5chw4r7z:: the ethos of downtown Cincinnati

Sid Saturday

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Do you watch Game of Thrones? When people ask me if a tattoo hurts I always tell them you have to pay the iron price. But this post is about riding bikes. Specifically, riding them up hills.
You can't pay the gold price, there is no way to buy yourself a ride up the hill, even if you have an expensive lightweight bike, you still have to pedal it up on your own.
What does riding a bike up a hill have to do with anything?
Hills are where the glory is, do you know who the best sprinter is?
No? But I bet you've heard of Pantani and Armstrong!
But we don't ride hills for glory, we're just normal people. We're riding them for ourselves.
The only way to know if you can do something, is to pay the iron price and do it!

Shoutout to the woman who took pity on us 3/4 of the way up Ravine and hit us with the hose!

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

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

Celebrating their 3^rd anniversary, Cincinnati Red Bike commissioned three local artists to change perceptions of what a bike is. I also love the fact Red Bike took up the challenge with ArtsWave that art isn't just inside or static. Art is a living breathing creation with a life of its own.
From Red Bike,
"The initial run of ART BIKES is the first of future creative collaborations between Red Bike, ArtsWave, and area artists to enhance community connection to art and transportation. The three artists who contributed to this project are Amy Watson, Jessi Jumanji, Christian Schmit, through their mix of perspective and talent as a painter, sculptor and fabric artist."
These bikes are being deployed today and everyone will have the opportunity to ride run. How amazing is that?
They don't mention the timing, but I can't help but notice that Blink Cincinnati is coming up in a few weeks and these bikes will fit right in.
Frank Henson the Patron Saint of Cincinnati Cycling with Nancy Strassel, Vice President of the Board of Red Bike and Executive Director of Red Bike Jason Barron at the Art Bike launch party.

Red Bike riders are encouraged to find the ART BIKES in the wild; take pictures and videos of yourself riding the ART BIKES; and share them on social media. #RedBikeArtBikes
Red Bike is greater Cincinnati’s bike share network of 57 stations and 442 bikes covering two states and four cities: Cincinnati, Covington, Newport, and Bellevue. For more information click HERE.[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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how I cured my cinnamon roll addiction

Clay and 13th, I think this is one of my favorite corners now. Its a short bike ride from my condo, but also because, cinnamon rolls. How can cinnamon rolls make a street corner awesome? Easy when they are Brown Bear Bakery. Mix in bikes, dogs and baby strollers and its a lively spot in the city. I've been wanting to try the coffee cake, it looks amazing, but I could never get past the cinnamon rolls. We decided to get one of each and split them, with that problem solved we dug in.

Then a short couple block ride to Washington Park for The City Flea.

I've said this before and I'll keep repeating it, don't circle the block again and again looking for parking. Walk, ride a bike or park downtown and ride the streetcar.

[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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Cincinnati Street Food Festival

Street food, food trucks, interactive art, and live music at the 6th annual Cincinnati Street Food Festival.

The sight of this children's bike at the bike valet made me smile and filled me with joy.

The 1/4lb dog from Quite Frankly hit the spot. They dusted it with salted grilled onions. It never occurred to me to salt a hot dog but man was it good.

This installation from BLDG has held up surprisingly good.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Westside, who knew?

When I first moved to Cincinnati I was basically blogging about downtown, just to prove to people it was possible to live there and thrive. Then people started placemaking in OTR and I started including it also. Then things started happening in Walnut Hills and Covington and I began including them too.
At any rate, I was invited out to Westwood's Second Saturday event and wasn't expecting much. For one thing, its already an established neighborhood, for another, it has that stodgy, conservative reputation. All I can say is I was happily surprised by what we found, a block of cool little shops anchored by a coffee shop at one end and a brand new brewery at the other. I'm a little salty they've been keeping this to themselves all this time.
All I can say is if you're still operating on stereotypes like I was, give Westwood another look.

I super excited that Julie aka forlulagirl was there. Julia knits amazing little whimsical critters and drops yarn bombs all over the city sharing beauty and joy. I met Julia last summer at a City Flea as she stood next to a yarn bombed bike. As soon as I saw this yarn bombed kids bike I knew I had found her again. One of her coolest ideas is a premade yarn bomb for people who can't knit, she gifted us a Bengals themed sample which we're planning on installing between our place and PBS.

Where all these events begin and end.

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

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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who is making Cincinnati great?

Do you like the direction Cincinnati's vacuous, tone-deaf, and relentlessly ill-equipped one man disaster "Accidental Tourist" promise-breaker of a mayor is taking the city? He cares more about lining his pockets with developer money than he cares about Cincinnati's families and children. Only in Republican logic does kicking families out of their historic Avondale homes equate to being for them.
The mayor looted the money slated to redevelop 4th and Race and gave it to his developer buddies for 8th & Sycamore leaving us this empty block.

The mayor stacked the historic board so his neighbor could tear down the historic Dennison Hotel, located in a historic district.

The mayor is letting campaign donors destroy historic houses in Avondale and toss families into the street.

The mayor must go, your neighborhood may be next!
A VOTE for Yvette is vote for the people of Cincinnati!
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"On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, the last captive passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She outlasted George, the penultimate survivor of her species and her only companion, by four years. As news spread of her species’ imminent extinction, Martha became a minor tourist attraction. In her final years, whether depressed or just old, she barely moved. Underwhelmed zoo visitors threw fistfuls of sand at her to elicit a reaction. When she finally died, her body was taken to the Cincinnati Ice Company, frozen in a 300-pound ice cube and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution..."

Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;

Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.