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Arts & Entertainment News Politics

November’s URBANexchange Takes Place Tonight at Moerlein Lager House

We are hosting the November URBANexchange tonight at the Moerlein Lager House. This will be a special event as it comes on the heels of Tuesday’s election and our Urbanist Candidates Forum last week.

As we begin our second year of URBANexchange events, we hope that these can become more engaging. We received lots of positive feedback from the young people that packed the Niehoff Studio last Tuesday for our Urbanist Candidates Forum, and we want to build on that momentum.

Moerlein Lager House

As a result, please join us in the biergarten at the Moerlein Lager House this evening anytime between 5:30pm and 8:30pm, and share with us the policies and issues you would like this new city council and mayor pursue. You can simply jot down your ideas on the back of a business card, sheet of paper, or email it to our area manager and editor at john.yung@urbancincy.com.

As always, the event will be a casual setting where you can meet others interested in what is happening in the city. We will gather in the biergarten so that each person can choose how much or little they buy in terms of food or drink. Although we do encourage our attendees to generously support our kind hosts at the Moerlein Lager House.

Going forward we will continue to gather ideas, from those who attend our URBANexchange events, and occasionally submit them to City Council. We are thinking of it as a sort of as an urbanist wish list.

Our team of researchers and writers will also occasionally dive further into the topics and publish the information and ideas on the website.

URBANexchange is free and open to the public.

We will be situated in the northwest corner of the biergarten (near the Moer To Go window), but you can also ask the host where the UrbanCincy group is located and they will be happy to assist.

The Moerlein Lager House is located on Cincinnati’s central riverfront and is located just one block from a future streetcar stop. Free and ample bike parking is available near our location in the biergarten outside by the Schmidlapp Event Lawn.

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News Politics

It’s Election Day: Get Out There and Vote!

Urbanist Candidates ForumVoting and participating in the democratic process is a fundamental element of our democracy.

This is your chance as a citizen to vote for those people you would like to represent you on Cincinnati City Council and the Cincinnati Board of Education. These are the people that will decide how to spend your tax dollars. These are the people that will chart the course for the city. These are the people that will decide how to represent you to others around the country and world.

This is important.

There are many significant issues on today’s ballot. Issue 1 is asking voters to renew a tax levy for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Issue 2 is requesting a tax levy renewal to provide maintenance funds for the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. And Issue 4 is seeking to majorly overhaul how the City of Cincinnati manages its pension system.

These are important issues.

In terms of representatives, voters in Cincinnati will elect a new mayor for the first time in eight years. They will also elect nine council members who, for the first time, will serve four-year terms.

These decisions are important.

As a result of continued state funding cuts for local governments, a wide array of school levies and other tax levies are on the ballot in communities across the region. Will these resources receive the funding they need, or will they experience trickle-down cuts from the state level?

That is an important question to answer.

There are 381 polling locations (find your voting location) serving Hamilton County’s 545 precincts, and each location is open today from 6:30am to 7:30pm.

Many experts believe that the turnout for today’s election will be less than 40% of registered voters. This and all elections are important. Make sure you get out there today and vote for the candidates you feel will best represent you, and support the issues you feel are important and add value to our community. It is your right and privilege as a citizen to do so. Vote.

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News Politics

Council Candidates Talk Urbanism at Forum

This past Wednesday we collaborated with the Niehoff Studio to host our first Urbanists Council Candidates Forum. The event drew a large group of young professionals and university students as 10 City Council candidates answered several questions about urban design, immigration, transportation and land use policy.

The first question outside of general introductions involved the candidates stance on immigration and what the city could do to attract new populations. These issues had been discussed before in our podcast on immigration. In general the candidates deferred to national policy including the immigration however some candidates pushed for an effort to increase bilingual signage.

The second question asked candidates about updating the regional mass transit plan. The plan, commonly known as MetroMoves, went to a vote in 2002 for funding through a sales tax increase. The tax failed that year and plans moved forward for the streetcar portion of the plan since the tax was widely supported within the city limits.


Video by Andrew Stalhke for UrbanCincy and Niehoff Urban Studio.

Candidates took the opportunity to use the question to elaborate on their positions regarding the streetcar. Candidate Greg Landsman (D)  reiterated his views on the streetcar from the op-ed published on UrbanCincy a few months ago, and mentioned that both an extension of the streetcar and the implementation of a regional transit system will require support from the private sector. P.G. Sittenfeld (D) said he would support a larger plan than the current system being constructed.

Candidate Melissa Wegman (R) responded by calling for more road connections to the west side and better highways. Councilmember Laure Quinlivan (D), meanwhile, called for the development of a comprehensive multi-modal system that includes more bicycle infrastructure.

The remaining candidates were asked about upgrading Union Terminal for inter-city passenger rail service. Councilman Wendell Young (D) provided a very in-depth response citing the conditions of the terminal and the freight companies that would need to be engaged in the discussion.

Three audience members also asked questions ranging from metro government, public safety to developing a sense of community.

Attendees said they came away feeling more informed about making decisions about candidates.

“I’m encouraged that public transportation has become a pivotal point for a lot of the candidates and I am encouraged by a lot of their answers,” AJ Knee, a UC student pursuing his Masters Degree with the School of Planning told UrbanCincy, “It was very helpful to have this kind of community engagement.”

It has long been a priority of UrbanCincy to better engage young people in the public policy discussions affecting their future. The large, predominately young turnout in Corryville is evidence that young people are becoming increasingly involved. For the 10 candidates that participated in our first Urbanist Council Candidates Forum last week, let’s hope your message resonated with those young urbanist voters.

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Up To Speed

Brent Spence Bridge on the outside looking in as Tappan Zee Bridge replacement gets $1.6B DOT loan

Brent Spence Bridge on the outside looking in as Tappan Zee Bridge replacement gets $1.6B DOT loan.

Originally built during the Korean War, the Tappan Zee Bridge is in need of replacement. The structure is old and requires a number of upgrades – much like Cincinnati’s Brent Spence Bridge. The State of New York was in need of financial assistance to get the $4 billion project moving (sound familiar?). That assistance came last week when the Federal Government announced a $1.6 billion loan for the project, thus ensuring its completion within five years. More from Engineering News Record:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) made the announcement Oct. 31, calling it “the largest loan the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has ever made for any project like this.”

The loan was made through the DOT’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program. Established in 1998, TIFIA has ramped up its lending recently, spurred by last year’s Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The DOT also began taking steps earlier this year to speed up the TIFIA loan approval process.

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News Politics

UrbanCincy Partners With Niehoff Studio to Host Urbanist Candidates Forum

Yesterday we highlighted the important planning efforts that will be affected by this year’s mayoral race. However the real legislative efforts will be carried out by the nine city council members elected on November 5th. Even though the newly elected mayor may have his or her own agenda starting December 1, often times council members are eager to begin working on their own priorities.

With a field of 21 candidates this year, we feel it is important for urban-minded people to hear what city council candidates have to say on some of the issues important to you, which is why tomorrow we are co-hosting the Urbanist Candidates Forum with the Niehoff Urban Design Studio.

Earlier this year we worked with the studio to host the successful Metropolis & Mobility event and are continuing that partnership this fall with the council candidates forum.

Forum Invite
In addition to the eight confirmed candidates listed on the banner, we have also received confirmations from Kevin Johnson, Shawn Butler and P.G. Sittenfeld.

This forum is an excellent opportunity voters interested in transportation, land use, sustainability and architecture to learn more about the Cincinnati city council candidates. We also hope this will help encourage your involvement in the public process going forward.

The forum will focus on issues important to urbanists. Some of those issues will include topics we typically cover on this site including transportation, economic development, sustainability and other planning topics.

The event is free and will run from 6:30pm to 8pm. Food and drink will be provided by neighborhood establishments.

The Niehoff Studio can be reached via the #24 and #78 Metro bus lines.