Bridgetown : Development News

The City of Cincinnati has taken out the back-and-forth that can occur when residents try to reach them to report issues in their neighborhoods. At the Neighborhood Summit on Feb. 16, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls announced that the Cincinnati City Hall mobile app is available to the public.
 
With the app, residents can look up trash, recycling and street sweeping days, and set reminders; locate and report problems by address; bookmark locations for quick reporting; and track the status of reports. City Hall mobile also has GPS, so users can report issues, even without an address. There’s even a searchable map with property owner information, which enables residents to see if a property is occupied or vacant.
 
A few years ago, residents had to use the Yellow Pages to look up the number for city departments to file complaints, says Kevin Wright, executive director of Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation. The city then implemented a hotline for all complaints, but residents never knew the status of their reports.
 
“It’s amazing how comprehensive the app is,” Wright says. “If you see a broken window, pothole, graffiti, hanging gutter or anything else that is physically wrong with your neighborhood, street or community, you can report it in an instant. It’s a great tool for neighborhood redevelopment.”
 
The app can also be used as a community-organizing tool, Wright says. For example, if there is a property owner who historically hasn’t taken care of his or her property, social media can help organize a community and target the property to enforce codes until the property is fixed, which is what neighborhood councils and organizations like WHRF do.
 
“We’re really putting power in the hands of the citizens of the neighborhoods,” he says.
 
As with most tech programs, the app has room to grow, too. In the future, it could be linked with Facebook or Twitter, so your friends and followers will know who reported problems and where they are.
 
Cincinnati residents can download the app in the Apple App Store or download it through Google Play.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Two local start-ups, the C’est Cheese grilled cheese truck, and mobile keepsake digitizer Memories of Loved Ones (MoLo) are celebrating new digs this month.

C’est Cheese, whose founder, Emily Frank just completed the Bad Girls Ventures program, is putting the tires to the pavement with a new food truck that made its first appearance at the City Flea on July 14.

C’est Cheese’s menu features 19 grilled cheese sandwiches – up to six available on a given day – and two soups, including the obligatory tomato, and a selection of homemade, flavored pickles.

Frank says finding the truck was a matter of patience and perserverence. “It was just spending hours and hours and hours every day searching online through several different sites to find the right vehicle. I ended up finding one in Chicago where I had just moved from. It was a former chocolate burrito truck painted with this crazy spray paint. With a little TLC, she has come a long way.”

Meanwhile, formerly mobile-only MoLo moved into a permanent – and stationary – office space at 6020 Harrison Ave., while keeping its RV for home visits. The keepsake digitizing services, which prepares posters, photo books and more for funerals, special events and celebrations, needed more space, says founder Katy Samuels.

“Over the past two years, we’ve had more celebration orders; now,  we can be a one-stop shop for everything people need,” she says.

The company now offers an extended suite of services for weddings and other events, including creating logos, invitations, programs and even websites, as well as reception displays and guest books.  

Up next for these two companies on the move?  “Getting people to know us,” Samuels says. “That’s the challenge.”

By Robin Donovan

In late spring or early summer, Metro riders will no longer have to look under couch cushions and in forgotten pockets to scrounge together $1.75 to take a ride.
 
Efforts to increase accessibility and convenience started last November when Metro installed new fareboxes on all of the operations’ 342 buses. A new Glenway Crossing transit center opened in December. This year, Metro launches new payment options.
 
The new transit center gives riders on the West Side a more convenient place to board buses and establishes a park-and-ride with 70 parking spots. The new fareboxes will help Metro track rider numbers on routes in an effort to increase efficiency and serve riders better.
 
New payment options include change tickets, which will print out after a rider uses a five, 10 or 20-dollar-bill to pay. The ticket can then be used on subsequent trips until the change is depleted. Metro’s current monthly passes will be replaced by rolling 30-day passes that allow riders to start using them for any 30-day period, instead of just from the beginning to end of a month. Two other options are pre-paid cards, or a reloadable, go Smart card.
 
“Other cities already have options like this,” says Jill Dunne, public affairs manager for Metro. “We’re moving up to become one of the better public transit agencies.”
 
The 30-day rolling passes could be available as soon as March, with the three other options soon after. Another annoyance soon to be eliminated? The need for exact change. Since fareboxes don’t produce change, new prepaid options will make riding the Metro much simpler.
 
Riders will be able to take advantage of the new options in several places, including online and a vending machine at Government Square.
 
By Evan Wallis