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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This Week In Soapbox 5/19

This Week In Soapbox (TWIS) you can read about Rookwood Pottery’s new OTR digs, new restaurants in College Hill and Newport, downtown Cincinnati residential trends, new life for the historic Crosley Building in Camp Washington, a new water sports complex on Cincinnati’s upper westside and my feature article on Ohio’s 3-C Corridor that would introduce high-speed rail to Ohio’s primary metropolitan areas.

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.

TWIS 5/19:

  • Linking Ohio through the power of rail – full article
  • College Hill business district welcomes Shhhhh Restaurant – full article
  • Historic Crosley Building may see new life – full article
  • Rookwood Pottery completes first phase of $18M rehabilitation project in OTR – full article
  • Newport Pizza Co. adds locally owned pizzeria to Monmouth – full article
  • Wake Nation brings water sports thrill to Midwest with new Cincinnati park – full article
  • Downtown Cincinnati experiencing steady population growth and stable selling prices – full article
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2009 Taste of Cincinnati

The 31st annual Taste of Cincinnati festival takes place this Memorial Day weekend from Saturday through Monday on Fifth Street in downtown Cincinnati.

The Taste of Cincinnati is the nation’s longest running culinary arts festival and typically draws around 500,000 visitors to the heart of Cincinnati. At this year’s event there will be approximately 45 area restaurants and more than 60 musical acts over five stages.

There are nine new restaurants this year including Cafe Istanbul, J. Gumbo’s, Keystone Bar and Grill, Kyosin Japanese Restaurant, Mixx Ultra Lounge, Mac’s Pizza Pub, Roher’s Tavern, United Dairy Farmers and the much anticipated Vitor’s Bistro that won two awards at the “Best of Taste” competition.

Each entree being served is $5 or less and the festival is free and open to the public. On Saturday and Sunday, the Taste of Cincinnati will run from noon to midnight and on Monday it will run from noon to 9pm.

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Farmer’s markets come to University of Cincinnati

At the University of Cincinnati students have organized themselves and created a group dedicated to “promoting sustainable and ecological design education, sponsoring student participation in workshops and conferences, and playing an active role in raising environmental design awareness in the community.”

As part of that mission, Students for Ecological Design, hosts a farmer’s market on UC’s main campus. So far there have been two markets, with two left this spring quarter. At these farmer’s markets vendors from Findlay and Northside markets come to campus to provide local products like baked goods, fruit and vegetables, jams, plants and assorted crafts to students.

The on-campus farmer’s markets are not exclusive to UC students though as vendors are encouraging people in the surrounding neighborhoods to come as well.

The next two farmer’s market will be held on Monday, May 18th and Monday, June 1st from 11am to 3pm on McMicken Commons (from Clifton Avenue, walk east into campus past McMicken Hall).

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The King is back!

Thanks to new owner, Christian Moerleing Brewing Company, the transformation of Little Kings Cream Ale has been fast-tracked.

New will be the introduction of “12 Kings” – a 12 pack design for the classic seven ounce green bottle. There will also be a complete packaging redesign that includes new “classic styling” of the brand image that plays to the heritage of the Schoenling Brewing Company.

The original tagline of “It’s Good To Be King” has also been restored to packaging. Also new will be the return of the Little Kings beer bucket affectionately known as “a bucket of Kings” will serve as a way for bars to serve Little Kings to their customers.

Also of interest to those beer lovers out there is ceremonial keg tapping today at Germania Park hosted by the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati and Christian Moerlein. The keg tapping is in honor of Cincinnati’s great 19th century beer baron, Christian Moerlein, and all proceeds will go to benefit the German-American Citizens League and the Germania Society.

There will be live music, food and a brief presentation about the contributions and anniversary of Christian Moerlein’s birth and death (5/13/1818 – 5/14/1897) at 7pm. Guests will also get to see the premiere of the first television commercial for the Christian Moerlein brand in over 20 years. The commercial is titled, “A Journey In Every Bottle” and shows Christian Moerlein Brewing Company’s 19th century Cincinnati brewing heritage evolving to today’s 21st century handcrafted beers. Detailed event information can be found here.

Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. is a division of Cincinnati’s Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. makers of handcrafted Moerlein Lagers & Ales.

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College Hill Coffee Co. a great anchor to a great NBD

The College Hill neighborhood business district (NBD) is one of my newest favorite NBDs in Cincinnati. It’s not often that I’m up that way, but I think I’ll be heading there more often after my past few experiences that have left me wanting more out of that neighborhood.

College Hill Coffee Co. is located at the northern end of the business district and is a third place and anchor for the neighborhood. I spent last Wednesday there and it didn’t seem like that long until I looked down at my watch and realized I had spent over three hours there.

They have some great coffee, good food offerings, table service, a small retail area and a comfortable environment to hang out that features free wi-fi. Here are a few pictures I grabbed of the interior while I was there.