In 1905, sawmill owner John Meyer used surplus lumber to build a subdivision of small homes north of Galbraith Road and west of Hamilton Avenue and called it Meyerville. Within the next 10 years, two other groups of homes were started and the three subdivisions were incorporated as the village of North College Hill in 1916. The village's affordable housing attracted a growing population, and 21st century North College Hill has matured into a diverse community. It is home to the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a center that provides education and employment to people with blindness or low vision, as well as Clovernook Country Club, one of the region's finest golf courses.
The Community Building Institute recently partnered with Xavier University and the United Way to develop and launch the Neighborhood Asset Mapping tool as a resource for all 52 Cincinnati neighborhoods.
Livability.com named Cincinnati one of the Top 100 Best Places to Live.
Watching television shows and movies online just became even easier—and free—as a result of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s recent addition of streaming services like Hoopla and Freegal Movies into its collection.
In an effort to make more data sets available to the public and to put them in the hands of organizations that can make use of them, OpenDataCincy is engaging community members in the Nonprofit Data Challenge.
Many city-dwellers are continuously faced with the arduous task of budgeting their quarters between two priorities: bus fare and laundromats.
This week marks the launch of a new Soapbox series: Demand Better Cincinnati. We'll explore a new issue each week and sift through what's been done, what's being done and how we can push our current and future leaders to, well, demand better.
On July 24, the City of Cincinnati adopted Nextdoor, a free, private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. The goal is to improve community engagement between the City and its residents, and foster neighbor-to-neighbor communications. Each of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods will have its own private Nextdoor neighborhood website, which is accessible only to residents of that neighborhood. City administrations and several city departments will also use Nextdoor to share important news, services, programs, free events and emergency notifications to residents, but they won’t be able to see who is registered to use the site or the conversations among residents. Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, Nextdoor’s mission is to bring back a sense of community to the neighborhood. The site was tested in 175 neighborhoods across the country, and results showed that neighborhoods had some of the same issues, plus a variety of different issues. “We all remember what our neighborhood experience was like as kids, when everyone knew each other, looked out for one another and stayed in the community longer," says Sarah Leary, co-founder of Nextdoor. “We want to invoke that nostalgia for neighborhoods.” To date, Nextdoor is being used by about 17,000 neighborhoods across the country. In June, Nextdoor partnered with New York City and Mayor Bloomberg to communicate with the city’s 8.3 million residents. The site plans to roll out in other major cities like Cincinnati over the course of the next several months. Nextdoor also recently released its iPhone app. “We’re really putting the lifeline of the neighborhood into the palm of the residents’ hands,” says Leary. “The common thread is an interest in using technology to make connections with neighbors. But it doesn’t stop there—once people have an easy way to communicate, they’re more likely to get together in the real world.” You can sign up for Nextdoor on its website, or download the app in the App Store. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter
Graduating high school students of the class of 2014 will be the first group in Ohio that is required to learn financial literacy. “So many teens were graduating high school without basic knowledge of financial literacy, like avoiding high-interest credit cards—scams that are so present on college campuses,” says Jennifer Korn, TeenSpot manager at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. “And there have been a number of studies that say students who don’t have the basic knowledge are likely to end up in serious debt as very young adults and are unable to get ahead and unable to save money as they go into adulthood.” To fill that void and to encourage more teens to be conscious of their finances, the library is offering a series of workshops for teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The workshops will teach the students how to create a budget and open a savings account. Thanks to a grant from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation, PLCHC is one of just 14 public libraries nationwide to offer the workshop. “I think a majority of teens across the board don’t have a very good understanding of the importance of saving or of budgeting your money, so maybe they get an allowance or have a job or babysit, but it’s mostly for entertainment purposes,” Korn says. “But there’s not a lot of consideration for the future and the long term—that if you start saving your money now and that money starts to build, then in 15 or 20 years, you can be in a much better position than if you would not have started saving.” Korn says all the activities in the series are teen-focused and engaging, so students might be given a sample scenario where they have a set amount of money and want to go to the movies, but also need to consider the fact that their best friend’s birthday is coming up. “Anything that reinforces what they’re doing in an interactive or a social way,” Korn says. “The hope is that once they graduate high school and enter their postsecondary education or the real world, they feel confident, can handle their money and are savvy consumers and savvy savers.” Do Good: • Learn about the financial literacy workshops, and sign up to attend. • Keep up with teen programs at the library, and attend an upcoming event. • Like the PLCHC on Facebook. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
On the day Sue Slusher married her husband, he was drafted. “He left 16 days later—he had orders for Vietnam, and they were changed at the last minute, so he went to Germany for a year,” Slusher says. “I did join him there, so I feel pretty much like I was drafted. That was 1966, and if you walked and talked, you were drafted.” Slusher, who serves as a family service advisor at Arlington Memorial Gardens, has a personal connection with many who have served in the Armed Forces. It's a connection that she builds upon at Arlington with the various offerings and opportunities for veterans. One of those offerings is a seminar that helps veterans learn about and sign up for the Aid and Attendance Pension, which entitles them and their spouses to receive income to cover things like nursing or private home care when they reach the age of 65. “Very few people know about this benefit,” Slusher says. “And to find out that there’s something out there—that’s most seniors’ big worry. What will happen? How will I pay for this? It can keep them from going on Medicaid, and it’s just a great service to them.” In addition to helping vets sign up for their pensions, Arlington also hosts Memorial Day and Veterans Day activities, where the organization brings in the Cincinnati VA Medical Center Mobile Unit to provide easier access to benefits and preventive care. “I had one man a year ago that’s been trying for 16 years to get signed up for his benefits—somehow he could never get signed up,” Slusher says. “He walked in, walked out, and was so happy.” Sometimes it’s the simple things, like giving veterans the opportunity to open up and share their stories with one another, that leave lasting impacts. “A lot of the veterans can’t talk about the war for a long, long time,” Slusher says. “So we do other programs where a veteran can tell their story, and we have a historian who will come to our seminars and she writes novels, biographies and does videographies about their lives.” Slusher says the organization is proactive in helping veterans because they’ve helped us ove the years; it’s just the right thing to do. “Honoring their service—that’s what we’re here for,” Slusher says. Do Good: • Keep up with upcoming events and activities at Arlington. • Like Arlington's Facebook page, and follow the organization on Twitter. • Attend the next Second Sunday Concert Series on July 14. 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.
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