Month: March 2009

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News

‘Rock’ the vote for Ohio’s Music Video Challenge

A month ago the Ohio Film Office was accepting entries into their music video challenge. The music videos have been submitted and are now awaiting your votes.

There are 23 original music videos that have been submitted promoting Ohio and its attractions. From now until Wednesday, March 18th (sorry for the short notice) you can select your Top 10 contest finalists on the official YouTube page.

From there the ultimate winner will be decided by a panel of celebrity judges (listed below). The winners will receive a prize package that includes a trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday, April 4th.

  • Chad Lowe: “Unfaithful” (actor); “Beautiful Ohio” (producer)
  • Joe Russo and Anthony Russo: “You, Me, & Dupree” (directors); “Welcome to Collinwood” (directors, producers and writers)
  • Brad Petrigala: Brillstein Entertainment Partners (manager)
  • Bob Hoch: Sony Music (senior director of digital marketing)
  • Don Scott: “Barbershop” (writer); “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” (writer)
  • Mark Johnson: “The Chronicles of Narnia” (writer)
  • Michael Peyser: “U2 3D” (producer)
  • Todd Longwell: The Hollywood Reporter (writer)
Categories
News

Taking the Stage

The Nick Lachey pitched reality show about life as a student at Cincinnati’s nationally known School of Creative & Performing Arts (part of Cincinnati Public Schools) with be premiering on MTV Thursday, March 19th.

I actually got to be in a scene with Mia at Baba Budan’s in Clifton Heights. I was there hanging out in between classes with a couple friends and in came MTV with their cameras. I signed a release and was then part of the crowd in the shot. Pretty neat…so keep a look out for the back of my head.

The ten episode series, Taking The Stage, will air weekly on MTV at 10pm. You will be able to watch the show on Fountain Square’s video board live each week. In the mean time check out the trailer here!

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Scramble Crossings for Cincinnati

Those who frequent Downtown know how crowded some intersections get with pedestrians throughout the day. There are 23 intersections that see more than 1,000 pedestrians during peak hours. Of those 23, five see more than 2,000 and one (4th & Walnut) sees over 3,000 pedestrians per hour.

That’s a lot of people walking around and trying to navigate the roadways filled with delivery trucks, taxis, buses, bicyclists and the hurried drivers. In addition to it being frustrating, it can also be dangerous to attempt multiple crossings of the same congested intersection.

2008 Downtown Pedestrian Count Map

If pedestrians were able to cross diagonally across intersections with traffic stopped in all directions, it would improve both vehicular and pedestrian flow, but also improve safety across the board.

“Scramble crossings” essentially are intersections that do just that. In Cincinnati’s case, intersections with high volumes of pedestrian traffic could implement these during their peak volume hours of the day. The “scramble crossings” or “diagonal crossings” could first be implemented at the five intersections that see volume in excess of 2,000 pedestrians per hour, and could be expanded as needed.

When intersections no longer have pedestrian volumes to warrant the “scramble crossings” they could revert back to normal crossing operations. The associated costs would be reprogramming of the lights, painting of the diagonal crossings and possibly some minimal signage/education. Be sure to share any other intersections you feel are qualified for such programming in the comment section.

Watch this brief 3 minute video about how Los Angeles is implementing these crossings today, and how they are functioning for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Pedestrian count data from 2008 Pedestrian Count Summary (1mb PDF)

Categories
News

Uptown Commons update and breakdown

Towne Properties has released more details and more renderings for their Uptown Commons project on the southern edge of the University of Cincinnati located in between Calhoun and McMillan streets. The renderings themselves are high-quality, but I’m going to take this chance to share some of my thoughts and concerns on this developing project plan.


Office building located at Vine, Calhoun, and McMillan streets looking west

The design for the office building is solid and I think will work well for this site both aesthetically and functionally. The scale of the building seems right and I really appreciate the use of glass to give it a more contemporary feel in the contemporary feeling Uptown area.

The park space seen in the above image seems to illustrate the incorporation for any future streetcar that might run up Vine and cut over to run west along Calhoun. This is a forward-thinking approach that will pay off big time for both the community and Towne Properties when the streetcar system is built.

Office building looking west from Old St. George church

On the site plan this area behind the office building is labeled as a plaza. From this view though it just has me confused what it would ever be used for especially with the apparent wall along Calhoun Street. There is the potential for a highly used plaza here with the new office building and other nearby commercial uses, but the spot will surely have to be better thought out than what this rendering indicates for it to really work.

Overall view of project site

If a new traffic signal is installed at Ohio Avenue per this plan, then the traffic signal at Scioto should be removed. Ohio and Calhoun is often congested and could probably use the signal for improved vehicular and pedestrian safety. Scioto and Calhoun doesn’t really need the signal as the southern portion of Scioto is rarely used due to its steep incline and the northern portion isn’t really used at all as service to the university is now routed through Dennis Street adjacent to Panera Bread.

The whole project could use more residential units if you ask me. Office space and the hotel will be great additions to this area of Uptown and will help to diversify the mixture of uses, and also spur more activity during non peak school times. McMillan Street also seems to get ignored to a certain extent. The previous idea of townhouses here seemed to work well, but probably not any more with this terrible housing market.

Renderings provided by Cole + Russel Architects

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News

Give Back Cincinnati back at the Emery

Give Back Cincinnati went back to the Emery Theatre for their second visit where volunteers donated their time and energy to help clean up the OTR gem.

The fun started just around the corner at the Know Theatre for registration and mingling. Volunteers then began the clean up work to help keep the Emery Theatre in the minds of Cincinnatians. Following the clean up, members of Give Back Cincinnati hit up the Bockfest celebrations.

Below is a slideshow with event photos from inside the Emery Theatre. There are 39 photos in the slideshow that were provided by Give Back Cincinnati and taken by Jackie Anderson.