Category: News

Original stories from the UrbanCincy team.

Categories
Business News Politics

Cincinnati food trucks to help raise money for United Way at City Hall

Earlier this year Cincinnati City Councilmember Laure Quinlivan introduced a program that was intended to help embrace the city’s growing number of food trucks. Once approved in June 2010, the Mobile Food & Beverage Truck Vending Pilot Program created reserved, city-owned spaces for those food trucks to park at in the congested downtown area.

The pilot program received an initial surge of food truck operators looking to take advantage of the new program, and now, the City has issued the twentieth Revocable Street Privilege (RSP) to allow the sale of food and beverage from trucks at the three designated areas downtown at 5th & Race, along Court Street, and at Sawyer Point. This means that the program is now operating at 100 percent capacity.

This rise in popularity for food trucks in Cincinnati is similar to a national movement that has been underway for several years. To help celebrate the success of Cincinnati’s innovative program that embraces the movement, six participating food trucks will be at City Hall tomorrow to help raise money for the United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

Event organizers say that hungry guests will be able to get everything from gourmet burgers to Cajun food, barbecue ribs, tacos, ice cream, coffee, and smoothies from the participating vendors. They say that each donation made to the United Way will help support the City’s United Way fund raising goal, and will earn you a discount at the food truck vendors on-hand. Those vendors will reportedly include Taste of New Orleans, Cafe de Wheels, Just Q’in Barbecue, Senor Roy’s Taco Patrol, Coldstone Creamery, and The Coffee Guy.

The food trucks will be parked on the north side of City Hall along 9th Street (map) beginning at 10:30am on Thursday, September 23. There will be a Department of Community Development staff member on hand from the City that will be selling the tickets that will get you your discount at the food trucks and support the United Way.

Stay up-to-speed on the whereabouts of Cincinnati’s growing number of food trucks by following UrbanCincy’s comprehensive Twitter list.

Categories
Business News Politics Transportation

Industry transit leader named as Metro’s new CEO

Professional Transit Management took less than a month to replace the fired Marilyn Shazor as Metro’s Chief Executive Officer & General Manager. Terry Garcia Crews, aka “Tear ‘Em Up Terry”, has been selected as the transit agency’s new CEO, and will begin work on Monday, November 1 following her appointment today by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority.

“We’re excited to have Terry Garcia Crews lead the Metro transit agency,” said SORTA board member J. Thomas Hodges.  “Her diverse transit background will help lead our transit agency as we move forward with future plans and manage daily service the provides 19 million rides throughout the year.”

Garcia Crews’ professional transit experience is extensive. She currently serves as the General Manager & President for a transit agency in Austin, TX that provides nearly 400 fixed-route and paratransit vehicles and a $98 million budget with 1,000 employees.

Counting her experience in Texas, Garcia Crews has more than 20 years of transit experience in both private and public sectors throughout the country. Metro officials say that they are also excited about her experience working as a national transportation consultant where she came up with strategic plans and awareness programs for transportation systems throughout the United States. This work, officials say, has helped organizations achieve financial sustainability, effect cultural change, improve service labor relations, and generate stakeholder support.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been committed to providing the best transit service possible,” Garcia Crews explained. “I’m eager to work with the SORTA board, Metro’s community stakeholders, and the Metro team to move transit forward in Greater Cincinnati.”

Metro officials went on to say that Garcia Crews is a “recognized leader” in the transit industry due to her extensive involvement with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

The selection of a candidate with so much transit experience should come as no surprise as some SORTA board members had criticized Shazor for not having public transportation experience prior to her leadership position at Metro.

Categories
Business Development News

The Lackman to open Friday in the Gateway Quarter of historic Over-the-Rhine

Over-the-Rhine residents, workers, and visitors alike will have a new neighborhood watering hole to visit when The Lackman celebrates its grand opening on Friday in the Gateway Quarter at 13th and Vine streets.

The bar is named for the German brewer Herman Lackman who started brewing beer in Cincinnati in the 1800s and made this building into a saloon serving only Lackman brews. According to the new owners, The Lackman will once again be serving up beer, but with a much larger menu that will include 14 beers on tap and more than 30 additional bottled beers.

Inside the cozy 900 square-foot bar, early soft-opening patrons have already been treated to the restored interiors that feature original tile flooring and exposed brick. The historic features of the space, owners say, will be complimented by modern conveniences like flat-screen televisions, custom handmade chandeliers, large plush leather bar stools, and a jukebox.

“The goal of The Lackman is to create a stylish but casual neighborhood bar reflecting the resurgence of Over-the-Rhine,” owner Bob Deck explained in a prepared release. “With a friendly staff, eclectic music and large draft beer selection, we feel that customers will feel right at home.”

Deck is also a partner in the Cincinnati-based Four Entertainment Group (4EG) which operates eight local establishments including the popular Righteous Room in downtown Cincinnati just seven blocks away.

The Lackman (map) will be open from 7pm to 2am on Friday and Saturday this weekend. Following the grand opening weekend, owners say that the establishment will be open at 4pm every day, and will open earlier on Saturdays and Sundays during football season.

Photography contributed by 5chw4r7z.

Categories
Arts & Entertainment News

CET wins regional Emmy award for Cincinnati Parks documentary

CET received a Regional Emmy Award for its documentary on Cincinnati’s famous park system at the 46th annual Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Awards in July 2010. Cincinnati Parks: Emeralds in the Crown tells the story of the creation of the city’s top-notch park system, how it continues to work today, and what plans are in store for the future.

“To me the heart of the story is the legacy from citizens who acted on a vision of a public park system,” explained Cincinnati Parks Director Willie F. Carden, Jr. “Our city parks remain strong and vibrant to this day thanks to the support of the entire Cincinnati community, and we congratulate CET on winning the regional Emmy for Emeralds in the Crown.”

Those who missed the original broadcast of this award-winning documentary will have several chances to check it out on CET in the near future. The first of those opportunities will take place this evening as CET will air the documentary at 9pm. Emeralds in the Crown will once again air on CET on Friday, September 24 at 10pm; and Sunday, September 26 at 4pm.

CET officials say that the public station will air a series this fall called Cincinnati Parks Recollections that will feature segments that were edited from interviews that did not make the final cut for the one-hour documentary. Broadcast times for this series, and the documentary, are available on CET’s website.

Categories
News Politics

City looking for public input on selection of next police chief

Cincinnati’s long-time police chief, Thomas Streicher, has announced his planned retirement in 2011. As a result, the City of Cincinnati Administration has begun planning the recruitment process for his replacement, and they would like some community input.

In a prepared release, City Manager Milton Dohoney said that the City is looking to better understand what kind of attributes citizens most desire in their next police chief.

In terms of the City’s desired traits Dohoney said, “We can all agree that the individual we are looking to hire as our next Police Chief must possess unquestionable integrity. This person must also have the ability to communicate and interact fairly and impartially with members of our community – regardless of socioeconomic background, ethnicity or race.”

Cincinnati residents are invited to share their thoughts on the matter between now and Saturday, October 4 through an online survey. In the survey participants are asked to assess a list of 10 attributes, while also being able to add their own attributes to the list.

City officials say that the public input will help to guide the selection of the next police chief so that the new leader “will be ideally suited for the challenge of leading an urban police force in working with residents to improve public safety in the 52 neighborhoods of Cincinnati.”

Once on the job the new chief will be tasked with reducing crime and improving safety within the 78 square-mile city that currently uses a police force of 1,057 sworn officers and 281 civilian employees.

“Cincinnati Police work with the community every day to tackle public safety issues through community-oriented policing and creative problem solving. I am confident we will be more successful in this search if we listen to community residents before we establish the qualities and accomplishments the next Chief must demonstrate,” Dohoney concluded.