Tag: Cincinnati

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News

Happy Hour Cincinnati: Via Vite

There are tons of great happy hours around town…many of which are largely unknown. For the first of what will become an ongoing series, I will highlight Via Vite’s great happy hour.

First of all, Via Vite’s happy hour is EVERY day and lasts from 3-6 (I was told 7pm by our waitress the other week). Unfortunately they don’t offer any draft selections, but they do serve Christian Moerlein’s OTR Ale. After you take the $1.50 off you’ll be enjoying some great OTR Ale for $2 on Via Vite’s rooftop terrace.

The rooftop terrace is what really makes Via Vite special. It sits directly on Fountain Square and makes for one of the best happy hour environments around. Plus the rooftop terrace consists of couches arranged in a way that is great for groups of up to around 6 people.

The food specials also make it a great spot to start off your evening downtown. The wood fired pizzas are great for sharing with a friend and are at a great happy price – $7. If you’re in the mood for a great happy hour today then be sure to check out Via Vite. The location is to die for and the food and drink live up to the high expectations.

View pictures from Via Vite’s rooftop terrace HERE!

Via Vite
520 Vine Street (GoogleMap)
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513.721.8483

Additional Via Vite Reading:
Via Vite – JasonTT.com
Via Vite – 5chw4r7z.com

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Arts & Entertainment News

Cincinnati and Missing Cows

Cincinnati has lot going for it, affordable housing, great restaurants, a vibrant arts scene, and a wonderful park system. Despite this, we seem to be unable to keep track of our livestock. Yet another cow is missing.

I suppose a positive spin on this would be that we have so much green space in the city, cows can evade capture for some time. A negative spin on this would be that we are essentially Mayberry with 2.1 million people.

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News

Cincinnati Public Schools making the grade

Many cite schools as a reason they don’t live within city limits (or within the CPS district). I have said before that it is more of an excuse than an actual reason, but it is what it is. Cincinnati Public Schools have been improving their state rating over the past few years, and recently have been receiving some national praise.

In a recent Education Week article (PDF) they say:

Despite being plagued by the problems that beset most urban school systems, the Cincinnati public schools have managed to increase the four-year high school graduation rate from 51 percent in 2000, to 79 percent in 2007. Perhaps more important, they have, as of 2007, eliminated the gap between African-American and white students in graduation rates. This feat was accomplished, moreover, as the state of Ohio was raising academic standards and requiring students to pass more-challenging assessments to receive their diplomas.

While a 79 percent graduation rate isn’t necessarily anything to write home about…it is a strong improvement. This strong improvement has certainly not gone unnoticed, and is going beyond an article in Education Week. CPS Superintendent, Rosa Blackwell, will be on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight show this coming Tuesday night at 8pm. Blackwell will be joined with Withrow University principal Sharon Johnson to talk about the district’s improvements.

Furthermore the district has broken ground on what will become the nation’s first public K-12 arts school. Just to reiterate…crime is down, schools are improving, and you can get a property tax abatement for moving into the city. So what’s holding you back?

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News

Downtown Office Trends

QCS II will pour 825,000 square-feet of new Class A office space into the Downtown office market. That’s great only if the market can handle it, and some think that the relocation of one company Downtown (AFG) into it isn’t necessarily the best scenario. Well to some extent they’re right, but the whole issue isn’t a negative thing either.

AFG currently occupies office space in a variety of older office buildings Downtown (580 Building, 525 Vine), and will be occupying 22 floors of QCS II for a total of 530,000 square-feet. By leaving these spaces and consolidating into one newer space it allows for those older and thus more affordable spaces to be freed up for smaller companies that can not afford the leases at a building like QCS II.

It is essentially all part of a larger office market cycle that occurs. Older spaces become less desirable and are either replaced by newer spaces and taken off the market (via apartment conversions and what not) or are then filled by smaller companies that can not afford the Class A office space.

So while it isn’t great news to hear that QCS II won’t be filled by a new company to the region…it certainly isn’t bad news that the Downtown market is able to fill another 800,000+ square-feet of office space. On a side note, the most recent State of Downtown quarterly report says that Downtown Cincinnati actually lowered its vacancy rate by nearly 3% in the 3Q.

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News Politics Transportation

Young Professionals and streetcars

Well a brilliant young individual had some delightful commentary in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer editorial section, enjoy…

I am by definition a young professional, part of the creative class, and I am enrolled at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

As you may know, Cincinnati is not exactly a hotbed for the creative class and has struggled to retain/attract young professionals.

As a creative person, it can be difficult to make it work here over a place like Chicago, New York or Atlanta, but it seems as though people are afraid to even try at times. We need to continue to prioritize the arts and place new emphasis on things like mass transit.

This is a very important issue to many young people and in particular the creative class. If we fail at creating a city with these elements, then we will fail at attracting that ever-important young professional.

Aside from bus service, Cincinnati offers no transit options. The cities that do a great job at attracting this demographic have much more, and we are falling further behind the likes of Seattle, Portland, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago and Baltimore.

Cincinnati is now looking to build a streetcar system. This is a great first step at creating a wide-reaching transit system.

I would argue that Cincinnati has an edge over many of these other cities in terms of arts, geographic features and affordability, but we simply cannot rest on our laurels.

I know I can not speak for every young person out there, but I say this: Please make the effort to keep us around for our sake and the sake of our community.

If you are not a young professional, would you prefer your child to live in Cincinnati or Seattle?

Streetcars are not the only answer, but they are the opportunity we have the chance to capitalize on right now.

Cincinnati Enquirer, Guest Editorial 10/24/07