spring tulips painted on a wall

Spring is for tulips.  And apparently, worn brick.  Also construction.

With Eloise at my parent’s, Amy and I took full advantage of our Saturday and packed in some proper laxin.  Lunch at Izzy’s and park bench sitting at Piatt Park.  (The flask I got for Christmas is becoming more useful with the warmer weather)  After that, we walked through an ever-changing and improving Over the Rhine and this isn’t your mother’s OTR folks.  There’s a lot going on.  Construction and rehabbing everywhere.  Having so many abandoned buildings is sort of a blank canvas for developers and they really are developing.  This area is still a work in progress, but it’s starting to take shape.  Especially the area near Music Hall.  The SCPA is beautiful and great for the city.  Washington Park is being redone and could really be something special.  This part of the neighborhood might just take off.

The new construction is expensive, so it’ll be interesting to see if the market can command high-end prices.  Luxury prices in a neighborhood that isn’t quite luxury.  No bones about it, this is a transitioning neighborhood.  There are more and more white people tweeting about being in OTR, but it’s still evolving.  Not perfect.  These homes on Pleasant are $348k.  It doesn’t matter how many skinny jeans clad, PBR drinkin, white people from Piqua are moving to OTR.  $348k for this city is expensive.  A reason to buy in a transitioning neighborhood is to get in on the bottom floor, to get a good deal.  You can buy a 2 bedroom apartment in an already great neighborhood in Chicago for $350k.  The good part about these places (in Cincinnati) is that they’re swank.  Professional kitchens, 2 car garages, views of Music Hall.  They really are quite lovely.  I just think they’re over priced compared to other cities.  Bigger cities with public transport and better schools.  And jobs.  Only time will tell if these units are going to sell at high prices.

In the meantime, construction is good.  The more being built and rehabbed the better.  It’s better to preserve this area than to let it die.

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