Tag: Cincinnati

Categories
News

Book signing series at Findlay Market

Starting this Sunday, March 22nd, Cincinnati’s Edgecliff Press will be holding a weekly book signings at Findlay Market between 1pm and 3pm.

The seven-week long series will give Cincinnatians the opportunity to come to Findlay Market (GoogleMap), purchase and browse interesting books, have them signed and speak with the authors about those books.

Edgecliff Press is a local publishing company that strives to create conversational, casual and thought provoking imagery that evokes emotion, cause one to pause and think. Their mission is to bring affordable books to market that tip the meter between niches of locations, themes and thoughts.

The selected books are artistic in nature with many focusing in on architectural subjects. The series schedule is listed below. All signings are free and open to the public.

The book signing series is part of a larger effort by Findlay Market to become an even greater cultural hub for Cincinnatians. The historic open-air market that opened in 1855 is the oldest surviving municipal market in Ohio and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.

Categories
News

2009 Next Leaders Summit coming to Cincinnati

Mayor Mallory has scheduled a 2pm press conference where he will announce that Cincinnati has landed the 6th Annual Next Leaders Summit (formerly called the YP Summit). The convention will be held at the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown and take place during Oktoberfest week – September 17th – 19th.

The Next Leaders Summit is “dedicated to dialogue, experimentation and best practice sharing from within and outside the Young Professionals movement.” The Summit will bring in Young Professionals, and leaders in the YP community, from all over the nation.

The two-day plus conference will provide the next wave of leaders a chance to learn, engage and interact with national and local leaders, and socialize at after hours events throughout Cincinnati. The Summit is sponsored by Next Generation Consulting and hosted by Mayor Mallory’s Young Professionals Kitchen Cabinet (YPKC), who had the honor of being awarded the YPO “Best Practices” Award at last year’s Summit in Florida.

In addition to the “Best Practices” Award, Cincinnati also made the list of Best Cities in the U.S. for Next Gen Workers coming in at #7 for cities with populations between 200,000 – 500,000. Columbus, Ohio took the #10 spot for cities with more than 500,000 people.

Partial agenda items for 6th Annual Next Leaders Summit:

  • Learn about their individual leadership strengths, and how to leverage them at work and with their Young Professionals Organization (YPO);
  • Have an immersion course in online and offline community organizing. (How did Obama do it? You’ll learn the techniques and technologies here.)
  • Meet with YPO leaders from similarly sized cities to talk about issues relevant to small, medium and large cities.

Image from YPKC

Categories
Business Development News

Does casino fit for prominent Broadway Commons site?

It was announced last week that there is yet another movement to legalize casino gaming in Ohio. The difference with this proposal is its scope. Instead of a single casino for the entire state, casinos would instead be placed in each of the state’s largest cities (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo).

The intent is to reach a larger market and have broader voter appeal come November. In Cincinnati the proposal has already picked up some high-profile support in Mayor Mark Mallory, City Councilman Jeff Berding and former Mayor Charlie Luken.

The site for the proposed casino is the pipe-dream location that is Broadway Commons (GoogleMap). The site is located in the Pendleton sub-neighborhood of historic Over-the-Rhine. Its close proximity to Downtown, the convention center, several museums, gobs of hotel rooms and major tourism draws like the Reds and Bengals have long made the site a prime spot for redevelopment speculation (streetcar connectivity).

The question is what is right for such a prime location? Seems like a pretty subjective question, and it is. In the 90’s many people (including myself) thought the site would have been a perfect location for the new Reds ballpark. Other ideas have ranged from urban big-box stores, a mega park, rail transit hub and of course the mixed use urban infill that we would all love to see.

Plans for the once proposed ballpark at Broadway Commons

The problem of course has been market reality. With a slew of new condos and apartments constantly coming on the market in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Newport, Covington and the Westend – can we really absorb more residential units, hotels, office and retail space, if so at what cost? Does it jeopardize the future success in OTR, Downtown and The Banks? Will Cincinnati ever push the rail transit agenda and make light rail, streetcars and high-speed rail reality here, if so can we afford to wait that long to redevelop this major site sitting unproductive?

The owners (Chavez Properties), of Broadway Commons, seem to be ready and willing to sell and they are on board with this casino plan. A casino would turn the giant surface lot into a tax productive use, create hundreds of permanent jobs, significantly boost tax revenues for Cincinnati and Hamilton County and potentially create some spinoff investment in the surrounding community.

At the same time the casino would seemingly prey on those with less, create a handful of social problems for a city that already has its fair share, possibly create an island development that encourages its patrons not to leave the confines and potentially insert an out-of-place building and design into one of the nation’s largest and most important historical districts.

Mixed Use redevelopment plan for Broadway Commons that competed with the ballpark proposal – Source

My preference would be for a rail transit hub with mixed use development. Another ideal scenario would be to develop the site as a high-tech business hub that would capitalize off of the proximity to both Downtown and Uptown with its hospitals and universities. At the same time I do realize the need to develop this site into something productive. So I’m decidedly undecided on the issue. Can anyone sway me one way or another?

If you’re in favor of this proposal feel free to sign the online petition.
Categories
News

Taking the Stage

The Nick Lachey pitched reality show about life as a student at Cincinnati’s nationally known School of Creative & Performing Arts (part of Cincinnati Public Schools) with be premiering on MTV Thursday, March 19th.

I actually got to be in a scene with Mia at Baba Budan’s in Clifton Heights. I was there hanging out in between classes with a couple friends and in came MTV with their cameras. I signed a release and was then part of the crowd in the shot. Pretty neat…so keep a look out for the back of my head.

The ten episode series, Taking The Stage, will air weekly on MTV at 10pm. You will be able to watch the show on Fountain Square’s video board live each week. In the mean time check out the trailer here!

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Scramble Crossings for Cincinnati

Those who frequent Downtown know how crowded some intersections get with pedestrians throughout the day. There are 23 intersections that see more than 1,000 pedestrians during peak hours. Of those 23, five see more than 2,000 and one (4th & Walnut) sees over 3,000 pedestrians per hour.

That’s a lot of people walking around and trying to navigate the roadways filled with delivery trucks, taxis, buses, bicyclists and the hurried drivers. In addition to it being frustrating, it can also be dangerous to attempt multiple crossings of the same congested intersection.

2008 Downtown Pedestrian Count Map

If pedestrians were able to cross diagonally across intersections with traffic stopped in all directions, it would improve both vehicular and pedestrian flow, but also improve safety across the board.

“Scramble crossings” essentially are intersections that do just that. In Cincinnati’s case, intersections with high volumes of pedestrian traffic could implement these during their peak volume hours of the day. The “scramble crossings” or “diagonal crossings” could first be implemented at the five intersections that see volume in excess of 2,000 pedestrians per hour, and could be expanded as needed.

When intersections no longer have pedestrian volumes to warrant the “scramble crossings” they could revert back to normal crossing operations. The associated costs would be reprogramming of the lights, painting of the diagonal crossings and possibly some minimal signage/education. Be sure to share any other intersections you feel are qualified for such programming in the comment section.

Watch this brief 3 minute video about how Los Angeles is implementing these crossings today, and how they are functioning for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Pedestrian count data from 2008 Pedestrian Count Summary (1mb PDF)