West End / Brighton

This expansive neighborhood borders Over-the-Rhine in the shape of a sliver. Mostly residential, it has a rich history and diverse inhabitants, a beauty discovered by only the most discerning eye. The Dayton Street Historical District, a cluster of houses built mostly in the late 1800s, is on the National Register of Historic Places. City West, a mixed-income housing development just north of downtown in the neighborhood's southern-most point, is the biggest housing development in Cincinnati since World War II. The quiet streets have come alive with additions like the Mockbee across Central Parkway and a church renovation that will yield a climbing gym.

Brush Factory’s smooth trip home

By Soapbox

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General

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August 9, 2011

The Brush Factory is moving back to its roots. After a year in Oakley retail space, the designers and makers of casual, eclectic sportswear and accessories are returning to Brighton, a pocket of industrial history within Cincinnati's West End neighborhood. "Our hearts belong to Brighton," admits Hayes Shanesy, co-owner of The Brush Factory. "When I first moved here, I couldn't believe a place like this still existed." Vestiges of the community's rich history – its canal traffic, streetcar line, and industrial architecture – give the past an almost tangible quality to Shanesy. "If you squint, you can still see it."Both he and his partner Rosie Kovacs draw inspiration from the neighborhood, once a center for furniture manufacturing, meat-packing and distillery operations in Cincinnati. The design shop's 120-year-old building, at one time the workshop and showroom of the Cincinnati Brush Manufacturing Company, makes a fitting home for the designers' interests, his industrial and hers fashion. In the building's garage and upstairs workshop, Hayes focuses on 3-D forms in design, handcrafting wood furniture and restoring motorcycles and old sewing machines. In addition to her tailoring business, Kovacs creates her clothing line downstairs, where design patterns and hand-woven fabrics make each item unique. "Nothing is shipped out and our hands touch every part of it," Shanesy says. The closing of the Oakley storefront will allow the designer-craftsmen time to expand their latest creative endeavor, melding their two worlds of soft and hard materials through a new line of accessories and bags. Without the demands of a retail operation, they say they can now concentrate on their wholesale business with boutiques here and across the country.Christopher Dam, The Brush Factory's director of men's and women's sales, believes that Shanesy and Kovacs' vision, inspired by the high-quality products of the past, is a response to America's growing rejection of mass-produced quantity. The Midwest lags behind fashion centers like New York and Paris in embracing this quest for quality and uniqueness, but Dam sees great potential in Cincinnati. "With wonderful neighborhoods [in the city] like Oakley and Northside, we know the customers are out there."By Becky Johnson Photos courtesy of The Brush Factory

CETConnects with local arts community

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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July 19, 2011

You may not have noticed, but Cincinnati's CETConnect, the only PBS affiliate in the country to offer global arts programming 24 hours a day, has gone hyperlocal.The station supplies a strong collection of home-grown arts content to TVs and computer screens across the city. A new $75,000 grant from The Greater Cincinnati Foundation is aimed at helping CET boost its arts programming initiative by increasing local content."This is our attempt to really carve out a local service featuring local and regional artists and art," says Jack Dominic, CETConnect station manager.On July 19, CET will premiere a video piece called "Opera Goes to Church," a special concert that took place at College Hill Presbyterian Church that brought choirs from around the city together. Later this fall, CET staff will film the concert marking the 200th anniversary celebration of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House at The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. "A public television station needs to be a new media environment. How much longer will the audience need me to watch national fare? Not much longer," Dominic says."The one thing we can bring to the table that no other local institution can is to be able to spotlight to local stuff."Do Good:• Make a donation. As a public broadcaster, CETConnect relies on donations to produce quality content. • Pick a day and volunteer. The station needs volunteers 365 days a year to do everything from stuffing envelopes to in-depth data analysis. • Share your ideas. Want to see an arts event in your community on CETConnect? Let the station know. Send tips to Dominic.By Ryan McClendonImage courtesy CETConnect

CityLink’s plans for comprehensive campus make progress

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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July 12, 2011

A new infusion of funding will provide more fuel to the plan that is CityLink Center, a non-profit focused on helping the working poor with comprehensive services. Dismayed by 2007 U.S. Census data in which Cincinnati ranked as the tenth poorest city in the country, with one of four residents living in poverty, CityLink partners decided to forge a new path to help residents break destructive cycles.Based on the successful Centers for Working Families models in place in cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Baltimore, CityLink joins social service with faith-based organizations in an effort to meet all families' needs in a single location. Services cover a wide range of topics, from finances to healthcare, from GED to ESL courses. By locating services on the on five-acre campus, slated for Bank Street in the West End, planners hope to overcome barriers like complicated work and transportation schedules and access to childcare.More than 25 partner churches include the West End's Bright Star Baptist Church, as well as Crossroads Community Church in Oakley. Do good: • Donate. As little as $10 will be able to provide an hour of childcare for clients at Citylink.• Connect on Facebook. Like CityLink on Facebook and learn about project updates online. • Watch the video. Find out the strategy behind this initiative and meet some of the partners.By Ryan McLendonImage courtesy CityLink

Former brownfield green-lighted for development

By Soapbox

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Development News

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May 24, 2011

An eight-year-long city initiative to clean up a heavily contaminated 'brownfield' reached a culminating point this month. The Ohio EPA cleared the way for redevelopment of the Queensgate South industrial/business site on Mehring Way. The former junkyard is now a potential development site featuring 17 acres zoned for office, industrial or high-tech use."That was a long time coming," said Cincinnati Business Development Manager William Fischer. He explained that 50 years of use as a scrap yard had left the roughly 16-acre site contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals and petroleum products. This meant that any remediation work would have to meet the approval of both state and federal officials."There were contaminants on the site that were regulated by both the US and Ohio EPA," Fischer said. "It was a lot of work to coordinate those cleanups."Remediation of long-contaminated sites like this one is often a lengthy, expensive process, and this was no exception. The city's Strategic Program for Urban Redevelopment (SPUR) identified the site in 2001, and began establishing development agreements to conduct remediation over the next two years. In 2003, the city and Queensgate South Realty LLC partnered to win a $3 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant. That began the process of remediating the site: crews removed the hazardous materials, or contained them so that they could not escape into the surrounding environment. The resulting cleanup earned the site covenant-not-to-sue protection from the Ohio EPA: future property owners will be protected from liability for the site's toxic past. The remediation project turned the site of Cincinnati's first rail yard and a long-time environmental eyesore into a development opportunity Fischer hopes will compete with the best the area's suburbs have to offer."The site is obviously a good location for industry that needs to be close to the river, to downtown and to Northern Kentucky," he said. "It's a very key piece of property. This kind of levels the playing field a little bit."He added that the remediation project is being completed at an appropriate time; the economic turnaround is slowly increasing business interest in new development. Companies that had held tight to their purse strings are beginning to explore new expansion or relocation projects, and he said a number have started exploring the city."We've got brokers calling us looking for sites for new construction. I haven't had calls with that level of excitement coming in a while."Writer: Matt CunninghamPhotography by Matt Cunningham

Harmony Garden research academy trains residents to lead

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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May 17, 2011

This summer, a small group of residents in the West End will be part of a new kind of leadership development program. A year-long academy will train four women how to conduct research, how to identify health disparities and how to hone their own life and workforce skills.The Community Resident Research Academy, the latest programming effort by the non-profit Harmony Garden, builds on more than three years of work alongside West End residents.In that time, community researchers - all women, all mothers - have surveyed their neighbors to find out what kinds of help and support they want and need. The community research team organized a healthy, happy, hazard-free program, says Executive Director Lisa Mills. "Over the course of the past four years, they have come so far," Mills says. Resident researchers planned monthly workshops where they and their neighbors learned about high blood pressure, cholesterol and nutrition on a budget. They even started a walking club. What excites Mills the most, though, are the intangibles that women have taken from being part of the research team. "Being healthy and striving for a healthy life impacts their children, their families and their community," she says. "They have connected all of the dots."Now Mills and the rest of her all-female team at Harmony Garden want to extend the dots by giving neighborhood women a path to reach broader audiences and enhance their ability to impact community development and urban planning issues. They will also design and complete a project to benefit their community. The academy is a pilot program that she hopes will act as a kind of Leadership Cincinnati for women living in disadvantaged communities.Women accepted into the academy will be paid $8 per hour for the time they spend learning research skills, developing personal reflections and building their capacity to lead. Mills and her team have structured the program to allow the women time to continue to manage their own lives."We realized the women's lives are very chaotic," Mills says. "They are all mothers. They are doing the best they can for their kids." While Mills and her team are busy recruiting women for their first class, they are also seeking additional funding. "It's a very expensive program," says Mills, who estimates it will cost $20,000 per year to sponsor one class member. Do Good: • Underwrite good news. Harmony Gardens is on the lookout for a sponsor for their newsletter, which reaches 6,000 homes and businesses in the West End. • Fund a scholarship. Mills and her team welcome any level of support to offset the academy's $20,000 per student per year price tag.• Show your stuff. Volunteer as a presenter in the academy. "It's important to expose women to people doing different jobs, particularly around health," Mills says. She hopes to have a variety of speakers to help inspire the West End women, many of whom have not traveled far outside their neighborhood boundaries. Email Lisa Mills for more information.By Elissa YanceyPhoto courtesy Harmony Garden

Hype, Distinctly Local partner on urban walking map

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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May 10, 2011

You can't get more local than a map as a way to highlight local businesses and area landmarks. But a new company and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's YP arm have partnered to create a fun, visually appealing map that personifies its creating company's name: Distinctly Local.The first of a series of planned urban and specialty walking maps was unveiled last week at the Red Tree gallery and coffee shop in Oakley. The slick, full-color map outlines the Cincinnati core, as well as Newport and Covington in Northern Kentucky.The maps are geared towards people in the city during a long weekend or an event, as well as those recently transplanted or planning to move to the city, said Joe Hansbauer, who helped make the map a reality."We wanted to create a product that was accessible, and shows the places that give Cincinnati its unique flavor," he said.The idea for the map came from Hansbauer, Doug Brauch, and John Mark Ouderslyus, friends and members of Give Back Cincinnati. It was designed and illustrated by Standard Design Partners. Plans are to update the map annually, along with support from business sponsors. Distinctly Local plans other specialty maps around events like the Flying Pig or MidPoint Music Festival.The animated map has traditional street, neighborhood and interstate makers, before delving into more creative territory. It marks neighborhood business districts, locally owned businesses and city landmarks like Findlay Market, Cincinnati Museum Center and the World Peace Bell in Newport.It also highlights urban places important to Cincinnati's identity like Skyline Chili, Graeters, Paul Brown Stadium and Carew Tower. These places are drawn and named, so users can clearly make out the football and baseball stadiums, see the crown atop the Great American tower and get a tiny glimpse of the Genius of Water on Fountain Square. And unlike most maps today locations are measured in walk time."We were looking for a piece that would really showcase our region, the neighborhoods close to the central core and highlight the cool, unique, independent shops, vendors and restaurants that are all around us," said Jennifer Young, Marketing Communications manager for HYPE (Harnessing Young Professional Energy).The map will be included in new hire packets for Chamber members, and will also be distributed at area hotels, convention centers and real estate offices. Eventually the map could be online as well.Writer: Feoshia HendersonSources: Jen Young, HYPE Marketing Communications and Joe Hansbauer, Give Back CincinnatiYou can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

Favorite Cincy Find: Brush Factory

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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April 26, 2011

A Cincinnati couple turned a 120-year old factory in Brighton into a creative workshop for their brand known as Brush Factory. Rosie Kovacs utilizes the first floor for designing and sewing clothing items while Hayes Shanesy refurbishes motorcycles and creates wood objects and furniture for their retail shop in Oakley. Read the full story here.

B&B’s offering urban alternative to the traditional hotel stay

By Soapbox

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Architecture + Design

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April 19, 2011

A weekend at a bed and breakfast conjures images of peace and quiet. It's a place where you can get away from the outside world, enjoy nature and be with your thoughts.That's unless that bed and breakfast is in the city.Not all Bed and Breakfasts cater to the "peace and quiet only" crowd. Greater Cincinnati's urban B&B's attract locals and those in nearby cities that crave excitement, not silence. These travelers prefer a night out on the town instead of a cozy night in. They'd rather catch a symphony than stroll grounds. A number of such B&B's dot Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. They're located in Over-the-Rhine, downtown, and points outward, stretching across the river to Newport, Covington and Bellevue. These B&Bs have the expected creature comforts: big breakfasts, plush quilted beds, and antique furnishings, but they also offer the bonus of the city, just minutes away from art museums, concert venues and playhouses and professional sports teams."People get to feel like they're far away, but they're really close enough to their homes and families," said Weller Haus Bed & Breakfast owner Leanne Saylor. "I think people want to be able to get out to dinner for evening or shop. People say they want to get away from it all, but we're so wired today that we really want access to things we're used to."About 70 percent of Saylor's lodgers come from a 50-mile radius of her B&B's location in Bellevue, with much of the rest coming from Indianapolis, Louisville, Columbus and other nearby cities. She also gets football fans who spend a weekend when catching a Bengals game.Saylor bought the established B&B about seven years ago. Located in a residential neighborhood, it's in two side-by-side renovated Victorian Gothic homes that are listed on the National Register of Historic places. And lest you think it's too big city, the Weller Haus is also known for its secluded backyard gardens.In Over-The-Rhine, one bed and breakfast has proved so successful that it's expanding into an adjoining historic building. The Symphony Hotel & Restaurant, near Cincinnati's Music Hall, attracts guests looking for dinner and a show before retiring to their rooms. Located on 14th Street in a renovated mansion, its six rooms (three more will be added with the expansion) are named after composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The Hotel will continue its popular food service before CSO concerts at Music Hall during the renovations. Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Principal turns around failing high school, one student at a time

By Newsroom

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Cincy In The News

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March 29, 2011

Principal Anthony Smith, of Taft Information Technology High School, transformed the school from a failing, crime-ridden place to a successful, appreciated institution. Smith focused his attention towards his teachers to begin improvements nine years ago. As a result, the graduation rate jumped from 18 percent to 95 percent, making Taft an example of how to save troubled schools one at a time. As a result of his students' success, Smith was named ABC New's "Person of the Week."Read the full story here.

Building Brands and Rebuilding the Workforce at Nehemiah

By Val Prevish

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Architecture + Design

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March 22, 2011

Two successful business veterans give hope to chronically unemployed workers with a company focused on building brands, creating jobs and changing lives in Cincinnati's inner-city.