Welcome newbies!

The poll for May indicates that the majority of readers, on UrbanCincy, are relative newcomers (less than 3 months). Nearly 50% of the 151 respondents selected this as their response. The next largest group (25%) were those that have been reading roughly from the beginning (9-12 months).

As UrbanCincy enters its second year of existence I expect this number of newcomers to continue to rise and the level of regular readers also to rise. These are high expectations, but things have been good thus far. Keep reading...we'll keep writing.

Find UrbanCincy in more places

You can now find UrbanCincy in more places and stay connected in more ways. In addition to the Technorati and Facebook pages for UrbanCincy...you can now find us on Twitter and VerveEarth. And as always you can subscribe to UrbanCincy's RSS feeds by clicking the link in the left-hand column or by simply clicking HERE.

The Twitter page is pretty basic right now, but will grow in the future. The Facebook page is probably the most developed and offers the best outlet to follow the various events, news, and images created by UrbanCincy.

As always, you can find links to these pages and much more over in the left column on the site. If you have accounts become followers of UrbanCincy and show your support for your Cincinnati blogspot.

I'm so hungry

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have added two additional blogs to UrbanCincy's blogroll, and have also removed a couple because a couple of the blogs are going away for various reasons.

The two new ones that have been added are The Veggie Option and Wine Me, Dine Me. Both are obviously food related blogs...and really what can be more fun than that. You can get a wide variety of reviews and live vicariously through Julie's never dull dining life.

Julie from Wine Me, Dine Me

Image from The Veggie Option

The Veggie Option is pretty clear in its focus. You can get reviews and find out places that a vegetarian friendly in the Cincinnati area. If you're a vegetarian, or simply are interested in food reviews done with a different angle, then you must simply check this one out as well.

Happy reading, and try not to get too hungry out there in the blogosphere. I know first-hand that it can be quite difficult (thanks 5chw4r7z).

We fixed the glitch

It was brought to my attention that the site feed for UrbanCincy wasn't working. That problem has now been fixed, and some extra features have been added to the feed as well that should make it more readable and enjoyable for everyone.

In addition to the fixed glitch, I have added a bookmarking feature to the bottom of all the posts now. Thus making it even easier for you to spread the word about UrbanCincy to all your friends, family, and co-workers.

If you are interested in subscribing to the site feed simply look to the left portion, of the website, and click on the site feed option listed under the subscribe section.

Thank You!

I would like to use this post to thank all of those who voted for UrbanCincy in the Best of Cincinnati 2008. As per the reader's choice, UrbanCincy is the 5th Best Blog in Cincinnati. This was done without campaigning and/or pandering for votes...so thank you.

The site will continue its maturation process, and will soon reach its 1 year anniversary. Keep on reading and spreading the word...and I'll continue to pour my heart and soul into UrbanCincy for everyone of you.

*If there is anything you would like to see...or if you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to contact our team at urbancincy@gmail.com. Your input is valued and you should get a response within 24 hours.

Appologies

Sorry about the lack of content lately, but I'm currently in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans area and will be here for another week or so. As a result the content won't be quite as steady, but I'll certainly do what I can when I have time. You'll also be able to hear my analysis of the region and photography of the area. Cheers.

Introduction

I thought I would start out my first post on this blog with a mission statement, here goes:

Cincinnati is a city that too often defines itself by its failures, rather than its successes. By its missteps, rather than its accomplishments; by its delays rather than its progress. We are a city that subscribes wholeheartedly to the famous Mark Twain quotation, regardless of its veracity. A city that looks to the unfinished development at the river rather than applaud the hundreds of new residences downtown. A city that bemoans the loss of department stores to the suburbs rather than celebrate the new retailers that have sprung up in Over the Rhine. A city that laments its unfinished subway rather than one that advocates for its proposed streetcar. A city with a remarkable past, but with citizens that doubts its future. We need to change this mindset and these expectations.

New and hopefully improved

This work in progress called UrbanCincy has evolved some more...and I thought I should keep everyone apprised as to what has happened.

First off, I've changed the header graphic around slightly to something I think is a little more visually pleasing. Secondly, I have removed the Downtown Cincinnati News Bits section (on the left), and replaced it with a news feed from Cinplify.com. The other change is the big one (at least to me...maybe not you). No longer is it http://urbancincy.blogspot.com...oh no, now it is simply www.urbancincy.com.

Tell your friends, coworkers, family, and loved ones. UrbanCincy continues to get better for all of you. Be on the lookout for more improvements down the road as UrbanCincy will continue its maturation into your Cincinnati blogspot.

***EDIT: The proverbial glitch has now been fixed...you can now simply type in "urbancincy.com" and it will direct you to the site. All is well!

Rehab Progress

Just want to keep everyone apprised on the changes I have made thus far. Some have been minor and barely noticeable, but hopefully will prove to make the site more navigable and user-friendly in the long run.

1. The first change I made was the background. I wanted to clean it up a bit, so that all those dots didn't distract from the material on the page. I kept the matching color to keep the site tied together.

2. I wanted to keep the dots around somewhere...so I incorporated them into the Header Banner for the site. You still get the look, but without the overdone dots on the entire page.

3. That header is now linked to the main page for UrbanCincy (http://urbancincy.blogspot.com). This will come in handy if you link to the site via cinplify or somewhere else and are viewing a single post. Instead of retyping in the url or simply moving on...you can now just click the header and it will redirect to the main page with all of the recent posts.

4. I have increased the width of the content on the page. Previously I was annoyed by how narrow the content appeared on the page. So I tweaked with it and came up with a little wider format that I feel is more visually pleasing.

5. I've also added translation buttons for those international readers.

6. I have added a poll at the top of the page. This will stay around, but will change each month. The goal is to continue reader engagement on the site and get people thinking/discussing things about Cincinnati. The more discussion and exchange of ideas the better.

7. Finally...I removed the Google AdSense feature that used to be at the bottom of the page. It really added nothing to the page in terms of content, and just added more clutter in my opinion.

I am still working on another feature that will link to my photography collection, but that is still in the works and will take some time to get going the way I want it to be. If you have any more suggestions please let me know and comment on this post. Or if you would like, you can send me an email and I usually respond quite quickly.