Author: Randy A. Simes

Randy is an award-winning urban planner who founded UrbanCincy in May 2007. He grew up on Cincinnati’s west side in Covedale, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s nationally acclaimed School of Planning in June 2009. In addition to maintaining ownership and serving as the managing editor for UrbanCincy, Randy has worked professionally as a planning consultant throughout the United States, Korea and the Middle East. After brief stints in Atlanta and Chicago, he currently lives in the Daechi neighborhood of Seoul’s Gangnam district.

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Up To Speed

60-unit apartment building planned for Madison Road in Oakley

60-unit apartment building planned for Madison Road in Oakely

A new development being called Oakley Lofts would bring 60 one- and two-bedroom apartments to Madison Road at Appleton Street. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The five-story building will have a commercial component on the first floor. The upper floors will be residential. Chris Bortz, a director of special projects for Towne Properties and a former Cincinnati City Council member, said the apartment complex is a good fit for the neighborhood.

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Up To Speed

More new housing to be built uptown in Corryville

More new housing to be built uptown in Corryville

The housing construction boom continues uptown as developers announce their intentions to build a second phase to the popular Village of Stetson Square development in Corryville. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Four newly constructed buildings are planned to house 16 one-bedroom units with studies and two two-bedroom townhomes. Prices will range between $190,000 and the mid-$200,000s. It’s the first construction planned for the site at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Eden Avenue since the final rowhouse building was completed in summer 2009.

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Up To Speed

Cincinnati to offer domestic partner benefits

Cincinnati to offer domestic partner benefits.

Following through on a campaign promise, Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach (D) championed through domestic partnership benefits this week. The move will place Cincinnati amongst an estimated 200 other cities from around the country who offer similar benefits to same-sex couples. More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Cincinnati became the second city in the region this week to offer benefits to employees’ domestic partners. The measure passed 8-1, with only Charlie Winburn (R) opposing it. Councilman Chris Seelbach (D), the city’s first openly gay council member, promised to introduce the idea as one of his first priorities.

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Business News

UrbanCincy begins rolling out new website features, announces bi-weekly podcast

For nearly five years, UrbanCincy has strived to keep the region connected with its urban core, and we continue to develop new ways in which to accomplish this. To that end, we will be rolling out some new features to our website over the coming weeks. These features are intended to improve the usability of the site for you – the readers.

Earlier this year, we introduced the Disqus commenting system to improve functionality and interaction between readers. In addition to that, you will notice a number of additional technical enhancements intended to better connect you with our team.


Inside The UrbanCincy Podcast studio where chief technologist, Travis Estell, works to produce the first episode. Photograph by John Yung.

The first of the new features is now live and operational. “Up To Speed” is a new section providing a constant stream of all the news and discussion happening around the world that pertains to Cincinnati.

Another new feature is a bi-weekly podcast that will debut this Friday. The UrbanCincy Podcast will include in-depth debate of contemporary topics by our team. Each episode will focus on one topic and include feature commentary by a national or international expert on the topic.

This Friday, the UrbanCincy team will be joined by Natalia Gomez Rojas, an urban planner from Bogota, Colombia, to discuss the TransMilenio and what Cincinnati can learn from the world’s premier bus rapid transit system.

While we implement more of these new features, you can continue to expect the same original news content from the UrbanCincy team you have come to expect. We hope that these changes will enhance your experience with the website, and make UrbanCincy.com your urban lifestyle website destination. Thanks for reading.

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Up To Speed

Japanese restaurant coming to OTR this fall

Japanese restaurant coming to OTR this fall

Just one week after UrbanCincy announced that Hapa, an Asian-inspired restaurant, will open at 1331 Vine Street, it is now being reported that a Japanese restaurant will join it across the street. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The concept is an izakaya, or what you might call a Japanese pub. That means lots of food that goes well with drinks, food that comes in small portions and can be ordered in various combinations…The restaurant will be larger than many of its Vine Street neighbors, and will encompass three components: a bar, a dining room, and an outside area, partly covered, partly an open garden.