Elsewhere

On the Riverfront: The Urbanophile takes a look at Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis.

Dead/Abandoned Malls – Cincinnati Mills: a video tour through an empty mall.

How I Learned to Love the Mall: Zan McQuade on her “strange and insatiable fetish for malls.”

Finding Frank Lloyd Wright in Alabama: touring an architectural gem in the town of Florence, AL.

Park Slope Family Circus: cracks me up every time I check it out.

10 Most Beautiful City Parks in the US: just that.

Paper Donut’s Optical Illusions: really cool painted installations, reminiscent of the work of Felice Varini.

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Elsewhere

Meet Cincinnati USA: a well-deserved parody of the yellow-panted wonder.

Cincinnati Union Terminal – Those Were the Days: just that.

Cincinnati Is Cool: a Chicagoan checks out the Queen City.

Indianapolis: You Are Beautiful: a Louisvillian explores Naptown.

Oddly-Shaped Benches that Encourage a Change in Social Behavior: the work of artist Jeppe Hein, who created Bench around the Lake in Indy.

Judgmental Maps: NYC: for what it’s worth, I don’t find this map especially funny or clever.

Yukino Ohmura’s Dot Sticker Tokyo Landscapes: amazing cityscapes made entirely out of stickers!

Riedling & Bro Hay, Grain and Mill Feed Ghost Sign in Louisville

I spotted this multi-layered ghost sign at 720 East Market St. in Louisvile. Riedling & Bro Hay, Grain and Mill Feed, General Repairing, All Kinds of Storage & Consignments, Shipping, and Wright are all I can make out.

Bensinger’s Ghost Sign in Louisville

The ghost sign for Bensinger’s is located at 313-315 West Market St. in downtown Louisville, on the side of the old Bensinger Outfitting Co. department store building.

OK Storage Ghost Sign in Louisville

The massive OK Storage ghost sign is located at 1100 East Broadway in Louisville. It’s not amazing, but it’s okay. I’m kidding. It is amazing; just look at it!

Elsewhere

Cincinnati’s New-Found Buzz Helping Attract Retailers to Region: more chains; hurray for progress!

Mural and Impact: over in Covington, a sad, messy and confusing debacle took place this week around a legal mural that was suddenly painted over.

No Other Place on Earth Like It: UC’s Wilson Auditorium Comes Down, Taking Ghosts, Dreams and the Love of Students and Faculty with It: the demise of an Art Deco building on the University of Cincinnati campus.

Despite Bankruptcy, Momentum in Motown Builds for Streetcar: interesting to watch the streetcar development in Detroit in light of Cincinnati’s precarious state of affairs.

Downtown Louisville Is Getting a Trippy Hunter S. Thompson Memorial: just that.

A Police Chief Tries To Reform The System From Within: over in Salt Lake City, policing that actually makes sense.

Bauhaus Opens Its Dorms to Paying Guests: wow!

Flock of Finns by Marvin Finn

Located on the Ohio River in downtown Louisville’s Waterfront Park,
Flock of Finns is an installation of 28 painted metal sculptures based on the work of folk artist Marvin Finn.

S. E. Davis Loans Ghost Sign in Louisville

The majestic ghost sign for S. E. Davis Loans is located on the corner of South 1st and West Market Sts. in downtown Louisville. Guns! Musical instruments! Yes!

An Open Letter to the Western Half of the United States

This is specifically to the fine states of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, California, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma — thank you all so much for your hospitality over the past couple of weeks. We had a fine time on your roads, from interstates to dirt roads to a bit of Route 66. Your natural wonders are amazing, and your cities are as varied as your terrain. We’ll definitely be back, though we probably won’t visit all of you again.

River Maps by Daniel Huffman

Madison-based cartographer Daniel Huffman has created a series of River Maps that mimic Modern urban transit maps, “perfect for the urbanite who cannot comprehend nature without it being translated into a more constructed language.” Hmm, that sounds like me.