A silent auction will be held on Sunday to benefit the Cincinnati Northside Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation and its Northside HOME project.

Gajah Wong West, , will host the festivities from 2:30 PM to 6 PM.

Over 100 items have been donated by Cincinnati artists and business owners, including:

* A solid mahogany captain's coffee table, handcrafted in Indonesia
* A beautiful stained-glass window
* A restored, antique brass chandelier rescued from 4205 Mad Anthony Street
* A package of goodies from Metro Scooter
* A mosaic bird bath and feeder
* Original art works

Indonesian appetizers, homemade desserts and a cash bar will also be available.

Admission is $5. Proceeds will go to help fund the two LEED-certified HOME project houses under construction at the corner of Chase Avenue and Fergus Street and to further the implementation of the Fergus Street Homeownership Project.

Previous reading on BC:
Northside HOME houses hit the market (11/20/07)
Northside HOME elevations and floor plans (10/31/07)
Northside HOME photo update, 10/4/07 (10/9/07)
Northside HOME project to be first in nation (10/5/07)
Northside: Fergus Street Homeownership Project (3/14/07)

A walking tour of Over-the-Rhine will be part of this year's Christkindlemarkt on Main.

Architreks will be leading the "Christmas in Over-the-Rhine" tour, which will highlight the neighborhood's architecture and Christmas traditions.

The tour leaves from on Saturday at 2 PM and costs $5.

Christkindlemarkt on Main, which is being produced by Merchants on Main, will feautre an outdoor market as well as extended hours for storefront businesses.

The event will also feature a Light Up Main Street contest, Luminaria, carols from the Satori Group and a traditional Saint Nicholas.

Christian Moerlein's new Christkindle Ale will be widely available.

Christkindlemarkt on Main begins at noon.

Siding is going on and porches are being installed on the first two modular homes at Seneca Place in Covington's Austinburg neighborhood.

The Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington will be building a total of eight new homes in the development at the corner of Oakland and Thomas avenues.

The Energy Star rated houses feature three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and will sell for $140,000-$175,000.

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Visit the project website

Previous reading on BC:
Seneca Place kickoff in Austinburg today (11/8/07)

Seven 19th Century homes will be open for viewing this weekend in the East Row Historic District of Newport.

The 14th Victorian Christmas Tour takes place Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 PM.

The houses, mostly Queen Anne and Italianate, were chosen by a selection committee from the event's sponsor, the East Row Historic Foundation. Selections are based on neighborhood input, renovation work, and architectural merit.

Also on the tour is the renovated Carnegie Event Center and Ohio River Museum, formerly the Newport Public Library.

Carriage rides in a white pumpkin-shaped wrought iron carriage will be available for an extra charge, but a free shuttle bus will also be available along the entire tour route.

Tickets, which cost $15, can be purchased during the event at the Carnegie Event Center at .

A portion of the proceeds will go to Echo, which operates the Henry Hosea House, a Newport soup kitchen that serves 250 people per day.

The East Row Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the second largest local historic district in Kentucky.

After eight months and $5 million of renovations, the Behringer-Crawford Museum will hold its official ribbon-cutting on Saturday.

The renovations added 15,000 square feet of exhibit space, new galleries, a new entrance, new building mechanicals and Wi-Fi access.

A new permanent exhibit featuring the history of Northern Kentucky - filtered through the lens of its transportation development - will be the museum centerpiece, with multiple rotating exhibits rounding out the collection.

The grand re-opening starts at 11 AM and will feature live music, food and historical presentations.

Kentucky dignitaries, including Covington Mayor Butch Callery, are expected to attend.

Admission on Saturday will be free.

The museum closed April 1 and missed two prior re-openings due to construction setbacks.

, Devou Park, Covington.

Tours of historic Laurel Court in College Hill will be offered during the first three weekends of December.

Visitors can see the estate decked out for the holidays and learn about the history of the home, which was completed in 1907 by Champion Coated Paper founder Peter G. Thomson.

Tours will be offered at 1 PM, 2 PM and 3 PM on December 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16.

Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children ages 6 and up. Tickets can be purchased on site, though space is limited.

Laurel Court is currently owned by Larry and Judy Moyer and is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

, College Hill.

On Saturday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Union Savings Bank of Symmes Township has threatened to stop lending in the inner city.

The threat comes as the City threatens criminal building for two building the bank owns at 1308 William Howard Taft Road and at 755 E McMillan Street.

Union Savings Bank had made two questionable loans on which they later had to foreclose. Code violations include things as easily fixed as keeping the property adequately boarded up.

Bank attorney Brian E. Chapman claims that the criminal code violations distress the bank and that such actions may keep banks from "investing" in such neighborhoods in the future.

How much do these blighted buildings distress the community? Can you put a dollar figure on that?

And what about the Community Reinvestment Act implications of redlining a neighborhood?

It probably won't matter. The bank operates no branches in middle- or lower-income communities.

For its part, the City has bent over backwards trying to help fix the situation. They offered to pay for the demolition of 755 E McMillan St if the bank would donate it to the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation (WHRF). The bank could then write it off as a tax deduction.

Until it's resolved, City Manager Milton Dohoney says that the bank will be treated like any other owner of blighted, unsafe buildings.

So it will go to court and become a long, drawn out battle between the City and the bank. Nearby residents will have to look at the blight month after month, and both buildings will probably be demolished eventually - with no benefit to anyone, including the WHRF.

Unfortunately, Union Savings Bank is just the tip of the iceberg, and not even close to being the worst offender. The City is currently owed $201,237 for barricading, inspections and demolitions as the result of out-of-town banks' bad behavior.


East Price Hill

If you saw my link for the Room 113 blog, you know that the blogger is rehabbing a house in East Price Hill, near St. Lawrence Church.

Within the last couple of days he has had two thought-provoking posts about foreclosures.

In the first one, he says he's considering buying a second house in the neighborhood. Apparently, a neighbor who has lived in their home for 13 years is going to lose it to foreclosure unless an investor can be found. The home's owner would rent until their credit was repaired well enough to buy the house back. I'm sure he would be interested to read your thoughts.

His second post presents a hypothetical situation in which "Fred" quickly gets in over his head after going from renter to homeowner. Who is to blame?

EDIT: He has a third post about the conditions in the house he might buy.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a special section on foreclosures, but no stories have been added to it since October 19. There were quite a few stories this past weekend, which can be accessed from this story.

Work is progressing slowly on the River House Landing project, with building only to the foundations.

Bill and Valerie Ashmore (River City Views, LLC) are teaming with Tanner Custom Homes to build the project on Highway Avenue in Covington's Botany Hills neighborhood, which will include 7 luxury townhomes starting at $1,095,000.

A renovated Victorian home, which had to be moved to accomodate the project, is currently being restored and is being offered for $795,000.

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Visit the project website

Previous reading on BC:
River House Landing starting in Botany Hills (9/27/07)
Covington: River House Landing rendering (5/29/07)

A new book on Cincinnati architecture will be available for purchase at a book signing during Final Friday.

I Thought Pigs Could Fly, written and photographed by Ari Buchwald and published by his recently-created Edgecliff Press, is part of an effort to preserve the past through imagery of the architectural details of building exteriors.

Right, Angels!, also by Buchwald, was published in September.

Both photographic sketchbooks are available through the website and on Amazon.com.

Buchwald describes Edgecliff Press as a publisher that focuses on "niches that large publishers will not touch".

He adds that they are always receptive to manuscript submissions, and that details on how to sumbit ideas are on their website.

The book signing takes place from 6 PM-9 PM at The Gathering, * in Over-the-Rhine.

* The Melindy Condominiums

I rarely agree with Joel Kotkin.

I most certainly do not agree with his latest opinion piece in OpinionJournal. A longer version can be read here.

The gist of the article seems to be "Hooray!" for suburbs and "Boo!" for the naysayers who prefer more urban development styles.

I have several gripes with his piece:

* He still uses Levittown as a template for "suburbia", though development like that doesn't take place so much anymore. There is a rebirth of city living, and even most suburban developers are at least making making attempts (usally poorly executed) at more urban-based site designs.

* He reasons that anti-suburban arguments haven't gotten any better over time, even though the claims he cites remain as true today as they were for Lewis Mumford or Jane Jacobs.

* Because there are ethnic restaurants in some strip malls, suburbs are no longer "boring and featureless".

* He cites these as major factors for the success of Levitt's experiment: affordable homes, good schools, nice parks and public safety. Only one of these is actually provided by a developer these days. Is he aware of suburban communities' difficulties with budgets strained by trying to provide these services for unplanned populations?

As a Libertarian, it certainly seems that he overlooks a lot of factors that helped make Levitt's experiment possible.

Gas leaks, and not miscommunication, were the reason a newly-built sidewalk was torn up by Duke Energy.

In a report to City Council, City Manager Milton Dohoney says that, in June 2007, Duke Energy detected multiple leaks in the gas main under Kinsey Avenue in Mount Auburn.

Instead of repairing the leaks, Duke elected to replace the entire gas main, requiring them to tear up sidewalks that the City had completed in November 2006 as part of the Mount Auburn Street Rehabilitation Project.

Dohoney's report is the result of a letter, dated September 21, from attorney Jeffrey Bakst alleging "gross mismanagement" on the part of the City for squandering thousands of dollars by not coordinating their project with Duke.

Dohoney adds that the City's Department of Transportation and Engineering holds quarterly Infrastructure Coordinating Committee meetings with public and private utility companies, and works with these same companies during their project planning and design phases.

On top of permit fees paid to the City, Duke will be required to repave the street and to replace all of the curbs and sidewalks at their own expense.

Previous reading on BC:
Attorney alleges "gross mismanagement" on sidewalks project (10/31/07)

Four local non-profit agencies have received a total of more than $1 million in grants to provide housing for low-income individuals.

The funding comes from the Housing Assistance Grant Program, which is funded by the Ohio Housing Trust Fund and is administered by the Ohio Department of Development.

Program money can be used for home repair, handicapped accessibility, homebuyer education, or downpayment assistance.

The following agencies were awarded:

* Council on Aging of Southwest Ohio: $500,000
* People Working Cooperatively: $430,000
* Over-the-Rhine Community Housing: $87,700
* Resident Home Corporation: $50,000

Statewide grants totalled $6.08 million, which is expected to leverage another $5.6 million in public and private funds.

It is estimated that the funds will assist 2,817 households.

Here are a few random goings-on from my travels. Please click on each image to enlarge to 640 x 480. Each photo will open in a new browser window.

At the Elite site on Oregon Street in Mount Adams, dirt is being moved around. Could they be prepping the site for the next phase?


Grading work on Baum Street. The lots are owned by JFP Group, but no plans have been made public.


Building awaiting rehab along Sycamore Street in Mount Auburn, between Seitz and Goethe. Somebody please buy it!


A long shot of the SouthShore condo project in Newport. More photos of this (from the other side of the river) will be coming up in a week or so.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that stabilization work on the Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church is nearly complete, and a grand opening could be held next spring.

The Cincinnati Preservation Association has been working with the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation to restore the tower at Gilbert and Taft into a centerpiece of neighborhood history.

The site was an important part of Lane Seminary's abolitionist work and will likely be tied in with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The surrounding church was demolished and replaced with a parking lot.

The Park + Vine blog reports that the City is considering cutting the Bicycle Transportation Program from the 2008 budget.

Elimination of the program would result in the loss of two full-time positions in the Department of Transportation and Engineering and would result in the stalling of the Ohio River Trail project and all other bike trail planning in the City.

Park + Vine has details of all of the proposed cuts to the program, as well as contact information for City Council.

The Enquirer reports that City Council's Finance Committee has approved of a plan to help fund 3CDC's next push in Over-the-Rhine, which includes the creation of over 100 new condominiums.

3CDC is hoping for $5.2 million in City funds to leverage over $20 million in federal new market tax credits. These City funds would come from existing capital improvement project funds and from revenues generated by the neighborhood's two tax increment financing districts.

The project includes two parts. The first consists of the following properties, which are targeted for rehab or new construction (locations can be found on the map below):

* 1202 Main Street
* 1306 Main Street
* 1417-1421 Main Street
* 1414 Clay Street
* 1232 Vine Street
* 1237 Vine Street
* 1326-1342 Vine Street
* 1331-1335 Vine Street
* 1222-1224 Republic Street
* 1332 Republic Street
* 1406-1422 Pleasant Street
* 1409-1423 Pleasant Street
* 1401-1403 Race Street
* 3 E Thirteenth Street
* 117-123 W Fifteenth Street

The second part is a streetscape improvement on Vine Street between Central Parkway and Thirteenth Street. This would involve new sidewalks, new signage, new light poles, street trees, new traffic signals, and the burying of utility wires.

Building facades also will undergo masonry repairs, tuck pointing, and painting.

Still being considered for funding is limited streetscape work on surrounding streets, including Twelfth (from Jackson to Race), Republic (from Twelfth to Thirteenth), Thirteenth (from Walnut to Race) and Jackson (from Central Parkway to Thirteenth).


Transfer of Funds

The City will transfer $1.7 million in capital improvement project funds into the Gateway III Project account to allow the project to begin as soon as possible.

The funds will be transferred from the following accounts:

* New Housing Development Program 2007: $1,225,000.00
* Strategic Housing Initiatives Program 2007: $758,928.85
* Neighborhood Market Rate Housing 2007: $484,430.35
* Citirama 2006: $418,720.38
* New Housing Development Program*: $148,741.96
* Neighborhood Market Rate Housing 2004: $38,976.34
* Neighborhood Market Rate Housing 2005: $25,202.12




* Year unknown

Exterior masonry work and interior framing are ongoing at the Palisades of Mount Adams, and some windows have been installed.

Vail Terra Properties and architect John Senhauser are teaming up on the 10-unit project along Baum, Kilgour and Oregon streets in Mount Adams.

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Visit the project website

Previous updates on BC:
Palisades of Mount Adams photo update, 9/18/07 (9/20/07)
Palisades luxury condos hit the market (9/13/07)
The Palisades of Mount Adams (4/22/07)

The third and final public meeting to discuss the renovation of Washington Park takes place tonight at 6 PM at Memorial Hall, in Over-the-Rhine.

Yesterday's Cincinnati Enquirer included an article on the plans, which included a PDF graphic of the proposed changes and a photo gallery of the park.

The draft plan for the park was prepared by Human Nature, Inc., a local landscape architecture firm.

Previous public meetings were held in February and in March.

Information from those meetings can be found on the 3CDC website.

Enquirer writer John Kiesewetter reports in his Television blog that WLWT's original Studio A will be razed by some time in December.

The building, underneath the transmitter at the end of Chickasaw Street in Clifton Heights, was built for WLWT in 1948 and came to be known as "Mount Olympus".

A few years later, programming for the station moved Downtown to Crosley Square, and Crosley Broadcasting leased the space to WCET.

Hearst-Argyle Television, which is based in New York City, has deemed the cost of the historic building's rehabilitation to be too high.

RIP: 5103 Glenshade Ave, Madisonville
Single-family
(No photo available)
DOB: 1900
Died: November 2007
Cause of death: Purchased by the Greater Liberty Baptist Church, which owns many of the lots on the block. This might be a quest to create more parking. The house had no code violations.

Here is a short set of 11 photos I took on or around East Price Hill and North Avondale on November 3, 2007.

These photos have been added to the following galleries:

* East Price Hill +7 (43 photos)
* North Avondale +3 (11 photos)
* East Walnut Hills +1 (56 photos)

I have also added the last 2 photos of the Cincinnati skyline. Please click on the photo above to go directly to that gallery.

Please click on each image to enlarge to 800 x 600. Each photo will open in a new browser window.

To access the galleries of East Price Hill, North Avondale, or many other local neighborhoods, please go to the scroll-down menu at the top of the right-hand column.

East Price Hill



East Walnut Hills


North Avondale

The City is not exploring adding single-family dwellings to the year-old chronic nuisance ordinance.

In a report to City Council dated November 20, City Manager Milton Dohoney that Chapter 761 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code, which became active in January, needs a longer evaluation period before revisions to the law are made.

Councilmember Jeff Berding had introduced a motion to amend the ordinance to include single-family dwellings on September 4.

The chronic nuisance ordinance allows the City to bill owners of multi-family properties that receive excessive police calls for service, which is defined as three or more calls per month or more than twelve in a year. After being notified by the City, property owners must submit to the police a plan on how they'll solve the problem within 30 days. Violation of the law is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, with additional offenses becoming third- and second-degree misdemeanors.

The Cincinnati Police Department notes that, as a whole, multi-family dwellings have five times more police calls for service than single-family dwellings. They typically also have absentee landlords who are difficult for the police to find, whereas single-family properties are more often owner-occupied.

Dohoney also advised against adding single-family dwellings because the law is currently being challenged in the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

The Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association and the Real Estate Investors Association of Cincinnati have joined to sue the City, claiming that the law passes the responsibilities of both the police and criminals off to third-party landlords.

The plaintiffs have several problems with the ordinance:

* It only affects rental property owners, making it discriminatory
* The definition of "nuisance" is too broad
* There is no citizen oversight

Berding believes the law will be upheld, saying that it was written by the City's Law Department and is based on a similar ordinance in Milwaukee.

On November 14, the City made its latest motion to ask the judge to dismiss the case. The plaintiffs are currently amending their complaint.

It is unclear whether Berding's motion was an attempt to end the lawsuit.

To date, the Cincinnati Police Department has sent out a few warning letters, but no property owner has been charged or fined.

375 Oregon Street is in the process of being gutted and rebuilt.

Oregon Street Development purchased the the four attached townhomes in February and began demolition in late March.

No renderings are available, and the units aren't yet listed.

Also pictured is a neighboring project, The Oregon. This was completed by Maximus Corporation and was featured on the Ultimate Urban Tour of Living in October.

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