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Arts & Entertainment News

Winter Blues Fest ’09

The Southgate House will be the host for the 2nd annual Winter Blues Fest this Friday and Saturday. The doors will open at 6pm with performances going until about 1:30am or so (you know how these things go). The festival boasts 28 bands on 3 different stages and will offer a great way to spend the weekend and escape the cold for a bit.

The festival serves as an annual fundraiser for the Blues in the Schools program. There will be youth performances in the lounge area both nights from 6:10 to 6:40pm. The Bluebirds and The Blue Shivers will be headlining on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Tickets are $15 per person, per night and can be bought in advance or at the door. Blues Society members getting a $5 discount. Visit the festival’s web site for more information on the list of bands and schedule of acts.

The 17th annual Cincy Blues Fest will take place August 7th & 8th at Sawyer Point.

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News

What’s a Metro Nation without Strong Cities?

I found this to be especially profound while also being “duh” kind of thought process that is often lost amongst our population. The article has been partially reposted from CEOs for Cities…

After an interview on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show Thursday, I started thinking again about this idea of America as a “metro nation.” I was on first with guest host Rebecca Roberts, followed by Amy Liu of Brookings, where the idea of regionalism has been pushed hard for the past couple of years.

The concept of regionalism is smart on its face. Economies are regional, we count people at a metro level, air and water issues transcend political boundaries, and, in a perfect world, major amenities — and their cost — are shared regionally.

But no one should be agnostic about where development occurs in a region. Metro regions all across America are littered with the inevitable consequence of that kind of thinking. Let the city core thin out (sucking its vibrancy in the doing) and spread development thinly across the landscape (which never quite becomes vibant). There. You have the worst of both worlds.

When regionalism asserts the centrality of the anchor city and the need to build its vibrancy through renewal, then regionalism makes sense. But too often, the execution of regionalism means the central city gives and gives (and pays and pays), while the suburbs live off the jobs, amenities and identity provided in cities (or, for that matter, another suburb) without paying a dime.

Continue reading the article at: http://www.ceosforcities.org/blog/entry/2084

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News

Vote UrbanCincy – Best of Cincinnati

UrbanCincy has been nominated for the annual Best of Cincinnati awards for Best Blog for the second year in a row. Last year UrbanCincy finished in the Top 5 (near bottom of page) without lobbying for a single vote and without even knowing about the voting until the last week or so. I think we can do better this year now that we have nearly 2 years under our belt and have grown as a website and information source.

For some reason we’re listed as ‘Urban Cincinnati (urbancincy.com)’ in the Public Eye section instead of the regular UrbanCincy moniker we use. Either way, go on and make your selections for the bests in Cincinnati and vote UrbanCincy as the best blog. We have also been written in as an option for best website, so go ahead and vote for us there too.

While I’m at the whole self-promotion thing…go on and join the UrbanCincy Facebook Page if you haven’t already. You can comment on the site, what we cover, get periodic updates, and view some Cincinnati photo galleries.

If you’re not into Facebook then you can simply subscribe to the site’s article and comments feeds so that you stay up-to-date with everything on UrbanCincy via your mobile device. You can do this by selecting your desired feed type in the drop down menus in the left-hand column second from the top listed under ‘Subscribe.’ Or you could follow this blog through your Google account for a less intrusive and easy way of showing your support.

Sorry for all the self-promoting, but I figured if I was going to do it I might as well get it all out in one post.

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News

Bacchanalian Wine Tasting – 1/29

The Bacchanalian Society will be hosting their next wine tasting this coming Thursday (1/29) at The Phoenix downtown. The non-profit organization is coming off of their biggest wine tasting event that was held outside on Fountain Square.
The wine varietal for this tasting is Australian Red, and if you’re interested in participating check out the rules for the event. As always, this event will be raising money for a local cause and will be benefiting the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Red Cross. Be sure to register in advance to ensure your spot and save yourself $5.

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News

Boehner’s stimulus priorities contradict public opinion

Many Americans believe strongly that the infrastructure spending plan should look beyond widening our highways and building new roads. According to a recent study (pdf), 80% of Americans believe it’s more important that a stimulus plan include efforts to repair existing highways and build public transit rather than build new highways. 45% of those polled go on to say that construction of new highways should “definitely” or “probably” not be included in the plan.

The American public has seen the days of highway spending dominate their lives. As a result we are damaging our environment, limiting our transportation choices, and negatively impacting our health. It appears as though House Minority Leader and Republican from West Chester Township, doesn’t agree.

“I think there’s a place for infrastructure, but what kind of infrastructure? Infrastructure to widen highways, to ease congestion for American families? Is it to build some buildings that are necessary? But if we’re talking about beautification projects, or we’re talking about bike paths, Americans are not going to look very kindly on this.”
-John Boehner (R-OH)

It is a real shame that when Americans are standing up and proclaiming that they want a change in the way we allocate our transportation resources we also have politicians who are standing up for the status quo. Boehner needs to quit worrying that his constituency feels negatively towards comprehensive transportation – because they don’t.

Over the past decade or so I-75 through Butler County has been widened, Union Centre Boulevard interchange built, SR 129 (Michael A. Fox Highway) built, and the new Liberty Interchange is under construction. Over that same period the City of Hamilton has seen their bus service disappear, rates have gone up on Metro express routes, and the Ohio Hub Plan is looking for some federal money to get going. It should also be noted that Boehner was one of the few opposing votes to a measure supporting increased funds for Amtrak service in Ohio (even Steve Chabot supported it).

With all this highway spending does America or Boehner’s district (map) really need additional highway capacity and more highways? Mr. Boehner (contact info) should be supporting democracy and freedom for Americans. We are strangled by an automobile oriented society that leaves no other choices for most Americans. Democracy, freedom, and choice would all seem to be things Boehner would support; so why doesn’t he?

The 2009 Growth and Transportation Survey was conducted by Hart Research Associates, January 5-7. Hart Research Associates telephoned 1,005 adults living in the U.S. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Photo from Getty Images