Anyone from Cincinnati

[mmoore5458]

I am in the planning school at the University of Cincinnati and this quarter in studio we are working with a client, the community of Pleasant Ridge in Cincinnati.


This planning studio will focus on some of the issues currently facing Pleasant Ridge. While obviously, we cannot focus on all of the planning problems in Pleasant Ridge in just ten weeks, we will address three inter-related broad topics of importance:

1. Land Use
2. Transportation and Traffic
3. Connectivity

Anyone out there have any information on Pleasant Ridge, work with the community of have ideas for us feel free to speak up. I will be updating this thread as the quarter stretches on asking questions posting ideas asking for feedback!

I am looking forward to your ideas and banter

Oh and I might be adding threads to other pages on here as well!

[Losantiville]

This is completely random, but I lived in Pleasant Ridge for about two years 2008-2010. I graduated with my undergrad in Finance/Real Estate from UC in 2008 and bought a house in PR that I gut renovated. Work led me to move to NYC in 2010 and sell the house, but I loved the neighborhood and thought it had tremendous potential. I'm in process of considering application to a MSRED program, which led me to Cyburbia, and I just happened upon your post.

Let me know if there's anything specific that I can help with regarding your project and good luck!

[mmoore5458]

That is wonderful! We did a bit of a guided tour through the main area of PR around Ridge and Montgomery and I agree it is a nice little area, we are focusing on the three problems one of the major ones being the traffic on Montgomery during morning and evening rush hours.

I have been assigned to the Land Use group and after our "field trip" I have made a list of immediate issues I sensed while there.

First being there are an abundant amount of retail space which is all being taken up by the same times of stores, tattoo parlors, beauty salons, and shoe repair stores.

Then I noticed that there is mainly 1 story buildings along the business corridor it is very hard for there to be mixed use, but we could put into plan buildings that change that of course, also the signage along the main streets is hard to see and understand. Also another thing that I found to be weird is the relationship and the distance between residential and commercial, case in point is that there was a house directly next to a gas station, while that is not exactly a bad thing it may not be convenient or safe for the people living in the home.

There were a few others that I cant remember right now but we have class tomorrow at 1 and I will update more after that

[mmoore5458]

After talking with some community members we have pinpointed some of the major problems dealing with Land Use in Pleasant Ridge, and some of the projects we have come up with regarding the issues. We did a SWOT analysis for the area and this is what we came up with.

Strength:
- Gaslight District
- Diversity
- Churches
- Race, Age, Income
- Major Intersection brings many people through
- Good business strip
- School is a Montessori
- Business district supports neighboring community Amberly Village
- Festivals
- Low crime compared to other neighborhoods
- No negative affect from trains
- Strong value of homes / not much foreclosure
- Walkability
- Distinctive shops

Weaknesses
- Many vacancies in business district
- Triangle community center not utilized well
- Empty store fronts
- Empty movie theater owner will not sell
- not enough public parking (needs to be marked better)
- walking not likely for kids and elderly
- No 2nd floors in business district for mixed-use
- No grocery store
- Current buildings in business strip not kitchen ready
- No signs when entering the neighborhood to tell you where you are
- Area near the school, churches, and fire station is disconnected

Opportunities
- Triangle options
- Entertainment district
- Community gathering space
- Destination location
- Art district
- More parking

Threats
- Potential for increased crime
- Poor clean up of industrial area
- High vacancy
- Panhandling


Some projects that have come from this list are:

- Night life
- Triangle fixed
- School connection
- Destination Location
- Corner Market / grocery store
- Public Parking
- Industrial Clean-Up
- Crime ridden Apartments re-done
- Fill Store-fronts
- Slope park project
- Jogging / Walking Path
- Signage
- extend business district past school
- get rid of burger king
- face lift of business district
- park security lighting.

Well this is what we have we also are trying to keep our projects on a lower budget so that at some point they could be feasible. The community had a consulting firm come in around 2007 and gave them an amazing project for the entire community that was going to cost around $121 Million we want to keep it definitly lower than that.

Thanks for all the help guys!