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Arts & Entertainment Business News

New PopShop celebrates Cincinnati crafters in a DIY space

Those passing by 1301 Main Street have noticed cardboard and hot pink ducktape decorating a previously empty storefront. The new space is decked out for this Friday’s PopShop – a new pop up shop coinciding with March’s Final Friday gallery walk that brings visitors into the Pendleton Art Center, down Main Street, and over to Vine via 12th and 13th.

The new space plays host to 11 local entrepreneurs and designers, who will have their handmade and vintage housewares, accessories, clothing, and other assorted intricacies for sale. Selling a wide variety of objects d’art – from bow shaped fanny packs to jewelry designed by women in Over-the-Rhine and everything in between.

The idea for a temporary space that allows pop-culture creativity to bloom was conceived by a trifecta of local women already involved in Over-the-Rhine’s burgeoning arts scene. Jessie Cundiff, a collaborator at MUD studio, Catherine Richards, art director and program manager of the Future Blooms program, and Tamia Stinson, owner and managing editor of StyleSample magazine. After meeting at a Merchants on Main event, the co-founders wanted to open the space as a way for small business owners to try out the Over-the-Rhine location before fully committing to a gallery or retail space.

“This is perfect for us,” said Rosie Kovacs, owner of the Brush Factory. “We want to test the waters down there [OTR].” Combining many retailers into one space, not unlike the popular Holiday Shop on Vine Street in December, decreases the stress of one person paying rent, and makes the new space a one stop shop for visitors to see something new.

The space is still getting some finishing touches, but features window installations, a chandelier made of recycled materials, and furnishings constructed from found objects. The PopShop ladies decided on a deconstructed, Do-it-Yourself theme, emphasizing the pack and go nature of the pop-up shop for the interior of the store. They took inspiration from innovative storefronts like Anthropologie that utilize found and recycled materials to create ethereal, interesting windowscapes.

The PopShop will be open from 5pm to 10pm on Friday, March 25, and features an opening reception with music, treats, and an opportunity for shoppers to get crafty with an interactive DIY area. Saturday, March 26 the PopShop is open from 11am to 6 pm, with vendors on hand demonstrating their art, and a trunk show beginning at 5 pm for Dress for Success from the 4th Street Boutique. All proceeds from the sale of 4th Street Boutique merchandise will go directly to the charitable program that assists low-income women in acquiring appropriate attire for job interviews.

“We’re most excited about the opportunity to collaborate with amazingly creative folks in and around Cincinnati–there’s so much talent that deserves a voice,” said co-founder Tamia Stinson. “Our hope is that PopShop will serve as an introduction between independent entrepreneurs and Over-the-Rhine, and a foot in the door for those wanting to set up their business there.”

The Final Friday PopShop is located at 1301 Main Street and is open on Friday and Saturday, March 25-26. Vendors include Dulcet Design, Hark + Hark, Jessie Cundiff, Carla Rabbit, the Brush Factory, Saint Lexi, Dulcet Design, Katie Ferncez, the Sarah Center, and 4th Street Boutique.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati region, transit projects take overwhelming brunt of recommended transportation cuts

Ohio’s Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) met today in Columbus and was greeted by 32 Cincinnati Streetcar supporters, ranging from families to young professionals, small business owners, CEOs and VPs of corporations, and city staff. The council and Ohio Department of Transportation staff members, according to UrbanCincy writer Jenny Kessler who was one of those in attendance, appeared surprised at the turnout.

The TRAC held a working meeting at 10 am with the ODOT staff (as the director of ODOT, Jerry Wright is the chairman of the TRAC) to hear the staff’s drafted recommendations for which projects to cut and keep in the 2011-2015 Major Project List . The result was a recommendation of $98 million in cuts. UrbanCincy research reveals that the way in which those cuts were administered in particularly shocking.

  • 52% of all cuts came from the state’s highest-rated project – The Cincinnati Streetcar – which is positioned to now lose 100% of all funds originally recommended for the project.
  • The Cincinnati region got hit the hardest in Ohio. 82% of all cuts recommended by the TRAC are from the Cincinnati region and account for roughly $80 million.
  • $1 million was taken from upgrades to the Queensgate rail yard that would have relieved freight rail traffic.
  • Two highway projects, from Governor John Kasich‘s (R) district, totalling $7.7 million were added to the TRAC’s listed of recommended funding.
  • Non-highway investments now only make up 26% of the TRAC’s recommended transportation projects in terms of overall funding ($18.2M) and number of projects (4).

Kessler reported that Kasich’s staff advised the TRAC to reallocate $15 million from the Cincinnati Streetcar to a bus corridor project in Canton, and $35 million from the Cincinnati Streetcar to the $3 billion Brent Spence Bridge project. What many transportation experts now seemed to be concerned about is the process in which the TRAC is being advised to cut.

“There is no legitimate reason why the TRAC should cut from the top rather than the bottom,” said All Aboard Ohio executive director Ken Prendergast. “If the TRAC ignores its own scoring process, then I’m not sure why Director Wray urged the TRAC’s creation in 1997 as a useful way to limit political influence on selecting transportation projects for funding.”

Evidently several TRAC members feel the same way. As the meeting progressed, William Brennan verbally expressed concern over the state’s top-rated project shouldering the load.

“The number one rated project is recommended to take the brunt of the cuts…that’s a problem for me,” said the Toledo native. As Brennan made the statement, several other members nodded in agreement including Antoinette Maddox, Raymond DiRossi and Patrick Darrow.

Antoinette Maddox (D), the council’s only woman and African American member, spoke several times and expressed her concern for the extreme cuts made to the streetcar project.
Maddox suggested other options, such as sunsetting all new projects or making cuts to the lower ranked Tier-2 projects. These were shot down by the ODOT staff members.

It was evident to those in attendance that the real detractors to the streetcar project were not the TRAC members who had been working together in 2010, but the newly appointed “asphalt sheriff” Jerry Wray and his staff members, Jennifer Townley and Ed Kagel. Townley, who did most of the speaking during the meeting, cited the reasons for reallocating the streetcar funding to lower ranking projects “due to fiscal balancing.”

What Townley and her colleagues failed to mention was that the TRAC funding in question is federal money being reallocated through state governments. Pulling the money for the streetcar does not help to solve the budget crisis Governor Kasich is facing, it simply moves it around to much less worthy projects. The other members of the TRAC noticed this right away and voiced their concern.

When pressed for more reasons behind cutting streetcar funding for Cincinnati, Townley later replied, “because there is already a bus system in place in Cincinnati that services the same area, we don’t see why rail is really necessary.” If you would like to inform Ms. Townley as to why Cincinnati needs rail as well as a bus system, please drop her an email at Jennifer.Townley@dot.state.oh.us.

The numerous streetcar supporters in attendance were able to submit written statements, but as it was a working session where the TRAC did not make a vote, only listened to recommendations, no citizens were permitted to speak.

The council is scheduled to hold a private conference call that may or may not be legal on Friday, March 25 to discuss the recommendations further before they develop a final list on April 10 and hold a final vote and public hearing on Tuesday, April 12 in Columbus.

The underlying question still exists – if greater emphasis is going to be placed on political patronage and gubernatorial intimidation, then why does the TRAC even exist?

Operations Manager Jenny Kessler contributed to this article.

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News Transportation

Make Cincinnati’s Frequent Transit Map a reality by donating online

In January, Nathan Wessel debuted a new transit map for Cincinnati’s Metro bus service. Wessel developed the map to simplify transit ridership and hopefully encourage new riders to utilize the system. Now he is looking to take the map to the next level and actually get the thing produced by raising money through Kickstarter.

Kickstarter claims to be the “largest funding platform for creative projects in the world” and helps raise millions of dollars through tens of thousands of donations every month. The micro-fundraising strategy is one first popularized and mastered during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

The website only works though if the project raises its fundraising goal within its allotted time. If the goal is not reached then no money exchanges hands. In the case of Wessel’s Frequent Transit Map for Cincinnati, he is looking to raise $1,200 which will produce more than 30,000 copies of the 3.7-inch squared carrying map.

People like those featured in the video, produced by Wessel, who would like to see his product become reality can pledge money online through Kickstarter. Individuals who pledge more than $5 will get a copy of the produced map. Additional tokens of appreciation will be given to those who contribute more, and are explained in detail on the project’s fundraising page. All pledges must be made by Wendesday, April 20 at 3:15pm.

Categories
Business Development News Politics Transportation

New provision to Ohio transportation budget represents “unprecedented attack” on Cincinnati Streetcar

In an unprecedented action, Ohio Senate Transportation Committee Chair Tom Patton allowed a provision to be introduced to the latest amendment of the state’s biennial transportation budget that would “prohibit state or federal funds appropriated by the state from being used for the Cincinnati streetcar project.”

The action comes on the heels of recent news that newly elected Governor John Kasich (R) plans to strip the project of approximately $52 million in state appropriated funds. Such an action would go directly against the state’s laws and proceedings for appropriating state and federal transportation dollars, and could be subject to legal action from the City of Cincinnati.

“So if you suddenly don’t like the process established by law that has worked well for 14 years under Democrats and Republicans, you change the process,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio. “This is like saying we didn’t like who won the Super Bowl, so we’re going to re-write the record books.”

Provision SC-0257-1 was approved out of committee Tuesday evening as part of an omnibus amendment, and will then go to the full Senate and House. The omnibus amendment, according to Prendergast, could then either be accepted as is, or be assigned to a conference committee if the House finds the bill substantially different from the version it passed last week that did not include the anti-streetcar provision.

The unprecedented attack against the Cincinnati Streetcar, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) highest-ranking transportation project pending anywhere in the state, further exemplifies the cavalier attitude of the newly elected governor and Ohio General Assembly.

Prendergast notes that the Cincinnati Streetcar was ranked as the state’s top transportation project based on economic development, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact criteria by the Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC), a non-political review board established by state law in 1997. The TRAC, he says, was created, urged in part by then and current ODOT Director Jerry Wray, to remove politics from the state’s transportation project selection process.

Previous actions by the TRAC include unanimous votes in support of the funding appropriations for the $128 million Cincinnati Streetcar project.

“These are not state funds, but state-administered transportation funds. If they don’t go to the streetcar, they will go to a lower-ranking road project,” Prendergast emphasized. “If state officials really want to save taxpayers’ money, they should cut from the bottom-ranked projects, not from the top.”

Prendergast went on to say that in his nearly 30 years of transportation advocacy that he has never seen such a blatant attempt to discriminate against rail projects in such a manner. And he points to a November 2009 vote in Cincinnati that defeated a measure that would have singled out rail projects for public votes by 55 to 45 percent.

“As young Ohioans flee to vibrant cities that offer transportation choices, as Baby Boomers face a future of house arrest without options to cars, and as all Ohioans face immobility from worsening global petroleum constraints, this amendment by the Ohio General Assembly to punish a very specific transportation project is worse than counter-intuitive. It’s downright mean.”

Categories
Arts & Entertainment News

Dogfish Head beer tasting at The Lackman tonight

The Dogfish Head Brewing Company will have their Midwest representative visit Over-the-Rhine tonight, from 6pm to 10pm, for a beer tasting event at The Lackman.  The event is part of The Lackman’s monthly tastings which previously have featured the beers of the Bell’s Brewery and Stone Brewing Company. The events have been well attended, so come early if you hope to grab spot at the bar or a table.

The Lackman’s manager, Tabb Harrison, says that he hopes to provide patrons the opportunity to sample a selection of beers from a featured microbrewery in one night during these monthly tastings. While it may be possible to try some of these beers individually on occasion throughout the city, it is certainly not possible to try all of the limited releases and rarities on-hand in a single night.

The following five Dogfish Head “off-centered ales for off-centered people” (as the company’s motto goes) will be the featured beers on tap for this month’s tasting event along with an additional surprise.

  • Palo Santo Marron- 12% abv, highly roasty, and malty brown ale aged on the Palo Santo wood.
  • Red n White- 10% abv, belgian-style Wit brewed with coriander and orange peel and fermented with Pinot Noir juice.
  • My Antonia- 7.5% abv, continually-hopped imperial pilsner.
  • Burton Baton- 10% abv, two ‘threads’ of beer: an English-style Old Ale and an Imperial IPA, a blend of the citrus notes from Northwestern hops melding with woody, vanilla notes from the oak.
  • 90 Minute Imperial IPA- 9% abv, A big beer with a great malt backbone that stands up to the extreme hopping rate.

Organizers of the Dogfish Head tasting event also say that there will be an additional surprise this month. It has not been confirmed, but a reliable source has alluded to a special animal, commonly affiliated with Dogfish Head, making a guest appearance. For those connoisseurs, and regular beer enjoyers like myself, not content to simply taste the beers will be treated to discussions with Dogfish Midwest representative Don Bichsel and Cavalier Distributing representative Brandon Hagedorn.

According to Harrison, pints of the featured Dogfish Head beers will run between $6 and $8, depending on the rarity of the brew.  Additionally, there is a possibility that a tasting flight of the brews will be available (this is TBD). The Lackman drink menus set up at each table and along the bar will be augmented with information about each of the featured brews.  Bottle opener key chains in the shape of Dogfish Head’s logo will be given out with pint purchases for free while supplies last.  Additionally, Dogfish t-shirts, hats, and pint glasses will be available for purchase.

Gourmet pretzels from Yankee Doodle Deli in Covington will be available, and both Senate and Lavomatic are immediately nearby ready to cure your post-delicious beer munchies (neighborhood insider tip: send a group ambassador to put your name in at your restaurant of choice as these tasting events have been known to correspond with busy nights at both neighborhood restaurants).

Future tastings at The Lackman (map) will typically take place during the last week of each month, and include no cover charge.

The Lackman photograph by Andrew Oehlerking