Author: Randy A. Simes

Randy is an award-winning urban planner who founded UrbanCincy in May 2007. He grew up on Cincinnati’s west side in Covedale, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s nationally acclaimed School of Planning in June 2009. In addition to maintaining ownership and serving as the managing editor for UrbanCincy, Randy has worked professionally as a planning consultant throughout the United States, Korea and the Middle East. After brief stints in Atlanta and Chicago, he currently lives in the Daechi neighborhood of Seoul’s Gangnam district.

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Reds Hot Weekends

This weekend marks the first of 8 Reds Hot Weekends this Summer. The festivities will be taking place on Fountain Square and will start Friday and last through Sunday…covering the entire weekend series against the Cleveland Indians.

Friday’s activities will include live music by Lo-fi, a local cover band playing funk and rock classics, at 5pm. Following Lo-fi, at 8pm, The Harlequins will take the stage. It will make for a great time to just hang out with friends, and there will be beer available on the Square. What makes it even better is that from roughly 4pm-7pm I’ll be serving the delicious adult beverages.

OK Go performing on Fountain Square
Image from myfountainsquare.com

On Saturday the fun continues with DJ Iceburg from 2pm-4pm followed by the first “Movie Night” (featuring Sandlot and The Natural) of the Summer starting at 7:30pm. Beer, soft drinks, and snacks will all be sold on the Square…and people are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets, pillows, etc for “Movie Nights.”

Finally Sunday will wrap up the weekend with free UDF ice cream, on the Square, from about 4:30pm-5:30pm…along with some other neat festivities. Be sure to come out even if you’re not going to any of the games and just have a great time Downtown on Fountain Square.

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Acoustic Lunch Series at Piatt Park

Today marks the first Acoustic Lunch at Piatt Park (GoogleMap) of the 2008 year. The series will run through September 30th and is every Tuesday from 11:45am-1:45pm. As always the concert series is free and will feature live music from a variety of local artists.

It makes for a great lunch hour in one of my favorite hang out places Downtown – Piatt Park (view photos here). There are lots of benches, some tables, and plenty of planter ledges to sit on while you enjoy the music. This week will feature music from Malkum Gibson & The Mighty Juke.

Listen to various music by Malkum Gibson & The Mighty Juke HERE.

View the full concert schedule HERE.

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News

New Uptown signage on the way

The Uptown Consortium has been developing a wayfinding system for the Uptown area. This will be a significant improvement upon the current dated signage that you see scattered haphazardly throughout the area now.

The signage also seems to blend design concepts from other streetscaping elements seen throughout the City (primarily Downtown). The consortium describes the project as, “an implementation of a bold and unified Uptown wayfinding and streetscape design for pedestrians and motorists.” They go on to say that this includes the development of a, “comprehensive, user-friendly Uptown map to locate key Uptown businesses, neighborhoods and institutions.”

Hopefully this signage will be customizable and/or complimentary to signage that will need to be developed, for the Cincinnati Streetcar, when it comes to the Uptown area in the near future. I love wayfinding systems, but the last thing we need is redundant systems cluttering the sidewalks.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Happy Hour Cincinnati: The Stand

The Stand is located in the always great Mt. Lookout Square. Their happy hour specials are on their drinks. The Stand offers $2 domestics, $3 imports and well drinks, and $3.50 call drinks. The happy hour is from 6pm-8pm daily and is combined with a variety of other specials offered throughout the week (which can be found on their website).

The Stand has got a trendy vibe to it and offers live music most nights, pool, and flat-screen TVs. They also advertise free wi-fi all night long if that’s what tickles your fancy.

The Stand
3195 Linwood Avenue (GoogleMap)
Cincinnati, OH 45208
513.871.5006

Image from www.thestandcincy.com

Previous happy hour readings on UrbanCincy:
Buddakhan — Via Vite — McCormick & Schmick’s

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News

Happy Birthday UrbanCincy!

Today (5/8) is UrbanCincy’s birthday…and the site is officially 1 year old. Thanks everyone who makes this site what it is by commenting and discussing the things going on in Cincinnati.

The site was started to be a positive alternative to the often negative stories heard from the mainstream media…and fortunately enough there seems to be that same desire for an alternative to the same old pessimism and negativity. Thanks again for reading, and hopefully UrbanCincy can make it around for a second year and continue its maturation process.

Thanks