Final Weekend For Bent

This weekend is the last chance to see Newstage Collective's production of Bent. The importance of this show is captured in the video preview:


Tickets are $20 and available on-line at www.newstagecollective.com or at the door. The final performances are April 2-4 at 8 PM and April 5 at 3 PM. Don't miss this show.

NAACPCOAST

Kevin Osborne uncovers the unseemliness of the Chris Smitherman and Chris Finney relationship.

He has another blog post adding to the print article.

Yeah, I really don't see how anyone can see the Finney-Smitherman union as anything other than a "Fuck You" to the GLBT community.

Is Smitherman tilting the local NAACP to the right on some issues to appease Finney? This article puts that thought in my mind. That aside, I think the Enquirer needs to stop reacting to every press release from Smitherman.

Miami Makes Frozen Four!

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Read all about Miami's first ever trip to the College Hockey final four.

Cincinnati Has a Buzz

We still have a ways to go but a 4% increase in YPs is a sign that things are looking good.

I Just Want To Bang On The Drum All Day

One of the real joys of living in Cincinnati is the opportunity to hear the Cincinnati Symphony.  It's become a  bit cliche to say this, but it's true:  we are shockingly fortunate to have a symphony orchestra this good in a city the size of Cincinnati.

Last night, CSO performed three pieces, the world premiere of a piece by Jeremy Mumford, a percussion concerto by Jennifer Higdon, and Beethoven's Fifth.  Janelle Gelfand's review of Friday's concert (with the same program) is here.

I'd never heard a percussion concerto before, but it was terrific.  Read Gelfand's review for a more coherent description of the performance, but it was breathtaking.  The audience rewarded it with one of the most robust standing ovations I've seen at Music Hall (and perhaps the most sustained approval of any non-Paavo-conducted performance).  I'd read a review of Colin Currie's (the featured percussionist) performance of the work with another orchestra, so I was expecting an excellent performance from him.  I didn't realize, though, how much work the piece left for the CSO's own percussionists to do (or how brilliantly they'd do it).

I'm going to politely disagree with Gelfand's review of the Mumford piece.  That was the kind of work that gives people bad feelings about modern orchestral music.  (When the conductor feels the need to explain to his audience "how to listen to" the work his orchestra is about to perform, there's a good chance the next fifteen or twenty minutes of your life will be a bit unpleasant.)  And any time you read in a review about "tone clusters," you know that the music is comprised of the discord that pops up in the background of your worst dreams.  (Yes, my dreams are often scored--aren't yours?)

It was a particularly interesting--odd?--choice to place the Mumford on last night's program, with Higdon and Beethoven.  Beethoven's Fifth is one of those pieces that even non-hardcore symphony-goers enjoy.  So, frankly, was the Higdon.  But the Mumford?  After the concert, I couldn't help thinking of Liz's review of JeanRo's "nose to tail" dinner.  Both are artistic forays that people would really like to convince themselves they're sophisticated to enjoy, but at the end of the night, you'd be a lot happier with a classic (like Beethoven's Fifth or a fillet mignon).  So maybe it's my fault--my musical palate just isn't up to Mumford's level.

Luckily, a few weeks from now, all I (or most people, I suspect) will remember from the evening will be Currie's amazing performance of Higdon's awesome concerto.

Local, Local, Local!

I want to see more of this type of article in the Enquirer. A locally written profile of a local musician. Actual local articles about local people is so refreshing!

Yeah, I know this is done at the Enquirer on a regular basis, it is just not done enough.

Bold Fusion 2009

This year's Bold Fusion took place this past Thursday and I again had to work, so I want to open up a post to solicit front line takes on the event.

I will point people to well done first hand take from Redkatblonde.

Other reports and background are
a report from the Enquirer,
a webpage of resources from the event, and
photos of participants.

The Cincinnati Bible War

Because I didn't grow up in Cincinnati, I didn't get the education in local and state history that a lot of you received in grade school.  So I'm always interested in learning more about Cincinnati's history.

Next week, the Ohio Supreme Court will sponsor a seminar on the "Cincinnati Bible War."  Until the 1870's, a school board policy mandated daily reading from the King James Bible in public schools.  When the board acted to repeal that rule, a local group sued in an effort to reinstate the required reading.  The case ultimately made its way to the Ohio Supreme Court, which sided with the school board.  (The court avoided the Establishment Clause issues and instead rested its holding largely on the legal authority of the school board to make such a decision, and the lack of authority for the judiciary to review it.)

The provided link will take you to an interesting (and brief) introduction to the subject, led by Linda Przybyszewski, formerly of the University of Cincinnati (and the author of a really good biography of the first Justice Harlan).  I wish I could be in Columbus Wednesday for the event.  

More Signs Of A Growing Number Of Downtown Residents

One of the ways, perhaps, to gauge the success of those who want Downtown to be a neighborhood (as opposed to merely a retail, dining, and bar district) is to look for services that cater to Downtown residents.

A few days ago, I noticed a sign in a window of a building on Plum Street just north of Fourth indicating that a veterinary clinic will soon be opening.  Building Cincinnati (in all likelihood to be announced as 2009's best blog in CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati edition next week) had this story back in January.

It seems to me that this is the type of business geared towards neighborhood residents; I'd think it unlikely people will drive downtown to have their pets cared for.  So I view this as a positive sign regarding the number of people living downtown.  At some level of population density, there should be some sort of tipping point that will have lots of resident-geared services coming downtown.

Tower Place Revisited

The power of blogging is its instantaneousness.  You can read something, react to it, and share your reaction with the universe.  And sometimes, that can be its downfall, as well.

Earlier this week, I criticized Chris Bortz and City Council for delaying action on a request by Northeastern Security Development Group to vertically divide the property that includes Tower Place Mall into two separate lots.  Since then, I've talked with (and been chewed out by) a couple of people whose opinions I respect and who know far more about real estate than I do, and it seems that Bortz is probably taking a fairly prudent course of action.  

(Mr. Bortz, by the way, graciously offered to speak with me about the issue....I called him back--in hindsight, probably when he was in the middle of Wednesday's Council meeting--but didn't start a phone tag game, because sometimes I have to pretend to actually be a lawyer who blogs rather than a blogger who practices law.)

NSD is an out-of-town development company and, as far as I can tell, doesn't have any history of development projects in Cincinnati.  So Council doesn't have any basis on which to simply trust in their promises of pouring money into Tower Place.  Granting their request would make it a lot easier to sell off the mall and retain the parking garage.  Yes, it's possible (as I pointed out) that they'll let Tower Place die in the absence of action from Council.  But Council doesn't want to act in such a way as to make it easier for them to kill off Tower Place.

So Council just needs a clear picture of what NSD has in plan for Tower Place.  They need to see a real commitment to turning Tower Place around.  No one wants to see the mall fail.  Council has limited power to help it succeed, and in this instance, they're doing what they can to make sure an out-of-town developer with no local ties doesn't turn a quick buck at the expense of a key downtown attraction.

So there you go.  I'm wrong, again.  And apologies to Council and Chris Bortz for my too-quick reaction.

NFL Rules Changes Announced

According to this story at ESPN.com, the NFL owners have decided that tackling is too likely to cause injury to their highly paid athetes. Beginning in the 2009 season, a player will be considered "down" when a member of the opposing team touches him with two hands between the knees and shoulders. Knocking a player to the ground will result in a fifteen-yard penalty and an ejection.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, when asked about the wisdom of the rules change, responded, "By the middle of the second quarter, most of our fans are too intoxicated to know what's happening on the field of play." He continued, "Fans only care that their favorite player is in the game, not what that player is doing."

New Hope For Tower Place, If Bortz Doesn't Get In The Way....

The Enquirer reports that Northeastern Security Development, the owner of Tower Place Mall, is hoping to revitalize the mall by attracting new, "unconventional" tenants. The company needs, though, to arrange some financing to make improvements both to the parking garage and the exterior of the building. As I blogged over a year ago, improvements to the exterior are much needed and would be extremely welcome.

So NSD has come to City Council looking for help. What do they want? A chunk of money? Stimulus funds? A tax break? No: they just need City Council to divide their property into two lots, one for the garage (which is profitable) and one for the mall (which currently is not). Such a division is apparently required in order to secure financing. Chris Bortz,--the chair of Council's Economic Development Committee--is standing in the way. According to the article:

At issue is whether Northeastern has a long-term commitment to the mall–or if it’s just asking for the separation so that it’s in a better position to sell the less lucrative retail space.“The question remains, ‘What if?’” says councilman Chris Bortz, who chairs the economic development committee. “We don’t want to be left in a situation where we have a dark mall and the attached parking garage is doing just fine. They may have the best intentions, but we can’t predict the future.”
Davis said the concern is unjustified. “What good is it to own a parking garage next to property that is vacant?” he said. “We’ve spent millions of dollars to buy this, and we want it to be successful. Fourth Street has great potential, and to say we helped turn Tower Place around, I’d love to put that feather in my hat.”
Bortz said he’s doesn’t plan to revisit Northeastern’s request until the council receives the firm’s plan for the mall. “It’s in a holding pattern for now,” he said.

So let's review. Tower Place Mall wants to bring new in new tenants. Its ability to do so is derived, at least in part, from its ability to secure financing to upgrade the facility. And its ability to get financing is dependent on the lot subdivision it is requesting from Council. But Bortz won't even take the matter up for consideration until Tower Place tells him who its tenants will be--which it can't do, because it's likely no one will commit until the financing is in place. Brilliant.

One wonders what the problem is here. Why does the legal division of the property make it more likely that we'll have a "dark mall" with a vibrant parking garage? That's nearly what we have now. And if NSD isn't able to secure financing, that is what we'll end up with for sure.

Chris Bortz's experience with residential development has been an asset for City Council the last few years. But this is another example of how City Council is, on balance, pretty inept when it comes to downtown, non-residential development.

For those of you who favor the streetcar (as Bortz does), remember: a streetcar is great, but no one will ride it if there's nothing to do once you get off. Tower Place Mall sits just a block off the proposed streetcar route, and if it's revitalized properly it will be a significant draw downtown.

We threw millions of dollars at Saks to stay in town. We can't help another company out with a simple administrative matter? Why does it seem lately that if a development project isn't being run by 3CDC, Council just doesn't care about it? With regional unemployment at its highest in a quarter-century, City Council should be making it easier for business to operate, not harder.

Lavomatic Cafe: New Website

A new website for LavomaticCafe :: Urban Food & Wine Bar In addition to the new website, there is a new name for the parent company: Relish Restaurant Group, renamed after Jenro departed the organization.

Furlough II at the Enquirer

CityBeat has the full story of the 2nd furlough for Gannett, which includes the Cincinnati Enquirer.

How is the news business going to survive? Are people just not bothering to pay attention? Do they care anything about knowing what is happening in their community? I honestly wonder how people are consuming local news. As we get less and less of it, are they going to notice when it is gone?

We Scooped the Enquirer!!!

Carl Weiser confirmed yesterday what we blogged over a week ago: Lemarque Ward is running for City Council. And all I had to do to get the story was show up to a parade....

Chris Finney NAACP Lawyer?

I am getting the impression that the local NAACP and it's fearless leader Chris Smitherman have rid the city of all racism. I say that because they are wasting their time (again) on a Charter Amendment that is not needed and unwise, not to mention it has nothing to do with their mission.

Furthermore, they must believe Civil Rights no long matter if they are going to use Chris Finney as a lawyer. The Beacon ponders this as well.

Cincinnati is Becoming Bicycle Friendly

You know by now that I have a pretty de minimis standard as to what it means for a community to be "bicycle-friendly." Luckily for my two-wheeled friends, some of our leaders have much higher aspirations.

First, our newest Council member, Greg Harris, is pushing Council to pass a resolution that would require Spring Grove Avenue, set for some resurfacing this spring, to have a bike lane. It looks like this will be passed at tonight's Council meeting. Harris has been doing a good job of picking his spots and judiciously using the bully pulpit that comes with an office in City Hall.

Second, the Enquirer reports that the City will begin painting "sharrows" on some streets this spring. Sharrows designate lanes as shared space for both motorists and bicyclists. For a little more information (and a picture of what a sharrow looks like) check out this blog post.

I'm still not giving up my car (or the right to curse at bicyclists who ride in the wrong direction on one-way streets downtown), but I'm glad to see the City making it a bit easier for those who do.

Rescue Me: Cincinnati Enquirer, or The National Inquirer?

Cincinnati firefighters are the new Bengals. They're always getting into trouble, and they're going to be subject to extra scrutiny even when they haven't done anything wrong.

But the Enquirer is going too far. A blog post by Jane Pendergrast links to a series of 92 photographs that someone posted to the website of a Fort Myers, Florida, newspaper. The pics are purportedly of Cincinnati firefighters on spring break.

I quickly went through the pictures, many of which are of bikini-clad beach-goers (okay, maybe I went through some of those more slowly). I'm not sure if all of the people pictured are supposed to be Cincinnati firefighters, just the men, some of the men, or what. I don't even know if any of the people who are allegedly Cincinnati firefighters really are Cincinnati firefighters--and the Enquirer doesn't seem interested in finding out.

I suppose this is the natural consequence of a newspaper attaching blogs to its website and recruiting its journalists to post. Ultimately, what the Enquirer staff posts there will be no better than what any other blogger posts on his or her own blog. The problem is compounded when the newspaper's website's front page links to blog posts in a manner indistinguishable from the manner in which it links to actual stories (the kind that appear in the print edition). So until you click the link, you don't know whether you've read a headline or a blog post title. Apparently, the Enquirer now considers the two to carry equal weight.

Besides the question of authenticity, Pendergrast's post raises the question of newsworthiness. Assuming some or all of the pictures are of Cincinnati firefighters, so what? These pictures are patently different from the "Real Men of Genius" videos publicized in the last few weeks. Those videos were apparently made inside firehouses and shown at an official event. Instead, in the pcitures, they're on vacation. They're not wearing CFD uniforms, or anything else that would identify them as firefighters. Firefighters are not elected officials. They're just municipal employees. Granted, they do a tremendously important job for the City, but they're still just employees in one of the City's departments. Are Parks Department employees now going to be subject to this level of scrutiny? Are we going to be treated to summer vacation pictures of snow plow drivers?

This reminds me of an odd moment I had the first time I visited Cincinnati. I wanted a local newspaper, and walked into a Walgreen's and asked for one. The clerk told me that the Enquirer was "over there." I didn't know what the name of the local newspaper was, and assumed she was referring to the National Inquirer. So I said again that I was looking for a newspaper. We went in circles a couple times before the poor clerk realized what a moron I am.

Given Pendergrast's post, I'm no longer sure there's such a big difference between the two publications.

Good Eats: Gilpin's Bagel and Deli

Last month, I mentioned that someone was working to open a new restaurant on Seventh Street between Vine and Walnut. Gilpin's Bagel and Deli is now open for business; they opened a few days ago. I believe this is what's called their "soft opening," as they have some Grand Opening festivities planned in the future.

I stopped in today for lunch, and wound up with a bagel sandwich (turkey, cheddar, and a garlic-herb spread on a sesame bagel) and a cup of soup. The staff was friendly and the food was good. I chatted with the folks behind the counter as I waited for my sandwich, and learned a little bit.

Giplin's steams its sandwiches. The machine on which this happens looks like a panini machine, only with steam billowing out from time to time. The result is quite good. The place is loosely modeled on a similar bagel shop in Oxford. (Maybe Griff can compare the two for you sometime--the only place I ever visit in Oxford is Area I Court.) But apparently, there are significant menu changes from the Oxford restaurant, and there's no affiliation between the two.

Gilpin's will be open for pretty long hours, planning breakfast, lunch, and after-hours service. In a few weeks, they'll have finished up an area upstairs where you can enjoy your meal while watching a game on TV. And they also have a catering service available. It all seems quite ambitious, but the folks running Gilpin's seem young and eager--aren't they supposed to be ambitious?

The menu seemed a little cumbersome at first. I grimaced a little when I was told that ordering a non-vegetarian sandwich is a "simple six-step" process, but it turns out that all of those "steps" merely involve choosing your bagel, your meat, your cheese, your spread, your cream cheese, and your veggies. They were very generous with the amount of turkey on the bagel. And the soup (chicken with rice) hit the spot. (Although given the size of the sandwich, it all would've been too much for lunch had I not waited until after 2:00 to eat.)

Anyhow.....the concept is cute, the staff is friendly and energetic, and the food is good enough for a return visit, especially at Gilpin's quite reasonable prices. So help stimulate the economy and go check it out!!!

Cincinnati Tea Party Harkens Back To Eighteenth Century

In 1773, American colonists led by Samuel Adams gathered at Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act, a law passed by the British Parliament.  The parliament had exempted Britain's East India Company from duties on teas that colonial merchants were required to pay.  The Act was particularly galling in that the Americans were not represented in Parliament.  Disguised as Native Americans, they rushed aboard ships laden with the tea and dumped the tea into the harbor.

Earlier today, scores of Cincinnatians gathered at Fountain Square for a protest in the best tradition of the Boston Tea Party.  The parallels between today and 1773 are striking.

After all, who would not be incensed by the massive taxes just imposed by our Congress?

Oh--what?  Congress didn't raise taxes, but instead lowered them?  That's all right.  The laws passed passed by our government are still onerous.  Just as in 1773, the citizens of this continent are subject to laws passed by a legislature in which they have no elected representatives and by a king whose power to rule is derived from God, rather than the people.

Oh, dear.  You say that's not right either?  We just elected the entire House of Representatives?  And the two senators that represent each state are directly elected by the people of that state every six years?  Wow....not even the Framers believed in direct election of the members of the Senate; that required the 17th Amendment.  And...we have no king?  Just a president who was elected by a majority of voters just four months ago?  Geesh.

Well...the parallels are still obvious.  After all, the Cincinnati Tea Party was near water.  And the people there want to sell tea at lower prices.  I think.

OK.  Maybe there are no parallels between the tea parties across the country and the Boston Tea Party.  Maybe calling the gatherings "tea parties" is really just a clever marketing gimmick thought up by those who are disappointed that their candidates lost in November.

I suspect the mood of the Cincinnati Tea Party crowd is accurately captured in this Enquirer picture.  Note the clever sign near the front of the crowd reading "Nobama's Bin Lyin'."  Now there's some intelligent public discourse for you.  

Thanks to DF--you know who you are--for inspiring this post.