Tag: Cincinnati

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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

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News

The Queen’s Crown Jewels

A new Cincinnati blog is up and running, and it is a good one. He posts lots of pictures, enlightens you with his vast knowledge of architecture and the city as a whole. Dan describes himself, and the site as:

“My overviews and observations of Cincinnati, OH. I am a single, thirtysomething living in Over-the-Rhine with a certain point of view on the city around me.”

The most recent post covers the history and special features of Cincinnati classics that make the Queen City what it is. This first edition of what will become an ongoing feature, on Queen City Survey, covers the Cincinnati Gymnasium & Athletic Club.

Dan knows his stuff…so go check out what Queen City Survey has to offer, you won’t be disappointed.

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News

Stop talking…start doing!

I don’t know how many times I hear from the nay-sayers who continually claim that there is nothing to do in Cincinnati…or that it is a boring place for young people. You also hear, from these same people, about how Downtown and OTR are dead and have no chance. All of these statements couldn’t be further from the truth, but they are said nonetheless.

What I realized in Atlanta was that the bars and clubs weren’t that much better than Cincinnati…but what made Atlanta better for young people was all the damn young people. They were everywhere, and they were active. I saw a lot more young entrepreneurs and movers/shakers in Atlanta as compared to Cincinnati.

My point is that if you want OTR to be cool…or you want Cincinnati to have new fun/exciting things to do. Then DO it already!!! This city has long talked about what we can do, but only in select occasions do we actually act upon those words. I say it’s about time we start putting up, or shutting up. If you say that OTR sucks and are doing nothing about it and have no connection to it…then shut it and move on. If you like to bitch about the poor leadership on city council, and live out in the ‘burbs…then shut the hell up. You can move to the city and then have a voice, until then all you are doing is taking a crap on somebody else’s lawn.

Let’s step it up Cincinnati and start being the great city we are…instead of talking about the great city we could be.