Tag: opinion

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Arts & Entertainment News

Remembering Erich Kunzel

Aside from conducting the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and appearing on PBS for many years, Erich Kunzel conducted many other orchestras, including the Boston Pops. The home of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in Cincinnati was Music Hall, which is located in the old German district known as Over-the-Rhine.

Kunzel’s dream was to locate the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) in Cincinnati in the Over-the-Rhine district just a block or so from Music Hall. In addition to this, he helped raise funds for this endeavor. Unfortunately, Erich Kunzel recently passed away as a result of cancer and will not see his dream soon come to fruition.

Many sought to honor him for all he did for the city of Cincinnati and the world of music. So, the street in front of Music Hall was given the additional name of “Erich Kunzel Way” by the Cincinnati City Council, while at the same time retaining its name as Elm Street.

An additional honor was sought by many to name the SCPA School after him, with the final result that the building complex of the school will be named the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts & Education.

As President of the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati, I appeared at the November meeting of the Cincinnati School Board, stating:

“Maestro Kunzel’s efforts not only spearheaded financial support for the construction of SCPA, but they also led to its location in downtown Cincinnati near Music Hall in historic Over-the-Rhine, the home of his beloved Pops Orchestra.”

Kunzel was a good friend of the German-American community and proud of his German heritage. Although it was hoped that the new school would bear his name, the compromise reached does place his name on the building complex in Over-the-Rhine and most likely will become generally known as the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts and Education.

German-Americans in Cincinnati, therefore, can be proud to have done their part in obtaining this honor for Maestro Kunzel, a great German-American, who was well known throughout the world.

A collection of his recordings was just issued entitled “Erich Kunzel – Cincinnati Pops Orchestra: The Legacy Collection.” It contains a selection of fifteen of his favorite musical pieces, concluding with “Stars & Stripes Forever,” by John Philip Sousa, who also was of German descent.

Yours truly,
Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann

Don Heinrich Tolzmann serves as president of the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati & Curator of the German Heritage Museum. The author of many books on Cincinnati’s German heritage, he also is Associate Publisher and Columnist for Germerica.net. His forthcoming book due this spring is on Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine.

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News

How can Findlay Market drive additional traffic?

Findlay Market is looking for ideas on ways in which the historic market can be improved to drive additional traffic. To voice your opinion please visit Iron Bridge and vote on the poll on the right-hand side of the page.

Findlay Market has been experiencing a resurgence lately with increased traffic and vendors, but problems still exist. Access can be difficult for some, weekday operations remain slower than desired, evening hours are still limited, and marketing has been a challenge when working with such a diverse group of vendors.

As the historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood continues to repopulate itsef, and as interest continues to grow in buying local goods from local merchants, the market’s future appears to be bright. Innovative ideas and suggesstions will help Findlay Market move into the next stage of its long life with a renewed energy and spirit.

How can Findlay Market drive additional traffic? VOTE HERE!

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News

Brian Kelly decides to jump ship…NEXT MAN IN!

Well it’s official. Brian Kelly did what everyone thought he would do and follow in the footsteps of Mark Dantonio. The reports are out that Notre Dame will announce Brian Kelly as their next head coach, and BK will more than likely not spend a minute more with his dedicated players and team after the team’s banquet this evening.

It’s a perfect ending to a perfect season in a sick kind of way. The whole year the team played with the motto of “Next Man In” almost as if Brian Kelly saw the writing on the wall months ago that he would cut and run on his team before the biggest game in UC football history. Three short seasons ago BK joined the Bearcats and coached them to an International Bowl championship, PapaJohns.com Bowl championship, then two consecutive Big East championships with a disappointing performance at last year’s Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

BK has made the most of his players and turned the program into a national powerhouse building off of the foundation that Mark Dantonio so nicely poured for him. Now BK is off to Notre Dame where the cabinet won’t be left quite as full and the expectations not quite so low.

In Cincinnati, BK was on his way to becoming a local legend and turning the Bearcats into the premier football school in the Big East with perennial BCS bowl games and National Championships on the line. At Notre Dame BK will be expected to win National Championships from the beginning and anything less will be a disappointment.

The news comes on the heels of the Bearcats undefeated season where they repeated as Big East Champions and in which they came just one second or a missed field goal away from playing for the National Championship. Bearcat fans rewarded the team and BK by turning out record crowd, after record crowd at Nippert…and by selling out the team’s entire 17,500 ticket allotment to the Sugar Bowl where the Bearcats will play the Florida Gators.

Add in the fact that BK’s seniors poured their hearts into a game that will go into the history books (video) against Pittsburgh in the final game of the regular season where they came from 21 points down to win in the waning seconds by 1 point. It was such an emotional and important win that senior leaders Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard broke out into tears of joy…but who cares.

BK certainly has a fat paycheck waiting on him in South Bend in addition to a slew of absurd benefits. He will also be able to play under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus, and be judged by fans who feel more entitled to everything and anything, without any real reason. BK will also be taking over a team that hasn’t had a defense in years, and whose two best offensive players just declared themselves for the NFL Draft.

The University of Cincinnati is a top-notch school and program, and Cincinnati is not some stepping stone city. As much as I love Bearcat football, and what BK has done for it, he’s gone now and I’ve moved on. Good riddance BK, and I wish you as much luck at ND as Dantonio has had at Michigan State.

In the mean time, watch this GREAT VIDEO on the Bearcats instant classic win over Pittsburgh. It’s inspirational and the sound track is perfect given this news. BK, you’re just the past now. It’s our time.

Categories
News Politics Transportation

The Quickest Way to a Misleading Generalization is Always Through COAST

Over the course of the past two years I have been privileged to debate the merits of rail transportation with COAST’s Mark Miller on several occasions. These conversations often lasted extended periods of time and often included a statement from Miller that went something like this: “I’m not opposed to rail, I just want the voters to have a say on the matter…I actually think a better transportation system would be a good thing for Cincinnati.”

The problem is that these words are not followed up by actions that support them. COAST decided to draft an all-encompassing charter amendment that would have forced all passenger rail investments to go before a public vote no matter how big or small. Since COAST’s special interest agenda against passenger rail options for Cincinnatians failed miserably at the polls November 3rd, the group has continued to hammer away at the merits of all passenger rail transportation.

COAST’s most recent press conference held outside of City Hall quickly turned into a “chaos filled with lies” and even a minor shoving match according to reports (here & here).

In COAST’s most recent blog post entitled “The Most Expensive Distance Between Two Points is Always a Rail Line,” they cite a recent story from the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail Reporter that identified a recent decision by a Network Rail manager to send their employees to a conference by bus instead of by rail due to costs. The sweeping claim, made by COAST, didn’t take long to garner a response on their very own blog:

“Go to National Express, they have both bus and train fares on their website for the UK. A same-day, one-way ticket from Coventry to Reading by rail in 37 pounds and takes 1 hour 15 minutes. A same-day, one-way ticket from Coventry to Reading by bus is 18 pounds 60 cents, and takes 4 hours 55 minutes. If three hours and forty minutes is worth less than $30.49, take the bus. Otherwise the train is a better idea.”

Time valuation aside, there is still that sweeping claim that a rail line is always the most expensive distance between two points. What about air travel? If you were making late Thanksgiving travel plans from Cincinnati to Chicago a roundtrip air ticket would cost you around $473 on Delta, while a roundtrip train ticket would cost you around $105 on Amtrak.

Even with that said, I wonder how much a last minute trip from Cincinnati to Chicago would cost on a helicopter, taxi cab, luxury ocean liner (if possible), a jet pack, or limousine. Don’t be fooled by COAST’s deceiving tactics that are geared to do nothing more than promote their own special interest agenda and muddy the debate surrounding public transportation. But perhaps urban strategist Aaron Renn summed it up best when he discussed COAST’s agenda earlier this year:

“Organizations that exist simply to oppose things without any positive vision of what they want to achieve deserve a skeptical eye.”

Support Cincinnati and its transportation choices.

Categories
Business Development News Politics

What happened to the locavore movement?

The news is out that the Atlanta-based Carter/Dawson development team has selected Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC as the general contractor for the private development portions of The Banks. The Carter/Dawson team stated in a press release that Brasfield & Gorrie is “one of the largest privately-held contracting firms in the nation, and brings their extensive successful experience in building complex, mixed-use, vertically integrated developments in dense urban areas.”

This may be all well and good but the issue I have is that they’re based out of Birmingham. It’s not that there is anything wrong with Birmingham, or Atlanta for that matter, but there are huge sums of public money going into The Banks development. These tax dollars should be spent in the taxpayer’s best interest, and with unemployment hovering around 10 percent, we should be demanding that these contracts be awarded to local companies who will be employing Cincinnatians.

The Banks development plan – rendering provided.

It’s much like the rationale behind shopping local. When you award contracts to local companies they’ll hire people in the region, those people will take that money and upkeep their homes, go shopping, eat out, and support the local economy. When we give these contracts away to someone else there goes much of that money.

I can’t say for sure whether Brasfield & Gorrie is the best firm for the job, because they very well might be, but I do know that there are qualified companies here locally that would have loved the opportunity to not only get this contract, but also make a lasting impact on the city they call home. The one bright spot is that Brasfield & Gorrie has committed to achieving the development team’s goal of at least 30 percent SBE participation, and committed to utilizing a “significant amount of local talent to get the job done efficiently and effectively.”

Phase 1A of The Banks development – rendering provided.

Brasfield & Gorrie is expected to start assembling their team on site almost immediately and will begin construction on the overbuild of Phase 1A in December with a set completion date of Spring 2011. Once complete, The Banks will represent a total private investment around $600 million. Paul Brown Stadium, Great American Ball Park, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Riverfront Transit Center are all complete and part of Cincinnati’s Riverfront Master Plan developed by Urban Design Associates. The Central Riverfront Park is under construction now and will compliment the entire development.