Tag: young professionals

Categories
Arts & Entertainment Business News

PHOTOS: Mayor Mallory Energizes Supporters at Streetcar Social

Mayor Mallory Addresses the Crowd

Hosting their monthly Streetcar Social, Cincinnatians for Progress braved the summer heat wave at Rhinegeist Brewery as crowds gathered to listen to the featured speaker of July.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory (D) took to the stage, presenting an update on phase one of the Cincinnati Streetcar project, to a room filled with approximately 200 supporters. Several City Council members were also present, including Wendell Young (D), Laure Quinlivan (D), Chris Seelbach (D), and representatives for Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls (C) and City Council Candidate Mike Moroski (I).

The Mayor spent the beginning of the event mingling with the crowd, followed by delivering a 20-minute presentation that recapped the official signing of the streetcar construction contract with Messer, and the continued progress with utility relocation along the phase one route.

An updated CAF streetcar model was shown with interior finishes, and Mayor Mallory explained that Cincinnati’s five streetcars will have cutting-edge technology that will be the first of their kind to operate in North America.

Mayor Mallory also showed a rendering of the streetcar maintenance facility, which will be erected in the lot adjacent to Rhinegeist, and explained that the current cinder-block structure will be demolished so that the new facility can be built along Henry Street.

“We’ve decided to name the maintenance facility the Center of Advanced Streetcar Technology, or COAST for short,” Mallory quipped to a boisterous audience, as he commented about the anti-streetcar group with the same acronym.

The mayor continuously expressed his gratitude for supporters, both new and those who have been on for the long haul.

“Investing in the Cincinnati Streetcar will help stabilize the city’s tax base and repopulate the Queen City; the greatest challenge facing us today.”

All photographs were taken by Paige Malott and Travis Estell for UrbanCincy.

Categories
Business News

Shoppers Organize New Event to Support Evening Hours at Findlay Market

In 2009, Findlay Market decided to expand its hours of operation and add Sunday hours for the first time. While the addition of the Sunday business has been extremely successful, it has been more challenging for vendors and management to get customers familiar with the idea that the public market is open until 6pm every night.

In order to help grow awareness of this, a group of passionate Findlay Market shoppers have decided to organize what they are calling Findlay After Four.

Shoppers at Findlay Market

The event, which will take place today for the first time, will occur every Thursday from 4pm to 6pm.

“Successful retail today is about having the right in-store activities and promotions to drive loyalty and sales,” explained Karen Kahle, Resource Development Director, Findlay Market. “To support the Findlay After Four shopper campaign, each Thursday we will be offering a variety of activities.”

Kahle says this Thursday’s event will include a cooking demonstration by Julie Francis of Nectar, craft beer at the OTR Biergarten from Christian Moerlein and MadTree, a wine tasting at Market Wines, and free raffle giveaways.

The group of shoppers that have organized the weekly event are encouraging those who attend to bring their friends, family and anyone who wants to join in and support evening hours of operation at Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market.

“Our goal is to chip away at the perception that the market is not always open until 6:00 and to attract OTR, downtown and uptown workers and residents to the market on weekdays,” Kahle concluded. “We hope you’ll check it out and help spread the word!

Categories
Business News Transportation

Riding Double-Digit Growth, Megabus Adds New Service in Cincinnati

Megabus has added new service between Cincinnati and Lexington, bringing the total number of direct destinations out of Cincinnati to nine (Atlanta, Buffalo, Chattanooga, Chicago, Columbus, Erie, Indianapolis, Knoxville, and Lexington).

The new Lexington service, which runs twice a day with 9am and 9pm departures from the 4th/Race Street Stop, continues the growth of inter-city bus travel out of Cincinnati.

In December 2010, Greyhound Express service was added out of the bus operator’s center city terminal, and Chinatown bus operators have added service since being profiled on UrbanCincy in February 2012.

Cincinnati Megabus
Megabus has seen continued ridership growth in Cincinnati, but may have to soon relocate its downtown stop due to reconstruction of Tower Place Mall. Photograph by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

Megabus itself added a second station in Cincinnati at the University of Cincinnati earlier this year, due to requests from the institution and its riders, and it has bolstered service on other routes through the acquisition of Lakefront Lines in 2008.

“We launched the brand in April 2006, and it was a major and exciting event because we didn’t know how it would go,” explained Mike Alvich, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations for Megabus.com.

Since its launch seven years ago, routes to Indianapolis and Chicago remain the most popular. Megabus officials also say that the Cincinnati hub has experienced double-digit ridership growth and has served as a critical component of its growing national network.

“Cincinnati has been one of the jewels in our crown since our story began,” Alvich stated.

While Megabus officials would not comment on specific ridership totals, they did note that inter-city bus travel has been growing faster than both intercity rail and air travel in recent years, with Megabus experiencing 30% growth between 2011 and 2012.

Part of the reason, Alvich says, is the fact that inter-city bus travel is now time-competitive and significantly cheaper than air travel and it offers growing cost savings over cars.

Inter-city trains, meanwhile, continue to see a lack of investment and service, even though ridership has grown on that mode at a faster rate than air travel in recent years, and is setting ridership records.

“We consider ourselves to have two real competitors,” Alvich explained. “The first is the car, and the second are people’s concerns that they cannot afford to travel nowadays. As a result, people are staying at home or going somewhere local…so in a way we’re also competing with people’s couches and air conditioners.”

Another factor with the continued growth on inter-city bus service is the different transportation preferences among Millennials and aging Baby Boomers.

For Megabus, the largest share of their customers is people from the ages between 18 and 39. But Alvich notes that some of their fastest-growing demographics are seniors and families.

He also says that approximately 55% of their riders are women, and says that a consistent source of business for Megabus is groups of three to five women going on short weekend trips together.

Additional changes appear imminent for intercity bus operators in Cincinnati, as the Greyhound Bus Terminal is surrounded by the Horseshoe Casino and the main Megabus stop at Fourth/Race will soon become a construction zone. Officials at both companies said that plans have not been agreed upon yet, but that they are tracking the situation and will make changes as necessary.

Categories
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!

Categories
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!!