Tag: economic

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati defeats Issue 48 and votes a younger, more progressive city council into office

For the second time in three years rail transit advocates scored a major political victory in November. This year’s victory came in the form of the 51.5% to 48.5% defeat of Issue 48 which would have banned all investments in rail transportation for the next decade.

The defeat of Issue 48 coincided with the overhaul of Cincinnati’s city council. The new council includes a 7-2 majority in favor of the Cincinnati Streetcar (previously 4-4-1), and an 8-1 progressive voting block after four Republicans were not reelected. Also striking with new council is that the three brand new members are all Democrats and all 32-years-old or younger.

Still, the news of the day was the repeated defeat of a measure intended on stopping Cincinnati from building a modern streetcar line and planning a comprehensive regional light rail system. Construction of the Midwest’s first modern streetcar system is now scheduled to commence in the coming months.

UrbanCincy will provide more in-depth updates on the 2011 election results in the coming days, but for now enjoy this exclusive footage from the Cincinnati Streetcar celebration at Arnold’s Bar & Grill last night.

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Business Development News Opinion Politics Transportation

Vote in support of Cincinnati’s urban core today

Today Cincinnati voters will approve or defeat the most far-reaching public transportation ballot issue to confront any American city in recent times. The passage of Issue 48 would not just kill Cincinnati’s modern streetcar project, which has been in planning since 2007 and fully funded by 2010, but will ban all planning and construction of rail transit and passenger rail projects within the City of Cincinnati’s municipal boundaries until 2020.

Issue 48’s author, Anderson Township resident Chris Finney, has been abusing Cincinnati’s charter amendment process since the early 1990’s. He is the man who concocted 1993’s Article XII, the anti-LGBT charter amendment that attracted waves of bad publicity and cost Cincinnati an estimated $25 million in convention business until it was overturned in 2004.

In 2009 Finney’s political action committee, Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), partnered with the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP, then headed by ex-city councilman Chris Smitherman, to place an anti-transit charter amendment on the ballot. The broad language of Issue 9, as it became known, would have mandated a public vote on Cincinnati’s modern streetcar project as well as any other passenger rail investment, such as Ohio’s 3C Corridor proposal, within the City of Cincinnati.

Issue 9 was soundly defeated, all necessary capital funds were identified for the Cincinnati Streetcar in 2010, and groundbreaking was expected in 2011. Bolstered by the election of John Kasich (R) as Ohio’s governor in November 2010, and his controversial reallocation of $50 million in state funds this past spring, COAST regrouped with the NAACP to place another anti-transit issue on the November 2011 ballot.

The implications of Issue 48 are even more far-reaching, as the charter amendment will undo all of the planning work that has been completed for the Cincinnati Streetcar, force the city to forfeit the $25 million Urban Circulator Grant it was awarded in 2010, and cripple the city’s ability to improve its public transportation for the rest of the decade.

UrbanCincy would like to encourage you to go out and vote today. Issue 48 is one of many significant issues on this year’s ballot. You will not see our endorsements for any other issue other than public transportation this year, so please be sure to go out and vote your values. And please be sure to vote no on Issue 48.

Also, when you visit your polling place today, remember that these city council candidates support the Cincinnati’s modern streetcar project: Wendell Young (D), Kevin Flynn (C), Chris Seelbach (D), Yvette Simpson (D), Chris Bortz (R), Laure Quinlivan (D), Cecil Thomas (D), Roxanne Qualls (C), Nicholas Hollan (D), Jason Riveiro (D), Kathy Atkinson (I). A full list of individuals and organizations who oppose Issue 48 has been provided by Cincinnatians For Progress.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News

11.11.11 event to help reclaim Cincinnati’s acoustically renowned Emery Theatre

It started as a youthfully idealistic dream: reopening a local theatre that had fallen into disrepair. While viewing a nearby apartment, two young women spotted the Emery Theatre space and asked their rental agent about it. When told it would never reopen, they rose to the challenge and determined to bring the famed music venue back to life.

Mary Emery bequeathed the Samuel Hannaford-designed Emery Building to the city in 1911. For more than 20 years, its theatre housed the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Theatrical shows of all kinds took place there through the first half of the 20th century, and later it was used for film nights. For more than a decade, however, the theatre has been largely empty. Now two young leaders hope to engage the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and provide entertainment and educational opportunities at the Emery once again.


Inside Cincinnati’s famed Emery Theatre – photograph by 5chw4r7z.

The contemporary part of the story dates back to the fall of 2008 when Cincinnati-born Tina Manchise and Tara Lindsey Gordon, friends and collaborators in New York City, came to Cincinnati in the wake of the sudden death of Manchise’s mother. Gordon, a Boston native, loved Cincinnati and considered moving here after Manchise decided to stay back with family instead of returning to New York.

They decided to form a nonprofit called The Requiem Project to stabilize and restore the theatre. Early supporters included photographer Michael Wilson and downtown advertising firm Strata-G, which helped Gordon and Manchise secure grant funds. With the close partnership of the Emery Center Corporation, this acoustically-pure arts venue is now planned to be reopen by summer 2012.

“This project is about community investment,” Gordon said. They envision a broad range of uses for the many rooms included in the theatre area of the Emery Center building. “We aim to use every square inch of the space,” Manchise mentioned as she discussed the vision of a broad range of uses for the space that could include dance, music, drama, visual arts and more.

There have been 36 organizations to-date that have stepped up to support The Requiem Project. This Friday, a preview event dubbed 11.11.11 is planned to raise funds and allow Cincinnatians to explore the Emery’s artistic potential up close. Organizers also say that The Requiem Project will unveil its capital plan and renovation details at the event.

Tickets start at $75 and can be purchased online or by calling (513) 300-5669. The event will include performances by Madcap Puppet Theatre, Exhale Dance Tribe, and Over-the-Rhine.

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Business Development News

$400M Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati construction continuing at rapid pace

While city leaders would prefer to have the construction of the $400 million Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati further along, many are pleased with its current breakneck pace of work.

The development is beginning to fill up the notorious 22-acre Broadway Commons site that Jim Tarbell (D) had once envisioned to become the home of the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds eventually landed on the riverfront at the Great American Ball Park, and Broadway Commons continued to sit underutilized as a crumbling surface parking lot.

Developers of the new casino have thus far exceeded minority inclusion goals, and appear to be satisfying the desires of the surrounding community. Some of those efforts include not building a hotel on-site for the time being, and facing restaurants out towards the street instead of inward towards the casino floor.

The City of Cincinnati has been working with Bridging Broadway to ensure that the development leverages the best possible outcome for historic Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton and central business district. Recent efforts by city leaders include the approval of $27 million for streetscape enhancements in the immediate vicinity of the new casino.

Published author and UrbanCincy photographer Jake Mecklenborg visited the site in recent weeks in order to provide readers with an exclusive look at the progress taking place to transform one of the urban core’s most beleaguered sites into a vibrant destination expected to attract six million visitors annually.

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Business News Politics

City’s third Community Entertainment District designated in Price Hill

City and neighborhood leaders gathered in Price Hill yesterday to celebrate the designation of Cincinnati’s third Community Entertainment District (CED). The new CED will cover the Incline District and is expected to facilitate redevelopment efforts ongoing in the neighborhood.

Price Hill was required to go through an application process in order to receive the CED designation which requires that an area include entertainment, retail, sporting, cultural, and/or arts establishments.

Once the designation is in place it allows new restaurants to open with a liquor license thus reducing startup costs by an estimated $30,000. Nine additional liquor licenses will be up for grabs in the new Price Hill CED.


City and neighborhood leaders gather in Price Hill to celebrate the CED designation. Image provided.

“We decided to pursue the CED designation after seeing its potential to free up capital for smaller restaurateurs,” Diana Vakharia, director of operations at Price Hill Will, told UrbanCincy. “The costs of installing a commercial kitchen and other upgrades are burdensome enough.”

Vakharia said that the tools and resources provided with the designation will help Price Hill better compete in the initial years of economic revitalization taking place there.

In addition to the $50 million Incline Square development, a new residential development called The Flats reached 100 percent occupancy in 60 days, and the area is also soon house the region’s second Bayou Fish House location. Price Hill Will officials also say that property owners are in negotiations with another potential restaurant.

In total, the 48-acre Price Hill Community Entertainment District includes more than 70,000 square feet of commercial space available within existing and potential new structures.

In addition to Price Hill, Pleasant Ridge received the CED designation with the help of Cincinnati City Councilmember Laure Quinlivan (D) last December. Two other CED designations exist in downtown Cincinnati along the central riverfront for The Banks.

City officials say that neighborhood leaders in Over-the-Rhine, Northside and Madisonville are also working on applications to receive the coveted designation.

“Helping neighborhoods thrive and grow is my goal,” Councilmember Quinlivan said. “It’s going to be exciting to see what happens in the Incline District now.”