As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
But this is not new.
I remember visiting LA in 1999, being downtown, and thinking "wait, wtf?"
6.26 PM is the tail-end of rush hour in most US cities.
AND empty downtowns in US cities after working hours is NOT a new development. Many decades old.
Ain't saying it's a plus. But not sign of impending doom.
ADDENDUM - So WHY are you hanging around in downtown this evening, when the REAL Cincinnati is clearly elsewhere.
Suggest you head up the hill, toward the U of Cincinnati, AND check out Taft's bathtub!
No this is bollocks. As is the comment by @rcs1000
All the offices are empty. For Lease
Open your eyes. Urban America is dying
I am sure if you went to Manhattan or downtown Chicago or Seattle or Boston or Miami you would find it a bit busier, Cincanniti is really a lot of office blocks with a few restaurants for lunch surrounded by suburbia
Here is how Seattle Times is reporting Pence's statement:
"Pence opens presidential bid with denunciation of Trump over Jan. 6 insurrection and abortion"
Get the feeling that many UKer PBers - along with many in USA - will be unimpressed by anything other than unequivocal anti-Trump candidate(s) for 2024 Republican nomination.
HOWEVER, while 2022 midterms gave plenty of evidence that swing voters AND many Republicans are of that mindset, they also showed that running AGAINST Trump was NOT a great strategy for winning GOP nomination for whatever.
THUS the reluctance (or at least major share of it) to do a Lynn Cheney for 2024.
Note that goodly chunk of Republicans (including leaners (who either oppose Trump outright, or are seriously allergic to him, are skeptical (for some reason) that it's possible for 1001% anti-45er to win the Republican nomination.
Just sayin'.
I think we're all well aware of why Pence and others have been tip toeing around their criticisms, and even the direct attacks tend to get rolled back, thanks. It's depressing to see because we understand why they know they have to do it, not that we don't understand it - it's not rocket science.
It's not 'disappointment' that they are not unequivocally anti-Trump, it's disappointment that being anti-Trump is a pretty good way of losing and the strategies of others shows that.
(I saw people doing this in a storefront in St Louis, beer in hand).
You can do that in Manchester. Just saying.
The first time I threw a javelin, at about age 13, it twisted and the back of it smacked me in the side of the head. So I'll steer clear of the axes...
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
But this is not new.
I remember visiting LA in 1999, being downtown, and thinking "wait, wtf?"
6.26 PM is the tail-end of rush hour in most US cities.
AND empty downtowns in US cities after working hours is NOT a new development. Many decades old.
Ain't saying it's a plus. But not sign of impending doom.
ADDENDUM - So WHY are you hanging around in downtown this evening, when the REAL Cincinnati is clearly elsewhere.
Suggest you head up the hill, toward the U of Cincinnati, AND check out Taft's bathtub!
No this is bollocks. As is the comment by @rcs1000
All the offices are empty. For Lease
Open your eyes. Urban America is dying
Impact of COVID is undeniable, esp re: office workers (in burbs as well as downtowns) and related services.
But empty downtown storefronts and building in America cities and towns large, small and inbetween is NOT novel.
Yes it is. I’ve been travelling worldwide for 35 years and I’ve been to America maybe 30 times. I have never seen anything like this. And remember I have been all over America in the last two years. West coast. Deep South. Florida. Utah. Colorado. Arizona. Kentucky. Now Ohio. Probably more than you - let’s face it
Oh look, I can see someone a mile away. Maybe that’s the entertainment district
Downtown San Francisco has been dealt another blow after an investor in one of its largest hotels said it would stop paying its loans.
Park Hotels and Resorts, the investment firm that owns Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels, said Monday that is has ceased payments on a $725 million loan as looks to reduce its presence in the city. The hotels have nearly 3,000 rooms, combined.
In a statement, the firm’s CEO, Thomas Baltimore, Jr., said that San Francisco’s “path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” including office vacancies caused by companies letting employees work-from-home, a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar” through 2027 and “concerns over street conditions.”
“Unfortunately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets,” he concluded. The hotels will be given back to the lender.
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
But this is not new.
I remember visiting LA in 1999, being downtown, and thinking "wait, wtf?"
6.26 PM is the tail-end of rush hour in most US cities.
AND empty downtowns in US cities after working hours is NOT a new development. Many decades old.
Ain't saying it's a plus. But not sign of impending doom.
ADDENDUM - So WHY are you hanging around in downtown this evening, when the REAL Cincinnati is clearly elsewhere.
Suggest you head up the hill, toward the U of Cincinnati, AND check out Taft's bathtub!
No this is bollocks. As is the comment by @rcs1000
All the offices are empty. For Lease
Open your eyes. Urban America is dying
Impact of COVID is undeniable, esp re: office workers (in burbs as well as downtowns) and related services.
But empty downtown storefronts and building in America cities and towns large, small and inbetween is NOT novel.
Yes it is. I’ve been travelling worldwide for 35 years and I’ve been to America maybe 30 times. I have never seen anything like this. And remember I have been all over America in the last two years. West coast. Deep South. Florida. Utah. Colorado. Arizona. Kentucky. Now Ohio. Probably more than you - let’s face it
Oh look, I can see someone a mile away. Maybe that’s the entertainment district
Just hope the local coppers do not respond aggressively to reports of a suspicious foreign man wandering about taking random photos of the downtown core.
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
Cincinnati city centre, at least, doesn't looked fucked up. Looks quite nice, in a 'but where are the pubs' way. Just horribly deserted.
A pedant notes, however, that the Cincinnati metropolitan area is has a population of 1.7m. So smaller than Manchester, whose Metropolitan population is approaching 3m. Closer to Glasgow, I think. Still, your point stands.
The problem is pretty much as you identified it: where are the restaraunts? the bars? the theatres? Even the shops?
The city centre existed for workers to come in, and to work in office buildings. In this way, it is curiously different from the UK, where the offices moved to the suburbs, and the cities remained retail and entertainment spaces.
When Covid came, and the office workers no longer had any reason to go into the centrem, then it ended up deserted.
It's a little sad. But it certainly doesn't deserve @Leon's "fucked" ephitet. Heck, if you went around Slough Business Center at 630pm, it would probably be similarly eerily quiet.
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
But this is not new.
I remember visiting LA in 1999, being downtown, and thinking "wait, wtf?"
6.26 PM is the tail-end of rush hour in most US cities.
AND empty downtowns in US cities after working hours is NOT a new development. Many decades old.
Ain't saying it's a plus. But not sign of impending doom.
ADDENDUM - So WHY are you hanging around in downtown this evening, when the REAL Cincinnati is clearly elsewhere.
Suggest you head up the hill, toward the U of Cincinnati, AND check out Taft's bathtub!
No this is bollocks. As is the comment by @rcs1000
All the offices are empty. For Lease
Open your eyes. Urban America is dying
I am sure if you went to Manhattan or downtown Chicago or Seattle or Boston or Miami you would find it a bit busier, Cincanniti is really a lot of office blocks with a few restaurants for lunch surrounded by suburbia
I found a nice historic quarter with all the churches
Downtown San Francisco has been dealt another blow after an investor in one of its largest hotels said it would stop paying its loans.
Park Hotels and Resorts, the investment firm that owns Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels, said Monday that is has ceased payments on a $725 million loan as looks to reduce its presence in the city. The hotels have nearly 3,000 rooms, combined.
In a statement, the firm’s CEO, Thomas Baltimore, Jr., said that San Francisco’s “path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” including office vacancies caused by companies letting employees work-from-home, a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar” through 2027 and “concerns over street conditions.”
“Unfortunately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets,” he concluded. The hotels will be given back to the lender.
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
Cincinnati city centre, at least, doesn't looked fucked up. Looks quite nice, in a 'but where are the pubs' way. Just horribly deserted.
A pedant notes, however, that the Cincinnati metropolitan area is has a population of 1.7m. So smaller than Manchester, whose Metropolitan population is approaching 3m. Closer to Glasgow, I think. Still, your point stands.
The problem is pretty much as you identified it: where are the restaraunts? the bars? the theatres? Even the shops?
The city centre existed for workers to come in, and to work in office buildings. In this way, it is curiously different from the UK, where the offices moved to the suburbs, and the cities remained retail and entertainment spaces.
When Covid came, and the office workers no longer had any reason to go into the centrem, then it ended up deserted.
It's a little sad. But it certainly doesn't deserve @Leon's "fucked" ephitet. Heck, if you went around Slough Business Center at 630pm, it would probably be similarly eerily quiet.
This is not slough business centre ffs. This is a city with 2m people. Also in slough busines centre you would not encounter the issue that the ONLY people around are homeless zombies on tranq
Downtown San Francisco has been dealt another blow after an investor in one of its largest hotels said it would stop paying its loans.
Park Hotels and Resorts, the investment firm that owns Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels, said Monday that is has ceased payments on a $725 million loan as looks to reduce its presence in the city. The hotels have nearly 3,000 rooms, combined.
In a statement, the firm’s CEO, Thomas Baltimore, Jr., said that San Francisco’s “path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” including office vacancies caused by companies letting employees work-from-home, a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar” through 2027 and “concerns over street conditions.”
“Unfortunately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets,” he concluded. The hotels will be given back to the lender.
That also shows the dangers of private equity overleverage: $725m of debt for two hotels? The hotel business is dangerously low margin at the best of time, and they'd need to clear $250m in EBITDA just to avoid a technical default.
As I said yesterday: is the problem American sobriety? British city centres are doing ok because the British need to drink, and therefore need somewhere they can get to without driving. So even if they're not actually working in town, they're coming there afterwards for a drink. But if your evening consists of soft drinks and a drive home, city centres hold no particular advantage.
It’s a whole combination of things. The innate American love of the suburb and the car. The loathing of public transport. The big houses that are nice to WFH in. The general fucked up nature of American city centers - drugs, homeless, urbanscapes ruined by car lots and shit buildings
But this is an enormous problem and I’m encountering it everywhere. Denver last year. Cincinnati now. Multiple other places
It’s desolate. Ffs this is a city twice the size of Manchester and this is the buzzing heart. On a beautiful balmy evening of about 25C
But this is not new.
I remember visiting LA in 1999, being downtown, and thinking "wait, wtf?"
6.26 PM is the tail-end of rush hour in most US cities.
AND empty downtowns in US cities after working hours is NOT a new development. Many decades old.
Ain't saying it's a plus. But not sign of impending doom.
ADDENDUM - So WHY are you hanging around in downtown this evening, when the REAL Cincinnati is clearly elsewhere.
Suggest you head up the hill, toward the U of Cincinnati, AND check out Taft's bathtub!
No this is bollocks. As is the comment by @rcs1000
All the offices are empty. For Lease
Open your eyes. Urban America is dying
I am sure if you went to Manhattan or downtown Chicago or Seattle or Boston or Miami you would find it a bit busier, Cincanniti is really a lot of office blocks with a few restaurants for lunch surrounded by suburbia
I found a nice historic quarter with all the churches
Head up a little ways north, and see the Taft House. And tell 'em your editor INSISTS you measure the bathtub.
The problem with zombie cities is as much social as economic. How can divisions be overcome if people don't mix?
Overcoming divisions is so turn of the millenium. Thesedays we're all about hyperfocus on differences and stoking up recrimination and division because we must atone for the sins of our ancestors or something.
(No I'm not saying there are not existing problems that need to be dealt with in society, but come on, some modern ideas don't even seem to have the intent to reduce division).
So is today's story from the PB content / click generator about going to a business district after work and finding it empty?
Then you’ll be glad to hear I have reached the hip new urban hood of Over the Rhine. Entertainment central, where all the cool kids hang out and the trendy restaurants proliferate
It reminds me of Shoreditch or Borough on a buzzy summer evening
No doubt Cincinnati is empty. Who in hell goes to Cincinnati?
There is a list of great American cities. That list does not include Cincinnati.
It’s like an American moaning about the lack of a Harrod’s in Reading.
Denver was exactly the same. I posted the photos here
Plus multiple other US cities I’ve been to, in different ways
Nobody cares about Denver. They care about Colorado. Essentially you’re a slightly higher class version of the English tourist in the Costa del Sol, complaining that the Spanish don’t eat egg and chips.
So is today's story from the PB content / click generator about going to a business district after work and finding it empty?
Amazingly, and coincidentally, this is indisputable evidence that confirms the writer's existing beliefs.
If only there was a name for that psychological phenomenon...
I, on the other hand, will be going to a soccer match this evening, where 25,000 screaming LAFC fans will be singing Jump for LA Football Club Ole! Ole!
Apropos of nothing (and who is up at this hour in the UK), there is a whole sun-genre of tweets about Rishi’s serial wardrobe misfunctions.
Boris of course was just a slob. But Rishi, who has all the money in the world, just seems to buy child’s clothing or something. Nothing seems to fit him properly.
So is today's story from the PB content / click generator about going to a business district after work and finding it empty?
Amazingly, and coincidentally, this is indisputable evidence that confirms the writer's existing beliefs.
If only there was a name for that psychological phenomenon...
I, on the other hand, will be going to a soccer match this evening, where 25,000 screaming LAFC fans will be singing Jump for LA Football Club Ole! Ole!
I came here absolutely prepared to have my grave anxieties about America dismissed. Indeed I rather wanted that. America is - still - the arsenal of democracy and the final citadel of the Free World. I was hoping all those images of fucked downtowns on social media were giving a false impression
They are not giving a false impression. To see such a great country in such absolute and obvious decline is painful
In the end you can’t ignore the most direct statistic of all. Life expectancy. Which in America is now lower than in Panama and Thailand. This decay is tangentially symptomised in the rotting of America’s urban centres
So is today's story from the PB content / click generator about going to a business district after work and finding it empty?
Amazingly, and coincidentally, this is indisputable evidence that confirms the writer's existing beliefs.
If only there was a name for that psychological phenomenon...
I, on the other hand, will be going to a soccer match this evening, where 25,000 screaming LAFC fans will be singing Jump for LA Football Club Ole! Ole!
I came here absolutely prepared to have my grave anxieties about America dismissed. Indeed I rather wanted that. America is - still - the arsenal of democracy and the final citadel of the Free World. I was hoping all those images of fucked downtowns on social media were giving a false impression
They are not giving a false impression. To see such a great country in such absolute and obvious decline is painful
In the end you can’t ignore the most direct statistic of all. Life expectancy. Which in America is now lower than in Panama and Thailand. This decay is tangentially symptomised in the rotting of America’s urban centres
Its kind of nonsense though. The collapsing life expectancy isn't due to urban areas. Its all the right wing retards that wouldn't take vaccines during an incredibly lethal pandemic.
The much better marker is fertility rate, where, yes, the US is doing badly. But it is doing a damn sight better than China.
As far as I know, the key points of interest in Cincinnati include
> the Ohio River which is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, hence old French moniker 'la belle Riviere" (sp); check out riverwalk and possibly a boat ride.
> interesting museums, Cincinnati being an old money town (for example, the Tafts and Longworths) with some appreciate of high (and also low) culture.
> interesting old-school taverns and dive bars, featuring local delicacies such as Cincy chile washed down with ice-cold Hudepohl.
> storied major league sports teams, Bengals and Reds, esp. (at least for me) the latter; back in my misspent youth in the wilds of Appalachia, the Cincinnati Reds baseball team was THE team for about 98% of folks in southern West Virginia. Of course, that was back in their heyday, when Pete Rose was a Big Star and not a small turd. Though would NOT suggest saying THAT in WVa even today OR in Cincinnati.
On a pure population basis, Cincinnati has about as many people as Coventry.
Metro Cincinnati has a population of 2.3 million. 50% bigger than metro Liverpool.
Not sure about metro Liverpool, but in metro Cincinnati, large % of people hardly ever go to the city itself, except buzzing through on the way to the airport or suchlike.
And another large % work in the city but live in burbs and exurbs and are NOT in city outside working hours and commuting; traditionally these were dominated by white-collar professionals, but nowadays increasing blue-collar service workers.
On a pure population basis, Cincinnati has about as many people as Coventry.
Metro Cincinnati has a population of 2.3 million. 50% bigger than metro Liverpool.
Not sure about metro Liverpool, but in metro Cincinnati, large % of people hardly ever go to the city itself, except buzzing through on the way to the airport or suchlike.
And another large % work in the city but live in burbs and exurbs and are NOT in city outside working hours and commuting; traditionally these were dominated by white-collar professionals, but nowadays increasing blue-collar service workers.
Yes, and also America has dozens and dozens of big cities. At any point in time a bunch are growing and a bunch are shrinking. Go to Austin or Phoenix or Denver or Raleigh.
My own most memorable Cincinnati experience was - perhaps - typically American, in that I was cruising through the place on the interstate.
It was a summer night, I was driving from college to my hometown, and Cincinnati was on the way. Note that in addition to several interstate highways that go through the burg, there is an interstate ring road that's used by most of the through traffic.
However, for me the shortest route was right through downtown, then across the Ohio River into Kentucky, then BACK over the Ohio into State of same ilk, then away from the metro maze toward my final destination. AND would time my travel to avoid rush hours.
So anyway, it's a nice summer night, and I'm cruising along, with very little traffic, through downtown Cincinnati. Approaching the old Riverfront Stadium, home of Cincinnati Reds . . . while listening to broadcast of Red's home game on the car radio.
Just as I'm passing Riverfront, a Red's batter scored a home run. And suddenly fireworks erupted from stadium. Amazing, serendipitous sight.
So is today's story from the PB content / click generator about going to a business district after work and finding it empty?
Amazingly, and coincidentally, this is indisputable evidence that confirms the writer's existing beliefs.
If only there was a name for that psychological phenomenon...
I, on the other hand, will be going to a soccer match this evening, where 25,000 screaming LAFC fans will be singing Jump for LA Football Club Ole! Ole!
I came here absolutely prepared to have my grave anxieties about America dismissed. Indeed I rather wanted that. America is - still - the arsenal of democracy and the final citadel of the Free World. I was hoping all those images of fucked downtowns on social media were giving a false impression
They are not giving a false impression. To see such a great country in such absolute and obvious decline is painful
In the end you can’t ignore the most direct statistic of all. Life expectancy. Which in America is now lower than in Panama and Thailand. This decay is tangentially symptomised in the rotting of America’s urban centres
Its kind of nonsense though. The collapsing life expectancy isn't due to urban areas. Its all the right wing retards that wouldn't take vaccines during an incredibly lethal pandemic.
The much better marker is fertility rate, where, yes, the US is doing badly. But it is doing a damn sight better than China.
That is bollocks about US life expectancy decline being due to Covid. There are many reasons for the decline but they include obesity, diet, poor healthcare, opioids, overdoses and crime
“The researchers catalog what they call the "U.S. health disadvantage" – the fact that living in America is worse for your health and makes you more likely to die younger than if you lived in another rich country like the U.K., Switzerland or Japan.
"We went into this with an open mind as to why it is that the U.S. had a shorter life expectancy than people in other countries," says Woolf, who chaired the committee that produced the report. After looking across different age and racial and economic and geographic groups, he says, "what we found was that this problem existed in almost every category we looked at."”
On a pure population basis, Cincinnati has about as many people as Coventry.
Metro Cincinnati has a population of 2.3 million. 50% bigger than metro Liverpool.
Not sure about metro Liverpool, but in metro Cincinnati, large % of people hardly ever go to the city itself, except buzzing through on the way to the airport or suchlike.
And another large % work in the city but live in burbs and exurbs and are NOT in city outside working hours and commuting; traditionally these were dominated by white-collar professionals, but nowadays increasing blue-collar service workers.
Yes, and also America has dozens and dozens of big cities. At any point in time a bunch are growing and a bunch are shrinking. Go to Austin or Phoenix or Denver or Raleigh.
I went to Denver. Last year. It is also fucked. Downtown is deserted
One of the issues is definitions - is Birmingham "bigger" than Manchester? Depends on how you define it - one method is connectivity via public transport - which makes sense in the UK, but none whatsoever in most of the US.
My own most memorable Cincinnati experience was - perhaps - typically American, in that I was cruising through the place on the interstate.
It was a summer night, I was driving from college to my hometown, and Cincinnati was on the way. Note that in addition to several interstate highways that go through the burg, there is an interstate ring road that's used by most of the through traffic.
However, for me the shortest route was right through downtown, then across the Ohio River into Kentucky, then BACK over the Ohio into State of same ilk, then away from the metro maze toward my final destination. AND would time my travel to avoid rush hours.
So anyway, it's a nice summer night, and I'm cruising along, with very little traffic, through downtown Cincinnati. Approaching the old Riverfront Stadium, home of Cincinnati Reds . . . while listening to broadcast of Red's home game on the car radio.
Just as I'm passing Riverfront, a Red's batter scored a home run. And suddenly fireworks erupted from stadium. Amazing, serendipitous sight.
I don't drive, so I can only imagine what this is like.
.I absolutely confirm this information. Our volunteers report that people beg for help on their roofs. There are bodies in the water, mostly elderly people. Several UA volunteers try to help but it’s not enough.
...It looks like villages on the left bank, the occupied side, are being blocked by the Russian occupiers. People sit on their roofs and beg for help, but no one is coming. We see them on drone footage, but we cannot help. International organizations must interfere ASAP. https://twitter.com/vamelina/status/1666512864738156551
Murder by other means: “Russian forces are actively preventing 🇺🇦 authorities from rescuing ppl trapped by flooding in occupied areas…Local civilians are the only hope for many residents, with Russians barring 🇺🇦 rescue services & outsiders from the area” https://twitter.com/berlin_bridge/status/1666559226037121025
Not Kakhovka Dam alone: Russia destroys dams in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast 08.06.2023 Halya Coynash While western media largely ‘play safe’ and report that Kyiv and Moscow ‘are blaming each other’ for the horrific disaster, the Russian invaders are actively destroying other dams in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia oblast https://khpg.org/en/1608812358
you are experiencing the worst man-made disaster in your country since Chornobyl fighting the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War, but the leading discussion is: we don't know who could have done it, we have no ideas, it must be nature itself... https://twitter.com/ermineah/status/1666333208495915008 ...
Comments
It's not 'disappointment' that they are not unequivocally anti-Trump, it's disappointment that being anti-Trump is a pretty good way of losing and the strategies of others shows that.
Just saying.
It has pretty period buildings - and more people - but unfortunately it is still dodgy as fuck
Fifa made false statements about the reduced environmental impact of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a Swiss regulator has said.
Football's world governing body claimed the tournament would be the first "fully carbon-neutral World Cup".
Advertising regulator the Swiss Fairness Commission (SLK) has upheld complaints from five European nations.
"Fifa was not able to provide proof that the claims were accurate during the proceedings," the SLK said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65834022
Oh look, I can see someone a mile away. Maybe that’s the entertainment district
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/business/san-francisco-hotels-loan/index.html
Downtown San Francisco has been dealt another blow after an investor in one of its largest hotels said it would stop paying its loans.
Park Hotels and Resorts, the investment firm that owns Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels, said Monday that is has ceased payments on a $725 million loan as looks to reduce its presence in the city. The hotels have nearly 3,000 rooms, combined.
In a statement, the firm’s CEO, Thomas Baltimore, Jr., said that San Francisco’s “path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” including office vacancies caused by companies letting employees work-from-home, a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar” through 2027 and “concerns over street conditions.”
“Unfortunately, the continued burden on our operating results and balance sheet is too significant to warrant continuing to subsidize and own these assets,” he concluded. The hotels will be given back to the lender.
The city centre existed for workers to come in, and to work in office buildings. In this way, it is curiously different from the UK, where the offices moved to the suburbs, and the cities remained retail and entertainment spaces.
When Covid came, and the office workers no longer had any reason to go into the centrem, then it ended up deserted.
It's a little sad. But it certainly doesn't deserve @Leon's "fucked" ephitet. Heck, if you went around Slough Business Center at 630pm, it would probably be similarly eerily quiet.
No wonder they are prepared to vote for Trump
(No I'm not saying there are not existing problems that need to be dealt with in society, but come on, some modern ideas don't even seem to have the intent to reduce division).
It reminds me of Shoreditch or Borough on a buzzy summer evening
Bourbon tasting room does NOT count. Esp. when populated by Kentucky Briars NOT Ohio Buckeyes.
Who in hell goes to Cincinnati?
There is a list of great American cities.
That list does not include Cincinnati.
It’s like an American moaning about the lack of a Harrod’s in Reading.
Its heyday ended when railroads and freight cars, overtook steamboats and barges.
Thereafter, relative decline of Cincinnati, St Louis & New Orleans matched by rise of Chicago and Kansas City.
Cincinnati? Famous for its pork lard. In about 1850.
I’m frankly amazed there is a direct flight to London.
Plus multiple other US cities I’ve been to, in different ways
It has a "whispering gallery" effect round the great arch
Essentially you’re a slightly higher class version of the English tourist in the Costa del Sol, complaining that the Spanish don’t eat egg and chips.
If only there was a name for that psychological phenomenon...
I, on the other hand, will be going to a soccer match this evening, where 25,000 screaming LAFC fans will be singing Jump for LA Football Club Ole! Ole!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKAyfwcHHw0&ab_channel=LAFC
Boris of course was just a slob.
But Rishi, who has all the money in the world, just seems to buy child’s clothing or something. Nothing seems to fit him properly.
https://twitter.com/generalboles/status/1666469965967380485?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg
https://www.moving.com/tips/largest-cities-in-us/
Colchester is the 64th in the UK:
http://www.geoba.se/population.php?cc=GB&page=1
On a pure population basis, Cincinnati has about as many people as Coventry.
They are not giving a false impression. To see such a great country in such absolute and obvious decline is painful
In the end you can’t ignore the most direct statistic of all. Life expectancy. Which in America is now lower than in Panama and Thailand. This decay is tangentially symptomised in the rotting of America’s urban centres
The much better marker is fertility rate, where, yes, the US is doing badly. But it is doing a damn sight better than China.
> the Ohio River which is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, hence old French moniker 'la belle Riviere" (sp); check out riverwalk and possibly a boat ride.
> interesting museums, Cincinnati being an old money town (for example, the Tafts and Longworths) with some appreciate of high (and also low) culture.
> interesting old-school taverns and dive bars, featuring local delicacies such as Cincy chile washed down with ice-cold Hudepohl.
> storied major league sports teams, Bengals and Reds, esp. (at least for me) the latter; back in my misspent youth in the wilds of Appalachia, the Cincinnati Reds baseball team was THE team for about 98% of folks in southern West Virginia. Of course, that was back in their heyday, when Pete Rose was a Big Star and not a small turd. Though would NOT suggest saying THAT in WVa even today OR in Cincinnati.
And another large % work in the city but live in burbs and exurbs and are NOT in city outside working hours and commuting; traditionally these were dominated by white-collar professionals, but nowadays increasing blue-collar service workers.
It was a summer night, I was driving from college to my hometown, and Cincinnati was on the way. Note that in addition to several interstate highways that go through the burg, there is an interstate ring road that's used by most of the through traffic.
However, for me the shortest route was right through downtown, then across the Ohio River into Kentucky, then BACK over the Ohio into State of same ilk, then away from the metro maze toward my final destination. AND would time my travel to avoid rush hours.
So anyway, it's a nice summer night, and I'm cruising along, with very little traffic, through downtown Cincinnati. Approaching the old Riverfront Stadium, home of Cincinnati Reds . . . while listening to broadcast of Red's home game on the car radio.
Just as I'm passing Riverfront, a Red's batter scored a home run. And suddenly fireworks erupted from stadium. Amazing, serendipitous sight.
“The researchers catalog what they call the "U.S. health disadvantage" – the fact that living in America is worse for your health and makes you more likely to die younger than if you lived in another rich country like the U.K., Switzerland or Japan.
"We went into this with an open mind as to why it is that the U.S. had a shorter life expectancy than people in other countries," says Woolf, who chaired the committee that produced the report. After looking across different age and racial and economic and geographic groups, he says, "what we found was that this problem existed in almost every category we looked at."”
Even the rich die younger. America is fucked
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/25/1164819944/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy
https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/largest-cities-by-population
Metro Liverpool/Birkenhead is 2.2M:
https://citymonitor.ai/infrastructure/where-are-largest-cities-britain-1404
One of the issues is definitions - is Birmingham "bigger" than Manchester? Depends on how you define it - one method is connectivity via public transport - which makes sense in the UK, but none whatsoever in most of the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Hills_Supper_Club_fire
Prince Harry today admitted to a judge he was not aware of 'any evidence' he had been hacked by a tabloid news group.
But he said it would be an 'injustice' if he was denied victory in his High Court phone-hacking case against the publisher of the Mirror.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12171325/Barrister-aware-evidence-hacking-Prince-Harry-No.html
Please follow @novakakhovka_ua for live updates....
https://twitter.com/a_is_for_anna_/status/1666538905896730629
...It looks like villages on the left bank, the occupied side, are being blocked by the Russian occupiers. People sit on their roofs and beg for help, but no one is coming. We see them on drone footage, but we cannot help.
International organizations must interfere ASAP.
https://twitter.com/vamelina/status/1666512864738156551
“Russian forces are actively preventing 🇺🇦 authorities from rescuing ppl trapped by flooding in occupied areas…Local civilians are the only hope for many residents, with Russians barring 🇺🇦 rescue services & outsiders from the area”
https://twitter.com/berlin_bridge/status/1666559226037121025
08.06.2023
Halya Coynash
While western media largely ‘play safe’ and report that Kyiv and Moscow ‘are blaming each other’ for the horrific disaster, the Russian invaders are actively destroying other dams in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia oblast
https://khpg.org/en/1608812358
As flood waters from the Dnipro River continue to rise, an army of boats have gone out to save people and their pets
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/rescue-operation-after-dam-collapse-shows-ukrainians-resilient-spirit
https://twitter.com/ermineah/status/1666333208495915008
...
He is under investigation for concealing reams of classified information at his private estate and orchestrating a scheme to prevent federal authorities from finding them.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/07/trump-notified-that-he-is-the-target-of-an-ongoing-criminal-investigation-00100920