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URBAN
LIFE STAFF PICKS
Best Ollie Up:
Skateboarding got on a real roll in Cincinnati
over the past year. As covered in the CityBeat cover story “Going
Big” (issue of April 2-8, 2003), stores, design groups and
skate parks have grown to serve the huge number of locals indulging
in the sport — including a number of young Cincinnatians who
are travelling the country to compete in pro skateboard competitions.
The second annual ASA Mobile Skatepark Series in May brought some
of those pros to big crowds at Sawyer Point. And the creep of skateboarding
into popular culture here culminated a few weeks ago with Beautiful
Losers, the new CAC exhibition featuring skateboard designs and
skating-inspired art.
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Best
Foot in Mouth: John Elkington
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Best
Foot in Mouth: John Elkington
The Memphis developer’s plan to replicate his hometown Beale
Street success on Main Street came to a screeching halt when he called
Chinese businessmen “hagglers” who “use different
math.” It was a response to a CityBeat reporter’s question
about his public “joke” at an Over-the-Rhine Chamber of
Commerce luncheon, when the consultant quipped that one of his rules
of development was never to rent to a Chinese restaurant. His comments
mobilized Cincinnati’s 5,000-strong Chinese-American community,
which flooded City Hall with demands that the city not subsidize,
as proposed, six months of the consultant’s work with $100,000
of taxpayer dollars. At a standing-room-only regular session of city
council, they won Mayor Charlie Luken’s assurances that, no,
the city would not hire Elkington and, what’s more, would formally
acknowledge the celebration of the Chinese New Year. Elkington later
told The Cincinnati Enquirer he didn’t need the city’s
money anyway and that Cincinnati City Council could “screw up
a two-car parade.” (Stephanie Dunlap)
Best Hope for Disenfranchised Youth:
The proposed Hip Hop Youth Arts Center would give
youth in Cincinnati a relevant place to hang out and stay out of trouble.
With about $10,000 raised so far, a nearly signed lease for a West
End location and a tentative opening date of June 1, organizers’
goal of engaging 14- to 20-year-olds with DJing, emceeing, break dancing
and graffiti is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Check out www.natiyouthcenter.org
for more information.
Best Use of an Old Bridge:
Maybe Cincinnati missed out on an Ohio-side Newport on the Levee,
but at least Cincinnatians can walk there now. The Newport Southbank
Bridge became the Purple People Bridge last April,
providing a much-needed pedestrian connection between Cincinnati’s
riverfront and Newport. P.S.: Kentucky owns the whole bridge, so if
you want it fixed up, don’t complain to the city of Cincinnati.
Best Appreication of an Old Bridge:
East side bridges in Eden Park and Mount Adams might claim better
views, but nothing reflects the hardworking, Midwestern heart of Cincinnati
like the longstanding Western Hills Viaduct. Multiple
levels allow ample traffic to crisscross the city both eastbound and
westbound. Its best vantage point is from below on Spring Grove Avenue.
Looking up from the factories and blue-collar taverns, one sees the
belly of the steel and concrete artery that is a spiritual and legitimate
lifeline of the city.
Best Understanding of New Urbanist Design:
The developers of DeSales Plaza in Walnut Hills,
which will feature retail and restaurants on the ground floor and
apartments above. The development, scheduled to open partially in
May, was built to blend in with the urban feel of this stretch of
Madison Road and not to overwhelm St. Francis DeSales Church across
the street.
Best Lack of Understanding of New Urbanist
Design:
Although city leaders tout the “new jobs” created by Target,
Meijer and Circuit City at the Center of Cincinnati development,
the Oakley neighborhood nearby has been stomped by the big-box retailers
and their sea of asphalt parking lots. Oakley’s walkable nature
and character — at least in this corner — were sold off
to developers for a quick return on investment instead of being utilized
in an urban-friendly (and creative) retail setting.
Best Demonstration of Real Urban Character:
Speaking of walkable and urban-friendly, the stretch of Oakley
along Madison Road near the new big boxes is a good example of a neighborhood
not only maintaining its character but growing it. Several downtowners
have relocated or expanded there — Salon, formerly City Salon;
Lamson Design; Pendleton Pilates; and Mike Willis and Annie Bolling’s
design/art business (they were formerly with Closson’s). David
Falk is working to open a new Boca restaurant there, which —
along with an improved Andiamo! and the always-popular Production
Line — adds a nice dining component. And from those blocks it’s
a short walk to Oakley Square and another collection of small businesses
and restaurants. Memo to City Hall: This is what people want in a
city.
Best Wednesday Night Scoot:
Members of the Ten Years Lates Scooter Club meet
Wednesdays at The Comet in Northside for a little socializing, then
hop on their Vespas and Allstates for a cruise around town. The group
includes local artists and musicians, plus business people, students,
professors and at least one radio personality. Some even travel regularly
to other cities for scooter rallies.
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Best
Way to Tell You’re in a Big City: The Greenwich’s
24 Hour Open Mic Nights
Photo
By: Kim Nickoson
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Best
Way to Tell You’re in a Big City: The Greenwich’s
24 Hour Open Mic Nights
The crowd is sparse at 9:30 p.m. A girl rants onstage about PMS and
roommates she can’t stand; those are the parts I hear, anyway.
Next up is one of her friends, a thirtysomething guy who sings Shel
Silverstein — a cappella, Broadway style — then an original
(Broadway style again) about death wishes for an ex-boyfriend. And
so it begins at The Greenwich for 24 hours of open mic bliss. This
monthly event put together by Mark Yates and Taylore Mahogany Scott
(above) is actually broken down into two days, 12 hours each: 3 p.m.-3
a.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday.
And for good reason: It can get kinda slow at times, and right now
we’re in a lull. Usually during these moments Scott is up trying
to encourage more people to come up or performing something of her
own, typically poetry or spoken word. But the pace picks up, the crowd
grows from about five to 25 within the next couple of hours (mostly
DAAP students) and the acts keep getting better.
Throughout the evening locals like Councilman Christopher Smitherman
and Erwin Stuckey make their appearances as well. Without a doubt
the highlight is two DAAP students, Sharon Udoh (on piano) and Cathy
Davenport (violin), performing Beck’s “Lost Cause.”
One forgets how really good piano can sound live. I have a feeling
people will want more of this than just once a month. The Greenwich,
2442 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills, 513-221-1151. (Jessica Turner)
Best Winter Break:
Someone’s living right, because the annual Bockfest
festival seems to catch a weather break every February. The
2004 version again saw decent temps and good crowds, who turned out
in Over-the-Rhine for the parade, the live music, the sausage and
the dark, delicious beer. Mmmmmm, beeeeer.
Best Street Art:
The second annual StreetScapes Festival turned Telford
Avenue into a blacktop Louvre last fall, as local and regional artists
produced faithful chalk-drawn reproductions of classic art works on
the street. The two-day process brought thousands of people to Clifton’s
business district, including many who took in the art after Saturday
night bar-hopping.
Best Art in the Outdoors:
Summerfair has been offering local, regional and
national artists in the great outdoors for more than 35 years now,
and much of its longevity is due to the dedication of its knowledgeable
organizers and volunteers. And Summerfair gives back to the community,
donating more than $400,000 over the years in the form of grants,
scholarships and exhibitions.
Best Carved Trees:
David Nash’s sculpture Seven Vessels Ascending/
Descending is one of the highlights of the still new (and still undiscovered)
Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park just east of Sawyer
Point downtown. The sculpture consists of seven pillars carved from
English Oak that are arranged on the park’s Plaza of the Sun
to cast shadows at certain times (like the solstice and the equinox).
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Staff’s
Best Moments at Tall Stacks:
Los Lobos
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Staff’s
Best Moments at Tall Stacks:
• Lucinda Williams’ scratchy, breathy voice was solid
and the songs were as heartbreaking (“Those Three Days”),
penetrating (“Minneapolis”) and saucy (“Righteously”)
as ever. And the sound was great at the P&G Pavillion Stage.
• An accoustic evening with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin,
Patty Griffin and Dar Williams. The weather was perfectly cool, and
so were these amazing women.
• When, during Nickel Creek’s performance, a drunk guy
a couple yards away hollered, “Woo! Go Nickelback!”
• Los Lobos, Church of Rock
• John Hammond, pure religion
• Finding a parking space.
• Sitting in the big tent, listening to amazing Gospel harmonies
from the Fairfield Four and seeing the riverboats float by, occasionally
tooting their horns. An amazing night.
• Standing in the BarrelHouse beer stand line behind about 70
people and finally trading in four wrinkled singles for the BarrelHouse
Tall Stacks Ale. As the kind “bar” tender pulled the keg
handle, a pint-sized golden draught trickled into our cup, dwindling
to an empty halt at the frothy head. He turned to inform us that we
had the last pint of Tall Stacks Ale. There would not be another drop
of it for four years.
• Though enveloped with crowds of people, there was a refreshing
ease of finding friends, coworkers and unexpected names and faces
from our past. It’s either that or we’re just really popular.
• Mike Breen’s hilarious mini-review of the event in CityBeat:
“Like Woodstock for the, uh, Woodstock generation, this year’s
Tall Stacks celebration brought together people from all rungs of
the white upper-middle-class ladder. … Sound quality was mostly
aces, most of the performances were top-notch and we think there were
boats or something.”
Best Hand Up Not Hand Out:
Cincinnati’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity
recently completed its 100th local house.
Best Sight at Music Hall:
The city’s 125-year-old cultural icon is getting something of
a facelift with construction of the Corbett Opera Center
in the building’s north wing, set to open this fall. Used for
years as storage space, the wing is being rehabbed to house Cincinnati
Opera’s offices and ticketing, and the bricked-up windows on
Elm and 14th streets will once again open to the surrounding neighborhood.
Music Hall supporters hope the rehab is the first step toward a safer,
more inviting arts center that includes the relocated SCPA and an
underground parking garage, restaurants and new housing around Washington
Park.
Best Argument for Dumb Growth:
The group that fights light rail systems across the U.S. — mostly
unsuccessfully, as Cincinnati is one of the few major American cities
without rail transit or a plan for rail — came here in November
as part of a travelling conference called “Preserving
the American Dream.” Wendell Cox, the conference’s
keynote speaker, heads an anti-smart growth institute that’s
funded by highway builders, oil lobbying firms, the Texas Farm Bureau,
Exxon Mobile, General Motors and others. His advice for cities struggling
to control sprawl? “What we need to do is essentially make peace
with the automobile.”
Best Change for a Change:
Brent Chasteen has been one of the few bright spots
to emerge from Cincinnati’s tough new anti-panhandling laws.
Hired by Downtown Cincinnati Inc. after the city decided it couldn’t
afford the position, Chasteen has reached beyond the statistics to
interact with homeless people downtown. One by one, he’s tried
to get them the help they need, be it housing, proper documentation,
medical care or a friendly ear to listen. DCI, 617 Vine St., Downtown,
513-421-4440.
Best Proof That People Like Living in
the City:
Turnout for last May’s Clifton House Tour surprised
even its organizers. A gorgeous weekend helped, as visitors had to
stand in line for shuttle buses to move them around Clifton to gawk
at the beautiful homes.
Best Proof That People Like Living in
the City, Part 2:
Last fall’s Downtown Tour of Living attracted
about 4,000 people to check out 17 apartment buildings, condos and
homes in the central business district and Over-the-Rhine. The biggest
buzz seemed to be about the upper floor condo spaces being created
in the old American Building at Walnut Street and Central Parkway.
Best Proof That People Like Living in
the City, Part 3:
When Michael Sweeney opened a Comey & Shepherd
office in Over-the-Rhine, it solidifed the notion that the downtown
real estate market was for real. Others had already done good work
in O-T-R (Bill Baum, Chris Frutkin, Jim Moll, Christine Schoonover),
but the high-profile Comey & Shepherd arrival has made people
sit up and take notice.
Best Proof That People Like Living in
the City, Part 4:
The first brand new housing built in downtown Cincinnati in more than
decade has opened above the new Walgreen’s store at Sixth
and Race streets. The 30 one- and two-bedroom apartments
are in a complex that also offers wiring for high-speed Internet,
a fitness club and a business center.
Best Feel-Good, Band-Aid, Knee-Jerk,
Under-Researched Ordinance:
Reinstatement of the pit bull ban that proved ineffective
and costly the first time around. But it seemed only Councilman Jim
Tarbell bothered to research or question the proposed ordinance,
so it passed and went into effect in November. In spite of the ban,
pit bulls still openly roam Over-the-Rhine. They and their handlers,
that is. But we suppose the ban — which, in effect, amounts
to breed discrimination, decried by knowledgeable veterinarians nationwide
— will be a good claim for Cincinnati politicos come election
time.
Best-Sounding Vague Directive:
The “Black-on-Black Crime Initiative.”
Who could disagree that black-on-black crime is a problem? Seventy-five
homicides last year, most of them black-on-black. But the initiative,
supported by four — yes, the African American — council
members from three political parties, was short on specifics and proposed
to take a quarter of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission’s
annual budget, so it didn’t pass. Please don’t call people
who asked for details “racist.” As Councilman Christopher
Smitherman often says, asking questions is our patriotic duty.
Best Panhandler:
Booger Love — the name he swears is on his
birth certificate — has perfected the role of homeless man,
though he technically lives in subsidized housing. He collects pity
and panhandles for money with a true artistry. Kids love him, he knows
how to work the church circuit and, with a swagger uncommon among
those who frequent Washington Park, he awards uncomfortable female
volunteers who hand out sandwiches with the flattering title of “Boogerettes.”
Best Inexplicable Local Trend:
Cornholemania. From the drooling media coverage to
tournaments at U.S. Bank Arena, the localized popularity of cornhole
has us baffled. To be honest, we still have no idea what it actually
is — something with tiny sacks of corn flour and a tic-tac-toe
board or something? Still, its popularity is spreading. It could be
the arm-wrestling of the new millennium. © |
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