Best Dialogue About Abortion
Cincinnati Women's Services takes pre-abortion counseling seriously, encouraging women to consider their own moral and religious beliefs before deciding rather than treating such weighty issues so lightly. Cincinnati Women's Services, 950 Nassau Ave., Walnut Hills, 513-281-0001.

Best Dialogue About Alternative Lifestyles
PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) might be the best role model for support groups. These parents and advocates are fighting for acceptance of alternative lifestyles in Cincinnati. Upon finding out their children are GLBT, they embrace them, find out about their issues and advocate on their behalf. 513-721-7900.

Best Arts Activist
A local artist and gallery director for The Carnegie in Covington, Bill Seitz began his role as an arts activist with a press release: "Petition Drive to Request an Arts Section in The Cincinnati Enquirer." A lot has happened since his Nov. 15 announcement: More than 1,200 people signed the petition, and Enquirer editors agreed to a series of meetings with local arts groups. After months of hard work, Seitz proved that a unified voice can even make the morning paper sit up and take notice of the local arts scene.

Best Friend of the Arts
The late Bob Allen, who served on many arts boards and picked up the tab for lunch six times a year to gather people who promote Cincinnati's arts organizations. Even though he passed away in December, he's still at it: He endowed a fund at the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to continue the meetings where cross-pollination is a regular event.

Best Political Outsider
Scott Seidewitz was supposed to get Todd Portune's seat on Cincinnati City Council when Portune left for the Hamilton County Commission, but it didn't work out that way. Seidewitz barely missed election in the 1999 council race, his first, and had helped manage Portune's commission race against incumbent Bob Bedinghaus. Plus he was one of the few up-and-coming Democrats who fully backed Portune's progressive social issues. After a few calls from Lindner-related people and some pressure from Democrat bigwigs, the other Democrats on council chose John Cranley instead of Seidewitz, who later was shut out of the party's ward chairman appointments. Scott has left the building!

Best Political Newcomer
Despite the furor surrounding his council appointment, John Cranley is a bright light on the local political scene. His campaign against entrenched U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot was well-planned and well-executed. He raised important issues and presented himself as a caring, passionate person
not a slick politician wannabe. Taking the thorny issue of racial profiling by the horns shows he's not afraid to serve; it'll be interesting to see if he get any results.

Best Argument That Hamilton County Politics Is Broken
People have complained for years that the Republican Party runs the county like its own personal fiefdom, but no one's been able to quantify exactly what was so wrong with that system (besides the occasional scandal or screwup). Then the 2000 elections approached, and 11 of the 17 countywide races for judges and officials featured a single unopposed candidate
two Democrats and nine Republicans. In order to protect their two judges up for election, the Democrats made a deal with the Republicans not to run against nine of their candidates (not that the Dems could have scared up many candidates anyway). Didn't like Prosecutor Mike Allen's heavy-handed support of the death penalty? Didn't like Sheriff Simon Leis' out-of-touch crusading? Didn't like the way the Coroner's office was being handled? Too bad. You had no choice. Like it or leave it. By the way, all the unopposed candidates won. How 'bout that!

Best Argument That the City Can Be Saved
Victoria Straughn is a one-woman antidote to the apathy, complacency and cynicism that offer strangles Cincinnati. CityBeat named her Greater Cincinnati Person of the Year for 2000 for her dual roles as AIDS activist (her work at UC's Infectious Diseases Center) and social activist (in her free time). As one of the organizers of the annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, she attempts to educate and rally Cincinnati's black community to fight the explosive spread of AIDS and HIV among African Americans.

Best Arts Rebel
Student poet Nina Caporale didn't back down after ArtWorks took away her $500 scholarship at the summer program's Aug. 15 closing ceremonies. Caporale's poem "You Ass" was considered inappropriate, and her work was branded as vulgar in a bitter Cincinnati Enquirer editorial. Caporale took her complaints to the public, eventually getting the scholarship money back. Through the debate, she became a thoughtful, articulate spokesperson for artistic freedom of speech.

Best Example of Politics and Arts Not Mixing
Office politics pushed CAC Curator and local artist Kim Humphries to leave the Cincinnati arts scene. Luckily for Humphries, he found a more lucrative position in St. Louis. What's unlucky for Cincinnati is that the man responsible for hip, clever, performance art like Gillombardo's Hams no longer calls the Queen City home.

Best Arts Administrator
As the director/president of Happen, Inc., the eclectic arts education program for children and adult mentors, Tommy Reuff is a one-man staff who rallies an army of dedicated volunteers. He's the life force behind Happen, Inc., giving and giving and still insisting it doesn't hurt.

Best Jewish Chef and Cookbook Author
Zell Shulman has inspired and encouraged so many people, either around her table of interesting people from all parts of Cincinnati (and beyond) or with her frequent interviews and conversations with Jimmy Gherardi on WVXU. A regular recipe contributor to The American Israelite, Shulman's energy and verve about food, entertaining and life in general will be illustrated soon in her newest cookbook, Latsa Latkes.

Best Event Planner
Joe Rigotti is being hired out of town for tons of weddings and corporate events. The rest of the country knows him, but does Cincinnati?

Best Fighters
The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless links all local agencies, helps anyone in need and runs Streetvibes, the homeless advocate newspaper that helps men and women down on their luck make money from selling it. The coalition is not at all profitable but keeps plugging away.