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

Blogger Tour Of Living Photos

These photos are from the Blogger Tour Of Living back in September.  The event is pretty far past now for commentary, and others have already blogged about it far more effectively anyway.  It was a decent day and I had a lot of fun meeting a few more bloggers in person.

See the full Tour Of Living album.

OTRTweetup

Made it down to the OTRTweetup last night at Below Zero lounge. I stayed for a couple hours but unfortunately could not continue the party at Lav-o-matic and then Twist (seriously, don't these people have day jobs :) ).

There's a lot of overlap between the local Twitter crowd and the local blogging crowd, so it was good to see some of those folks again. And of course it was good to meet some new tweeps!

I totally did not even think about bringing my camera, which is unusual. I guess it's been a tough week. But there are pictures out there if you look hard enough. Thanks to @kate_the_great and @AmyInOhio for organizing.

See some OTRTweetup and #cincitweetup tweets.

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.

"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.

Opening Day 2008

Here are a few pictures from the Opening Day parade on Monday. I thought I was going to get drenched, but the rain held off. I couldn't stay for the whole thing, and only caught the first hour's worth before returning to work. They said that this was the largest field ever, with over 200 groups in the parade.

You can see all my parade pictures here.

The parade started off with a police motorcycle formation. Bright and shiny!


The mayor rode with his assistant in the D.A.R.E car. I saw Pepper and Portune, and most of city council.


One of the nicest things to see in the parade.


This plug-in, 100 mpg, electric car caught me eye. If I haven't said so before, my belief is that the electric car can remove our country's dependency on foreign oil. They get 100 mpg, they're proven, and they've been around for 100 years. You park 'em in your driveway and plug 'em in overnight. But why doesn't anyone have one? Technology? Please. I believe that the oil and car industry will not let them come to market.


This woman had a cooler scooter.


My shot of Peanut Jim Tarbell didn't turn out so well.


The Bockfest goat always entertains.


This T.A.N.K. bus is a Reds fan!


The Chick-Fil-A cow, exhorting me to eat more chicken.


A unicycle gang.


Some sort of lawnmower formation.


A portable tennis match.

Final Friday 3/28/08

I can never remember the actual names of the galleries. I have to rely on their characteristics. For example, the Gallery With The Big, Tall Doors. The first photo below is what I usually refer to as the Hipster Gallery. That's followed by a couple photos of the Art Academy, who had their senior display out. Afterwards, we found our way to Nada, where we stood around awhile having drinks.

Saddest Sidewalks?

Via CityKin, this post from a Minneapolis-St. Paul resident about his visit to Cincinnati is wonderful. It is well-written, with beautiful, helpful pictures of downtown, OTR, and the riverfront. Though he had some factual errors, such as with Fountain Square (pointed out by me in the comments) and with the streetcar progress (pointed out by others in the comments) and he somehow missed the Gateway area (though I'm not sure when he actually visited), I think his overall point is fair and pretty accurate considering it came from a weekend visitor to the city.

"If the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood were in Minneapolis, or Saint Paul, or San Francisco, it'd be one of the nicest, most interesting, most desirable addresses around. In Cincinnati, the very same neighborhood is languishing in a city that has spent all its investment capital on skyways and stadiums, leaving Over-the-Rhine to serve as an emblem of the tortured racial inequality that has marked America since its inception. It's why walking Cincinnati's streets you find the saddest sidewalks in America."

Cincinnati's languishing potential must be obvious, even to a visitor. What is not so obvious is the real progress made recently and still being made. The several lengthy and passionate comments on the post defend the status quo.

Also, his comment at the end also got me thinking about Cincinnati's interesting historical timing.

"As a far midwesterner, whose cities grew far later than did yours, I can only look at Cincinnati's intact beautiful buildings with envy and awe."

That is, the city was really a part of all the great East Coast city growths. But we were just a little bit too late, and a little bit too inland. Like how if the subway started just a little bit earlier, maybe the invention of the automobile would not have prevented it from completing. Too young for the historical quality in cities like New York. Too old for the planning in cities like Indianapolis.

Biggest Main St. News Yet

I was encouraged when I first started reading this article about OTR's "new plan" for Main St. This quote from the third paragraph is in line with what I have said previously.

"...The vision now is for Main Street to become a real neighborhood with people living, working, shopping and sleeping there."

But reading on, instead of retail and neighborhood restaurants, I saw only plans for more bars and clubs. So I'm not sure what exactly the "new plan" is.

I guess there is some mention of involvement in the arts scene, and re-opening of Harry's Pizza.

But anyway, the real news in the story - it made me sit up straight - is tucked away in the sidebar:

"The owners of Martino’s on Vine in Corryville will open a second location in the former Cooper’s on Main, at 1345 Main St. "

Martino's! Footlong hoagies! The Italian Stallion! The Underboss! This may be the best thing to ever happen in OTR. If you've never been to Martino's yet, you should go and get a preview before the Main St. location opens. The pastas and pizzas are good, but stick to the sandwiches.

"Veteran" Exchange Nightclub Closes

Well, I guess I spoke too soon...

The Problem With Main St.

Reports are in that Vinyl (formerly The Diner, formerly The Diner, formerly something else) has closed indefinitely. And that the opening by the same owners of Vinyl of Jardin Wine & Tapas Bar in the former Neon's spot does not look promising.

The opening of a sushi bar/restaurant/lounge/thingy in the former Jump space still looks to be on track. That with the openings of Cue and Speakeasy in the former RBC and Japp's spaces make this turn out to be... a wash?

And, hey, there's always The Exchange, which now looks like the Main St. veteran (not counting Kaldi's which will probably be there until armageddon).

Bars opening, closing, re-opening. They've been trying to re-create the Main St. Entertainment heyday of the late 1990's for 8 years now. But I believe that it's fruitless. Neighborhoods evolve, especially the ones in OTR. Main St. had its day as an entertainment stop, now why not let it have a chance at being a real neighborhood? Or an arts district? The entertainment is moving downtown to the CBD where frankly I believe it belongs. Let OTR be a residential area, and let the Central Business Disctrict have the businesses.

One block over on Vine in The "Q" (worst name for a "district"), space is being flooded with retail and residential (with significant corporate backing of course). This is Main Street's chance to open a video store, a real grocery store, more neighborhood restaurants like Courtyard Cafe to go along with the theaters.

Again, I have no problem with a bar district in OTR. I just think the time is right for something else.