Bright Eyes in Brighton
A tiny corner of urban Cincinnati offers surprising delights
BY MARGO PIERCE AND STEVE RAMOS

A warm February afternoon in the sliver-sized Westside neighborhood of Brighton means more passersby in the alleyway adjacent to Central Avenue. It's a quick shortcut to the Queen Ann, a tavern popular with elderly barflies and young toughs, as well as a semi-private place to piss.

hteFred Lane is as responsible as anyone for putting Brighton on the map Photo: Matt Borgerding

Public restrooms are in short supply in Brighton, as are grocers and places to eat.

Brighton - just north of the West End and its massive new housing development, east of the Queensgate factories and rail yards and south of the hillside neighborhood of Fairview - is urban raw.

Its original German immigrant population from 100 years ago is long gone. There are no cool restaurants or cafes. But artists often determine what becomes a hot spot, and there are plenty of artists living in Brighton as well as two galleries.

Real estate agents looking for a comparison need to consider the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. Both 'hoods claim plenty of factories, many shuttered, empty storefronts and street grit.

The price is right for someone looking to buy a large industrial space here. Rents are affordable. Its incoming residents are art students, graphic designers, professors and museum staff - the very creative class every city desires.

There are few bus stops, which explains the bicycles many Brighton residents use for transportation. Plans for a nearby mega-sized drug and alcohol rehab center (CityLink) met with opposition from many of the artists new to Brighton. They see a better vision for the neighborhood.

Its next stage, featuring condo conversion and hip retailers, has yet to materialize. But the possibilities are there, as real as the urban trailblazers who already call Brighton home.

teNeighbors include storefront churches. Photo: Matt Borgerding

Best Gateway: 30 Module Sphere No. 1
Brighton Ski Resort? No, that's in Utah.
Brighton City? No, that's in Michigan.
Brighton Bar? No, that's in Long Branch, N.J. Brighton, England? Not even close. Brighton is a West End neighborhood. Getting there is simple once you have a landmark.

And Brighton has one: an 11-foot-high stainless steel sculpture that looks like a piece of origami. Designed by Patricia Renick, "30 Module Sphere No. 1" commands the intersection of Central Parkway, Central Avenue, Brighton Place and Colerain Avenue. As they say, you can't miss it.

Here's another way to find the sculptures, using Cincinnati directions: It's across from The Mockbee Building at the first intersection south of the Western Hills Viaduct, or you can turn left at the intersection in front of the old Brighton Bank building. Check it out. (SR)

Best New Artist on the Block:
Junior Gallery and Store
Ryan Fabel lives in a Tokyo-worthy cubicle he carved out of the back room of Junior, the retail and gallery space on Central Avenue he recently opened with partners Ryan Santos, Josh Breidenbach and Katrina Opp. His bed and bookshelves are in a bunk above a small desk and closet for his clothes. He has a microwave and a fridge with little food and a few bottles of beer. Everything else - the space, the resources - is for the gallery.

teDavid Dillon at Semantics Gallery. Photo: Matt Borgerding

Word of mouth and myspace.com help get the word out. There are art shows and concerts and general happenings. Its current show features installations from Essen, the visual art project of Berkeley, Calif., artists Nathaniel Russell and Simone Rubi. The alley-facing storefront will display local crafts and small artworks.

The large gallery room is at the front of the building. With a wooden floor that's missing a plank or two and few windows, Junior reflects the grit of its surrounding neighbors, the Queen Ann bar and a storefront church. Junior is too polished a space to be considered raw. It's also worlds apart from museum quality.

In other words, it's perfect for Brighton - down to the tiny living space of its co-founder at the back of the building. (SR)
2159 Central Ave., 513-544-5835

Best Art Pioneer:
David Dillon and Semantics Gallery
Repair work on the red brick building near the corner of Harrison and Colerain avenues is constantly needed, but it's hard to imagine the old wallpaper and garbage piles that filled the front room before exhibition installer and Semantics co-founder David Dillon and other volunteers opened their Brighton gallery in summer 1998.

If Brighton is to become a true arts neighborhood, Dillon deserves much of the credit for the vision to bring Semantics Gallery to the downtrodden area. He's an artist ahead of the curve and the consummate culture volunteer.

teWelcome to Brighton, a little corner of heaven off of Central Parkway notable for Patricia Renicks' signature sculpture. Photo: Matt Borgerding

On the evening prior to the opening of the Julia Ranz installation The 20 Bunnies Project, a series of drawings representing the 20-bunny-sketches-a-day project she undertook last year, Dillon is at the gallery to help set up. It helps that his home is just across Central Parkway, which makes him a neighborhood fixture and the veteran among the newfound Brighton residents.

He's experienced his share of headaches, including an arrest for selling beer at a Semantics opening without a license. But his commitment to the neighborhood is as rock solid as the sturdy building housing the gallery he's given sweat and blood to sustaining. (MP)
1107 Harrison Ave., 513-661-2581

Best Local Donald Trump:
Fred Lane
The home security system favored by Brighton property owner Fred Lane involves one calling his mobile phone from the stoop outside his Harrison Avenue building and waiting to catch the keys Lane tosses down to you from an upper floor window. He owns numerous buildings throughout Brighton, including The Mockbee and the current homes of the Junior and Semantic galleries. But the spot he calls home is a sprawling loft that's several floors above artist Jay Bolotin's studio.

Lane considers himself Brighton's first outsider, someone who moved to the neighborhood with the purpose of buying up property and rehabbing them into new living spaces. His clientele are the artists who overcome the car break-ins and street crime for the inexpensive rents and close proximity to downtown and Clifton.

"I don't know if Brighton will ever have hip restaurants or coffee bars," Lane says over a cup of coffee. "I don't know if there is enough people living here to support that. But it may happen."

Location is everything, and people who can't afford downtown or Over-the-Rhine condos but still want an industrial feel might find a home in Brighton. If they do, chances are Lane will be their landlord. (SR)

Best Helping Hand:
Restoration Church X2
Moving into a depressed neighborhood gives people with vision an opportunity to be an integral part of transforming the community. Cincinnati Restoration Church is one Brighton resident making that vision a reality.

While helping addicts transform their lives through prayer and Bible study, the church has plans to transform a second building on Harrison Avenue to expand the housing, feeding and clothing of its residents. (MP)
1101 Harrison Ave., 513-621-1881 (men's and women's program: 513-333-0212)

Best Place to Play:
Dyer Pool
The Dyer Pool was built in the 1920s. Like other vintage pools, it began to leak and had mechanical problems. Instead of filling it in, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC) decided to try what other parks are doing around the country - convert it.

The Dyer Sprayground keeps neighborhood kids and adults cool during Cincinnati's hot summer days. Staffed by the CRC, the sprayground is safe, inexpensive fun close to home. The adjacent traditional playground comes with a not-so-traditional playground monitor.

"In the summer CRC has a summer playground program," says Bunny Arszman, CRC communications manager. "We came up with the old playground monitor system from years and years ago. The monitor plays with the kids, initiates organized games and leads arts and crafts."

A schedule of dates, times and activities is prepared. Leagues are also scheduled for basketball, football, softball and baseball at Dyer. In between league games and Taft High School baseball practice, the park facilities can be reserved for events or family gatherings.

Dyer Park proves that city living doesn't have to mean giving up outdoor fun. (MP)
2110 Freeman Ave., 513-352-4000

Details, details
- Dyer Sprayground Water Slide: $5 annual membership

- Outdoor basketball court

- Football field (no goal posts)

- Softball fields (one for adults with lights, two youth fields without lights)

- Fields can be reserved: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.; 12-3 p.m.; 3-6 p.m.; 6 p.m.-dark