This is where I live

Northside - never a dull moment in the taco/mattress/tax return corridor...

Common Sense in Columbus ?

Seems a little wack to think that the governor & legislators of the Buckeye State could come up with anything rational nowadays. Investing in more asphalt, subsidizing sprawl, reducing transparency & shoving more religionist BS down our throats seems to be their only game.
But Lt Governor Mary Taylor has implemented a 'Common Sense Initiative to reduce red tape & make doing business in Ohio easier in a way that benefits small business people.
This article describes how the changes helped a guy start up a micro brew pub in lofty Bellefontaine, Ohio.
We need more of this in Ohio.

Tax Friendliness v. Tax Subsidy

2 maps with an iteresting contrast. One rates states tax friendliness for small businesses & the other shows the donor & receiver states in relation to how much they send to DC as opposed to how much they get back.
Amazingly, a lot of the states that get back more than they put in have friendlier tax rates than the states who subsidize them. A lot of the 'friendlier' states have low population density hence loess infrastructure to maintain and, obviously fewer people to support the small businesses.

More on tax friendliness here

More on donor & reciever states here

oh, the humanity...

Here WKRC informs us of a road closure due to streetcar constructure.
They don't mention that it's one block & dead as a doornail.
Here WKRC tells us how construction in downtown Cincinnati is destroying businesses.
So, here's my question - Why didn't they interview the displaced hookers on Henry?
Why didn't they interview the napping mailman who drank his lunch at Charlie's and would then park his truck by the Moerlein loading dock?
why, WKRC, why?

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How Cynical Do Ya Wannabe ?

This video is a response to this post on Reddit.
I have to say, I might have bought some pointless crap when buying funerals but I never felt pressured. Of course that might be because the directors were so cunning, but…
Anyway, I've never dealt with one of these corporate places, either.
One thing you have to bear in mind is that laws are different from state to state, so if your funeral director tells you you need something in Ohio & your cousin Larry in Colorado says that's not true, it might just be a state thing - and Ohio's laced up pretty tight on this. Cemeteries can have different policies on things like burial vaults, too.

Dunno if this plan will really improve business for these businesses but it can't hurt. One thing I noticed is that, while I generally like the cluttered chaotic look in Northside's business district, all the wires & cables DO detract from these signs.
Due to psychotic zoning laws the signs had to conform to certain size restrictions but these are larger & more readable than a lot of the signs over new businesses in the downtown/OTR areas of Cincinnati.
While the initial plan was to do 3 Cincinnati area neighborhoods, funding fell short so only one neighborhood was blitzed. Who should be next?

Cincinnati Mayor Puts His Town on Firm FootingCincinnati mayor is in France today meeting with, among others, Snecma, a partner with GE and with officials of other local companies and businesses.
With the U.S. looking more attractive to foreign investors, their investment in the U.S. is expected to grow approximately 50% over the next 5 years. Mallory doing the groundwork now could put Cincinnati on a very solid foundation. The U.S. stands to get millions of new jobs as China and India, with lower productivity than the U.S., lose their luster and China's wages rise to be more in line with the U.S.
Now if Kasich doesn't blow it…..
Of course, whoever is in office in the future will take credit for whatever happens.

Speedway

I thought this ad was pretty wack but with gasoline sales & total auto mileage down, it appears the business inside Enon. Ohio's Speedway stores is ticking along rather nicely with a 13% bump from sales from this quarter last year.
Like the JS said, "you know the people come around for a reason".

Noose Son story here

Disconnections
While the city bemoans "food deserts" they finance a restaurant chain that is in arrears on taxes but they did nothing to help a grocery in a similar position.
Meanwhile locally owned grocer Kroger has debuted a vending machine on steroids but only seems interested in marketing it to college campuses. I doubt the rougher neighborhoods in Cincinnati deemed food deserts are much worse than college campuses when it comes to vandalism & petty crime.
UPDATE:oh lord...

3CDC v. Neighborhoods ?
A recent article in SoapBox describes how some enterprising guys built up a following an Northside's Take the Cake and decided to launch out on their own with an Italian trattoria, A Tavola. With the following they had built up, they naturally went shopping for a space in Northside. 3CDC got involved & sold the new business on a space in OTR's booming Gateway Quarter.
So How do the neighborhoods of Cincinnati compete with the money & organization of a local juggernaut like 3CDC?
Sure, the neighborhoods have business associations, but they are like college student protestors compared to 3CDC's Xe. I'm all for a healthy city center and Northside needs another restaurant like it needs a hole in it's collective head but is the lopsided competition in the greater city's best interest?

Ole’ Book Nook Closes
Urbana's lone book store is set to close after serving the community for 25 years.
After the closing of the 2 mall bookstores in Springfield's Upper Valley Mall, Springfield, 10 miles south of Urbana, is left with one independent book store & one comic book store. The next nearest bookstore to Urbana is in West Liberty, about 12 miles to the north. There are a couple other book sores out in the rural wastes of central Ohio but the best selections will be in Columbus, about 50 miles to the east.
Is the bookstore even relevant today? One can get on Amazon & read customer reviews, view rankings, etc...
Champaign County does have a library. What it's future is - who knows?
With the added tech of Kindle type crap, the bookstore gradually gets less and less relevant. The Amazon portal for independent book dealers keeps old books available to the general public without requiring a person to hunt about in all these small town book stores.
Whatever, it's still kinda sad.

Noose Son story here.

Ohio Solar

Caught the first in a 3 part series in the Toledo Blade about Ohio's fumbling solar industry. As we bend over backwards for coal, all other energy sources lag.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Environmental Justice
Cincinnati councliman, Dave Crowley has been working on an Environmental Justice Ordinance for the city for a few years now. It addresses the fact that poor people and frequently minorities are frequently adversely affected by industrial pollution more so than wealthy people. While Christian Moerlein used to live across the street from his plant (yuck !), the trend in later years was to move residential property away from manufacturing facilities. It was more pleasant and healthier. Eventually we fairly legally mandated the separations between residential, retail and manufacturing through zoning laws. Some stuff was grandfathered, wealth brings choices - the fact is poorer people and frequently minorities are still frequently adversely affected by industrial pollution.
So I get it. I agree with the idea in principle but the implementation puts an added burden on the business that wants to move to the community or expand within the community that will likely lead businesses to throw up their hands and just not bother with investing in the city regardless of wether their facility might have a negative impact on residents or not. This will result in the un-alleviation of poverty and the impoverished frequently engage in lifestyles that negatively affect their health anyway.
My problem is not with the intent of this ordinance but in it's implementation that requires the prospective business to invest in supplementary documentation and then wait for an additional review by some shadowy board that is estimated to take another 2-3 months & result in a thumbs up or down.
The process needs to be as upfront and business friendly as possible so decisions can be made quickly, efficiently and economically. The prospective business needs to know the rules up front. Adding a layer to the approval process internally is fine but adding another process for the business is a bad idea.
Government is understandably slow by nature but time is money for businesses and we need economic growth and jobs in this town.

Wittenberg Invests in Cincinnati

Well, sorta.
A Wittenberg University investment club was recently profiled by TheStreet, a Wall Street Journal newsletter for it's success in bucking recent downwards market trends.
Notable investments in their portfolio included Cincinnati based Proctor and Gamble and a major employer in the Cincinnati area, General Electric.
Proof that investing in Ohio is a good idea.

Noose Son story here.