Tag: developments

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News Politics Transportation

Ohio Hub Plan Advocacy

Like the idea of regional rail transportation in Ohio? Well there are a few things you could do to be more impactful when it comes to making this goal a reality.

All Aboard Ohio is the statewide advocacy group for regional high-speed rail, and they have now introduced a new online petition. Their goal with this is to, “forward the link to this online petition to every email address in Ohio leading up to our LegislativeSummit on April 30th.” Primarily what they’re advocating for is the development of the Ohio Hub Plan.

Another thing you could do is write letters to your congressional representative and/or your related member in Senate. We need to bind together and work towards accomplishing this goal. Sign the petition, it literally takes about 30 seconds.

Image Credit:
Ohio Department of Transportation
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News

Cincinnati Public Schools making the grade

Many cite schools as a reason they don’t live within city limits (or within the CPS district). I have said before that it is more of an excuse than an actual reason, but it is what it is. Cincinnati Public Schools have been improving their state rating over the past few years, and recently have been receiving some national praise.

In a recent Education Week article (PDF) they say:

Despite being plagued by the problems that beset most urban school systems, the Cincinnati public schools have managed to increase the four-year high school graduation rate from 51 percent in 2000, to 79 percent in 2007. Perhaps more important, they have, as of 2007, eliminated the gap between African-American and white students in graduation rates. This feat was accomplished, moreover, as the state of Ohio was raising academic standards and requiring students to pass more-challenging assessments to receive their diplomas.

While a 79 percent graduation rate isn’t necessarily anything to write home about…it is a strong improvement. This strong improvement has certainly not gone unnoticed, and is going beyond an article in Education Week. CPS Superintendent, Rosa Blackwell, will be on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight show this coming Tuesday night at 8pm. Blackwell will be joined with Withrow University principal Sharon Johnson to talk about the district’s improvements.

Furthermore the district has broken ground on what will become the nation’s first public K-12 arts school. Just to reiterate…crime is down, schools are improving, and you can get a property tax abatement for moving into the city. So what’s holding you back?

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News

IKEA Cincinnati!


It’s official…IKEA has announced the opening day for their new Cincinnati area store. Clear your calendars for March 12th, and get a good nights sleep…the store opens at 9am.

OHIKEA has been keeping tabs on all things related to the Cincinnati store and has the press release available for viewing. At OHIKEA you can get more information about employment opportunities and everything else juicy that you may or may not want to know.

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News

CoolTown Studios on the ‘Q’

CoolTown Studios has done an excellent write up on the ever emerging Gateway Quarter in Over-the-Rhine. This particular write up highlights the focus on contemporary urban living with the businesses that have opened up in the district.

The Gateway Quarter already has a host of great businesses that have opened up including Park + Vine, Mica 12/v, Metronation, CityRoots, and Jean Robert’s newest restaurant that is on the way. In addition to this there are a few more great spaces that are bound to be filled with more fantastic businesses very soon.

So go check out CoolTown Studios and go check out these cool new businesses in the ‘Q’.

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News

Downtown Office Trends

QCS II will pour 825,000 square-feet of new Class A office space into the Downtown office market. That’s great only if the market can handle it, and some think that the relocation of one company Downtown (AFG) into it isn’t necessarily the best scenario. Well to some extent they’re right, but the whole issue isn’t a negative thing either.

AFG currently occupies office space in a variety of older office buildings Downtown (580 Building, 525 Vine), and will be occupying 22 floors of QCS II for a total of 530,000 square-feet. By leaving these spaces and consolidating into one newer space it allows for those older and thus more affordable spaces to be freed up for smaller companies that can not afford the leases at a building like QCS II.

It is essentially all part of a larger office market cycle that occurs. Older spaces become less desirable and are either replaced by newer spaces and taken off the market (via apartment conversions and what not) or are then filled by smaller companies that can not afford the Class A office space.

So while it isn’t great news to hear that QCS II won’t be filled by a new company to the region…it certainly isn’t bad news that the Downtown market is able to fill another 800,000+ square-feet of office space. On a side note, the most recent State of Downtown quarterly report says that Downtown Cincinnati actually lowered its vacancy rate by nearly 3% in the 3Q.