Tag: events

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Arts & Entertainment News Transportation

Meet OKI Executive Director Mark Policinski at this Month’s URBANexchange

In an effort to better connect you with the region’s land use and transportation decision makers, we are doing something different this month for URBANexchange.

Instead of meeting at the Moerlein Lager House for food, drinks, networking and conversation, we will be meeting at Memorial Hall for the OKI Reveal event.

At this event, the OKI Regional Council of Governments will be sharing the information they have gathered and developed thus far as part of their regional planning process. This past winter, they conducted a survey that asked participants to share their thoughts on how they want the region to grow. The results were decisive with respondents indicating that they want walkable communities that are well-connected by transit.

In addition to being able to share your comments and questions with OKI staff, those who attend OKI Reveal through URBANexchange will be treated to an exclusive meet and greet with OKI executive director Mark Policinski.

The URBANexchange meet and greet with Policinski will take place at the start of the event from about 5pm to 5:30pm. At 5:30pm, those in attendance will then be asked to join in on a group photo out on the steps leading into Memorial Hall.

Following the group photo, those in attendance will head back inside to continue learning about OKI’s regional planning process and hear from Tim Miller about the focus land use areas that have been developed thus far.

There will also be a special farewell tribute for Don Burrell, senior bike planner at OKI for 35 years who has decided to retire. Burrell, over the course of his career, has said that he has put more than 90,000 miles on his bike and is striving for 100,000.

The OKI Reveal event will last until about 7pm, and then those that are still in attendance will head across the street to Washington Park for live jazz out on the oval lawn for their fellow urbanists.

All of this is free and open to the public, but we do encourage you to RSVP online. If you want to meet with the URBANexchange group, we will meet on the sidewalk just in front of the steps leading into Memorial Hall starting at 4:45pm, and then head inside at 5pm.

Memorial Hall is accessible via several Metro bus routes and sits along the first phase of the Cincinnati Streetcar system. Those who bike to the event will be treated to a free bike valet courtesy of Queen City Bike.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News Opinion

PHOTOS: A Look Back at Spring in the Queen City

We have had an eventful spring at UrbanCincy. We’ve had our monthly URBANexchange events at Moerlein Lager House, we hosted the 2013 edition of Bikes+Brews, produced original videography and photography, and dozens of original stories.

Our annual Bikes+Brews ride on May 4 attracted our largest crowd yet and we traveled from Findlay Market through Over-the-Rhine, to Nicholson’s Pub in the Central Business District, across the Ohio River to Keystone Bar & Grill in Covington and The Elusive Cow Cafe in Bellevue, and then back across the river to Via Vite at Fountain Square.

Our URBANexchange events, meanwhile, continue to attract people who are new to Cincinnati and those that are interested in getting more involved with the growing urbanist movement in the Queen City. These events are smaller than the Bikes+Brews ride, but they tend to attract one to two dozen people to the biergarten at Moerlein Lager House. Hopefully we’ll see you at the next one on Wednesday, July 10 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm (come and go as you please).

With summer officially beginning this Friday, June 21, I thought it would be a good time to share 28 of my favorite photos from this spring. Enjoy!

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Business News

Craft Beer Series Continues at Findlay Market This Weekend

Elm Street Esplanade

Findlay Market is hosting a monthly craft beer series, focusing on local brewers, this summer at the OTR Biergarten.

The first weekend for the craft beer series took place in May and featured beer from MadTree Brewing Company. The next weekend for the series will occur this June 15-16, and will feature beers from Listerman/Triple Digit.

“Findlay Market is always trying to showcase anything and everything that has to do with ‘local’ Cincinnati,” explained Findlay Market’s public relations intern, Tanner Hinds. “We are a local, non-profit market and most of the business we delve into has some sort of local ties to Cincinnati or Over-the-Rhine.”

Other local brewers to be featured at the Craft Beer Series will include Blank Slate in July, Mt. Carmel in August, and Rivertown in September.

According to Hinds, featured brewers at the Craft Beer Series will be open from 11am to 5pm on Saturdays, and 12pm to 4pm on Sundays when there will also be live music.

In addition to the summer’s Craft Beer Series, the OTR Biergarten is open every weekend at the western entrance to the market house on the Elm Street Esplanade.

Findlay Market officials say that the event will take place every third week of the month until September when the season-long series will wrap up September 21-22.

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Arts & Entertainment News

URBANexchange Returns Tomorrow

Summer is in full swing and what better way to enjoy it than to grab some beer, eat some pretzels and meet new friends! URBANexchange returns this Wednesday evening at 5:30pm at the Morelein Lager House for our fourth URBANexchange of the year. The event is located at the Lager House’s biergarten which overlooks the scenic Jacob G. Schmidlapp lawn in the Smale Riverfront Park.

URBANexchange

The goal of the URBANexchange gatherings is to maintain a monthly event where fellow urbanists can gather to discuss what’s going on in the city, and meet others with similar interests as their own.

The event is a casual way to unwind from the day and an opportunity to meet similar like minded people. There is no formal presentation or formal anything. And as always there is no cover charge for attending.

We encourage people to come out, bring some friends, and make some new ones.

“I’ve been to many of the events this year and its been a great way to meet new people and have great discussions,” said Andrew Stahlke, a frequent visitor to URBANexchange, “There’s a wide range of discussions and people from different backgrounds and all walks of life.”

As usual, we host a small raffle at the end with prizes. At this month’s event we’ll be giving away two gift certificates to the Morelein Lager House.

A percentage of all purchases at URBANexchange go to support the operations of the adjacent Smale Riverfront Park. We hope to see you there!!

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Business News Politics

Cincinnati Expands, Streamlines Mobile Food Vending Zone Program

Last month Cincinnati City Council approved changes to the city’s Mobile Food Vending Program, which oversees food truck operators choosing to take advantage of mobile food vending zones throughout the city.

According to city officials, two new mobile food vending zones will be added in Over-the-Rhine. The changes were approved 8-1 by city council, with Councilmember Christopher Smitherman (I) casting the lone opposition vote.

The first is at Washington Park and will accommodate up to three food trucks at any given time. This location, officials say, will be open to mobile food vendors from 6am to 3pm, and will be open during evening hours based on agreements between the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) and those vendors who are in the program.

Cincinnati Food Truck at Court Street

The second Over-the-Rhine location will be at Twelfth and Clay Streets, and is the result of much negotiation with nearby restaurants that had been wary of a mobile food vending zone near their establishments. This location will accommodate up to two food trucks at a time, and unlike the Washington Park zone, will allow vendors to operate between 6pm and 3:30am.

The new Over-the-Rhine mobile food vending zones add to the other six locations in place throughout the city. According to Councilmember Laure Quinlivan (D), who first proposed legislation to create the mobile food vending program in 2010, those who would like to see mobile food vending zones established elsewhere throughout the city can contact her office at laure.quinlivan@cincinnati-oh.gov.

City officials say that all of the following official mobile food vending zones are open seven days a week, and are available to operators with mobile food vending licenses on a first come, first serve basis.

  • 12th/Clay Streets (6pm to 3:30am)
  • Court Street Market (6am -3pm)
  • Fountain Square/North Vine Street (6pm-3:30am)
  • Fountain Square/North Fifth Street (6am to 3:30am)
  • Fountain Square/South Fifth Street (6am to 3:30am)
  • Purple People Bridge (6am to 3:30am)
  • University Hospital (6am to 3:30am)
  • Washington Park zone (6am to 3pm)

“If you have additional mobile food vending zones you’d like to see created, please contact me to learn how to get it done,” Quinlivan stated. “The bottom line is that you need to get support for the new zone from nearby property owners.”

Cincinnati Food Truck Zones

Food truck operators interested in getting a mobile food vending license will not see their annual fees change from the current $600 for a six-month license or $1,000 for a full year. But, according to city officials, they will now apply through the Cincinnati Health Department in an effort to streamline the application and licensing process since the health department also must issue a health license for the food trucks.

Other approved changes include the elimination of the non-refundable $25 application fee, and structural changes for the mobile food vendor zone at the foot of the Purple People Bridge to allow for more consistent space availability for food truck operators.

Due to the court-issued restraining order on the City of Cincinnati, the changes could not take effect immediately, and will finally go into effect this Friday, May 17 following the required 30-day waiting period.

To celebrate, the Cincinnati Food Truck Association, Quinlivan and community leaders will gather at Washington Park this Friday at 11:30am to celebrate the new food truck zones.

“I’m excited our program has created jobs and livened up city streets,” Quinlivan stated. “I’m told we now have 28 mobile food trucks in Cincinnati and we hope all of them participate in our program.”