Downtown

Downtown Cincinnati is the place to live, work, and play populated by restaurants, cafes, bars, arts and culture venues around every corner, plus a long-awaited and busy Kroger's that anchors recently-renovated Court Street Plaza. The downtown urban core is alive with programming, including music during the summer and ice skating in the winter, and features the largest living room 'television' in the region overlooking The Genius of Water at Fountain Square. Downtown has experienced dramatic expansion and population growth with residential developments, including condos and apartments in all price ranges, many of which boast scenic views of the hillsides and the river and offer unparalleled access to nightlife and recreation.

Mindful Youth provides tools for at-risk youth to address life challenges

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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March 5, 2013

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.

Kenzie’s CLOSET empowers teenage girls, makes prom special

By Newsroom

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For Good

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March 5, 2013

Sabrina Peelman says she loves her city and helping others. She’s a junior at Reading High School and has lived in Cincinnati her whole life, and she serves as a prime example of the ways in which community giving comes full circle. “I like how close everybody in my town is, how everybody knows each other,” Peelman says. “It’s really nice being able to have familiar faces around you at all times.” One way Peelman helps to give back to her community is through the work she does with the Interfaith Hospitality Network. “It’s a program that gives homeless families a place to stay until they can get back on their feet and find a job," says Peelman. "It helps them reestablish their lives again. Normally I serve the families dinner, and I normally am in charge of playing games with the children.” Peelman says she loves to give back, but she’s also experienced the other side of things. With prom season coming up, Peelman knew she would need a dress, but she also knew that formal dresses are expensive and that purchasing one would be a financial strain on her family. “I’m adopted by my aunt and my uncle, and my aunt, she’s an accountant, but she raised three kids that weren’t really hers, so it’s always been kind of hard on her, and my uncle is a service manager, and he doesn’t really make as much money as he should,” Peelman says. So Peelman went to Kenzie’s CLOSET, a nonprofit that provides free prom dresses, shoes and accessories to girls in need who deserve a special night at their prom. “When you first walk in, you see a lot of pink—the couches are pink—and there’s a little waiting room,” Peelman says. “Then when you go back into the area with the dresses, there are dressing rooms and a bunch of shoes on the left, and to your right there are just bunches of dress racks and all these colorful dresses—short ones, poofy ones, some on mannequins—it’s very pretty and organized.” Peelman says she’s excited for prom this year because the theme is “Hollywood,” and the students will get to cruise down the Ohio River on a boat, complete with a red carpet and even “Academy Awards.” What will make Peelman’s prom even better is that she found a dress she says she fell in love with. “It was the second dress I tried on," she says. "It’s strapless and has a sweetheart neckline, and it’s long and it’s a teal color, and it has a few beads going down it. It’s like a mermaid dress, so it’s very slender." Since Peelman was able to find a dress at Kenzie’s CLOSET, she won’t have to wear the old dress that belonged to her sister, which she says is outdated and would have had to be taped down because it would have been "a little big.” Instead, she’ll attend prom with her boyfriend of six months who’s been her good friend since the age of 3. Peelman says her favorite part of finding a dress was the overall shopping experience. “The lady I had, she took me and asked me what kind of dresses I liked and what was my favorite color, and she was very friendly and she’d ask what type of dresses I didn’t like, and then we’d try to move away from that type, and it really made it a lot more fun,” she says. “It was very simple, and they were very understanding—you could ask them anything about the dress, and they would know how to answer it.” According to Peelman, a lot of high-school girls, and even some of her friends, wouldn’t want to accept a used dress. “They feel like they’re privileged or something—I don’t know how to describe it,” she says. But it was important for Peelman to do what she could to help her family. “Anytime they see me happy, they’re ecstatic, so when they found out I found a dress at Kenzie’s CLOSET that I really liked and they didn’t have to pay for all the expenses of prom, it made them so happy,” Peelman says. “They’re really proud of me.” Do Good: • Donate a gently used dress or apparel to Kenzie's CLOSET. • Volunteer to help Kenzie's CLOSET operate during shopping hours, or consider coordinating a dress drive. • If you are a student in need of a dress, or know of a student in need of a dress, contact the school's principal to see if she qualifies to shop at Kenzie's CLOSET. 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.

Oasis Rail Transit bound for Cincinnati region

By Newsroom

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Development News

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March 5, 2013

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

City Hall launches app as a community-organizing tool

By Newsroom

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Development News

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February 26, 2013

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

Tap into maple season with Cincinnati Parks

By Newsroom

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Education + Learning

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February 26, 2013

For the past month, Cincinnati Parks’ naturalists have been busy tapping sugar maples, collecting sap and boiling it down to produce real maple syrup. They’ve even taught the public how to make use of their own backyards to do the same. With March quickly approaching, maple season will come to a close, but not without celebrating what Explore Nature! program assistant manager Erin Morris refers to as “Maple Madness.” Maple in Mt. Airy and Pancakes in the Woods are “for those who maybe aren’t interested in doing it in their backyard, but for those who love the sweet success of the season, who want to taste that and who want to learn a little bit about the history,” says Morris. For decades, Cincinnati Parks’ representatives have worked to relay the importance of nature education to the public. “When we started in the 1930s, technology was pretty minimal—we only had vehicles in the last 20 years, so people were outside,” says Morris. “There was no air conditioning, and they’d often sleep outside during the summer season, so people were much more connected to the outdoors and natural experiences.” With a changing culture and a technologically oriented society, Morris says people have lost the connection with the outdoors. The Explore Nature! program aims to remedy that, however, and celebratory maple sugaring events are some of the ways in which it teaches people about the outdoors. At both maple events, participants begin with a pancake breakfast, where they enjoy the syrup that’s been produced by the trees surrounding them. They then go on to learn the story and process behind maple sugaring. Following breakfast at Maple in Mt. Airy, participants are immersed in the time period. They ride through the woods in a hay wagon to an area where naturalists dressed as Native Americans and pioneers teach about the first uses of maple syrup in the United States through taste-testing and hands-on experiences that explain photosynthesis and the ways trees provide nutrients for both humans and nature. “When people think of maple sugaring, they think of Canada because they have the sugar maple leaves on their flag, but Ohio’s been producing maple syrup since the Native Americans in the 1700s,” Morris says. “It’s getting back to our history in Ohio—and even history in Cincinnati—but also having that connection with local products.” Maple Madness events take place throughout the first two weekends of March. Do Good: • Register your family, friends or student group for Maple in Mt. Airy. • Enjoy pancakes cooked by celebrity chefs and learn about maple sugaring at Pancakes in the Woods at the California Woods Nature Preserve. • Like Cincinnati Parks on Facebook, and join and share their events with your friends. 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.

Food truck owners unite to build business, opportunities

By Newsroom

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Development News

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February 26, 2013

With shows like the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, food on wheels has evolved from trend to craze in big cities all across the country. Cincinnati is home to 28 food trucks and trailers, and 11 of them have recently joined the Cincinnati Food Truck Association, a nonprofit that aims to reinvent food truck vending. In 2010, Café de Wheels was one of the only food trucks in town; in 2011, Taco Azul popped on the scene. And last year, there was a huge boom in the local food truck business. “Food trucks are the fastest growing sector of the food industry, and it’s growing here,” says Emily Frank, 38, of C’est Cheese. She also serves as CFTA’s president. “People are excited about food trucks.” With so many trucks, there was a need for a unified voice to represent them. In June 2010, the Mobile Food Vendor Pilot Program, which was strongly supported by City Councilmember Laure Quinlivan, was born. The Pilot Program allowed food trucks and trailers to serve street food in certain areas of downtown's Central Business District on a first-come, first-served basis, with proper permits. Food trucks were allowed one to two spaces in Sawyer Point, six spaces at Court Street Market and 12 spaces in a parking lot at Fifth and Race Streets. Building off the Pilot Program, a group of UC urban planning students who were interested in food hubs held a meeting for food truck owners and operators in September. The students got everyone talking, but since they were only working on the project for a semester, it was up to the food truck owners to do something. Frank, Elizabeth Romero of Sugarsnap! Truck and Tracy Sims of Taco Azul formed CFTA last fall. They held a meeting and extended an invitation to join the CFTA to the 25 other food trucks in town. “We didn’t know what to expect from our peers, but it was very positive,” says Romero, 29, CFTA’s secretary. At the first meeting, two other trucks joined CFTA. Currently with 11 members, CFTA hopes to see at least four other trucks join this spring. Right now, food trucks are part of the Night Owl Market downtown and are staples at Sawyer Point—CFTA is even part of Taste of Cincinnati this year. In the future, CFTA hopes to plan one or two food-related events throughout the year. For example, Atlanta’s food trucks are in the suburban parks, says CFTA’s treasurer, Sims, 32. CFTA will soon be meeting with City Parks and discussing the possibility of having food trucks at park events. “All of the money made during the event would be given back to the park to help build a strong relationship with them,” says Sims. “It would be very seasonal, but very profitable.” One of CFTA’s immediate goals is to work with the city to increase the number of available mobile food vending spots that are outlined in the Pilot Program. “We want to represent Cincinnati and be part of the community,” says Romero. “We want the city to be proud of food trucks and show them off like the brick-and-mortar staples in the city.” Members of CFTA are C’est Cheese, Café de Wheels, Catch-A-Fire, Eat! Mobile Dining, Eclectic Comfort Food, Goldstar Chili Mobile, Kaimelsky’s, Mr. Hanton's Handwiches, Queen City Cookies, Sugarsnap! and Taco Azul. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

OTR Foundation preserves history, promotes community

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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February 26, 2013

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.

Budget cuts jeopardize Media Bridges, volunteers needed

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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February 26, 2013

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.

Fourteen large-scale abstract paintings by Jim Dine on view at Pace Gallery in New York

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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February 26, 2013

In his new body of work, Cincinnatian Jim Dine eliminates the iconic figurative objects of his previous paintings to focus on the act of painting itself. The radical shift developed in the studio over two years. Read the full story here.

Cincinnati’s newest dream team: The faces of Cintrifuse

By James Pilcher

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Architecture + Design

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February 26, 2013

The Cintrifuse venture capital team is already working on supporting the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Now, it's time to see how The Rainmaker, The Money Man, The Go Getter, The Teacher, The Connector, The Youngster and The Magician Behind the Curtain plan to get down to business.