But It Has a Sign!!

How can Cincinnati Mills be failing? It's in the suburbs where Malls are King. It has plenty of free parking. Finally, it has a massive sign out front, which, as Larry Gross helped point out, is the key to any Mall's success.

Sign of a Change on Main?

Great news for the local theatre scene with the announcement of the New Stage Collective getting a permanent space on Main Street. They'll be using the old Jekyll and Hyde's building. They will transform the 2nd floor into a very challenging but fresh theater space. For more information on the New Stage Collective, check out their website at www.newstagecollective.com. Be sure to review the announcement of NSC's new season with more details on the new space.

County Jail in Camp Washington?

A deal on where the new Hamilton County Jail will be built appears to be complete. How we pay for it is a whole different story.

Ummmm? Bronson?

I can understand that Peter Bronson is complaining about the angst on City Council, which he help create, but other than that, I don't get his point here. The only thing I get is that he thinks the CHRC is bloated and thinks this is all about money. It can't be about power or be personal? It also can't be the fact that this is an election year and candidates need money and votes and need to get the attention that conflict brings to help get money and votes.

Downtown Hop Around Returns April 21

The Downtown Hop Around is set to skip into downtown again on April 21. Stay tuned to their website for more details.

Is CPD Doing Its Job?

If the Cincinnati Police Department is able and willing to do their jobs, then why does former police officer and current City Council member Cecil Thomas want the sheriff to patrol 5 other neighborhoods in the city?

Also in this article, one is getting the sense that Council member Jeff Berding is sucking up to the Westside:

Council member Jeff Berding asked that Westwood and Price Hill be added to the list.

The FOP is screaming about this, but frankly, who gives a rat's ass?

Loving 'The Chester'

No one is safe from young thugs

Blitzing Price Hill

The City is putting effort into cleaning parts of Price Hill using "ode enforcement officers, police officers, beautifiers and social-service agencies." Will it work? Will it be effective in the long run?

Greg Harris for Cincinnati City Council

Greg's campaign website is up and running.

Have You No Shame, Peter Bronson?

Peter Bronson must learn to leave someone like Johnny Cash and Cash's lyrics out of is trite columns.

I have to ask Peter Bronson something, and I have sent him an email asking, we'll see if I get a response. If he is so pro-freedom to allow smoking, where was his column attacking the anti-freedom anti-gay marriage ban in Ohio 2 years ago? The Text of my email:

Peter,

Question for you: If you are so pro-freedom to be against the smoking ban, where was your column attacking the anti-freedom anti-gay marriage ban in Ohio 2 years ago? It is far more "un-American" than the smoking ban, which is far less restrictive than how alcohol sales are anyway. Nice to see your selective support of freedom is still unchanged.

Sincerely,

Brian Griffin

I patiently await his reply.

More City Council Battles

The mood is getting very sour in council these days as the majority 5 are getting rather rambunctious. My question is on this section:

Since passing the budget in December, Bortz said, the city has had an additional $1 million in expenses for a police contract that will be more expensive than what council budgeted for, and he said upcoming contracts for firefighters and other city union workers are likely to add costs.

Is this a new police contract just negotiated or the same crappy one from before?

Get Out the Blind Fold

Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State, is formulating a plan to draft election poll workers. No details on who would be eligible for the draft and if they could refuse or if employers would be required to give people time off if called up.

NAACP Mahem?

Nate has a very detailed description of an incident at last week's NAACP meeting were Justin Jeffre was allegedly physically thrown out of the meeting.

She's a Gypsy, the Acid Queen

I made the trek out to Northside last night to check out a new place, the Gypsy Hut, located at Spring Grove and Dane. My attraction to this particular night has to with the band playing, the High and Low, almost as much as checking out a new venue. The band is becoming one of my new favorites of the hour. They have a mix of styles that give them a sound I really enjoy.

The show was good, but the atmospheres of the night were much more of the star. When we got there at about 11:00 PM we took a self guided tour of the place, which takes about 45 seconds, ending up in the main room, which is off to the left as you walk in the main door. It's a good sized room. While there I scanned the crowd looking for people I know or at least recognize from around. I saw no one I knew. I did see this odd looking fellow with straight shoulder length black hair and black Buddy Hollyesque glasses. I had to confirm with my friend that this indeed the bass player for the Greenhornes and Raconteurs, Jack Lawrence. The guitarist/singer for the Greenhornes and a former member were slated to be the DJs after the show. I honestly don't know if I could recognize the rest of either the Greenhornes or the Raconteurs, even Jack White not in costume. Jack Lawrence stands out. If the rest of the Greenhornes were there, I didn't know.

The Gypsy Hut is a nice dive. Pretty good selection of beers, there was no cover, and an interesting crowd of Northside/local music regulars makes for fun night out. Parking wasn't too bad, but there is only street parking in what is the edge of an industrial part of town. I spent a few moments watching a couple of trains drive by in the near distance while sitting by the front window. We had one of the only two tables in the front room, which is the place to be situated for watching the interesting hairstyles (blue feathers???, clothing choices (mostly rock-chic), and drunken flirting (not with or by me).

One of my friends described the image he first thought of when told about the new club in Northside. The image of a classic Pizza Hut building propped up on one side with a giant chicken leg is what came to mind. That might be a great graphic for the place to use, assuming they avoid the inevitable lawsuit.

The Gypsy Hut is a strong addition to the Northside Bar scene. It is a little bit of a hike away from the main hub on Hamilton Ave, but it may be the tipping point to establish the neighborhood as a rising locale for nightlife in Cincinnati.

Mallory Marches Against Iraq War

Mayor Mark Mallory is in DC today at the anti-war rally. Here's the press release:

Mayor Mark Mallory is attending a peace march in Washington, DC today. In DC for the Winter Meeting of the US Conference of Mayors, Mallory met up and marched with Councilman David Crowley and a delegation of over 100 Cincinnatians. The Cincinnati delegation was organized by the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, located in Over-the-Rhine. The group of citizens from all over the Cincinnati area traveled overnight on two buses to participate in the peace rally and march.



“I am here today with to support our troops and to stand up and say enough is enough. It is becoming increasingly clear that the situation in Iraq is not getting any better. I do not believe that putting more of our brave men and women in harms way is the best idea at this point,” Mayor Mallory said. “This war is draining resources from our cities around the country that we desperately need. We need those resources to keep our cities vibrant, healthy, and safe.”

It should be a who's who among national progressive politicos.

Top 10 Rejected Enquirer Niche Websites

Recently, the Enquirer launched a website called cincymoms.com, targeted at, you guessed it, Cincinnati moms.

10. cincythugs.com
9. cincyisbetterthannewport.com
8. cincypedophiles.edu
7. cincyCornholemoms.com
6. cincywestsideintellectuals.com
5. cincydrunkfratboys.net
4. cincyperverts.org
3. cincyfairweatherfans.com
2. cincypigcallers.net
1. cincyCornholedads.com

Smoking Ban Penalties Cover Smokers

Business Owners are not the only parties who can be sanctioned for violating the smoking ban, smokers can as well. The fines are much less, but $100 bucks for a second offense is still no bargain.

Here's Berding Looking Bad

The Enquirer Politics blog documents council infighting and nearly everything seems to involve Jeff Berding. Is Berding becoming Mr. Confrontation?

Sex Survey Battle - City Beat vs. Cin

City Beat has one.

CinWeekly has one.

Who Wins? Well, when it comes to sex, City Beat is going to come in first every time.

Best Of Cincinnati 2007 - Voting is Up

City Beat's Best Of Cincinnati 2007 is now accepting votes. Vote early and often! Don't forget your favorite Blog!

New Day to Day Enquirer Boss

Hollis Towns is the new executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Tom Callinan has moved upstairs to help manage the various Enquirer entities. Callinan has been in Cincinnati for 2 and a half years. He came from Kalamazoo (K-A-L-A-M-A I got a gal in Kalamazoo), MI. I don't see the Enquirer changing much, expect more of the same movement from news gathering entity to a press-release driven publication.

Cole Courting Westwood Concern

In what can be considered nothing but a total shock Cincinnati City Council Memember Laketa Cole spoke at Westwood Concern's January Meeting this week. I wonder if Mary Kuhl dared shake her hand?

Great Story from Greg Korte's Blog. It is good to see Greg on local politics again, especially this kind of a strange bedfellows occurrence.

Fountain Square Filling Up, But With Whom?

It is great news that Fountain Square has filled up the retail space with either signed leases or letters of intent. What we still don't know is who has signed on the dotted line.

Jan 30th Event!

For More hit the Ballet's Website.

Streetcar Reader Response

Yesterday's Enquirer had a series of letters discussing their weekend editorial about adding streetcars in Cincinnati. Interesting breakdown, there was only one outright anti-streetcar letter and it was from someone who lives in Sharonville. That's outside the City for the non-locals.

State of the Union

I didn't watch, listen, or read the State of the Union last night. Did anyone? Was it the usual BushCo drivel?

Ignorance

I applaud the attention the Southgate House got, but the reporter could have researched music venues in the area just a little bit more, instead of writing something like this:

"It only takes one visit to know that this isn't your typical music venue."

OK, what is a typical music venue? There are not that many to begin with in this city. None of them are typical, unless you want to count a typical bar with a typical cover band playing.

I don't like looking at a gift horse's mouth, but I'm irked. Was Kari Wethington consulted? Seriously, did they bother asking a fellow local reporter who likely goes to half of the shows at the Southgate house and other music venues around town? This type of problem is not uncommon to a majority of reporters, but this one is catching my wrath today.

No Courage On Mason City Council

In a sign that you can't question anti-Mexican bigotry in Warren Country, Mason City Council Caved into the 'Citizens for Legal Communities' demand to cleanse the City of Mason. They are going to study creating laws that are out of their jurisdiction, but Hell, if you can't quell your hate by oppressing others, why bother living?

'Minute Men' Take Root In Mason

'Citizens For Legal Communities' is not calling themselves a Minute Man group, but they might as well be with their level of bigotry. What is amusing, yet sad, is that the long line of idiots will likely chime in with their trite comments saying something to the affect "Why are you calling someone a bigot for wanting to enforce the law?" That is a diversion as is the effort to "enforce the law." Why are they picking this issue as a "legal" issue to focus on? That is the where the bigotry comes in. There is plenty of crime with real victims going on in this country. If 'Citizens For Legal Communities' wants to worry about law breakers, then they might help people more if they pushed on the government to solve white collar, fraud, and theft crimes.

Niche Enquirer

Ok, why does the tame, bland Enquirer have to target a publication to "Moms" when the rest of their publications pay tons of attention to mothers and children as it is? The problem with this site, it is not for Mothers, it is for Mothers who currently have young children. Where's the section for Mothers of 25 year olds? They are clearly moms too.

Traffic Is Flowing

As you can see, traffic in Mt. Lookout is flowing fine. Beechmont Ave is fine. When it turned into Linwood on to Delta it was ruffer, but very passable.

Yeah, It Snowed

It snowed in the Tristate and the world is coming to an end.

City Streetcars

The Enquirer Editorial board goes on and on about the concept of a streetcar system in the City, but they are worried about convincing people that we need them. Who are they worried about convincing? I think this quote answers my question:

But a new streetcar loop would require broad buy-in across this region. That's why it is important that the discussion be as broad, thorough and reasoned as possible.

We don't need the rest of the county or region to get this done and it will not get done if we have to rely on anyone outside the City. Unless this was a Street Car connecting Mason to West Chester, no one in Butler or Warren counties would do anything to help it. Non-City Hamilton County residents would have the same feeling about it. Leave it to the City and private sources to get this done. There is one cold fact around this area, if it doesn't affect you directly, then you don't care about it and won't fund it.

Hackett Cleared

Joe Deters did the right thing and publicly cleared Paul Hackett, something he didn't have to do. That likely is his way of making up for the leak of the incident allegedly being put before the grand jury.

The questions is still outstanding: who pushed for the investigation and why?

New Entertainment District: Fourth and Plum?

The makings are there now and will be increasing soon. Will 4th and 5th Streets be the hub of Cincinnati Nightlife? Granted, this club is going to be a high end niche place, but that high end market can drive things on. What other locations in the area are ripe for opening bars?

This article puts another nail into Main Street as entertainment district concept, but one thing that I am not sure if everyone is seeing with the decay of Main Street is that the Main Street horde split into its own splintered locales. This club will pull the heavy dollars of the "VIP scenesters" who have been highly sought after by many area establishments. Other crowds went their own way to Northside or Covington or Mt. Lookout or even back to Mt. Adams. This club alone will not bring back the horde, but if the volume of bars can match Mt. Street at it height it could bring back many, mostly those who you would classify as the Cin Weekly target market. Yea, that is not a pleasant thought, but that is business. (Thank Zeus for Northside!)

Bringing back the hipster crowd is likely a lost cause. That group overlaps with the creative class and that is of course the key to building up the city. What I think the powers that be still don't get is that encouraging the people that live here to break out of their bubbles and do something is not really that big of a help, at least not a long term plus. Getting people to move here from outside the area is what we need and what in the long run will work. Fourth and Plum will is a good foundation to have. You need a mainstream place for people to go. Just don't let the mainstream flood the vibrancy out of Downtown.

Austin Press for the Heartless Bastards

More recommendations of the Heartless Bastards.

Temporary Jail For Women

5 Council Members and Todd Portune have a plan to build a 500 bed jail. The big question that will surely cause conflict is WHERE will it be built. That was left out of the announcement. It likely was left out because that will be a very contentious point.

Other interesting note: The Jail will be for women.

Chris Bortz, Private Eye

There's a joke Tin here somewhere, but I don't have time this morning find one. Something with finding more arts funding maybe?

Desiring Streetcars!!!

This will be met by idiotic opposition but a streetcar system would be a great boost to the city and be a vital key connection between a successful Riverfront and Fountain Square District. I would expand its reach to Clifton, Northside, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, and the new Columbia-Tusculum Square. I would like to add Mt. Adams, but I don't think a street car could be used on the narrow winding streets.

Premium Condos Becoming Scarce - Where Are the Middle Market Condos?

On Sunday the Enquirer ran an interesting story about the current shortage of high end condos in the Downtown/Urban Core/Riverfront areas on both sides of the Ohio.

This is of course an overall positive sign for Downtown and Urban Core areas of the City. I don't know if it bodes as well for building up a wider socio-economic group of residents. If the goal is to building up residents of downtown, we'll have to take what we can get in the short run, but is that good for the long haul?

What downtown needs more of is not only high end, but middle or lower end condos. If you want to attract YP you must understand that the majority can't afford to buy a condo for 250,000 plus, when they can buy a house at the same price or less with at least twice the square footage. I don't know what writer Jeff Newberry defines as a YP person, but this paragraph gave me pause:

Market researcher and consultant Michael Dinn said the supply of central city condos is getting thin, especially those selling for between $200,000 and $300,000 that many young professionals can afford.

Newberry is likely using the old fashioned YP definition of Doctors and Lawyers.

What I feel has been the overall problem with the housing efforts in Downtown is that they focus on people making six figures ($100,000 and up for those a bit slow this morning). Single people making $40,000 to $99,000 would often jump at the chance to own property below Central Parkway, but can't afford the prices. Sure, those making closer to 100K could afford the higher end if they budget correctly, but that assumes they've been making that kind of money for a few years and have savings and other means to make that kind of purchase. Saying they should is the view from the realtor and developer, not from people thinking long term and not from those who don't want to see people lose their condo when they lose their job.

At some point the high end market will dry up. We need to think middle class here. The middle class makes a community, but they can't afford to start it.

Moralist

If you can't fulfill the duties of job, then change careers.

Wes Flinn Has Moved!

Well, his blog has moved to a new location. Adjust your blog rolls and favorites.

Cincinnati Magazine's Pork Roast 2007

The spit is ready, so enjoy The Pork Roast (pdf) from Cincinnati Magazine.

"It's On!"

Mega Coffeehouse Faux Pas

If there is something you just don't do to an independent coffee house, then it is to come into the establishment drinking Starbucks. Ok, sure, you purchased something, but sitting in a good coffeehouse while drinking McCoffeehouse brew is a sin to the coffee gods that can't be forgiven.

I am witnessing said act as I type. The two women are sitting very snobishly at the next table. If they don't gag on their quiche, it will be a miracle.

Irony

I believe a commenter in a prior thread asked me if I would allege that murder victim and anti-violence activist Richard Muhammad was involved in drugs. At the time, I assumed no, that he wasn't, an assumption that helped explain why the public remembrance and grief were so high.

Instead, I was totally wrong. Richard Muhammad was murdered during a drug deal gone bad. Muhammad had a crack cocaine problem, according to the coroner and police. It is a sad case, but not a unique case on the list of people murdered on Cincinnati streets. Most of those murdered were involved in buying or selling drugs. This is the underlying problem. To use a metaphor: if you don't put your hand in the fire, you won't get burned. This is not a 100% guarantee, but it is rather an indicated that people who don't buy or sell drugs shouldn't have irrational fear of being murdered in Cincinnati.

Grand Jury Leak?

Will there be an investigation into the alleged grand jury leak regarding Paul Hackett? His attorney would like to know (pdf).

This raises a couple good questions. Who tipped off the media to this story and why? How does anyone know the Grand Jury is investigating Hackett?

Shhhh! Don't Tell Larry Gross!!!!

Add another option for dinning and entertainment to downtown Cincinnati. I know this won't get much attention from City Beat's Larry Gross, so I'll make sure to spread the word here.


[Hat tip to CincyNation (yep, shocked me too)]

Smoking Ban Still Little Impact?

This article missed getting the Ohio side of the story so we still have no reports of a negative impact from the Smoking Ban. I was bowling last night (a 106 and a 119) at Madison Bowl and they still allow smoking, but not that many were actually smoking, so with every lane full it didn't seem to be a problem.

Beckham to USA

This reminds me a lot of Pele, but I welcome the influx of the world's most famous athlete playing in the MLS.