College Hill

Settled in 1813, College Hill has about 16,000 residents within a 3.4-square-mile neighborhood, and is Cincinnati’s fourth largest and most diverse neighborhood. A variety of housing options — an eclectic mix of stone, brick and wood homes of every style and in every price range — make it possible for many to spend a lifetime in the neighborhood. The community owes much of its character to the 19th-century colleges that gave the neighborhood its name, and though Farmers’ College and the Ohio Female College are long gone, their campuses left behind a legacy of park-like streets. The vibrant Hamilton Avenue business district is a hub of activity, with a host of new projects planned or underway from the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corp.: a new senior housing development, a storefront facade improvement program, small business recruitment and new brewery.

Plan, Build, Live encourages community feedback

By Evan Wallis

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Development News

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April 24, 2012

City and neighborhood leaders, led by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, have been building support for a new approach to development regulations for more than four years. Much of that has been developed through the program Plan, Build, Live. Plan, Build, Live is a program driven by community feedback and discussion, all gathered via the project's website. The website encourages people to share their ideas about how a city should be designed. This weekend, instead of just online, Cincinnati residents and business leaders will come together to shape our future through a citywide Urban Design Workshop. The Workshop takes place from April 28 to May 2 to help create a "form-based code" that can be used by neighborhoods all over Cincinnati -- and help shape how development happens in Cincinnati in decades to come. "Traditional zoning focuses on the use of the building and how far the building is off the street or how large the building is," says Della Rucker, public engagement office for Plan, Build, Live. "Form-based code flips that around and focuses on how a property contributes to the experience people have in the area. How it creates a vibrant, walkable community." Plan Build Live is funded by a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Local funding is provided by the City of Cincinnati, the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Health Department, and the Mill Creek Restoration Project. One of the Plan Build Live tools, a form-based code, encourages strong neighborhoods, business districts, and downtowns by focusing on the shapes of buildings, streets and sidewalks. Form-based codes can helps maintain or enhance a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly environment that offers a mix of residential options, transportation methods, workplaces, shopping and more. Traditional zoning codes encourage patches of similar use, forcing long distances between work, home and play. Form-based codes allow different uses to cluster – restaurants, apartments, drug stores and grocery stores, for instance – as long as they stick to rules that address the ways they relate to the neighborhood. Form-based codes are not planned to replace other types of zoning in Cincinnati, but they are intended to give neighborhoods a more flexibility. A key difference of form-based codes is that even people who are not trained planners help put them together. Participants only need to be willing to share their ideas. During the Workshops, citizens will meet with planners, architects and engineers to talk about what they like and want to see -- both in Cincinnati's neighborhoods and on several "special opportunity" sites. The preliminary Workshop focuses on creating a city-wide form-based code that will serve as a framework for the fall workshop, which will focus on four neighborhoods: Westwood, College Hill, Madisonville and Walnut Hills. The estimated completion date is 2013, but feedback and participation from residents and business owners is critical to helping the city implement the program. By Evan Wallis

ChoreMonster app aims to connect families, make work fun

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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August 23, 2011

For most kids there is no getting around chores. Whether it's cleaning their bedrooms, mowing the yard or taking out the trash, they are part of family life.While the tedious tasks may never make it on the list of things kids look forward to, two Cincinnati entrepreneurs are developing a web-based and mobile application that can make them more enjoyable.ChoreMonster, now under development, connects chores and rewards through a point system. The application, which can be accessed by parents and their children, gives kids points based on the type of chore they complete. Once they garner enough points, kids can cash them in for real-life rewards like a Christmastime gaming system or $25 for a night out at the movies. The parent decides how to award points and what rewards to associate with them.ChoreMonster is the brainchild of Chris Bergman and Paul Armstrong, digital marketing consultants at WiseAcre Digital in Over-The-Rhine."I grew up in a household where chores had a negative connotation," says Bergman, whose first child is due in December. "ChoreMonster is a way to enjoy daily chores. We wanted to create an experience where parents could interact with their children in a unique and engaging way. This gives them an opportunity to do that."ChoreMonster is one of eight startups that are part of The Brandery's 2011 class. The seed stage consumer marketing venture accelerator offers a 12-week course that includes mentoring, 20K in financing upon completion and access to potential investors."We already have a lot of strengths (in business) but we want to learn more about strategic partnerships and fundraising. It's a great opportunity to access the network, mentors and the collective wisdom of The Brandeary," says Bergman, of College Hill.ChoreMonster will be ready for private Beta when The Brandery class finishes this fall, Bergman says. As with each class, the application will be unveiled during a demo day before the public and the local investor community.By Feoshia HendersonYou can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

Cincinnati Development Fund earns $1.5M federal grant

By Newsroom

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Development News

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July 26, 2011

The Cincinnati Development Fund has been a financial resource for affordable housing development in the city's neighborhoods for 23 years. And that long track record of helping spur development -- and redevelopment -- in some of Cincinnati's underserved areas recently earned the CDF a $1.5 million federal grant to support its mission.The grant comes from the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI). The CDFI awarded $142,302,667 to 155 community development financial institutions -- like CDF -- nationwide. CDF received $750,000 from the fund in 2010, making this year's award a very pleasant surprise, says CDF president and CEO Jeanne Golliher."We were really expecting something along the lines of what we got last year," she says.The $1.5 million sum is the maximum any single organization could receive from the CDFI. Golliher credits CDF's long-standing role in the community as reason for the high award."We're really in touch," she says. "We know where the needs are."A main focus of CDF's efforts, she explains, are smaller developers -- sometimes individual homeowners, sometimes development companies focusing on one or two buildings -- who wish to revitalize property in parts of the city suffering from high foreclosure and vacancy rates. The smaller developers fit a niche that complements larger development organizations, such as the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), which is in the midst of redeveloping a large portion of Over-the-Rhine. Golliher refers to many of CDF's borrowers as "urban pioneers:" people willing to be early redevelopers in areas that have yet to see widespread revitalization."We've had so much activity with our small loan program," she says. "There are a lot of cases where people want to buy and fix up a building on their own, and they come to us."Golliher says her team is in the process of planning how to best use the grant funds. Some of it may be used as matching funds for $3.3 million in low-interest funding CDF has requested from the U.S. Treasury to help fund small business development in the city. She plans to present a proposal for how the funds will be used at CDF's August board meeting. In the meantime, she says she and her team are thrilled by this recent show of federal support."I think it speaks to our track record," she says.By Matt Cunningham Follow Matt on Twitter @cunningcontent

Six Acres B&B launches Green Box Lunch healthy soul food delivery service

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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February 22, 2011

Think healthy soul food is an oxymoron?Six Acres Bed and Breakfast owner Kristin Kitchen doesn't think so. It takes some tweaks to make soul food both flavorful and healthy, but Kitchen's doing just that with Green Lunch Box, a new lunchtime delivery service."The whole concept is that many African-Americans don't eat soul food on a daily basis, like our parents and grandparents did. Most of us have moved into a far healthier everyday diet. I know I don't eat friend chicken or pork chops and things like that anymore," she said. "I still love greens but I just don't put fatback in them. You can flavor things with so much more than pork. And I still love fish, blackened or sautéd. If it's flavorful and tender and juicy, I'm happier with it," Kitchen said.Green Lunch Box launched late last fall and offers a hybrid of the new and the old, including vegan and vegetarian options. The food is meant to appeal to those who grew up on soul food, and those who want to give it a try. Take, for instance, their black bean soup."We did a black bean soup that some ladies loved. They called us up and asked us what we put in it, they couldn't find a recipe. Well, what was in it was grits. We added a dollop of sour cream and cheesy grits. It just warmed it up and brought a different flavor to the black bean soup. It gives it some weight, where it was more filling and satisfying," Kitchen said.The business delivers downtown and in surround areas, and requires a $75 minimum order.Green Lunch Box is an expansion of the food traditionally offered through Six Acres Bed and Breakfast, which Kitchen runs in College Hill. At Six Acres, guests have been used to breakfast fare; Green Box Lunch catches hungry folks across the city at noon time. "What we really do is serve and offer food to our community and beyond," Kitchen said.Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: Kristen Kitchen, owner Green Lunch Box and Six Acres Bed and BreakfastYou can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiawrites