Underground in Cincinnati

I was lucky to be able to connect with Greg Dale on my arrival in Cincinnati. Over the years, Greg has written many articles for the Planning Commissioners Journal. At Greg's house in a small neighborhood (just a block from the Ohio River) I also had the chance to meet several other members of the McBride Dale Clarion planning consulting firm.

[photo: from left to right, Greg Dale, Emily Crow, Wendy Moeller, Anne McBride, and myself]

They laid claim to being the best planning consulting firm along Route 50 -- any challengers?

After they all filled my head with the idiosyncracies of planning in Ohio -- with its multiple types of jurisdictions, and its dizzying distribution of planning, zoning, and subdivision powers (yes, that's the kind of talk that can excite planners!) -- I asked them what they thought planners would find to be the most unusual thing about Cincinnati and its history.

After mulling it over for a minute, they reached a consensus: the never opened, 9 mile long Cincinnati subway line -- constructed in 1921. They drove me along its route and showed me a grate over the subway, then drove out along the Interstate where the subway's underground exit can be seen.

Take a look at a 1939 article from Time Magazine available online about the subway.

Wonder how differently Cincinnati would have developed if the subway had been completed.

p.s., After dinner we all drove to the top of Mt. Adams for a skyline view of downtown: