Cincinnati: CUF / Corryville: Development and News

[Robuu]

Maybe rename that stretch of McMillan "Puff Puff Pass?"

[ColDayMan]

CUF: 'Don't call us Clifton' - neighborhood reexamines identity

 

 

The Queen City neighborhood closest to the University of Cincinnati has for decades been colloquially referred to by the wrong name. Now, its neighborhood association is re-examining its identity with the possibility of rebranding the area.

 

CUF gets its name from the three communities that compose it: Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview. Neighborhood association president Linda Ziegler told me it has been called CUF as long as she can remember – since she got involved in the 1970s.

 

Yet the neighborhood association sent out a mailer to all residents announcing there would be two CUF Neighborhood Association meetings, on June 19 and July 17, to discuss the neighborhood's name and possibly rebrand it.

 

"Most people have no idea of any of the neighborhoods in Cincinnati. You ask most people, 'where's UC?' they say 'Clifton.' It's not," Ziegler told me. "People mostly just assume anywhere near the university is Clifton."

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/06/06/cuf-dont-call-us-clifton-neighborhood-reexamines.html

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

**Arcade Fiyah/Future ColDay note** -Why don't they just call it Uptown and be done with it?  Easy solution.

[BigDipper 80]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, call it SoCal. Anything north of Calhoun can become a new NorCal neighborhood or combined with University into a new University Heights neighborhood.

[Ram23]

They should just call it Uptown.

 

It would make the most sense to merge Clifton and CUF (and maybe even Corryville) and call the whole area "Clifton" and use "Gaslight" and "Uptown" to distinguish the two halves, but something tells me the "real" Clifton residents would never let that fly. I'm curious what the actual legal process is for changing a neighborhood name - is there one? If a community council votes to change their name, is that it? Could CUF just vote to call themselves "Clifton" and de facto merge?

 

In the grand scheme of things, Cincinnati could probably merge half of its neighborhoods. Is there really a good reason to have two Fairmounts? Does Millvale really need to be distinguished from South Cumminsville? Why even have a South Cumminsville if the rest of Cumminsville rebranded as Northside? We should have 10-15 actual neighborhoods and keep the place names casual. That would give a bit more credence to fake neighborhoods like Brighton and Prospect Hill - places that somehow didn't manage to make the cut despite the fact that Cincinnati is inexplicably divided into 52 neighborhoods.

[edale]

CUF is a terrible name for a neighborhood. It’s an acronym for 3 sub-neighborhoods, and it sounds ridiculous.

 

I think Clifton Heights would be a logical name for the neighborhood. People already call the whole area Clifton, and ‘CUF’ is up the hill from Clifton, so it makes sense to me to call it Clifton Heights. Plus, I believe the Calhoun corridor is represented by the Clifton Heights CURC, or at least it used to be. CUF is just dumb.

[taestell]

Uptown doesn’t work because that term is also used to describe the larger area that includes Clifton, CUF, and Corryville. CUF should simply become Clifton Heights.

[taestell]

I remember a few years ago some realtors were advertising Avondale houses as “East Clifton.” By that standard, CUF could become South Clifton...

[Guest jmecklenborg]

Instead of it being an acronym, just make the neighborhood called "Cuf".  There might have been an infiltration of the CUF community council by a developer.  You know, the sort of developer who comes up with ridiculous stuff like DUMBO and SOBRO and Pietown and Washington Beach. 

 

I'm worried that we could see the area renamed something obnoxious like RASCAL (right against south Calhoun and Lyon) or YOURMOM (you are mostly on McMillan), 

[ryanlammi]

If they don't want to be called Clifton, calling themselves Clifton Heights doesn't solve that problem.

 

They should change it to University Heights if they change it and want a distinct identity. Otherwise, leave it alone.

[jmicha]

...You know, the sort of developer who comes up with ridiculous stuff like DUMBO... 

 

You do know this wasn't at all the result of a developer, right? It's exactly the opposite. It was locals in the neighborhood trying to come up with as unappealing name as possible to push developers away. It obviously didn't work, but zero developers had anything to do with the creation of DUMBO. Most older neighborhoods that are acronyms in east coast cities were also just locals trying to come up with a name that described their portion of an interconnected street grid. It wasn't to be trendy or catchy. It was a way to distinguish boundaries, however arbitrary, in a road system that didn't have any natural breaks other than big roads.

[IAGuy39]

If they don't want to be called Clifton, calling themselves Clifton Heights doesn't solve that problem.

 

They should change it to University Heights if they change it and want a distinct identity. Otherwise, leave it alone.

 

I like University Heights

[Robuu]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, call it SoCal. Anything north of Calhoun can become a new NorCal neighborhood or combined with University into a new University Heights neighborhood.

 

North of Calhoun can be Upper Calhoun, abbreviated UC.

[jwulsin]

If they don't want to be called Clifton, calling themselves Clifton Heights doesn't solve that problem.

 

They should change it to University Heights if they change it and want a distinct identity. Otherwise, leave it alone.

 

"CUF" is a bad name (it's an ugly sound, hard to remember, and unclear what it includes) and I agree that anything with "Clifton" in it just adds to confusion, so I'm definitely in favor of replacing it with something clearer.

 

Related: it's unnecessary to have a separate neighborhood The Heights since it is basically is just UC's west campus, plus a couple of residential blocks to the west and the north of campus. Does The Heights even have a community council or any kind of organizing body? The only thing I could find is a defunct (last updated in 2013) Facebook page for The Heights Community Council, whose mission is "To make Clifton Heights livable, attractive, and sustainable, and preserve its cultural and historical heritage." So... it's part of "Clifton Heights"?  ???

 

I'd propose combining CUF and The Heights into a single entity, and call it "The Heights" (or possibly "University Heights", though that might create confusion since people currently refer "University Heights" as just the sub-neighborhood). The bit of The Heights that is north of MLK should become part of "Clifton". I think it makes sense for Burnet Woods to be under the purview of Clifton Town Meeting.

 

On Google Maps, it's currently a mess, with CUF, Clifton Heights, and The Heights... but no mention of University Heights or Fairview.

 

I included a proposed map showing what would be the new, unified neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

[GCrites]

Haha, CUF does sound like a wrestling territory in Idaho/Wyoming or something that you'd see a small blurb about in Pro Wrestling Illustrated in like 1992.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

There is something called "Coy Park"? 

[Ram23]

There is something called "Coy Park"? 

 

I don't think it's actually a park, I think it's athletic fields used by Hughes High School. I went down there once maybe 10 years ago because a few friends wanted to play a pickup game of baseball, and we saw a baseball field there on Google Earth. The whole place is fenced and locked up. There's some playground equipment off of Marshall, but the driveway there is gated at the street and there's no sidewalk, so it's similarly uninviting.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

You can also reach it off Wagner St., which is at the top of Taffel.  I didn't know that that park had a name. 

[taestell]

 

Why not just merge this area (The Heights + CUF) into a single neighborhood called the "University District"? Even thought it's a new name for that area, Cincinnatians will immediately know what you're talking about when you say "University District". Also, the USquare plaza would be at the center of the UDistrict.

[edale]

Why is Clifton Heights confusing? Is it an issue for Cleveland and Cleveland Heights? Shaker Square and Shaker Heights? Since most people tend to already think of the area as one big neighborhood, a little repetition of ‘Clifton’ would make sense to me. The Heights sounds stupid to me, especially in a city of many hills. It’d be like calling Walnut Hills The Hills or Mt. Auburn The Mount.

[jmicha]

I'm all for "The Mount"

[Guest jmecklenborg]

The College of Mt. St. Joseph is "The Mount". 

 

Why does CUF need a new name unless developers are looking to...develop? 

 

 

[DEPACincy]

Why is Clifton Heights confusing? Is it an issue for Cleveland and Cleveland Heights? Shaker Square and Shaker Heights? Since most people tend to already think of the area as one big neighborhood, a little repetition of ‘Clifton’ would make sense to me. The Heights sounds stupid to me, especially in a city of many hills. It’d be like calling Walnut Hills The Hills or Mt. Auburn The Mount.

 

Clifton Heights seems just fine to me. We have Walnut Hills and East Walnut Hills. Multiple Price Hills. In Philly, there is Passyunk Square and East Passyunk Crossing and also Kensington, East Kensington, Olde Kensington, and West Kensington--but people often just say Kensington to refer to the hole area plus a couple of other neighborhoods nearby so that really seems analogous.

[jwulsin]

I'd be fine with "Clifton Heights", if the other names in the area defined by CUF and The Heights went away. It's just confusing now to have Clifton Heights which is a subset of CUF, which also includes University Heights, but doesn't include The Heights.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

The Gaslight District confuses people.  People think that the Gaslight District is a sub-area of Clifton, when in fact it is Clifton. 

 

None of this matters unless developers have their sights set on putting up market rate housing not aimed at students.  If that is the case, I am worried about what they have in store because there aren't many buildable sites that wouldn't involve tearing down a bunch of old homes.

[BigDipper 80]

When did the whole "gaslight district" even become the predominant term for Clifton? It sounds like some sort of unnecessary neighborhood marketing campaign from the 70s that somehow got imprinted on everyone's mind to refer to a specific sub-neighborhood of uptown.

[taestell]

People refer to actual Clifton as "Gaslight" because people refer to all of Uptown as "Clifton" (even Taste of Belgium calls their Corryville location "Clifton").

[Ram23]

Here's an example from the Enquirer today with an apparently erroneous usage of "Clifton Heights" (I think they meant the Daniels Street in Corryville:

 

Police attempted to arrest Lamar Allen of Avondale on open warrants Daniels Avenue in Clifton Heights at approximate 9:30 a.m.

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/crime-and-courts/2018/06/07/wanted-man-escaped-police-handcuffs-near-uc-45-minutes/681152002

[GCrites]

There is something called "Coy Park"? 

 

 

Yes, it replaced Bo Park for about 6 months. Same thing happened with Vance and Luke Parks.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

Some guys were operating an illegal house show venue on Coy St. for awhile called "The Coy Pond". 

 

Every time you look at a new Cincinnati map there is something named that you have never, ever heard of.  Like "Frenchman's Corner". 

[jjakucyk]

I always assumed Clifton gaslight was referring just to the Ludlow business district and a few blocks around it (Shiloh, Bryant, Howell, Telford, etc.), not Lafayette, Warren, or McAlpin. 

[Robuu]

One of my grade school friends lived on Coy. I vaguely remember playing in that park a few times, but usually he would come down to my house in Clifton, or we would hang out on Ludlow or in Burnet Woods.

[SleepyLeroy]

There is something called "Coy Park"? 

 

 

Yes, it replaced Bo Park for about 6 months. Same thing happened with Vance and Luke Parks.

 

I took a sec but i got it. :) My dad grew up near the park that is at the end of Lower Coy st. and has always called it Coy Field.With the top part being Upper Coy Field and the bottom being creatively named Lower Coy field. His stories of how the neighborhood kids from the different sections of the area would fight over what was 'their' part of the neighborhood were hilarious in a Little rascals kind of way. He pretty much lived the Christmas Story life in the 40's. That generation may well be the source for everyone who is so territorial with calling areas the wrong name as their friends got attacked with slingshots from the kids in the other neighborhood on the way home from school one day.

 

[SleepyLeroy]

I always assumed Clifton gaslight was referring just to the Ludlow business district and a few blocks around it (Shiloh, Bryant, Howell, Telford, etc.), not Lafayette, Warren, or McAlpin. 

 

Gaslight is literally the part of the neighborhood that still has operating gas lamps along the sidewalks.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

I took a sec but i got it. :) My dad grew up near the park that is at the end of Lower Coy st. and has always called it Coy Field.With the top part being Upper Coy Field and the bottom being creatively named Lower Coy field. His stories of how the neighborhood kids from the different sections of the area would fight over what was 'their' part of the neighborhood were hilarious in a Little rascals kind of way. He pretty much lived the Christmas Story life in the 40's. That generation may well be the source for everyone who is so territorial with calling areas the wrong name as their friends got attacked with slingshots from the kids in the other neighborhood on the way home from school one day.

 

 

My great-uncle owned this building and operated a tavern called The Turtle Pleasure Club:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1319997,-84.5305842,3a,75y,323.87h,94.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6m_4Idq-tT0pLRadFt1nSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

My grandmother still has a menu from the place.  My great-grandfather was born in 1898 grew up on the Marshall Ave. hill and they used to sled ride down the street and attempt to jump the canal on their sleds.  I assume that there was a bridge over the canal in that spot so I'm thinking that they jumped it somewhere nearby. 

 

On the west side, patches of woods were named after whichever kid lived closest to them ("Danny's Woods"), and they were assumed to be part of that kid's territory along with his 2-3 best friends.  If you were building something in your buddy's woods, a rival group might come over and wreck it.  The usual target was a tree house.  We build a large track for RC cars that was wrecked by some girls from Colerain Middle School.  You also risked having tools stolen if you left them back there. 

 

If you walked or rode your bike into an unknown patch of woods you risked a fight with whatever kids might be hanging out there.  People would somehow find out that you were in "their" woods. 

 

I lucked out and never ran across a rival group of kids in the woods but I remember coming close to brawling with some hillbilly kids in Northside.  My friend Jeff and I biked down the Colerain Ave. hill through Mt. Airy Forest and on our way back decided to cut through Northside but we didn't really know where we were going.  We were cutting through side streets somewhere over by Georgia and Hanfield and rounded the corner to see about four hillbilly kids hanging out in the middle of the street on their BMX bikes.  We had a stare-down and then decided to go some other way but we really didn't know where we were going and acted cool but the guys slowly followed us until we got over by the bottom of the hill.  To compound problem my friend got a flat tire and had to call his mom from a pay phone at the gas station at the bottom of the hill.  We weren't supposed to be down there so I had to bike home alone. 

 

Here is where he had to call his mom:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1644104,-84.5523454,3a,75y,7.33h,85.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNGawZOWYRWUW7FDZiqtcJQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GCrites]

Back then, riding a bike shop BMX like a GT or Redline could get you in real trouble with the hillbilly kids that were stuck on K Mart bikes like Huffys or Murrays.

[jjakucyk]

I always assumed Clifton gaslight was referring just to the Ludlow business district and a few blocks around it (Shiloh, Bryant, Howell, Telford, etc.), not Lafayette, Warren, or McAlpin. 

 

Gaslight is literally the part of the neighborhood that still has operating gas lamps along the sidewalks.

 

I doubt anyone is that diligent about it, partly because that would exclude Ludlow and Clifton Avenues, Woolper, Terrace, Lowell, Whitfield south of Ludlow, Bishop, Ruther, McAlpin, and Rawson Woods.  That's not a district, especially when your main streets are exempt.   

[SleepyLeroy]

I took a sec but i got it. :) My dad grew up near the park that is at the end of Lower Coy st. and has always called it Coy Field.With the top part being Upper Coy Field and the bottom being creatively named Lower Coy field. His stories of how the neighborhood kids from the different sections of the area would fight over what was 'their' part of the neighborhood were hilarious in a Little rascals kind of way. He pretty much lived the Christmas Story life in the 40's. That generation may well be the source for everyone who is so territorial with calling areas the wrong name as their friends got attacked with slingshots from the kids in the other neighborhood on the way home from school one day.

 

 

My great-uncle owned this building and operated a tavern called The Turtle Pleasure Club:

https://www.google.com/maps/[/member]39.1319997,-84.5305842,3a,75y,323.87h,94.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6m_4Idq-tT0pLRadFt1nSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

My grandmother still has a menu from the place.  My great-grandfather was born in 1898 grew up on the Marshall Ave. hill and they used to sled ride down the street and attempt to jump the canal on their sleds.  I assume that there was a bridge over the canal in that spot so I'm thinking that they jumped it somewhere nearby. 

 

On the west side, patches of woods were named after whichever kid lived closest to them ("Danny's Woods"), and they were assumed to be part of that kid's territory along with his 2-3 best friends.  If you were building something in your buddy's woods, a rival group might come over and wreck it.  The usual target was a tree house.  We build a large track for RC cars that was wrecked by some girls from Colerain Middle School.  You also risked having tools stolen if you left them back there. 

 

If you walked or rode your bike into an unknown patch of woods you risked a fight with whatever kids might be hanging out there.  People would somehow find out that you were in "their" woods. 

 

I lucked out and never ran across a rival group of kids in the woods but I remember coming close to brawling with some hillbilly kids in Northside.  My friend Jeff and I biked down the Colerain Ave. hill through Mt. Airy Forest and on our way back decided to cut through Northside but we didn't really know where we were going.  We were cutting through side streets somewhere over by Georgia and Hanfield and rounded the corner to see about four hillbilly kids hanging out in the middle of the street on their BMX bikes.  We had a stare-down and then decided to go some other way but we really didn't know where we were going and acted cool but the guys slowly followed us until we got over by the bottom of the hill.  To compound problem my friend got a flat tire and had to call his mom from a pay phone at the gas station at the bottom of the hill.  We weren't supposed to be down there so I had to bike home alone. 

 

Here is where he had to call his mom:

https://www.google.com/maps/[/member]39.1644104,-84.5523454,3a,75y,7.33h,85.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNGawZOWYRWUW7FDZiqtcJQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a sec but i got it. :) My dad grew up near the park that is at the end of Lower Coy st. and has always called it Coy Field.With the top part being Upper Coy Field and the bottom being creatively named Lower Coy field. His stories of how the neighborhood kids from the different sections of the area would fight over what was 'their' part of the neighborhood were hilarious in a Little rascals kind of way. He pretty much lived the Christmas Story life in the 40's. That generation may well be the source for everyone who is so territorial with calling areas the wrong name as their friends got attacked with slingshots from the kids in the other neighborhood on the way home from school one day.

 

 

My great-uncle owned this building and operated a tavern called The Turtle Pleasure Club:

https://www.google.com/maps/[/member]39.1319997,-84.5305842,3a,75y,323.87h,94.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6m_4Idq-tT0pLRadFt1nSA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

My grandmother still has a menu from the place.  My great-grandfather was born in 1898 grew up on the Marshall Ave. hill and they used to sled ride down the street and attempt to jump the canal on their sleds.  I assume that there was a bridge over the canal in that spot so I'm thinking that they jumped it somewhere nearby. 

 

On the west side, patches of woods were named after whichever kid lived closest to them ("Danny's Woods"), and they were assumed to be part of that kid's territory along with his 2-3 best friends.  If you were building something in your buddy's woods, a rival group might come over and wreck it.  The usual target was a tree house.  We build a large track for RC cars that was wrecked by some girls from Colerain Middle School.  You also risked having tools stolen if you left them back there. 

 

If you walked or rode your bike into an unknown patch of woods you risked a fight with whatever kids might be hanging out there.  People would somehow find out that you were in "their" woods. 

 

I lucked out and never ran across a rival group of kids in the woods but I remember coming close to brawling with some hillbilly kids in Northside.  My friend Jeff and I biked down the Colerain Ave. hill through Mt. Airy Forest and on our way back decided to cut through Northside but we didn't really know where we were going.  We were cutting through side streets somewhere over by Georgia and Hanfield and rounded the corner to see about four hillbilly kids hanging out in the middle of the street on their BMX bikes.  We had a stare-down and then decided to go some other way but we really didn't know where we were going and acted cool but the guys slowly followed us until we got over by the bottom of the hill.  To compound problem my friend got a flat tire and had to call his mom from a pay phone at the gas station at the bottom of the hill.  We weren't supposed to be down there so I had to bike home alone. 

 

Here is where he had to call his mom:

https://www.google.com/maps/[/member]39.1644104,-84.5523454,3a,75y,7.33h,85.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNGawZOWYRWUW7FDZiqtcJQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is the era before My dad who lived at the top dead end of Marshall and would play on the old above ground Streetcar structure that replaced the canal & bridge [/member] Marshall. He didnt dare go any further though as the Camp Washington kids would get him. I'm sure you've seen this one Jake but it is cool that building survives despite all the changes around it. https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.UC/704607/b16_f24_n001.jpg?sequence=2

 

[Guest jmecklenborg]

Back then, riding a bike shop BMX like a GT or Redline could get you in real trouble with the hillbilly kids that were stuck on K Mart bikes like Huffys or Murrays.

 

I think we rode early hard fork mountain bikes on that ride.  My friend at a GT, a Mongoose, and a Schwinn Predator.  All three had rotors and pegs.  I had the "entry level" Schwinn BMX bike that didn't have a rotor or pegs. 

 

It's funny how you see all these young people commenting on videos of "old-school" mountain bikes.  They don't realize that you had to make up the hobby until the 2000s.  There was really no such thing as a dedicated mountain bike trail in our area or any organized BMX activity.  People just rode their mountain bikes wherever around town and on hiking trails in parks or on construction sites.  Now the whole hobby is incredibly slick.   

 

[Guest jmecklenborg]

That is the era before My dad who lived at the top dead end of Marshall and would play on the old above ground Streetcar structure that replaced the canal & bridge [/member] Marshall. He didnt dare go any further though as the Camp Washington kids would get him. I'm sure you've seen this one Jake but it is cool that building survives despite all the changes around it. https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.UC/704607/b16_f24_n001.jpg?sequence=2

 

 

You probably meant to say the subway station.  I have heard more than one person tell me that they used to play on that.  When I was a kid there was still a set of staircases on either side of Central Parkway at Marshall that were for a pedestrian underpass.  My dad told me that they were subway station entrances but he was wrong. 

 

 

[GCrites]

Back then, riding a bike shop BMX like a GT or Redline could get you in real trouble with the hillbilly kids that were stuck on K Mart bikes like Huffys or Murrays.

 

I think we rode early hard fork mountain bikes on that ride.  My friend at a GT, a Mongoose, and a Schwinn Predator.  All three had rotors and pegs.  I had the "entry level" Schwinn BMX bike that didn't have a rotor or pegs. 

 

It's funny how you see all these young people commenting on videos of "old-school" mountain bikes.  They don't realize that you had to make up the hobby until the 2000s.  There was really no such thing as a dedicated mountain bike trail in our area or any organized BMX activity.  People just rode their mountain bikes wherever around town and on hiking trails in parks or on construction sites.  Now the whole hobby is incredibly slick.   

 

 

The dirt bike/ATV trails in Wayne National Forest that opened in the '70s and '80s kind of marketed themselves as mountain bike trails and still do a little. A couple years ago I took my quad down there and brought my MTB as something I'd ride on the trails for a little bit afterward. Well, the quad started at home but wouldn't start at the trailhead since the spark plug cap picked that time to die. Good thing I brought the bicycle right? I hit the trail and immediately realized that these trails designed for stuff with motors are only good for Pro bicyclists in spectacular shape. Maybe I should have picked and chose what areas I rode the MTB over rather than trying to use the whole system as if I make 40 horsepower instead on 1/3 of one.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

^I have thought about blazing my own mountain bike trail in CUF.  If Cranley wasn't in charge I'd probably try to get the parks board to do a short MTB trail somewhere in CUF, perhaps on a paper street like Van Leer or Zier.  The downhill side of Fairview Dr. through Fairview Park would be awesome, because they could get 2 miles of trail in there with switchbacks, but it is really steep and so would be too dangerous for a city park. 

 

My other big bike idea for the area is a purpose-built viaduct connecting Ohio Ave. at Warner with Wellington in Mt. Auburn.  That intersection and the Wellington circle are both 840 feet above sea level, so the bridge deck would be level.  It would pass about 100 feet over Vine St. 

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1249348,-84.5145058,680m/data=!3m1!1e3

[SleepyLeroy]

That is the era before My dad who lived at the top dead end of Marshall and would play on the old above ground Streetcar structure that replaced the canal & bridge [/member] Marshall. He didnt dare go any further though as the Camp Washington kids would get him. I'm sure you've seen this one Jake but it is cool that building survives despite all the changes around it. https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.UC/704607/b16_f24_n001.jpg?sequence=2

 

 

You probably meant to say the subway station.  I have heard more than one person tell me that they used to play on that.  When I was a kid there was still a set of staircases on either side of Central Parkway at Marshall that were for a pedestrian underpass.  My dad told me that they were subway station entrances but he was wrong. 

 

 

Yep, subway. I remember those staircases with the fancy concrete surrounds too but they were capped off when i saw them. I dont remember when they were bulldozed entirely, late 80's maybe?. Crazy to think that they thought the parkway was going to be busy enough that the best option to cross it was a tunnel when now there are 7 and 8 lane streets with turn lanes and everything that pedestrians have to navigate at street level.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

Maybe rename that stretch of McMillan "Puff Puff Pass?"

 

Puff is now selling t-shirts.  I predict that they'll get more popular than the wildly overpriced Riddle Rd. Market shirts ($25!!!) but less so than the unending vista of Rhinegeist shirts.  15+ years ago Mr. Tuxedo used to give away free shirts with every tuxedo rental, and they were a bit of a status symbol for high schoolers.  That shirt announced to all and sundry: I'm a senior + I asked a girl to the prom and she said yes. 

 

[Guest jmecklenborg]

The city repaved Emming St. last week.  Unfortunately they didn't really regrade the street after they took up the top layer of pavement, so the end product is just as lumpy as it was before.  Good job, Cranley. 

[taestell]

They have probably not put the final top layer of asphalt down yet. The city typically grinds down the existing street and puts down one layer of asphalt; comes back over the next few weeks to do curb repair, utility work, etc.; then comes back (sometimes many months later) to put down the final top layer of asphalt.

[oakiehigh]

^A bunch of West End streets were done last year in the manner Jake speaks of.  See Baymiller and Freeman.  The streets were in better shape prior to the shoddy repaving job they did.

[JYP]

They repaved Sycamore by Zeigler Park last year and waited for months to do the final finished coating. Meanwhile, everyone had to deal with sewer lids protruding out and no crosswalks. When I worked for Bellevue, we did our resurfacing in the fall and did all of it as quickly as possible.

 

I also found it hilarious this spring when the city put down zebra stripe crossings at Walnut and 14th only to begin resurfacing the road less than a week later. The temporary lines are the conventional two strips across the street. We'll see if they return after the final coating.

 

One step forward, two steps back.

[GCrites]

Sometimes you have to wait all winter for the final course because the asphalt plants shut down.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

One of the more bizarre home renovations I've seen in CUF:

https://www.sibcycline.com/Listing/CIN/1587421/2241-Flora-St-Clifton-OH-45219

 

Instead of the ol' illegal front bedroom trick...they put an entire FULL BATHROOM IN THE FRONT FAMILY ROOM.  LIKE IN THE ROOM.  If the house did not originally have a half bath on the first floor, I can't explain the motivation for the full bathroom. 

 

Up on the third floor, one bedroom has a door but the other is just...open.  They could have put that full bathroom up there. 

 

Then, despite having gravel parking behind the house off of Coon St., they recently bought an adjacent lot facing Fox St. and poured a huge concrete pad...space for 8+ cars, and accessible through a hole in their fence. 

 

If you were to buy this as a rental, you could probably illegally jam a fifth student in the front L-shaped foyer.     

 

 

[GCrites]

And it just says "Clifton, OH". Clifton Ohio is near Yellow Springs. I've had suburbanite friends participate in events in OTR and tag them as Clifton Ohio. Then social media will generate a little map of the real Clifton Ohio.