5chw4r7z:: the ethos of downtown Cincinnati

Cincy Summer Streets

“The street is the river of life for the city. We come here not to escape them, but to partake them.”
~ William H. Whyte

People belong in the street. For generations the streets were where we shopped, conversed, laughed, watched one another. When we did use the street for travel, it was slowly - by foot, by horse, by bicycle, by streetcar. Then came the automobile, and the social fabric of street life was all but abolished.
Cincy Summer Streets aims to rectify this by opening up the citys largest public spaces, its streets to everyone.
For a couple hours Sunday, Northside was able to enjoy one of its biggest assets, walking, biking, skateboarding and a few other forms of transport that may or may not have been practical.
But were fun.
I can't wait until our current car centric mayor is gone after 2017 and we can do more of these.

It was 102° on the ground in Northside and the water mister was popular.

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The Ledge Gallery at Tiny Town

Chris Glass and his exhibit "I’VE GOT A MATCH: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CHRIS GLASS MATCHCOVER ARCHIVE+RESEARCH CENTRE" debuted Friday at the Ledge Gallery. Chris has obviously been picking up matchbooks for a long time and has accumilated quite a collection.
Picking up a matchbook at that roadside curiosity or restaurant is an age old tradion. Although in the social climate of 2016 these matchbooks feel quaint, it was nice to drift back to an earlier time with this display of Americana.

Wait a second! Is Maya. Smiling?

Then we headed up the street to Brighton and The Mockbee for The Red Door Project. The Mockbee is a dramatic space for art.

Oh man, John Young asked me to tell this couple about the streetcar and Issue 9. Next thing I know I'm digging deep into Cincinnati and Ohio politics. The it hit me and I appologized, "I'm making a lot of assumptions because John introduced us." The woman said she agreed with my views but her hasband just gave an awkward laugh. Awkward. LOL I hope I didn't cause any trouble on the presidential election front.

If there is a Pokémon at the Mockbee this guy will find it.

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Sid Saturday

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i see a trend here

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

The quest for the perfect pizza is a journey, not a destination. There are many good pizzas out there and every once in awhile a really good pizza is discovered making the journey worthwhile.
I just found another one of those pizza places that's rises above the merely good.
Located in the Sycamore Plaza across the street from Kenwood Mall, Pizzeria Locale is a fast casual restaurant. While Pizzeria Locale is a chain, it is a small chain, one that operates like an independent restaurant. They serve craft beer from local breweries and it sounds like they are interested in doing collaborations with local chefs and eateries. I know Fusian loves doing that stuff, anyone up for sushi pizza?
So Pizzeria Locale is a very small chain, but they are more focused on quality than carpet bombing the country with locations on every corner. How so? They thought long and hard about the cooking process. They've taken baking a pizza from an art to a science. The pizza is placed into the oven on a rotating platform that takes 2 minutes and bakes the pizza evenly on all sides. The oven itself is handmade in Italy and the hand cranked meat slicers is also hand made by craftsmen.
Enough of all that though, the pizza is amazing. Could be some of the best I've had. I couldn't get over the flavor in the crust, the perfect amount of salt that pops the other flavors. And there was a richness in the background I couldn't put my finger on, was coming from the cheese or sauce? You'll just have to stop in and discover it for yourself.
I have a few cards for a free pizza so leave a comment if you want one and share this post. I'll pick some names at random and send them out.

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

Broken Spoke

The Broken Spoke fest was held at the England Idlewild Park just outside Burlington Ky. England Idlewild Park has an impressive amout of bike infrastructure for dirt bikes. Mountain trails, pump tracks, BMX race courses. I heard the courses been there for a year or so. In between rain showers Saturday we were able to watch a dozen races or so. I kinda wanted to get out there and try it, until I remembered I wasn't 20 anymore.
It was still cool to see how much talent the area produces in these disciplines though.

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Sid Saturday

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naming rights agreement for the streetcar

Cincinnati Bell has signed a naming rights agreement that will transform the Cincinnati Streetcar. Cincinnati Bell will pay $340,000 per year for 10 years under the agreement. The Cincinnati Streetcar will be renamed the Cincinnati Bell Connector and the look will change, with Cincinnati Bell graphics on the front, back and top, as well as inside. The current logo and colors will no longer be used.
Streetcar stations will be rebranded as Cincinnati Bell stations.

Fantastic news, as the streetcar keeps hitting milestones it will become harder and harder for its opponents to come up with arguments against it. I was never too fond of the color anyhow and hopefully this will put and end to all the annoying people who have to make everything about sports and kept claiming they were Steelers colors. One other item of interest, if you hadn't noticed, Cincy Bell has blanketed downtown this year with free WIFI. It would be technically easy to add WIFI to the streetcars so I hope they go ahead and do that.
if you haven't yet download Cincinnati Bells app Connect Cincinnati and stay connected.

And I bet no one calls it the connector, its going to be the streetcar. Although Margie Waller did propose this which I love. I guess since the branding will change the tokens and cards we've purchased will be even more valuable then they were before.

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books

People should talk about books more than they do.

We used to, before social media. Books take too long. Why invested hours and hours in a book when a facebook update only takes ten seconds?
At the same time, how do you think of new things? Imagine new things?
Books are the best way I know.
I've realized things this summer reading that I wondered why I didn't know when I was 20.

Somehow, this ended up as the summer of heavy books.
Not physically heavy. Mentally heavy. Maybe even spiritually heavy.
The Buried Giant and The Regional Office is Under Attack! two books that the authors could have written in a number of different ways. However they chose to write them in the most beautiful way possible. The books are works of are art.

A couple of the books, as I read the last sentence no matter how hard I squeezed my eyes shut the tears still leaked out.

These are a couple books that changed my view of the world and myself.

The Buried Giant / Kazuo Ishiguro.
The Regional Office is Under Attack! / Manuel Gonzales.
Blindsight / Peter Watts.
Dark Orbit / Carolyn Ives Gilman.
A Burglar's Guide to the City / Geoff Manaugh.
The Cartel and The Power of the Dog / Don Winslow.
Anathem / Neal Stephenson.
And every book you can find by Paolo Bacigalupi.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Second Sunday on Main

The bleak outlook for rain all weekend, rain that never did materialize downtown scared half the vendors off. But it didn't keep the crowd away!
The hear had me moving around as slowly as possible which gave me time to sit back and people watch while hanging out with the Pipe Club of OTR.