Walnut Hills / East Walnut Hills / O'Bryonville : Development News

For five years, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls has been working with the City of Cincinnati to develop form-based code for the city. Last Wednesday, City Council officially approved the Cincinnati Form-Based Code.
 
“Cincinnati now joins hundreds of cities that are using form-based code to build and reinforce walkable places that create value and preserve character,” Qualls says.
 
Cincinnati’s neighborhoods originally developed so residents could easily walk to restaurants, shops and grocery stores in and around business districts. Form-based code will allow neighborhoods to return to that original ideal and reinforce or create places where residents can live, work and play, Qualls says.
 
Current zoning code makes creating mixed-use neighborhoods difficult—the new code will help streamline the development process. To start, form-based code will be applied to business districts and adjacent residential areas in four pilot neighborhoods that volunteered for the chance—College Hill, Madisonville, Walnut Hills and Westwood.
 
The code is a result of six Neighborhood Summit training sessions; five years of neighborhood working group meetings, neighborhood walks and training sessions; five delegations to learn about Nashville’s form-based code; a five-day citywide urban design workshop; a four-day neighborhood urban design workshop; and more than 600 public comments on the draft from residents, stakeholders, neighborhood groups and city departments.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

For the first time since 1988, Cincinnati will play host to the 2015 MLB All-Star Game. And by that time, the Greater Cincinnati area could have a rail service, Oasis Rail Transit, which would be part of the Eastern Corridor program of multi-modal transportation improvement projects.
 
The Oasis project is the first proposed leg of the new regional rail system that will provide a new and much-needed transportation alternative for area residents. The Oasis line would span 17 miles between downtown Cincinnati and Milford. There are existing tracks along the route, but a number of miles of new track would be laid as well.
 
According to a press release, using existing track is a less expensive way to build a foundation of regional transportation. It would allow a passenger rail service network to advance more quickly and could serve as a national model for other commuter rail projects.

“Regional passenger rail isn’t a pipe dream, nor is it something for the far-off future,” according to Todd Portune, Hamilton County Commissioner and chair of Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District, in a press release. “It is here. Now. We can make this happen by 2015, but it will take a regional commitment from our local municipalities, chambers of commerce, state agencies and leaders to remove any barriers.”
 
The rail project was awarded funding last fall from the Ohio Department of Transportation’s House Bill 114 to help secure the right-of-way for extending the existing rail line from the Boathouse downtown to the Riverfront Transit Center. HCTID has also been working with local groups to explore joint-use opportunities, such as bicycle and walking paths, within the rail corridors. 
 
There are other rail lines in the works for the region that would connect Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Warren counties in Ohio, and parts of Northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana as well. The future rail line will travel from Xavier University to Fairfax to Eastgate (Wasson line); along I-71 from Cincinnati/NKY International Airport/Florence to Blue Ash; along I-75 to Union Centre; along the I-471 corridor to Northern Kentucky University; and along western I-74 to Green Township and US-50 to Lawrenceburg.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

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

The brightly lit restaurant welcomes customers when they walk in. Mismatched coffee mugs, cookbooks and a mural—which was done by chef Renee Schuler's sister, Michelle Heimann—above the lunch counter add a homey feel to Eat Well Café and Takeaway, which is exactly what Schuler was after.
 
“I wanted the restaurant to be like a living thing, which is why there’s so much green,” she says. The café seats about 35 people, and is described as fast casual—instead of table service, customers order at the counter and take a seat or, if they’re in a hurry, take their food with them.
 
Eat Well Café opened Jan. 9 in O’Bryonville in the old What’s for Dinner? space, between The BonBonerie and Enoteca Emilia.

“The neighborhood is full of positive energy,” says Schuler. “There are so many creative people doing what they love in this area, and I wanted to be part of that.”
 
When looking for restaurant space, Schuler searched all over Cincinnati. She decided on O’Bryonville because the community is interested in feeling good and living well, and that’s what food is about, she says.
 
Before opening her catering business, Eat Well Celebrations and Feasts seven and a half years ago, Schuler spent years working in restaurants and catering in New York City. When she came back to Cincinnati, she worked as the executive chef at Murphin Ridge Inn in Adams County for three years.
 
“It was a huge change,” she says. “I went from living in the city to picking out what types of cabbage our gardener would grow for the restaurant.”
 
She loves to help people plan events and create something dramatic (her second major is in theater), but she also wanted to create something accessible to people on a daily basis. Eat Well Café allows her to see some of her regular customers outside of planning events.
 
Eat Well Café’s menu was created with everyone in mind, Schuler says. There are vegetarian and vegan options alongside items like the Dr. Meat, which is a braised beef short rib sandwich. The menu will change seasonally, with spring items set to be added in two or three weeks.
 
“America is a melting pot, and American food is influenced from all over,” says Schuler. “Our menu is a mix of flavors to create something new.” Vietnamese summer rolls and pesto pasta are both menu staples, along with salads and soups.
 
The “takeaway” menu changes daily, and is based on Schuler’s mood, the weather and what she thinks would be good to eat that day. On dreary days, items like soups are takeaway staples.
 
Schuler tries to source most of Eat Well Café’s ingredients from local farmers. She uses a local, family-owned company who gets eggs for the café from an Amish farm in Northern Ohio; the bread is from Blue Oven Bakery; dairy products come from Snowville Creamery; Eckerlin Meats at Findlay Market supplies chicken and other meats. 
 
“I try to keep it as local as that makes sense,” she says. “It’s a constant challenge, especially this time of year.” Schuler’s dream is to have an Eat Well greenhouse down the street to grow all of the restaurant’s salad greens and herbs, but that’s a ways down the road.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Some of the city's biggest bike-related projects in the works for 2013 are still in the planning stages, but a few will continue and build on the momentum from last year. 

This year, the city's Bicycle Transportation Program includes plans to finish more than two miles of bike lanes along Riverside Drive, a project that was started in 2009. Plans are also in the works to extend the Spring Grove bike lanes from Hopple to Bank Street downtown; proposals have been drafted for rehabilitation projects along Dalton Street, Bank, Western Avenue and Langdon Farm Road. 

The City also hopes to continue its design work on the Ohio River Trail, extending bike-friendly paths from Salem Street to Sutton Road and Collins Avenue to Corbin Street.
 
The City is also in the early stages of looking to put Ohio’s first cycle track on Central Parkway between Ludlow Avenue and Liberty Street. “Cycle tracks aren’t mainstream yet, but New York City and Washington, D.C., have quite a few,” says Melissa McVay, senior city planner in the Division of Transportation & Engineering. “They’re the most family-friendly bike facility you can build.”
 
A cycle track is like a bike trail or shared path, but it’s in the street, for bikes only and separated from cars by a physical barrier, such as planters, trees or a curb. Cycle tracks are meant to keep cars from veering into bicyclists’ paths.
 
“A typical bike lane is usually enough to encourage cyclists to try them, but sometimes, they don’t make everyone feel comfortable,” says McVay. “The physical barrier of a cycle track is meant to make cyclists feel safe.” 

One of the most exciting developments for bicyclists last year was the addition of a green bike lane on Ludlow last year. “It started the conversation among people who don’t ride bikes, and they’re beginning to see the infrastructure,” McVay says. “I feel like the bike community has grown, and there is now a growing city-wide awareness.”

Approved by the City in 2009 and put into action in 2010, the Bike Plan outlines bicycle-related projects over the next 15 years. In all, the plan recommends 445 miles of on-street and off-street bike facilities, such as bike lanes, bike racks and multi-use trails.
 
In 2009, there were about seven miles of bike lanes and sharrows in Cincinnati, says McVay. In 2010, 2.3 miles were added; in 2011, 4.5 miles; in 2012, five more miles were added, for a total of 19 miles.
 
Since 1993, many bike-friendly projects have been implemented, including striping 12 miles of bike lanes, creating 21 miles of shared-use paths and trails and installing six miles of sharrows, or shared lane markings, throughout the city.
 
The bulk of the Bicycle Transportation Program's focus is on developing on-street and off-street bike facilities as outlined in the Bike Plan, but it also organizes bike-related events, proposing policy and zoning changes, and working on advocacy projects with Queen City Bike and Mobo Bicycle Co-op.
 
The public played a huge part in developing the Bike Plan by utilizing online tools to show the City where bike facilities were needed.
 
Even though there has been an outpouring of public support for bike facilities, there are still issues when it comes to removing parking. The City proposed a project along Spring Grove Avenue this past summer that would consolidate on-street parking to one side of the street, but businesses liked having parking available on both sides of the street.
 
“The project will be successful if the community comes together and rallies around the project, and the trade-off of on-street parking for a bike lane will ultimately benefit both business owners and bicyclists,” McVay says.

The City wants to hear from you! Take the survery and grade Cincinnati on different bike-friendly aspects around town.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Kitchen 452’s small dining room only holds six tables, but the restaurant is going to pack a big punch. Its menu is full of comfort food, such as sandwiches and soups, all delivered with fun twists.
 
Kitchen 452 will open from 6 to 9 p.m. on Jan. 25 during Walk on Woodburn, but the restaurant’s official grand opening is Feb. 1, when it will begin its regular lunch hours, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
 
Jen Lile, 39, and her business partner, Leah Joos, 29, began looking for restaurant space last May. Neither went to culinary school—they were academic advisors at the University of Cincinnati’s honors college, and through helping their students follow their dreams, they realized what their own was.
 
“After doing some research, we found out about SpringBoard Cincinnati,” says Joos. “We enrolled in courses there, then found the space on Woodburn, solidifying our idea.”
 
Joos’ interest in food started in her grandmother’s kitchen. She and her sister considered it a playground, and their grandmother let them make whatever they wanted.
 
But she didn’t really start cooking until graduate school. “I wasn’t good at it, but it gave me a good sense of focus and a creative outlet when my brain was drained,” she says.
 
Lile spent time in Europe and saw a difference between how food was appreciated and prepared that she didn’t see in the United States. When she came back, her idea of food changed and she became interested in learning about food. “Before my trip to Europe, I considered boiling water cooking,” she says. “My kitchen became the space where I really wanted to be.”
 
Joos and Lile designed Kitchen 452’s menu around traditional comfort food. “We like to play around with different flavors and try different flavor combinations together,” says Lile.
 
For example, their turkey sandwich is on bread fresh from the bakery, with a cranberry and orange chutney, which is balanced with crispy shallots on top; Kitchen 452’s tomato soup is topped with a parsley and garlic gremolata. Joos and Lile also wanted to focus on foods that feel like the seasons, so when it’s dark and wintry outside, there will be warm and hearty dishes on their menu.
 
“We want people to feel like they matter,” says Joos. “We want to get to know our customers, because we know that people make a decision when they go out to eat, and we want them to choose Kitchen 452 and keep coming back.”
 
Joos and Lile want to do things that can connect them with people on different levels as well. They plan to offer themed dinners at Kitchen 452, and possibly offer educational classes. One of their ideas is an oil and vinegar tasting that will teach customers how to incorporate different oils and vinegars into dishes they cook on a daily basis.
 
Kitchen 452 will also offer catering for business meetings and special events, with menus tailored to customers’ needs.
 
“It’s exciting for us and for our customers to try out different recipes that aren’t necessarily on our menu,” says Lile. “We want to help create custom menus and be part of important events in other people’s lives.”
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Out with the old, in with the old, at least in the historic neighborhood of Walnut Hills, where historic preservation and community development got a major boost along with some harsh reality checks.

Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and The Model Group were awarded $1.8 million to renovate three historic buildings in Walnut Hills. When completed, the buildings will house 30 market-rate apartments and 7,000 square feet of street-level retail space. The award is part of about $9 million in tax credits from the Ohio Development Services Agency through Ohio’s historic preservation program to seven Cincinnati-area development projects.
 
“We’re not 100 percent sure who will occupy the storefronts, but we’ll make sure the businesses will serve the existing and changing population of Walnut Hills,” says Kevin Wright, executive director of WHRF.
 
The project has been in the works for about four years—the City acquired the buildings through a partnership with the community; the buildings were acquired and stabilized using City funding and tax increment financing dollars. Stabilization of the walls and roof of one of the buildings could begin as early as next week.
 
“We see this as a huge step forward for the neighborhood,” says Wright. “Adding market-rate apartments and retail space will help move Walnut Hills forward and catalyze development.” Not only is the project the first large market-rate development on Peeble's Corner in decades, but it also expands development momentum farther west, toward the intersection of McMillan and Gilbert.
 
The development parcel actually includes four buildings, 975, 965, 961 and 967 E. McMillan—the old Graeter’s building at 967 E. McMillan will be demolished in the next four to five months. Although the building has a strong historical and emotional significance for Cincinnati and Walnut Hills, it isn’t stable. After conversations with the Cincinnati Preservation Association, WHRF decided it was in the neighborhood’s best interest to demolish the Graeter’s building.
 
The building’s ceiling, walls and floors are caved in, and there’s extensive water damage because the roof has been gone for so long. WHRF wanted to save the building’s façade and keep the storefront and historic feel of the building, but after an inspection of the façade, they realized it couldn’t be salvaged.
 
At some point, the first floor façade was turned into a gravel stucco façade. WHRF thought the original historic brick façade was underneath, but discovered that it had been removed. The second and third floor façades are in good condition, but it would require money that WHRF doesn’t have to create a new façade for the first floor. Replacing the façade would defeat the purpose of saving it because it wouldn’t be original, says Wright.  
 
The space created by the removal of the Graeter’s building will become a courtyard or amenity space for the new businesses and apartments that will be created from the project. WHRF wants to see the space utilized by new residents and retail, says Wright.
 
The buildings included in the development are part of a larger acquisition and redevelopment project, says Wright. With the same funding for the project, WHRF also acquired a large portion of the 700 block of McMillan west of Gilbert. The project included demolishing a number of buildings and stabilizing Firehouse #16, the oldest firehouse in Cincinnati; WHRF is currently stabilizing the Hamilton House as well.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

The City of Cincinnati Economic Development Division and Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United (CNBDU) recently allocated $1.65 million to 13 projects for the 2013 Neighborhood Business District Improvement Program.
 
John Price, then-president of the Clifton Business Association, started CNBDU in 1992. He gathered all of the business association presidents in Cincinnati because he wanted to figure out a way to get funding for those neighborhoods that weren’t downtown, says Mike Wagner, president of CNBDU.
 
Over the years, CNBDU has appropriated about $33 million between federal and city money, and leveraged more $350 million in private money, to support non-downtown neighborhood projects.
 
CNBDU awards money annually to Cincinnati neighborhoods through the NBDIP, which receives federal money from the City’s Community Development Block Grant and city capital funds. Neighborhoods can use the money for a variety of capital improvements and other uses to promote economic development in their business districts.
 
Each neighborhood is allowed to apply for one major and one minor ask, says Bill Fischer, division manager of economic development for the City. The maximum amount for a minor ask is $30,000; there isn’t a maximum amount for a major ask. There are generally more minor-ask projects accepted because more projects can get done.
 
This year's process began in June when 29 neighborhoods submitted their initial proposals, which totaled $3.1 million in requests. A 28-member peer advisory group of community members who had submitted proposals and representatives from neighborhood business districts reviewed the proposals. In September, the reviewers took a bus tour of the project sites.
 
“There wasn’t much to look at when we first started CNBDU,” says Wagner. “But now we can see what has been accomplished in the past 17 years.”
 
In October, the peer group made recommendations to the City’s Economic Development Division after hearing presentations from the different neighborhoods. Neighborhood groups were notified at the end of November if their proposals would be turned into a project through NBDIP.
 
“Each neighborhood has a different approach to the project proposals,” says Fischer. “Some are looking to maintain what’s already there, whereas others are looking to create new business.”  
 
CNBDU funding is in addition to the Focus 52 program, a combination of bond and casino revenues, which will create a pool of $54 million for neighborhood projects throughout the city.
 
The neighborhood projects that were awarded money through the NBDIP are:

• Walnut Hills: Park-Kemper Streetscape Design, $30,000
• West Price Hill: Covedale Center Marquee/Community Message Board, $79,145
• Roselawn: Business District Feasibility Study, $30,000
• Clifton: Ludlow Avenue Storefront Improvement Program, $77,500
• Westwood: Parking Lot Renovation, $30,000
• Northside: Hoffner St. Garden, $80,000
• Northside: Dhonau Garden, $30,000
• Corryville: Façade Improvement Program (continuation), $236,397
• Bond Hill: Bond Hill Identity Project, $30,000
• East Price Hill: St. Lawrence Corner Public Square, $107,500
• Pleasant Ridge: 6025 Montgomery Acquisition & Redevelopment, $150,000
• Avondale: Reading, Rockdale & Forest Streetscape, $400,000
• Mt. Adams: Streetscape Completion, $375,000

By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

If you still need a gift for that special someone, Essex Studios’ Art Walk might have just what you’re looking for.
 
Four times a year, Essex Studios in Walnut Hills hosts Art Walk, which opens the studios to the public and gives the community an opportunity to see and buy local art. This quarter’s Art Walk features work from impressionistic to contemporary abstract paintings, art glass and contemporary ceramics. There will also be a photographic installation by guest artist Tim Freeman that financially supports Village Life Outreach Project.
 
Along with the 120 artists that will contribute to Art Walk, Art Circle will have their work on display and for sale this weekend. Thirteen artists from Art Circle collaborated to produce a unique project: DELICIOUS!—The Art of Food.
 
DELICIOUS! is a set of 4”x5” cards of watercolors and colored pencil drawings of images related to food. There’s even a recipe on the back of each card that incorporates a depicted ingredient. The recipes are among some of the artists’ favorites, says Connie Springer, publicist and Art Circle member.
 
“We usually collaborate on calendars, but this year, we decided to create something that wasn’t tied to a specific date so people could enjoy the artwork and recipes for many years to come,” says Springer.  
 
Even though DELICIOUS! is a collaboration, each image is a representation of the different styles and talents of each artist. Some pieces are super-realistic, and others are more impressionistic, says Springer.
 
Art Circle is a group of 16 watercolor and colored pencil artists who meet weekly at Essex Studios to share painting time and camaraderie. Art Circle began in 2004 in Wyoming, Ohio, as a gathering of some of Pat Painer’s former students from the Wyoming Fine Arts Center. In 2009, the group moved to join more than 120 other artists at Essex Studios.
 
The 13 Art Circle members who contributed to DELICIOUS! are Clair Breetz, Amy Bryce, Margie Carleton, Sherry Goodson, Jan Glaser, Autumn Huron, Gay Isaacs, Mary Jo Sage, Nandita Baxi Sheth, Deb Shelton, Betty Smith, Connie Springer and Vivian Talley.
 
DELICIOUS! items are available for purchase in two formats: a spiral-bound mini-book that can be shelved with other cookbooks, or a set of loose cards that can be slipped into family recipe books. 

Besides the physical art, Art Walk will have refreshments, including some of the appetizer-type recipes from DELICIOUS! But if you can’t make it to Art Walk, you can find DELICIOUS! at the holiday gift shops at the Kennedy Heights Art Center and the Baker-Hunt Art and Cultural Center in Covington.
 
Art Walk is this Friday and Saturday from 6 to 11 pm, but the Art Circle studio (Studio 122), closes at 10 pm.

By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

As many areas of Cincinnati are being rejuvenated, including OTR and Washington Park, the City of Cincinnati approved a comprehensive approach to focus on development in the city as a whole, not just targeted neighborhoods. 

Last Friday, the City Planning Commission approved and adopted Plan Cincinnati, which was designed with input from residents. The Plan is an opportunity to strengthen what people love about the city, what works and what needs more attention, says Katherine Keough-Jurs, senior city planner and project manager.
 
The idea is to re-urbanize suburbanized Cincinnati; in a sense, to return to the strengths of the city's beginnings. Cincinnati was established just after the American Revolution in 1788 and grew into an industrial center in the 19^th century. Many of those industries no longer exist in the city, which is part of why Cincinnati has become more suburbanized in the past 50 years. One of the long-term goals of the Plan is to bring new industries to Cincinnati.
 
With a new approach to revitalization, Cincinnati is blazing the trail for other cities. With a focus on building on existing strengths rather than tearing down structures and creating new ones, the Plan aims to capitalize on the city's “good bones” and good infrastructure.
 
Cinicinnatians had a huge role in developing the Plan. The first public meeting for the Plan was held in September 2009, when residents offered their insights into “what makes a great city?" and "what would make Cincinnati a great city?” A steering committee of 40 people representing businesses, nonprofits, community groups, local institutions, residents and City Council helped develop the Plan.

The Plan also got support from a grant from the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which the City received in 2010. The grant allotted $2.4 million over three years to support the Land Development Code, which combines and simplifies Cincinnati's codes, reviews the development process, implements Form-based Codes and considers more creative uses for land. The grant allowed the city to start implementing some of the ideas voiced in public meetings.
 
Visionaries included youth, too. City staff worked with community centers and Cincinnati Public Schools to develop an art project for children. They were given clay pots and asked to paint their fears for the city on the inside and their dreams for the city on the outside. The children saw the big issue was quality of life, just like the adults did.
 
“It was an interesting way to get the kids involved and thinking about the future,” Keough-Jurs says.
 
The Plan aims to strengthen neighborhood centers—the neighborhoods’ business districts. It maps out areas that people need to get to on a daily basis and found that most are within about a half-mile of the business districts. But in some neighborhoods, residents can’t access their neighborhood centers. 

The accessibility of a neighborhood center is based on walkability—not just for pedestrians, but also about how structures address walking. For exampke, if a pedestrian can walk from one end of the neighborhood center to the other without breaking his or her pattern (the window shopping effect), the area is walkable; if he or she has been stopped by a parking lot or vacancies, it’s not walkable, Keough-Jurs says.
 
The neighborhood centers are classified in one of three ways in the Plan: maintain, evolve or transform. Some neighborhoods have goals to maintain levels of walkability, whereas others need to gradually change or evolve. Still others need to completely transform in order to strengthen their business districts.
 
“Cincinnati is at the heart of the region,” Keough-Jurs says. “If we strengthen Cincinnati, we strengthen a region.”

The next step for the Plan is to go before the Cincinnati City Council, specifically the Livable Communities Committee, which is chaired by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Cincinnati's food truck culture, energetic and scrappy, takes center stage for a change at the first Cincinnati Street Food Festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 13 in Walnut Hills.

Soapbox talked with The City Flea's Nick DeWald, who helped organize the celebration and lent his design skills to the event, to get the scoop:

Q: Why is this event important? And why in Walnut Hills?
A: Celebrating first-ring suburbs such as Walnut Hills is critical for the future of the city. The urban core is really rolling right now, but having livable, vibrant neighborhoods all around it is what will continue to make Cincinnati great. Walnut Hills is an area that is aggressively pushing to be the center of the next culture and development boom. 

Q: What makes it different from other events?
A: You can find food trucks at many events around town these days, but they are generally accessories to a larger theme. This event will celebrate street food and have a larger lineup of food trucks and trailers than any previous local event.  

Q: How long was it in the planning stages? 
A: The concept of a food truck festival is one item on a long list of progressive ideas of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation that have been talked about since Kevin Wright became the director last year. There is a lot of energy in the neighborhood and city right now and ideas are being put into action rapidly and effectively. 

Q: Finally, what are you most looking forward to, and will this happen again if all goes well? 
A: The hope is that this becomes an annual event in the city. This will be a great opportunity to show the city's food trucks some appreciation. It is a tough business to be in, yet they are all such friendly and energetic people who are making the city more colorful and unique. 

The organizers are most looking forward to showing people what Walnut Hills is capable of adding to the city. If all goes to plan, people will see the energy, diversity and proximity to the urban core that Walnut Hills offers. It will also be quite a sight to finally see the ever-growing local community of food trucks all in one place.

By Elissa Yancey
Follow Elissa on Twitter

Saturday, Oct. 13, marks a big change for the neighborhood of Walnut Hills: Taft and McMillan will be converted back to two-way traffic after four decades as one-way roads.
 
In the mid-1970s, the City of Cincinnati temporarily converted William H. Taft Road and McMillan Street to one-way traffic during the construction of I-71. After the interstate’s completion, the streets were never converted back. Ever since, Cincinnatians have used the roads through Walnut Hills as a highway to shorten commute time rather than as a way to get around the neighborhood.
 
Today, there are quite a few businesses in Walnut Hills, but there are vacancies, too. The one-way traffic turns a great location for businesses into one that's hard to get to. 

There’s a Kroger on McMillan, but drivers can’t make a left at Park Street and McMillan to get to it. Instead of taking the time to travel around the block, they go somewhere else. 

Neighborhood leaders believe that the two-way conversion will help bring new life to the Walnut Hills’ business district.
 
“The neighborhood was built around people and public transportation, not around cars,” says Kevin Wright, executive director of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation.
 
The effort to bring back the area’s business district has been primarily a grassroots one, says Wright. The property and business owners of Walnut Hills are pushing for the changes. And they’ve been fighting for the two-way conversion for about 30 years.
 
While there has been talk of lane changes for about fives years, but the physical conversion will take only a weekend. For the past month, crews have been putting up signs and streetlights, says Wright.
 
After Oct. 13, McMillan will have two lanes that travel east and a lane of parking on the north side of the street. There will only be one lane of traffic traveling west. Taft will be the same, but reversed. There was no physical construction to convert to two-way traffic—crews only had the existing 40 feet of road to work with. In the future, Walnut Hills Redevelopment hopes to gain another lane of parking on each street.
 
The two-way conversion will turn the Walnut Hills neighborhood from an auto-centric area to a walking neighborhood that focuses on bicycles, walking and public transportation.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter