Downtown

640 city jobs up for grabs at Mayor’s Youth Job Fair on April 23

Come April 23, at the 4th Annual Mayor's Youth Job Fair, Cincinnati's youth – ages 16 to 24 – have a chance to land a city job. And Mayor Mark Mallory and Council Member Laketa Cole have just announced that 640 such jobs are available.  So there is ample opportunity."Young people in Cincinnati want to work," says Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory.  "City jobs are an excellent opportunity to not only earn money, but more importantly learn valuable skills that will help them in their future careers."These jobs are part of the City's Summer Youth Employment Initiative, which was initiated by Mayor Mallory and City Council.  This program has been included in the last three city budgets.Participating youth have a chance to work for the Cincinnati Parks Department (50 jobs), Cincinnati Recreation Comission (90 jobs), ArtWorks (125 jobs) and the Cincinnati Hamilton County Community Action Agency (CAA) (375 jobs through its Summer Youth Employment Program – SYEP).Youth employed by these organizations will tend to a variety of tasks and have the chance to contribute directly to the community.“Today, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to our youth by not only providing them a job, but an opportunity to see the potential they have and the positive effect they can have on our community,”  Council Member Laketa Cole said.Ultimately, in this economy, these city jobs are a boon for Cincinnati's youth."We applaud the city for investing in the future of our youth, especially during these challenging economic times," says CAA President and CEO Gwen Robinson.  "CAA will not take this charge lightly and will ensure that the 2009 SYEP delivers all that it promises for our youth and for the City of Cincinnati.” The 4th Annual Mayor's Youth Job Fair will be held on Thursday, April 23 at the Duke Energy Convention Center from 2 to 6 pm.  Writer:  Jonathan DeHartSource:  Jason Barron, City of Cincinnati

Fine Arts Fund and Haile Foundation partner to bring new donors to the arts

Issue 9 debate engages local businesses one month before the November vote

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful's biggest event of the year takes place on April 25 with a kickoff in College Hill, and the organization could use your help.Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest community improvement project with an estimated 2.8 million volunteers, is aimed at boosting the quality of life in neighborhoods by planting flowers and trees, picking up litter, collecting discarded tires, painting façades, landscaping, and recyclingBecause of the massive amount of work to be done, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful program manager Josman Rodriguez says that volunteers are very much needed.Just last year, 8,352 volunteers collected 406,460 pounds of litter and debris; planted 13,500 flowers and bulbs; cleaned 578 miles or roads, streets and highways; and recycled more than 40,000 plastic bottles and more than 2,500 scrap tires."We're expecting 10,000 volunteers beautifying 90 communities, 25 parks, and 30 schools," Rodriguez says.He also says that Give Back Cincinnati, community leaders, and Cincinnati council members plan to participate, and that United Dairy Farmers is serving as a co-sponsor.To volunteer, contact Liz Bowater at (513) 352-4380 or at liz.bowater@cincinnati-oh.gov.Writer: Kevin LeMasterSource: Josman Rodriguez, project manager/public awareness, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful

Latest Banks designs seek to create ‘great streets’

Representatives from the development team of Carter Real Estate and Dawson Company presented their latest designs for The Banks project to Cincinnati's Urban Design Review Board on Thursday evening.In its meeting on March 25, the board had asked designers to address issues they had with some of the building façades, architectural styles, and massing of the buildings that will house the 300 apartments and 70,000 square feet of retail of the project's first phase."There are several things that came out of the last discussion," says Trent Germano, executive vice president for Carter.  "We went back and we looked at what we could do in keeping with our visualization of the project that would address those concerns and comments."Bailey Pope, vice president of design and construction for Dawson, says that the residential buildings are intended to be "contributing"—or background – buildings that can provide the sort of ambience that will be marketable to prospective renters.A 14-story office building and a proposed 12- to 14-story boutique hotel would likely serve as the landmarks of the first phase."We're intentionally deferring to let those be the landmark structures," Pope says.  "I think that all of this [residential buildings] is good quality, and that it's handsome, attractive architecture that people will want to live in."Germano agrees."When we took on this challenge, we knew that we weren't going to be doing architectural icons up and down the street," he says.  "We've tried to create great streets.  That's what's going to attract people down here.  So we've focused on the connectivity of the street and how the street feels when you're on it."Pope says that this can be achieved authentically by allowing tenants the opportunity to create their own storefronts."So we'll have, as you go along here, a lot of variation and variety along the street, which I think goes a long way to create that dynamic pedestrian scale that we're trying to achieve along Freedom Way," he says.The office building is currently being marketed to tenants and there has been no further development on its design, Pope says."Until we have something concrete, it's not prudent to spend any more time to develop the design," he says.  "But I think that it is something that we'll revisit as we come in with additional work."Germano says that the project remains on schedule, with final designs heading to the City Planning Commission in mid-May and construction of the buildings beginning in mid-June.Another review session will be held Thursday at 2 p.m.Writer: Kevin LeMaster

The dimple makes the difference

For Corwyn Thomas, head designer for Krimson by Kwame and designer/owner of Corwyn Apparel, crimson is the color that launched him from behind the desk of his office at P&G into the professional apparel design world.

Cincy USA Regional Tourism Network unveils 2009 marketing plan that stands to earn the city millions

The numbers show that Cincinnati is a destination of choice. From May to September 2008 alone, weekend travel spurred by the initiatives of the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network (RTN) on CincinnatiUSA.com earned the city over $35 million and saw a 2.1% visitor demand."The tourism impact is of course much larger than that each year, in the hundreds of millions, because it is comprised of business and leisure travel and has extended impact on hotels, attractions, shopping, dining," says Linda Antus, president of the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network.In other words, tourism means big money.In an effort to make the returns for this year even bigger, the RTN has just unveiled its 2009 leisure tourism marketing program for the Cincinnati region.  This plan is aimed specifically at weekend tourism, which makes up 35% of the city's tourism revenues.  As part of the initiative, the RTN has developed weekend itineraries and value packages for 52 weekends.According to a March survey of travelers who frequent Cincinnati, seven of ten respondents cannot get enough.  "As far as leisure tourism for the peak season, the RTN is cautiously optimistic that travelers within 300 miles will find us attractive and compelling as a getaway destination," Antus says.  "This season, our most loyal customers have responded to our March survey with 7 of 10 respondents planning to visit our region in 2009." The qualities Antus attributes to Cincinnati's draw are value and family friendliness.  "No doubt, the quality, variety and value for the dollar in CincinnatiUSA are areas of strengths that we have and are clearly marketing to visitors in 2009," Antus says.  "The experiences we offer and the way we regard families travelling together are key attributes that our loyal visitors love us for and will be seeking more than ever in 2009."To learn more about the RTN's 2009 tourism initiatives, visit here.  Writer:  Jonathan DeHartSource:  Jackie Reau, Linda Antus

Census workers take to the streets

700 new jobs started this week in Cincinnati as the newest wave of government workers took to the streets for what will become a three-month walking of every street in every town in the region. Equipped with the latest in hand-held global-positioning gadgets, the census field workers are charged with counting every person in the city as part of the U.S. Census. Mayor Mallory takes the business of counting seriously as an accurate tally will translate into federal dollars. Currently the Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 332,458 – less than the 378,259 he believes are actually living in the city. To read the full story, click here. Writer: Jeff Syroney Source: Cincinnati.com

Tourism network launches 2009 plan

The Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network has big plans for bringing more tourists to Greater Cincinnati in 2009. Based on market research, the RTN has determined a combination of traditional media with increased internet marketing and strategic social media programs is what's needed to draw outsiders into the Queen City. Radio spots stress the popularity of the Reds as a regional attraction, along with the new Diamondback roller coaster at Kings Island and Zoo Babies at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Leaders acknowledge this will be a challenging year for the tourism and leisure industry. But the Cincinnati region has much going for it as a weekend getaway destination because of the variety of affordable attractions. The RTN was created in 2005 to promote Greater Cincinnati as a tourism destination. To read the full story, click here. Writer: Jeff Syroney Source: Cincinnati Business Courier

Soapicks April 7-13

If you're looking to get out of the rain this week, there are a slew of fun and dry activities. Miller Gallery opens its Beauty exhibit while the Coochie Chronicles: The Spoken Word Stage adds spice to the Madisonville Arts Center. The Esquire is screening the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and jazz musician Reggie Calloway returns home for a one night performance at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club.