5chw4r7z:: the ethos of downtown Cincinnati

Urban Basin Bicycle Club

Been biking around the city and back from work, I've done more cycling this year than the last eight put together and I've realized a few things. A bike is hands down the best way to get around the CBD/OTR, certain times of the day a bike moves faster than traffic and you never look for parking, just lock it up out front of where ever you are. It’s also paying off in other ways; I can almost see a rib now.
Bikes could also have a transformative effect on how we experience the city, what I'm going to call Cincinnati Sunday Streets. Imagine this, Vine St shut down from the Banks to 12th St on summer Sundays.
How I imagine Cincinnati Sunday Streets working;
Rental Stations on Fountain Square and Washington Park in addition to the one at the Bike Center at Smale Riverfront Park. Rent a bike at any of these three spots, ride to one of the others and drop the bike off at their rental station, get a bite to eat, a coffee and sight see then pick the bike back up, may or may not be the exact same bike but who cares, then ride on. You’ll have a relaxing stress free ride or walk around the three parks and an incredible day.

Getting back to the Urban Basin Bicycle Club, it takes off from Fountain Square every Tuesday at 6:30pm. Nice slow relaxing ride, no matter your skill level or speed you won't get left behind.

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"Iconic Cincinnati"

The newest tour by American Legacy Tours "Iconic Cincinnati Tour: Secrets, Symbols and Sky Scrapers", the same guys who've brought gangsters, breweries and the Civil Wars to life in OTR and Newport have set out to do the same thing downtown. We got to ride along on the very first test run and it was everything you expect, landmarks and back stories filled in with and aside or two. I'm excited about this one because although I've lived downtown for eight years now there are still new things I learn every day. The tour begins at Fountain Square, and why not, the modern story of Cincinnati revolves around the Tyler Davidson Fountain Genius of water.

First on the agenda, facts about the Genius of water, I learned the water in the small ring basins is not recirculated and is potable.
Try it and then watch the expression on peoples faces.
Priceless.

Not too many people can claim to have been inside the Masonic Building, this is worth the whole trip by its self.

One of fifteen life masks of Lincoln.

Up to the observation deck on Carew, funny how Mac never strayed too far from the exact center of the deck.

The PNC Building was the tallest building in the U.S. outside of NYC when it was built.

A couple landmarks you can see from the top of Carew that the tour didn't touch on is you can see my first apartment and current condo from the top of Carew, funny that Carew has shaped my view of the city since moving to Cincinnati.

Seriously though, if you want to learn about the city's rich history through easily digestible story telling, American Legacy Tours is the way to go.[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

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Why do we like him? Because he gets on base

Jeff Wyckoff and Chris Hendrixson from Ink Dryer Creative reached out to me last week telling me about their new iPhone app Cincy Lineup. When the days lineup is posted it's updated on the app. Now this app isn't going to change the world, it doesn't do anything special, but if you are a Reds fan it adds one more input into your baseball experience. At first I was, eh, it is what it is but its grown on me and I check it every afternoon now, I like how they have a little fun with it too.

A slight hiccup Friday night as the red hot Reds dropped one but we still had a blast.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

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this guy I know always telling me he can drive fast...

Congrats Dario Franchitti on your Indy 500 win.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

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Sid Saturday

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Invader à Cincinnati?

I'd love to see Invader in Cincinnati, and have talked to people in Cincinnati who could possibly make it happen.
But it never occurred to me to go straight to the source. Funny how a comment on a blog could start a chain of events.

Je suis curieux de savoir ce qu'il faudrait pour mettre Invader à Cincinnati, Ohio USA ou si elle même devrait être examiné. J'aime le travail et l'ont suivi pendant des années. Nous sommes essentiellement une ville encore inexploité dans la mesure où les grands artistes de rue aller. Shepard Fairey a des choses ici, mais à côté de lui il ya très peu. Quand il est venu, il avait couru essentiellement de la ville. New York et L.A. est celle où chacun est en place. Si vous êtes venu à Cincinnati, vous prendriez sur la ville. Ce serait une affaire énorme. Je suis sûr que je peux réunir les fonds pour le vol et le séjour dans un hôtel agréable. Je peux également fournir toutes sortes de branchements. Je ne veux rien d'autre en retour que certains arts de la rue fantastique dans ma ville. Je devais essayer, j'ai pensé qu'il ne pouvait pas de mal à poser. S'il vous plaît pardonnez mon français, j'ai utilisé Google Translate.

Merci,
Chris Breeden (Chris from Arnold's who is an even bigger street art fan than I am)

invader in Paris

Hi Chris,

The invasion of the world is a huge work as you can imagine, and Cincinnati definetely[sic] needs to be on the map. For now the agenda is very tight but Invader would love to come over when the time will come.
cheers from space,

Invader Studio

Cross your fingers, one day maybe....

Invader in New York

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

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Velvet Smoke Findlay Market bike riding foo's

Along with everything else happening last weekend we wanted to hit Findlay market and see our twitter bud Chef Todd out cooking with Velvet Smoke BBQ. Velvet is located on the south side of the market, an area underused until last summer, this spring it's slowly filling up again with outdoor grills in addition to the brick and mortar places that have been there all along like Skirtz & Johnston. Saturday I think I saw more people milling around on that side of the market than I ever had before. Velvet Smoke was showing off their 2012 State Grand Championship trophy, well earned I'd say, next time you're at Findlay check them out.

The big crowd Saturday got me thinking about all the hand wringing lately over Findlay Markets decision to implement a parking fee.
Social media blew up, between supporters worried it would chase people away and haters gloating it would push people away to their neighborhood's farmers market.
Me, I had a completely different take. I felt that free parking and full lots pushed away someone who would want to swing through for a couple things and weren't interested in lingering. $2 to quickly find a spot and get in and out would be a bargain for those people.
Rather than go on a gut feeling I got some hard data that Findlay Market kindly shared with me.

Findlay market traffic Counts
This data is for the week ending May 20th the parking fee began May 14th the first day of week 20
Keep in mind these are door clicks, not customer counts. But door clicks can still be used as an indicator of trends.
Also its hard to make a valid conclusion cherry picking one week out of a year.
That said, I'm going to anyhow.
Week 20 saw a drop in traffic from week 19. But keep in mind last week was Mothers Day and 5 of the last 8 years saw drops from week 19 to week 20.
That said this past weekend, the first with pay parking we have Saturday seeing a 400 click increase over 2011 week 20 Saturday and Sunday seeing a 1700 click increase over 2011 week 20 Sunday.
So I guess the takeaway is its too soon to say either way, maybe in a month I'll check it out again.[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

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OTR Summer Celebration

Was it last year everyone was up in arms over OTR earning the title most dangerous neighborhood in America?
Maybe it was the year before, how times change, and the changes are coming fast now as years of planning are coming to fruition.
Still it was nice to just chill and hang out with friends on a pleasant afternoon.