It is rumored that Tucker’s will be having their parking spot (possibly with live music!) open later today. There have been people stopping by all morning and now into the afternoon. It’s been great to meet new people and take a minute to enjoy the streetscape of Cincinnati. It’s slowed down, and the spots have consolidated a little, but I’ll be around until around 5pm. Come hang out in a re-purposed parking spot at PARK(ing) Day!
Year: 2009
Today is National PARK(ing) Day. In 2005, San Francisco art collaborative REBAR decided to take over a metered parking space for a day and turn it into a public space. The ratio of public space to parking space in San Francisco is heavily skewed toward parking. In 2006 it went public, and now PARK(ing) Day is celebrated all over the world.
Various individuals and business in the Cincinnati area have come together to make spaces for the public to enjoy. You can check out the map of individual locations here. There are currently several spaces taken up on Vine Street near Central Parkway, outside the Segway store and Park+Vine. Check back later for updates of other PARK(ing) spots around the city!
One of the elements of the Green Cincinnati Plan (pdf) is an educational outreach effort that focuses on businesses, health and educational institutions, and community non-profit and faith-based organizations that have not fully developed a plan for reducing their energy demand. To address that component the Energy, Economics, Environment (3Es) Summit will “provide area business and community leaders industry-specific insight on sustainability efforts, particularly those with a positive impact on the bottom line.”
The summit will take place on Friday, October 2 from 7:30am to 1pm at the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati where national and local leaders will discuss strategies that are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and costs. Event organizers say that the 3E’s Summit will allow attendees to learn about and discuss sustainability solutions relevant to their respective organizations.
The half-day event is structured to have three concurrent educational sessions, exhibitors and keynote speaker John Stowell who is vice president of environmental, health and safety policy for Duke Energy. Stowell has also recently returned from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Summit in Copenhagen and will speak on climate change in terms of both the domestic and international agenda. Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher will also be giving a keynote address during the summit.
Registration is $50 in advance and $60 at the door. You can register now online at the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce’s website or by calling (513) 579-3111. The Duke Energy Convention Center is well-served by Queen City Metro routes 1, 21, 27, 50, 64, and 77X. To see which route is most convenient for you, and to plan your trip now, use Metro’s Trip Planner.
Fox 19 will be broadcasting their morning show live on Fountain Square tomorrow morning from 7am to 8am. The broadcast will be quite similar to the Today Show which is outdoors on Rockefeller Center in New York.
There will also be a band from next week’s MidPoint Music Festival performing live on the Square. If you’re already going to be Downtown you might want to swing by for this fun event. If you’re not already Downtown, then you might want to make it a fun Friday morning by swinging by.

In 2008, some changes were made to the program, requiring students, faculty, and staff to obtain a free quarterly UC*Metro card. This change was made in order to prevent abuse to the program from people with invalid UC ID cards. Eventually, the terms of the program changed, requiring a small fee for these cards.
The UC*Metro deal has been renewed for the 2009-10 school year, with some additional changes:
- The passes will now cost $40 per quarter for students, and $120 per quarter for faculty and staff.
- Riders must now present both their UC*Metro card and a valid UC ID.
- The passes are now only valid for rides within Metro Zone 1. If traveling to an outer zone, the rider must pay the difference between the Zone 1 fare and the normally applicable fare.
- UC will contribute an additional $100,000 to Metro for this year’s program.