CINCINNATI - OPENING DAY
Mar. 31 2008
"It's the Cincinnati Reds playin' baseball again..." I used the Reds' Opening Day festivities as an opportunity to go Roads Scholaring with the Peace Bike again! It poured down rain (as usual), and it was cold (as usual), but a Peace Bike's gotta do what a Peace Bike's gotta do.
Like the Big Bird chan!
This is the flooding that the right-wing media claimed was a hoax. Looking northeast from the Taylor-Southgate Bridge, you can see the Ohio River is up over some of the steps on the riverfront. Of course you also see the Newport Southbank Bridge and the I-471 span behind that.
I've been intrigued by this fine old building at the southeast corner of 5th & Walnut for a few years now. This has to be one of Cincinnati's first skyscrapers.
The Opening Day parade graces 5th Street in front of Fountain Square. Standing on a vehicle in the parade is Mr. Red. That's the dude with a giant baseball for a head. Years ago, Mr. Red was temporarily discontinued as the ball club's mascot because he reportedly jumped into the stands at the stadium and attacked fans, but now he's back with a vengeance!
Guess who that is on top of the white car in the parade? Here's a hint: Badeedle-badeed! Yes, it's...Big Boy (of restaurant fame)!
Allowed Cloud time again! This sign was on Fountain Square, a supposedly public space. However - with the so-called "renovation" of 2005-06 - the city has farmed out management of the square to a private Big Business committee, which has established this rigid code of conduct and otherwise ruined the square. (Pets, bikes, and skateboards were frequent sights on Fountain Square prior to the transition.)
Now things are finally getting roadly! This is east on 5th in front of Fountain Scare. For those wanting to see some Scholarin' photos of downtown, this is about as downtown as it gets. The sidewalk on the right is where a partygoer at Oktoberfest in 2005 was sighted drinking a cup of beer he found in the trash can.
West on 5th in front of Fountain Square, looking towards Carew Tower. This is almost the exact spot where I got in a fight at Oktoberfest in 2004. Note also the giant color screen atop Macy's (which has been compared to that in an episode of The Simpsons on which Sideshow Bob appears and threatens to blow up the town).
Looking west from 6th & Central, this is where the famed 6th Street freeway begins. US 50 and OH 264 are one and the same here - not separate lanes as the sign implies. The 6th Street Expressway was built in 1964.
This ramp runs from 4th & Central to northbound I-75.
By request! (I have taken requests, but I forgot some of the ones I received earlier.) From Central Avenue, this is a view of a ghost ramp that runs northwest off the long ramp from 3rd to southbound I-75. It was hard to get a good view of the ghost ramp, but the end of the ramp is right behind the lightpost in the foreground. The ramp approaches from the left and simply ends.
East on Pete Rose Way (chomp chomp chomp...whoosh...) under the Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium, which hangs over the street. This stadium opened in 2000 and (like the Reds' new ballpark) was paid for with a greed-driven sales tax increase. The construction of this stadium resulted in this curve in the road (which was once 2nd Street).
Further east on Pete Rose Way. Race Street is the road that goes over Pete Rose. At right is a parking lot for Paul Brown Stadium, but notice the sign calls it...PBS!