ADAPTIVE REUSE.

A week ago Friday, I had the opportunity to explore Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, which is a combination of tourist spots with gritty blocks with inhabitants going about their lives.  The neighborhood provides an instructive compare-and-contrast with Milwaukee's Third Ward, which I have documented numerous times.  A similarly intensively illustrated post continues below the break.

Cincinnati's late nineteenth century Music Hall looks over Washington Park, about twenty blocks north of the river.  Locals tell me the acoustics inside are excellent.

There's a streetcar stop for concert-goers, who might also attend the outdoor concerts in the park.  That was a particularly hot Friday, and most people strolling in the park stayed in the shadow of the trees.

In the fashion of Milwaukee's Hop, the downtown circulator car has a corporate sponsor for free rides.  That stylized infinity symbol forming the first two letters of "connector" also describes the route, which is a figure eight with the northern loop around the Findlay Market and a southern loop close to the river with stops by the baseball field and the county courthouse.  (To continue the Milwaukee references, the courthouse is a Rooseveltian pile, although, and this is odd for a city with lots of hills, it simply occupies a city block.)

There are parts of the Findlay Market that strongly suggest "yuppified."  Yes, you can buy all manner of flavored coffee drinks or ice cream treats there.

Then, there are the sorts of stalls that George Orwell wrote about in "Keep the Aspidistra Flying," if without the glassy-eyed rabbits and live eel.

But for being nearly 500 miles from home, without a cooler in the trunk, I would have been tempted by some of the fresh sausage also on offer.  Can't go wrong with German sausages, no matter the city.

A historical marker in the Marktplatz reminds us that cancel culture has always been a thing, and it holds out the hope that future generations will acknowledge today's cancel culture had its foolish moments.

A ride on the circulating trolley will take the rider from the Market to the riverfront, past the stadium and the courthouse, and then set down for Vine Street, where much of the outdoor dining or drinking takes place.

I repeat, it was a hot day, and the prudent thing to do was to eat inside.  That would put less stress on the wait staff.  The neighborhood is raffish enough in places that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find  Madame Ruth somewhere along Vine toward the Findlay Market selling those little bottles.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, an eatery has closed a section of Fourteenth at Republic, again, for outdoor eating that would not be pleasant in the midafternoon sun.

For all the grousing urbanist types do about culs-de-sac, they sure like to install them in street grids.  In cities, it's still possible for pedestrians (and scooters and skateboards?) to get around without having to go the great way around.  Perhaps that's reason to run some sidewalks along the lot lines in suburban neighborhoods for the kiddos to get to their neighbors without having to be driven.

North along Republic has a residential look to it.  That's the same set of bollards at left.

To the south, there's some sort of reuse of much older buildings.

The streetcar runs one block to the west, along Race to downtown.

The baseball stadium is a streetcar ride from the Findlay Market or Vine Street.  The Oktoberfest, on the other hand, took place well north of downtown.

Never mind last Friday's heat, there have been teases of Autumn's early warnings here in DeKalb, and those Christmas Trees will soon have to demonstrate that they're the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.