In 2004, Make Cincinnati Weird Launched. In 2011, It Relaunches!

Make Cincinnati Weird, inspired by the Keep Austin Weird campaign and others, launched in 2004.  It was entitled "Make" Cincinnati Weird in response to the popular opinion that Cincinnati is conservative, traditional, etc.  and needed to get weird before keeping it weird.

Alas, the project and blog eventually fell derelict.

But now, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a new fellowship has gathered to resurrect MCW and carry forth the mission that has been and always will be.

To document the quirky, offbeat, and… well… weird goodness of Cincinnati. The single guiding principle, is that diversity breeds strength.

Join us on Saturday, Feb. 19th, at Milton’s Tavern on Prospect Hill to celebrate and wish our fair stewards onward!

* Not actual people

Downtown Duke Energy Holiday Train Display

Made it down to the long-running CG&E Cinergy Duke Energy Holiday Train Display this year.  Of course, the one day we went was just about the single coldest day this fall/winter yet.  I swear I left part of my face on 4th St. after it froze and fell off.  The winds howled through the streets and between the buildings, making what was 30 deg F. feel more like -5 deg F.  What is this, Chicago?  We made a quick pass of Fountain Square before settling in at the real downtown holiday destination: Starbucks.

Speaking of wind, check out the new-this-year Duke sustainable energy windmill farm in the last picture.

Downtown Child Care?

Seeing this blog about a new child care center opening up downtown got me thinking.  The city may finally be starting to regain population, depending on whom you ask (but at least you can ask!)  But I wonder how the 18-and-under population as been trending.  I could not find any demographic trends for just children after some quick searching.  My feeling is that the trend has been going down.  One obvious sign is the growing list of vacant CPS buildings.

My feeling is that most of the people moving into the city are childless.  When they become not childless, they move outside the city limits.  Looking forward to starting my own family, the thoughts about raising a child in either the CBD or OTR that enter my mind are interesting.

Will there be same-aged kids on our street to play with?  Where will our kid go to school?  When I think about how I grew up in a subdivision, surrounded by kids my age, and spending hours of summertime wandering around in the woods, it takes a giant mental leap to imagine how it would be in the city.  I know that people are doing it (cf. CityKin).  Would we be capable of doing the same?

Would I be comfortable with sending our kid to a CPS elementary school, which will be mostly African-American (it's hard to be a minority in any situation), and likely underperforming on state standards.  There are only three elementary/middle schools in CPS with the highest state rating that I'm aware of, and there is only one high school.   That's a small basket to put all your eggs in, if you care about such things.

So another child care center opening up downtown encourages me.  Now, it probably has been long overdue just because of all the workers downtown.  But now, if you live downtown, and work downtown, and have a family downtown, you don't have to leave downtown before work just to take your child to daycare.

Lighting The Tree

I attended the Fountain Square Tree Lighting several years ago.  That year, the tree had about 8 lights on it, and the square was maybe half-full.

Last Friday, Sarah and I went to see the Tree Lighting again.  It was quite different this time around.

I Hate Mike Brown

Hate is a strong word. Which is why I use it here.

This post was originally only about Willie Anderson in his new starting role with Baltimore. But as I dug deeper, and clicked from Bengals story to Bengals story, I grew angrier. I have been boycotting the Bengals this entire season, refusing to waste any part of my Sunday on Bengals TV, radio, and certainly not tickets. (On Mondays, sometimes I read the recaps.) But first, back to Willie.

If you need further evidence of what ails this team, look no further (emphasis mine):

Anderson resisted throwing jabs at the Bengals. But he did say the same pipeline that he said fed Brown bad information about him has been feeding him inaccurate information about players for many years.

"People in the organization continue to mislead him about players," Anderson said, though he would not elaborate.

Another comparison: The Ravens have their personnel and personal issues, too, Anderson said, but the situation in Baltimore is nothing like it is in Cincinnati.

"We have our issues; every organization does," he said. "But here it's all about football. You can concentrate on football here. There are not nearly as many non-football issues here as there were in Cincinnati."

I wish Willie had not been so coy. I wish he had held up a loud, blinking sign that said: "Mike Brown is the problem."

Then, this very morning came a story about a class-action suit against the Bengals by fans who bought season tickets before PBS was built. They thought they were buying Charter Ownership Agreements at $150 per seat per year for 10 years. The Bengals contend they're on the hook for the full seat price per seat per year for 10 years. That's the difference between hundreds of dollars and tens of thousands of dollars, depending on when a season ticket holder attempted to cancel their tickets. I don't know which is worse. Is it worse that the Bengals are once-again saying "fuck you" to some of their most loyal, longest-season-ticket-holding fans, including one guy who has held four season ticket seats every year the Bengals have been in existence up until 2003. Or is it worse that the Bengals in cowardly fashion, are not even fighting the suit, but trying to run out the clock by delaying the case in court until the contracts expire in 2009 anyway. Pathetic.

On a Bengals-bashing roll, I found my way over to WhoDeyRevolution, a blog I've been following for a while. (See their take on the same Willie Anderson story and class-action lawsuit story.) I have glanced at many Bengals blogs in the past couple years, and while many of them have been critical, they all lack that visceral, scathing contempt for Mike Brown. WhoDeyRevolution has that contempt, and more. It's the only blog that focuses more on the real problems of this team, and not just who they're going to draft next year.

So I read this post about the non-Bengals side of Mike Brown:

The plans to build the stadium were underway in 1996, over 12 years ago, for example. And the plan to develop the Banks seems to just now be gaining traction. While many parties are at fault here, it is not like you ever heard of the Bengals being a proactive force. Nope, from what I have heard they were mostly unhelpful and satisfied to earn parking revenue rather than encouraging development that would likely make them more wealthy, successful and popular in the long term.

The post also contains a quote from an apparent source in-the-know that Mike Brown has zero involvement in any local business, charitable, or civic causes. Nice.

Digging further, I was reminded of the original sweetheart stadium lease, "one of the most generous to a team in the NFL," that continues to pay the Bengals dividends for producing one playoff season in nearly two decades:

The team gets all income from concessions and advertising in the stadium.

The team can refuse to let the stadium be used for events it feels could damage the field.

The team pays game-day expenses only; the county pays all other maintenance costs.

The team pays $1.7 million in rent in 2000 - an amount that drops by $100,000 each year until 2009, when it drops to zero.

...Development of county-owned land around Paul Brown Stadium is restricted based on height, appearance and other factors. For instance, the lease forbids an auditorium seating 3,000 or more people from being built just east of the stadium.

The team and the county split the revenue from all non-Bengals-related events 50-50.

:::

As I said at the beginning, this post was originally about Willie and the on-field performance of the Bengals. But it turned into more. Not only has Mike Brown poorly influenced football decisions that have led to one good season in nearly two decades of ownership. Not only has Mike Brown repeatedly given the middle finger to fans who have been season-ticket holders longer than I've been alive. Not only has Mike Brown enjoyed a stadium lease that is so one-sided it is nearly criminal and probably is, Mike Brown has also shown to be a disruptive force in the progress of our city.

At a time when the city of Cincinnati is struggling to distinguish itself from similar cities as a destination, as a place young people want to live, as a place entrepreneurs want to start businesses, as a place where families do not hesitate to send their kids to the public schools, as a place where nearly everyone who cares about where they live agree we need a strong downtown; at this time, Mike Brown is becoming a dead weight. Mike Brown is like the kid on the block with the rich parents and the nice toys, who doesn't play with anyone else. Sure, he's a nice kid, but when the other kids see his toys and want to play too, he just takes his toys inside.

At the risk of sounding cliché, Mike Brown does not realize that everything is connected. Everything is connected. When he forces the county pay for artificial turf, after he insisted on building the stadium with real grass because "football should be played on grass," it leaves less money for a new small business. When he puts such a piss-poor product on the field, less people will come downtown before and after the game. When he spends more time reminding everyone involved with the Banks that he has veto powers and less time actually coming up with ideas, he only increases the wait before anything but a hole in the ground is built around his stadium.

The Bengals are doing more harm than good. As a football fan, I wish they would just leave.

Twist on 4th St.

Went to Twist for a birthday party last week. Somehow ended up ordering Sarah a $12 glass of wine. Dammit. C'est la vie.

Soapbox Covers It All!

Soapbox continues to be a source of great conversation. I don't possibly have the time to write about each of these stories individually, but they all struck me at one point or another. So I'll try my best to combine all commentary into one post here.

New report on Ohio tax reform sees $6.3 billion in new investment

Now, in the second year of a five-year rollout, state officials say the net payoff is that Ohio now offers companies the lowest new capital investment tax structure in the Midwest.

Interesting. Wasn't this one of Bob Taft's last acts? I seem to remember grocery stores complaining about low margins. If the claims are true, though, it was a smart move.

SoapDish for July 29, 2008

I have liked the new Fountain Square plan from day one. (Sorry, no documentation to back that up.) I have been mostly pleased with how it's turned out, given the limited land area, and suspect that once the trees grow bigger, however long that might take, it will begin to look like some of the more popular spaces around the country. I still think the ice rink could be bigger, and the rotating, multi-color lights will get old pretty soon. And I wish we could knock down the Fifth Third building.

I like this line from Casey Coston:

I never quite understood the crusty complaints about the makeover, the most articulate of which seemed to boil down to something along the lines of “we used to be able to see the fountain while zooming by on 5th Street in our car….now we have to actually get out of our car, and we’re not happy about it.”

A Streetcar Named Renewal: If We Build it, Will They Come?

Another good streetcar story - I don't think it has anything new for those who have followed the streetcar development. But it does a great job in knocking down some common criticisms:

Another misconception: streetcars are glorified taxis, or buses. Why fix it if it ain’t broke?

Chirch has this to say, “A bus line is merely “red paint on a telephone pole, or a little aluminum sign. When you put down streetcar rails, you’re actually making a commitment… something psychological happens.”

...And perhaps the biggest misconception: all funding must come from the city, for which we shall pay dearly.

In fact, city officials and grassroots fundraisers are busy courting private, state and federal donors to help foot the bill for this $182 million project. The city will dish out $60 million, but has decided against instituting a sales tax.

To put this in perspective, Dohoney says, “we invested $40 million-plus in the Convention Center, $40 million-plus in Fountain Square…[and] we’re talking about a $600-800 million dollar development on the waterfront.”

Tracking The Banks

I understand that most people would just like to see something on the riverfront between the two stadiums, but if this truly the "front porch" of the city and as important as they say it is, let's build something that doesn't look like something you might find at the Deerfield Towne Center.

When I first saw the renderings, I don't even remember my reaction. I must have totally glossed over them in ambivalence. (Or I was still reeling from the new Cincinnati.com website, but that's another post.) They look nice and all, but...

In the story comments, quimbob links to some old renderings, circa 1999, I believe, of The Banks way back when the idea first surfaced. I remember these drawings, now that I look at them. Somehow they feel better. Maybe it's just the texture - I guess rendering software has advanced a lot in the last 10 years. But notice the triangular block with the fountain in the second picture, a characteristic you might find in an East Coast neighborhood that grew organically over time. I don't get that feeling from the new drawings.

You can see all the old renderings by clicking on the first one here, and then changing the filename in the URL.

I Have An Idea For The New Skyscraper

I have an idea for the new tower at Queen City Square. In Dubai, construction is set to begin on David Fisher's Rotating Tower, a 59-story residential tower with independently rotating floors, completely powered by sun and wind.

Each floor is composed of 12 self-contained units, complete with plumbing and electrical. Each unit is attached to a central spine or axis, enabling each floor to rotate independently. Once the central spine is in place, each unit can be fabricated in a factory, sent to the site, hoisted up and attached independently. Over 90% of the tower will be manufactured.


In the comments of the linked blog, the challenges of such a design are debated. A local mention makes it through:

This is not as complicated as you’re all making it, Psuedo and PaTrond. Buckminister Fuller designed and built a rotating house, the Dymaxion House. Hell, there’s even a rotating restaurant in Covington, Kentucky, not to mention many far more cosmopolitan cities. Plumbing and electrical connections are not a problem. Rotation is typically no more than once per hour.

Please, how much more cosmopolitan can you get than Covington, KY?

The coolest thing is are the wind turbines sandwiched in-between each floor:

The 59-floor building will be powered entirely by sun and wind energy. And, the architect claims that the building will generate 10 times more energy than required to power it, thus making it a positive energy building. Solar panels will be fitted on the roof to harness sunlight, and a total of 48 wind turbines will be sandwiched between the rotating floors, placed so that they are practically invisible. Each wind turbine could produce up to 0.3 megawatt of electricity, and it is estimated that 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy would be generated every year.

That would make a pretty nice addition to the skyline, eh?

Watch the PR video.

Memorial Day Weekend

I had a great 3-day weekend. I managed to stay away from my computer for the most part, but the time to catch up starts right now, starting with this blog post.

On Friday, we went down to Sully's. I'm not a big fan of Sully's, but I usually just follow the crowd. Sully's had some deal that was $10, all you can drink from 9pm-11pm, well drinks and domestic drafts. As is the case many times, "domestic" translates as "cheap beer of our choosing" - evidently, Christian Moerlein does not count as a domestic beer even though it is brewed in Cincinnati. So I forgoed the crappy drink deal and just paid for my OTR Ales.

On Saturday, we rode our bikes down to the river and biked up and down the Ohio and Kentucky sides. We had a blast, but getting back was not fun. What we need is one of these things up to Mt. Adams.



We hit the Taste on Saturday night. I started with a BBQ sandwich from Pit-to-Plate, and finished with a Reuben and a couple potato pancakes from Izzy's. Sandwiched in-between those was a gyro from Mythos. Along with a couple of Warsteiners. In retrospect, I probably did not need the second potato pancake.

A Midwest Conundrum

CityKin finds another great post from an out-of-town visitor to Cincinnati, this time from Indianapolis (see previous post from an MSP resident).

I'll paraphrase from the blog post a little bit to forge a message that I like.

What is so great about Cincinnati? Let's list some of the things:

• The fabulous geography.
• Spectacular, dense urban neighborhoods with wonderful architecture.
• Innovative new architecture.
• The patchwork quilt of towns.
• Top notch cultural institutions.
• Many major corporate headquarters.
• A genuine regional culture.
• Major regional assets (e.g. Kings Island, CVG)

Yet, I'm always befuddled as well as I puzzle a great conundrum: if Cincinnati is so great, how come it isn't the San Francisco of the Midwest instead of a typical, modestly stagnated Midwestern city?

It just goes to show that what I said in my pecha kucha presentation was true: cities are about people, not just buildings. All the great geography, architecture, etc. in the world isn't a sufficient condition to create a thriving, dynamic city.

One interesting thing is that the author seemed to have made it out the first-and-second suburbs during his visit. He includes some lovely pictures of the likes of downtown Montgomery, Hamilton, and Lebanon. I've always thought that these old town centers - not in the city, but an inseparable part of the metro - were great assets to the region as a whole, and I think this is the first time I've read thoughts along the same lines.

The blog's 21 (at this time) comments debate a number of issues and merit reading too. One midwest hater transplant in particular laments about everyone introducing themselves as a Christian (huh?), and also the bad pollution in the area. I think I've met maybe one person here who quickly proclaimed himself as Christian in all my time here, so I don't know what that's about. Maybe the commenter has just spent too much time around the mega-churches. The air quality could be better, but I know Cincinnati's geography is no help. It also sounds like the commenter is originally from the East Coast, and may dismiss the Midwest as fly-over land.

By "Bodies", Maybe She Meant Young People

I'll start off with this incredible story told by Mark Mallory:

“I stopped at a car wash out in Colerain Township and a woman out there told me that maybe she would come downtown if there weren’t so many bodies piled up in the streets. And I thought she was joking, but she was absolutely serious,” Mallory said. The woman later told him she hadn’t been downtown in 17 years.

First of all, WTF? Second, I really hope that this woman represents a minority of suburbanites and that, while many may not patronize downtown, they do not believe there are bodies piled in the streets. (C), I've got news for you lady, Colerain ain't exactly Shangri-la. Once you get over the fact that you have to drive on this everyday:

Photo by Angel Franco/New York Times

on your way to the highway, realize that as more subsidized housing gets sent out your way, crime will be soon to follow.

(BTW, the picture above, found through Building Cincinnati, is not Colerain Ave. Did you think it was?)

The quote eventually made its way into a story about a new advertising campaign promoting downtown and downtown safety, which also included these stats about downtown in 2007:

1. $110 million in completed construction and renovations.
2. $243 million in ongoing projects.
3. 26 new retail/restaurant/entertainment venues.
4. Available retail space to a five-year low.
5. 100+ new and renovated housing units.
6. 8,000 residents in downtown and its surrounding areas.
7. 94 percent occupancy rates for apartments.
8. 8 percent growth over last year in the economic impact of hotel room bookings.
9. 74 percent of respondents said they felt safe downtown, according to a 2007 DCI survey.
10. 80 percent of respondents rated downtown as clean.

So, Colerain lady, don't come downtown for another 17 years. We ought to have cleaned up the bodies by then.

"I Live In Cincinnati"

Joe Deters's controversial editorial in the last issue of Cincinnati Gentlemen certainly raised some eyebrows. In the lastest issue, 3CDC's Steve (I guess he's no longer Stephen) Leeper responds about progress made in the city center.

Now, Leeper has attracted plenty of criticism in his tenure as head of 3CDC. People who are upset about moving the fountain, who say that 3CDC just wants to gentrify OTR, who doubt the corporate makeup of 3CDC's board, who still criticize his work in Pittsburgh - they all end up pointing the finger at the man in charge of 3CDC. And that's Leeper.

But in the few times I've heard him speak, I have to say I like what he says. And I like his results. Fountain Square is not just for lunchtime anymore. OTR is showing steady and, dare I say, equitable progress overall, a few bumps notwithstanding. And the Banks have broken ground. If you'll remember, those were the three charter projects that brought the organization into existence. And as far as Pittsburgh goes, he accomplished everything he was tasked with doing, whether or not it was what Pittsburgh needed at the time.

So reading his editorial did nothing do dampen my opinion of him. I liked it very much. You should read the whole thing, though I will quote the passage I liked best:

Millions of people are playing a role in this investment. You're contributing if you are: one of the 9,000 people who now live downtown; one of 250,000 people who attend the Broadway Series at the Aronoff Center; one of 100,000 people who attend the ballet, opera or May Festival at Music Hall; one of 3 million people who attend a Reds or Bengals game; among more than one million people who visited one of six urban museums from Mt. Adams to the riverfront; one of more than 40,000 people who skated on the Fountain Square ice rink this winter season; and one of thousands of children and teens who attend summer movie nights on the Square.

You're supporting the investment if you're developing new housing and retail units in the Gateway Quarter or you're buying one of those condos or opening a new store. Restaurateurs who are opening new spots downtown and in OTR are supporting the investment, as are the thousands of customers from throughout the region who are packing those venues every night. You're supporting the investment when you rebuild a new Art Academy of Cincinnati and School for Creative & Performing Arts to create an arts and culture mecca in OTR and you're supporting the investment by sending your children to those schools.

...And as a community, we should not concede defeat to those that violate the public trust by discouraging residents or visitors from going into the city based on negative perceptions and comments.

The Banks Lite

The Banks decade-plus-long struggle to get off the ground is well-documented. But what gets less press is the almost-decade-long struggle to build something - anything - at the northwest corner of 5th & Race downtown a.k.a. "The Banks Lite."

Photo from http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/downtown.html
Today is yet another deadline for Eagle Realty Group to make progress on the site. They have held development rights on the site for almost a decade, and have nothing to show for it but a lot of renderings. Ideas ranging from a condominium tower to a movie theater to a new home for Playhouse in the Park have been put forward, with nothing to show for it but PowerPoint slides.

CityBeat summed up the situation nicely in a blog post last November, which I'll quote one passage from:

"Later, the city spent more than $1 million to fill in the parcel and use it as a parking lot until another project was found. Including $10 million spent to raze the site and move several businesses and another $3.7 million to help settle a lawsuit involving Eagle’s relocating a Walgreen’s across the street, the city has spent about $15 million on the canceled projects during the past seven years."

It's time to piss or get off the pot.

But I don't blame Eagle Realty so much for this mess. I blame the city, which has given them extension after extension. I understand that the city is busy, and will give the benefit of the doubt to developers like this, but - especially considering the momentum created by Fountain Square in the blocks north of it - this area one block west of Fountain Square is as important as ever and needs to move forward.

Twist on 4th St.

Hit up Jean-Robert's Twist Lounge the other day. My overall impression is positive. There were lots of comfortable areas to sit and converse. Drinks were good and priced what you may expect. My only piece of advice: don't go there if you're hungry.