BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Virtually lost in the debate about which site is best for a new ballpark is a resource many argue is far more important to Cincinnati's future than where the Reds play baseball -- the riverfront.
"It's the only riverfront we have," says Marian Ahlering, acting chair of the city's Riverfront Advisory Council. "It has the potential to serve the public in such a unique and wonderful way."
For a generation, warehouses and parking lots have jammed the central waterfront, with bars and restaurants here and there. A new riverfront -- a regional attraction with grand parks where the city can host its biggest celebrations -- could be the lasting legacy of the stadium project, says architect Eric Doepke, a Riverfront Advisory Council member.
But the uncertainty surrounding the Reds' ballpark location has stalled efforts to make that dream a reality.
Park planners, for example, have put their ideas on hold until they know where the stadium will go. And officials at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center wonder how the uncertainty affects their riverfront museum, planned to open in 2003.
In the months leading to the Nov. 3 vote on the stadium issue, Hamilton County voters will hear from both sides of the ballpark debate that their site not only is best for baseball but guarantees the best future for the riverfront.
The whole idea for Broadway Commons was born of the desire to free up the riverfront, says Cincinnati City Councilman Jim Tarbell, Broadway's longtime booster.
"Doing the right thing up in town will help ensure the success of whatever we do on the river," he argues.
But Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus insists if the ballpark goes to Broadway and Reading Road, there won't be room for parks. Instead, he says, the riverfront will be packed with parking lots.
"The only way to preserve the riverfront and maintain the viability of the city," he argues, "is to build Baseball on Main."
Case for the riverfront
The stadium debate has focused on the merits of Broadway Commons versus the riverfront site known as Baseball on Main or the "Wedge."
Baseball on Main proponents, like Mr. Bedinghaus, plan to spend the next two months selling a vision for the riverfront they say can't happen without a new riverfront ballpark.
That vision is dominated by the Bengals' new stadium to the west and a new Reds ballpark to the east.
It also includes a vast riverfront park, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and parking garages to serve the stadiums, other attractions and thousands of downtown office workers.
"I think it's about developing a vision for the future of our city," says Michael Schuster, an architect and advocate of Baseball on Main who has teamed up with a firm trying to win the stadium contract. "The issue is building a city we're going to be proud of for a long, long time."
While Broadway backers criticize that plan for packing the waterfront with sports facilities, Mr. Bedinghaus argues stadiums are the logical development for the riverfront.
The flood protection needed to develop anything on the riverfront is expensive, he says. Huge, expensive projects like stadiums can more easily absorb that cost.
In addition, if the county spends an estimated $50 million to build parking for a stadium at Broadway, officials won't have enough money left to build garages on the riverfront, he says.
Even if the county built smaller garages, it would still need parking lots to supply the 5,000 spaces guaranteed to the Bengals in the county's lease with them, Mr. Bedinghaus says.
Broadway river vision
Cincinnati City Councilman Todd Portune characterizes such talk as "a lot of doom-and-gloom predictions designed to influence public opinion around the vote in November."
And surely, Mr. Tarbell argues, Cincinnati and Hamilton County could find a way to build the garages and encourage other development for the sake of the central riverfront.
While Mr. Tarbell says his passion for Broadway was born of his concern about a cluttered riverfront, that's not the argument usually used for Broadway. Broadway backers tout their site as cheaper, faster to build and more romantic than the river.
The riverfront argument, Mr. Tarbell says, has gotten lost in the political debate surrounding the stadiums. But he has big ideas for the waterfront. He envisions parks and maybe even riverfront housing.
He's also pushing the idea of building a riverfront replica of Fort Washington, the Indian War fort that stood above what is today the Fort Washington Way highway's eastern end.
"The Baseball at Broadway Commons approach is that the riverfront is reclaimed for the public for its own use," he says.
The problem is the county is the only government with the money to build the riverfront garages, says Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey. The city can't afford the estimated $108 million cost, he says.
"We've got to get the parking lots off the riverfront to have any kind of nice area there," he says.
Mr. Shirey and Economic Development Director Andi Udris spent months on a plan for a family entertainment district to be built atop the riverfront garages. The plan included a 14-screen movie theater. But city council killed it in April, saying it was too commercial. No new development plan has emerged.
The thinking behind Mr. Shirey's plan was to provide another use for the parking, making the garages more affordable to build, Mr. Shirey says. The commercial development also would have allowed the city to use taxes paid by the developer to pay for necessary riverfront roadwork.
Mr. Shirey understands, however, why Broadway backers would argue the football stadium, Freedom Center, parks and downtown office workers are enough to justify building riverfront garages, even without Baseball on Main.
He hasn't taken a stand on the stadium debate; council endorsed Broadway Commons last year.
But backers of Baseball on Main say even if riverfront garages were somehow built without a second riverfront stadium, such a broad expanse of empty, undeveloped riverfront is too much.
"This vacuum, in the short term, will not reinforce downtown. In the long term, it sucks the life out of it," says John Schneider, a downtown property investor and a chief advocate of Baseball on Main.
"It's that development that scares us," Mr. Bedinghaus adds. "In the short term, it's ugly. In the long term, it puts at risk everything we've created." Mr. Bedinghaus thinks that when county voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase in 1996 to build new stadiums, they also voted to revitalize the riverfront.
But Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin, a Broadway backer and opponent of the sales tax increase, argues riverfront development is not the county's problem.
"The voters voted to build two new stadiums. The voters did not vote to develop the central riverfront," Mr. Dowlin says.
Park planning
While the stadium debate rages, planning for riverfront parks is on hold.
"Until there's a decision on the stadium and the parking, there isn't a lot more we can do," says Steven Schuckman, the Cincinnati Park Board's superintendent of planning, administration and programs.
Mr. Schuckman and others have been working to design a series of riverfront parks -- about 50 acres worth -- that could cost as much as $1 million an acre to create.
For park planners, the question of where to put the cars of people visiting the riverfront has become paramount.
"We're certainly concerned, because without structured (garage) parking, there's no park," Mr. Schuckman says. "It's very simple."
Another project
The parks aren't the only riverfront project that hinges on the construction of parking garages.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is counting on the county to build a 450-space riverfront garage that's strong enough for the museum to be built upon.
The county has committed to build those spaces, and that commitment is crucial for the museum to move forward, says Ed Rigaud, the center's president and CEO.
"It would make it very difficult for the Freedom Center to be built" without the garage, Mr. Rigaud says.
Cincinnati City Councilman Charlie Winburn goes so far as to say a ballpark at Broadway "destroys" the dream of the Freedom Center.
But Mr. Bedinghaus says the county will make good on its commitment. "I think the Freedom Center ends up going forward regardless of where we put a ballpark," he says. "The only question is what do the surroundings of the Freedom Center look like?"
With a half dozen big-ticket projects planned for the riverfront, that's the billion-dollar question facing Hamilton County voters Nov. 3.
