What's the Point?! is soon to be at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati. The production originally opened in 2007 in New York City at The Reprise Room and will return there in September. In the mean time, the Know Theatre of Cincinnati will bring the cabaret musical to another city for the first time ever this Summer.
The musical is based on the popular 1950s and 1960s revue styles, which were known for commenting on popular trends and on society in general. Additionally this particular production has been described as "fast-paced" with each member, of the three-person cast, playing a variety of characters.
The Cincinnati premier will take place on Friday, July 18th and will run through Tuesday, August 12th. Shows on Fridays and Saturdays start at 9:30pm, while shows on Mondays and Tuesdays start at 7:30pm. You can get tickets for a mere $15 by calling 513.300.5669 (KNOW) or by stopping by the box office located at 1120 Jackson Street (GoogleMap).
how do you primarily commute to work?
Know Theatre - What's the Point?!
Bring VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown to Cincinnati
Some local, regional, and state leaders have worked to extend an invitation to VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown to come to Cincinnati's Fountain Square. This is in light of the very popular new song/video, "It's Not My Time," from 3 Doors Down - which was filmed in Cincinnati. The video is shot entirely in Cincinnati and covers prominent city landmarks in Over-the-Rhine, Downtown, Mt. Auburn and Lower Price Hill.
So how can you help bring the countdown to Cincinnati? The easiest way is to go to VH1's website and vote for the 3 Doors Down video. It is really quick/easy, and we need to get to work as the video is currently at the #14 spot on the countdown. Pass on this information to as many people as you know so that we can bring the countdown to Fountain Square.
This effort would generate six hours of national publicity in roughly 90 million homes. The show is a two-hour program that airs three times during the week - beginning from 9-11am Saturdays - and features a dozen mini-remotes during which host Alison Becker touts the different venues from the assigned location of the week (insert Cincinnati). Alison would be able to tape from Fountain Square, Government Square, the Freedom Center, restaurants and nightclubs in/around Downtown, plus some views overlooking the city.
UrbanCincy readers are excited about streetcars
The June poll results are in...and it was a clear/decisive victory for streetcars (YouTube video about modern streetcars). The question was, "what are you most excited about over the next few years?" And phase 1 of the proposed streetcar system (141 votes) nearly tripled the amount of votes casted for the second place finisher (The Banks phase 1a - 53 votes), and tallied one more vote than the other four options combine.
I voted for the streetcar option for a pretty simple reason. It is something that helps make many of those other options (i.e. The Banks, OTR progress) more feasible and helps to spur more good things to come (i.e. future Queen City Squares). It's like the gift that keeps on giving.
Image from Dewi's Trains, Trams & TrolleysIs gentrification inevitable in OTR?
So, is it? I tend to think that it is inevitable, but it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. The word often comes with very negative connotations, especially when you throw race into the equation. This is exactly the issue in Over-the-Rhine, and it is also not a new one (see Buddy Gray).
Gentrification, by definition, is the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. The key here is that gentrification often displaces poorer residents. An influx, of middle-class or affluent people, alone isn't a bad thing. It is what usually comes with it that is bad - the displacement of poorer residents.
NW View over OTR by Randy SimesSo far gentrification has been taking place in/around the Gateway Quarter, but displacement hasn't really occurred. Many of the buildings were vacant and there has been an effort, by 3CDC, to keep units at affordable levels. Some of the units have even been arranged to only accommodate individuals within certain income ranges.
As more and more new condos pop up and more new businesses arrive, the question seems only logical. How are we going to deal with the issue of gentrification in our city's most infamous neighborhood? It is something that will take work and courage from our leaders, and dedication from the developers to do what is right.
The gentrification of OTR doesn't have to be the divisive/negative aspect that it often is elsewhere. We know what we can do (inclusionary zoning techniques), and we know what we should do. The question really is whether the OTR power brokers will ultimately do the right thing and not displace those current residents just so they can fatten their wallets.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati: '08-'09 Season
The Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati has announced their 2008-2009 Season. The lineup includes six different works ranging from contemporary theatre award-winners, as well as, some Cincinnati favorites.
Three of the works have been nominated for Tony Awards. Grey Gardens has been nominated for 10 including Best Musical. The Seafarer and Gem of the Ocean have both been nominated for several (4 and 5 respectively) awards and are both nominated for Best Play.
In addition to those goodies you'll have the opportunity to check out Alice in Wonderland (a musical retelling of Lewis Carroll's classic story), Mauritius, and Don't Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches From The Frontlines of Parenting.
OTR Ambassador update
About a month ago Vitality Over-the-Rhine, a group tasked with making resident/business driven initiatives reality, started signing people up for a new Volunteer Ambassador Program in Over-the-Rhine.
Volunteer Ambassadors after the GoOTR 5k - Image provided by Queen City SurveyShirts will soon be on display at a variety of locations throughout OTR including Park + Vine. These locations will serve as satellite sign-up locations for the program. Monthly social gatherings have been arranged for volunteers and community members, and most importantly Ambassadors are hitting the streets and making a difference.
Not sold yet, there are a host of OTR businesses offering special discounts and offers to Ambassadors. Simply put, if you're wearing the Ambassador t-shirt you get special discounts all over OTR. Meet new people, get connected in Over-the-Rhine, and help make a difference in one of Cincinnati's greatest neighborhoods. Become an Over-the-Rhine Ambassador today!
The next gathering will be at 6:30pm this Thursday (6/5/08) at Mr. Pitiful's (GoogleMap). Come out to hear more about the program and sign-up. Feel free to bring a friend along even if they're not necessarily interested in signing up.
Join the Vitality Over-the-Rhine Facebook Group
Washington Park expansion
Washington Park offers a great opportunity for Over-the-Rhine. It is a historic park that has been owned, by the City, since 1855. The park boasts Civil War monuments, a historic bandstand, and some beautifully mature trees.
On the other hand the park has been plagued with perceived safety issues and an overall lack of investment in the surrounding area. This is rapidly changing with the massive investment from 3CDC and others. New residents, businesses, and a new School of Creative and Performing Arts are all offering the park and the neighborhood a fresh chance at new life.
Washington Park Conceptual Plan - Image provided by 3CDCWashington Park Elementary once sat on the northern most portion of Washington Park and essentially cut Washington Park off from its northern neighbors. The demolition, of Washington Park Elementary, now offers an opportunity to expand the park where the school once sat. At the same time it will allow for a potential solution to another problem for new residents, businesses, and established destinations in the area (i.e. Music Hall, Memorial Hall, etc) - parking.
The expansion plan right now is to build a garage, underneath the expanded park, that would create 600-700 parking spaces. The total project cost is pegged around $25-million and a time line for completion will be created following more community input on the final plan.
This is all made possible by a recent agreement between Cincinnati Public Schools and the Cincinnati Park Board with 3CDC. CPS has agreed to permanently transfer the title for the former school site to the Park Board.
Cincy Fringe Festival
The 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival marks the 5th year of its existence. The festival started tonight at the Art Academy in Over-the-Rhine. Over the next 12 days, Downtown and Over-the-Rhine will support 20 different venues which will play host to a variety of art including visual, performance, and film. There will also be an ongoing mural installation on the south side of the Know Theatre over the 12 day festival.
The Cincy Fringe Festival is one of 20 active Fringe festivals in North America including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Minneapolis...with the original stemming from Edinburgh, Scotland which began 51 years ago.
Organizers are still looking for volunteers to assist in various ways throughout the festival. You can get involved by signing up online (it's very easy). Volunteers get a Fringe Festival t-shirt for signing up for one shift and get two free tickets (to any Fringe show) for every shift you sign up for after that.
There is a lot more I could ramble on about, but you can get most of the information from the website. You can order tickets, get reviews, preview shows, and much more.
Let's talk tax structure and streetcars
There is no doubt that residents and businesses, in Downtown/OTR/Uptown, see the value in the proposed streetcar system. It is also quite understandable that community leaders in neighborhoods like Westwood, Price Hill, and Mt. Washington may not exactly see the benefits to their respective communities.
Every community would like to have more amenities and improved services. These are the things that help make neighborhoods successful and great places to live. At the same time they understandably don't want to see their taxes rise. So lets break down the tax structure and how the streetcar will play into this whole situation...
Residential properties are accepted losers when it comes to taxes. They simply demand far more services than they pay for in taxes. Those services (i.e. trash, police, fire, schools, etc) are made possible by those that pay exceedingly more than they demand (i.e. office, industrial).
With that said, residential properties can get close to offsetting their service demands. The best opportunity for this to occur is in the most densely populated (or built) areas where economies of scale factor in big time. In Cincinnati's case there is no other residential neighborhood that has a potentially better return on taxes than Over-the-Rhine.
Chart illustrating the functionality of Economies of ScaleThese most densely built areas need to be focused on first and foremost, and need to be populated with as many people as possible. This allows you to grow your residential base without significantly growing the demand for services (in OTR's case you may actually decrease demand for services like police and fire by repopulating the neighborhood).
So while a streetcar line only serving Downtown, OTR, and Uptown seems to only benefit those 3 neighborhoods...it is really affecting the financial stability of the entire city, and allows for a growth in tax base without a significantly higher demand for services. This means extra tax revenues can then be used for increased services and funding for the other 49 great Cincinnati neighborhoods.
*Tax data from City of Cincinnati's 2006 Annual Financial Report (pdf 5mb)
Related reading on UrbanCincy:
Keep the heart strong
GoOTR 5k Run/Walk
The second GoOTR 5k Run/Walk is coming up next Saturday, May 31st. This is a great way to see the new stuff going on in OTR, get some exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and raise some money for the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce.
This year's 5k will start at 10am at 12th & Vine (GoogleMap). There will be food, beer and plenty of fun. This year's race and events will pay tribute to the 1-year anniversary of the Gateway Quarter. Registration is a mere $10, with the money going to the OTR Chamber (this gets you into the race and a t-shirt).
I am signed up and ready to go...and I'll surely be sporting my new Over-the-Rhine Volunteer Ambassador t-shirt (orange with OTR Ambassador across the back).
You can register online without any processing fees (select OTR 5k run/walk for the payment reason). You can also get more information from the OTR Chamber of Commerce at 513.241.2690 or by email at otrchamber@zoomtown.com.
Christian Moerlein favorite local beer
Well the results of April's poll aren't even close. UrbanCincy readers clearly favor Christian Moerlein which claimed 62% (146 total) of the votes. Mt. Carmel took second place with 17% (41 total) with Sam Adams, Hudy Delight, and 'Nati Light rounding out the list.
I voted for Christian Moerlein but this certainly pained me because I absolutely love Mt. Carmel. The connections with Over-the-Rhine are what eventually put Christian Moerlein over the top for me.
Of the locals I rank my top three beers as:
1. Mt. Carmel Copper
2. Christian Moerlein OTR Ale
3. Christian Moerlein Barbarossa
4. Mt. Carmel Stout (honorable mention)
All over Cincy (Photos)
I was all over the place this past Thursday and Friday...and I made sure to take my camera along. As a result you're able to enjoy some of my favorites from the two days of random photography.
Neighborhoods represented in this slideshow include: Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Clifton Heights, Hyde Park, The Heights, Columbia Tusculum, East Walnut Hills, Corryville, and Mariemont.
Be a Volunteer Ambassador in OTR
Vitality Over-the-Rhine is a non-profit group that came into existence in the Fall of 2006. They are dedicated to making resident/business driven initiatives reality in Over-the-Rhine.
Currently they are embarking on a new Volunteer Ambassador Program. You need not be a resident of OTR to apply. You don't even need to be familiar with the neighborhood. If you are simply looking for a way to get involved and make an impact then this is for you.
All ambassadors will be provided with a map, a list of neighborhood contacts, and a T-shirt to wear whenever they're in Over-the-Rhine for any reason (additional resources will be provided as needed). Several Over-the-Rhine businesses will be providing drinks and restrooms for ambassadors to use.
Volunteers will not be required to check in, record hours or maintain a certain route, though volunteers can opt to have their time logged for any service requirements that they need to fulfill. While the structure of the program is fairly laid back, Vitality Over-the-Rhine asks that ambassadors not get drunk or cross over into the CBD while in service (to avoid confusion with the DCI Ambassadors Downtown).
This effort will continue as long as there is interest from volunteers. Fortunately enough for UrbanCincy readers...I'm organizing this whole effort. You can contact me for more information and details.
Randy A. Simes | Vitality Over-the-Rhine
Volunteer Ambassador Coordinator
VitalityOTR@gmail.com
Help save 1502 Vine Street
You may or may not have heard, but another gem in Over-the-Rhine is at risk of being demolished. The building is around 15th & Vine on the NE corner. There is however a twist in this story...an effort is underway to raise private money as a sign of good faith to save the building from the wrecking ball.
The hope is that enough private money is raised to show a level of commitment that could go a long way in saving the building. This financial commitment could then help to leverage $100,000 the City has for restoration and $150,000 that 3CDC has for potential use on the building.
If you're interested in helping, please check out www.pledgebank.com/Over-the-Rhine, or www.pledgebank.com/1500Vine (different pledge levels).
Image Credit:
Cincinnati Preservation Association, Margo Warminski
Clyffside, Streetcars, Moerlein...oh my
Last Friday (4/11) was a great day for Over-the-Rhine, and especially the Brewery District. There was the debut of a new Ohio Historical Marker for the Brewery District...and the Clyffside building kicked off its renovation process with a 'wall knocking' by council members Chris Bortz and Roxanne Qualls.
Brewery District people spoke, the two council members, and many others saw this as a chance to voice their support for the Cincinnati Streetcar. At one point the audience was instructed to look out the window and notice where the Northern end of the Streetcar will eventually be (1.5 blocks away or so). Needless to say, people were excited about the historical honor and the announcement of a renovation project that will bring 19 new units to OTR ranging from the low 100's to the mid-200's. Oh yeah, and the free Christian Moerlein was great too.
You can view the rest of my photos from the Clyffside ribbon cutting, historical marker, and building tour HERE.
View from The Clyffside units (Randy Simes)Best Week Ever? No, but a really good one
This week has been pretty amazing for the City of Cincinnati and OTR:
Rendering of Booty's, Produced by Jeff Ruby - Image Provided
It pays to read UrbanCincy
As mentioned before, UrbanCincy has worked out a relationship with the Blue Wisp Jazz Club downtown. Thursday nights offer UrbanCincy readers $3 off of the cover charge. This week includes the talented Rob Allgeyer Organ Trio w/Dan Drees and Ron Enyard.
Additionally, UrbanCincy now also has a deal with the Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. If you mention UrbanCincy you can get Buy 1, Get 1 half off Adult tickets to any evening performance (not valid on opening night). The next show to start up is Radio Golf (3/19 - 4/6) and you should not miss this show. All you need to do is contact the box office at 513.421.3555 (you can not get this offer online, only by calling). Tickets are going extremely fast to this performance so get 'em while they're hot.
Get out and take advantage of these UrbanCincy exclusive offers. The more you do, the better the chance more of these pop up in the future.
Ich möchte einen Toast auf Grammer's ausbringen!
Translation: I'd like to propose a toast to Grammer's!
I'll be honest I had never been in Grammer's before last night. I am a relatively new resident of this great city and had not had the opportunity to enjoy Grammer's prior to 1992, when it closed. Let me tell you. It seems like the place never closed. There were easily 100-150 people at the opening of Grammer's last night. You could barely 
move in the bar area, and many of the tables were full as well. Like I had said in my last post, Beer and Brats... what else do you need? This place is going to do amazingly well. What a GREAT building. It screams its German heritage loud and clear. Old Steins are everywhere, and the basement area is going to be one of my favorite spaces in the city, once the renovations are complete. In general, this could become my NEW favorite hang out. Prost!
No real menu yet, but the management expects a full restaurant in about a year. Other developments should start popping up around Grammer's at about that same time.
OTR = Food & Drinks
This past week has been a truly remarkable time for our favorite previously neglected neighborhood.
On Tuesday, Lavomatic opened on
The food was amazing, as expected. I started off with their daily special appetizer, a smoked trout salad. Simply Stunning. My entree and dessert of salmon on a bed of couscous, and crème Brule, were just as spectacular. Also the wine selection was very small, but I was told that they will be expanding it before the weekend. With entrees between 12-24 dollars it is probably the most affordable of Jean Robert's places. I honestly can't wait to go back and sit on the terrace.
Today, Grammer's reopens. A true Cincinnati Gem that I honestly can't wait to go to. It's basically going to have my two favorite things. Beer and Bratwursts. It promises to become a staple of Over-the-Rhine once again, especially with some of the redevelopment opportunities that have been recently hitting the presses.
What an exciting time for OTR and the city in general. It is hard not to get wrapped up in the momentum that we are experiencing right now in our neighborhood.
Cincinnati's Mark Twain complex
Is Cincinnati ready to shed the Mark Twain complex? That infamous quote seems to rear its ugly head too often, and unfortunately is seemingly reinforced by the moves/actions of local politicians, businesses and residents.
I’ve been called “viciously optimistic” about Cincinnati before, but I know when to call a duck a duck. The Banks is going to happen and it will be sooner rather than later, but it has taken us a decade to get this far. Cincinnati finally told Eagle Realty to take a walk after wasting years of time with the valuable 5th & Race location.
Cincinnati is on the cusp of a vote on the Cincinnati Streetcar proposal. This is something that many cities are looking into, but we are one of the furthest along in the development process. Cincinnati, yes CINCINNATI has the opportunity to do something that cities like Atlanta, Washington D.C., Portland and Columbus (to name a few) are all trying or have done the modern streetcar push.
Well what do you know…a couple of weeks before the Finance Committee is to vote on the proposal John Cranley publicized a 9-page list of questions – questions that have been answered by city staff and City Manager Milton Dohoney. These answers will be presented at the Finance Committee hearing on February 25th…however it seems VERY unlikely that it will budge Cranley on his views one bit.
To throw another wrench in the works, Roxanne Qualls suggests that another route altogether might be a better idea. You know nothing is more productive than waiting until 5 days before the hearing and suggesting that we start from scratch.
I won’t bore you with why the current proposal is solid, and why I think these politicians are simply employing stall tactics…but rather I will make the bold statement that Cincinnati shed this Mark Twain complex and start proving to our citizens that we can do big things, and we can do them quickly/efficiently.
Image Credit:
Twain With Pipe from the Kingwood College Library
