Homemade Root Beer

Root beer, originally uploaded by Pez King.

homemade root beer = awesome

I have recently starting getting into the exciting world of brewing my own root beer and I'm loving it. Over the past few months I've been learning about sourdoughs (which may lead to a separate post sometime), and that led me to learn about other fermented foods. Two things have really inspired me to start trying things on my own at home that I never would have thought I could do.

The first is an incredible website belonging to Professor David B. Fankhauser. The second is a book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz.

Dr. Fankhauser's Cheese Page is one of the best sites out there covering the basics of home cheesemaking. (And he's local!) I haven't tried any cheeses yet, but as I was browsing through the site, I saw the root beer recipe and knew that I had to try it right away. It's really easy, and I think the results are pretty tasty. The root beer does have a beery / yeasty flavor to it that I don't mind, but my girlfriend is not a big fan. This brew is definitely not like the liquid candy that you would buy at the grocery store. Here's the basic recipe (but definitely check out Fankhauser's page for the full details):

1 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp. yeast, 1 tbsp. root beer extract, 2 liters water.
Leave out on the counter for 3 - 4 days; put into fridge overnight.

That's it!

I also tried the ginger ale and cream soda recipes on the site and I came up with somewhat less drinkable sodas. The root beer extract is a really powerful flavor and I think it matches up a little better with the beery flavor, whereas the lighter flavors of the ginger ale and cream soda are more easily over-powered. I plan on trying again with some champagne yeast I got from The Party Source. The first time around I just used regular old baking yeast from the grocery.

In my most recent batch of root beer I made a minor modification in an attempt to make it at least a little bit less bad for me (since I've started drinking the stuff all the time). I substituted some of the sugar with a sweetener called agave nectar. The main advantage of agave is that it has a lower glycemic index. I substituted half of the sugar (1/2 cup) with agave. Most everything I could find said to reduce the volume of agave when substituting it for sugar since agave is supposed to be sweeter so I used 1/3 cup in place of the 1/2 cup sugar. After I mixed it up I started reading more about agave and I found out that this is the same plant that is fermented to make tequila -- I was starting to worry that I was making tequila flavored root beer! But no worries, it tastes just fine. Another way to have approached it would have been to try brewing the root beer with less sugar and then adding in the agave after. There is a limit to how low you can go with the sugar because that's the food for the yeast, and I don't know what the limit is yet.

I haven't made any sodas with the champagne yeast yet, but if it turns out well I've got all kinds of crazy ideas for sodas I could make. I've started the search for unusual flavoring oils and started researching other beverage recipes. :) I can't wait to do more experimenting!

Wikipedia Loves Art @ The Taft

Wikipedia Loves Art is a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest among museums and cultural institutions worldwide, and aimed at illustrating Wikipedia articles. The event is planned to run for the whole month of February 2009.

The Taft Museum of Art in downtown Cincinnati is one of many museums particpating all across the country.

To join in the fun:

1. Find the goal list for the museum(s) you plan to visit. The goal list for the Taft can be found here.

2. Photograph as many things on the list as you can (make sure you're allowed to) and upload your photos to the Wikipedia Loves Art photo pool on Flickr.

3. Museum staff will award points and choose the best photos to be uploaded to Wikipedia to help illustrate articles on the site.

The prize being offered by the Taft is museum membership for each member of the winning team!

Cincinnati Twitter Bots

I was inspired by the DIYcity challenge #1, but (selfishly) since I don't drive very much, I wasn't inspired enough to work directly on the TrafficTweet concept.

But in the introduction to the challenge they mention a twitter bot called shakeshack. The shakeshack bot has a very simple purpose in life and that is to retweet reports on how long the line is at a restaurant called the Shake Shack in NYC. This is useful for fans of that restaurant who want to know if it's worth stopping by. If the line is too long (since it is a popular joint) they can avoid it, and if the line is short, then they can make the trip. People who are interested in the info just follow shakeshack. People who are at shakeshack can tweet @ messages to it, and it will rewtweet their messages automatically to the rest.

So, today I had lunch at Chipotle on Fountain Square and I was thinking about how I could really use a similar service for knowing whether or not to walk all the way down there. Fountain Square Chipotle tends to have a pretty long line usually, but sometimes it's short, and on those days, I would want to visit.

So, I found this site called twittbot.com that lets you create a basic retweeting bot like the shakeshack bot and I made an account called fschipotlebot. (Maybe I should have gone with fschipotle. Oh well.) So, if you send an @ message to the bot, it will retweet it to its followers. Any information on line length, etc, is the goal here. Like today I would have tweeted "@fschipotlebot line is almost to the second doors. Looks like maybe a new employee in the burrito-construction team."

Anyway, if it gets used, that will be awesome, so check it out. Using the twittbot.com service was dead-simple (it took me about 30 minutes) and is all this bot really needed. In the future, I'd like to move onto making more complicated bots, that I will probably have to script and run on my own hosting. Let me know if you have any thoughts on other useful twitter bots!

Ubiquity Commands I've "created"

If you're not using Firefox 3 and Ubiquity, this post may not be all that useful to you, but go check them out and then come back here and this might make more sense.

If you are using Ubiquity, you may have noticed that a nice feature is that you can create your own commands from right within the browser. There is a nice tutorial on how to get started on this on the Mozilla site.

The absolute easiest way to create a new Ubiquity command is to make a command from an existing bookmarklet. There is a video here that explains this. Basically, you just copy and paste some code snippets and bam, there's your nifty new command.

Commands I've made using this method are:

The 'page2rss' command:

CmdUtils.makeBookmarkletCommand({
  name: "Add to Page2RSS",
  url:"javascript:location.href='http://page2rss.com?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href);"
});

I've gotten so used to clicking the RSS icon in Firefox to subscribe to sites I like, that when I come to a site with no RSS feed I feel really frustrated. So I use this bookmarklet/command that sends the page through page2rss.com which in turn monitors the page for changes and creates a feed for it. Then I subscribe. :)

The 'HuffDuff it' command:

CmdUtils.makeBookmarkletCommand({
  name: "HuffDuff It",
  url:"javascript:var%20w=window.open('http://huffduffer.com/add?popup=true&page='+encodeURIComponent(location.href),'huffduff','scrollbars=1,status=0,resizable=1,location=0,toolbar=0,width=360,height=480');"
});

This allows me to submit things to my huffduffer.com queue. For more on how I use huffduffer.com, see my last post.

Similarly, one for the 'easylistener player':

CmdUtils.makeBookmarkletCommand({
  name: "easylistener",
  url: "javascript:void(window.open(%22http://webjay.org/flash/xspf_player?playlist_url=%22+encodeURIComponent(location.href),%22easylistener%22,%22menubar=no,location=no,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,status=yes%22));"
});

I used to use Google Notebook heavily until I heard it was being pseudo-discontinued. Now I use Evernote, and thus an Evernote command:

CmdUtils.makeBookmarkletCommand({
  name: "evernote this",
  url: "javascript:(function(){EN_CLIP_HOST='http://www.evernote.com';try{var%20x=document.createElement('SCRIPT');x.type='text/javascript';x.src=EN_CLIP_HOST+'/public/bookmarkClipper.js?'+(new%20Date().getTime()/100000);document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(x);}catch(e){location.href=EN_CLIP_HOST+'/clip.action?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title);}})();"
});

This last one is one that I actually "wrote". I gradually figured out how the commands are normally written, and made this one mostly from scratch. It let's you type in a song name and it returns a list of songs from the tinysong.com service. I find it extremely useful when I want to hear a particular song. This makes it really easy to go from thinking about a song directly to listening to that song. Much less cumbersome than opening a new tab, browsing to the site, and typing it in there. The command could use a few improvements, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
  name: "tinysong",
  takes: {"song to find": noun_arb_text},
  preview: function( pblock, songToFind ) {
    pblock.innerHTML = "song results...";
    var baseUrl = 'http://tinysong.com/?';
    var params = {s: songToFind.text, limit: 5 };
    jQuery.get( baseUrl,
                params,
                function ( response ){
                  var results = eval( '(' + response + ')' );
                  pblock.innerHTML = results.Custom;
                }
              );
  },  
  execute: function( songToFind ) {
    var doc =  Application.activeWindow.activeTab.document;
    var url_dest = 'http://tinysong.com/?s='+songToFind.text+'&limit=10';
    Application.activeWindow.open(Utils.url(url_dest));
  }
});

It should be possible to copy and paste these directly into your Ubiquity command editor and they should work right away. Let me know if you try them out.

How I listen to mp3's online

Here's how I wrangle mp3s and podcasts on a day-to-day basis.

First, if I'm reading a page that has a link to some mp3's and I just want to listen to them, but I'm not sure if I really want to download them, I use something called the 'easylistener' bookmarklet. Here is the bookmarklet itself:

easylistener

Drag that link into your bookmarks in your browser and then when you're looking at a page that links to mp3 files, all you have to do is click it and a new window will open with an instance of the easylistener player playing the files. Super easy and super useful. Note that the easylistener will also take the url of an RSS feed of a podcast and play it, so it's useful for when you find a podcast and you want to decided whether or not to subscribe to it.

Next, if I really like something I download it for keeps, but if I want to share it with other people I use this great site called HuffDuffer.com. This site let's you build your own podcast of sorts out of mp3 files all across the web. You can manually submit the entries, but the thing I really, really like is the bookmarklet they made. Like with the easylistener bookmarklet, you just click this bookmark when you're looking at a page that links to an mp3 that you want to submit. The bookmarklet for huffduffer is here (you need to sign up for a huffduffer account to use it):

Huffduff it

The bookmarklet detects the mp3 file and some info from the page you're reading and pops up a form to let you fill in a description and tag the entry if you want. Then the mp3 is entered into your queue and becomes part of your feed that can be consumed as a blog, podcast, or even xspf. Huffduffer is really smart with tags and such too, so you can get a feed of anything tagged 'music', or 'cincinnati' for example. See the about page for more on this. On huffduffer, I'm dmenninger.

I subscribe to my own huffduffer podcast along with a couple other podcasts on my Nokia N80 and listen to them while I walk to and from work.

DIYcity Cincinnati

I was really inspired by this DIYcity concept when I first heard about it.

Twitter bots, aggregators, social software, mobile apps - we use these things more and more in our daily routines to make our lives better. But can we also use them to remake our cities altogether? How can these technologies be applied to transform urban spaces, changing them from the centralized, hard-coded things they are today into finely-tuned, fluid, user-operated systems that are efficient, sustainable and fit for life in the 21st century?

DIYcity is a place where people figure these things out by actually building and launching applications that address the problems around them.

I joined the site right away and started a page for Cincinnati. Still looking for other Cincinnatians to join.

One of the ideas on DIYcity is periodic "challenges" that people all over try and meet to solve some problem or create some tool to help people in a given city. The first challenge was to "build a Twitter bot that helps users avoid traffic and get where they're going faster." The second was "Conceive of a grassroots ridesharing system that can overcome the problems inherent in ridesharing and achieve critical mass." Both of those were oriented around transit, but future challenges may be oriented around other ideas.

There was a meetup last week of the New York and San Francisco groups, and they brainstormed a lot of ideas about both their particular cities and DIYcity in general. Some notes from these meetings are on the DIYcity Wiki. There is also a Google Group.

Some of the ideas will apply here in Cincinnati and others won't. For example, we don't have a subway system. Some of the ideas I'm motivated to work on would include: bus tracking, bike-sharing, bike-route mapping, place-based tool-sharing libraries, block parties, building histories, "what's open around here?", providing API's to government data, "who are my representatives?", "what is city council doing right now?", web-based 311, Electronics recycling, After-hours energy use in offices, wifi coverage, parking availability....

That's a long list, and some of the ideas are easier to do than others. I have some ideas on how to accomplish some of them quickly and others are more complex. I know that there are some things out there that I can accomplish by myself, so I'm going to start formalizing some project ideas and giving myself deadlines. I'll keep you informed on any progress I make. I'd love to have some help. Even just having some conversations with other people on this topic would be really valuable.

If you're at all interested in any of this stuff please let me know. Comment here, hit me up on twitter, or go to the DIYcity site and join in.

Plans for 2009

Basically, I think I'd like to reorient myself more towards doing stuff on a daily basis rather than just reading about stuff. I guess this could be something like a set of New Year's Resolutions. I'm putting this out here for two reasons. One is that if I say in public that I'm going to work on these things, then maybe I'll have some more motivation to actually do them. Second reason is that I'm sort of crying out for help. A lot of these projects would go better if I had someone else to work on them with or at least talk about them with. So here goes...

There are two basic tracks here and there is some overlap between the two. The first is the "offline" realm and the second is the "online" realm.

Making stuff:
cooking - been trying to really cook at least one real meal (not pizza rolls) every week
bread - been keeping one sourdough alive, want to start another one (or two)
beer - made beer once, want to try it again
cheese - not huge into dairy, but find cheese-making to be as fascinating as bread and beer making
gardening - want to get my hydroponics rig going again and also start a real outside garden if someone will let me use their land
local food - been a member of the cincilocavore mailing list and loving it; want to make more of that
bison - visit a bison farm and maybe get some bison meat; bison are so awesome
CSA - maybe join a CSA (or herdshare)
farmers' markets - visit these more regularly despite not being very close to one
recycling paper - found some super-easy instructions on how to do this online; want to try it
crafting/remaking - i am working on turning a busted ikea hamper into a folding table; needs more work
knitting/weaving - i'm fascinated by weaving and would love to give it a try in some spare time
composting - tried collecting kitchen scraps but it doesn't work too well if you don't have an outside compost place to take them
rapid prototyping - i want to try getting something made from ponoko or similar (also maybe papekura); i'm a big fan of everything bre pettis does

Making online stuff:
hereincincinnati blog - update the blog more frequently and let people know it exists
hereincincinnati wiki - keep it up-to-date and use the articles in blog posts; maybe reach out to others to help contribute
virtual vine st. - tried it with omeka, wasn't really that great; maybe try another cms or roll my own. also, may need to get approval from CMP
diycity - started a local "chapter"; need to find others to join in with me; do projects on something other than transit
cincymicrocosm - blog needs love; find ideas, blog them.
citycouncil2rss - i'd like to streamify the city council agendas and other stuff they do; needs a weekend of planning and doing; also maybe a team to help
wikipedia photo hunt - got started with the project, but ran into hangups; need to kick it up a notch or let it die
cincinnatiparking.info - figure out a way to get the data into the site "fresh" and automatic

I plan to write a post about each of the things on this list to flesh it out more. For now this is just a starting point and a public reminder to myself that I do have interesting problems to work on.

Transition: Cranley -> Harris

It's been reported today that Greg Harris has been selected to replace the seat vacated by John Cranley on City Council last week. The talk is that this will give him a significant advantage in November running as an incumbent. If I'm not mistaken Cranley himself was placed on council by a similar maneuver. He was appointed to fill Todd Portune's vacated seat in December of 2000. This process seems to work fairly well then for keeping the people the party wants in power. Honestly this rubs me the wrong way, despite the fact that I don't really have any other beef with Cranley or Harris.

I'm curious about how the committee positions are re-filled. I'm guessing Harris doesn't just take all of Cranely's spots. Cranley was Chair of the Finance Committe and was also on the Economic Development Committee, Law and Public Safety Commitee, and the Transportation & Infrastructure Sub-Committee. Does Harris have to start from scratch and wait to be appointed to a few committees? Anyone know which ones he's likely to join?

Updated Sidebar

It seems like every 6 months or so is a good time to update my sidebar. I've added a ton of local blogs to my reading list in recent months, so the blogroll has expanded quite a bit. In case you're reading this in a feed reader, here is what it looks like now:

• 5chw4r7z


• Around and About


• Blogging Isn't Cool


• Boulder Belt Blog


• Building Cincinnati


• Buy Cincy


• centsinnati


• Chris Glass


• Cincinnati Blog (Brian Griffin)


• Cincinnati Labyrinth


• Cincinnati Locavore


• Cincinnati, As I See It


• Cinplify


• Clark Street Blog


• Columbus RetroMetro


• CoolTown Studios


• DANCE_MF


• Design Cincinnati


• ekalb


• Energy Smart Living


• Fabulous Frames & Art Blog


• GetCincy


• Glengage


• Greater Ohio


• Just Past Central


• justforview


• Live Green Cincinnati


• New To Cincinnati


• Patrick Micka


• PepTalk


• Planetizen


• Porkopolis (CityBeat)


• Queen City Bike


• Queen City Discovery


• Queen City Survey


• Report This! (Joe Wessels)


• RRD Photo


• Somewhere Over-The-Rhine


• Stacked


• Stop Working, Start Living


• Straylight Run


• The 'Nati Life


• The Black Dog Blog


• The Bourbon Asylum


• The Cincinnati Beacon


• The Journey Is The Reward


• The Nati (Joe Hansbauer)


• UrbanCincy


• Victorian Antiques and Design


• Visualingual


• wine me, dine me (in cincinnati)


• WorldChanging

Beautiful Photos from Cincinnati 1937-1941

nr068.jpg, originally uploaded by mgsmith.

Check out this amazing set of photos of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1937 through 1941 by Nelson Ronsheim.

Election 2008 Video Roundup

This year I've come across more video online than I remember seeing in years past for both candidates and issues in the upcoming election.

CET has a page set up with several videos: CET Election 2008. They have a District 2 Candidate Forum as well as special reports on Issues 5, 6, and 8 - Payday Lending, Casino, and Proportional Representation.

Waycross Community Media has a collection of government related videos, including forums on the County races, Issue 23 for Greenhills, Issue 40 in Springfield Township, candidate forums for the State Legislature, and a District 1 candidate forum.

Last, The Cincinnati Beacon has a video of some of the judicial candidates saying a few words.

Be an informed voter!

Free Wifi at PLCH

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is now providing free wifi for use by the public. Right now, the Main branch downtown is covered and rollout to other branches will begin October 27th. This page will track the progress of the rollout.

The wifi is free to use. Patrons must provide an email address and agree to the library's standard Internet Use Policy. (The email address can be fake, the library doesn't actually email you.) The wifi connection does pass through the library's content filter and cannot be unfiltered. Patrons wishing to use unfiltered internet will need to make a reservation on one of the library's workstations.

As they are converted, library branches will no longer be Cincinnati Bell Wifi hotspots.

Books I'm Currently "Reading"

I've gotten into something of a reading spree lately. This due in part to a book club I recently founded with some friends. We all live in different cities, so we are running the whole thing online. We're using LiveJournal, since it seems to fit our needs better than anything else.



For the book club, we read When We Were Orphans last month and we're reading Falling Man this month. It's my turn to pick a book next month so I'm mentally working on a short list.

In parallel to the book club, and maybe in part because of it, I've picked up my reading of other books too. My "for fun" reading has two tracks: comics and eastern thought.


At the same time I got When We Were Orphans from the library, I also picked up Soon I Will Be Invincible. I am really liking this one. The chapters alternate between a super-hero and a super-villain's perspectives. The villain Doctor Impossible's chapters are hilarious. They're like the best parts of Venture Brothers. The thing about Soon I Will Be Invincible is that in a lot of ways it's just like a comic book story, but told in paragraphs rather than with images. The fact that literary themes are starting to show through in the novel, shouldn't be surprising because I think that comic books can be a literary medium as much as any other. I haven't finished reading this one yet, because I'm purposely reading it one chapter per night.


Last week I read Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. I noticed on the shelf at the library and picked it up because somewhere in my mind I had the impression that it was an important work in the genre. I read it fairly quickly, and it's good, but I wouldn't say great. I guess I'm not a long time comic book reader, so I didn't get all the cameos and such. The art is absolutely outstanding though.


Then two items came into the library that I had put holds on. Within a week of each other I picked up Watchmen and Apocalypse Suite, which is the first collected volume of Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy. I haven't started either one yet, but I'm really looking forward to them both.


The other track that I'm spending time on is eastern thought. I have been listening to and really enjoying a podcast of lectures by Alan Watts and so I was inspired to go through my bookshelf and see what I had on the topics he discusses. The podcast comes out once a week on Sundays and I listen to it before going to bed. On other nights of the week I read a few pages each out of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Hagakure, and The Tao of Pooh. I like getting a little different perspective from each one each night.


I haven't had a pile of books this big on my night stand for a long time.

Software should not be able to break itself this badly.

I don't know how to feel about this. I'm simultaneously pissed off and embarrassed. I just got finished making a jackass out of myself thanks to some evil software.

Introduction

I am an IT professional. I figure out people's computer problems and fix them. I think I'm fairly good at it. A friend of a friend has a business and I sometimes come over to help them out with computer problems that they aren't able to figure out themselves. They can get a lot done on their own, but sometimes it's more efficient to just ask me to do something. They pay me to do this. Tonight they asked me to come over and figure out how to get rid of a virus on their computer and install Norton Internet Security. Sounds easy.

The Work

The first problem was that they had some unknown amount of malware on their computer, including at least one trojan and/or something claiming to be a trojan that was in fact something else. Anyway, they could have gotten this taken care of themselves if they would have been able to get Norton Internet Security to install, but it was quitting at the end of the installation with an uninformative error saying it failed to install. So that's what I came to fix. I figured out eventually that it wasn't installing properly because there were parts of a previous version of NIS still installed and NIS doesn't like that. I should mention that this is such a well known problem, that Norton actually has a tool you can download specifically designed to completely uninstall NIS from your PC before starting a new install. So that's what I did, I used this tool to uninstall, then I went ahead with the new install and it worked fine. Everything is groovy, I am good at my job. Sweet.

The Fuck Up

After NIS gets up and running ( after a modest number of reboots, etc. ) everything seems to be working fine. I run a scan on the PC to start looking for viruses, etc, and it runs as one would expect. I notice that the LiveUpdate service is running in the background, which means that NIS is getting new virus definitions and patches and such, so I decide to 'pause' the PC scan until this is finished. After hitting pause, NIS informs me that 2 problems were found and fixed and that it would require a reboot to finish the fix. I click 'restart'. When Windows comes back up, it is a joke of an operating system. For starters, it takes 2 to 3 times as long for Windows to start and when it finally comes up, I realize that a lot of things are missing. There is no Start Menu or Task Bar. Most of the programs do not run. This is surreal. I start hunting around and trying different things including rebooting more times and I eventually determine that no essential system services are running. Further investigation shows that svchost.exe is missing. Services refuse to start. WTF? My theory is that NIS somehow quarantined or mangled svchost.exe to the point where Windows didn't know where to find it. And once that was accomplished there was no getting it back. It was now impossible to get NIS or anything else useful to run. I could get explorer.exe windows and other admin stuff like the Control Panel and msconfig and all that stuff, but there was no way I could find to get those services to come back up. When I clicked 'start' to start the service I'd get a 'file cannot be found' error message. Anyway, I banged my head for an hour, including biting my nails while they looked for their Windows installation disc, which of course had gone missing.

Lack of Conclusion

Essentially I got to the point where I couldn't get any further without somehow repairing the operating system and with the Windows installation CD gone, I was stuck. I was 100% positive that the user's important files were still all present and intact. I could browse the file system freely, but there was no way to use the files since apps wouldn't run and there was no way to transfer them somewhere else since there was no network access and I didn't have my external hard-drive enclosure. Not that backing up the files would have done any good, since I couldn't actually re-install the OS anyways. It was getting late so I just admitted that I was stuck and apologized and left. They said they'd just take it into Microcenter in the morning. Needless to say, I didn't accept any money from them for ruining their computer and thereby their ability to work, pay bills, etc.

What Now?

I just don't know what I'm supposed to feel about this. I mean on the one hand I feel heavy, heavy shame. I messed the PC and it just happens to be vital to their business. Before I got there, they had viruses, yes, but they could also use the PC normally - you know Internet, QuickBooks. After I left the PC was essentially useless. It would boot up into a joke of an operating system and taunt them with their precious files, but not let them actually do anything.

On the other hand, I feel really mad. I mean, I didn't really do anything that even had a whiff of a chance that something this catastrophic could happen. I was practically standing up and brushing my hands together in triumph before I rebooted the computer that last time. How can it be that software can fuck itself up so badly without even a hint that this was about to happen. I don't feel like I did anything wrong or could have foreseen this. And I see myself as a pretty savvy IT person. I've tangled with and mastered Norton products before. I feel like it's the software's fault, but at the same time I feel like I have to take the blame and I'm really losing face here. That is outrageous, honestly.

Silverglades is Amazing!

Silverglades on 8th is my new favorite place downtown. They are one of the best places to eat lunch, but what really makes them #1 for me is the fact that they're open "late". By late I mean they are open until 7:00pm Monday-Friday, which is actually surprisingly rare. This is especially handy for me since I work until 6:00pm.

Their food is absolutely top notch. It's all Boar's Head meats and cheeses, some really outstanding sandwiches, paninis, and wraps, and some of the best "deli selections" you can find downtown like pasta salads, casseroles and such. Also, soups, several types of salads, yogurt, a nice selection of snacks, and smoothies. Everything seems to have been selected or prepared with quality in mind. Honestly.

Also, you can get milk, butter, and eggs there. Oh, and beer. They have a good beer selection which includes Great Lakes and my favorite beer: Christian Moerlein OTR. I challenge anyone to find another place in the CBD where you can get all that after 6:00pm.

The fact that all this is in one place and it's open late enough for me to get things on my way home from work boggles my mind and I love them for it. If you've never been, definitely pay them a visit. It's located on the first floor of the Power Building at the corner of 8th and Sycamore.

What is Proportional Representation?

I was going to write a post up on this topic, but our Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper beat me to it on his blog: What is Proportional Representation?

Library Digitization Project video on CETconnect

There is a nice video on CETconnect about the library's Virtual Library project.

Red Bull Soapbox Race

10042008612.jpg, originally uploaded by Pez King.

Just got back from the Red Bull Soapbox Race, which is still going on. Mt. Adams is packed. I've never seen this many people up here in the streets. I imagine the partying will continue into tonight. Good times...

Yak Shaving

Ok, so back in June I had an idea for a fun web app. I realized that there were lots of articles in Wikipedia tagged as "needing a photo". Also, I realized that there were lots of articles in Wikipedia tagged with geo-tags (example). It seemed like a straightforward and useful thing to mash these two lists together and find out things that are near a particular location that need photos taken of them. That might make a fun way to spend a weekend, or find interesting things when vacationing. Oh, and it would be neat to slap some Fire Eagle on there since it's Teh Hotness.

So, I decided to try and put something together.

The first step is figuring out a programmatic way of getting these two lists of articles, so that we can compare them. This is our first step down the rabbit hole.

Geonames

There isn't a direct way to query Wikipedia for articles near a geographical location, but luckily there is a service called Geonames that allows to do exactly this. They let us form a url like this:

http://ws.geonames.org/findNearbyWikipedia?lat=39.10982894895&lng=-84.48848724365&radius=15

that returns articles near a certain latitude and longitude within the given radius. Nice.

Few problems though:

1) There is more than one way to geo-tag a Wikipedia article and geonames only recognizes one of these kinds of tags. No worries, though, right? We can just go in and convert the ones with the bum tags over to the nice kind of tags. Editing Wikipedia for fun and profit! Sure, you could do that, except...

2) Geonames only crawls Wikipedia every so often and stores the geodata in it's own database. So, you're not querying the live Wikipedia. You're just getting whatever geonames has and that could be months old. Also, there's no predictable schedule for how often geonames will re-crawl Wikipedia.

But it does have pretty many articles, so we'll live with it for now.

Wikipedia articles needing photos

Now, we need to get a list of articles that need photos to compare with our list of articles that are near us. Again we discover the unfortunate trend of there being more than one way to do things in Wikipedia.

For starters, there are two major ways to mark that an article needs a photo.

A) Use the 'reqphoto' tag. Using this tag by itself marks the articles as needing a photo. Adding the 'in=' parameter, specifies that the thing is 'in' a particular location. And here's where it gets crazy: You can put multiple locations with 'in=somewhere', 'in2=anotherplace', 'in3=athirdpace' and so on. For each place that the article is 'in', Wikipedia automatically adds it to a category called "Articles needing photos in place". This can become messy.

B) The other way to mark an article as needing a photo is to use a WikiProject tag from a WikiProject that is based on a place and set the 'needs-photo' tag to 'yes'. For instance the WikiProject Cincinnati tag. This will add the article to a category called "Cincinnati articles needing photos". Some of these will be articles related to Cincinnati, like a person or a company, but not really located in one specific place. There are WikiProjects for many major cities and states, but not all and some don't use this feature.

Some articles use the reqphoto tag and others use the WikiProject tag. Some use both.

One problem with the reqphoto tag using the 'in' parameter is that there are no good guidelines as to what types of values 'in' should be. Many articles have 'in=Ohio'. Some just have 'in=Cincinnati'. Some have 'in=Cincinnati, Ohio'. Better yet, some have 'in=Cincinnati, Ohio, in2=Ohio'. In other states people have organized all reqphoto tags by county. So they'd have 'in=Cook County, Illinois'. I haven't been able to find a consensus on what is the best way to use this tag. Sometimes it is used for things that move, like people. Sometimes it is used for things that cross borders, like roads or mountains.

What that means is if you are in Cincinnati, and you want to check to see what articles need photos, there are potentially 5 categories where the article might appear:

Cincinnati articles needing photographs
Wikipedia requested photographs in Cincinnati
Wikipedia requested photographs in Cincinnati, Ohio
Wikipedia requested photographs in Hamilton County, Ohio
Wikipedia requested photographs in Ohio

And that's not to mention things that got categorized into other municipalities, like say Norwood or Springdale. Those won't appear in any of the above lists. Also there are the articles that have a reqphoto tag but no 'in' parameter at all.

There are many ways to plow through all this and I tried to plot them all out here:



It's a mess. But it's a mess I understand at this point. Getting a complete answer is not a simple as finding two lists and getting the intersection. The real problem is with that area labeled "http request x N".

See, I could get all the nearby articles, and then check each one of them individually for the reqphoto tag. But that would require making N additional http requests, where N is the number of nearby articles.

Or, I could check all the reqphoto categories using city, county, and state info taken from Fire Eagle (that'd be a fixed number of http requests) and then for each article needing a photo, see if it has a geo-tag (which is a lot of additional http requests). Also, this method leaves out an article that has been geo-tagged and has the reqphoto tag, but no 'in' parameter.

There's no way to make a small, fixed number of requests and have all the information to make this app really useful. That is sucky.

It turns out Fire Eagle is actually the easiest part. The only problem is that it gives you city names like "Cincinnati, OH" which then have to be converted to either "Cincinnati" or "Cincinnati, Ohio" to match up to names of categories in Wikipedia.

If you've got Fire Eagle powers, then you can try this version. If not, try this one or this one. That's about as far as I've gotten.

The last bit, which I leave up to the user to figure out, is obviously: uploading the photo and adding it to Wikipedia. I believe I could eventually set up a bot to take photo submissions and add them to the articles on behalf of the user, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

See also: yak shaving

Fireworks @ Great American Ballpark

07032008472.jpg, originally uploaded by Pez King.

Reds win and nice fireworks show! :)

RiverSpan Sculpture Exhibition This Weekend

06172008416.jpg, originally uploaded by Pez King.

The RiverSpan Sculpture Exhibition and Sale is an annual event celebrating the creative genius of a wide range of fine art sculptors. From pedestal size to monumental, the RiverSpan experience will satisfy the appetites of the casually interested to the fervent collector.

RiverSpan is not another arts & crafts event, but a calculated attempt to bring the work of fine art sculptors into public view. RiverSpan is produced in association with the CincinnatiUSA Regional Chamber, and together we are working to make your visit to the region an enriching experience.

Whether you come to browse or to purchase, our aim is to make the time you spend worthy of your effort. Sculptors are juried into the event from across all state and international borders, working in all range of style and media.

Friday, June 20th – Sunday, June 22nd, 2008.

Library Book Sale: June 2-6

Today is the first day of the Annual Library Used Book Sale at the Main Library Downtown. You can find really great stuff including CDs, DVDs, as well as art and of course books.



Don't forget Friday is bag day - buy a bag and fill it up with anything for $10.

Le's Cafe (the cafe inside the library) will be grilling out on the Walnut Street plaza all week, too.

All proceeds help support the library, so stop by!

Avril-Bleh Grocery Update

I've taken a few photos of the new Avril-Bleh Grocery that was supposed to open this week. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting really close. Between Wednesday and today it's been painted and most of the fixtures seem to be in place. I even saw a rack holding bags of chips in there this afternoon.





My biggest hope is that they'll slightly later hours than Ciancolo's on Main, since I usually get off work about an hour after they close.

Startup Weekend Cincinnati

Apparently there has been a little more drama in the world of Startup Weekend recently. This time related to Cincinnati.

You may remember the story hitting Cinplify and a few local blogs in March.

I thought it sounded like a pretty neat idea and I voted on the startupweekend.com/cityvote page.

A few weeks after voting I received an email from Ray Angel of StartupWeekend.com claiming that preparations were beginning for an even in Cincinnati:

I've begun planning for the Columbus weekend and we hope to be announcing it on the Startup Weekend website soon.

I'd like to be able to announce the Cincy Startup Weekend around the same time if at all possible and I need to narrow down the weekend that works best for the majority of people.

A visit to the site showed that a Columbus event had been announced, but as far as I could tell, there wasn't any announcement about Cincinnati.

Anyway, I didn't think much about it.

As usual, once a I'm exposed to a meme like this, I start noticing it where I might not have earlier. It didn't take long before I was actively digging around for information about this whole operation.

The group has been mentioned a few times on TechCrunch.com, fairly amicably, but the real juice is on uk.techcrunch.com where they did a longish post about the history of Startup Weekend so far and the apparently dramatic Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend's founder. From that article we learn that a few cities have had uneasy relationships with Hyde and to varying degrees have divorced their "startup weekends" from his company. Some have complained about his style of management and professionalism.

More recently, a spat has occurred between Hyde and an Andrew Paradies. Paradies, is a co-founder of another web-startup based out of Cincinnati called photrade.com. Hyde accused Paradies of creating an inferior clone of Startup Weekend and also dissed him for using a Creative Commons licensed photo improperly on the new company's site InOneWeekend.org.

I turns out that Paradies is involved with InOneWeekend.org, but isn't really a founder per se, and based on the back and forth it appears he and Hyde have made up. Still I don't think Startup Weekend and In One Weekend have much love for each other at this point.

Anyway, now it appears InOneWeekend.org is planning ( obviously ) an event in Cincinnati in July as their first weekend. However, they have no details on the site other than the dates.

One wonders if Hyde's SW is still going to come to town, or if they decided to skip us and let IOW take the reins. It's not clear to me whether they've made up their minds about coming since there hasn't been a post on the actual site yet. Columbus and Cincinnati both still appear on the voting page. The decision making process is not very transparent.

I guess my initial interest, if not enthusiasm, for the idea has been somewhat dampened.

I'll still try to attend one or both of the events if they actually occur, but now it'll be more out of morbid curiosity than an entrepreneurial attitude. I know the videos I've seen so far make it look like a pretty unique experience.


Boulder Startup Weekend 2 - Day 2 from Danny Holland on Vimeo.

This Saturday, May 3rd is Free Comic Book Day. As the name implies, Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book specialty shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores.

It is a great way to get into comics if you're not already a big comic book reader, and it's a good way to see some stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up if you are already a comic book fan.

Here is the awesome list of books that you will be able to get for absolutely free.

And here is the list of participating stores in the Cincinnati area:

CLIFTON COMICS & GAMES LTD
3234 JEFFERSON AVE
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 861-5071

ROCKIN' ROOSTER COMICS & COLLECTIBLES
3805 NORTH BEND ROAD
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 661-ROCK

UP UP & AWAY!
4016 HARRISON AVE
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 661-6300

CAPTAIN COMIC
2105 BEACHMONT
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 231-0484

QUEEN CITY COMIC & CARD CO.
6101 MONTGOMERY RD.
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 351-5674

MAVERICK'S S/C & COMICS
8522 WINTON ROAD
CINCINNATI, OH (map)
(513) 521-4900

I've been to 5 of these 6 stores and believe me when I say they are very friendly places. You will usually find that the owner of a comic book store is the staff of that store and they tend to be passionate about not just comic books, but also helping people find what they are interested in. Whether you are looking for something specific and obscure or if you don't really know what you want, comic book store owners usually bend over backward to help you out. They are really great local businesses to support.

For more information, visit www.freecomicbookday.com.

Great discussion of surveillance on Visualingual

You may have already read this post about the Walking Tour of Surveillance in Downtown Cincinnati from this morning on Visualingual, but if you read it in the AM you may want to check back. An excellent discussion of the role of surveillance in cities has been going on in the comments, including a few comments by Bill Brown the leader of the tour.

Be sure to check out Bill's freshly updated map of cameras downtown, too!

The Banks Blog

Brianne and Suzanne from Live Green Cincinnati have started up a new blog to track action on the construction of The Banks.

Ground has officially been "broken" but they are keeping track of real construction-like activities, and it appears things really are happening down there. They have a link to a live webcam of the site and as I type this, there is actually a machine moving earth. Progress!

Stay tuned to www.thebanksblog.com to stay up to date on how things are going on what most people agree is the most important project underway in the city right now.

CiN Stage lineup for Taste of Cincinnati announced

The rest of the entertainment hasn't been announced on the Taste of Cincinnati site yet, but CiN Weekly released the details for the CiN stage:

May 24
6 to 7 p.m. - The Lions Rampant
7 to 8 p.m. - DJ set by Mista Rare Groove
8 to 9 p.m. - Bad Veins
9 to 10 p.m. - Mista Rare Groove
10 to 11 p.m. - Turnbull ACs

May 25
6 to 7 p.m. - The Seedy Seeds
7 to 8 p.m. - DJ set by Evan Scott Sharfe
8 to 9 p.m. - The Chocolate Horse
9 to 10 p.m. - Evan Scott Sharfe
10 to 11 p.m. - Alone at 3am
(Cincypunk pick!)
May 26
5 to 6 p.m. - Ian Ross Organ Trio
7 to 8 p.m. - Pete Dressman and the Soul Unified Nation

It looks like a great lineup to me.

Mark Bradford at the Cincinnati Art Museum

This exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum looks awesome:



Who knew the CAM had it's own YouTube channel?

Thanks to the always top-notch Cincinnati Revisited for the heads up.

Two reasons to go to Arnold's Thursday, March 20th

I don't know if this was done on purpose or not, but this month's Green Drinks Cincy coincides with the Inaugural Tapping of Christian Moerlein's new Barbarossa Double Dark Lager.



The tapping will be of a new year-round beer, "a Munich style beer with a lower alcohol content than the company's recent seasonal beers. The name is a tribute to the first beer marketed by the German immigrant founder of the original Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. in the 1850s." I hope to get a signed copy of the poster to go with my signed copy of the Emancipator poster.

Green Drinks Cincy speaker this month is Heather Mayfield from the ORSANCO Education Foundation.

• The tapping on zipscene.com, on upcoming.org.


• Green Drinks Cincy - March on upcoming.org

Cincinnati metro bus route to get free Wi-Fi

Via MuniWireless:

The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority will launch a three-month pilot program providing free Wi-Fi service to commuters aboard the Kings Island Express, one of the busiest suburban bus routes from Cincinnati’s northernmost suburbs to the city’s downtown. According to a news release issued today, neither taxpayer funds nor bus fares are being used to finance the program. Details will be released at a media event planned for Wednesday. Expect this program to be funded, at least in part, by advertisers and commercial sponsors, the finance mechanism that the city’s Project Lilypad has used to initiate free hot spot service in commercial areas around the city. --direct link to Business Courier article

It says this is a three-month pilot project, but it doesn't say whether that means they would roll it out to other routes if successful.

Route 71X schedule and map, other routes

If I were designing the network, I'd examine the possibility of using a mesh-network like the one Robin Chase talks about in this video from TED.

Mt. Adams

03082008197.jpg, originally uploaded by Pez King.

Now in Beta Testing: www.cincinnatiparking.info

Last Spring I had an idea to make a website for finding a monthly parking garage downtown. I started working on it last Spring, but then kinda slacked off for a while.

Recently I've been going back in and tweaking some of the things and trying to get it ready to "show off".

The URL is http://www.cincinnatiparking.info/



Pretty much all the ideas I originally had are there. Now, I'm just trying to figure out how to make it better.

#1 - The data is published as a PDF by DCI and so I basically have to manually update the garages. And it only comes out quarterly. I'm trying to think of a way to make this more efficient and more accurate. Ideas here would range from getting the data in a better format directly from DCI or embedding my map directly into their site (by selling it to them), to getting "users" to somehow submit up-to-date data whether "users" means garage owners or parkers or volunteers.

#2 - It is not pretty. I have been learning the ins and outs of CSS and have got it into a basically usable style, but it could be better. Also, I have not tested it on a huge range of browsers and screen resolutions.

#3 - The main feature is the map. The other feature is the "Search" table. Maybe it would be nice to build other ways of querying the database, like search by distance or price range, etc.

Check it out and tell me what you think. I am open to any suggestions and I need new ideas to work on.

Thanks.

IKEA Opening March 12

I started reading this OHIKEA! blog within the past week or so. Today IKEA announced they're opening the Cincinnati/West Chester store on Wednesday, March 12th (map). I have already started figuring out what I want to buy. :) One of the first things I happened across randomly was this product called "DAVE":




Actually, I could probably really use one of those!

Hi-Tek Contest on Jamglue

I meant to mention this earlier but it fell through the cracks over the holidays. Jamglue is holding a guest verse contest with the new single from Cincinnati's own DJ Hi-Tek. The song is called "My Piano" and features Ghostface, Raekwon, and Dion.

This is the snippet to add your rhymes over:
My Piano - Contest Backing Track uploaded by Hi_Tek

The beat is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license which means it can be shared and re-used for non-commerical uses. Jamglue is a remix community that built CC licenses into its structure. The site has actually lets you build songs online right in your browser as if you were using a simplified version of ProTools. They also have a large collection of user contributed beats, samples, and remixes.



It's cool to see Hi-Tek supporting an exciting community like this.

Blogroll Update

I'm ending the year with a big revision to my blogroll (it's that section in my sidebar labeled "I Read".) It's not a complete list of everything I read, but it's what I find to be consistently good or relevant. For those of you reading this via RSS, I'll provide the entire list here. Items with a star are new to the list today. I've found some really great new blogs this year and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store for the next year.

* Around and About

Building Cincinnati

Buy Cincy

Chris Glass

* Cincinnati, As I See It

Cincinnati Blog

Cinplify.com

Columbus RetroMetro

CoolTown Studios

* Design Cincinnati

* ekalb

* GetCincy

Live Green Cincinnati

* New to Cincinnati

Planetizen

* Porkopolis (CityBeat)

* Queen City Survey

Report This! (Joe Wessels)

* RRD Photo

5chw4r7z

The Cincinnati Beacon

* The 'Nati Life

The 'Nati (Joe Hansbauer)

UrbanCincy

WorldChanging

Also, (if you're reading in a feed reader) you may not have noticed that I have a "Recently Shared Items" widget over there in the sidebar as well. This is a feed of all the items that I "share" while reading my feeds in Google Reader. I try to highlight things that I think people might not otherwise see. It has a lot of Cincinnati stuff in it, but there are other things mixed in too. You can read the feed at this page, or subscribe to it with this feed link.


Happy New Year!

The Gateway Quarter featured on CoolTown Studios

The 'Q' was featured today in a short blurb on CoolTown Studios, one of my favorite blogs.

The Lions Rampant

It's funny how things can move into your consciousness really rapidly sometimes. A couple weeks ago, when I went to The Mad Hatter I had never heard of The Lions Rampant. In the Mad Hatter men's room there were several of the band's stickers and I thought they were pretty cool looking so I actually bothered to try to remember the name. I did manage to remember the name long enough to go home and google it and I checked out their website. It said that they were "blues infused, garage brewed rock n roll" and that was enough to get me to download the mp3s they have on the site. So, I listened to 'em and liked 'em. Then just a couple days later I read that The Lions Rampant were going to be on an upcoming Lounge Acts. And then I saw them listed in this post on EachNoteSecure's favorite music of 2007. Now whenever I see the name it jumps out at me and I'm seeing it everywhere. I've listened to pretty many of their songs at this point from various places and I have to say I'd probably go see them play if I had the chance. Their next show is this weekend in Indianapolis, then they'll be going to Philly and then Dayton.

See Also:
+ http://www.myspace.com/thelionsrampant
+ http://woxy.lala.com/music/locallixx/

Tomorrow Night -- One World Wednesday: Canada

One World Wednesday - Canada:

One World Wednesdays at the Cincinnati Art Museum are the hottest cultural event in town for young professionals. This month we bring you the culture of Canada.

Featuring:
- Live performance by Siqiniup Qilanta, Inuit
Throat Singers from Ottowa, Canada
- Canadian tunes spun by DJ Splotty Kaeco
- Fashion Show by Dillards of Nygaard and other Canadian designers
- Art making
- Gallery strolls
- And more

Admission is free for museum members and $8 for non-members and includes 2 free drink samples. Free parking is available at the museum.

Upcoming.org: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/327603/

Zipscene.com: http://zipscene.com/events/view/184734

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6472531271

CincinnatiArtMuseum.org: http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/?a=621&z=137

Full Season: http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/oneworld/upcoming.html

BOE needs a smack upside its head

It'd be hilarious if it weren't so soul-crushingly disappointing.

Ars Technica reports on ( and rightly mocks ) this story involving the Board of Elections in Cuyahoga County near Cleveland. ( original story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer )

Ars:

This is surreal. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports (via TechDirt) that Ohio's Cuyahoga County—ground zero in the nationwide e-voting debacle that I've been chronicling here at Ars—is holding a "recount" of their November 6 local elections by going back to the memory cards in their Diebold touchscreen voting machines and reprinting all the paper ballots, so that they can tabulate paper copies of the votes in compliance with a law that defines the paper record as the only official record of the vote. How stupid is this idea?

This is like printing out all of your bank statements from Quicken, and totaling it all up by hand because you don't trust that the software is displaying your real balance on the screen... no, actually, it's even dumber than that. Let me see if I can explain.

And the worst part is that our new Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has approved this as a perfectly logical and appropriate course of action! Either she truly mis-understands the concept of a Voter Verified Paper Trail, or she is willfully ignoring it. I don't know what to say. It is truly ridiculous. I never thought my confidence in the integrity of the electoral process would actually go DOWN after we managed to get Ken Blackwell out.

Brunner:

"When I'm faced with the situation where counting the actual ballot may result in not counting all the votes, I think the public would prefer me to err on the side of counting all the votes," she said.

Here is the problem: they are assuming that the votes on the memory card are correct.

The way it is supposed to work is when a voter casts their vote, they see a printout and confirm that it is what they really voted. Then these printouts are preserved as the true record of the vote. They are "voter-verified". They are to be used if the integrity of the electronic records is suspect.

Instead of using the paper votes as the true record, they are using the electronic votes as the true record. This is the opposite of what should happen because the electronic votes are not "voter verified".

Also, if the electronic votes are assumed to be correct, printing them out has no effect on their validity. In fact, printing will likely introduce more errors to the counting process than simply using software to count. They are saying that they trust the software to record all the votes, but not add up how many of them there are.

Brunner explicitly states that she would rather count "all the votes" even if the votes being counted are the non-verified electronic votes, rather than count the official voter-verified paper votes which is what is required by law.

That is a serious problem if you ask me.

More I-Team Coverage of Vine Street

Thanks to GetCincy I found out Laure Quinlivan was revisiting Vine street to examine its most recent developments. I didn't catch it on TV but the video is up on wcpo.com (transcript).

This is a much shorter and less in-depth report than the original 2001 Visions on Vine or the 2006 update. It focuses on Quinlivan's interview with Jean Robert and his plans to put a new restaurant in the "Gateway Quarter".

A lot of stores have recently opened in that area and a lot of condos are being built as well. I think it's pretty exciting myself. Park + Vine, City Roots, Mica, and Metronation are all stores that feel like they're designed just for me. I really hope that the momentum on that block continues, both over time and geographically.

At The Mad Hatter

11/14/2007, originally uploaded by Pez King.

Went to see The Mountain Goats last night. They rocked.

OTR Foundation opposing The Banks

In my last post I wondered about the complaints I had been hearing recently about how The Banks would compete against downtown. I was thinking of the downtown building owners who are complaining that the new construction would create too much competition in the market for space to rent. I was basing that on this:

"Downtown property owners have criticized the higher-density version of the Banks project, saying it would directly compete against downtown." --quote from the Business Courier

Also this Enquirer article confirms:

"Several building owners in the downtown business district represented by Cincinnati attorney Joseph Trauth, also oppose the Banks. The businesses believe the project is too big and will steal their tenants." --quote from Enquirer

I still think that that is a goofy criticism, but the main topic of the above quoted Enquirer article is actually the opposition coming from another group that I wasn't thinking about before: the Over-The-Rhine Foundation.

Thanks to Kevin on Building-Cincinnati, I have been able to find out a lot about what they think. The OTR Foundation published a letter stating that now was not the right time for The Banks. Kevin summarizes the letter and links to the full version of it he uploaded to Scribd in this post.

The OTR Foundation's complaint is of a somewhat different nature that that of Joseph Trauth and I feel much more sympathy for it. OTR Foundation isn't complaining about too much competition in a real-estate / rental-space market, they are more complaining about disproportionate use of city tax dollars. OTR as a district (as well as other neighborhoods) will have to compete with The Banks for funding in the city budget. They ask: why would we spend $1 billion on brand new district when we're spending $500,000 per year tearing down the historic district we already have? (OTR is on the National Register of Historic Places) OTR could see substantial benefit from just $10-20 million.

And the letter brings up some other important points as well, such as whether the type of development The Banks is trying to be would actual yield the purported benefits for the city.

I have to say I was somewhat convinced. The questions I now have for city council are: How much money is being invested in OTR? How closely is the OTR Comprehensive Plan being followed? Will future budgets cut funds from OTR related projects to pay for Banks related projects? Does Michael Morgan have a legitimate point when he claims that funds will be diverted?

I still think that The Banks needs to be built. Something needs to be built. I also still don't buy the argument that The Banks will compete against downtown for visitors/residents/businesses. I think that if the Banks does well then downtown will do well because The Banks is a part of downtown.

Nonetheless we shouldn't take this as an opportunity to strip money from existing projects in existing districts. OTR is too valuable to lose even if it is in exchange for The Banks.

Banks competing against downtown?

The Banks Working group has finished it's assigned task and approved a "development agreement" this week. The next step is to have this document approved by city and county officials, which should happen very quickly.
On particular quote jumped out at me when I read the Business Courier's article on the completion of the deal (emphasis mine):

"The 24-story maximum building height is a compromise by developers, who previously sought approval for buildings of up to 30 stories. The latest agreement shrinks the height of the Banks, but not the density. Developers still want to build up to 2.8 million square feet of real estate on the 18-acre site.

Downtown property owners have criticized the higher-density version of the Banks project, saying it would directly compete against downtown."

I have two issues with this:

1) How exactly is the Banks not a part of downtown? I mean, this makes it sound like they're going to build a new city somewhere else. The Banks is downtown. What is good for the Banks is good for downtown. Which leads me to #2:

2) What basis do these businesses have for complaining about competition? How is this any different from a Wendy's trying to prevent a McDonald's from being built across the street? I don't know why we should prevent competition between office space on opposite sides of Fort Washington Way. It comes across as big business interests having undue influence over the planning. What if it turns out to be a really good idea to have a 25 story building? Do we have to ask permission from all the businesses in the neighborhood?

I guess my complaining is too late now. I'm happy that this step is finished. I can't wait to see some shovels hitting the dirt down there.

Streetcar

This is pretty close to my view on the streetcar proposal:

The streetcar system that has been proposed for Cincinnati is a good way to connect the city. The current proposal connects Fountain Square with Findlay Market, two hubs of activity in our city. Connecting these areas is a first start at bringing people in these areas together. However, although I like the streetcar plan, we must not implement it blindly. Building this system with the mentality “build it, and they will come” is not what this city needs. A full plan should be in place to make the streetcar line a WALKING line, too. Businesses and restaurants should be encouraged to locate along the line, and they should be committed to locating here before ground is broken on the streetcar system. Only if there are stops along the line that are appealing, will the streetcar truly serve its purpose of revitalizing the city and encouraging people to move back into the city. Only then, will it be a true success.-- George Zamary Response - Streetcar System (Today at the Forum)

I think "build it and they will come" mentality is the wrong way to think about it. I think some people are getting a little bit ahead of themselves in thinking it will be some kind of cure all. Check out this quote from Mitch Painter:

We must bring the streetcars here immediately in a surge to make Cincinnati the next young, hip, urban, green city that is user-friendly. We must also bring them to decrease our reliance on the automobile, thus lessening our impact on the environment. Furthermore, we must bring them to retain our young professionals and attract new businesses and home buyers.

The streetcars will be an investment that will pay great dividends through new development and new jobs. We must elect leaders that have the ability to generate this forethought if we expect to evolve as a city from conservative to growth-oriented. We must also elect leaders that will fight tooth and nail to obtain state and federal and private money to fund these essential projects. -- Painter on Streetcars (Today at the Forum)

I just hope we're really sure that it will be a net benefit before we start dumping money into it. I still want it to be pursued, believe me. I think more transit options is a Good Thing. I'd definitely ride a streetcar if it went from downtown to Newport (or from downtown to The Banks if The Banks ever get built.)

Buy Cincy

I found this cool website today called Buy Cincy. No, it's not about buying the city. It's about buying in the city. I'm a big fan of patronizing local shops, restaurants, and businesses, so I'm excited to get their tips, especially since they seem to have excellent taste.

A little investigation reveals this smart article on why buying local is cool and this database of local businesses. Now, that looks seriously useful!