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Day After Thanksgiving Fun Downtown

The day after Thanksgiving is often the day where people line up outside the most generic big box store they can find and wait in long lines to spend their hard-earned money at places that won’t recycle that money locally like locally owned/operated businesses.

In an effort to encourage local shopping, and continue upon the success built at Cincinnati Unchained, Gateway Quarter businesses have organized the inaugural Holidays in the Bag event from 9am to 9pm the day after Thanksgiving. Shoppers are encouraged to buy a special shopping bag ($3 – money goes to Tender Mercies) at the Gateway Quarter Information Center that will get you 20% off at participating retailers.

After your stuffed full of Thanksgiving goodies and partake in the “Black Friday” craziness be sure to leave some energy for the annual Light Up The Square festivities on Friday, November 28th.

Light Up The Square is the annual event on Fountain Square where Cincinnati celebrates the start of the holiday season with the ceremonious tree lighting festivities. This year’s tree is the biggest ever standing 60 feet tall, with roughly 20,000 lights and five-foot tall red star.

The fun officially starts at 6:30pm with a performance by “Team Cincinnati” (from Clash of the Choirs) which will then be followed by the tree lighting at 7pm by Mayor Mark Mallory. There will then be a fireworks show following the tree lighting. Santa Claus is expected to be there and the Fountain Square skating rink will be open to the public.

Traffic Notes: 5th Street (between Race & Walnut) & Vine Street (between 4th & 6th) will be closed from 6pm to 9:30pm.
The Fountain Square parking garage will be open but only accessible via the Walnut Street entrance.
Metro bus routes will be detoured around these streets during the closure.
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Be a part of the 2009 YPKC

In 2006 Mayor Mark Mallory launched the Mayor’s Young Professional Kitchen Cabinet (YPKC) – the first of its kind anywhere. The goal was to tap into the minds of those young people that so many cities are trying to both retain and attract.

Each year one hundred young professionals are tapped from all over the tri-state to volunteer their efforts to help make the Cincinnati region a more welcoming place for young people. The young professionals work on a variety of committees with different focuses. They work within their various committees and then push forth their ideas. If those ideas gain approval from the YPKC as a whole, then they are then directed to the Mayor’s office.

The YPKC is a great opportunity to get involved especially if you’re one of those many people who have had that brilliant idea come to you in the middle of the night and think, “boy it would be nice if I had the opportunity to talk to the Mayor about this.” Well you can.

You can apply now to be a member of the 2009 YPKC. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the 2008 YPKC as a member of the Transportation Committee. Due to travel plans, a spring graduation and other time constraints I will not be able to once again apply. I do strongly encourage everyone else who is interested to do before the December 3rd deadline (sorry for the late notice).

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News

New pizza joint planned for 914 Race Street

Reliable sources close to UrbanCincy are indicating that a pizza joint may be on tap for 914 Race Street (GoogleMap) downtown. The almost 100 year-old building (built 1910) is located directly north of popular wine shop City Cellars, and is in an area of Downtown that is in desperate need of more activity generating businesses.

The building is a three story building that boasts “newly renovated” apartments on the upper levels. The 1,392 square foot street-level space is currently vacant and marked for retail. A full liquor license has been applied for at this address, and after further investigation a pizza place seems to be what is in store from owner.

Stay tuned for updated information as it becomes available.

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News

Hawthorne Heights at Shake It

On Friday Hawthorne Heights will be in town for a very special appearance at Shake It Records in Northside. The Dayton-born band will give an acoustic show and just hang out for a little while probably signing albums and engaging in musical chit chat.

Hawthorne Heights is an emo band that has released three albums the most recent of which came out earlier this year entitled Fragile Future. Their first album, The Silence in Black and White, went platinum with over 1 million in record sales dating back to 2004. This was then followed up with a Gold album in 2006 that reached the top spot on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums list. If you’re not into emo bands, then just get on over to Shake It to check out their amazing collection of independent music.

In order to get their on-time you might have to cut out of work a little early. Shake It (GoogleMap) suggets that you should get their by 4pm, but if not feel free to come in and join the crowd whenever you’re able (regular hours M-S 10-9, Sun 12-6).

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Check it out – CiN Weekly article

There is a pretty good article this week in CiN Weekly that interviews UrbanCincy’s pal and founder of CincyStreetcar.com – Brad Thomas. He talks about the streetcar, what are some of the things he likes and best of all he plugs UrbanCincy. The writer added this bit about dying downtowns that you’ll notice. It made me wonder what list he was talking about. There are lists about dying cities that include Ohio cities like Cleveland and Dayton, but don’t tend to include Cincinnati. Either way, check out the article on page 44 of this week’s CiN Weekly, or check it out online.

Image Credit – “On the Tracks” by David Sorcher, CiN Weekly