Category: Arts & Entertainment

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Cincinnati’s new riverfront park immediately exceeding expectations

If you have yet to visit the first phase of the Smale Riverfront Park, then you need to do yourself a favor and go visit the beautiful new park. From a personal perspective, out of all of the new developments along the central riverfront, the new park is by far the best product and is a true civic asset for Cincinnati.

In the latest video update from project manager Dave Prather, he takes viewers on a tour of the now completed features of the Smale Riverfront Park that are open to the public. Prather also gives some insight into the elements that are soon to come including the continuation of the tree grove, Women’s Committee Garden, Adventure Playground, construction of the river’s edge and the transient boat dock.

“We’re proceeding with design and grant application for the transient boat dock, which will be aligned with the Main Street Fountain,” Prather explained in the project video. “That grant application is due the end of July, and award will be announced around early March next year. So we’re planning on next May to present the completed portion of the tree grove and break ground on the boat dock.”

In addition to the boat dock, Prather says that plans call for construction to begin on the Vine Street Steps next May as well, and would complete the framing of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

One of the attractions of the first phase of the park is the new Cincinnati Bike Center which is now open to bicycle commuters 24 hours a day, and boasts a retail shop that includes merchandise and allows for people to rent various types of bicycles and Segways.

Reports from various media outlets and first-hand accounts highlight the immediate popularity of the park. One problem, according to Prather, has been that visitors want to play in the dramatic water curtain along Mehring Way which was not designed for interaction.

The early summer project update is nearly 13 minutes in length, and is the first video of the series to highlight a finished product.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Cincinnati’s urban growth being fueled by young entreprenuers

It is not always easy to fully tell the narrative of a place and its people through words alone. This, I would suspect, is one of the most constant struggles for writers and professional journalists.

Over the past five to seven years, a tremendous amount of progress and change has taken place throughout Cincinnati’s urban core. This progress, however, is not just through bricks and mortar, but also the people who populate those buildings. In fact, those people are the most significant part of the equation. Without their ideas, hard work and passion, none of this would be happening.

Thankfully, Queen City Project has been documenting some of these people and their stories. Their latest video looks at a collection of young entrepreneurs looking to bring their new ideas to Main Street – literally and figuratively.

Cincinnati Growing Cincinnati is a six-and-a-half minute video that breaks down some of these individuals, but also identifies the start-up infrastructure in place that is helping foster their growth and jump start other new ideas with the help of seed money and support networks.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Weekend events to celebrate new riverfront park, progress in Over-the-Rhine

This weekend is poised to be a busy one with a variety of unique events taking place throughout the basin. We do not often plug events nowadays, but this is a weekend where you do not want to be absent from Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.

GoOTR 5k + Summer Celebration
The next big event will take place Saturday morning in historic Over-the-Rhine. The sixth annual GoOTR 5k will begin at 10am, and will raise money for the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce. While online registration has closed, those interested can still register in person today from 5pm to 7pm, 11am to 7:30pm on Friday, or immediately prior to the race on Saturday starting at 8:30am.


Festival-goers enjoy the 2009 OTR Summer Celebration. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

The race is the first leg of the Cincinnati Triple Crown. The winner will receive a custom trophy from Rookwood Pottery and the rights to continue on their hunt for Triple Crown glory at the Hyde Park Blast and Downtown Dash.

The accompanying OTR Summer Celebration will take place immediately following the completion of the race along Vine Street between 12th and 13th streets. Officially starting at 4pm, the street fair will include local merchants and live music from Wussy, Josh Eagle and the Harvest City, Shiny and the Spoon, The Cincy Brass, Young Professionals Choral Collective, Pones Inc., and a special performance from the Blue Wisp’s Young Lions and their legendary jazz drummer Philip Paul.

Smale Riverfront Park Grand Opening
On Friday evening, city officials and community leaders will celebrate the grand opening of the first phase of the Smale Riverfront Park. The new park is the latest piece of Cincinnati’s central riverfront transformation. The completed first phase includes the area along Mehring Way between the Roebling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ball Park, and includes the Moerlein Lager House, an event lawn, multiple water features, monuments and the new Bike Mobility Visitors Center.

The bike center is seen another step forward for the city’s bike program after recently receiving an award from the League of American Bicyclists. The facility features bike rentals, shower stations, lockers and indoor bicycle parking, along with a knowledgeable staff at the center to perform bicycle repairs.

The grand opening celebration will begin at 6:15pm at the Schmidlapp Event Lawn, and will feature live music, free UDF ice cream, and a fireworks show at dusk. Those looking for a sneak peek of the new park can view the most recent construction progress video on YouTube.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News

Ensemble Theatre debuts new brand design, recommits to $6.5M capital campaign

Leadership at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC) announced a renewed commitment to its $6.5 million Next Stage Capital Campaign on Monday. The announcement was coordinated with the debut of a new website and brand design intended to reaffirm the institution’s position within Over-the-Rhine.

The ETC says that the new website and brand design are an evolution of the theatre’s brand, and were developed in coordination with Cincinnati-based brand management firm LPK.


New brand design, developed by LPK, for the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.

The non-profit theatre organization had been largely quiet since first announcing a multi-million capital campaign in 2008. The money, ETC officials say, will be used to expand lobby space, upgrade electrical and HVAC equipment, and add new seats and other amenities for patrons. All renovation plans have been developed with GBBN Architects and Messer Construction.

“We are thrilled that with so many improvements in the Over-the-Rhine Gateway Quarter over just the past few years, along with the renovation of Washington Park, there is so much renewed energy in the area and it makes sense to plan for ETC’s next chapter,” explained ETC’s communications and development manager, Jocelyn Meyer.

To date, ETC officials say they have raised more than one million dollars towards the campaign thanks in large part to a $1.2 million grant from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission.

Prior to raising the rest of the money necessary to embark on its major renovations, ETC officials will repaint the building façade at 1127 Vine Street and add new banners to help distinguish the theatre along the busy Vine Street corridor.

“This will help to draw new patrons to our theatre who may not be as familiar with our performing space,” stated Meyer. “We’re truly honored to share this neighborhood with a wide variety of unique restaurants and shop…and hope this next step for Ensemble Theatre will not only propel the organization forward, but will also contribute substantially to the Gateway Quarter’s value.”

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News Politics Transportation

Mayor Mallory highlights successes, commits to transit in seventh State of the City address

Mayor Mark Mallory (D) focused on the positives during his seventh State of the City address, and he challenged Cincinnatians to get involved in projects or policies they want to see become reality.

As part of that challenge, Mayor Mallory identified a formula for success built on five elements – pride, commitment, investment, partnership and promotion.

“Every neighborhood should celebrate its own history,” Mayor Mallory urged during the roughly 47-minute address. “We need to do more to celebrate our history in order to create more pride in Cincinnati. Pride inspires people to commit to improving our city. Pride also gets people to invest in making this city a better place.”

Mallory then turned his attention towards the region’s urban core and defended why his administration focuses so much on time and energy there saying it is the economic engine for the entire region.

“There is no West Chester without downtown Cincinnati. There is no Mason without downtown,” Mallory exclaimed. “There is no sub without the urban…it all works together. A strong and healthy and vibrant downtown Cincinnati benefits the entire region.”

Mallory drove the point home by categorically identifying downtown Cincinnati as a success story which has landed several new headquarters recently, and has seen dunnhumbyUSA grow from a staff of three employees in 2003 to a projected staff of 1,000 employees in 2014.


The design of Cincinnati’s modern streetcar vehicles (coloring scheme not final).

The mayor continued by saying that the many companies and residents moving to the region’s urban core are doing so because of the investments being made by City Hall. One of the most high-profile of these investments is the Cincinnati Streetcar, which the mayor highlighted and identified a five-phase expansion plan in conjunction with two regional light rail lines.

The future phases of modern streetcar extensions include a route running from Over-the-Rhine to Uptown, a line running from Uptown to Walnut Hills, a center city loop serving Newport and Covington, and a line extending from Over-the-Rhine to Union Terminal. The two regional light rail lines would service the I-71 and I-75 corridors.

Mayor Mallory then took the opportunity to announce that Spanish-based Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) will manufacture Cincinnati’s five initial modern streetcar vehicles at their United States facility in Elmira, New York.

“Before we are even finished with the first phase, we have started work on the second phase,” Mallory revealed. “I have already asked for federal funds to study which route will be used to connect to our assets in the uptown area like UC, the hospitals, the zoo, and the EPA.”

The mayor shifted directions and emphasized the importance of public safety, using recent progress in Over-the-Rhine as success stories.

“It used to be that on Sunday mornings people would come to Over-the-Rhine to buy a week’s worth of drugs,” said Mallory using the Gateway Quarter as his example. “Now, on Sunday mornings, people come to Over-the-Rhine to eat check and waffles at Taste of Belgium.”

Mayor Mallory concluded the speech by highlighting the importance of becoming a more global city to the crowd of more than 350 people.

“In China, they are talking about our emergency preparedness. In Saudi Arabia, people are looking at Cincinnati for potential business investment. In Germany, people are talking about our cutting edge efforts in the area of sustainability. And right now, all over the world, people are talking about the World Choir Games.”

“We have created an international presence, and because of that buzz, we were able to attract the World Choir Games. Make no mistake, this is the greatest opportunity to showcase the city that we have ever had…and we earned it.”