The foulest stench's in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
for no mere mortal can resist
the evil of the thriller
~ Thriller
Monday UrbanCincy ran a post talking about how the Mayoral Election Will Impact Cincinnati’s Planning Future and they touched on what was then still a proposed development for Oakley back in 2002. I thought I'd go into more detail on that one project to illustrate Cranley's lack of sensitivity and tone deafness to the urban fabric.
When the project started Oakley thought it was getting a mix of small trendy boutiques. June 27, 2001: Cincinnati City Council adopted the Oakley North Urban Renewal Plan. The plan proposed to, "to prevent a typical suburban strip-center character, including islands of box-like structures in a sea of asphalt parking lots."
What it got instead was a couple big box stores. Its already well documented how little tax money big box stores bring in compared to dense development, a Walmart will generate around $6,500 a acre while urban mixed use residential and retail blocks will generate as much as $634,000 an acre in property taxes.
Cranley has already come out opposing form based codes that allow mixed use without even understanding the significance of what he is opposing.
So back to Oakley, once community leaders like Jon Doucleff of the Oakley Community Council and the city's urban planners started complaing, Cranley, a huge supporter of the project said, `Why are you letting Newport...kick your butt?' I'm guessing he is talking about the mostly empty Newport on the Levee. "Beggars can't be choosers," he said.
Well beggars should be choosers, as Caleb Faux, an urban planner and member of the planning commission said at the time, "We won't get an opportunity like this for another 50 years"
Sounds oddly timely and prophetic doesn't it? All this lead to Cranley orchestrating the gutting of the city's planning commission staff, effectively nueturing it.
Meanwhile Roxanne Qualls has been quietly working on form based code for years and you can see the effects taking hold in OTR, Madisonville, Walnut Hills, Westwood and College Hill.
At the end of the day it seems like Cranley's main goal as mayor would be to put a f#@king end to everything that makes a city a city and embark on the mallification of Cincinnati.
For for the future of the city, vote Qualls.
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I'm running on two issues
I'm running on two issues
I'm running on two issues
That's what Roxanne Qualls' opponent keeps saying. And he is opposed to both of them.
Yesterday the local "newspaper" did a good job a listing all Roxanne's strengths and what she's done for the city. Then they listed all her opponents weaknesses with a long string of what he needs to do to correct them. Including way too many ifs.
Then they endorsed her opponent after making a case why she should be the next mayor.
Crazy.
But then this is the same paper that endorsed Romney, Mandel, Ghiz, Lippert,McCain, Blackwell, Wenstrup for Mayor and an endless list of other losers.
Don't vote no Nov 5th, vote yes for Roxanne Qualls.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Right around 0:25, and what the hell?
OK John a few things here, its not guilt by association, the question is why does coast and the Clermont County Tea Party, a hate group that dislikes Cincinnati and everything it stands for, why do they like you and hate Roxanne Qualls? That is the root of the question.
And the claim that the majority of people are against the streetcar? OK if you include everyone in Hamilton County you could be correct. BUT, if you look at things that can be quantified, things like say, elections and turnouts at Council meetings then the only conclusion you can come to is that Cincinnatians overwhelmingly favor the streetcar.
Did you hear Kansas City mayor Sylvester James is in town, and he said he'd be more than happy to use our streetcar money if we don't build ours. Interesting, I thought Roxanne's opponent pledged to use that money for other purposes. But then we all know that aintgonnahappen.com
One more thing, when did you stop beating your wife? That's what you thought of when asked about the Tea Party?
Who does that statement say more about. Roxanne's opponent or the Tea Party?
UPDATE: In the comments Joe feels I should try and understand the coasters, I understand them completely, exhibit 1 pulled from facebook.
And I notice they are continuing their tradition of not being able to spell.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Can we please go back to dressing up for parties?? “@HistoricalPics: Teenagers at a party in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1947 pic.twitter.com/TY3MbsXfoV”
— Robin Ewers (@Audreyesque) October 16, 2013
but they told me I needed to be accompanied by a parent...
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Even as you read this Jean-Francois' newest waffle location has opened in Corryville on Taste of Belgium's march to world waffle domination. The Taste of Belgium Short Vine, their newest restaurant offers all your old favorites plus a few new surprises. ToB has also made a few concessions to the college crowd, expanding the beer selection outside of the Belgian variety to include a few American craft beers. You still won't find a bud light, just beers as tasty as the food.
You've all eaten at ToB before so what else can be said about the food? not much. But the new location is much roomier, the tables aren't packed as close to gether, even at full capacity it never felt crowded.
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CNCY MADE is Matt Anthony of Losantiville, Bryant Goulding of Rhinegeist, and Noel Gauthier and is currently organizing an effort to help find, connect, and scale a community around artisan and small-batch manufacturing in Cincinnati.
For whatever reason, manufacturing has become the bald-headed orphan of business; manufacturing physical goods isn't sexy but it creates real jobs. Jobs that stick here and aren't easily portable. The Brandery, and I have nothing against them, have been getting attention lately for their startup accelerator that is one of the highest ranked in the US. But here is the rub- the digital revolution is killing jobs. Kodak had 140,000 workers.Iit has been replaced by Instagram with its 13 engineers. That is a huge displacement. OK, you tell me those workers need to find new skills. What if we train them all in the computer sciences. Guess what? Instagram still only needs 13 engineers. And what's the end game of those Brandery startups? To get noticed and then bought out, so the more successful they are the less likely they are to hang around Cincinnati.
Which brings us back to physical products, take for example OTR's VisuaLingual and their Seed Bombs. VisuaLingual has 4 full time people and can pull in 4 more part time when large orders need filled. When I wrote about them last year I said, "Low tech businesses like local, non-chain retail and manufacturing requires a copious amount of people and a large support system creating jobs and all that money stays right here in the area." Eight people obviously won't change the world but VisuaLingual is just one of many small scale producers in Cincinnati and its the one I'm most familiar with.
Thus the need for First Batch, a product accelerator under CNCY MADE. First Batch is run by Steven Doehler and Noel Gauthier. The goal of First Batch is to help entrepreneurs utilize the amazing manufacturing capabilities of Cincinnati. First Batch helps participants build their product and scale the business in Cincinnati. The end game is to scale the creative class in Cincinnati and keep those people here.
As Doehler, a UC professor explained it,
"The idea behind First Batch was to bring manufacturing back to Cincinnati in small batch, and how do we retain talent inside of the area that is coming out of DAAP. With First Batch, we have an outlet for them to go in, be funded, take their projects to the next level, and then hopefully be really successful in starting businesses here in Cincinnati, and employing future graduates from our program and the university. We have two main accelerators, incubators here in town, the Brandery and Centrifuge, and they really focus on the digital realm and branding. Where First Batch fits in really nicely, is that we're looking at physical products, physical things."
The first participant were introduced last Thursday night to a full house at Powerhouse Factories.
Adam Jonovski of Hatchet Guitars designed a compact guitar that sounds just like a full size guitar and is the very first participant. A startup like Hatchet Guitars has a need for many labor intensive parts to create the guitars. Every component is manufactured right here in the city of Cincinnati. Cncy Made helped Adam make business connections and learn the business skills needed to get his guitars built.
The other First batch participant, the Wool Shop founded by DJ Corney after he was introduced to natural dyes while on a trip to Paris and became interested in textiles. Each Wool Shop garment is designed by hand with meticulous attention and can take up to 20 hours to produce. The Wool Shop is in talks with a company that can hopefully get that down to two hours.
So much like the Brandery building a critical mass of coders bouncing ideas off each other and helping each other out, CNCY MADE wants to build a critical mass of small batch manufacturing artisan entrepreneurs.
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From the Make Cincy Yours facebook page
In Cincinnati, things happen every day that would be impossible elsewhere. Make Cincy Yours is a central place to share these stories: the unique, inspiring, against all odds tales of our place. The reality is that if you dream here, you can happen here: you have the power here to make your mark in Cincinnati, to shape this city. You're making the stories, we're just helping to tell them. Help us spread the word. Share these stories, tell us your own. And every day, in your own small ways, Make Cincinnati Yours.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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I've said it before, the latest trend is the City is the new outdoors. Exibihit #10 or hundred is the Urban Race. No getting up at 4am so you can drive to a farm in the middle of nowhere to splash in mud. Oh No. Wake up at the crack of mid morning, walk over to Washington Park and you are ready to go. With an urban twist of course. Cars, dumpsters, tires and a cargo bin or two.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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After the pleasant surprise last year at the turnout for the inaugural Street Food Festival in Walnut Hills I thought I had a good idea what to expect this year. But this year, this year I was even more surprised, it was a scene. Two blocks of food trucks packed with people. Walnut Hills has been building momentum for over a year now and its beginning to show.
Here's a tip for the other neighborhoods in the city wondering where their piece of the pie is. No one is going to wave a magic wand and make it happen. Talk to the people from Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and see what they've been doing, things like traveling to other cities to see what those neighborhood leaders have tried and accomplished.
And it sounds silly but a hashtag for twitter and instagram go a long way. Just ask OTR about #thisisotr. Walnut Hills was busy booting up #wearewalnuthills with a photobooth capturing photos of neighbors all afternoon.
