Where there is vision, people strive on new ideas, new job opportunities, new cultural and spiritual life that makes a community.
IMAGINE...
Imagine our beloved City of Cincinnati having a vision that will provide new jobs, joys and beauty on the Banks of the Ohio River, a beauty that will last for hundreds of years because it is SUSTAINABLE, rather than promoting oil-driven projects such as buildings, garages and high-energy-demanding habitats.
Imagine eating on the Mike Fink or similar boats and restaurants on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River and seeing a beautiful canopy of flowers, greenery and trees on the Ohio side where we now see only ugly cement structures. Then cross the bridge (either on foot or by bike or electric tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) or bus) to the Ohio side and walk through terraced gardens filled with beauty, pleasant smells and vivid colors which wrap around the stadiums and Freedom Center while hanging over the highway lanes from the Third Street going south. Thus you would have a direct link to the Downtown and workers would be more inclined to come on their lunch breaks to sit in these lovely gardens with a view of Ohio River.
Those gardens are high enough to be out of the floodplain and could be the site of fountains, waterfalls and the world's largest garden show and also demonstrate 21st-Century technologies such as solar panels to power activities in the Banks, Dutch-style windmills to add some energy to power electric buses and tuk-tuks that would be transporting those people who cannot walk a few blocks from other parts of the Downtown and OTR.
Imagine extending Skywalks of Cincinnati so that the entire city can be walked through during bad weather in a nice sheltered environments and come to the Banks for fresh air in the Sky Gardens. These skywalks could be built from the same modern light-weight materials as the terraces for hanging gardens and therefore construction would not require stopping the traffic in the city. All of Cincinnati's sister-cities could get involved in dreaming up creative designs and perhaps also partially pay for implementation. Imagine a complex of activities under those terraces (made of light-weight materials so no concrete pouring is necessary except for pillars holding the hanging gardens). Imagine skylights all over - no artificial lighting will be necessary due to skylights and solar-power-lit fountains powered by the sun's energy collected and stored during the day. The large areas under the Sky Gardens could house the fleet of electric tuk-tuks and buses, which would bring people from other areas of Downtown and OTR where they can park their cars, and also have a permanent circus with animals and a mall if you so desire, but the mall has to be more like a shuk (Middle-Eastern market) since no permanent structures are allowed in the floodplain), rather then the sterile malls we are accustomed to in the West.
Imagine diverting some of our plentiful stormwater into purifying hyacinth ponds where it will be used to fertilize growing plants. Imagine more convention business coming to Cincinnati because we have become the most livable and beautiful city in the United States!
Connect the Banks (Gardens and under-canopy activities) by a series of skywalks with the Broadway Commons and inclines (electric trains) to Mt. Adams and other hills of Cincinnati that can be reached from Downtown and used to exist and we will have a self-contained beautiful downtown with plenty of money left to address the urban blight of OTR and our other abandoned neighborhoods.
DESIGN COMPETITION
Gaia Foundation, Inc. (a 501.c.3 non-for-profit organization) and its world-class consultants will organize a nationwide competition to develop the most beautiful and inexpensive design, citizens of Cincinnati will vote in favor of it and then we will ensure that the project is finished in a timely and under-cost manner (unlike the stadiums, which together with the Banks were supposed to cost $400 million and have already cost our community $950 million).
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