I hike up into Mt. Adams fairly often, and I love looking back into the downtown basin from all over the hill. Every time I cross the Ida St bridge I look back at the vast expanse that is “Broadway Commons.” I came to this city a little late for the stadium debate, but having been to Chicago I can imagine what a ballpark here would have done.
With that behind us however, I wonder what else this could/will become (won’t be parking forever right?) I read somewhere in the blogosphere the opinion that this should be the site of a new grocery-anchored commercial center, which as an OTR resident would be great for me. I wonder however, about the time horizon on developing this piece of ground. In my mind I would rather see the banks get built out before we try and bring another large scale development to downtown. I would still happily walk, ride (bike or streetcar), or GASP drive (sometimes you have more groceries than a bike will allow) down to a nice grocery store at The Banks.
What are your thoughts? Do you think this piece will be developed at all before The Banks is built out?
The casino crowd longs to turn this into a gambling hell surrounded by an ocean of parking, reason enough to vote no on any enabling legislation. The property needs much more intense use.
Saw that article in the Enquirer about the casino. I’m fine with having casinos in Ohio, but that does seem a strange spot. I don’t understand why we need large scale dev for a grocery store though. I’ve been to other cities with decent size grocery stores in the urban area that aren’t big box surrounded by parking. The idea that to have a grocery store as part of another large development only encourages the prominent notion that anything doing in downtown requires driving, and thus generous surface level parking.
PianoDraft…
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