Sustainability : Development News

Two weeks ago, Covington’s Department of Public Infrastructure hosted a tour and shared its best practice models. Many of DPI’s current projects focus on capital improvements related to problems such as street reconstructions and landslide concerns.
 
Covington’s infrastructure developments keep things running, says City Manager Larry Klein.

“When people see a fire truck, ambulance, police car or someone cutting grass, they’re all results of the city’s public works division,” he says. “Citizens see services such as snow removal or street repair, but they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes.”
 
For example, the city’s fleet division does auto repairs in-house, rather than outsourcing those repairs. In 2009, the city contracted with KOI Auto Parts as its in-house auto parts vendor. The city used to spend $600,000-700,000 on parts, but by bringing KOI in-house, the cost is now about $350,000-400,000, says Tom Logan, director of public improvements.
 
“The fleet division keeps everything running smoothly and gets the vehicles back out on the street,” Klein says. “We’re not only saving money but time as well.”
 
DPI also recently replaced single-purpose trucks with dual-purpose models. Snow removal trucks, for example, were only used three or four months of the year. The dual-purpose trucks come with swap-loaders, which allows DPI to interchange the dump beds for other equipment. These trucks saved the city about $100,000, Logan says.
 
DPI is currently also involved in storm water improvements, renovations to Devou Park, riverfront development and the replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge.
 
“It’s guided by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Ohio Department of Transportation, but Covington has a strong stance and the ability to provide input in the decision-making process,” Logan says of the bridge planning. “It’s a very important project for the whole region because of the traffic that travels along I-71 and I-75. For Covington, we have to ensure that the connections to the bridge are maintained.”
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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This year is the 200^th anniversary of the founding of College Hill, and to celebrate, the College Hill Historical Society and College Hill Gardeners are partnering for History in Bloom. The event includes a lecture by Ed Loyd, CHHS president, on May 14, and a tour of five College Hill gardens on June 15.
 
The lecture will include past and present photos of the gardens at the five homes, along with images of a few gardens that used to be in College Hill, Loyd says.
 
“College Hill is a natural fit to put history and gardens together,” he says.
 
College Hill got its name from Farmers’ College, which was founded in 1846. It was one of the first schools for agriculture in the United States, and was around almost a generation before other land-grant colleges were established. It was a research center for all types of scientific agricultural education, and predated the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Loyd says.
 
This year is the eighth year for the CHG garden tour, but the first year for the event to have a co-presenter.
 
“The agricultural significance in College Hill is noteworthy, and it provides a great backdrop for the gardens,” says Beth McLean, founder of CHG.
 
The gardens included on the tour are those of Twin Towers, Tanglewood, The Upson House, The Oaks and Laurel Court. All of the houses are along Hamilton Avenue, Belmont Avenue and Hillcrest Road (Old College Hill). The gardens feature beautiful landscaping and ornamental structures, plus a Japanese garden and parterre, which can be found at Laurel Court.
 
Tickets for the tour go on sale May 4 for $10. Tickets will be available at CHG’s plant sale May 4, at the College Hill Coffee Company and at the lecture. Day-of tickets are $12.
 
The lecture will be at the Campus Center at Llanfair Retirement Community; seating is limited. Please contact CHG at 513-681-1326 to reserve your seat.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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Spring Grove Village, which is Northside’s next-door neighbor, has much more to offer than just a place to live. Spring Grove prides itself in being a green and sustainable community, where residents are invested in what’s going on around them.
 
“There are lots of young couples who live in Spring Grove Village who go to farmers' markets,” says Sam Gordon, owner of Bee Haven Honey. “They’re aware of what they can do in their own environment to help the greater environment.”
 
Spring Grove is home to several organic gardens, including Wooden Shoe Organic Garden and Keystone Flora, which focuses on local and organic plant sales. There are also several well-known greenhouses in the area, especially along Grey Road behind Spring Grove Cemetery, including A.J. Rahn.
 
Residents have planted two community gardens in the neighborhood; and many of Spring Grove’s residents, including Bee Haven Honey, sell their goods at Findlay Market.
 
Bee Haven Honey is green and sustainable, which means that they don’t use chemicals in their hives, Gordon says.
 
Gordon says she likes to be a resource for others who are interested in beekeeping, but she isn’t the only sustainable resource in Spring Grove. Evergreen Holistic Learning Center in Winton Ridge offers green and sustainable programming, and Homeadow Song Farm, an educational center, teaches kids about nature and art.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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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
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Did you recently buy a historic home and need help getting renovations underway? Or do you want to learn more about living green? Then NKY Restoration Weekend is for you.
 
The second annual Restoration Weekend is from 9 am to 5 pm on Feb. 23 at the Gateway Community and Technical College's Urban Campus in Covington. The event will feature many opportunities for historic home owners, including classes and demonstrations on how to make historic houses and surrounding property more energy efficient and sustainable; researching historic homes; utilizing the Kentucky homeowner’s rehabilitation tax credit; Rookwood tile history and maintenance; historic ironwork; window restoration; plaster; masonry repair and maintenance ask the expert.
 
There will also be a vendor fair with more than 20 booths featuring craftsmen and contractors that represent all aspects of the renovation process.
 
“The weekend is about combining sustainable and green practices with historic homes,” says Beth Johnson, preservation and planning specialist for the City of Covington. “The vendors are a huge part of the event, and helps connect homeowners with good products and contractors.”
 
But Johnson says the highlight of the event is the keynote speakers, Matt Grocoff. He’s a nationally known TV personality who turned a 100-year-old folk Victorian house into net zero, which means it’s historically sensitive, but doesn’t use energy.
 
“There’s such an amazing stock of historic homes in Northern Kentucky and the surrounding area, and people need to be responsible homeowners and be better stewards of historic homes,” Johnson says. “DIY is really big, and they need to know the proper ways to do things.” 
 
The event is partially funded by the Certified Local Government grant that’s given to the cities of Bellevue, Covington and Newport from the National Park Service and administered by the Kentucky Heritage Council.
 
NKY Restoration is an unincorporated association and collaboration of businesses, artisans and craftsmen, nonprofit organizations, cities and the Historic Preservation offices in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.
 
The event is free, but reservations are requested to ensure a spot at the keynote luncheon.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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Grocery stores and farmers markets aren’t the only places in Cincinnati to buy locally grown produce. Urban Greens LLC is a garden that gives its customers the opportunity to grow their own food in a community-owned plot.
 
Urban Greens was founded in 2010 by 15 families who wanted to grow their own produce, but didn’t necessarily have the space in their own backyards. Ryan Doan, founder of Urban Greens, was introduced to community gardening by a Mt. Washington resident who grew 90 percent of his family’s food on a plot in his backyard. Doan also took classes at the Civic Garden Center; he then found the plots in the East End by the Ohio River. The plots are owned by FEMA and can’t be bought or sold for development projects because they have been designated for agriculture purposes or parks.  
 
Customers have fresh produce about 26 weeks out of the year, and during the winter, their shelves and freezers are stocked with homemade goodies from the gardens.
 
In order to keep up with the plots, Urban Greens sells Community Supported Agriculture shares. Customers pay an upfront fee of $600 per year for three to 10 pounds of produce per week. There is also a work share program, where customers pay $450 and work 20 hours in the garden. The shares not only pay for seeds, fencing, cages and water, but for the garden manager’s and a few part-time employees’ salaries.
 
The community garden will have three plots in Cincinnati this year—two in the East End and one that’s new for 2013, plus one in Hamilton—for a total of two and a half acres of fresh produce. The Hamilton plot is on the grounds of one of the local high schools and is tended by a student.
 
Urban Greens will offer 35 CSA accounts in the East End, 20-25 in Hamilton and about 15 at the new garden. CSA customers pick up their pre-packaged produce once a week from the garden plots.
 
Besides selling produce to its CSA customers, Urban Greens is the sole provider of produce for a local company. They sell to the businesses’ employees on Tuesdays, and pick for CSA customers on Thursdays. During the summer, weekends are reserved for selling produce at local farmers markets.
 
“We set aside a certain amount of produce to sell to the general public at farmers markets,” Doan says. The rest of the produce is divided evenly among Urban Greens’ customers, so that nothing goes to waste.
 
This year, Urban Greens is also offering 30 Flexible Market Accounts to those who want to choose their own produce. Customers load $100 at a time onto a card, come down once a week and pick out the produce they need. FMA is like a grocery store that offers local produce, plus local cheeses, granola and handmade soap, says Doan.
 
“FMA allows people to get the tomatoes they need to make spaghetti sauce or salsa, rather than the bunches of kale they might grow themselves,” he says.
 
FMA also makes Urban Greens accessible to more people, as the CSA can be too expensive for some. “I don’t want Urban Greens to be for rich people buying organic vegetables, but for everyone,” says Doan.
 
Doan is also looking to develop a gardening program with a few local schools. He wants to have gardens on school grounds, and when school is in session, the produce will be incorporated into the students’ lunches. Urban Greens would also teach students how to harvest and seed the gardens, and they would be the ones farming the land, not school personnel.
 
“I’d like to continue the gardens at the schools during the summer and sell the produce at farmers markets,” Doan says. “But once school is back in session, the produce would be for the cafeteria.”
 
To reserve a CSA share or more for more information about FMA, email Urban Greens at urbangreensllc@gmail.com.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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The former home of the Hamilton-Journal News will soon become Butler Tech’s School of the Arts, Hamilton City School’s Adult Basic and Literacy Education program and the Miami Valley Ballet Theatre.
 
The building, located at 228 Court Street in Hamilton’s downtown, was built in 1886; additions were added in 1914, 1956 and 1959. The Journal-News vacated the building in 2011, and Akron Legacy Real Estate Development LLC, a group of five Ohio developers that work together on different projects, including historic restoration projects, purchased it.
 
Akron Legacy also did a $10 million restoration of the historic Hamilton Mercantile Lofts. The project included 29 market-rate residential units and three spaces of street-level retail.
 
“We want to see Hamilton’s older, beautiful buildings repurposed into mixed-use buildings, rather than sitting dark,” says Joshua Smith, Hamilton’s city manager.
 
The Journal-News restoration project received $804,122 in Ohio Preservation Historic Tax Credits. The money from the tax credits will support phases two and three of the project, which will be completed in mid-February. Initial construction on the project began in the late summer of 2012.
 
All three arts programs were in need of new spaces. Butler Tech’s School of the Arts is temporarily housed in downtown Hamilton at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts. High demand for Butler Tech’s program led to its need for a new home, says Smith. The move will allow the program to double or triple in size.
 
“It’s refreshing to see young, creative folks walking around downtown, and adding to the vibrancy of the town,” says Brandon Saurber, assistant to the city manager.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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Thirteen neighborhood projects were recently awarded $1.65 million through the 2013 Neighborhood Business District Improvement Program.
 
The Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation received $150,000 for the acquisition and redevelopment of 6025 Montgomery Road, which includes two separate buildings on one parcel of land. PRDC is in negotiations with the current owner and plans to have the property under contract by January.
 
The majority of the NBDIP funds will go toward purchasing the property; the remainder will be put toward redevelopment. PRDC will then partner with another community organization or developer to finish the project.
 
PRDC currently has a working partnership with the Pleasant Ridge School Foundation at Pleasant Ridge Montessori for the project. PRDC and the Foundation have talked about several ideas for the property, including a potential daycare to supplement the school’s part-time preschool. Depending on the how planning for the daycare goes, there might be more than one use for the property, says Jason Chamlee, president of PRDC.
 
PRDC takes a different approach to its NBDIP projects than other neighborhoods. For the past two years, PRDC has focused on purchasing existing real estate and redeveloping it, says Chamlee. PRDC wanted to acquire the Montgomery property because it is a vacant building that can be redeveloped to capitalize on business opportunities near Pleasant Ridge Montessori, which is adjacent to the property.
 
Pleasant Ridge is a strong, engaged neighborhood with a stable housing market, says Chamlee. “The biggest need in Pleasant Ridge is rebuilding the business district. With support from the City of Cincinnati, our colleagues in other business districts and strong community partnerships, we are gaining momentum and want to build off our early successes. The quality of our neighborhood is very closely tied to the vitality of the business district."
 
Last year, PRDC was awarded $200,000 through NBDIP for the acquisition of a property at Montgomery and Ridge roads. The property had fallen into foreclose and disrepair and was about 75 percent vacant. PRDC formed a joint partnership with a local developer who will renovate the property.
 
The project from last year is going through the final approval process for full rehabilitation construction. In the end, there will be three or four new, redeveloped storefronts that total about 13,000 square feet of restaurant or retail space that will be available for lease in early 2013.

For additional information regarding development projects in Pleasant Ridge, please contact prdevcorp@gmail.com.

By Caitlin Koenig
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Last Monday, Madisonville was allocated $2.5 million in bond financing to make improvements to the neighborhood’s business district. The bond money will be paid back with funds from the Madisonville tax increment financing, or TIF, district.

A TIF is the difference between what property taxes would be after redevelopment and what the tax would be if no redevelopment occurred. A payment is made to the TIF fund in lieu of taxes and is used to finance other projects. Madisonville will pay back the bond over a period of 20 years.
 
In November, Madisonville revealed its quality of life plan to the public, which focused on economic development, health and wellness, arts and culture, education and youth, built environment and community engagement. The plan will take about 10 years to fully implement, but Madisonville is taking immediate steps to revitalize its business district.
 
There are about two blocks of vacant property at the intersection of Madison and Whetsel, which is at the heart of the business district. With the bond money, Madisonville will be able to begin construction on those buildings and bringing in businesses to start building the citizens’ dreams of a walking neighborhood.
 
The $2.5 million is the first big investment in the physical transformation of Madisonville, says Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls.
 
Madisonville is among four major growth opportunity areas in Cincinnati, including Walnut Hills, Westwood and College Hill. But these neighborhoods aren’t the only ones the City is investing in.
 
“These neighborhoods are target areas because of their participation in developing the new form-based code for the City,” says Qualls.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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Next Tuesday, Madisonville’s community council will share its Quality of Life Plan with funders, government officials, businesses, nonprofits and surrounding communities. For the past year, Madisonville has been involved in an intensive, community-driven planning process.
 
It’s the first time in Cincinnati that a citizen-driven, community plan of this type has been developed, although it has been used in 109 communities across the country.
 
Not only does Madisonville have a strong history—its future looks bright. The neighborhood on the east side of Cincinnati is more than 200 years old. It was established in 1809 and originally called “Madison” after the newly elected fourth President of the United States, James Madison.
 
Madisonville’s first permanent settler was Joseph Ward and his family. In 1797, they built a log cabin along an Indian trail that is near what are now Whetsel and Monning avenues. About 30 years later, a post office was established and the neighborhood’s name was changed to Madisonville to avoid duplication with Madison, Ohio. It was annexed by the City of Cincinnati in 1911. Today, about 9,000 people live in the neighborhood.
 
But in the 1970s, about 17,000 people lived in Madisonville. Flight from urban areas in the '70s has yet to be reversed, but there are more residents considering city life.
 
“Madisonville would be a great place to live because of its closeness to downtown,” says Sara Sheets, a Madisonville resident of nine years and the project manager for the Quality-of-Life Planning Process on behalf of the Madisonville Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation. Residents can jump on Columbia Parkway or I-71 to get to work and events downtown.
 
Many of Madisonville’s residents moved to the area because they wanted to be part of a racially and economically diverse community. “I wanted to live in a diverse community with a potential for the future,” says Sheets.
 
The residents of Madisonville really care about the neighborhood and want to see it grow. Last year, Madisonville began the intense process of organizing the community in order to develop a vision for the neighborhood. Six working groups were formed to focus on economic development, health and wellness, arts and culture, education and youth, built environment and community engagement. The groups met six times over the summer to form a specific plan. The Quality of Life Plan will likely take about 10 years to implement, but it’s a roadmap for what the community wants to see happen in the neighborhood, Sheets says.
 
The Quality of Life Plan focuses on broader change, particularly on the opportunities and quality of life for children and seniors in Madisonville, according to Bob Igoe, who has lived in Madisonville for 12 years and been the community council president for three.

A large portion of the Plan is focused on education, from kindergarten on up. For example, the Children’s Home of Cincinnati has made a long-term commitment for the kindergarten-ready program in Madisonville. The program focuses on children ages 0-3 and helps prepare them for kindergarten, both educationally and socially.

Not only are there long-term goals for Madisonville, but there are short-term goals, too. One of these is jump-starting the growth of the business district, Igoe says.
 
Currently, there are about two blocks of vacant property at Madison and Whetsel, in the heart of the neighborhood’s business district. Madisonville residents will ultimately get to decide what will fill those vacant spaces.

“We want to develop a mixed-use neighborhood where walking and biking to restaurants, shops and services is easy,” Sheets says. Many residents go outside of the neighborhood to grab a cup of coffee.  
 
Residents also want to add new apartments, condos and houses to the town. Most of the new housing will likely be around the business district to enhance the community's walkability.
 
The meeting is to begin Nov. 27 at 5:30 pm at John P. Parker School, 5051 Anderson Place, Cincinnati.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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Looking for something "crafty" to learn, Chris Sutton took up jean-making nearly two years ago.

"I wanted to learn how to make something with my own hands. I'd been doing a lot of tech endeavors, and wanted to get my hands dirty," says Sutton, whose background is in live event production.

Once he began sewing jeans, Sutton found he had a real talent for it. He decided he wanted to make high-quality, American-made jeans, a rarity in today's clothing manufacturing sector. He sought out American sources for his material, thread, zippers and pocket materials. Yes, he found them all in the USA; and he created Noble Denim.

"I wanted to make my own rules around what could and couldn't be done. I wanted to make my jeans in America, and make them as sustainably as possible," he says.

Using his home in Over-the-Rhine as a sewing factory, Sutton began making and selling Noble Denim jeans. Twelve industrial sewing machines later, he moved the company into a space at Camp Washington.

Designer in style and quality, they're meant to have a longer shelf life than your average mass-produced jean. Materials come from suppliers in Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon and California.

They're made from raw selvage denim, made through a time-consuming process that makes the material thicker and more durable. This type of denim is supposed to better fit the wearer's body and resist shrinkage.

Sutton launched an online shop in November, where buyers can chose from two styles, Regular and Earnest Slim Straight. The jeans are pricey, $250 a pair, but all materials are 100 percent organic, reclaimed or responsibly produced. Currently Noble Denim sells jeans only for men; a women's line is planned for next fall.

Noble Denim is a young company, and Sutton still does most of the sewing. He does have interns who are learning the jean-making craft. Within the next year, he hopes to hire three or four employees, who'll make 3,000 pairs of jeans a year.

"I want to grow, but only as fast as I can stick to my philosophy," Sutton says. "So our mantra is grow slow, but do it well."

By Feoshia H. Davis
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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
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Last Friday, a motion to reallocate three pieces of city-owned property for public use was approved by the City Planning Commission. The properties are at the intersection of Vine Street and Erkenbrecher Avenue, near the main entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo.
 
The properties are to be used to create better access to the zoo’s new entrance for both cars and pedestrians by widening the road, says Felix Bere, senior city planner for the City of Cincinnati. A wider road will also improve parking around the zoo. Plans for the three properties have been in the works since spring 2011.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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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
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The University of Cincinnati recently added four new degree certificates to the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. The Sustainable Landscape Design, Urban Agriculture, Urban Landscapes and Green Roofs certificates are in the horticulture department and focus on green living. The four certificates are available at the undergraduate level, but graduate students can arrange for credit.
 
A certificate in Sustainable Landscape Design focuses on the sustainability aspect of building and landscape design. The Urban Agriculture area of study examines contemporary issues in horticulture, urban design, livability and quality of life, food security and sustainability. A certificate in Urban Landscapes focuses on the role of plant life in a sustainable urban environment. The certificate in Green Roofs addresses contemporary issues in living architecture, while focusing on the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable urban design.
 
The certificates give students the opportunity to add a specialized area of study to their overall horticulture degree. Plus, it allows them to enhance their skills and build their resumes, says Virginia Russell, associate professor of architecture at DAAP. She teaches a class on infrastructure and green roofs in the Urban Landscape realm of study.  
 
New courses in urban agriculture and ecology, living architecture and plant biogeography were added to the horticulture program in response to students’ passion for sustainable living. Many horticulture students have done service projects in the community to gain experience and enhance their skills, says Russell.
 
Students aren’t the only ones interested in green projects. The UC Master Plan, which was developed by Hargreaves Associates, a landscape architecture firm, includes different aspects of sustainable landscape design. These aspects have been incorporated into projects around campus, including the sub-grade retention basin near the student recreation center that uses recycled storm water for irrigation purposes. UC also installed two green roofs over the summer—one on Procter Hall and one on the DAA building of DAAP.
 
Russell believes that green living is important for everyone because so many areas of expertise are beginning to show concern for the environment. For example, professionals in medicine, the culinary arts and all fields of design should understand the importance of plant-based tools, such as new types of packaging, a food-secure supply chain and the therapeutic uses of plants and gardening.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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