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.

Dance Party Fridays

How did I not know about this? Oh yeah, because I'm not usually awake to watch the traffic report on channel 12 at 5:45 am.

I saw this first in this year's CityBeat Best Of Cincinnati issue under Best Fender-Bender in Funkytown. But I hadn't seen a video until this morning. Check it out. You'll find yourself watching all of the "Related" videos on YouTube.

It's almost enough to make me want to get up at 5:45 am on Fridays. Almost.

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.

George, Ol' Boy

Those of us who frequently browse the Enquirer's letters to the editor will recognize the name George Corneliussen, one of the more prolific contributors. Now, we can all put the name to a face!

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.

Walnut Hills Kroger Leaving?

There is an interesting piece on the "grocery gap" here in Cincinnati over at the Daily Bellwether. And as far as possible solutions, I'd have to say that the very first comment is spot on. But I won't get into that right now. What caught my eye was the following small sentence

"...a Walnut Hills Kroger store informed City Hall it may leave due to lease problems."

WHAT?! I go to that Kroger's at least once a week. If it closes, it's down to the Kroger's on Short Vine, or the one in Hyde Park, neither of which I'm too keen on. The Short Vine Kroger is just too slow and annoying, and the Hyde Park Kroger's is just too big and ridiculous. Seriously, it's the only Kroger's that I know of that has three brands for every lunch meat at the deli. Is that necessary?

Startup Weekend Cincy, Part II

From a comment on a previous post:

"If Cincinnati is the Queen City, Then Columbus must be King"

Them's fightin' words. I say bring it, C-Bus!

Incidentally, I was voting on the poll with different email addresses, of course, when someone pointed out to me that you don't even need to do that. Submitting one email address multiple times is allowed. Great idea, bad data validation.