Tag: Cincinnati

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Day After Thanksgiving Fun Downtown

The day after Thanksgiving is often the day where people line up outside the most generic big box store they can find and wait in long lines to spend their hard-earned money at places that won’t recycle that money locally like locally owned/operated businesses.

In an effort to encourage local shopping, and continue upon the success built at Cincinnati Unchained, Gateway Quarter businesses have organized the inaugural Holidays in the Bag event from 9am to 9pm the day after Thanksgiving. Shoppers are encouraged to buy a special shopping bag ($3 – money goes to Tender Mercies) at the Gateway Quarter Information Center that will get you 20% off at participating retailers.

After your stuffed full of Thanksgiving goodies and partake in the “Black Friday” craziness be sure to leave some energy for the annual Light Up The Square festivities on Friday, November 28th.

Light Up The Square is the annual event on Fountain Square where Cincinnati celebrates the start of the holiday season with the ceremonious tree lighting festivities. This year’s tree is the biggest ever standing 60 feet tall, with roughly 20,000 lights and five-foot tall red star.

The fun officially starts at 6:30pm with a performance by “Team Cincinnati” (from Clash of the Choirs) which will then be followed by the tree lighting at 7pm by Mayor Mark Mallory. There will then be a fireworks show following the tree lighting. Santa Claus is expected to be there and the Fountain Square skating rink will be open to the public.

Traffic Notes: 5th Street (between Race & Walnut) & Vine Street (between 4th & 6th) will be closed from 6pm to 9:30pm.
The Fountain Square parking garage will be open but only accessible via the Walnut Street entrance.
Metro bus routes will be detoured around these streets during the closure.
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News

Be a part of the 2009 YPKC

In 2006 Mayor Mark Mallory launched the Mayor’s Young Professional Kitchen Cabinet (YPKC) – the first of its kind anywhere. The goal was to tap into the minds of those young people that so many cities are trying to both retain and attract.

Each year one hundred young professionals are tapped from all over the tri-state to volunteer their efforts to help make the Cincinnati region a more welcoming place for young people. The young professionals work on a variety of committees with different focuses. They work within their various committees and then push forth their ideas. If those ideas gain approval from the YPKC as a whole, then they are then directed to the Mayor’s office.

The YPKC is a great opportunity to get involved especially if you’re one of those many people who have had that brilliant idea come to you in the middle of the night and think, “boy it would be nice if I had the opportunity to talk to the Mayor about this.” Well you can.

You can apply now to be a member of the 2009 YPKC. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the 2008 YPKC as a member of the Transportation Committee. Due to travel plans, a spring graduation and other time constraints I will not be able to once again apply. I do strongly encourage everyone else who is interested to do before the December 3rd deadline (sorry for the late notice).

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News

New pizza joint planned for 914 Race Street

Reliable sources close to UrbanCincy are indicating that a pizza joint may be on tap for 914 Race Street (GoogleMap) downtown. The almost 100 year-old building (built 1910) is located directly north of popular wine shop City Cellars, and is in an area of Downtown that is in desperate need of more activity generating businesses.

The building is a three story building that boasts “newly renovated” apartments on the upper levels. The 1,392 square foot street-level space is currently vacant and marked for retail. A full liquor license has been applied for at this address, and after further investigation a pizza place seems to be what is in store from owner.

Stay tuned for updated information as it becomes available.

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News

Films That Matter, Cincinnati Bike/PAC

Cincinnati is playing host to two important events this evening that seemingly play upon different themes, but are wholly interrelated. Both events unfortunately begin at 7 P.M.

Rohs Street Café, at 245 W. McMillan Street (GoogleMap), is hosting Films That Matter 2008-2009 tonight from 7:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., sponsored by Imago and Cincinnati Earth Institute. Films That Matter offers a series of documentaries about planet Earth, about the challenges and opportunities of our times, and about innovative ideas and inspiring people that are making a difference. Films That Matter showcases independent films and provides a space for people to gather, learn and discuss what matters.

For tonight, the Café is presenting “Al Gore: New Thinking on the Climate Crisis“, where Gore uses a slide show to present evidence that the pace of climate change may be worse than what scientists recently predicted. Acting upon that, Gore challenges citizens to act on this information by becoming engaged in debates and organizations. This film is a follow-up to Gore’s award winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth“, and is 30-minutes long which will be followed up by a discussion.

Elsewhere, Arnold’s at 216 East 8th Street (GoogleMap) is hosting the monthly Cincinnati Bike/PAC meeting at 7 P.M. on the second floor. This meeting is held for those wishing to find out more about the city’s bike initiatives and what they can do about it. Traditionally, Bike/PAC has not attracted a lot of interest from younger cyclists, and as was quite apparent from last month’s Transportation Subcommittee meeting, affordable, green transportation appeals most to those who have yet bought into the prevailing automobile culture of this region.

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Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati Streetcar Update

While there hasn’t been a whole lot of big news relating to the Cincinnati Streetcar lately there have certainly been things going on. On November 5th the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to design, build, operate and maintain the Cincinnati Streetcar project was sent out.

As of 8:30pm November 16th there have been 21 companies to download the RFQ packet. Now this does not necessarily mean that all will submit bids for this project, but the range of companies goes from local companies like Glaserworks and DNK Architects to national companies like URS and Parsons Transportation Group. These companies have until the end of the workday on December 18th to submit their bids.

I also got in touch with City Architect Michael Moore and was informed that City Manager Milton Dohoney should be reporting back on financing in early 2009. This is important because since the Streetcar motion was passed by City Council in late April this has been the number one tast for Milton Dohoney – raising the necessary private contributions. If these contributions aren’t raised then the motion that was passed is no longer good and things will go back to square one. So far I have heard positive feedback about this fundraising process, but nothing specific outside the $3.5 million that Duke Energy has pledged to the project.

In addition to all this I decided to have a little fun with that streetcar congestion graphic I posted last week. That graphic was from almost 100 years ago, so I thought it might be interesting to give it a 100-year update. I attempted to keep the look/feel as close as possible, and with the help of Brad Thomas we calculated out numbers for the modern version.

Ford Taurus dimensions were used for average auto size with an average of 1.2 passengers. Skoda ST10 dimensions were used for average streetcar size with an average of 85 passengers. What was seen is an increase in both the average space taken up by streetcar passengers and auto passengers. Auto space saw a 142% increase which dwarfed the 26% increase for streetcar passengers.


Early 20th Century Graphic vs. New 21st Century Graphic