Uptown includes all the neighborhoods around the University of Cincinnati including Avondale, Clifton, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Fairview, Mt. Auburn and University Heights, so it's a diverse mix of students and residents in one of the city's most distinct and eclectic group of neighborhoods. Uptown is the home of the Cincinnati Zoo as well as multiple hospitals and the Ludlow shopping district where you can find trendy and unique shops as well as any scent of incense you need. Ethnic restaurants, including a curiously high concentration of Indian eateries, multiple taverns, coffee houses, music venues and the Esquire — one of Cincinnati's finest independent art house movie theaters all make Uptown a one-stop walkable bazaar of exciting entertainment options.
In Cincinnati, Cleveland and East Baltimore, major employers are anchoring massive new developments in a full-on effort to remake their cities. Strong partnerships and shared visions are essential elements for success.
As U Square at the Loop looms large, long-standing Calhoun Street businesses in Clifton hope for a long-awaited resurgence.
In 1946, the idea for Children’s International Summer Villages was born; and in 1951, eight countries gathered together in Cincinnati to bring founder Doris Allen’s dream of inspiring world peace to fruition. Allen’s idea for a nonprofit organization stemmed from the devastation of World War II. As a child psychologist who studied development, she believed that peace would ultimately be up to our children. Now more than 60 years after the first CISV, the nonprofit that started in Cincinnati continues to thrive; and it has grown into an international sub-organization of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, with chapters in more than 60 countries, that host 180 village experiences and international programs a year. Catherine Bell, a 16-year-old student at Turpin High School, went to her first village at the age of 11. For one month, she lived in a camp-like setting at a monastery in a mountainous region of South Korea, where she spent time learning and growing with other 11-year-olds from countries around the world. “At a village, it’s mostly about instilling good morals and building a basis for you to make your opinion—you gain leadership,” says Bell, who now serves as CISV Cincinnati’s junior branch president. “The reason the founder chose 11 [-year-olds] was because you’re old enough to make decisions, but you don’t have previous judgments and your mind is clear—you don’t have any biases.” Bell’s village experience began with a homestay, where she says she lived with a host family so she could experience the South Korean culture for a few days. Then she, along with the other delegates—composed of two boys and two girls from each of the 12 represented countries—went to their village, where Bell says they engaged in fun activities like capture the flag. But they also participated in activities that while enjoyable, had a deeper meaning. “During lunch, we did some activities about disabilities, where I might be tied to someone else’s arm, and you have to eat together or you aren’t allowed to speak,” says Bell. Bell says the activities, debriefs and general unity that resulted from living with people who were initially complete strangers enabled her and others to gain leadership skills and develop lasting friendships. “At 11, there’s no weird tension between boys and girls, and I felt like I was best friends with every single person, and we just grew together,” says Bell. “I don’t have any words to describe it because it’s just—it’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” If it weren’t for the friendships she made and the confidence she gained through her learning experiences and time away from home, Bell says she’s not sure she would be as fearless as she is today. “Before getting into CISV, I was really shy, and I had friends, but I’m also the middle child, so I’m very independent and I internalize a lot of things,” she says. “I really learned to open up, and I have no problems speaking in front of people. I’m so much more outgoing, and I think that is just such a gift to go from this shy little girl to this outgoing person who can speak their mind.” Do Good: • Pre-register for 5K The Global Way, which takes place March 16. Proceeds help fund CISV Cincinnati programs and activities. • Learn about volunteer opportunities so that you can get involved with CISV Cincinnati. • Learn about the various programs for youth and adults, and consider joining the Cincinnati chapter of CISV. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
John Orr, 35, started practicing mindfulness about 10 years ago to cope with and better understand the difficulties he was facing in life. “Those difficulties were rather significant, and looking around at my friends, I noticed that they were all facing similar difficulties, and I needed to find a solution for myself,” Orr says. “Otherwise it seemed like the difficulties of our lives were going to continue.” Those difficulties for Orr’s best friend of 23 years did continue, as he took his own life at the age of 26, leaving behind a daughter, family and friends, who Orr says “cared about him deeply.” “He was a great friend—a better friend than I’ve ever been to anybody—and I don’t consider myself a bad friend," Orr says. "He was just really caught up with a lot of drug use, and he couldn’t find a way out." It was his death, Orr says, that motivated him to consider thinking that things could have been different. “Things didn’t have to end up that way, and if he had the tools to better deal with the stresses of life early on, I think all of that could have been avoided,” Orr says. So Orr founded Mindful Youth, a nonprofit organization focused on helping at-risk young people improve the qualities of their lives by learning to pay attention to their thoughts and emotions while leaving judgments behind. “I felt that early intervention would be better—to intervene proactively rather than reactively," he says. "That’s a strategy that seemed worthwhile to me." Mindful Youth’s primary focus is to provide group therapy and mindfulness training to identified populations like those who are, for example, incarcerated in the Hamilton County Juvenile Youth Center. Orr, who is a licensed professional clinical counselor, also provides individual therapy and serves as a consultant, providing mindfulness training to organizations that work with at-risk populations. During therapy sessions, Orr says he incorporates an element of formal meditation. “Let’s say a difficult thought were to arise," he says. "We’d frame it like, ‘Well okay, is the thought really serving you?’ Taking it a step further, we look at it as, ‘Thoughts are just thoughts—they’re never facts. They can describe facts, but thoughts are always thoughts, and we don’t necessarily have to listen or identify with every thought that arises.'" “When it comes to looking at emotions from a mindfulness perspective, we try to help the person create space so that they can see that while they have these emotions, that’s not the entirety of who they are. And so if they can make the space for them and just kind of allow them to be there, they may not be succumbed by them and they may have the power to choose how they respond," Orr says. He says the effects of mindfulness on youth, particularly at the Juvenile Youth Center, are amazing because the population the organization serves there is composed of young men who have a lot of anger and who are “quite vocal” about it. “We don’t tell them to try to calm down or anything, but the results we get from that are—these guys just report that they’re feeling calmer, that they have a better understanding of how to manage their anger, that they have more insight into who they are and they can see this idea that, ‘Okay, if this is what’s going on with me, I’ve got a tool to deal with it,’ which is pretty cool,” Orr says. What began as a tool for Orr to use in his own life has evolved into one that he’s now able to share with others, with the hope of helping young people to deal with the abundance of mixed messages they are exposed to daily so they can figure out a coping mechanism that enables them to be happy and productive individuals. “I was looking for some answers in my own life, and meditation was just appealing to me—there was something that just drew me to it, and as I explored it, it became one of the greatest journeys I’ve ever been on and a journey that’s always with me,” Orr says. “I don’t have to go anywhere, and it’s always been very rewarding. At times it’s been challenging, but for the most part, I feel like it’s completely changed my life, and it continues to do so on an almost daily basis.” Do Good: • Donate to Mindful Youth. • Volunteer with the organization to share your mindfulness practices. • Contact John Orr for more information about mindfulness, or about an opportunity for Mindful Youth to teach young people, organizations or families about its practices. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
From organizing events involving beer and historic churches to providing affordable housing and jobs to those who have struggled to attain them in the past, the Over-the-Rhine Foundation does a little bit of everything. And it's all for the purpose of reinventing and celebrating a diverse, historically-rooted community. At the beginning of February, Kevin Pape, who’s lived in Cincinnati his whole life and who grew up with a fondness for the OTR community, stepped up to the role of president of the foundation. OTR has been a part of Pape’s family history for multiple generations, so he’s someone who understands what the community has to offer. His grandparents lived in OTR and operated a business there until 1935, though it was actually started back in 1850. Pape lived in the community himself for about four years in the 1970s, and his office at Gray & Pape—a cultural resource management and historic preservation consulting firm—just celebrated 23 years at its Main Street location. Pape says because of his background, he deals with the renovation of historic buildings all the time, but his vision for OTR contains much more than the preservation of buildings. “I think my interest really is in community-building,” Pape says. “The message is that it’s really all about putting people back into historic buildings and finding ways to do that in a meaningful way.” One way Pape and the OTRF plan to build on that vision is through their strategic plan, which entails owner-occupied redevelopment, historic preservation and the goal of making OTR the greenest historic neighborhood in the country. “We also want to encourage people who are investing in the neighborhood to seek ways to provide meaningful employment and jobs for people that live in the neighborhood who may not have had access to opportunities before,” Pape says. While working to show that “green buildings, sustainable buildings, LEED certification and historic preservation are actually compatible,” the OTRF also helps organize events like Bockfest, which Pape says showcases what’s good and great about the community. This year, the nonprofit, in conjunction with American Legacy Tours, is offering historic church tours, which will highlight the architecture and stories of four different 19th century landmarks within the community. “When you think about the size of OTR and the number of churches, it gives you a good sense about the density of people and the diversity even at that time that would have such a population to support a variety of churches,” says Pape. It’s that diversity that has withstood the test of time, and which Pape says the community embraces at all levels. “Socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, you name it,” Pape says. “It provides residential density that allows people to share ideas and celebrate those differences in being able to all live in a compact place at one time. It’s about not only economic vitality, but residential vitality.” Do Good: • Attend Bockfest, and register for the Historic Churches of OTR Tour. • Support the Over-the-Rhine Foundation by becoming a member. • Volunteer to help the organization preserve and revitalize OTR. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
Students from the University of Cincinnati and the Indian Institute of Technology developed Humble Commode, a sustainable sanitation solution that won gold in a national business challenge competition. Read the full story here.
Tom Bishop, president of Media Bridges, has worked to give the public a voice by providing access to media and channel space for years. But because of recent budget cuts and word from current members of Cincinnati City Council that the organization will not receive funds again, Media Bridges’ future is at stake. Rooted in the Cincinnati area, Bishop grew up in Hamilton, attended college and spent time working for public radio, in addition to spending 17 years with Norwood Community Television prior to his time at Media Bridges, where he has been employed for the past nine years. Bishop says he realized early on what good can be done with media. “I think I’ve always had it in the back of my head that you should leave the world a better place than you found it, and the idea of doing that with media is a really cool combo,” he says. Throughout his years at Media Bridges, Bishop led the nonprofit in providing free classes to the public on everything from studio and video production to editing and web design. The organization has also championed free summer camps for children so that they, too, can learn to be active participants in media by learning things like video skills, comic book design, animation and radio programming. Throughout the next few months, however, the organization will be forced to implement class and membership fees, so the facilities and access to create public programming will no longer be completely free. But Bishop says the organization will ensure that those below the poverty line are not left behind. “I’m sure we’re going to lose some people—and that’s really a shame,” Bishop says. “Cincinnati City Council has made the decision that their government access television station is much more important than the people actually having a voice in the community, and by making that decision, they’re telling the people to just go away, ‘I don’t want to hear from you.’” Because of the cuts, Bishop says the organization is in dire need of volunteers to help teach classes and run the studio so the public can continue to have a voice. Though he’s optimistic that Media Bridges will still be around in 2014, he says he’s not sure what it will look like. “Frankly, making up the amount of money we used to get via the cable franchise—put it this way—if we pulled it off, we’d be the only people to pull it off,” says Bishop. “When all funds have been cut, nobody has survived.” For Bishop, the cuts are disappointing. He says it threatens the future of the “many small victories” the organization has achieved over the years. “We have a program called Film Outside the Lines, where we work with people with developmental disabilities and turn them into film producers where they create their own films,” says Bishop. “The success of that is right there on their faces when they’re showing their films at screenings and entering them at film festivals and things like that.” Without public access, Bishop says people are left behind to hear only the voices of “the pundits, politicians and sports heroes” who make up a small portion our population. Instead of receiving media, Bishop says it’s more important than ever that people also participate. “It doesn’t have to be about the almighty dollar—it can be used to make communities stronger," says Bishop. "Media can be used to build dialogue—to let people communicate. It’s not that there shouldn’t be media for profit, but that shouldn’t be the only kind of media there is. And slowly but surely, we’re entering a world where that will be the only kind of media.” Do Good: • Volunteer with Media Bridges to help them shift gears to a volunteer-driven organization. • Support Media Bridges by making a donation. • Learn about Media Bridges' classes, and register for one so that you can become an active partcipant in the media. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
Jean-François Flechet opened Taste of Belgium in Findlay Market in 2007; four years ago, he expanded his restaurant venture to Columbus’s North Market, and a year and a half ago, he opened a full-service Belgian bistro on Vine. In the next few months, there will be two new Taste of Belgiums in the Cincinnati area—a full-service restaurant on Short Vine near UC, and a waffle counter at Friendly Market in Northern Kentucky. The Short Vine location is on the first floor of a brand new building that includes 120 apartments. The waffle counter at Friendly Market is the only food vendor in the first phase of the market. It’s right on the edge of phase 2, which is ideal for future expansion, Flechet says. Taste of Belgium on Short Vine will have a menu very similar to the one on Vine Street, says Flechet. But it will have more affordable options at dinnertime, such as chicken and waffles and bar food. “There will be a bigger focus on the bar, with both Belgian and Belgian-style beer sourced from local breweries,” he says. Flechet wants to attract the college students who live around Short Vine, which is a different demographic than his customers at the bistro and Findlay Market. Taste of Belgium is slated to open in early May at Friendly Market, and on Short Vine during the first week of July. Flechet isn’t going the traditional route for financing his new business ventures. Instead, he’s working with local crowd-sourcing start-up SoMoLend to raise a portion of the funds for the restaurant. He wants to promote crowd-sourced funding as a viable alternative source of financing for small businesses. “When I opened Taste of Belgium on Vine, it was hard to get financing,” says Flechet. He wasn’t able to obtain a loan from the bank, but the building’s landlord got one through 3CDC. In turn, the landlord charges high rent to recover the loan. The North Market location was financed by a loan from a small business lender who Flechet has been working with for four years. SoMoLend connects small business owners who are in need of a loan with investors who are looking to make a return on their investments. The organization allows borrowers to get loans from customers, friends and family members. It allows lenders to make a difference on a more local level. “SoMoLend has been promoted on a national level, but not much on a local level,” Flechet says. He’s trying to get the word out to his customers that he’s using SoMoLend and bring more users to the lending service. The Taste of Belgium crowd-sourcing campaign launches March 11. If you want to contribute to the campaign and are a customer, friend or family member, sign up on SoMoLend’s website. 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
Cincinnatian Tyler Witte, 25, drives his car hard. UC Electronic Media alum Doug Horton captures Witte's passion on film. Video courtesy Doug Horton.
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