Month: November 2008

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Salsa Dancing at the Wisp

Over the summer Fountain Square hosted Salsa on the Square every Thursday which included salsa lessons. The event showed the most growth of all of Fountain Square’s summer events with crowds of 400-500 people by the end of summer. With these weekly nights of Salsa on the Square done until next summer, I couldn’t think of a better spot to rekindle the dancing magic during the winter months than the Blue Wisp Jazz Club.

This Thursday, November 13th, the Blue Wisp will have salsa dancing with Mambo Diablo starting at 8pm. Free dance lessons will be available a half hour prior to the show. There is a $5 cover charge for this show, but if you’re one of the many who are into salsa dancing then this is probably for you. Mambo Diablo consists of John Zappa (trumpet), Stan Ginn (percussion), Bill Jackson (bass), Mike Darrah (piano) and a couple others.

You could make it a full evening of music at the Blue Wisp (GoogleMap) by getting there after work for happy hour. The free show features The Courthouse Trio with Billy Larkin (piano), Eddie Felson (bass), and Al Beasley (drums) will be taking the stage at 4:30pm, but would make for a great after work stop whenever you get off. There are plenty of food offerings, and of course lots of drinks to choose from.

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Streetcar Fun

Mt. Adams Incline in the distance as viewed from 4th & Vine in the 1920’s
Streetcar promotion

“Observation Cars” offered scenic rides around the Queen City for a mere 25 cents during the Summer months.
“Highwater Cars” were developed in response to several large floods. These enabled the transportation of people who were in flood-stricken areas of the city.
Fountain Square around 1925
Eden Park entrance in 1905. After stability concerns this streetcar route was moved to Gilbert Avenue, with the bridge later removed.
Downtown streetcar loop plan connecting with several of the nearby suburbs. It’s funny how history repeats itself.

If you’ve enjoyed these photos, feel free to browse through the rest of the photos I’ve uploaded from the late 19th and early-mid 20th Centuries. You can view the full Photobucket album here, or you can choose to check out the annotated photo thread I’ve posted on UrbanOhio.

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Self-Guided Downtown Walking Tour

I have put together a self-guided walking tour map for Downtown Cincinnati. The tour hits many of the historical gems, local landmarks, and visitor highlights of Downtown Cincinnati. It also offers a great glimpse of the variety of Downtown architecture and urban form.

You can click on the various flags for details are the tour highlights. If taken at a leisurely pace it should take about 1.5 to 2 hours to complete the 2.8 mile tour. Hopefully this will work as a tool for out-of-town visitors, or those looking to reacquaint themselves with Cincinnati’s downtown.

More tours will follow that are meant to re-engage people with Cincinnati’s center city. Please give feedback on what should be added or omitted, to the tour, and what tours you might like to see in the future.


View Larger Map

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What does the political shakeup mean for Cincinnati?

No matter which party you subscribe to, and no matter what you think of yesterday’s results one thing is sure. Things most certainly have changed, especially so for the Cincinnati area.

President-elect Barack Obama and running mate Joe Biden have stated their support for rail transit before, with Biden going as far to say “we’ll be the most pro-rail administration ever.” Combine this with the ousting of long-time Congressman Steve Chabot (R) and you have something interesting.

Chabot has long been an opponent to most earmark spending and has not been suportive of transit initiatives in the past. He will now be replaced by westsider Steve Driehaus (D) who has stated that he will “be a strong advocate for this region and a strong advocate for Cincinnati.”

This is leaving many to speculate about increased funding for such prominent local projects like The Banks, Brent Spence Bridge (BSB) replacement, Cincinnati Streetcar initiative, Ohio Hub and others. Many of these seem like reasonable expectations. In the past Chabot had voted against money for The Banks and lobbied against initiatives like the Cincinnati Streetcar.

On top of all of this, you have the Obama/Biden infrastructure proposal that is designed to help rebuild our nation’s infrastructure by investing in people to rebuild bridges, roads, the energy grid, and other things like rail transit. This could mean hundreds of millions of dollars for the Cincinnati region, leaving projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar, BSB, Ohio Hub, and others sitting pretty that have plans in place and are primed to show immediate results from the infusion of federal money.

So whether you like or don’t like the results of yesterday’s election one thing seems for sure. Things are going to change dramatically for Cincinnati’s political landscape and what it influences. Will it be for the better? The jury is still out, but I guess that also depends on how you think of things like The Banks, Cincinnati Streetcar, Ohio Hub and the Brent Spence Bridge.

America’s New First Family – Getty Images
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No nonsense, just vote

GO VOTE!!! The polling locations are open from 6:30am to 7:30pm. You can find your voting location here by simply entering in your address. It’s your right, it’s your duty, and it’s your time to stand up and voice your opinion about which direction this country is going to head.

If you need some last minute refreshers on the issues and candidates go check out the League of Women Voters website for some of the best, non-partisan voter information out there.