Memorial Day Weekend Fun
ok, sure, you can go downtown to Taste of Cincinnati (aka Linefest) and likely get murdered (because everybody who goes downtown DIES !!!)
Or you can enjoy a safe, comfy extended weekend in the pastoral splendor of tranquil Northside without the fear of C.H.U.D. eating your children.

Saturday
Veterans Traveling Memorial Wall - all weekend
Spring Grove Cemetery - 4521 Spring Grove Avenue
all weekend
Whale of a Tale
Family Enrichment Center - 4244 Hamilton Ave.
noon
Square Dance
North Presbo Church - 4222 Hamilton Avenue
7 - 10 PM
Bostic Family Tent Revival Band Playfully Yours
Northside Tavern - 4163 Hamilton Avenue
10PM
Coliseum (I'm guessing not that Coliseum_, Sweet Cobra, Autumn Rising
Mayday - 4227 Spring Grove Avenue

Sunday
Giant Fundraiser Garage Sale
4319 Haight Avenue
9AM - 2PM
Salute to Veterans
Spring Grove Cemetery - 4521 Spring Grove Avenue
2 - 4PM
Northside Tea Dance
Off the Avenue Studios - 1546 Knowlton Avenue
4 - 7 PM
The Tillers
Northside Tavern - 4163 Hamilton Avenue
10 PM
Arts & Education Center Fundraiser
The Comet - 4579 Hamilton Avenue
11AM - 2AM
Comet Bluegrass All-Stars @ 7:30 PM
The Ted Clark Show
Mayday - 4227 Spring Grove Avenue

Monday
Clifton Memorial Day Parade
Middleton @ McAlpin Avenue
10:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Memorial Day Services
Wesleyan Cemetery - 4003 Colerain
1 PM
Monday Knights
The Comet - 4579 Hamilton Avenue
10PM

Columbus Vice
Senator Tim Grendell R of Clevo wants more money for the sale of Ohio's liquor sales to John Kasich's private VC group than what Kasich has proposed. This is certainly in keeping with Kasich wanting to soak private businesses for every possible penny, but in defying Kasich's "best deal", is a mere elected official stepping out of bounds?
Kasich doctrine indicates the people of Ohio are best represented by private consulting firms in New York - not by their votes or elected representatives. Will Grendell's defiance earn him a Seitz-like smackdown?

Cowtown Dispatch article here.

Animal Rights Crazies Thwarted in Tragedy Exploitation
PETA couldn't find a billboard vendor in the Dayton area to carry their planned billboard comparing eating meat to infanticide citing the death of a baby microwaved by her mom (who was later convicted of murder).
The race baiting Southern Christian Leadership Conference found it racist (no surprise). I don't think that's what the billboard vendors were opposed to.
Noose Son story here.

Ensuring Ohio's Representation
To ensure that "the [Ohio] taxpayers interests are represented" in new casino deals Ohioans did not vote for, "Wall Street" John Kasich is having his high priced consultants talk with the casino operators slated for Ohio's 4 voter approved casinos.
If you want to go - you can't. It's private. If you wanted to go anyway, you would have to travel to New York City, NY.

The Springfield Arcade

The Springfield, Ohio Arcade many years ago. This is where the Springfield Inn is today. The upstairs was a hotel with a lobby and bar at the south east corner (far left). This would have been about a block from the old train station. The bar still existed as The Ringside when I was a lad. The hotel degenerated & closed. I always wondered why malls didn't have residential built in. Maybe in some kind of Mad Max future, people will just live in cars in the mall parking lots….
The image and a bunch of other pictures of old Springfield can be found on the Springield History site.

American Can Remodeling

Video by Driven31

Failing Newspaper Resolves to Fix Government
Taking a page from the Nancy Spungen playbook, the Cincinnati Enquirer has decided to solve the problems in City Hall.
Can we strengthen city leadership?
Complete with polls (interactivity!) and video (multi-media!), the Fishwrap gets off to a really slow start in examining the people and organizational structure of municipal government while stroking their exurban readership. How unbiased the extremely Republican® publication can be isn't even debatable. They vow to keep this up through August. Can they make it that long without any more layoffs? Stay tuned.

Macho Man

Randy Macho Man Savage died today in a 1 car wreck - or maybe his dying caused the wreck...
The video above is a good snapshot of all the glitz, drama & melodrama that is professional wrestling. Macho Man gave us all a lot of great memories and made a lot of money for some people.

What the hell ever happened to Mean Gene ?

Northside Farmers Market at Hoffner Park

Northside Farmers Market at Hoffner Park Wednesday, May 18
(pay no attention to the date in the video)
Because the weather is all nice, warm and sunny, Northside's Farmers Market crawls out of the catacombs at North Presbyterian Church and returns to scenic Jacob Hoffner Park on Hamilton @ Blue Rock on Wednesdays from 4 - 7:30 PM to celebrate it's 10th year running!

Follow the Northside Farmers Market on FaceBook.

Bicycling is Dangerous
OK, so I'm careening down a hill and miraculously I'm going to get a green light at the bottom. Just gotta look out for idiot cage pilots pulling out / turning in front of me. A guy from the right hand side street pulls up & starts to run the light, sees me & stops. I made the next light but got stopped at the one after that. While standing there waiting for the light to change a motorist pulls up next to me. He starts shouting "hey" & "guy". I finally look over & the guy is looking at me. Lo & behold, it's the guy from the last traffic light. He tells me riding a bicycle is dangerous. He tells me he almost "clipped" me. I told him I knew "cycling was dangerous" and "you have to watch where you're going".
So did the guy think cycling was inherently dangerous? Balancing a couple hundred pounds on 2 skinny wheels with maybe 2 square inches of surface contact? Or did he want to inform me that, because his ilk was spastically bouncing around in 2,000 pound fire bombs like pinballs, bicycling was dangerous?
Seriously, dude, watch where you're going. Next time it may not be a bicycle & I doubt you want to be as cavalier when that Kenworth is bearing down on you at 60 MPH.

Northside Community Council Meeting Concerning Shooting of David "Bones" Hebert

Northside Community Council Meeting 5/16/11

2.5 Men ?
OK, time for the heavy stuff.
It's been announced that 2.5 men will continue without Charlie Sheen. Ashton Kutcher will be replacing him but his character has yet to be announced.
I am not a big Kutcher fan and a late 2.5 Men watcher. Sheen was pretty much walking through his role. The supporting cast pretty much did the work. The writing for the kid, Angus something, had not evolved as the kid grew. The show really was getting kinda stale.
So 2 things. What to do with the Charlie Harper character and what to do with Kutcher? Whatever the changes are, hopefully they will include changes for the kid. I guess that's 2.5 things. ha ha
Being a sick bastard, killing Charlie Harper would tickle me pink. Perhaps passing out in his car as it rolled off a cliff? Viagra overdose? Simple heart attack? Rose hacking him to pieces with a carving knife?
The polite solution would be to have him disappear. That way, if things get patched up between Sheen and the producers, he could come back. oh, the hi jinx…..
What to do with Kutcher? Obviously a shlep who walks into good fortune will be the role with him taking in Alan, the kid & Berta. Alan's first wife's little brother would work. She would, of course hate him. It could require a new set which would be nice. IIRC, Kutcher's Kelso character in That 70's Show was supposed to have made it rich as a game developer. This scenario could work nicely with Alan & kid.
So, if Jim Belushi can get cast as a lawyer, why can't Conchata Ferrell?

The Crazies

Leslie Ghiz Jumps the Shark
Following a special City Council meeting, Councilwoman Ghiz phoned in to WLW and chided the "crazies" at the meeting.
Prosperity theology preaching, exorcist Charlie Winburn added channeling John Cranley to his repertoire as he peppered the city manager with dozens of trivial questions.
Councilman Wayne Lippert couldn't tell the difference between a surface rail system that travels through the city and an elevated rail system that travels around the city.
An obese man who clearly eats more than he needs lectured the mayor on needs.
Tom Luken wandered around spouting gibberish till security finally removed him. Luken, a mass transit opponent unwittingly wore a pro-streetcar button till his handlers noticed and removed it.

An ACLU guy made threatening gestures at a concerned OTR resident.
Chris Smitherman was picking fights, yelling at people & accusing people of being misconceived. He had to be restrained by security as well.

But are these the crazies of which Ghiz spoke? nope. She agrees with Smitherman. She pointed out that while she is angry now she has not been in the past. Maybe bitchy, whiney & catty…..
No, she cited residents, businessmen, investors, other educated professionals who support the streetcar investment for being "The Crazies". How much is the word of a woman who cites Karl Rove as a hero worth? Indeed, between Ghiz & Cunningham anything goes. Cunningham decried the streetcar loop length for being both long and short in the matter of minutes.
For a play by play of the meeting, check out 5chw4r7z' The Revolution Will Be Tweeted.
NOTE I could only get the WLW page o load correctly in Innernet Exploder. Lin - Mac, no go.
WLWT coverage here.

Cherry Picking ?
At the Windbag's special council meeting, rookie councilman Wayne Lippert accused city manager Dohoney of cherry picking his streetcar comparisons. Lippert cited the most obvious comparison as being the Detroit people Mover. Does this look like the Cincinnati plan? Apparently Wayne thinks so.




When the guy said he had an open mind about the streetcar, I was thinking of something different.

For Lux

Cincinnati's Bizarro GOP
So, the Republicans on Cincinnati city council call a special meeting at the last minute to discuss transportation infrastructure but the topic they wanted to cover had already been scheduled weeks earlier for a report in the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee meeting to be held the day before. None of the Republicans attended the meeting. Wendell Young, a Democrat, attended although he is not on the committee.
In fact none of the Republicans are on the committee. Transportation and infrastructure are incredibly important to commerce, industry, safety and the quality of life in the city. Why is nobody in the supposedly pro-business Republican party on the committee?
No, in Cincinnati the GOP is too busy kissing labor union asses.
Is this why the Republican state legislature hates Cincinnati?

Streetcar Already Driving Economic Development

Due to the unprecedented success of this blog - nary a week goes by that somebody hits the site looking for pictures of Ashley Bulgari or some guy in Bwangi Ghanghi shows up hitting "Next Blog" or some Eurotrash lands here looking for some 70s rock music shit - I have started a new blog, Fiendish Dreaming.
Yes, it is just my dreams. Yes, the name is taken from one time Cincinnatian, Winsor McCay's cartoon strip. Yes, if you already thought I was mentally unstable these glimpses into my dream world should clinch it. Yes, I will censor (a recent visit to a whore house has some missing parts). Yes, names will be named.
Yes ~in summary~ it is EVERYTHING you ever wanted to waste your time reading online!

13 Pages of Local History Gold

The cover contrasted with a current Google Earth rendering
Back in 1940 the Urban Land Institute, a construct of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, concocted a set of proposals to strengthen the "downtown" areas of large cities across America that had suffered from the decentralization of their residents & businesses. I found the summary for Cincinnati at the Hamco Library. At 13 whole pages, it took more time to get it than to read it. but it's full of goodies.
The introduction:

Cincinnati has a distinct character which individualizes it among American cities, Because of the high calibre of its citizens this community has built exceptional ideals, not only in its governmental. industrial and. business life, but likewise in its pursuit of educational and cultural objectives. Among cities it stands high as a comment in which to live and. to do business it likewise deserves its enviable reputation for good government and financial stability Nevertheless, It Is quite
apparent that Cincinnati now stands at the crossroads as between becoming a static or retrogressive community, or, by forward looking action, becoming the great focal point for a large surrounding territory, The time is here when the citizens must decide what the City has the capacity to become, and. what they desire it to "be in the way of a City.
Quite obviously the citizens of this metropolitan area do not wish to see Cincinnati retrogress There has been a long period during which the City has done little else but endeavor to meet the pressing problems which have confronted it from year to year. The time is at hand when the City must adopt a constructive long range program leading to systematic procedure over a period of time and the taking of those steps and the making of those improvements necessary to arrest decline and to assure progress.

Other tids:

• Population: 452,852
• 90% of the population was born locally.
• 10% of the population is colored.
• During the past decade there haB been a loss of approximately 6% of the substantial population, which has been supplanted, by negroes, migrants from the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains, and persons seeking the relief bounty of the City.
• The central business district bounded by Plum, Central Parkway, 3rd Street and Broadway contains:
  
  • 230 specialty shops
  • 38 hotels
  • 30 office buildings
  • 19 banks
  • 14 theaters
  • 12 department stores
  • 9 five & dimes
  • 6 apartment hotels
  
  
• Office building vacancy: 15.8% (down from 1933's 28.9%)
• Single family residence vacancy <1%
• Since 1922 266 buildings razed - 24 built
• Debt: $35,774,917
• 1 car / 4.29 persons

There are a number of recommendations including eliminating on street parking in the CBD, build parking under the streets, build traffic bypasses, widen Liberty, Harrison & Gilbert, construct a crosstown artery using the Rapid Transit ROW from Oakley to Central Parkway, save Music Hall….
Seriously, good geek fun.

Happy Free Comic Book Day

Some comic book stores in the Cincinnati area:

Up Up and Away
4016 Harrison Avenue
Rockin' Rooster Comics & Games
5000 Glenway Avenue
Clifton Comics
3234 Jefferson Avenue
Comic Book World
7130 Turfway Road
Queen City Comic and Card
6101 Montgomery Road (@ Ridge)

Boycott Fayette County

Come on, Cincinnati, quit screwing around. Just institute a pay per bag yard waste pickup system like everybody else in Hamilton County has.

Spring Grove Cemetery Summer Hours in Effect

Spring Grove Cemetery's regular visitor hours (8A - 6P) are extended on Monday & Thursdays to 8P from now to September.
This means you can catch the evening sun on the blossoming flora 2 nights a week.
yay!
NOTE: the southern gate closes before the northern gate (pictured), so don't freak out (too much) if you think you are locked in.