NEWS

The Roebling Bridge could nally reopen this spring.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge Sets Potential Reopening Date

e restoration project continues as “engineers work to design plans for additional repairs to address deeper masonry stone deterioration”

BY MAIJA ZUMMO

Another day, another bridge. Just a few weeks after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a memorandum of understanding outlining plans to jointly apply for and use federal dollars to revamp the recently reopened but still sucky Brent Spence Bridge, Greater Cincinnatians may get even more good transportation news.

On March 12, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced that the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge between Cincinnati and Covington is “on track” to reopen this spring. e bridge has been closed to vehicular tra c since Feb. 15, 2021, when it started undergoing a restoration project. (Pedestrians have still been able to use the bridge’s walkway during construction.) e Roebling was originally slated to reopen in November, but the “restoration project continues as engineers design plans for additional repairs to address the deeper masonry stone deterioration uncovered in a section of the archway during the project,” the KYTC says in a release.

“Like the citizens and businesses in Covington and Cincinnati, we are eager to reopen the bridge, but we’re committed to doing it right by not cutting any corner that may compromise safety,” says KYTC District 6 chief district engineer Bob Yeager (District 6 oversees the 11 counties in Northern Kentucky).

“Repairing a structure this old sometimes means making necessary adjustments in repair plans to address things that can only be best seen once you’re ‘under the hood.’ Our consultants and crews are working as hard as they can to safely recommission this historic structure,” Yeager continues. e Roebling opened in 1867 to connect Covington and Cincinnati and carries around 8,100 vehicles a day. e bridge closed on April 17, 2019, due to sandstone fragments breaking o the east side of the north tower and reopened that August after the installation of protective netting around deteriorating portions of the bridge’s upper towers. e Roebling temporarily closed again for two days in November 2020 “due to numerous and continued violations of the bridge’s weight limits,” a tweet from the Covington Police Department explained at the time. e longer-term bridge restoration project began in 2021.

Report: Cincinnati Has One of the World’s Most Affordable Housing Markets. But What Does ‘Affordable’ Mean, Really?

BY ALLISON BABKA

e hot real estate and rental markets have caused big issues in Cincinnati in recent years — especially during the pandemic — but a new report says that the Queen City still is one of the most a ordable metros in the entire world.

According to the 2022 Demographia International Housing A ordability Index from the Urban Reform Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, which was released this month, Cincinnati has the 9th-most a ordable housing market as of the third quarter of 2021. e report compares 92 major markets in eight countries. e index is ranked primarily on income in relation to housing prices, a situation that started becoming unsustainable several years back and has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. And the Urban Reform Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy say that the crisis isn’t over.

From the report’s introduction:

As the pandemic and lockdowns continued into a second year, the movement of households from denser urban neighborhoods to larger homes, often with large yards (gardens), in suburban and outlying areas has continued. e result has been to drive up prices at unprecedented rates in many markets. As a result, many low-income and middle-income households who already have su ered the worst consequences from housing in ation will see their standards of living further decline.

As we approached publication, there were two stark reminders of the worsening situation. e National Association of Home Builders announced that nearly 70% of U.S. households cannot a ord the median (middle) priced house, while Canada’s Parliamentary Budget O cer reported that house prices had virtually doubled in just six years.

According to the report, housing is considered to be “a ordable” when its median multiple is at or below 3.0 (the median multiple is “a price-to-income ratio, which is the median house price divided by the gross median household income,” the report notes).

“In a well-functioning market, the median priced house should be a ordable to a large portion of middleincome households, as was overwhelmingly the case a few decades ago,” the report asserts.

Unfortunately, only one city in the entire world — Pittsburgh — is under the “a ordable” threshold, with a median multiple of 2.7. e Cincinnati metro comes in at No. 9 with a median multiple of 3.8 and is considered “moderately una ordable.” Cleveland is No. 7 with 3.7. Louisville is in a three-way tie at No. 10 with 4.0.

Only two metros in other nations crack the top 10 of any type of a ordability: Edmonton, Canada (tied at No. 4 with a 3.6 median multiple) and Glasgow, Scotland (tied with Cleveland at No. 7 but with 3.8).

Hong Kong, Sydney and Vancouver have the least a ordable markets worldwide.

“ e number of severely una ordable markets rose 60% in 2021 compared to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year,” the report says. In 2019, the United States had 14 severely una ordable housing markets; that number jumped to 27 in 2021. e report adds that the combination of high-income shoppers buying larger houses further from urban cores due to working from home during the COVID years plus supply-chain issues that slowed the construction of new housing have contributed heavily to the disruption in a ordability.

Demographia’s 2022 housing a ordability report is based on government data, real estate sources, market information and other entities.

Cincinnati leaders are looking at ways to alleviate the housing squeeze locally. is month, Cincinnati City Council approved Mayor Aftab Pureval’s proposal to use excess scal year revenue as a dedicated source for the city’s A ordable Housing Trust Fund. at allotment, the mayor said, could be $1 million to $2.5 million annually.

Earlier this year, Pureval and Reggie Harris, council member and chair of the equitable growth and housing committee, proposed a comprehensive housing incentive and zoning review to guide Cincinnati’s future growth and boost mixed-income a ordable housing instead of concentrating incentives in neighborhoods that already are wealthy.

Harris also is looking to streamline the process for developers who apply for low-income housing tax credits and state support.

But Cincinnati has an uphill battle with interests that aren’t local. In 2021, outside investors gobbled up houses in metropolitan areas across the country — including in Greater Cincinnati — at an alarming rate, e Washington Post found after analyzing data from real estate company Red n.

According to the analysis, investors bought nearly one in seven homes sold in America’s top metro areas, the most in at least two decades. e analysis considers real estate investors to be large corporations, local companies, or wealthy individuals who generally don’t live in the properties they are buying, who either look to ip the homes to new buyers or rent them.

In Cincinnati, 15% of homes were purchased by investors in 2021, which is more than those purchased in a typical metro area, the Post found. In 2015, investors bought just 7% of the housing stock.

In November, CityBeat reported that Cincinnati was one of the most-booked cities on Airbnb, which analysts say also has contributed to the housing squeeze. roughout much of 2021, local monthly rents — as in permanent housing, not vacation rentals — increased in year-over-year comparisons.

In June, the overall median rent in Cincinnati was $1,200 per month, an increase of 17% over the previous year. Rents increased for Cincinnati studios, one-bedroom apartments and two-bedroom apartments in June, a report from Realtor.com says. At that time, people in Greater Cincinnati paid $1,025 per month for a studio, $1,155 for one bedroom and $1,275 for two bedrooms. at equates to studios going up by 2.5% over the previous year, single bedrooms by 12.7%, and doubles by a whopping 21.4%.

Incomes haven’t risen with housing prices in recent years, data shows.

PHOTO: VLADIMIR KUDINOV, PEXELS

MLB Brass, Players’ Association End 99-Day Lockout, and Now Cincinnati Reds’ Joey Votto Is Ready to Win

BY ALLISON BABKA

“We haven’t done enough winning,” says Cincinnati Reds rst baseman Joey Votto.

PHOTO: HAYDEN SCHIFF, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

e Cincinnati Reds’ elder statesman has one directive for the team this year: win.

In a March 14 interview with MLB writer Mark Sheldon, Reds rst baseman and clutch hitter Joey Votto shares what he wants from the upcoming 2022 season and how he plans to stay healthy.

But with the MLB lockout having ended March 10 and team trades nally starting up again, the Reds will look a little di erent this year, to Votto’s and fans’ chagrin.

On March 14, Cincinnati traded AllStar out elder Jesse Winker and third baseman Eugenio Suárez to the Seattle Mariners. at’s on the heels of the Reds sending pitcher Sonny Gray to the Minnesota Twins the day prior. In both deals, Cincinnati acquired young players and prospects and cut payroll.

And in a recent interview, Reds general manager Nick Krall reportedly said that the club also is “not interested” in luring back out elder Nick Castellanos, who joined Winker at the 2021 All-Star Game and opted out of his remaining contract in November to become a coveted free agent.

Reds fans have been craving a quality postseason berth, something they haven’t truly seen in years. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Reds made it to the Wild Card playo s but lost the rst round to the Atlanta Braves without scoring at all. Before that, Cincinnati hadn’t been to the postseason since 2013.

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen in 2021. And Votto is taking notice.

“I have higher expectations to be part of other large Major League moments,” Votto tells Sheldon. “ at’s without question concerning to me. I’ve been in the same uniform my entire career. We haven’t done enough winning.”

With two guaranteed years left on his contract, does Votto think about heading to another team on his own accord or through a trade from the higher-ups? at’s not for him to decide, he says. But the lifelong Red — who played for Cincinnati’s minor-league teams before being called up to the big show in 2007 — seems committed to Cincinnati for the long haul.

“I have never once in my career asked or even whispered anything like that (a trade). I’ve been loyal to this uniform, to this city, to the contract that I signed,” he says.

During the 2021 season, Votto hit .266, dinged 36 home runs and had 99 RBI. Votto also reached a number of signi cant career milestones last season, including 1,000 runs batted in, 300 homers and 2,000 hits (something only four other Reds players have done). He is only the second National League/ American League player to achieve those marks all in the same season.

Baseball experts already are calling Votto a lock for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, commending his hitting, on-base percentage, slugging and low strikeouts. e Cincinnati Reds went 83-79 during the 2021 regular season and missed out on post-season action with only a few games to spare. e 2022 MLB season will start on April 7 after months of stalled negotiations between franchise owners and players. Until March 10, the league had been in hibernation since December, when team owners forced a lockout after the old ve-year collective bargaining agreement expired. During a lockout, free agency is frozen, players can’t use team facilities, practices or games go unplayed, and trade or free agency talks halt. e recent lockout was the rst work stoppage since the 1994-1995 players’ strike, which doomed the 1994 World Series.