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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Vine-L Friday in the Gateway Quarter

One of Cincinnati’s trendiest shopping districts is celebrating this Friday with “Vine-L Friday” in the Gateway Quarter located in the heart of historic Over-the-Rhine. The Vine-L event is a mid-summer clearance where store owners are offering discounts and discussing what’s to come with their new fall merchandise.

The Little Mahatma will also be offering Tarot card readings from 5pm to 8pm. Discounts will vary from store to store, but the walkable shopping district makes for great window shopping and browsing from one location to the next.

City Roots, Iris Book Cafe, Joseph Williams Home, The Little Mahatma, A Lucky Step, Metronation, Mica 12/v, Outside, Park+Vine and Urban Eden will all be participating. Stores in the Gateway Quarter are open from 11am to 8pm. To view the participating store’s websites visit the Gateway Merchants Group website.

3CDC (check out their new website) is also recommending that you make a night of it in Cincinnati’s center city by hitting up Vine-L Friday in the Gateway Quarter with some dinner at Lavomatic and live music from Bad Veins on Fountain Square that starts at 7pm.

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Sustainable Urban Environments from Seoul

The co-director of the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Sustainable Urban Environments, Jim Uber, has been in Seoul, Korea for much of this summer working with Seoul National University.

During this trip Uber says that he is “trying to explore this metropolitan area of 18 million.” He goes on to share that Seoul presents many contrasts with Cincinnati…contrasts that naturally make him think about urban sustainability issues. As a result, Uber plans to write about these observations, contrasts and other issues from Seoul. In his first article Uber discusses the cost of urban rainfall – in particular the cost of water runoff and the misuse of our urban rainfall.

You can continue reading Uber’s work on the Sustainable Urban Environments blog that he intends to update regularly throughout the rest of the summer.

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Scion Metro DJs in Cincinnati – 7/22

RSVP Here!
NOTE: This is not a Subway in the $5 Footlongs sense…the bar is called Subway.

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This Week In Soapbox 7/21

This Week In Soapbox (TWIS) you can read about Dojo Gelato opening at Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market, the new geothermal project in Alms Park, a new upscale sushi bar in downtown Cincinnati, locally designed and produced t-shirts meant to promote the Cincinnati Streetcar, and the newly formed Historic Midtown Merchants Association that has big plans for the area north of 7th Street and south of Central Parkway.

If you’re interested in staying in touch with some of the latest development news in Cincinnati please check out this week’s stories and sign up for the weekly E-Zine sent out by Soapbox Cincinnati. Also be sure to become a fan of Soapbox on Facebook!

TWIS 7/21:

  • Dojo Gelato brings Italian-style ice creams and sorbettos to historic Findlay Market – full article
  • Mr. Sushi to open in Downtown’s thriving Backstage District – full article
  • Hillside Trust building at Alms Park now powered with geothermal – full article
  • New t-shirts meant to promote Cincinnati’s streetcar effort – full article
  • Historic Midtown Merchants Association looking to capitalize off nearby successes – full article
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Growing business locally with Coffee Emporium

Coffee Emporium is a local favorite. The original location can be found in East Hyde Park, but they also boast an Over-the-Rhine location along Central Parkway and some new digs on Xavier University’s campus.

The Over-the-Rhine location is about to get some company as Coffee Emporium tries to grow a bit. Owner Tony Tausch recently signed a lease on the vacant building at 12th & Walnut that will soon be home to Coffee Emporium’s coffee roasting operations. The new facility will introduce a noticeable coffee roasting smell to that portion of the neighborhood as the exhaust will spew out from the interior.

Currently Coffee Emporium (Facebook Group) is able to produce about 24lbs of roasted coffee beans in each batch from its 12 kilo roaster. On average these batches take about 16 to 18 minutes, and once the company moves into the new facility the hopes are to double that production capacity.

The renovated two-story structure will also give Coffee Emporium (blog) much-needed office space on the second level. The first level will house the new coffee roasting operations and also be staged for special coffee tasting events for the especially particular coffee connoisseur.