Category: Development

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Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati installs dedicated bike lanes along Dana Avenue

In an aggressive attempt to improve upon the “C” grade received on its first-ever annual Bicycle Report Card, City leaders are looking at ways to incorporate bicycle facilities into the city’s larger transportation network. The most recent example can be seen along Dana Avenue in between Madison Road and Grigg Avenue (map) where the City incorporated dedicated bike lanes along a nearly one-mile stretch of roadway.

The stretch of Dana Avenue had at one point been bloated with unnecessary amount of vehicle lanes. As a result, the City took the opportunity to put Dana Avenue on a “road diet” when they began work repaving the road as a part of the City’s Street Rehabilitation Program.

New dedicated bike lanes along Dana Avenue – photos by Melissa McVay.

The road diet included the removal of two vehicle lanes and the addition of two striped, five-foot wide dedicated bicycle lanes. In instances like the Dana Avenue road project, City leaders saw it as a cost-effective way to quickly implement bicycle facilities without any disruption.

Cincinnati now boasts more than 8 miles of dedicated bike lanes throughout the city, with another 2.58 miles of sharrows along city streets. Another 340 miles of roadway is being studied as part of the Bike Plan process. Additional Street Rehabilitation and Transportation Design projects will also be evaluated during the design phase to see how bikes or pedestrians can be best included as well.

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Business Development News

Findlay Market awarded $219k for local foods project

Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market was awarded $218,890 last week through the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative that was launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September to increase access to healthy, affordable local foods.

“We know that access to fresh, healthy food is good for our families and our communities,” said U.S. Representative Steve Driehaus about the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” funding. “For years, people from across greater Cincinnati have found nutritious, local food at Findlay Market, and this smart investment will help ensure that the market continues to be a great resource for our area.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Findlay Market’s new Cultivating Healthy Environments for Farmers (CHEF) project that was launched in July 2009. CHEF is seen as an opportunity to recruit and train new urban growers, and compliment the City’s successful Urban Gardening Program.

Findlay Market was one of 16 organizations nationwide to receive funding through the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative. This funding will help fund food policy council training, urban agriculture, help promote native food sovereignty, food production projects, and community food assessments according to the USDA.

Findlay Market (map) is open year-round Tuesday through Friday from 9am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm, and Sunday 10am to 4pm. Free off-street automobile and bicycle parking is available and the market is well-serviced by Metro’s #21, 46, 64, and 78 bus routes. To see which route is most convenient for you, and to play your trip now, use Metro’s Trip Planner.

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Business Development News

Maximizing Cincinnati’s after-hours street vending community

In an earlier writing I generally discussed street vendors in Cincinnati – the role they play in the social life of urban spaces, how Cincinnati’s street vendor scene compares with other cities around the country, and how the city might work to increase the number and diversity of street vendors.

Since that time the very exciting announcement has been made that two new taco trucks will be joining Cincinnati’s street vendor scene, and Taste of Belgium owner Jean-Francois Flechet has indicated an interest in creating a waffle cart to be used around town.

Kogi Korean BBQ Truck (by Kineda) & a Koreatown Taco Truck (by Gourmet Magazine) – both in Los Angeles

At the same time I noticed the revolving door of late-night food establishments has continued on its 360 degree angle as Balboa’s near 7th & Vine streets has closed down. It would seem that these late night establishments would thrive with the lower overhead costs of street vending operations whether they be trucks, carts or stands along side the road.

No longer would these businesses have to shoulder the burden of a 24 hour lease for a three to four hour operation. The new business model would also allow the vendors to travel about following the fickle nightlife crowd across the city. Heck, the reduced overhead may even enable the entrepreneurs to open up secondary operations in other popular night life destinations across the city.

From the city’s end it would seem to ease the tension of businesses opening and closing as frequently as they struggle to make ends meet in a low-margin operation, while at the same time providing the same services and social life that comes along with these businesses.

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Business Development News Politics

What happened to the locavore movement?

The news is out that the Atlanta-based Carter/Dawson development team has selected Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC as the general contractor for the private development portions of The Banks. The Carter/Dawson team stated in a press release that Brasfield & Gorrie is “one of the largest privately-held contracting firms in the nation, and brings their extensive successful experience in building complex, mixed-use, vertically integrated developments in dense urban areas.”

This may be all well and good but the issue I have is that they’re based out of Birmingham. It’s not that there is anything wrong with Birmingham, or Atlanta for that matter, but there are huge sums of public money going into The Banks development. These tax dollars should be spent in the taxpayer’s best interest, and with unemployment hovering around 10 percent, we should be demanding that these contracts be awarded to local companies who will be employing Cincinnatians.

The Banks development plan – rendering provided.

It’s much like the rationale behind shopping local. When you award contracts to local companies they’ll hire people in the region, those people will take that money and upkeep their homes, go shopping, eat out, and support the local economy. When we give these contracts away to someone else there goes much of that money.

I can’t say for sure whether Brasfield & Gorrie is the best firm for the job, because they very well might be, but I do know that there are qualified companies here locally that would have loved the opportunity to not only get this contract, but also make a lasting impact on the city they call home. The one bright spot is that Brasfield & Gorrie has committed to achieving the development team’s goal of at least 30 percent SBE participation, and committed to utilizing a “significant amount of local talent to get the job done efficiently and effectively.”

Phase 1A of The Banks development – rendering provided.

Brasfield & Gorrie is expected to start assembling their team on site almost immediately and will begin construction on the overbuild of Phase 1A in December with a set completion date of Spring 2011. Once complete, The Banks will represent a total private investment around $600 million. Paul Brown Stadium, Great American Ball Park, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Riverfront Transit Center are all complete and part of Cincinnati’s Riverfront Master Plan developed by Urban Design Associates. The Central Riverfront Park is under construction now and will compliment the entire development.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News Transportation

Memorial Day – 2012*

So, I’m sitting here at the Christian Moerlein Lager House enjoying a Helles and thinking about what lies ahead this summer… it’s going to be a busy one! Living in Cincinnati has never been better with all of the new things we have going on; I’m so glad I decided to stay after we turned down Issue Nine back in 2009. Back then, the downtown area was just starting to turn around compared to where we are today. I mean, Fountain Square had again taken its rightful place as the center of our community and things up in the Gateway Quarter were really starting to tick. There was some real promise, but many people had their doubts as well. Now though, there are very few doubters left, and almost all the concerns from back then have been alleviated.

I mean, the things that are going on these days in and around the center city are just amazing compared to where we have been for at least the past twenty years. I would call it a renaissance or even a rebirth, but it’s more like a brand Cincinnati is developing right before our very eyes. The Banks project is coming along nicely, even if we all know that it seems like it was talked about forever. We all knew that even when the project started it was going to take a while, but it’s so good to see people living and working there even now! Alongside it Riverfront Park has added a wonderful green space at the base of the freshly painted Roebling Suspension Bridge. I have to say it is so much nicer to sit here and watch people in the park than it would be to see another parking lot along the riverfront. Hard to believe we had to live through that for all those years!

Central Riverfront Park, Great American Tower at Queen City Square, Phase 1 of The Banks – Renderings Provided.

The city’s tallest building, The Tiara Tower, has been open for a little over a year and not only does it look great but it has a nice occupancy rate as well. It has brought a lot of jobs and driven interest in additional ambitious building projects around town. For example, over in Newport more development has taken hold as Ovation opened up recently. Really, when you stop and think about it, this area along the Ohio River is booming and both sides of the river have taken great pride in it all.

Speaking of pride, the Cincinnati Streetcar opened up early this year and the response has been amazing! People park down at The Banks, jump on the streetcar and find their way around town very easily. They are able to ride up to Findlay Market among other places, and next year they will be able to get all the way up to the University. New businesses and residences abound along the line and have really added a substantial amount of tax revenue to the city coffers that were not looking good even three years ago.

The Cincinnati Streetcar travels on Walnut Street past the Aronoff Center and the Backstage Entertainment District south towards The Banks.

What else is going on? Well, the World Choir Games will be here before we know it and we are expecting quite a crowd. It is the first time the games will be in the United States and estimates are that 250,000 people will be here in town in less than six weeks to take them in. It’s going to be quite an event and the hotels have been booked up for the last year. There is also a huge Pomegranates show this coming weekend. They haven’t been in town for a while because of their touring schedule, and we all miss them dearly. They really started cooking in 2009 back when we were all concerned with Issue 9. Additionally, the Major League All-Star Game will be here in 2015 and we are all looking forward to that gigantic event! People around the area are so glad that we have a city to show off and one that we can be proud of!

Cincinnati… we’ve had a lot of hurdles and obstacles to overcome, but things have been moving in the right direction for a while now and I don’t see how the momentum could be stopped!

*Denotes that this is a vision of where we are headed, and not truly a post from the future. As you can see, almost all of these projects are underway in 2009 and this post was meant to tie them all together & draw a picture of what it all will look like. As of now, the All-Star game & streetcar are the the biggest dreams, but hopefully that all begins to change tomorrow. NO ON NINE!