homophobia by the religious right that drove many in the gay community away to other cities like Indianapolis Indiana and Columbus Ohio.

In large part they may have a valid point. Coming from Indianapolis I can tell you that many people born and raised in Cincinnati moved here to Indy. I think driven more by our vibrant economy than anything else. But the gay community here has been largely responsible for the Urban Pioneering and gentrification of the downtown here. In fact many in the gay community have made millions on the "revitilization" of the downtown.

Having said that Cincinnati makes perfect sense to me. I for one, dont care what some Evangelical Christains thinks. Last weekend on our trip to Cincinnati I saw alot more gay couples around Findlay Market than I expected. True mostly 20 somethings, but they were open and I found most people not really seeming to care.

Were Cincinnati's gay community to create a Marketing and Public Relations organization geared towards marketing to gay people in other cities they might have some sucess. But it needs to be done in one or two concentrated areas like OTR. Cincinnati looks alot like San Francisco and look at property values there. In order to be sucessful they need to get their act together with quality bars and entertainment. Night life in Cincinnati is not up to par with other cities in the Midwest. Not all gays want to watch a drag show. They do want a good neighborhood restaurant or pub. And there has to be a Lowes or Home depot close by.

OTR Fire Destroys Vacant Building

Cincinnati Firemen responded to a fire early this morning in the 100 block of Green St. The structure was completely engulfed and the roof has collapsed. It would appear likely that the over 100 yr old structure cannot be saved.

Over Two dozen residents of nearby buildings were evacuated. Cause of the fire is not yet known.

Ironwork, Victoriana and Over the Rhine

Iron work is hard to find. In the victorian era most homes of note particularly in an urban areas had a wrought iron fence, many would have elaborate front door gates or ironwork balconies. Surprizingly we found several examples on our trip over the weekend in Cincinnati still intact.

many of these were lost during the scrap drives of WW2, more during the mass urban renewal that took place in the 1970 in most cities, yet here in Cincinnati, its as if time has stood still. It woudl be easy to imagine those fences when new in front of grand homes, neighbors strolling down the street. A simpler time that will, with some luck and preserverance will return to Over the Rhine

More new condos

There are new condos coming at 512 Reading Road and will be market rate condos with sales price between 180 and 309 K. there are a total of 11 units.

The condos are being marketed by Comey and Shepherd realtors. the project will be known as the Glass House Lofts

Courts give City Link Go ahead

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear a city appeal of the proposed city link services center at Bank Street, essentially giving the project the go ahead. the project was extensively opposed by a vast majority of residents , neighborhood and business groups as dumping social service in the west end. Work is expected to begin on the project by the end of this year.

My take on this is that a 'social service mall' is short sighted. Years ago Eastside Community Investments proposed a One-stop-shop in the Holy Cross Neighborhood of Indianapolis. Claiming the area was "blighted and needed their services". The neighborhood, myself included, sucessfully fought the development and ECI essentially went bankrupt years later. Today the neighborhood that ECI wanted to servce has an average property value in excess of 200,000.00 and rents in the 1000-1500.00 range. At the time they held several low income slum properties in the neighborhood. Today those are all restored back to single family homes. My Point?

Well meaning social service agencies are the LAST to recongize economic trending. The restorations in Over-the-Rhine, The new Cliffside condo project and several others in the pipeline point to the economic reality that downtown and west end is changing. The very people that they propose "helping" will not even be living in the area in another 5 years. Most "low income', I mean real "low income" housing is empty and likely will be condo conversions over the next 5-10 years.City Link is behind the learning curve on neighorhood dynamics. They will build a social services mall that will not be located where there is a real need. They should take the time to look where the "real need" will be in several years because the west end will not be the place to for them to serve their community.

Urban Pioneering ,OTR and 'Inevitable Developtivity"

'Inevitable Developtivity" is a term I created 10 years ago when lecturing on Urban Pioneering and the redevelopment of downtown America. Over-the-Rhine has in my opinion reached "Inevitable Developtivity". Each Urban center reaches this in different ways. Some, like Indianapolis, by massive new construction projects that suddenly made small developments economically feasible.

Cincinnati and Over-the Rhine I believe, will be more neighborhood and age driven. Twenty somethings do not have the fear of moving into OTR that their parents did. As the area promotes itself in the Historic Preservation Community, others (like myself) will come and not only live there but do small projects.

With all due respect to 3cdc and some other developers who believe in the "critical mass" theory of redevelopment, I believe it will more likely be done 1 property at a time, 1 block at time by "urban pioneers" who will inevitable attract others to join them.

I also hope that we see more single family restoration as the trend to turn the once large Townhomes into multiple condos bothers me. I do think the area needs more grassroots organization on a block by block basis. By that I mean small block clubs should be encouraged, active community crime watch is essential and those pioneers need to have a healthy respect for where they are and what they are doing.

I hope that people will get involved and create, for lack of better words, a community council for OTR made up of small neighborhood groups and that groups sole purpose whould be marketing and promotion of the neighborhood.

"Inevitable Developtivity" is here and the Urban Pioneers need to guide it!

Our New Look!

Regular readers of this blog may notice our new look! We decided that "basic black" wasnt the best look and quite frankly the grey was hard to read.We have tweaked out site with a new Burgundy background and more contrasting color fonts. The look is more Victorian and more in keeping with our focus. We hope to add more restoration links to the site soon as well as links to other blogs we follow. We would love to hear your comments and if there is something you would like to see or know just ask us!

Victorian Design: Keeping a Victorian, well,Victorian

I am a firm believer that 'new is not necessarily better'. I recieved another email from yet another potential client who had bought a "redone" home and wanted me to "warm it up" for them.

While I dont have a problem with "design trends" I do have a problem with taking an old house and turning it into a "loft". Concrete countertops, exposed ductwork and metal walls do not belong in a victorian house. Many builders in an effort to "make a buck" and I believe an overexposure to HGTV have taken perfectly good homes and "morphed" them into things they were never meant to be. It is entirely possible to place and disguise all the "modern conveniences" in a Victorian Home and still maintain in integrity. Its a little more work but I do it all the time.

Anyone who has ever restored an old house knows what mean. For example how many 'dropped ceilings' have you seen put in the 1970's ? Todays "trend" is no ceilings with everything exposed and looking like a warehouse. Dont get me wrong I love "lofts", I think it is great adaptive reuse that saves buildings that might otherwise be destroyed and a good designer can do incredible things in a space like that.

There are great brownstones in Cincinnati that suffered the indignities of being converted to seven or eight apartments and I have noted most "developers" now are usually making 3 "condos" out of them, usually 1 on each floor. Personally, I hope this "trend" doesnt take off. I understand that these are large homes, but I feel as Over-the-Rhine is reborn that these large homes will be highly treasured because they are large and confortable. History has also shown that it is far more costly to convert them yet again back to a single family. I hope some of the players in the Over the Rhine rennaisance realize that those coming from the burbs are going to want more than 1200 square feet. Another thing too is that 'eventually' you will see more and more families with kids returning to the neighborhood and need more than one bedroom. People need options!

Those large brownstones will be the 'Million Dollar Mansions' that will be key to revitilization,

New Condos coming to Brewery District/OTR

The Cliff side will feature 19 condominium units ranging in price from 124-229,000 according to their website http://www.theclyffside.com/.

Located at 244 West McMicken. the condos will feature
Garage Parking, Decks with City Views, Rooftop Terraces,Luxury Finishes, Townhome and Flat Floorplans,Industrial Style Lofts,Elevator Access, Soaring Ceilings. the units are apparently already available presale. This would represent significant development in The Brewery District.

Urban Pioneering -The last Frontier

I am often asked why I do it? why leave a perfectly restored house to move on to a new neighborhood and start the process over again. I tell people I am a "Serial Preservationist" , I turn around one place and then see another with a need.

I look at Over the Rhine as a place with a need. It in many ways is a time capsule. Cincinnati does not know how lucky it is to have such an area. Indianapolis basically bulldozed its downtown in the 1920 building boom. Other cities did much the same. You have to travel out aways to find good architecture.

When you start"pioneering you are initaily alone then one by one the other "Pioneers" come. whats starts as 1 house on 1 block becomes 2, then 3... the restorations expand up and down the street, block clubs organize, neighborhoods are reborn. And soon you wonder why ANYONE would want to live in cold cold suburbia!

Thats why I do it, to take neighborhoods that everyone else gave up on along time agao and help them be reborn.