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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Arts & Entertainment News

Dinner in total darkness aims to explore senses, raise awareness

A dinner and concert in complete darkness will be held this Friday and Saturday in Northside at the North Presbyterian Church. The event is part of the growing number of “Blind Cafes” being hosted around the country to raise awareness and improve the lives of those who are blind.

The Cincinnati Blind Café is the fourth such event to take place in the United States, and will include a three-course, gluten-free vegetarian/vegan meal prepared by a popular local chef. There will also be a concert performed by Rosh & One Eye Glass Broken in complete darkness.

Event organizers say that all of the waiters will be blind and that patrons will have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A with the waiters about issues related to visual impairment. Furthermore, a portion of the event’s proceeds will go to support the Clovernook Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired.

The idea is to challenge patrons to experience life without sight, and to force greater use of other senses. Additionally, organizers and patrons claim that the lack of sight allows for heighted taste of the prepared meal, and that the music and poetry elements come to life in a new, unexpected way. Patrons of past blind café events have walked away feeling enlightened, and encourage others to experience the event first-hand.

“I went to the show, and it was magical,” exclaimed Kalea Wright who attended a blind café in Austin, TX. “It truly gave me a new look on life. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the evening with you all.”

Tickets for the Cincinnati Blind Café (map) start at $50 and can be purchased online or by calling 1-800-838-3006. Organizers say that check in will begin at 5:45pm, with seating to follow at 6pm both nights.

Photograph of two patrons at a recently held blind cafe in Boulder, CO courtesy of Alive Studios.

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Business Development News

Dive Bar set to open this week on Short Vine in Corryville

A new neighborhood tavern is slated to open in Corryville soon along Short Vine. The new establishment, Dive Bar, occupies the space previously used by Submarine Galley and is scheduled to open this Thursday just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Those familiar with the location may not recognize the space from the street as the building has undergone a significant renovation that has completely restored the historic structures exterior and interior spaces.

“It was a disaster inside,” said Dive Bar partner John Pedro. “We started working, on the space, in January and have used five big dumpsters to clean it out inside.” Pedro says that while he and his business partners have focused on the 1,800-square-foot interior, the Uptown Consortium assisted financially with exterior renovations including roof repair.

The bar will include lounge seating, free wifi with plentiful electrical outlets, simple street food prepared by Flop Johnsons, and a rotating menu of beer and wine. The beer, Pedro says, will include $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon cans all the time, but also a large selection of craft beers including Dogfish Head, Anchor Steam, Great Lakes, Mt. Carmel, Christian Moerlein and Hudepohl. In total he expects there to be between 30 to 40 different beers, and 15 to 20 different wines available at any given time.

To further the experience, Pedro says that patrons will be able to purchase a mug for a quarter. The purchased mug will then have the patron’s name etched on it and hang behind the bar for only their use, and will get them $3 drink specials. The whole idea is to create a neighborhood-oriented feel that caters to regulars.

“All of our places are neighborhood joints, and this place is no different,” said Pedro who is also involved with Hang Over Easy and Village Idiot in Columbus. “We think it’s great when you can walk into these neighborhood type dive bars and know the people working there.”

In order to accomplish that Pedro and his partners have hired all local individuals to operate the bar, and value their business model on being able to serve as an incubator, of sorts, for local talent. Additionally, Pedro says that the group is excited to enter the Cincinnati market and become a part of the evolving Corryville neighborhood, but that recent streetcar setbacks have been disappointing.

“We felt the connectivity to downtown, and the activity down there, would have been great, but at the same time the neighborhoods surrounding the university are great,” Pedro explained. “We’re hugely disappointed because that connectivity to downtown, and all the activity happening down there, would have been great. Slowly but surely things will connect, but in Columbus it’s taken 20 to 30 years for Short North to connect with the downtown there.”

Dive Bar (map) will be open Monday through Saturday from 11am to 2:30am, and will be closed on Sundays except during football season. Stay connected with Dive Bar for details on future specials and weekly events.

Dive Bar exterior photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

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News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati approves transition to solar-powered parking meters

Yesterday, Cincinnati’s city council unanimously approved legislation that will replace and upgrade parking meters throughout the city.

The legislation approves the City to move forward with a $1.7 million purchase of 1,400 individual solar-powered meters, and 50 multiple-space meters. The new electronic parking meters allow users to pay with credit card, while existing meters require users to pay with coins.


Solar-powered parking pay station on Court Street

The new meters will upgrade approximately 25 percent of the City’s 5,600 parking meters city-wide and 100 percent of the parking meters downtown where parking rates are now $2 per hour.

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls’ office says that the new parking meters are expected to increase revenues and parking turnover. They say the increased revenue will come, in part, because a lot of people will now use credit cards to pay for the full two hour maximum, and because users will no longer be able to piggy-back off of previous time paid for at the meters.

Qualls’ office also believes the new meters will result in fewer people plugging the meters all day, and thus increase turnover.

The multi-space meters will function similarly to those currently found on Court Street and Second Street where users pay at a single pay station per block, then display a ticket on their dash board. City leaders envision that these pay stations will eventually be able to be used for issuing tickets for the Cincinnati Streetcar.

The investment is being funded through a parking revenue surplus, and was one of the recommendations to come from a 2009 study by Walker Parking Consultants that detailed actions the City could take to improve its parking infrastructure while also increasing parking revenues.

Court Street parking pay station photograph by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

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Arts & Entertainment News Transportation

CPA to lead walking tour of Cincinnati Streetcar route this Saturday

At one point in Cincinnati’s history, the city had the largest electrified transit network of any city its size in North America. A good deal of that network consisted of 220 miles of streetcars running all throughout the city, and now city leaders are working to introduce a modern streetcar system in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA) would like to show off the proposed modern streetcar route to those interested, and discuss the positive impacts such a system would have on the city’s historic building stock.

“The city’s core neighborhoods developed along transit lines,” said Margo Warminski, Preservation Director, CPA. “They have the urbanity and great buildings people are looking for in cities today.”


Artist rendition of modern streetcar on Race Street in Over-the-Rhine.

Warminski says that at the recently held Cincinnati Neighborhood Summit speaker after speaker said the same thing about the important value of walkability and access to transit to improve neighborhoods. And the CPA believes that projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar help to promote that vision, while also presenting exciting revitalization opportunities.

“Over-the-Rhine has seen a lot of new investment in recent years, but it still has hundreds of vacant, condemned and blighted buildings at-risk of demolition,” Warminski explained. “While no one project can transform a neighborhood, people are already buying buildings and opening businesses along the proposed streetcar route.”

Those interested in participating in CPA’s Walk the Streetcar Route, can do so on Saturday, April 30 from 9:30am to 12pm. Margo Warminski will lead the walking tour, which will meet at Vine Street and Central Parkway (map), and show off the development opportunities present along the Cincinnati Streetcar route through Over-the-Rhine.

A $5 donation is appreciated, and go towards supporting CPA’s advocacy and outreach efforts that include the Gamble House, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Oakley Train Station, Village of Greenhills, monthly educational programs and other projects.

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Hamilton County offering parking discounts at Central Riverfront Garage for carpoolers

The OKI Regional Council of Governments (OKI) is working with Hamilton County leaders to further incentivize carpooling into downtown Cincinnati. A new pilot program would allow those participating in OKI’s free RideShare program to park at the county-owned Central Riverfront Garage underneath The Banks for just $25 per month.

Those who park at the Central Riverfront Garage now have to pay $100 per month after Hamilton County leaders raised the rates by 25 percent. The first phase of The Banks includes 3,300 parking spaces. Future phases currently under construction will add an additional 4,300 parking spaces that lift The Banks development out of the Ohio River flood plain.


Interior of Central Riverfront Garage

Presently OKI’s RideShare program acts as a facilitator for those interested in carpooling to and from work. The program uses a database of 800 registered commuters to link interested individuals up with others who are looking to carpool.

Those interested in participating are able to register online, or call (513) 241-RIDE. The program also offers a guaranteed ride home offer that offers an 80 percent reimbursement of the cost of cab fare or transit fare home in the case of an emergency or unexpected overtime.

This new discounted parking incentive will be OKI’s first endeavor into offering financial incentive to use their RideShare program above and beyond AAA’s estimated 56 cents per mile cost associated with driving alone. If you are currently commuting to and from downtown along, will this parking incentive be enough to get you to utilize OKI’s RideShare program?