Springfield Farmers' Market Resumes in Historic Location
Farmers' market to reopen
By Samantha Sommer
Springfield News-Sun Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Springfield, Ohio — Locally grown food can taste better, help the environment and boost the local economy.
Buying that food at a farmer's market also offers a chance to connect to farmers and friends, said Sherry Chen, one of the co-managers of the Springfield Farmers' Market.
"It's all about community," she said.
The Springfield Farmers' Market kicks off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 7, on Market Street between the Heritage Center and Elderly United.
It will run every Saturday through Sept. 27 and feature a variety of goods and produce.
Items on sale will range from buffalo meat to cucumbers and berries to fresh flowers.
This year the market will feature only produce grown in Ohio, Chen said.
The fruits and vegetables on sale also will change with what's in season.
That means food is picked when it's ripe, Chen said, and isn't treated with chemicals or waxes for a long, fuel-consuming journey.
Buying local food also keeps money here, Chen said, and offers shoppers a chance to talk to producers about how they grow their food.
"Those are the connections people are looking for now and is another reason to get it from the farmers as opposed to a truck that came from 1,000 miles away," she said.
The market also is working on accepting food stamps.
Live music will be featured every week, and some weeks will include food demonstrations. Educational information about preserving farmland and eating seasonal, local food will be on hand.
The Heritage Center bell will be rung to mark the opening of the market, as it did when it was a market, said Gene Barnett, market co-manager.
"When the market opened 110 years ago, they rang it at 4 a.m.," he said. "We're not going to open that early."
Story here.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD 1921
Obama at the Corn Palace ?
great
Any chance we can just leave him there and let the squirrels eat his scrawny butt ?
Monday, May 26, 2008
Well, I am not happy at all about the Libertarians picking Bob Barr as their presidential candidate. I felt Mary Ruwart would have been much better. At least they did not embrace an entertainer the way they have in the past with the likes of Howard Stern.
In this WSJ opinion piece, Bruce Bartlett suggests that a strong Libertarian candidate could bring out the Republicans who are currently vowing to stay home and not vote as a protest against John McCain.
This could cinch a win for the Democrat presidential candidate but help out Republicans in the congress and senate which would hamper the effectiveness of the Dem president.
Wonder what the Greens are gonna come up with.
In this WSJ opinion piece, Bruce Bartlett suggests that a strong Libertarian candidate could bring out the Republicans who are currently vowing to stay home and not vote as a protest against John McCain.
This could cinch a win for the Democrat presidential candidate but help out Republicans in the congress and senate which would hamper the effectiveness of the Dem president.
Wonder what the Greens are gonna come up with.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Libertarian National Convention is ON !
C-Span will be covering it today from 10:30 AM on through the afternoon.
From what I saw last night, Mary Ruwart looks like the best candidate to me.
Bob Barr comes off as the most polished, but his experience in DC gives him the edge on that. Mike Gravel looks old and tired and the rest of the pack come off like late night infomercial hucksters.
While the Democrat convention might actually be interesting this year, the corporate parties' conventions are usually no more than dull coronations. Libertarian conventions are a trip. Things actually happen. Issues and ideas are discussed and real change is always the focus.
Never a dull moment.
C-Span will be covering it today from 10:30 AM on through the afternoon.
From what I saw last night, Mary Ruwart looks like the best candidate to me.
Bob Barr comes off as the most polished, but his experience in DC gives him the edge on that. Mike Gravel looks old and tired and the rest of the pack come off like late night infomercial hucksters.
While the Democrat convention might actually be interesting this year, the corporate parties' conventions are usually no more than dull coronations. Libertarian conventions are a trip. Things actually happen. Issues and ideas are discussed and real change is always the focus.
Never a dull moment.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
G.A.S.P. is a BOONDOGGLE !
HamCo Comm DeWine's idea to create a website that chronicles every penny of county spending is nothing but a boondoggle.
It will make great fodder for bloggers and armchair politicians. It will be the first source of ammo whenever someone wants to slam a government program. It will be the number one bookmark for C.O.A.S.T.ers.
But, without an understanding of what the money bought, it will offer no real information or value.
On top of that, the website won't just appear out of thin air. It will need to be built and databases populated. Then, there are the long term costs as every bit of accounting will have at least one more step as the information will have to be entered onto the site. This will all add up to more and more man hours endlessly accrued and paid for by the residents and workers in Hamilton County who will see no real benefit.
It is merely one of Commissioner DeWine's last bits of feel good legislation - a legacy of a boondoggle that will continue on forever.
HamCo Comm DeWine's idea to create a website that chronicles every penny of county spending is nothing but a boondoggle.
It will make great fodder for bloggers and armchair politicians. It will be the first source of ammo whenever someone wants to slam a government program. It will be the number one bookmark for C.O.A.S.T.ers.
But, without an understanding of what the money bought, it will offer no real information or value.
On top of that, the website won't just appear out of thin air. It will need to be built and databases populated. Then, there are the long term costs as every bit of accounting will have at least one more step as the information will have to be entered onto the site. This will all add up to more and more man hours endlessly accrued and paid for by the residents and workers in Hamilton County who will see no real benefit.
It is merely one of Commissioner DeWine's last bits of feel good legislation - a legacy of a boondoggle that will continue on forever.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
WOOHOO !
Stronger by Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter is seriously old school. She, whaddyacallit ? Tries ?
I saw June's daughter at Kettering's Fraze Pavilion some time ago and she just absolutely rocked. She worked the crowd in a way most younger performers just can't. They probably don't know how. CC learned from some masters.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Aronoff is a torture chamber.
I finally went to the Aronoff. Most of the events there don't appeal to me, but my sister dragged me to the ballet with her. The ballet looked pretty good to me. I know nothing about good or bad ballet, of course.....
The orchestra was pretty good and the Xavier chorus was good.
The %@*! seats, however were horrible. I felt like I was forced into a near fetal position for 2 hours. The seats are so low, my hips were bent more than 90 degrees. My knees, in such a position would, of course, also be bent more than 90 degrees, but with the short distance to the seat in front of me, I had to tuck my feet back in, making the angle of my knees even more severe.
I am not young but I am not old, either. I am only 6ft 2in - not freakishly tall. But when I rose at the end of the performance, I could barely stand. I barely made it to the end, tho, what with the pain in my knees, butt & lower back.
I guess a key to being a patron of the arts is to be short and skinny. It is a shame that such an expensive new facility was designed so poorly.
I finally went to the Aronoff. Most of the events there don't appeal to me, but my sister dragged me to the ballet with her. The ballet looked pretty good to me. I know nothing about good or bad ballet, of course.....
The orchestra was pretty good and the Xavier chorus was good.
The %@*! seats, however were horrible. I felt like I was forced into a near fetal position for 2 hours. The seats are so low, my hips were bent more than 90 degrees. My knees, in such a position would, of course, also be bent more than 90 degrees, but with the short distance to the seat in front of me, I had to tuck my feet back in, making the angle of my knees even more severe.
I am not young but I am not old, either. I am only 6ft 2in - not freakishly tall. But when I rose at the end of the performance, I could barely stand. I barely made it to the end, tho, what with the pain in my knees, butt & lower back.
I guess a key to being a patron of the arts is to be short and skinny. It is a shame that such an expensive new facility was designed so poorly.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
WOW
Saturday, May 10th is shaping up to be a Northside "Go To" day.
Starting at 9:00 AM a group bicycle ride to Findlay Market will meet at Hoffner Park. The ride is expected to return to the park by noon.
At 11:00 AM Mayor Mallory will dedicate the ArtWorks mural on the wall of 4119 Hamilton Ave (facing Hoffner Park).
Also, from 11:00 AM til 5:00 PM is the Northside Spring Art Fair along the sidewalks on Hamilton Avenue. Shop for locally made fiber arts, jewelry, pottery, paintings, photography, greeting cards, hand blown glass works and more !
From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM 2 artists on Brookside (E of Hamilton between Chase and Pullan) will be having a "funky huge" yard sale.
Later in the evening, Blues Merchant will be playing at The Comet.
The Delusionals will be playing at The Northside Tavern
The Muttss and Watusi Tribe will be playing at The Gypsy Hut.
Of course, Northside's bevy of eateries, Gajah Wong, Melt, The Hideaway, The Blue Jay, Park Chili, The Comet, Portofino's, Boswell Alley and more will be serving up lots of delicious food and White Castle is open all night !
Saturday, May 10th is shaping up to be a Northside "Go To" day.
Starting at 9:00 AM a group bicycle ride to Findlay Market will meet at Hoffner Park. The ride is expected to return to the park by noon.
At 11:00 AM Mayor Mallory will dedicate the ArtWorks mural on the wall of 4119 Hamilton Ave (facing Hoffner Park).
Also, from 11:00 AM til 5:00 PM is the Northside Spring Art Fair along the sidewalks on Hamilton Avenue. Shop for locally made fiber arts, jewelry, pottery, paintings, photography, greeting cards, hand blown glass works and more !
From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM 2 artists on Brookside (E of Hamilton between Chase and Pullan) will be having a "funky huge" yard sale.
Later in the evening, Blues Merchant will be playing at The Comet.
The Delusionals will be playing at The Northside Tavern
The Muttss and Watusi Tribe will be playing at The Gypsy Hut.
Of course, Northside's bevy of eateries, Gajah Wong, Melt, The Hideaway, The Blue Jay, Park Chili, The Comet, Portofino's, Boswell Alley and more will be serving up lots of delicious food and White Castle is open all night !
Saturday, May 03, 2008
How bad does the Cincinnati Enquirer suck ?
Would a Porktowner be interested in ODOT ? A city quartered by 3 highways ?
A search of the Enquirer.com site gives me polka dot bridesmaid dresses, the odot website, and a link to a directory of rest areas.
Search Results
The Urbana Citizen actually links to a real article about a land auction.
Results here
The Dayton Daily News and the Cleveland Plain Dealer give up a whole buttload of articles.
Dayton Daily News results
Clevo Plain Dealer results
Of course, it could be worse, the Columbus Dispatch seems to come up with some decent results & then gives me an XML error.
Dispatch results
Would a Porktowner be interested in ODOT ? A city quartered by 3 highways ?
A search of the Enquirer.com site gives me polka dot bridesmaid dresses, the odot website, and a link to a directory of rest areas.
Search Results
The Urbana Citizen actually links to a real article about a land auction.
Results here
The Dayton Daily News and the Cleveland Plain Dealer give up a whole buttload of articles.
Dayton Daily News results
Clevo Plain Dealer results
Of course, it could be worse, the Columbus Dispatch seems to come up with some decent results & then gives me an XML error.
Dispatch results
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Cedar Bog, near Urbana, Ohio, like many other sites maintained by the Ohio Historical Sociesty, has suffered considerable budget cuts in recent years. Threatened with closure, the volunteer group, The Cedar Bog Association, has stepped up to the plate to, not only keep the nature preserve open, but to continue the efforts to move forward with plans to build an education center and pay a person full time to manage the site.
Cedar Bog was "discovered" by Col. Israel Ludlow when he was surveying the Northwest Territory in the late 1700s. In 1942, the Ohio Historical Society designated the area a nature preserve because it was the best example of a boreal and prairie fen complex in Ohio with many rare plants and animals, excellent orchid and prairie wildflower displays. The Bog was threatened, briefly, when the construction of a new Route 68 was planned to go through it in the '70s. The bog prevailed.
Now the Cedar Bog needs YOU !
With your help in time or money we can keep this rare area of Ohio alive for generations to come.
Article from the Springfield News-Sun here.
Cedar Bog was "discovered" by Col. Israel Ludlow when he was surveying the Northwest Territory in the late 1700s. In 1942, the Ohio Historical Society designated the area a nature preserve because it was the best example of a boreal and prairie fen complex in Ohio with many rare plants and animals, excellent orchid and prairie wildflower displays. The Bog was threatened, briefly, when the construction of a new Route 68 was planned to go through it in the '70s. The bog prevailed.
Now the Cedar Bog needs YOU !
With your help in time or money we can keep this rare area of Ohio alive for generations to come.
Article from the Springfield News-Sun here.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Cincinnati's Metro's routing and scheduling are pretty exclusively geared towards the notion of getting dayshift workers from the neighborhoods to the central business district.
This routing scheme is getting kinda shaky as businesses & homes shift here and there but Metro seems to be slowly adapting.
Where their model really fails and they seem to be doing nothing about it - is scheduling.
While fine for standard dayshifters, the frequency of trips in the 11 PM to 1 AM time slot makes it hard for second and third shift workers to use the system. The problem gets even worse if the rider has to transfer. This can mean 30 - 40 minute waits at midnight at Government Square in January. Frequently these buses are very off schedule, too.
This plan does not address the needs of a society that is increasingly becoming a 24 hr society.
Even as a traditional dayshift society, a common activity is the worker going out on weekend evenings.
Metro's schedules are exactly the same on Friday nights as Monday through Thursday. Saturday is even worse with less frequent trips and some routes not being served at all. I doubt all routes would need the increase in trips on Friday and Saturday evenings, but investigating, locating and targeting centers of entertainment for more active service seems to be a good place to start.
Metro tries to work with different areas - primarily in the outer regions (King's Island) but neighborhood business organizations might do well to petition Metro (or Metro petitioning communities) about adding these late night runs.
As the city embarks on a streetcar system, I wonder if they will continue this antiquated and provincial scheduling scheme. It makes little sense in the downtown area that is a hub of entertainment and conventions to not have frequent late night service.
This routing scheme is getting kinda shaky as businesses & homes shift here and there but Metro seems to be slowly adapting.
Where their model really fails and they seem to be doing nothing about it - is scheduling.
While fine for standard dayshifters, the frequency of trips in the 11 PM to 1 AM time slot makes it hard for second and third shift workers to use the system. The problem gets even worse if the rider has to transfer. This can mean 30 - 40 minute waits at midnight at Government Square in January. Frequently these buses are very off schedule, too.
This plan does not address the needs of a society that is increasingly becoming a 24 hr society.
Even as a traditional dayshift society, a common activity is the worker going out on weekend evenings.
Metro's schedules are exactly the same on Friday nights as Monday through Thursday. Saturday is even worse with less frequent trips and some routes not being served at all. I doubt all routes would need the increase in trips on Friday and Saturday evenings, but investigating, locating and targeting centers of entertainment for more active service seems to be a good place to start.
Metro tries to work with different areas - primarily in the outer regions (King's Island) but neighborhood business organizations might do well to petition Metro (or Metro petitioning communities) about adding these late night runs.
As the city embarks on a streetcar system, I wonder if they will continue this antiquated and provincial scheduling scheme. It makes little sense in the downtown area that is a hub of entertainment and conventions to not have frequent late night service.
Monday, April 21, 2008
This May 3rd and 4th, Cincinnati celebrates Cannabis Liberation Day along with hundreds of cities around the World.
On Saturday, May 3rd
START THE CELEBRATION AT HEMPROCK'S MUSIC HEMPFEST
Riverfront West Sportspark Pavilion
7958 Harrison Ave.
in Miamitown, Ohio
Doors open 7:30pm
Music Guests include:
EAZY
The Frankl Project
Open Mind Productions
VEDGE &
The One Man Electrical Band
Also featuring BURNDEM GLASS REEFERGIRLS
RAFFLES, VENDING, FOOD & BEER CONCESSIONS.
Ticket price is $5.00 a Head plus party all night with a primitive campsite for only $5.00 for each tent.
On Sunday, May 4th
Head Downtown for the Rally & March!
Fountain Square 3:00-6:00pm
At the GMM Downtown Rally, we'll have Speakers, Hemp organizations, Hemp & Drug war info, plus lots of fun, including!!!...
Music Guests VEDGE & EAZY
Prizes for Best Political Signs & Best Rally Outfits & Costumes!
A DRUM CIRCLE at 5:15!!! LED BY RICH SPIRIT DRUMS
Please bring your drums & other musical toys & join in!
MARCH STARTS AT FOUNTAIN SQUARE AT 5:45, LED BY REEFERROACH & THE DRUMMERS!
ENDS AT THE FEDERAL BUILDING AT 6:00pm!!!
Guest Speakers & Organizations include:
Gatewood Galbraith, Craig Lee, HempRock, North Ohio NORML, Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Ohio Patient Network, MMJActionNetwork, Kentucky Marijuana Party, Conservatives For Cannabis, Cincy Attorney Timothy Smith, Paul Green, Blunt Politics, Cincy Bud Kid.
Guest MC's Doc Diablo & Senor Bull, Colonel Cannabis!
For more details on both events email or call the
HempRock Hempline
513-68-4-HEMP
www.hemprock.com
SPONSORS...
HUSTLER CINCINNATI
411 Elm St.
Cincinnati, Ohio 513-421-3769
1038 Lebanon St.
Monroe, Ohio 513-539-6969
HEMPTATIONS CINCINNATI
2034 Madison Rd.
Cincy, Ohio 513-871-HEMP
RANDY'S WIRED PAPERS
1-888-34-RANDYS
On Saturday, May 3rd
START THE CELEBRATION AT HEMPROCK'S MUSIC HEMPFEST
Riverfront West Sportspark Pavilion
7958 Harrison Ave.
in Miamitown, Ohio
Doors open 7:30pm
Music Guests include:
EAZY
The Frankl Project
Open Mind Productions
VEDGE &
The One Man Electrical Band
Also featuring BURNDEM GLASS REEFERGIRLS
RAFFLES, VENDING, FOOD & BEER CONCESSIONS.
Ticket price is $5.00 a Head plus party all night with a primitive campsite for only $5.00 for each tent.
On Sunday, May 4th
Head Downtown for the Rally & March!
Fountain Square 3:00-6:00pm
At the GMM Downtown Rally, we'll have Speakers, Hemp organizations, Hemp & Drug war info, plus lots of fun, including!!!...
Music Guests VEDGE & EAZY
Prizes for Best Political Signs & Best Rally Outfits & Costumes!
A DRUM CIRCLE at 5:15!!! LED BY RICH SPIRIT DRUMS
Please bring your drums & other musical toys & join in!
MARCH STARTS AT FOUNTAIN SQUARE AT 5:45, LED BY REEFERROACH & THE DRUMMERS!
ENDS AT THE FEDERAL BUILDING AT 6:00pm!!!
Guest Speakers & Organizations include:
Gatewood Galbraith, Craig Lee, HempRock, North Ohio NORML, Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Ohio Patient Network, MMJActionNetwork, Kentucky Marijuana Party, Conservatives For Cannabis, Cincy Attorney Timothy Smith, Paul Green, Blunt Politics, Cincy Bud Kid.
Guest MC's Doc Diablo & Senor Bull, Colonel Cannabis!
For more details on both events email or call the
HempRock Hempline
513-68-4-HEMP
www.hemprock.com
SPONSORS...
HUSTLER CINCINNATI
411 Elm St.
Cincinnati, Ohio 513-421-3769
1038 Lebanon St.
Monroe, Ohio 513-539-6969
HEMPTATIONS CINCINNATI
2034 Madison Rd.
Cincy, Ohio 513-871-HEMP
RANDY'S WIRED PAPERS
1-888-34-RANDYS
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Civil injustice strikes Ohio
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bob Ewing
For 40 years, Meredith and Luther Ricks did everything the right way. They worked hard, saved carefully and raised a family in their modest Lima home. They were poised to enjoy their retirement years in peace.
Despite their four decades of hard work, however, an absurdly unjust law has turned their hope for the American Dream into an outrageous nightmare at the hands of the Cleveland FBI.
Both of the Ricks spent their careers at the Ohio Steel Foundry, eschewing lavish spending to save for a comfortable retirement. Not trusting banks, Meredith and Luther kept their life savings in a safe inside the house.
Last summer, two violent intruders broke into the Rickses' house. Luther and his son fought with the burglars. After his son was stabbed, Luther broke free, got his gun and saved the family by shooting one of the intruders and scaring the other off.
When Lima police arrived, the Ricks' nightmare should have been over - but it was just beginning.
The police entered the house and discovered the family safe. Because a small amount of marijuana was inside the home - used by Luther to ease his painful arthritis, hip replacement and shingles - the officers decided to confiscate Meredith and Luther's entire life savings, more than $400,000.
Shortly afterward, the FBI got involved - not to help the stricken family, but to claim the money for the federal government.
Such is the result of civil forfeiture laws, which represent one of the most profound assaults on our rights today.
Civil forfeiture can apply to virtually any property: cars, houses, boats and, as the Rickses' case demonstrates, even money. The property can be seized merely on suspicion that it was used in connection with a crime or resulted from criminal activity.
The police did not charge Luther for the shooting - he acted in self-defense - or for the small quantity of marijuana he used as medicine. Under civil forfeiture, the government can confiscate money or property without proving that a person is guilty of criminal misconduct.
While criminal forfeiture requires that a property owner be found guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, civil forfeiture does not require that the owner even be accused of a crime, much less convicted. The government proceeds directly against the property it wants to take, which means owners are not entitled to any of the protections they would receive if they were accused of a crime.
This bizarre practice was not widespread in the United States until alcohol prohibition and has been used extensively since drug prohibition stiffened in the 1970s and 1980s.
The FBI's adoption of the Lima police's forfeiture is not unusual - the federal government regularly seizes property that was originally confiscated by local authorities and then splits the resulting profits. In Missouri, for example, authorities were recently caught turning forfeitures over to the federal government in order to avoid a legal requirement that proceeds go to schools.
The abuses don't stop there. In the 1990s, police in Louisiana were stealing innocent people's property by fabricating drug crimes. They used the proceeds for ski trips to Aspen.
Civil forfeiture is now a nationwide epidemic with proceeds from federal civil forfeiture alone reaching hundreds of millions of dollars each year. This is part of a larger trend over the past several decades of weakened property rights protection.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Kelo case that government officials can use eminent domain to buy your home, business, church or farm and then hand your property over to another private entity so long as the new owner promises to generate more tax revenue with your land.
Importantly, a nationwide backlash is under way. Ohio leads the country with a historic unanimous ruling in 2006 by the state's Supreme Court that reined in the awesome power of land confiscation. Forty-two states have now reformed their laws on land grabs, making it harder for governments to take your property to boost their tax revenues.
We desperately need a similar backlash against the abuses of civil forfeiture. Thankfully, Meredith and Luther Ricks are fighting back. With free legal help, this week they filed a notice with the Cleveland office of the FBI, demanding the return of their life savings.
Governments should protect, not plunder, our property. Common sense and justice demand that the rampant abuse of civil forfeiture must end.
Ewing is the assistant director of communications for the Institute for Justice, the nation's leading legal advocate for property rights.
Story here.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bob Ewing
For 40 years, Meredith and Luther Ricks did everything the right way. They worked hard, saved carefully and raised a family in their modest Lima home. They were poised to enjoy their retirement years in peace.
Despite their four decades of hard work, however, an absurdly unjust law has turned their hope for the American Dream into an outrageous nightmare at the hands of the Cleveland FBI.
Both of the Ricks spent their careers at the Ohio Steel Foundry, eschewing lavish spending to save for a comfortable retirement. Not trusting banks, Meredith and Luther kept their life savings in a safe inside the house.
Last summer, two violent intruders broke into the Rickses' house. Luther and his son fought with the burglars. After his son was stabbed, Luther broke free, got his gun and saved the family by shooting one of the intruders and scaring the other off.
When Lima police arrived, the Ricks' nightmare should have been over - but it was just beginning.
The police entered the house and discovered the family safe. Because a small amount of marijuana was inside the home - used by Luther to ease his painful arthritis, hip replacement and shingles - the officers decided to confiscate Meredith and Luther's entire life savings, more than $400,000.
Shortly afterward, the FBI got involved - not to help the stricken family, but to claim the money for the federal government.
Such is the result of civil forfeiture laws, which represent one of the most profound assaults on our rights today.
Civil forfeiture can apply to virtually any property: cars, houses, boats and, as the Rickses' case demonstrates, even money. The property can be seized merely on suspicion that it was used in connection with a crime or resulted from criminal activity.
The police did not charge Luther for the shooting - he acted in self-defense - or for the small quantity of marijuana he used as medicine. Under civil forfeiture, the government can confiscate money or property without proving that a person is guilty of criminal misconduct.
While criminal forfeiture requires that a property owner be found guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, civil forfeiture does not require that the owner even be accused of a crime, much less convicted. The government proceeds directly against the property it wants to take, which means owners are not entitled to any of the protections they would receive if they were accused of a crime.
This bizarre practice was not widespread in the United States until alcohol prohibition and has been used extensively since drug prohibition stiffened in the 1970s and 1980s.
The FBI's adoption of the Lima police's forfeiture is not unusual - the federal government regularly seizes property that was originally confiscated by local authorities and then splits the resulting profits. In Missouri, for example, authorities were recently caught turning forfeitures over to the federal government in order to avoid a legal requirement that proceeds go to schools.
The abuses don't stop there. In the 1990s, police in Louisiana were stealing innocent people's property by fabricating drug crimes. They used the proceeds for ski trips to Aspen.
Civil forfeiture is now a nationwide epidemic with proceeds from federal civil forfeiture alone reaching hundreds of millions of dollars each year. This is part of a larger trend over the past several decades of weakened property rights protection.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Kelo case that government officials can use eminent domain to buy your home, business, church or farm and then hand your property over to another private entity so long as the new owner promises to generate more tax revenue with your land.
Importantly, a nationwide backlash is under way. Ohio leads the country with a historic unanimous ruling in 2006 by the state's Supreme Court that reined in the awesome power of land confiscation. Forty-two states have now reformed their laws on land grabs, making it harder for governments to take your property to boost their tax revenues.
We desperately need a similar backlash against the abuses of civil forfeiture. Thankfully, Meredith and Luther Ricks are fighting back. With free legal help, this week they filed a notice with the Cleveland office of the FBI, demanding the return of their life savings.
Governments should protect, not plunder, our property. Common sense and justice demand that the rampant abuse of civil forfeiture must end.
Ewing is the assistant director of communications for the Institute for Justice, the nation's leading legal advocate for property rights.
Story here.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Another reason to fear downtown Cincinnati
Wild Horses
Horse takes off with carriage
BY CARRIE WHITAKER
What started out as a calm carriage ride downtown for four adults turned ugly Saturday night when the horse pulling the carriage tossed its driver and took off.
Cincinnati Police found the driver of the carriage near Vine and 6th streets and believe the horse galloped about a block-and-a-half south on a Vine Street sidewalk before passengers jumped or were dumped out of the carriage.
One passenger, a woman in her 20s, suffered a head injury. Cincinnati Sgt. Matt Vogeler said her injury was not life-threatening. The driver was transported to the hospital, with what looked like a back injury, Vogeler said.
After losing the passengers, the horse pulled the carriage, then on its side, another half block, dropping horse treats and horse droppings along the way before police were able to stop the horse.
A police unit chaperoned the horse back to its Covington-based business. The name of the carriage company was not immediately available Saturday night.
Vogeler said there was minor damage to the Macy's building and damage to the carriage, but no other damage was reported.
Story here.
Wild Horses
Horse takes off with carriage
BY CARRIE WHITAKER
What started out as a calm carriage ride downtown for four adults turned ugly Saturday night when the horse pulling the carriage tossed its driver and took off.
Cincinnati Police found the driver of the carriage near Vine and 6th streets and believe the horse galloped about a block-and-a-half south on a Vine Street sidewalk before passengers jumped or were dumped out of the carriage.
One passenger, a woman in her 20s, suffered a head injury. Cincinnati Sgt. Matt Vogeler said her injury was not life-threatening. The driver was transported to the hospital, with what looked like a back injury, Vogeler said.
After losing the passengers, the horse pulled the carriage, then on its side, another half block, dropping horse treats and horse droppings along the way before police were able to stop the horse.
A police unit chaperoned the horse back to its Covington-based business. The name of the carriage company was not immediately available Saturday night.
Vogeler said there was minor damage to the Macy's building and damage to the carriage, but no other damage was reported.
Story here.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wrecking Springfield
Taking the lead of Building Cincinnati, I give you a one shot of Wrecking Springfield. A few interior pictures of the soon to be demolished Springfield North High school and some shots on and around Plum Street of homes slated for demolition to make way for the big new hospital.
North High
Plum Street
Taking the lead of Building Cincinnati, I give you a one shot of Wrecking Springfield. A few interior pictures of the soon to be demolished Springfield North High school and some shots on and around Plum Street of homes slated for demolition to make way for the big new hospital.
North High
Plum Street
Friday, April 04, 2008
Sneak Peek at new Springfield High School
Residents interested in getting a sneak peek at the new Springfield High School can do so on Saturday, April 5, from 1 to 4 p.m.
District officials and board members will be on hand to showcase the construction progress of the combined high school set to open to students on Sept. 8.
Tours will be offered, while students and staff answer questions about the high school, located at 701 E. Home Road.
Organizers from the Springfield Alumni Foundation will also be on hand to answer questions or take donations for an auditorium in the new high school.
The $60 million project is just a few months away from completion. North High is set to be demolished shortly after the last day of school on May 20 to make way for parking lots and green space.
If you can't make Saturday's event, there will be another on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m.
Students must be in eighth grade or older to take the tour. All participants must wear long pants and close-toed shoes.
The open house is handicap accessible, but the tour is not. For more information call (937) 505-2800.
Story here.
UPDATE
-PICS-
here
here
here
here
Residents interested in getting a sneak peek at the new Springfield High School can do so on Saturday, April 5, from 1 to 4 p.m.
District officials and board members will be on hand to showcase the construction progress of the combined high school set to open to students on Sept. 8.
Tours will be offered, while students and staff answer questions about the high school, located at 701 E. Home Road.
Organizers from the Springfield Alumni Foundation will also be on hand to answer questions or take donations for an auditorium in the new high school.
The $60 million project is just a few months away from completion. North High is set to be demolished shortly after the last day of school on May 20 to make way for parking lots and green space.
If you can't make Saturday's event, there will be another on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m.
Students must be in eighth grade or older to take the tour. All participants must wear long pants and close-toed shoes.
The open house is handicap accessible, but the tour is not. For more information call (937) 505-2800.
Story here.
UPDATE
-PICS-
here
here
here
here
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Installing Windows Vista Business SP1 on a MacBook Pro
First dilemma - how the hell do you open the Windows Vista box ?
It looks like a book and has a curved front along the left side of the box. But it doesn't open along the left side.
After breaking the box into pieces & still not being able to access the disk, I look online for Windows support and find out the box opens along the Z axis from down on the lower right.
This is going to go well.
I begin to partition my HD with Boot Camp Assistant. A few minutes into this and the computer crashes. oboy.
Fortunately, the partial partitioning somehow ate up a bunch of diskspace that I do not know how to clear, but now I do not have enough room to install Vista or do much else on the Mac side, either, for that matter. So it's time to wipe & reinstall Mac & lose my purloined Acrobat & InDesign.
No rest for the wicked.....
Re-installed Mac
Ran updates
Everything looks ok
Start up Bootcamp, partition works ok - start Windows installation.....
yeesh
This thing starts and stops so many times I don't know what the hell is going on.
Looked like everything was done, so I inserted the Mac installer disk to load Apple specific drivers & tried to run the installer but I kept getting a message saying I could not install because I had a "pending restart".
Sorta weird as I never saw a dialogue box saying I needed to restart and that I could do it now or later. So I restarted, and then I was able to install the drivers & Bootcamp control panel. It is just like the typical Mac startup disk control panel for anybody who remembers or still boots into OS9.
So, 4.5 hrs after I started I was booting back & forth between OSs.
Now I just have to install plug ins, applications on the Mac side, set up email and Airport....
ugh
Do that tomorrow.
First dilemma - how the hell do you open the Windows Vista box ?
It looks like a book and has a curved front along the left side of the box. But it doesn't open along the left side.
After breaking the box into pieces & still not being able to access the disk, I look online for Windows support and find out the box opens along the Z axis from down on the lower right.
This is going to go well.
I begin to partition my HD with Boot Camp Assistant. A few minutes into this and the computer crashes. oboy.
Fortunately, the partial partitioning somehow ate up a bunch of diskspace that I do not know how to clear, but now I do not have enough room to install Vista or do much else on the Mac side, either, for that matter. So it's time to wipe & reinstall Mac & lose my purloined Acrobat & InDesign.
No rest for the wicked.....
Re-installed Mac
Ran updates
Everything looks ok
Start up Bootcamp, partition works ok - start Windows installation.....
yeesh
This thing starts and stops so many times I don't know what the hell is going on.
Looked like everything was done, so I inserted the Mac installer disk to load Apple specific drivers & tried to run the installer but I kept getting a message saying I could not install because I had a "pending restart".
Sorta weird as I never saw a dialogue box saying I needed to restart and that I could do it now or later. So I restarted, and then I was able to install the drivers & Bootcamp control panel. It is just like the typical Mac startup disk control panel for anybody who remembers or still boots into OS9.
So, 4.5 hrs after I started I was booting back & forth between OSs.
Now I just have to install plug ins, applications on the Mac side, set up email and Airport....
ugh
Do that tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Well, according to this article in the Fishwrap, CityLink will be putting a stop to West End redevelopment and will probably throw a wet blanket on OTR and The Brewery District's plans to improve their neighborhoods as the suburban non-denominational "churches" will suck the poor and their problems from the surrounding tri-state area and concentrate them in barracks in an old factory in the West End.
Congratulations. A delicate area that offered some hope is probably now doomed to be crowded with wandering, derelict drug addicts looking to score and to support their habits by preying on anybody who will still live in the area.
Triumph of the Ignoroids.
Congratulations. A delicate area that offered some hope is probably now doomed to be crowded with wandering, derelict drug addicts looking to score and to support their habits by preying on anybody who will still live in the area.
Triumph of the Ignoroids.
Streetcar arguments that make me laugh.
Criminals will wait at stops to make their getaway from crime scenes on a streetcar (that will probably have internal cameras) along a fixed route at 25mph (tops) while making frequent stops.(Criminals are more likely run down a maze of alleyways and backyards or use an old junk car (likely stolen) that is easily discarded.)
Dope dealers and hookers will hang out on streetcars and sell their goods and services. (These people need some privacy to do their work which is why they use fairly deserted neighborhoods to ply their trade.)
People will be shot at like targets in a shooting gallery while riding streetcars because that is what inner city people do. (Disgruntled suburbanites are more likely to fire from wooded hillsides at passing motorists on the highway. People engaged in the black market (that our vice laws provide them) are more concerned with enforcing their illegal deals than in murdering prospective customers.)
Streetcars will be subsidized. (As opposed to a subsidized road/highway system, trash pickup, police service, fire departments, public schools.....)
People don't use a goofy looking bus that is supposed to look like a 19th century trolley car, so nobody will use a modern streetcar (Which has much better entry and exit and actually goes places people want to go all day instead of for a few hours on Fridays.)
It doesn't go anywhere. (As opposed to a system of cul-de-sacs? Points of interest along the proposed streetcar route include Great American Ballpark, Paul Brown Stadium, Music Hall, The Aronoff, Findlay Market, The Contemporary Art Center... no, no Applebee's along the way.)
It only serves a small segment of the population. (As opposed to YOUR neighborhood?)
It's too expensive. (The estimated ROI is greater than 2:1 and de-blighting a central neighborhood and subsequently reducing the blight of the surrounding neighborhoods is priceless. It is an investment to provide opportunities for current and new residents.)
It will be full of bums. (These guys save every penny for dope/booze. They would rather walk 5 miles for a fix than spend a dime on transit.)
We need to eliminate crime before we invest in anything new. (A lot of the crime in the downtown area exists elsewhere but is not out in the open. Anyway, we haven't solved crime in about 6000 years of human history, so whatchagonnado ?)
It doesn't serve enough people. (It is an investment in growth. Ridership will likely be lower in the beginning than later as more housing and business come online.)
The streetcar is a step backwards. (Right. It is, but it's an old neighborhood we are talking about. We are in a position of having a basketful of lemons & we should commence to making some goddamned lemonade NOW. The downtown area was designed prior to the automobile and, to make this old area work, we need to use the transit method that worked before. Communities need to work and compete on their unique strengths and qualities. Streetcars in downtown Cincinnati make sense - streetcars in Springdale make no sense.)
Criminals will wait at stops to make their getaway from crime scenes on a streetcar (that will probably have internal cameras) along a fixed route at 25mph (tops) while making frequent stops.(Criminals are more likely run down a maze of alleyways and backyards or use an old junk car (likely stolen) that is easily discarded.)
Dope dealers and hookers will hang out on streetcars and sell their goods and services. (These people need some privacy to do their work which is why they use fairly deserted neighborhoods to ply their trade.)
People will be shot at like targets in a shooting gallery while riding streetcars because that is what inner city people do. (Disgruntled suburbanites are more likely to fire from wooded hillsides at passing motorists on the highway. People engaged in the black market (that our vice laws provide them) are more concerned with enforcing their illegal deals than in murdering prospective customers.)
Streetcars will be subsidized. (As opposed to a subsidized road/highway system, trash pickup, police service, fire departments, public schools.....)
People don't use a goofy looking bus that is supposed to look like a 19th century trolley car, so nobody will use a modern streetcar (Which has much better entry and exit and actually goes places people want to go all day instead of for a few hours on Fridays.)
It doesn't go anywhere. (As opposed to a system of cul-de-sacs? Points of interest along the proposed streetcar route include Great American Ballpark, Paul Brown Stadium, Music Hall, The Aronoff, Findlay Market, The Contemporary Art Center... no, no Applebee's along the way.)
It only serves a small segment of the population. (As opposed to YOUR neighborhood?)
It's too expensive. (The estimated ROI is greater than 2:1 and de-blighting a central neighborhood and subsequently reducing the blight of the surrounding neighborhoods is priceless. It is an investment to provide opportunities for current and new residents.)
It will be full of bums. (These guys save every penny for dope/booze. They would rather walk 5 miles for a fix than spend a dime on transit.)
We need to eliminate crime before we invest in anything new. (A lot of the crime in the downtown area exists elsewhere but is not out in the open. Anyway, we haven't solved crime in about 6000 years of human history, so whatchagonnado ?)
It doesn't serve enough people. (It is an investment in growth. Ridership will likely be lower in the beginning than later as more housing and business come online.)
The streetcar is a step backwards. (Right. It is, but it's an old neighborhood we are talking about. We are in a position of having a basketful of lemons & we should commence to making some goddamned lemonade NOW. The downtown area was designed prior to the automobile and, to make this old area work, we need to use the transit method that worked before. Communities need to work and compete on their unique strengths and qualities. Streetcars in downtown Cincinnati make sense - streetcars in Springdale make no sense.)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
I don't understand the media's amazement that a black guy could become governor of New York. Do they think black guys are dumb ? Do they think that the Klan and racists in NY are so prominent that they would have the ability to keep a black guy out of office ?
Paterson's dad was a successful politician in NY. As I look at elected officials across the country, I see plenty of black men and women holding office. Heck, Rapid City, SD, with maybe a 1% black population has/had a black mayor.
What I don't see out there are many handicapped politicians. Why isn't this a bigger deal than the color of this guy's skin ?
Paterson has to be a seriously smart and brave man to take on such a post with his handicap. A politician needs to be able to "get around". Even being in a wheelchair would make it hard to do one's job as an elected official. Not being able to read, to be able to take notes that can be easily found is a tremendous handicap for a person who has to assess problems and then find ways to deal with them.
Dealing with people face to face is also a problem for blind and visually impaired people as they cannot make out people's facial expressions or body language.
By all accounts, David Paterson has dealt with all these adversities admirably. I hope he succeeds for himself & for New York.
I just don't understand why the media is so fixated on race over handicap. Black people run the gamut, nowadays, from the boardroom to the homeless shelter. Black people are successful all the time, folks. This one goes to the gimps.
Paterson's dad was a successful politician in NY. As I look at elected officials across the country, I see plenty of black men and women holding office. Heck, Rapid City, SD, with maybe a 1% black population has/had a black mayor.
What I don't see out there are many handicapped politicians. Why isn't this a bigger deal than the color of this guy's skin ?
Paterson has to be a seriously smart and brave man to take on such a post with his handicap. A politician needs to be able to "get around". Even being in a wheelchair would make it hard to do one's job as an elected official. Not being able to read, to be able to take notes that can be easily found is a tremendous handicap for a person who has to assess problems and then find ways to deal with them.
Dealing with people face to face is also a problem for blind and visually impaired people as they cannot make out people's facial expressions or body language.
By all accounts, David Paterson has dealt with all these adversities admirably. I hope he succeeds for himself & for New York.
I just don't understand why the media is so fixated on race over handicap. Black people run the gamut, nowadays, from the boardroom to the homeless shelter. Black people are successful all the time, folks. This one goes to the gimps.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Robert's on Miami
I have had 2 occasion's to eat at Robert's on Miami in downtown Urbana, Ohio. Neither occasion was terribly celebratory (funerals) but the quirky atmosphere, great service and excellent food helped make for delightful events.
Seriously, my dining there has led me to recommend a friggin' restaurant in Urbana, Ohio !
Located at 116 Miami Street, just west of the square, it is easy to find & has a handy parking lot right next door.
they offer a decent wine list and a menu loaded with pasta, seafood & desserts.
Don't let the hideous website and photography fool you !
(their area code is 937)
Friday, March 07, 2008
Springfield, Ohio's People's Choice Awards
Supporting local businesses isn't a priority, unfortunately.
Anyway, be sure to check this out before making your vacation plans.
Restaurant
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Red Lobster
3. Casey's
Family restaurant
1. Joe's U.S. 40 Grille
2. Collier's
3. Bob Evans
Pizza
1. Hickory Inn
2. Donatos
3. Cassano's
Barbecue
1. Rudy's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que
2. Riddle's Ribs
3. Texas Roadhouse
Sub sandwich
1. Our Hero
2. Subway
3. Penn Station
Breakfast
1. Bob Evans
2. Perkins
3. Cracker Barrel
Burger
1. Wendy's
2. Groeber's Lounge
3. Burger King
Steakhouse
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Lone Star
3. Casey's
Mexican restaurant
1. Los Mariachis
2. El Toro
3. Mi Jalapeno
Asian restaurant
1. Golden Bowl
2. Hung Lung
3. Golden Chopsticks
Buffet
1. Golden Corral
2. Ryan's (sorry, now out of business)
3. Golden Bowl
Best place to play darts
1. Savoy Lounge (tie)
1. Buffalo Wild Wings (tie)
2. Murphy's Irish Pub
Romantic dinner
1. Casey's
2. Mela Urban Bistro
3. Cecil & Lime Cafe
Best place to shoot pool
1. Backstreet Billiards
2. Forest Lake (tie)
2. Savoy Lounge (tie)
Doughnuts
1. Schuler's
2. Krispy Kreme
3. Tim Hortons
Ice cream
1. Young's Jersey Dairy
2. Hershey's at Smith's Market
3. Dairy Queen
Cup of coffee
1. Tim Hortons
2. Speedway
3. Un Mundo Cafe
Bar
1. Savoy Lounge
2. G.Z. Pete's
3. Blackhorse Tavern
Drive-through carryout
1. Ooh Ooh
2. Wendy's
3. Valero
Best place to skateboard
1. Mitchell Boulevard skate park
2. Enon Park (tie)
2. Yellow Springs Bike Path (tie)
Bowling alley
1. Northridge Lanes
2. Victory Lanes
3. Shamrock
Golf course
1. Reid Park
2. Snyder Park
3. Windy Knoll
Karaoke
1. Murphy's Irish Pub
2. Hero's
3. Savoy Lounge
Festival
1. South Vienna Corn Festival
2. Fair at New Boston
3. Summer Arts Festival
Local band
1. Callahan
2. Cosmos
3. Override
High school marching band
1. Kenton Ridge
2. Shawnee
3. South (tie)
3. Graham (tie)
Teen hangout
1. Upper Valley Mall
2. The After Studio
3. Applebee's
Best place to ride a bike
1. Springfield to Yellow Springs
2. Buck Creek State Park
3. Simon Kenton Bike Path
Best place to stargaze
1. Buck Creek State Park
2. Your backyard
3. George Rogers Clark Park
Best place for kids to play
1. Chuck E. Cheese's
2. Snyder Park
3. Veterans Park
Best place to avoid kids
1. Your home (no, seriously)
2. Rosy's Press Box
3. Savoy Lounge
Best place to people watch
1. Upper Valley Mall
2. Fair at New Boston
3. Dayton International Airport (tie)
3. Yellow Springs (tie)
Hair salon
1. Great Clips
2. The Styling Gallery
3. Oasis
Spa
1. Oasis
2. Reflections
3. Mallia
Best one-tank weekend getaway
1. Cincinnati
2. Hocking Hills
3. Columbus
Thrift store
1. Goodwill
2. St. Vincent De Paul
3. Animal Welfare League
Jeweler
1. David Garrett
2. Kay
3. Ridgewood
Pawn shop
1. Max's
2. Rose City
3. Rich's
Best place to get a tattoo
1. Thin Lizzy's
2. Dream Merchant
3. Gailz Tattooz
Car repair
1. Rogers' Garage
2. Sexton's Shop
3. Bill Marine Auto Center
Book shop
1. Logos Christian Bookstore
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Waldenbooks
Clothing store
1. Kohls
2. Macy's
3. J.C. Penney
Sporting goods store
1. Dick's
2. Meek's
3. Reco
Supporting local businesses isn't a priority, unfortunately.
Anyway, be sure to check this out before making your vacation plans.
Restaurant
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Red Lobster
3. Casey's
Family restaurant
1. Joe's U.S. 40 Grille
2. Collier's
3. Bob Evans
Pizza
1. Hickory Inn
2. Donatos
3. Cassano's
Barbecue
1. Rudy's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que
2. Riddle's Ribs
3. Texas Roadhouse
Sub sandwich
1. Our Hero
2. Subway
3. Penn Station
Breakfast
1. Bob Evans
2. Perkins
3. Cracker Barrel
Burger
1. Wendy's
2. Groeber's Lounge
3. Burger King
Steakhouse
1. Texas Roadhouse
2. Lone Star
3. Casey's
Mexican restaurant
1. Los Mariachis
2. El Toro
3. Mi Jalapeno
Asian restaurant
1. Golden Bowl
2. Hung Lung
3. Golden Chopsticks
Buffet
1. Golden Corral
2. Ryan's (sorry, now out of business)
3. Golden Bowl
Best place to play darts
1. Savoy Lounge (tie)
1. Buffalo Wild Wings (tie)
2. Murphy's Irish Pub
Romantic dinner
1. Casey's
2. Mela Urban Bistro
3. Cecil & Lime Cafe
Best place to shoot pool
1. Backstreet Billiards
2. Forest Lake (tie)
2. Savoy Lounge (tie)
Doughnuts
1. Schuler's
2. Krispy Kreme
3. Tim Hortons
Ice cream
1. Young's Jersey Dairy
2. Hershey's at Smith's Market
3. Dairy Queen
Cup of coffee
1. Tim Hortons
2. Speedway
3. Un Mundo Cafe
Bar
1. Savoy Lounge
2. G.Z. Pete's
3. Blackhorse Tavern
Drive-through carryout
1. Ooh Ooh
2. Wendy's
3. Valero
Best place to skateboard
1. Mitchell Boulevard skate park
2. Enon Park (tie)
2. Yellow Springs Bike Path (tie)
Bowling alley
1. Northridge Lanes
2. Victory Lanes
3. Shamrock
Golf course
1. Reid Park
2. Snyder Park
3. Windy Knoll
Karaoke
1. Murphy's Irish Pub
2. Hero's
3. Savoy Lounge
Festival
1. South Vienna Corn Festival
2. Fair at New Boston
3. Summer Arts Festival
Local band
1. Callahan
2. Cosmos
3. Override
High school marching band
1. Kenton Ridge
2. Shawnee
3. South (tie)
3. Graham (tie)
Teen hangout
1. Upper Valley Mall
2. The After Studio
3. Applebee's
Best place to ride a bike
1. Springfield to Yellow Springs
2. Buck Creek State Park
3. Simon Kenton Bike Path
Best place to stargaze
1. Buck Creek State Park
2. Your backyard
3. George Rogers Clark Park
Best place for kids to play
1. Chuck E. Cheese's
2. Snyder Park
3. Veterans Park
Best place to avoid kids
1. Your home (no, seriously)
2. Rosy's Press Box
3. Savoy Lounge
Best place to people watch
1. Upper Valley Mall
2. Fair at New Boston
3. Dayton International Airport (tie)
3. Yellow Springs (tie)
Hair salon
1. Great Clips
2. The Styling Gallery
3. Oasis
Spa
1. Oasis
2. Reflections
3. Mallia
Best one-tank weekend getaway
1. Cincinnati
2. Hocking Hills
3. Columbus
Thrift store
1. Goodwill
2. St. Vincent De Paul
3. Animal Welfare League
Jeweler
1. David Garrett
2. Kay
3. Ridgewood
Pawn shop
1. Max's
2. Rose City
3. Rich's
Best place to get a tattoo
1. Thin Lizzy's
2. Dream Merchant
3. Gailz Tattooz
Car repair
1. Rogers' Garage
2. Sexton's Shop
3. Bill Marine Auto Center
Book shop
1. Logos Christian Bookstore
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Waldenbooks
Clothing store
1. Kohls
2. Macy's
3. J.C. Penney
Sporting goods store
1. Dick's
2. Meek's
3. Reco
Thursday, February 28, 2008
R.I.P. William Buckley Jr.
“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
ok, when I was a kid I watched Firingline. I know I'm a geek - you don't have to tell me. When I was older I subscribed to National Review. I really enjoyed Mr Buckley's insight and enjoyed having a reason to bust out the dictionary. When the reins were passed to Willam Kristol, however, the magazine devolved into neocon vomit.
I thought he kicked Germaine Greer's ass in debate & I was appalled when he dismissed a rapper because he couldn't understand his slang (which was largely adopted from jazz slang of hte 30s and 40s).
The USA is largely founded upon liberal ideas but what passes for liberalism these days is hardly liberal. The terms liberal and conservative have been appropriated by political groups who should be required to put little copyright c's at the end of the words to distinguish their use from the proper uses of the words.
That Buckley condemned the Bush administration & it's policies in Iraq was no surprise.
Anyway, here's a few (hastily found) quotes from the guy.
“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
“The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”
"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed - different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgement of defeat."
"One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians."
"Some of my instincts are reprehensible."
heh, I can really relate to the last one.....
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Trying to do searches on Google for historic stuff has long been a vexing task. They now have a timeline search function/filter that lets you filter your query by date & then, further drill down into more specific dates that are rated by relevance.
To use it, enter your query, then enter a space and enter "view:timeline"
for example
cincinnati riot view:timeline
pretty sweet
To use it, enter your query, then enter a space and enter "view:timeline"
for example
cincinnati riot view:timeline
pretty sweet
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Man, it was hard to pick a quote for this. This guy's Dobbsianessness is pretty amazing, tho.
Alternatives were:
You'll PAY to know what you REALLY think
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
Pull the wool over your own eyes.
What are you going to do about it, Pink Boy?
We are the change that we seek.
whoops, some of those are actually his !
Thursday, January 31, 2008
After reading John Cranley's 9 pages of questions about developing a streetcar route connecting Cincinnati's downtown neighborhoods, existing and future, I saw that he missed a lot more good questions.
being the civic minded guy that I am, I came up with a few more that he can use in his next round of stonewalling.
My proposed questions in red.
II. Economic Impact
b iv. If the streetcar reduces the required subsidy on a per unit basis, how much does it reduce the subsidy? Please provide specific market analysis from another city. How was that analysis made?
Why has 3CDC never broken down their subsidy requirement estimation to detail what the cost of developing parking per unit costs ?
Why do I not already know that ?
v. Are any developers willing to develop these units without a subsidy? Who?
Why isn't there a line of developers waiting with baited breath for the Cincinnati City Council to DO something ?
vi. If the city alternatively spent $100 million to revitalize these 1574 units, wouldn't it be cheaper than subsidizing these units and building the streetcar?
Is this a strawman question ?
What would it cost to raze downown & erect subsidized housing made of concrete & cinderblock ?
c i. How much of this vacant land and surface parking is along the proposed route? Please list the addresses.
Again, why don't I already know this ?
d. i. What is the average subsidy on a per unit basis for new construction in the city? Please answer by referring to Parker Flats.
When you answer this I will ask you to compare subsidies to another development
iv. Will the construction wait until after the land is rezoned?
Will we willfully violate zoning laws ?
v. How much of the vacant land is in a historic area or historic overlay district?
Will these properties be developed with respect to historic parking lot guidelines ?
III. Ridership
a. ii. Was ridership greater for the proposed alignment than the alternatives? If so, why?
Are there altenative stops planned for any of the proposed routes ?
What will ridership estimates be for each of these routes be considering every feasible number and location of stops on an hourly and daily basis.
i. What percentage of trips will be internal, external, and special event trips respectively?
Please provide figures for every porposed route & every feasible number and location of stops on an hourly and daily basis.
iv. How did the city arrive at these numbers?
Please be prepared to answer several questions for each answer you give here.
v. Were these numbers drawn from other streetcar markets?
Is this a loaded question ?
For each of the other markets (Portland, etc.), how many people worked and lived near the line when it opened, how many shops, restaurants, etc. were there?
Who owned them, what type of businesses were they, what was each & every one of their sales per hr depending on what hours the streetcars were running
i. How many people live within two blocks of the proposed route and how many will need to use the streetcar to get to work? How did you generate these numbers?
And how is this relevant to the idea of an area that will (theoretically) increase it's opulation after the line is established.
Please provide estimates on an hourly daily basis given the effect of seasons, weather conditions (which will be questioned at a later date) and day of the week ?
Would estimates be different if we abolished labor laws ?
iii. How many people do you project will drive to downtown or Over-the-Rhine and then use the streetcar to complete their commute to work?
Being as this is an icredibly stupid question, how many people are expected to take the bus downtown & use the streetcar to continue their communte to work ?
How many bus riders who use transfers
How many who come from outside Zone 1 zone 2 zone 3 & 4 ?
How many bus riders who use park & ride ?
v. Will anybody park at Findlay Market? How many?
Will anybody park at the riverfront and ride to Findlay Market ? How amy ?
as usual, provide estimates for every day of the year & the hours they would be using the service because I am a simpleton andx am basing all my uestions on first shift workers
vii. What percentage of streetcar riders will consist of those making the trip to and from work?
What percentage will be to visit people who live in the area ? I am drunk and keep forgetting that this idea i to promote more residency in the downtown area.
d. The second use for the streetcar is shopping: how many will use the streetcar for shopping purposes on a daily basis?
What percentage of the total ridership does this constitute?
What will they be shopping for ?
How many cubic feet of goods will they be carrying ?
What is the estimated weight of goods purchased expected to be ?
What percentage of riders will be buying black market goods & services ?
e. The third use is entertainment: how many will use the streetcar for entertainment purposes on a daily basis? What percentage of the total ridership does this constitute?
Seriously, doesn't this need to be broken down into time & day of the week ?
iii. How long would it take the average downtown worker to leave work, get to the restaurant, eat lunch, and return to work? Will a worker have enough time to take the streetcar to lunch during a typical one-hour lunch break?
Be sure to break this down by the average serving time of each and every restaurant along the route and all proposed alternative routes.
iv. What is the expected loss to downtown restaurateurs as a result of the streetcar, if downtown workers take the streetcar to Over-the-Rhine for lunch?
What is the expected loss to Over-the-Rhine restaurateurs as a result of the streetcar, if Over-the-Rhine workers take the streetcar to downtown for lunch?
v. How long does it take to walk from Fountain Square to Findlay Market?
In the snow
Pushing a baby carriage
pulling a grocery cart
If you are obese
If you are 3' tall
If you are 4' tall
If you are 5' tall
if you are 6' tall
if you are an Olympic marothoner
if you are a 75 year old with one leg
How long on a rascal
How long in a wheelchair
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of at night ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of with a tailwind ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of with a headwind ?
vi. Wouldn't it be quicker and cheaper to drive or ride a bike?
Nevermind that the city has inadequate parking and charges a premium for what it has.
Nevermind that there is basically no dedicated bicycle parking.
vii. How long does it take to walk from the Kroger building to Fountain Square?
How long does it take to walk from Music Hall to City Hall ?
How long does it take to walk from the DIC to 3CDC ?
I can keep these up all day long - it's kinda like filibusterng. See, I am up to holding a federal office !
viii. If it is faster to take the streetcar, how much faster?
Have you deduced that I am batshit crazy ?
In all honesty he had some good questions - he just had a lot of dumb ones that indicate he isn't doing much to keep up on what's going on in the city he is supposed to be running.
oh wait, that's the city manager's job.
being the civic minded guy that I am, I came up with a few more that he can use in his next round of stonewalling.
My proposed questions in red.
II. Economic Impact
b iv. If the streetcar reduces the required subsidy on a per unit basis, how much does it reduce the subsidy? Please provide specific market analysis from another city. How was that analysis made?
Why has 3CDC never broken down their subsidy requirement estimation to detail what the cost of developing parking per unit costs ?
Why do I not already know that ?
v. Are any developers willing to develop these units without a subsidy? Who?
Why isn't there a line of developers waiting with baited breath for the Cincinnati City Council to DO something ?
vi. If the city alternatively spent $100 million to revitalize these 1574 units, wouldn't it be cheaper than subsidizing these units and building the streetcar?
Is this a strawman question ?
What would it cost to raze downown & erect subsidized housing made of concrete & cinderblock ?
c i. How much of this vacant land and surface parking is along the proposed route? Please list the addresses.
Again, why don't I already know this ?
d. i. What is the average subsidy on a per unit basis for new construction in the city? Please answer by referring to Parker Flats.
When you answer this I will ask you to compare subsidies to another development
iv. Will the construction wait until after the land is rezoned?
Will we willfully violate zoning laws ?
v. How much of the vacant land is in a historic area or historic overlay district?
Will these properties be developed with respect to historic parking lot guidelines ?
III. Ridership
a. ii. Was ridership greater for the proposed alignment than the alternatives? If so, why?
Are there altenative stops planned for any of the proposed routes ?
What will ridership estimates be for each of these routes be considering every feasible number and location of stops on an hourly and daily basis.
i. What percentage of trips will be internal, external, and special event trips respectively?
Please provide figures for every porposed route & every feasible number and location of stops on an hourly and daily basis.
iv. How did the city arrive at these numbers?
Please be prepared to answer several questions for each answer you give here.
v. Were these numbers drawn from other streetcar markets?
Is this a loaded question ?
For each of the other markets (Portland, etc.), how many people worked and lived near the line when it opened, how many shops, restaurants, etc. were there?
Who owned them, what type of businesses were they, what was each & every one of their sales per hr depending on what hours the streetcars were running
i. How many people live within two blocks of the proposed route and how many will need to use the streetcar to get to work? How did you generate these numbers?
And how is this relevant to the idea of an area that will (theoretically) increase it's opulation after the line is established.
Please provide estimates on an hourly daily basis given the effect of seasons, weather conditions (which will be questioned at a later date) and day of the week ?
Would estimates be different if we abolished labor laws ?
iii. How many people do you project will drive to downtown or Over-the-Rhine and then use the streetcar to complete their commute to work?
Being as this is an icredibly stupid question, how many people are expected to take the bus downtown & use the streetcar to continue their communte to work ?
How many bus riders who use transfers
How many who come from outside Zone 1 zone 2 zone 3 & 4 ?
How many bus riders who use park & ride ?
v. Will anybody park at Findlay Market? How many?
Will anybody park at the riverfront and ride to Findlay Market ? How amy ?
as usual, provide estimates for every day of the year & the hours they would be using the service because I am a simpleton andx am basing all my uestions on first shift workers
vii. What percentage of streetcar riders will consist of those making the trip to and from work?
What percentage will be to visit people who live in the area ? I am drunk and keep forgetting that this idea i to promote more residency in the downtown area.
d. The second use for the streetcar is shopping: how many will use the streetcar for shopping purposes on a daily basis?
What percentage of the total ridership does this constitute?
What will they be shopping for ?
How many cubic feet of goods will they be carrying ?
What is the estimated weight of goods purchased expected to be ?
What percentage of riders will be buying black market goods & services ?
e. The third use is entertainment: how many will use the streetcar for entertainment purposes on a daily basis? What percentage of the total ridership does this constitute?
Seriously, doesn't this need to be broken down into time & day of the week ?
iii. How long would it take the average downtown worker to leave work, get to the restaurant, eat lunch, and return to work? Will a worker have enough time to take the streetcar to lunch during a typical one-hour lunch break?
Be sure to break this down by the average serving time of each and every restaurant along the route and all proposed alternative routes.
iv. What is the expected loss to downtown restaurateurs as a result of the streetcar, if downtown workers take the streetcar to Over-the-Rhine for lunch?
What is the expected loss to Over-the-Rhine restaurateurs as a result of the streetcar, if Over-the-Rhine workers take the streetcar to downtown for lunch?
v. How long does it take to walk from Fountain Square to Findlay Market?
In the snow
Pushing a baby carriage
pulling a grocery cart
If you are obese
If you are 3' tall
If you are 4' tall
If you are 5' tall
if you are 6' tall
if you are an Olympic marothoner
if you are a 75 year old with one leg
How long on a rascal
How long in a wheelchair
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of at night ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of with a tailwind ?
How long for an obese 60 yr old blind grandma in a wheelchair being pushed by an obese 40yr old mother trying to keep track of her kids while carrying groceries on the snowy streets that the city does not enforce the laws concerning clearing of with a headwind ?
vi. Wouldn't it be quicker and cheaper to drive or ride a bike?
Nevermind that the city has inadequate parking and charges a premium for what it has.
Nevermind that there is basically no dedicated bicycle parking.
vii. How long does it take to walk from the Kroger building to Fountain Square?
How long does it take to walk from Music Hall to City Hall ?
How long does it take to walk from the DIC to 3CDC ?
I can keep these up all day long - it's kinda like filibusterng. See, I am up to holding a federal office !
viii. If it is faster to take the streetcar, how much faster?
Have you deduced that I am batshit crazy ?
In all honesty he had some good questions - he just had a lot of dumb ones that indicate he isn't doing much to keep up on what's going on in the city he is supposed to be running.
oh wait, that's the city manager's job.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ohio's lead position in fighting ghoulism is frequently overlooked. In fact, in no less than Springfield (The Champion City), a major coup in the battle was made about the turn of the century.
Locking out the grave robbers
By Tom Stafford
Springfield News-Sun
Monday, January 14, 2008
The threat would disappear in years to come.
But to Springfield's Champion Co. of 1879, the danger was both clear and present: Graves were being robbed to provide cadavers for use by medical students.
The solution envisioned by a Springfielder named Boyd, was "a receptacle to make the grave safe from ghouls and grave robbers" — the burglar-proof vault.
An Oct. 18, 1930, letter describing the development of Champion vaults says improvements were incorporated into the subsequent designs of mssrs. Armstrong and Baker, the latter of whom likely crafted the vault used for Buffalo Bill's grave.
But for conjuring up the bad old days of grave violation, it's hard to imagine anything more effective than the undated advertisement for the improved version of the original Boyd vault — an ad that survives in the company archives.
Available in regular and extra sizes, the vault was touted as "the great grave robber foiler."
In a time when —according to the ad — more than 40,000 human bodies were "mutilated every year on dissecting tables in medical colleges in the United States," the vault represented the perfect solution to the problem "that has long agitated the public mind."
With a heavy angle iron framework, a steel plate on the bottom and a sheet steel casing on top, the security of the vault was assured by rivets and bolts "concealed by additional iron, so that it would be absolutely impossible to locate their exact position, even if the ghouls should go to the trouble of doing the additional amount of excavating that would be necessary."
To hold the top in place "six heavy spring hooks ... attach themselves to lugs on the inside of the top casing as it is placed in position," the ad says.
Once closed, "it is impossible to open the vault except to cut the top casing entirely open, which would require a mechanic to work at least 24 hours with the best of tools, which, of course, would render any attempt at grave robbing futile."
On the ends of the vault, "letters finished in gold bronze" added a handsomeness to complement a compartment the company promised would protect "both the casket and body from dampness, mould and decay, and from burrowing animals and vermin."
That last bit of information is what we today might call TMI (too much information). And whether it was included to reassure customers or drum up businessis unclear.
As to cost, the vaults ran $15 for child sizes, $30 for most adults, and $40 for the largest, which required special orders. And, promising to pay special attention to telephone and telegraph inquiries, the company said it stood ready to handle orders "every hour in the year."
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/13/sns011408cnlbsidebar.html?UrAuth=`N`NUObNXUbTTUWUXUaUZTZU\UWU^UbUZUaU[UcTYWVVZV
The Champion company
http://www.champion-newera.co
Locking out the grave robbers
By Tom Stafford
Springfield News-Sun
Monday, January 14, 2008
The threat would disappear in years to come.
But to Springfield's Champion Co. of 1879, the danger was both clear and present: Graves were being robbed to provide cadavers for use by medical students.
The solution envisioned by a Springfielder named Boyd, was "a receptacle to make the grave safe from ghouls and grave robbers" — the burglar-proof vault.
An Oct. 18, 1930, letter describing the development of Champion vaults says improvements were incorporated into the subsequent designs of mssrs. Armstrong and Baker, the latter of whom likely crafted the vault used for Buffalo Bill's grave.
But for conjuring up the bad old days of grave violation, it's hard to imagine anything more effective than the undated advertisement for the improved version of the original Boyd vault — an ad that survives in the company archives.
Available in regular and extra sizes, the vault was touted as "the great grave robber foiler."
In a time when —according to the ad — more than 40,000 human bodies were "mutilated every year on dissecting tables in medical colleges in the United States," the vault represented the perfect solution to the problem "that has long agitated the public mind."
With a heavy angle iron framework, a steel plate on the bottom and a sheet steel casing on top, the security of the vault was assured by rivets and bolts "concealed by additional iron, so that it would be absolutely impossible to locate their exact position, even if the ghouls should go to the trouble of doing the additional amount of excavating that would be necessary."
To hold the top in place "six heavy spring hooks ... attach themselves to lugs on the inside of the top casing as it is placed in position," the ad says.
Once closed, "it is impossible to open the vault except to cut the top casing entirely open, which would require a mechanic to work at least 24 hours with the best of tools, which, of course, would render any attempt at grave robbing futile."
On the ends of the vault, "letters finished in gold bronze" added a handsomeness to complement a compartment the company promised would protect "both the casket and body from dampness, mould and decay, and from burrowing animals and vermin."
That last bit of information is what we today might call TMI (too much information). And whether it was included to reassure customers or drum up businessis unclear.
As to cost, the vaults ran $15 for child sizes, $30 for most adults, and $40 for the largest, which required special orders. And, promising to pay special attention to telephone and telegraph inquiries, the company said it stood ready to handle orders "every hour in the year."
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/13/sns011408cnlbsidebar.html?UrAuth=`N`NUObNXUbTTUWUXUaUZTZU\UWU^UbUZUaU[UcTYWVVZV
The Champion company
http://www.champion-newera.co
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Mandating bicycle helmets for kids on a state level is ridiculous in Ohio. The residential areas of Ohio are vastly different, ranging from rural to small to large urban areas with a healthy dose of suburban areas as well. If mandatory bicycle helmet laws are to be passed at all, they should be passed on a municipal level.
The notion that a $10 helmet is worth a crap is ridiculous at best & dangerously misleading at worst.
The cost of a helmet is prohibitively expensive for poor urban kids who frequently don't have the money for a bike to begin with.
Bicycling should be promoted in Ohio for reasons of personal health, economy, social awareness and energy independence as well as personal independence.
The state's efforts would be better spent concocting a bicyclist education program that could teach the "Rules of the Road" to kids 8 - 12 that they might otherwise not learn til they turn 16 and begin to learn how to operate a motor vehicle. With any luck the reinforcement of this education will also improve the quality of drivers in the state.
While on the subject, driver's education should be more rigorous & drivers should be re-tested every 12 years or so to break bad habits.
This comes down to feel good, "Look what I did to protect our children" grandstanding, nanny statist pooh. The city of Cincinnati pased such legislation several years ago & it is hardly enforced. It is not enforced at all in Over the Rhine where kids ride around on bikes acting as lookouts for the vice lords.
What I'm babbling about:
State bills require bicycling minors to wear helmets
If law passes, offenders face warnings in first year, then a $25 fine.
By Laura Bischoff
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
COLUMBUS — Ohio may join 32 other states that require minors to wear bike helmets while riding a bike or in a seat or trailer.
Two bills are pending in the General Assembly that would require cyclists under the age of 17 to strap on a proper bike helmet or face a $25 fine. (Some cities, including Centerville, already have local laws requiring children to wear bike helmets.)
Only warnings would be issued the first year of the law, but after that, parents would be ticketed. Money from the tickets would be put into a fund to pay for helmets, which cost as little as $10, to low-income children.
The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute reports that 45 percent to 88 percent of reported head injuries in bike accidents could be prevented with helmets.
Ohio has 2.8 million children. Even if only half bike, the bill would affect 1.4 million Ohioans.
State Rep. Mike Skindell, D-Lakewood, an avid bicyclist, will give sponsor testimony on the House bill Wednesday.
Skindell was hit by a vehicle while cycling last year and credits a helmet for reducing his injuries.
State Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Dayton, is sponsoring a similar bill in the Senate.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
Well, the results of the much ballyhooed Iowa caucus are in. The result ?
Apparently the majority of Iowans like presidents who are friendly, have an "aw shucks" demeanor, nice smiles & offer little substance.
An American president has to be able to negotiate or not with the powerful leaders of countries like Russia, France, Pakistan & N. Korea. I see any of these guys having Huckabee or Obama for an appetizer.
If this vote is going to sway people's opinions nationwide, we are screwed.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Over the holidays I found myself visiting family in Springfield and Urbana.
One of the things Springfield was long proud of was having a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Unfortunately, it had been broken up into apartments & had fallen into disrepair.
The Westcott house was really more of an eyesore than anything to be proud of. Several years ago it was purchased and restored to it's original condition. ok, mostly. The organization in charge now offers tours & has the typical gift shop to boot.
I took the tour and, being a Wright fan, enjoyed myself immensely. It is hard, looking at the place, to realize it is 100 years old. The living room looks more like something from the 50s or 60s. Other rooms harken back to the 30s. Guy was definitely ahead of his time.
Another nice thing about Springfield's E High St. area is that some of the other, more traditional, homes are being restored as well.
Anyway, you, too, can visit the Westcott house in Springfield. Fun if you can't wrangle an invite out of somebody who actually lives in a Wright home. They have regularly scheduled tours.
Unfortunately, as I was about to post this, I saw this in the Spfld Noose Son:
Westcott House sprayed with graffiti
Unknown suspects spray-painted graffiti on the north and south sides of the Westcott House, 1340 E. High St., according to a police report.
The vandalism occurred some time between 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday, according to the report.
GASP !
Could the CCV be wrong ?
I have often wondered if the leadership of the CCV, given their penchant for hanging about golf courses, could just be braindamaged due to getting hit in the head by too many errant golf balls.
Our all-knowing social guardians at the CCV have told us that strip clubs breed crime, drug abuse, prostitution, violence and blah blah.
This colla[se of civilisation was predicted in Sparta, KY, too.
but
It didn't happen. Law enforcement says the strip clubs are no worse and maybe even a little better than any other bar or nightclub.
Fortunately, in Ohio, we have the CCV - stalwart oppressors of liberty masquerading as soldiers of God ramrodding state wide legislation down our throats based on lies and terror.
Ladies and gentleman
By Kevin Eigelbach
An expected increase in crime has not materialized since Racers Gentlemen's Club opened in Sparta near Kentucky Speedway.
In 2000, a strip club opened its doors in tiny Sparta, population 230. Drawn by the new Kentucky Speedway there, which can pack in 70,000 fans of auto racing, the club featured topless women doing pole dances and lap dances.
Reaction to the plan was swift. Residents by and large opposed it. "Sin is sin and there is no way to cover it up,'' one caller to a Post hotline said. "It'll give Sparta a bad name.''
Pastors spoke out against it.
In a county that still banned Sunday liquor sales, lewd, topless dancing was unthinkable.
Behind much of the argument was the belief that a strip club would bring more crime, particularly drugs and prostitution, to the small town.
It's the same debate that other counties, currently Boone County, are having as they ponder new regulations on sexually oriented businesses.
Many said at the time that the crime would increase in Sparta and surrounding Gallatin County. In part citing an expected increase in crime, the Boone County Planning Commission recently approved strict limitations on where such businesses can locate. The measure still needs final approval.
One reason communities can regulate such businesses is their purported secondary effects, such as an increase in crime. But that's not what Gallatin County's experienced with Racers, say law enforcement and court officials.
The Kentucky State Police get called to Racers about as often as they do to other bars, said Trooper 1st Class Chip Perry, the spokesman for post No. 5, which covers Gallatin County.
The club has its own security, something most bars don't have, Perry said. Most of the calls for service the state police receive come from the security staff, he said.
"Hopefully, the security staff is a set of sober eyes that can assist us until we get there," he said.
The state police received three calls for service from Racers in 2005, the most recent year statistics were available, all of them from the security staff calling about drunks posing a problem.
In one case, a security officer needed help trying to prevent a drunk from driving. In another, three drunks escorted out of the club were causing trouble at the gas station next door. In the third, the staff was concerned about an intoxicated man walking alone down the highway.
As one of the county's chief prosecutors, Gallatin County Attorney Spike Wright sees firsthand where crimes happen and who commits them.
He initially thought that Racers might be contributing to an increase in crime, so he started to keep a list of reports. That soon convinced him that it wasn't any worse than any other establishment with lots of customers.
"It's just a business," he said. "There are a lot of people in and out of there."
He does see some alcohol-related cases, such as drunken driving, but those come from any establishment that serves drinks, he said.
"I've never seen a prostitution arrest from Racers," Wright said.
The club had some problems in the past with conflicts between employees escalating into fights, he said. Also, some patrons were complaining at how the club cut them off when they'd had too many drinks.
"I suggested they (management) needed to be a little less enthusiastic," Wright said. "They might have been a little rough when they threw people out. I've not had a complaint since."
Statistics from the state police show that crime is actually down in Gallatin County since Racers.
In 2006, Gallatin County had 86 of what the FBI calls "Part One" crimes. These include major crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and assault. In 1999, the year before Racers opened, the county had 96 Part One crimes.
In 2006, the county had no arrests for forcible rape. In 1999, there were two.
In 2006, the county had three arrests for sex offenses other than rape or prostitution. In 1999, it had eight.
In 2006, the county had no arrests for aggravated assault. In 1999, it had 13.
In 2006, the county had 97 arrests for driving under the influence. In 1999, it had 192.
However, arrests on narcotic drug law charges increased from 70 in 1999 to 109 in 2006. But they fell to 63 in 2001, the year after Racers opened.
D. Scott Lindsay, who manages the club as part of Lindsay Management Services, says that strip clubs have enough of a reputation without causing problems with crime. That's why his company works hard to keep the club problem-free, with programs like random drug tests of the staff, including himself, and searches of the dancers' lockers for drugs.
The company has a two-strikes-and-you're out policy on drug use, he said, with treatment mandatory after the first strike.
Surveillance cameras cover the building's interior, he said, so that the staff has a record of exactly what goes on.
If Gallatin County had the same ordinance that Boone County is contemplating, Racers might be in compliance with the requirement that sexually oriented businesses locate at least 1,000 feet from sensitive sites such as churches, homes and schools, Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore said.
The club sits on a bluff above Interstate 71, its only neighbors being the restaurant in the other half of its building, a motel and a gas station. The rest of Sparta lies nearly two miles south on Ky. 35.
The fact that one sexually oriented business might not have negatively affected local crime wouldn't deter Boone County officials from trying to regulate them, County Administrator Jeff Earlywine said.
Courts across the country have recognized studies that show negative impacts, he said. "I don't know that any study would say that in every case there are effect," he said.
"But when you look at the industry as a whole, by and large, you do have negative secondary effects."
Many who opposed the club when it moved in have now moved on. There are still those who oppose it, such as the Rev. Thomas Calloway of the Ten Mile Baptist Church.
"I don't support it or anybody that goes there," Calloway said. "We have had crime in Gallatin County, but I don't really know if it's having an effect."
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: A History Of Domestic Architecture In Springfield And Clark County, Ohio
by George H. Berkhofer
I was given this book for Christmas by a relative. It is one helluva coffee table book about Springfield.
It is decribed as:
No Place Like Home is a book which tries to capture the essential spirit of Springfield, Ohio, as expressed by its architecture over the last two hundred years.
It is 12x9 in and illustrated with beautiful drawing, photography and the author has dug up some great older illustrations as well s examples of "original" architectural styles.
ok, I really know nothing about architecture, so I'm just taking the author's word for it.
It is a visually beautiful piece printed in light brown and black. It would have been nice to have some color but, I'll live.
The only problem I had with the book is that the interior design, under the direction of John Baskin, is almost impossible.
Inserts describing the pictures follow no perceptible pattern. Instead of using a top to bottom, left to right or even just a clockwise pattern, the descriptions seem to be tossed in as a last minute afterthought.
The use of the light brown is ok but in some places type and halftones are printed solely in the light brown and are effectively "ghosted" and almost impossible to see. A heavier color used with screening would have been much better.
Further, the number of pictures caught in the spine, that probably looked great in proofs, are incredibly disfigured printed across the pages.
Note: This book is about houses - not commercial arhitecture or even apartment buildings. It would be great to see the author take on these topics in more books in the future.
The book is easily worth the price and should be on the coffee table of every home in Clark county if not SW Ohio.
orange Frazer Press
by George H. Berkhofer
I was given this book for Christmas by a relative. It is one helluva coffee table book about Springfield.
It is decribed as:
No Place Like Home is a book which tries to capture the essential spirit of Springfield, Ohio, as expressed by its architecture over the last two hundred years.
It is 12x9 in and illustrated with beautiful drawing, photography and the author has dug up some great older illustrations as well s examples of "original" architectural styles.
ok, I really know nothing about architecture, so I'm just taking the author's word for it.
It is a visually beautiful piece printed in light brown and black. It would have been nice to have some color but, I'll live.
The only problem I had with the book is that the interior design, under the direction of John Baskin, is almost impossible.
Inserts describing the pictures follow no perceptible pattern. Instead of using a top to bottom, left to right or even just a clockwise pattern, the descriptions seem to be tossed in as a last minute afterthought.
The use of the light brown is ok but in some places type and halftones are printed solely in the light brown and are effectively "ghosted" and almost impossible to see. A heavier color used with screening would have been much better.
Further, the number of pictures caught in the spine, that probably looked great in proofs, are incredibly disfigured printed across the pages.
Note: This book is about houses - not commercial arhitecture or even apartment buildings. It would be great to see the author take on these topics in more books in the future.
The book is easily worth the price and should be on the coffee table of every home in Clark county if not SW Ohio.
orange Frazer Press
Sunday, December 23, 2007
ok, this is just cool
'Miracle choir' ready for encore
Philippus church brought voices together
OVER-THE-RHINE - Five voices. No more. No less.
That was all organist Terrie Benjamin thought she had to work with last year for the 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service at candle-lit Philippus United Church of Christ.
Overnight, those five voices turned into 42.
They soared through "O Come, All Ye Faithful." They brought a blessed hush to "Silent Night," singing the carol in German and in English. No wonder those in attendance dubbed the singers, "the miracle choir."
The choir reunites Monday night. Same time. Same place, an Over-the-Rhine landmark for 116 years.
Five singers would not have filled the chancel choir loft, built for 40, in the 19th-century church capable of holding 812 worshippers.
Benjamin, the church's music director and organist, put out a call for carolers. An Enquirer article spread the word.
"We certainly needed some angels last year," Benjamin said. "And we got them. That choir sounded as if it had been together for ages."
The group had all of the inspiration of another Cincinnati ensemble - Nick Lachey's "Clash of the Choirs" champs - but none of the preparation.
Members of the church's impromptu choir came from across town and across state lines.
Locals gathered from Green and Anderson townships. They hailed from Mason to Maysville, from Cleves to New Richmond. Out-of-towners, home for the holidays, came from Houston, Nashville and Denver.
One by one they decided to spend Christmas Eve in a church most had never visited in a part of town where many fear to tread on one of the most sacred nights of the year.
"This was a spontaneous coming together of like-minded souls who had nothing in common other than giving back," said Lynne Aronson, a music teacher turned baker from Anderson Township.
"Why not give to those in need? That's what Christmas is all about."
Ella Jean Davis, a singing retired legal secretary from New Richmond, remembered walking into "the choir's rehearsal room thinking I'd see eight people.
"Instead, I saw 41. It was a Christmas miracle."
It was also a miracle so many suburbanites got up the courage to venture into an inner-city neighborhood that regularly makes the news for all the wrong reasons.
Kelly Kalb recruited two carloads of singers. Some came from Maysville. Some from Mason. More than a few felt uneasy about going to Over-the-Rhine.
Kalb, a corporate trainer from Mason, calmed their fears.
"Of all nights," he told his recruits, "God will take care of us on Christmas Eve."
The choir rehearsed for just 40 minutes.
"Every singer was very professional," Benjamin said. "No talking. No visiting. I would venture to say 90 percent of them came from a structured choral background."
There were doctors and lawyers, teachers and psychologists, office workers and even a Duke.
Stacy Todd performs as "Duke" in the homegrown, nationally known oldies rock revue, the Van-Dells. At Philippus, on Christmas Eve 2006, however, he played the part of the dutiful son-in-law.
"My father-in-law was confirmed at Philippus," said Todd of Cleves. "My mother-in-law told us about the choir's problem and asked us to go down and help out."
He brought his sons, Kyle and Kasey, and niece, Lyndsey Campbell. They walked in the procession from the rehearsal room, down a hallway, through a door and into the sanctuary.
"The singers just kept coming and coming out the door next to the choir loft," Todd said. "It was very, very emotional."
Gasps echoed across the congregation over the choir's size. The brilliant sound produced by 42 voices caused tears to fall.
The group included six singers from Philippus' choir and 36 from afar.
"There were 40 Christians and two Jews," Aronson said. The baker and her husband, Mark, made up the latter.
"What else would we do on Christmas Eve?" she joked.
Turning serious, she explained why they came to the church in Over-the-Rhine.
"It's a mitzvah, a good thing," she said, "to give to others."
Answering the call to sing in the miracle choir became a gift that keeps on giving.
"When we sang at the church last year, we thought, 'Let's do this again,' " said Steve DeHoff.
The plastics consultant brought six members of his family from Sharonville, Southgate and Houston. He plans to do the same this Christmas Eve.
DeHoff should be joined by at least 20 of the voices he blended with in the choir.
"I have to come back this year," said Peggy Schmidt, a Blue Ash music teacher. "There was a magical glow about the whole evening."
As they made their way to Over-the-Rhine last Christmas Eve, the wise men and women in the choir followed a hand.
A gilded 6-foot-tall left hand tops the church's steeple. The hand's gleaming index finger points the way to heaven.
Inside, the church that is on the National Register of Historic places is a wonder of late-19th-century architecture, artistry and craftsmanship. The sanctuary features splendid stained glass windows, Rookwood drinking fountains, ornately crafted oak woodwork and a glorious pipe organ, donated by the Midwest's 19th-century beer baron, Christian Moerlein.
"Seeing all that bathed in candlelight was so warming and comforting," Schmidt said.
She sang in the choir to honor her mother, Carolyn Schmidt, a member of Philippus' 1936 confirmation class.
"The service and the church reminded me of Christmases past," Schmidt said.
The teacher recalled Christmas Eves from long ago "when families came to church together to sing carols. That night brought back many sweet memories of Christmases past."
Memories are all the singers have of that magical night. No one took photos or made a recording.
"That," said singer Ella Jean Davis, "makes the night all the more magical."
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/NEWS01/712230372
'Miracle choir' ready for encore
Philippus church brought voices together
OVER-THE-RHINE - Five voices. No more. No less.
That was all organist Terrie Benjamin thought she had to work with last year for the 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service at candle-lit Philippus United Church of Christ.
Overnight, those five voices turned into 42.
They soared through "O Come, All Ye Faithful." They brought a blessed hush to "Silent Night," singing the carol in German and in English. No wonder those in attendance dubbed the singers, "the miracle choir."
The choir reunites Monday night. Same time. Same place, an Over-the-Rhine landmark for 116 years.
Five singers would not have filled the chancel choir loft, built for 40, in the 19th-century church capable of holding 812 worshippers.
Benjamin, the church's music director and organist, put out a call for carolers. An Enquirer article spread the word.
"We certainly needed some angels last year," Benjamin said. "And we got them. That choir sounded as if it had been together for ages."
The group had all of the inspiration of another Cincinnati ensemble - Nick Lachey's "Clash of the Choirs" champs - but none of the preparation.
Members of the church's impromptu choir came from across town and across state lines.
Locals gathered from Green and Anderson townships. They hailed from Mason to Maysville, from Cleves to New Richmond. Out-of-towners, home for the holidays, came from Houston, Nashville and Denver.
One by one they decided to spend Christmas Eve in a church most had never visited in a part of town where many fear to tread on one of the most sacred nights of the year.
"This was a spontaneous coming together of like-minded souls who had nothing in common other than giving back," said Lynne Aronson, a music teacher turned baker from Anderson Township.
"Why not give to those in need? That's what Christmas is all about."
Ella Jean Davis, a singing retired legal secretary from New Richmond, remembered walking into "the choir's rehearsal room thinking I'd see eight people.
"Instead, I saw 41. It was a Christmas miracle."
It was also a miracle so many suburbanites got up the courage to venture into an inner-city neighborhood that regularly makes the news for all the wrong reasons.
Kelly Kalb recruited two carloads of singers. Some came from Maysville. Some from Mason. More than a few felt uneasy about going to Over-the-Rhine.
Kalb, a corporate trainer from Mason, calmed their fears.
"Of all nights," he told his recruits, "God will take care of us on Christmas Eve."
The choir rehearsed for just 40 minutes.
"Every singer was very professional," Benjamin said. "No talking. No visiting. I would venture to say 90 percent of them came from a structured choral background."
There were doctors and lawyers, teachers and psychologists, office workers and even a Duke.
Stacy Todd performs as "Duke" in the homegrown, nationally known oldies rock revue, the Van-Dells. At Philippus, on Christmas Eve 2006, however, he played the part of the dutiful son-in-law.
"My father-in-law was confirmed at Philippus," said Todd of Cleves. "My mother-in-law told us about the choir's problem and asked us to go down and help out."
He brought his sons, Kyle and Kasey, and niece, Lyndsey Campbell. They walked in the procession from the rehearsal room, down a hallway, through a door and into the sanctuary.
"The singers just kept coming and coming out the door next to the choir loft," Todd said. "It was very, very emotional."
Gasps echoed across the congregation over the choir's size. The brilliant sound produced by 42 voices caused tears to fall.
The group included six singers from Philippus' choir and 36 from afar.
"There were 40 Christians and two Jews," Aronson said. The baker and her husband, Mark, made up the latter.
"What else would we do on Christmas Eve?" she joked.
Turning serious, she explained why they came to the church in Over-the-Rhine.
"It's a mitzvah, a good thing," she said, "to give to others."
Answering the call to sing in the miracle choir became a gift that keeps on giving.
"When we sang at the church last year, we thought, 'Let's do this again,' " said Steve DeHoff.
The plastics consultant brought six members of his family from Sharonville, Southgate and Houston. He plans to do the same this Christmas Eve.
DeHoff should be joined by at least 20 of the voices he blended with in the choir.
"I have to come back this year," said Peggy Schmidt, a Blue Ash music teacher. "There was a magical glow about the whole evening."
As they made their way to Over-the-Rhine last Christmas Eve, the wise men and women in the choir followed a hand.
A gilded 6-foot-tall left hand tops the church's steeple. The hand's gleaming index finger points the way to heaven.
Inside, the church that is on the National Register of Historic places is a wonder of late-19th-century architecture, artistry and craftsmanship. The sanctuary features splendid stained glass windows, Rookwood drinking fountains, ornately crafted oak woodwork and a glorious pipe organ, donated by the Midwest's 19th-century beer baron, Christian Moerlein.
"Seeing all that bathed in candlelight was so warming and comforting," Schmidt said.
She sang in the choir to honor her mother, Carolyn Schmidt, a member of Philippus' 1936 confirmation class.
"The service and the church reminded me of Christmases past," Schmidt said.
The teacher recalled Christmas Eves from long ago "when families came to church together to sing carols. That night brought back many sweet memories of Christmases past."
Memories are all the singers have of that magical night. No one took photos or made a recording.
"That," said singer Ella Jean Davis, "makes the night all the more magical."
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/NEWS01/712230372
Monday, December 17, 2007
Congratulations to Ron Paul for collecting 6+ million dollars on Sunday, the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
To learn more about Dr Paul check out The Ron Paul Library:
www.ronpaullibrary.org/
or his 2008 campaign website:
www.ronpaul2008.com
To learn more about Dr Paul check out The Ron Paul Library:
www.ronpaullibrary.org/
or his 2008 campaign website:
www.ronpaul2008.com
Thursday, December 13, 2007
ok, it took me awhile (& 2 re installs of the system) but, apparently, wireless & Fedora just don't mix. I tried NDISWrapper & Mad WiFi. I learned a lot about my system & got pretty comfy with the terminal but to no avail.
SO, Linuxland has moved back to the basement where it's easier to run an ethernet cable through the heat ducts (the cable running outside from window to window was tacky even in my book).
If anybody tells you Linux is ready for the consumer desktop, they are lying.
Now to commence torturing myself with PHP/MySQL again.....
I should really just find a dominatrix.
SO, Linuxland has moved back to the basement where it's easier to run an ethernet cable through the heat ducts (the cable running outside from window to window was tacky even in my book).
If anybody tells you Linux is ready for the consumer desktop, they are lying.
Now to commence torturing myself with PHP/MySQL again.....
I should really just find a dominatrix.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
In Ohio, we outlaw vice. That is drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling, etc....
This keeps the police busy chasing down and arresting people who are involved in things that might only hurt themselves and subsequently lands them in overcrowded jails. Police records then haunt these people, they wind up not getting jobs, student loans, housing. Their lives, which may have been ok, are sent into a downward spiral by the society that claims to want to save them from ruining their lives.
In Chile, however, at least prostitution is legal.
This gives the prostitutes an opportunity to give back to society by using their talents and skills.
Maria Carolina has auctioned off 27 hours of her services for charity. Sounds kinda gross but from the article, it sounds like one guy paid for the whole time.
Anyway, this seems a lot cheaper as well as more humane and, really, more in line with the purpose of The United States, to allow people to achieve their potential and use it for the good of society.
Friday, November 30, 2007
*&%#%#
ugh
Just installed Fedora Core 8 on a Dell Dimension T700r
700 Mhz P III, 640 MB RAM & a 10 G HD with an Apple Mighty Mouse.
The Gnome "Live" CD did the trick after 3 tries resulting in freezing & crashing.
Before that, tho, I tried the KDE "Live" CD. That friggin thing couldn't even begin to boot. Of course I gave it 3 tries, too.
After that, I tried an Ubuntu 7.10 "Live" CD. It crashed & burned trying to boot up one time, succeeded two other times but failed upon those tries to install to the HD.
Tried the Ubuntu "Alternate" CD which just offered a text based installer.
That daggone thing was all screwed up & failed twice. No more chances for that dog.
So, after downloading & burning 4 CDs, sitting around watching installers & CDs die left & right, I figure with the time I spent, if measured in IT charges, I could have just bought a Mac Mini, had a processor about 3 times faster, 8 times the HD capacity & almost twice as much RAM (and more functionality from the mouse).
I still have to configure my wireless network (which ain't done til it's done) and download a bunch of software that would have been pre installed on the Mac.
sigh
oh yeah, time from successful install to my first freeze ?
10 minutes.
From my experiences with Linux, tho, that is strange. It is usually pretty solid once it is up & running.
Tell ya what. I'm running out of hair.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
While the Cincinnati Enquirer continues to write articles about the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra spiraling to doom, one article almost appeared to be race baiting, it's frequently claimed that their proximity to a homeless shelter is ruining attendance - the Post runs this article pointing out that the orchestra is doing about as well as any orchestra in the country, if not better !
How goes the CSO?
Surveying state of our symphony and others
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Post music writer
Cincinnati's majestic Music Hall has excellent acoustics, but some of the seats are cramped and its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are outdated.
Music Hall's capacity of more than 3,400 is one of the highest in the country among major orchestras. That's a challenge for groups which perform there, because a crowd that would sell out a smaller hall constitute only half a house here.
It's the question few orchestras today want to answer. How's your attendance?
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra makes figures available once a year, and the results for 2006-07 were disappointing. In a meeting on "New Year's Eve," the last day of the CSO's fiscal year (Aug. 31), representatives of the orchestra reported that average attendance at the 53 CSO Music Hall concerts was 1,540 last season, down 10.2 percent from the year before. CSO subscriptions dipped 13.7 percent. Single tickets were down 16 percent.
"We don't have a good answer for that," said CSO public relations director Carrie Krysanick. "We're working hard to make sure that '07-'08 is a success."
A new marketing director, Sherri Prentiss, joined the staff in October.
Last season may have been a normal fluctuation, since CSO attendance figures were up in 2005-'06, but to try to gain a wider perspective, I contacted 17 of the CSO's peer ensembles.
(The Cincinnati Pops fared better in '06-'07, with attendance averaging 2,386 for its 22 Music Hall concerts, 8 percent over '05-'06, while subscriptions and single tickets inched up 0.2 percent. Conversely, Pops figures declined in '05-'06.)
Seven orchestras responded: Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Nashville, Rochester (New York), San Francisco and St. Louis. Four declined to answer, citing lack of time (Philadelphia and New York), contract negotiations in progress (Minnesota) and an incoming music director (Dallas). Six did not reply: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, nor did the American Symphony Orchestra League, the orchestra trade association, even to general, industry-wide questions.
ASOL president Henry Fogel did say that “this (attendance) is a highly complex issue about which there is insufficient data available for anyone to draw any real conclusions. Any conversation would be in the nature of speculation, and I prefer not to speculate on subjects of this importance.”
Figures obtained from my ultimately modest sample of orchestras suggest little cause for alarm. Detroit, Houston, Nashville, Rochester and St. Louis reported average attendance at ’06-’07 classical concerts of 1,391 (84 concerts), 1,572 (54), 1,300 (42), 1,421 (56) and 1,506 (65), respectively. Cleveland reported 183,371 paid attendance for 120 classical concerts (averaging 1,528 per concert). San Francisco reported subscription levels as “steady to rising” each year with “programming the primary driver.”
For pops concerts, it was 1,525 for Detroit (40 concerts), 1,880 for Houston (27), 1,450 for Nashville (24) and 2,195 for Rochester (40). Cleveland, St. Louis and San Francisco do not present pops concerts.
It is generally recognized that attendance at symphony concerts nationwide is either flat or declining. The elephant in the room is too much product, but with union contracts for up to 52 weeks a year, it is difficult to reconcile supply and demand. Exacerbating the situation are changing lifestyles and competing options for people’s increasingly scarce leisure time.
The CSO has not provided house counts for years, a justifiable practice, since 3,516-seat Music Hall (which has splendid acoustics) is not only the largest concert hall in the United States, but one of the largest in the world. The perception — stigma even — that the CSO is failing when the hall is two-thirds full is undeserved. Of the 17 orchestras contacted, Rochester has the next largest venue, 3,084-seat Eastman Theater, which is currently being downsized to about 2,250.
There are many variables affecting symphony orchestra attendance. In addition to numbers of concerts, they include:
-- Performance hall (condition, location, acoustics).
-- Population served by the orchestra.
-- Ticket prices.
-- Leadership on the podium.
-- Effective community outreach.
Music Hall is the “hot subject” for the CSO right now, said music director Paavo Järvi. At a recent pre-concert “Classical Conversation” at Music Hall, Järvi commented on plans to reconfigure the hall. (Music Hall was bought by the city of Cincinnati in 1941 after the Music Hall Association, now the Cincinnati Arts Association, went bankrupt.)
“Our hall is very large and almost never full, but rumors of me wanting to blow it up and build another one are not true. I have always loved the majesty of the hall.
“I compare Cleveland and Chicago when I guest conduct and always think, ‘How wonderful this new, old hall is.’ They (Cleveland, Chicago) have new backstage facilities, restrooms, food service. They are technologically up to date.”
They are also smaller. Severance Hall in Cleveland seats 2,100; Orchestra Hall in Chicago, 2,500. Seating is cramped at Music Hall. Järvi recalled his father’s visit to the hall last spring. “He could not get up afterward. We have 1,000 empty seats, but no leg room.”
Plans to renovate Music Hall are progressing, he said. “There have been some interesting developments. We are at a stage where a lot of options are being studied.”
Parking is already being addressed. With the demolition of Washington Park School (now underway), there will be space for temporary parking across the street until a new parking garage can be built between Music Hall and Memorial Hall.
With a population of 2.1 million, Cincinnati is the country’s 25th largest metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2006. Of the 17 orchestras surveyed, only two are in smaller metropolitan areas, Nashville (1.5 million) and Rochester (1 million).
Ticket prices, which range from $12-$79.25 for CSO classical concerts, are another “inflated” issue. Prices at the seven responding orchestras were in line with or more than the CSO. The lowest price was in St. Louis ($15.50), with top tickets going for $55 in Rochester, $71 in Detroit, $83 in Cleveland, $105 in St. Louis and $125 in San Francisco.
No American orchestra meets its expenses through ticket sales, but the CSO’s percent of revenue from earned income — “in the high 60s (percent),” said finance director Don Auberger — is the highest of the nation’s major orchestras. Most orchestras “are happy at 45 percent,” said development director Kenneth Goode.
Contributing heavily to that is Riverbend, owned and operated by the CSO. “We are one of the few orchestras that have a Riverbend-like facility,” said Goode. “And we’re adding a new pavilion to Riverbend as of next year.” (The National Bank Pavilion will seat 4,000).
An orchestra’s music director remains key to its success. Seven of the 17 orchestras approached have new or incoming music directors, a factor which invariably causes a spike in attendance. CSO music director since 2001, Järvi, 44, extended his contract through the 2010-’11 season last spring, with an “evergreen” clause for automatic renewals. The Estonian-born conductor delivers for the CSO. Music Hall has been completely sold out twice during his tenure and his concerts are always the season’s top sellers.
Järvi led his first CSO community concert in October, a fund-raiser at Lakota Freshman School in West Chester for the Lakota band program. Similar initiatives are in the works, said CSO officials.
Community support is what sustains the CSO, Goode said. “This orchestra is 113 years old and has a base of support that many orchestras can only begin to dream about. It’s part of the fabric of this community. We had an endowment before most orchestras were even created.”
In its quiet phase now is a capital campaign to help rebuild that endowment, which lost about one-third of its value during the stock market tumble in 2001-’02 before recovering to $78 million today. (The CSO budget for 07-08 is approaching $33 million.)
"They have made a very significant start and we will at some point make it public.” Goode said. “The timing is part of a plan we’ve developed to give us the greatest chance of success.” The CSO draws 6 percent a year from its endowment.
Although final figures are not in because of late season shows at Riverbend, the CSO expects to break even for the 2007 fiscal year, said Auberger. The orchestra carries a slight deficit ($100,000) left over from the building of Riverbend, which goes down every year, he said.
In the end, every orchestra must “find its own way,” Goode said. “We have to come up with solutions that work for Cincinnati.”
Said Cincinnati native Susan Plageman, vice president of external affairs for the Nashville Symphony, the industry’s “Cinderella” with a new 1,844-seat hall, incoming music director (Giancarlo Guerrero, 38), recording contract (Naxos), four Grammy nominations, $104.4 million endowment, newly ratified five-year contract with its musicians and subscription sales up 250 percent last season — all after emerging from bankruptcy in 1995:
“The Cincinnati Symphony has been around a long, long time and has some real distinctions.”
Comparing the halls
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071123/LIFE/711230340
How goes the CSO?
Surveying state of our symphony and others
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Post music writer
Cincinnati's majestic Music Hall has excellent acoustics, but some of the seats are cramped and its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are outdated.
Music Hall's capacity of more than 3,400 is one of the highest in the country among major orchestras. That's a challenge for groups which perform there, because a crowd that would sell out a smaller hall constitute only half a house here.
It's the question few orchestras today want to answer. How's your attendance?
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra makes figures available once a year, and the results for 2006-07 were disappointing. In a meeting on "New Year's Eve," the last day of the CSO's fiscal year (Aug. 31), representatives of the orchestra reported that average attendance at the 53 CSO Music Hall concerts was 1,540 last season, down 10.2 percent from the year before. CSO subscriptions dipped 13.7 percent. Single tickets were down 16 percent.
"We don't have a good answer for that," said CSO public relations director Carrie Krysanick. "We're working hard to make sure that '07-'08 is a success."
A new marketing director, Sherri Prentiss, joined the staff in October.
Last season may have been a normal fluctuation, since CSO attendance figures were up in 2005-'06, but to try to gain a wider perspective, I contacted 17 of the CSO's peer ensembles.
(The Cincinnati Pops fared better in '06-'07, with attendance averaging 2,386 for its 22 Music Hall concerts, 8 percent over '05-'06, while subscriptions and single tickets inched up 0.2 percent. Conversely, Pops figures declined in '05-'06.)
Seven orchestras responded: Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Nashville, Rochester (New York), San Francisco and St. Louis. Four declined to answer, citing lack of time (Philadelphia and New York), contract negotiations in progress (Minnesota) and an incoming music director (Dallas). Six did not reply: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, nor did the American Symphony Orchestra League, the orchestra trade association, even to general, industry-wide questions.
ASOL president Henry Fogel did say that “this (attendance) is a highly complex issue about which there is insufficient data available for anyone to draw any real conclusions. Any conversation would be in the nature of speculation, and I prefer not to speculate on subjects of this importance.”
Figures obtained from my ultimately modest sample of orchestras suggest little cause for alarm. Detroit, Houston, Nashville, Rochester and St. Louis reported average attendance at ’06-’07 classical concerts of 1,391 (84 concerts), 1,572 (54), 1,300 (42), 1,421 (56) and 1,506 (65), respectively. Cleveland reported 183,371 paid attendance for 120 classical concerts (averaging 1,528 per concert). San Francisco reported subscription levels as “steady to rising” each year with “programming the primary driver.”
For pops concerts, it was 1,525 for Detroit (40 concerts), 1,880 for Houston (27), 1,450 for Nashville (24) and 2,195 for Rochester (40). Cleveland, St. Louis and San Francisco do not present pops concerts.
It is generally recognized that attendance at symphony concerts nationwide is either flat or declining. The elephant in the room is too much product, but with union contracts for up to 52 weeks a year, it is difficult to reconcile supply and demand. Exacerbating the situation are changing lifestyles and competing options for people’s increasingly scarce leisure time.
The CSO has not provided house counts for years, a justifiable practice, since 3,516-seat Music Hall (which has splendid acoustics) is not only the largest concert hall in the United States, but one of the largest in the world. The perception — stigma even — that the CSO is failing when the hall is two-thirds full is undeserved. Of the 17 orchestras contacted, Rochester has the next largest venue, 3,084-seat Eastman Theater, which is currently being downsized to about 2,250.
There are many variables affecting symphony orchestra attendance. In addition to numbers of concerts, they include:
-- Performance hall (condition, location, acoustics).
-- Population served by the orchestra.
-- Ticket prices.
-- Leadership on the podium.
-- Effective community outreach.
Music Hall is the “hot subject” for the CSO right now, said music director Paavo Järvi. At a recent pre-concert “Classical Conversation” at Music Hall, Järvi commented on plans to reconfigure the hall. (Music Hall was bought by the city of Cincinnati in 1941 after the Music Hall Association, now the Cincinnati Arts Association, went bankrupt.)
“Our hall is very large and almost never full, but rumors of me wanting to blow it up and build another one are not true. I have always loved the majesty of the hall.
“I compare Cleveland and Chicago when I guest conduct and always think, ‘How wonderful this new, old hall is.’ They (Cleveland, Chicago) have new backstage facilities, restrooms, food service. They are technologically up to date.”
They are also smaller. Severance Hall in Cleveland seats 2,100; Orchestra Hall in Chicago, 2,500. Seating is cramped at Music Hall. Järvi recalled his father’s visit to the hall last spring. “He could not get up afterward. We have 1,000 empty seats, but no leg room.”
Plans to renovate Music Hall are progressing, he said. “There have been some interesting developments. We are at a stage where a lot of options are being studied.”
Parking is already being addressed. With the demolition of Washington Park School (now underway), there will be space for temporary parking across the street until a new parking garage can be built between Music Hall and Memorial Hall.
With a population of 2.1 million, Cincinnati is the country’s 25th largest metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2006. Of the 17 orchestras surveyed, only two are in smaller metropolitan areas, Nashville (1.5 million) and Rochester (1 million).
Ticket prices, which range from $12-$79.25 for CSO classical concerts, are another “inflated” issue. Prices at the seven responding orchestras were in line with or more than the CSO. The lowest price was in St. Louis ($15.50), with top tickets going for $55 in Rochester, $71 in Detroit, $83 in Cleveland, $105 in St. Louis and $125 in San Francisco.
No American orchestra meets its expenses through ticket sales, but the CSO’s percent of revenue from earned income — “in the high 60s (percent),” said finance director Don Auberger — is the highest of the nation’s major orchestras. Most orchestras “are happy at 45 percent,” said development director Kenneth Goode.
Contributing heavily to that is Riverbend, owned and operated by the CSO. “We are one of the few orchestras that have a Riverbend-like facility,” said Goode. “And we’re adding a new pavilion to Riverbend as of next year.” (The National Bank Pavilion will seat 4,000).
An orchestra’s music director remains key to its success. Seven of the 17 orchestras approached have new or incoming music directors, a factor which invariably causes a spike in attendance. CSO music director since 2001, Järvi, 44, extended his contract through the 2010-’11 season last spring, with an “evergreen” clause for automatic renewals. The Estonian-born conductor delivers for the CSO. Music Hall has been completely sold out twice during his tenure and his concerts are always the season’s top sellers.
Järvi led his first CSO community concert in October, a fund-raiser at Lakota Freshman School in West Chester for the Lakota band program. Similar initiatives are in the works, said CSO officials.
Community support is what sustains the CSO, Goode said. “This orchestra is 113 years old and has a base of support that many orchestras can only begin to dream about. It’s part of the fabric of this community. We had an endowment before most orchestras were even created.”
In its quiet phase now is a capital campaign to help rebuild that endowment, which lost about one-third of its value during the stock market tumble in 2001-’02 before recovering to $78 million today. (The CSO budget for 07-08 is approaching $33 million.)
"They have made a very significant start and we will at some point make it public.” Goode said. “The timing is part of a plan we’ve developed to give us the greatest chance of success.” The CSO draws 6 percent a year from its endowment.
Although final figures are not in because of late season shows at Riverbend, the CSO expects to break even for the 2007 fiscal year, said Auberger. The orchestra carries a slight deficit ($100,000) left over from the building of Riverbend, which goes down every year, he said.
In the end, every orchestra must “find its own way,” Goode said. “We have to come up with solutions that work for Cincinnati.”
Said Cincinnati native Susan Plageman, vice president of external affairs for the Nashville Symphony, the industry’s “Cinderella” with a new 1,844-seat hall, incoming music director (Giancarlo Guerrero, 38), recording contract (Naxos), four Grammy nominations, $104.4 million endowment, newly ratified five-year contract with its musicians and subscription sales up 250 percent last season — all after emerging from bankruptcy in 1995:
“The Cincinnati Symphony has been around a long, long time and has some real distinctions.”
Comparing the halls
| City | Hall | Capacity |
| Atlanta | Atlanta Symphony Hall | 1,762 |
| Baltimore | Meyerhoff Symphony Hall | 2,443 |
| Boston | Symphony Hall | 2,625 |
| Chicago | Orchestra Hall | 2,500 |
| Cincinnati | Music Hall | 3,516 |
| Cleveland | Severance Hall | 2,100 |
| Dallas | Myerson Symphony Center | 2,062 |
| Detroit | Orchestra Hall | 2,014 |
| Houston | Jones Hall | 2,912 |
| Los Angeles | Walt Disney Hall | 2,265 |
| Minneapolis | Orchestra Hall | 2,500 |
| Nashville | Laura Turner Concert Hall | 1,900 |
| New York | Avery Fisher Hall | 2,738 |
| New York | Carnegie Hall | 2,804 |
| Pittsburgh | Heinz Hall | 2,662 |
| Philadelphia | Verizon Hall | 2,500 |
| Rochester | Eastman Theater | 3,094 |
| St. Louis | Powell Hall | 2,689 |
| San Francisco | Davies Hall | 2,743 |
| Overseas | ||
| Amsterdam | Concertgebouw | 2,000 |
| Berlin | Philharmonie | 2,440 |
| Vienna | Musikverein | 1,744 |
| Tokyo | Suntory Hall | 2,006 |
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071123/LIFE/711230340
Saturday, January 06, 2007
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