The new Carson school is one of the worst buildings I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t mean I like the old funeral building. Everyone knew that building was vacant for years. If someone had a viable use for it they could have easily found out if it was available. Where are all the second-guessers before demolition is announced? Are they looking for other properties to rehab or will they wait until someone else has a plan and try to stop them?
It was not "vacant" and it was listed as an active facility on the Radel Funeral Home website until after the sale was announced, You are just plain wrong. I checked the site myself when the news broke. There was no indication that the building was not being used by Radel, nor that it was available for sale. Those are the facts based on Radel's public profile itself until after the sale was announced. As I said, you are just plane wrong.
It is my understanding that the group (highly qualified) that reported on the historical and architectural significance of the Schlutte mansion has assisted Price Hill Will in making a list of other properties which are significant and may be at risk, with the hope that they can stay ahead of the wrecking ball. One building that has always intrigued me is the old Kries Mansion near the corner of Rapid Run and and Glenway. Unfortunately, it is surrounded by a pretty decent large house built in front of it on Glenway some time in the 1920's and a crappy abandoned apartment building attached to it facing Rapid Run. Yes, there is a decaying grand old Victorian mansion behind the blight of that apartment building.
Definitely well said.
Mojo, how is a place doing a lot of good for a community but sucky neighbors as you say? You their neighbor? You bash Pete Witte every chance you get but his business is actually one of their neighbors. Please give an example of being good for the community but a sucky neighbor in the community.
I am in fact a neighbor. I am a resident and business owner in the neighborhood, like many others. For those outside the City, the various community councils are quasi-governmental and are chartered by the City. They have the legal right to get advanced notice of any zoning changes and of any plans for governmental or community service type development in their respective neighborhoods and to have some voice into whether or not those projects should be approved and how they may be executed. The B & G's Club, it is my understanding, left the West Price Hill Community Council in the dark during the planning for their existing building and did the same, and I believe still are, in the planning for the new building. They froze the community council out of the process and bullied them and whenever anyone spoke up they tried to paint them as white, middle class, suburban, elitists who were just hostile to serving poor families. They did that again during the entire challenge to the recent purchase, even though nothing could be further from the truth and every other option offered to them included their plan for an expansion in that very neighborhood.
Yeah, lying about your neighbors, ignoring or barring the participation of the City chartered community council, ignoring the concerns of their neighbors, all makes for being a "bad neighbor". The B & G's Club has been a bad neighbor. Hopefully, they will do better in the future.
As far as "bash[ing] Pete Witte" is concerned, I do not know Pete personally. I think he is a St. William parishioner. I do know people who do know him and they have no personal issue with him, or as a businessman. I have been told that he was the community council president when the monstrosity that is the new Carson school was planned and built and he was the president during the initial planning for the B & G's Club's move to Glenway. Finally, I heard him argue that the historic buildings across from Elder, that are in the process of being converted to a restaurant and brew pub, were not worth saving. Taken together, one can logically conclude that Pete is opposed to historic preservation and West Price Hill and the whole westside has suffered as a result.