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Bringing street vendors to life in Cincinnati

It’s the smell of the roasted nuts while taking a stroll through Midtown Manhattan, the ambiance of the taco trucks in Los Angeles, the frenzy of activity and chatter in Chinatown, and even the echoes of the “peanuts, bottled water…cheaper out here than inside,” from the vendors on your way to the game.

In so many ways street vendors add activity and life to our otherwise lifeless and cold streetscapes. And whether you’re grabbing a quick snack, lowly meal, or are just passing by, we are all impacted by the life these vendors add. This is a point that William H. Whyte hit on in his 1980 book entitled The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.

“If you want to seed a place with activity, put out food. In New York, at every plaza or set of steps with a lively social life, you will almost invariably find a food vendor at the corner and a knot of people around him – eating, schmoozing, or just standing.”

And, as Whyte continued, “vendors have a good nose for spaces that work.” So while it should be a goal to increase the amount of vendors we have on our streets, so that we’re increasing the amount of social activity that is occuring, it is even more important to create the urban spaces that foster this kind of environment.

LEFT: Produce vendors at the Court Street Marketplace attract distributors, browsers and shoppers alike. RIGHT: A typical daytime vendor at 6th & Vine streets in downtown Cincinnati serves up customers and attracts a line of people. Photos by Randy A. Simes.

In Cincinnati we have the typical daytime vendor serving up hot dogs and other like delicacies, the standard vendors selling knock off sunglasses and jewelry, the game day vendors for Reds/Bengals games, and now Nada’s new taco stand. But can Cincinnati grow its street vendor scene and foster even more lively urban spaces?

The fact of the matter is that these street vendors open because they either see a market demand and an opportunity to make money, or they are too small to open up their own store or restaurant that meets the necessary codes. In relation to this issue James Cox writes:

“One of the largest hurdles a developing restaurateur or chef needs to overcome is the initial cash outlay for a licensed and inspected kitchen from which to produce the food one sells. You need a fire suppression system in the ventilation system and a gas shut-off valve that is connected to the whole thing. You need a certain amount of space between the stove and the wall to allow emergency escape if there is a fire. You need NSF-Certified work surfaces and either high-heat or chemical sanitation systems in your dishwasher.”

As Cox discusses the issue from a Portland perspective he then identifies the “Domestic Food Service License” that has been created there to allow individuals to make food for sale to the public out of their home kitchen legally. This simple, yet politically complicated, issue has fostered one of America’s best street vendor communities complete with taco trucks, cookie vendors, chocolatiers, and a variety of ethnic foods. And while boosting the amount of street activity through additional street vendors, the policy has also helped Portland’s thriving farmers markets.

Nada’s new taco cart attracts people to the corner of 5th & Elm streets in downtown Cincinnati. The self-congestion theory is demonstrated here as people cluster around one another even though ample space is provided. Photo by 5chw4r7z.

For Portland it was less about the design of their urban spaces and more about the policies that govern this interesting group of entrepreneurs. And I would say that Cincinnati is in a similar position where our urban spaces are already well-suited for dynamic and vibrant street life. What is needed now is a more flexible approach to dealing with those looking to operate in such a way.

Let the street vendors grow organically, where they want, when they want, and how they want. Provide as few hurdles as possible and only require the information needed to keep track of the total volume of the street vendors. By embracing these individuals we not only create an avenue for more small businesses, and the grassroots innovators, but we can also create a better city by spurring more activity.

So what food vendors would you like to see in Cincinnati? Where would you like to see them? Is it possible for Cincinnati to facilitate an environment where street vendors flourish?

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News Politics

The Separation State

Separating literally every facet of our lives is not a natural thing and, more so than anywhere else, is a uniquely American ethos. We work in one place, live in another, play elsewhere and so on. People drive in one place, walk in another, bicycle somewhere else and exercise in yet another locale. But what’s the harm in all this, if there is any?

The most obvious and troubling issue this separation causes is the “spatial mismatch” which I have written about in the past. By distributing our daily activities across our cities into separate quarters we have successfully placed an unnecessary burden on our transport networks, negatively impacted our environment and personal health, and squander limited resources (oil, personal time, and cash to name a few) on these unnecessary behaviors.

This mindset of separating virtually every facet of our lives, I would contend, goes even further as it damages our social capital and interpersonal skills. Instead of walking down the street for work, coffee, or just to enjoy the evening, we are instead stuck in our personal vehicles of transportation. Instead of mixing in physical activity throughout our normal routines, we separate our physical activities from the rest of our daily activities and then we turn on the world of the iPod where we can choose exactly our form of distraction, and at the same time, turn off the rest of the world.

On one hand you have the issue of an urban land use and planning problem that may be too much to solve, and on the other, you have a social capital problem that may be signify the end to a great society based around people and relationships that is being replaced by instant gratification and personal joy.

In Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Charles Putnam wrote that the decline in social capital in the United States started back in the 1950s, and that this loss of in-person social intercourse poses major threats to Democracy which relies heavily on active civil engagement for a strong society.

Looking back on things you might understand why America is where it is in terms of this situation. The rest of Europe had largely been developed and was already structurally and socially built in a way that encouraged a type of society built around social capital. American, on the other hand, suffered from modern fears of nuclear attack, smog and over-pollution from the industrial revolution, crime and social unrest, and the many other ills that go along with a growing society.

But with any society, we are learning from our past. The New Urbanism movement is working against the notion that Euclidean Zoning is still needed in a post-industrial society with its Form Based Zoning alternative. The younger generations out there seem to also be moving in a direction that is placing social capital and experiences before most other items. This can all be seen in the rapid movement of people from their previously separated suburban housing typologies back into the urban fold where they are once again falling back into the comfort of human scale at the neighborhood level.

Neighborhoods and cities where people can be people are more valuable than any quantifiable measure can judge. Social experiences are what sets the human race apart from any other animal and it should be celebrated by building communities that foster this kind of behavior, and in turn, celebrate the beauty of the human race.

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Arts & Entertainment News Politics Transportation

New York’s MTA Director of Sustainability speaks at USGBC forum

The USGBC Cincinnati Regional Chapter teamed up with the City of Cincinnati, Duke Energy and Structurepoint, Inc to present an open forum discussion with the public regarding the role of mass transit and sustainability in Cincinnati on Thursday, October 1 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati. New York City’s Director of Sustainability Initiatives for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), Projjal K. Dutta, started off the discussion with a presentation about the importance of mass transit sustaining the growth and density of cities. He compared the transit system in New York during the early 1900s to its growth in the 1940s. As the city grew to its outer boroughs, the subway tracks followed as well.

In cities with well established public transit systems, the social stigma associated with riding public transportation is non-existent. The man making 2 million dollars a year rubs shoulders on the subway with the guy who panhandled enough to pay for a ride. As Dutta said, “in Munich, you can own a Mercedes and still take the U-Bahn in to work.” The ultimate result is to give citizens a choice in how efficiently they want to travel, not to force them to choose only one option.

Bicyclists embrace at Philadelphia City Hall’s subway station entrance.

Dutta also spoke of how we should view public transit. Is transit a social good, like clean drinking water, or should it be viewed as a business model in which to make a profit? He talked about other country’s methods for generating revenue for their public transit; be it selling the land on either side of the transit to developers, or raising the gas tax to use it for transit funding (Ohio’s gas tax is by law used only for highway maintenance and highway patrol). In any account, it is a hard issue to tackle.

After his presentation there was an open discussion between members of the audience and a panel of representatives from the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK), Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, The Banks development team, and the City. Questions ranged from the panelists real feelings about the Cincinnati Streetcar, to the maintenance costs for transit and how that is affecting the systems we already have.

TANK and SORTA are both optimistic about the long term future. TANK is currently working with Northern Kentucky University on several new pieces of technology to improve efficiency and convenience for bus riders. Metro and TANK are both planning new hubs to improve cross-county travel from east to west. As has been previously noted, SORTA’s short-range financial outlook is “dismal.” The difference between the Metro bus system in Cincinnati and TANK is that the Northern Kentucky system gets money from the county for operating costs, and SORTA gets no money from sales tax in Hamilton County.

Pedestrians, buses, trains and bicyclists peacefully coexist in Chicago.

One audience member wondered aloud why we couldn’t just use an integrated bus system (as opposed to rail) to drive up development and save on infrastructure costs. Mr. Dutta succinctly stated, “there is no better marker of intent than putting rails into the ground.” Bus lines can easily be changed, where as developers can be certain that a streetcar or rail line won’t be going anywhere any time soon.

The unanimous agreement from the panelists was that sustainable transit is not only attainable but absolutely necessary in Cincinnati. When we put all our eggs in the highway basket, we can’t properly sustain this city. Todd Kinskey, the director of the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, finished up the discussion by saying “there’s no choice but to get out of the car. We keep ripping out neighborhoods and building highways. Why add another lane of traffic when it’s just going to get clogged?”

What sort of crisis is it going to take to get the majority of Cincinnatians to wake up and realize that the automobile is not the end all be all of travel? Apparently the economic disaster that has been the last year was not enough. We need to take the steps forward now to invest in our future, before we wake and realize that the way we do things now is not enough. Integrating all forms of transit- cars, rail, bikes, buses and people – is the most successful, sustainable option for our fantastic city.

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News

Urban Evolution: The Cincinnati Streetcar

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Development News Politics Transportation

The 3C Corridor and its impacts on Cincinnati

Representatives from the Ohio’s Department of Transportation traveled to City Hall last week to host an open forum discussing and explaining the 3C passenger rail project to Cincinnatians. This proposal will connect Cincinnati to Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland via passenger rail, and a group of about 30 people gathered at City Hall to get more information on the upcoming project and voice their opinions on the project and how it will affect Cincinnati.

The 3C representatives went through a detailed presentation outlining the plan that will be submitted to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for funding. If funding is approved for this project, there will be a preliminary “Quick Start” phase to get the rail up and running as quickly as possible. In this first phase it will take approximately 6.5 hours to ride the train from Cincinnati to Cleveland, with the trains reaching speeds of up to 79 miles per hour.

The eventual goal is to develop high-speed rail in Ohio, with trains traveling up to 110 miles per hour, and eventually connecting into the larger Midwest regional rail plan often referred to as the Chicago Hub. At these speeds the travel time from Cincinnati to Cleveland will be reduced to approximately 3.5 hours. Future hubs will create more stops than the six that are currently proposed. The current recommended route that will be submitted with the proposal includes hubs in Cleveland proper, south Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, north Cincinnati, and Cincinnati proper.

So how does this affect Cincinnati? Having reliable passenger rail connecting the public throughout the state of Ohio is fantastic. Of course, high-speed rail is the preferable (and eventual) goal, but one has to wonder how effective taking “baby steps” towards rail will be as opposed to tackling high-speed rail in one fell swoop.

The biggest concern at the meeting was the location of the train station that would service the greater Cincinnati area. The research group initially picked three locations to focus on: the Queensgate area, an area near Riverside Drive/the Boathouse/Sawyer Point, or a station located farther east, near Lunken Airport. All three of these options naturally have their drawbacks. The Queensgate area already deals with large amounts of freight traffic, and the concern was that there would be too much congestion in the area to make that stop feasible.

The proposed “Option one” (Riverside Drive) area was the station that caused the most concern and alarm among residents who were in attendance at the meeting. Denise Driehaus, a state representative who hails from the West Side, voiced her concern that locating the station on the far southeast side of the City would set up obstacles for citizens traveling from the west side. It is also less advantageous from a retail and tourism perspective, as newcomers to the Cincinnati will be dropped off on the east side rather than more towards the city center.

There were several East End citizen groups who were concerned about the Option One site for different reasons. Over the course of several years, citizen groups and people from the area have worked hard to create a “Riverfront Renaissance” consisting of the network of parks and housing in that particular area. These citizens are concerned that a new diesel train station would disturb the views and tear down the aforementioned parks. All of these proposed stations are, as of now, only temporary locations. As the Riverfront Renaissance spokesman stated, “temporary’ is measured in decades in Cincinnati.”

As of the meeting, the ODOT representatives stated that they had not come to a conclusion on which Cincinnati site they would choose to include in the October 2nd proposal. However, Jason from Somewhere Over-the-Rhine cites an article from the Enquirer stating that the backlash from this open forum meeting prompted officials to choose the Lunken Airport site as opposed to the eastern riverfront area.

There are obvious drawbacks to this site as well, the most obvious being its distance from the Cincinnati’s center city and its attractions and accommodations for business and leisure travelers alike. There is also the issue of being so far away from the existing Amtrak service that connects Cincinnati with Indianapolis and Chicago to the west, and Washington D.C. to the east – both of which run out of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal in Queensgate.

What are your thoughts?