Monthly Archives: December 2009

Fountain Square Ice Rink open on Christmas!!

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It’s less than two days until the Big Day arrives. After a frenzied couple of hours, the presents will be opened, the food will be eaten, and all the preparations for the Christmas holiday will be dismissed in a pile of discarded wrapping paper and distended bellies. If you’re looking to spend some quality family time beyond the 24 hour “Christmas Story” marathon, look no further than our beloved Fountain Square.

The U.S. Bank Ice Rink will be open Christmas Day, Friday Dec. 25, from 2pm to 10pm. The rink will also be open New Year’s Day, Friday Jan. 1, from 2pm to 10pm.

Regular hours from now through Sunday Jan. 3 are Sunday through Thursday from 10am to 10pm, and Friday & Saturday from 10am to midnight. From January 4 to February 21, the regular hours will change to:

  • Sunday – Wednesday: noon – 6pm
  • Thursday: noon – 10pm
  • Friday & Saturday: noon – 10pm
  • Holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and President’s day: 10am – 6pm

The cost to skate is $2.50 per person. Skate rental is also $2.50 or feel free to bring your own skates. Parking is conveniently located in the Fountain Square Garage for just $5 after 4pm on weekdays and all day on weekends, and Metro’s Government Square bus hub is located less than a block away for convenient bus service. Bicycle parking is also plentiful on/around the square.

Come start a new holiday tradition on Fountain Square this holiday season. And if you’re not in town but want to live vicariously through others, Cincinnati Bell has a live webcam of the ice skating area here.

So Long, Slim

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It was January 8, 2006 and the football had crested and was on its way down to a streaking Chris Henry who was a step ahead of the Steeler defender. I was in Section 337 at Paul Brown Stadium and as the rookie ran under the ball and made the catch, I and 65,000 of my closest friends went crazy. The Bengals had arrived and came out as the aggressors in their first home playoff game in fifteen years. It was going to be great. Of course, you probably know the rest of the story. Carson Palmer’s knee was blown out on the play, Henry was injured too, and the game went downhill not long after that.

When the news of Henry’s accident surfaced last week, followed by his untimely passing the next morning this was the one play (video – first 30 seconds) I was stuck on. I have been a season ticket holder since the arrival of Marvin Lewis in 2003 and seen Henry play since his 2005 rookie campaign but this play went through my head all day Thursday, the day of Slim’s passing.

There are two reasons why I think it left such an impression with me, the first of which is how it encompassed and paralleled the unfortunate legacy Chris Henry leaves behind which is that of unfulfilled potential. This has been written and discussed ad nauseam and was even pointed out by Coach Lewis last Thursday afternoon. The long pass to 15 that late January afternoon was about hope and promise as much as it was about “what could have been” after the play ended and damage was assessed.

The other reason I think that play stuck with me is because it is a reminder of how quickly and dramatically life can change and how many of us find ourselves in positions we wouldn’t have expected just nearly four years earlier. I sat in Covington’s Riverside Park on Thursday evening looking across the river at PBS wondering this thought, and then recognized that had I been told back then that I’d be in Riverside Park on December 17, 2009 I would have undoubtedly called you a liar. There was a fire glowing alongside the Ohio River that evening in the shadow of Paul Brown Stadium, and I’m going to guess that if you told whoever was being warmed by it four years earlier that they would be homeless and living by the river they would have done the same. And assuredly had you told Chris Henry that he was to meet his untimely death he would have had more than a few doubts about your prediction.

His passing to me was a reminder that to some degree we all have pieces of our lives that unfold that we don’t expect, or count on. Some are good, some are bad, and some just are. I do find it somewhat ironic that out of all the plans we make and how much control that many people like to have, life continues to unfold in unexpected and sometimes confounding ways. We live and work in a society that is about chasing dreams and making plans, but sometimes the best parts in life are the ones we don’t expect. The unexpectedness can also bring the worst parts in life which is what happened last week.

Regardless of your feelings about Chris Henry and some of his past exploits, his passing is tragic and yet another moment in time where the circle of life is broken yet again as a 26 year young man was buried yesterday. Aside from seeing him around town a few times over the years and of course Sundays on the football field, I didn’t know him nor am I going to pretend to. But that doesn’t mean that I was unaffected. To me his passing was not just about a reminder of how fragile life is, it was so many life lessons that we all can easily forget or not even recognize until it’s too late.

So long, Slim. We were rooting for you in so many ways, and now we root for those you left behind.

Chris Henry image from BleacherReport.com.

Downtown Cincinnati needs more residents

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Downtown Cincinnati has experienced tremendous progress over the past 10 to 15 years. The Aronoff Center for the Arts was built along Walnut Street which sparked the investment seen in the nearby area now called the Backstage District, two new professional sports venues were built along the riverfront along with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the convention center was expanded, the Contemporary Arts Center was prominently rebuilt, the renovation of Fountain Square sparked millions of dollars worth of spin off investment nearby, and hundreds of new housing units have been developed.

Over this same time crime rates have gone down, population has increased, commercial occupancy rates have held steady, retail spaces have filled up, and the hotels boast the highest occupancy rates in the metropolitan region. But as in any situation, one solution often creates another problem.

Case in point, the Metropole Apartments on Walnut Street are now slated to become a trendy 12c Museum Hotel which will relocate the low-income residents that currently call the building home. This will not only create a difficult situation for the large number of people living there, but it will also take away a large number of full-time residents from the downtown population.

The same situation is shaping up at the Phelps apartment building that fronts onto the picturesque Lytle Park. The 137 apartments there will more than likely be lost to an extended stay hotel that will take advantage of the downtown commercial success, but once again, another large block of full-time residents will be lost in the process.

The interest in the downtown commercial market is very encouraging, but downtown must be able to be thriving both commercially and residentially in order for it to become that 24-hour downtown we all hope it will become. The apartment conversion of the historic Enquirer Building will help offset the aforementioned residential loses, but an apartment conversion of the historic Bartlett Building would also do wonders for the residential component of downtown.

The Banks is slated to add hundreds of new residents to the urban core, but there are also great opportunities for residential density at 5th & Race, 7th & Vine, Court & Walnut, and Court & Elm/Race. A residential strategy should be employed to best maximize the use of these areas – high rises at 5th & Race and 7th & Vine, midrise at Court & Walnut, and a mixture of townhouses/rowhouses at the Court & Elm/Race area would seem to be a good strategy off-hand that would create different price points and unit options that would appeal to a wide variety of people.

To become a truly vibrant downtown beyond the hours of 7am to 8pm, Cincinnati must develop a downtown residential plan that will massively grow the downtown population base and infuse the area with a mixture of young people, families, and retired individuals. If this can be achieved, then the retail and nightlife mixture we all hope for will follow.

Phelps Apartmens photo by Mark Bowen of the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Best of Scott Beseler 2009

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Soapbox’s Managing Photographer Scott Beseler is an award-winning photographer who resides on the rivers’ edge just south of the Roebling Bridge in Covington, Ky, in what he describes is his New York style dream loft, minus New York. Each week his photography illustrates the stories published in Soapbox Cincinnati, and as the year comes to a close, Scott takes a look back at his featured Soapbox mastheads from 2009. Check out more of his award-winning photography at TakeTheDay.com.

UC’s Sustaining the Urban Environment named Advanced Energy Center of Excellence

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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland recently announced the first round of Advanced Energy Centers of Excellence, and on that list was the University of Cincinnati’s Sustaining the Urban Environment (SUE) along with eight other centers across the state. The announcement comes after the SUE Center of Excellence won the National Science Foundation 2009-2010 Award for its “Economic Development through Green Entrepreneurship (EDGE)” initiative.

According to the University of Cincinnati, the prestigious honor will place the Sustaining the Urban Environment Center of Excellence in a leadership position for improving the health and wealth of Ohio’s urban residents through the development of technologies that promote the evolution of economically and environmentally sustainable urban regions.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 80 percent of the U.S. population lives within urban environments. These megacities and urban regions consume large amounts of natural resources to satisfy energy demands, and as a result, the SUE Center of Excellence (blog) has a goal to design for life and work in a manner that sustains the environment and resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

To accomplish this, the SUE Center of Excellence has developed partnerships with Cincinnati-area businesses to help identify potential sustainability solutions. The SUE Center of Excellence will also continue to study how urban infrastructure and environmental policies affect the long-term health and wealth of cities; and will continue examine scientific metrics, policies and technologies that, “promote the evolution of economically and environmentally sustainable urban regions.”

Putting our money where our mouth is. Literally.

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Some of UrbanCincy’s friends have written about the need to buy local, and we whole-heartedly agree on the merits. It is proven that spending money at a locally owned business keeps more money in the local economy than spending the same amount at a chain. So when the writers of UrbanCincy try to get together for lunch about once per month to catch up and have an informal staff meeting, we have only 1 rule: buy local.

Our last luncheon adventure took us to Chicago Gyros in Clifton Heights because many of us live nearby. Their generous portions definitely filled us up, and the prices were absolutely reasonable. For the 4 of us, our total bill came to something like $35. Because we bought local, almost $16 stayed in the local economy. Had we spent that same amount at, say, Quiznos across the street (don’t get me wrong, I love Quiznos), only about $4.50 would have stayed in the local economy.

Join us in supporting the local economy this holiday season, and all year long, by buying local.

Over-the-Rhine: A Holiday Tradition

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Usually when we talk about Over-the-Rhine here it is about how the neighborhood is turning around, or events going on in the neighborhood. This time though, I thought it appropriate to take a moment and talk about the group of musicians known by the same name and specifically their show tonight at the Taft Theater. The show this year, and many years in the past, has been sponsored by local radio treasure 89.7 WNKU.

The heart of Over-the-Rhine, the band, is Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist who have been married and making music together for quite some time. Last year their two night stand at The Taft celebrated the 20th year of the band as they worked through music from their entire career. This year the show should be back to its more traditional mix of original tunes, both of the holiday variety and those enjoyed on a year round basis.

Their annual homecoming show around the Christmas holiday has become a longstanding tradition in Cincinnati which started back in the mid 1990s at the Emery Theatre. As the band’s fan base grew and the Emery closed down of course (only to be remodeled) the next logical place was the Taft where they have been playing for a while now.

This show has become a part of how many Cincinnatians celebrate the holiday season, and if you have not checked it out it comes highly recommended. Karin, Linford, and company put on a very thoughtful and elegant show on a stage that is usually candlelit and has numerous flowers on it which are purchased by fans of the band. Couple it with a dinner at one of the many establishments around town and a trip to the Fountain Square Ice Skating Rink for the perfect Saturday night.

Get in the mood by checking out “Darlin (Christmas is Coming)” from last year’s show and then buy your tickets for the show here.