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Places You Should Know – Venice on Vine

Ever get hungry while you are wandering through the shops in The Gateway Quarter? Well, there is a pizza place on the corner of Vine and 13th called Venice on Vine that is there to hook you up with a bite to eat. On the surface, it seems just like any other pizza parlor There is exposed brick, a large oven, art on the wall, and a friendly staff to take your order and make up your lunch. Look closer though and you’ll see this is not your average restaurant.

Run by the non-profit group Power Inspires Progress, Venice on Vine is not just there to satisfy hungry patrons but is there to train and develop employees by helping them build job skills that they can carry into the workforce and become viable members of society. Most everyone that comes through the Venice program does so because they are have a poor work history, lack transportation to another job or are in need of a second chance either due to criminal or drug history. The folks that run Venice are there to help ensure that the trainees, as they are called, get a fresh start, job training skills, and the resume builder that is needed to land full time gainful employment.

If a candidate makes it through the three step interview process ,they come to Venice to learn and develop a variety of skills that are needed in the restaurant business. The trainees earn stars for their name tag by showing proficiency in the different roles at Venice including dishes, utilities, server, cook, register, and catering. In doing so they are building job skills, and oh by the way, running their own place. UrbanCincy visited on a Tuesday night and while it wasn’t very crowded, the staff of five was busy cleaning up from the day and there was not one detail going unnoticed.

In addition to learning all the parts of the restaurant, trainees are encouraged to continue their development and education in other areas. Many are focused on furthering their education by working towards their GED, or will work on building additional job skills such as Microsoft Office or even resume writing. In fact, each person earns money for food by taking five 45 minutes sessions during each two week pay period to further develop themselves.

Photos by Dave Rolfes

The night we visited, the longest tenured employees had been there four months but that is part of the plan. Once brought on board, a trainee is expected to graduate within twelve months and go out to find a job in the workforce. The stated goal of the program is “to increase the power of people through skill development, relationship building and collaboration with other organizations.” Without a doubt, the trainees were so happy to talk about their experiences, why they joined Venice, and it shined through brightly just how proud they were of where they worked.

Coming up on it’s third anniversary at 1301 Vine, another thing that is noticeable about Venice on Vine is its ties to the community. The tables in the restaurant are adorned with flowers from neighboring City Roots. There is artwork displayed and for sale on the wall from local artists that work through the Visionaries & Voices program. There are even local bands played on the stereo and displayed on the Cincy In Your Ear rack near the register.

Again, without looking closer it is easy to think Venice is just another pizza joint when in reality it is so much more. It is an important piece to the Gateway Quarter that really helps to develop the people that live in and around the area and help them build the job skills they need to be successful. Help Venice on Vine help others by volunteering, donating, or just being a customer and stopping in for a pizza or hoagie the next time you are around town because quite frankly the food is almost as good as the cause they are going after.

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News Politics

Recycling gets hit hard in Cincinnati due to budget cuts

The City of Cincinnati announced yesterday that its yard waste collection service for residences and business owners has been canceled. The move comes on the heels of suspended discussions about the use of larger recycling carts, and reforms presented by City Manager Dohoney that would streamline and pay for a new waste collection system.

During the budget discussions in past weeks, many fiscal conservatives openly mocked the idea of investing in new recycling carts for City residents. The 64-gallon wheeled recycling carts would have put recycling on a comparable level to normal trash pick up in terms of capacity, but would have also cost the City a $3.5 million of upfront capital. The debate was quickly ended and the discussion about improving the City’s recycling program has been indefinitely suspended.

These are not the first of the items that have set waste collection and recycling back in Cincinnati. In November 2008, City Manager Dohoney proposed a new waste collection fee to help balance the budget, and went on to say that a $300,000 study of a automated trash collection system using trucks that lift cans with mechanical levers instead of having city workers do the heavy lifting.

Photo from the City of Cincinnati

The automated system would, in the long-term, save the City money as Dohoney reported that “we are averaging seven people out a month with some type of injury as a result of how we collect solid waste.” Dohoney went on to say that those injuries were costing the City approximately $1 million a year. Both this, and the trash collection fee, were met with heavy criticism as many did not like the idea of a new fee, for an otherwise indirectly paid for service through property taxes.

But as the politicians and community leaders continue to punt this issue back and forth the problems still exist. Cincinnati’s rates of recycling are far too low, the costs associated with trash collection are still too high, the efficiency of collecting trash is still not where it needs to be, and users still have no benefit to reduce their waste production.

The solutions are present. City Manager Dohoney’s proposal was a step in the right direction, but the adoption of a RecycleBank-style program would be another step towards reducing the production of waste and encouraging higher rates of recycling. A ‘Pay as You Throw’ (PYT) system would require users to pay for their waste collection based on the amount of waste they produce, something that would encourage lower rates of waste production and higher rates of recycling when paired with a RecycleBank-style program.

It is truly unfortunate to see long-term economic, social and environmental benefits cast aside due to the fear of an initial capital cost that is seen as either being wasteful or too much given the current economy. In addition to growing revenue streams, cities also need to find ways to improve their efficiencies for not only their customers, but their bottom lines. These kinds of actions would help avoid future personnel cuts the next time an economic downturn hits, and make city operations more responsive.

The results from these cuts will be seen quickly and easily as people will immediately start discarding their yard waste with their regular trash. The use of smaller recycling bins versus larger carts that are easier to use will continue to stack the deck against recycling over regular disposal that might be more convenient. The progress that Cincinnati has made on this front in recent years might just all be lost in one budget cycle.

Yard Waste Cancellation Details:
Beginning Friday, August 21, yard waste collection will be discontinued as a separate service. The City will maintain regular garbage collection and will pick up yard waste as a part of that, although City officials strongly encourage residents and business owners to find alternative means to discarding their yard waste (i.e. composting, mulching, yard waste drop-offs). If you have additional questions, or would like to find the Hamilton County yard waste drop-off location nearest you visit this website.

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News

Advantage IQ to expand downtown Cincinnati presence 40%

The City of Cincinnati’s Economic Development Department is reporting that Advantage IQ will be expanding their Downtown presence over the next three years by 40 percent.

The company currently has its offices in The Center at 600 Vine and will add the additional capacity there where it already employs 75 people. Advantage IQ is headquartered out of Spokane, Washington and provides expense management services for multi-site businesses.

The expansion was made possible by a job creation tax credit from the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio Department of Development. City officials say that a $1.1 million return is expected for the City in terms of the revenues generated from the new and retained jobs.

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News

This Week In Soapbox 8/18

This Week in Soapbox (TWIS) you can read about the new upgrades for Cincinnati’s premier tennis tournament, a new restaurant in Covington with a European flair, a brownfield to alternative energy project in Hamilton, new homes in Avondale, the Northern Kentucky Regional Farmers Market, and a special event in historic Over-the-Rhine.

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 8/18:

  • Cincinnati tennis tournament growing with $10M expansion – full article
  • $780,000 gift to produce second of ten homes for Cincinnati Habitat – full article
  • $2M Clean Ohio grant could turn Hamilton brownfield site into alternative energy facility – full article
  • Over-the-Rhine: Cincinnati’s Overlooked Opportunity – full article
  • Northern Kentucky Farmers Market brings fresh produce and fun atmosphere to Mainstrasse – full article
  • Europa opens on Main Street in downtown Covington – full article
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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Newport Gangster Tours return for third round of fun this fall

Remember when Newport was Sin City? Some people around these parts do, but most of us don’t think of Newport as more than a destination for dining, movies, or a show at The Southgate House. Well, the fellas running the Newport Gangsters Gamblers and Girls Tour are getting the story out about the city’s colorful history and they do it with a passion and energy that only make it more interesting. Additionally, they are happy to talk up local establishments including Mammoth Cafe, Dixie Chili, Sin City Antiques, and York Street Cafe not only for their current contributions but also for their place in the history of Newport, KY.

In the spring of this year a few friends started the tour as a fund raiser for Global Service Learning Inc. and originally intended it to be just a limited engagement to raise money and help send local school kids to Jamacia. The trips are dedicated to serving a part of the population that could definitely use a some help, and it’s used as a teaching tool for our local kids to show how service and activism can benefit them in the long run.

After tickets sold faster than expected, they brought the tour back for Italianfest in June and they had over three hundred more people show up over the course of that weekend. Well, they have been on hiatus for the rest of the summer, but now the fellas are back for the fall offering tours through the end of November.

What should you expect when you head down to the tour? Well, it starts at The Syndicate and features a short presentation about the history of Newport and the characters that really made it like Las Vegas before there ever was a Las Vegas. The tour guides will talk you through how Newport ended up the way it did and give you some great stories about the personalities that give it such a wonderful history.

After about twenty minutes, you head outside for a seventy five minute walking tour through the city. Heading up Monmouth for three blocks there are plenty of stops to talk about all the history, including the seventeen gentelmen’s clubs that used to line the street, as well as a wonderful story of gangster activity outside what was the Mustang Club.

Back down York Street, the group shows you the building where all the chips (no, not the kind made with potatoes) were made, the lot that used to be the Weideman Brewery Complex, as well as and old haunt of Frank Sinatra. And while the history is very interesting, the tour guides could not do a better job bringing the stories alive and they have clearly done their homework. The tour is easily walkable as it totals not much more than a mile and it is very flat the entire way.

It’s no wonder that these guys were drawing 100+ people to their tours at Italianfest! They are great and definitely worth checking out. They hope to draw a few hundred people down each weekend through the fall. You’ll never look at Newport the same way again, especially all the parking lots around town. Tickets are a mere $15 for the regular tours, $20 for the Haunted tours on the last 3 weekends of October, and $40 for a behind the scenes tour which runs on the first three Saturdays of November.