Fifteen years ago this week I began working on a plan to start a new weekly newspaper in Greater Cincinnati. Tom Schiff agreed to fund my business plan, and I had three months to figure out how to staff, sell ads, produce, print and distribute the paper and to project revenue and expenses for the first five to seven years.  

Police expert John Linder issued a report to then-Mayor Charlie Luken in 2005 after interviewing Cincinnati Police Department employees and finding that officers didn't trust their supervisors to treat them fairly. CityBeat's Kevin Osborne might be the main reason its findings aren't completely forgotten, as he's written about department turmoil numerous times after discovering that few City Council members have ever seen the Linder Report and no one seems very interested in tracking down a copy.   

If Greater Cincinnati is a conservative region filled with tight-ass people, the Cincy Fringe Festival is a laxative. It loosens us up, gets things moving a little better and smoother. Maybe the Fringe Festival is fiber in our otherwise meat-and-potatoes cultural diet. The annual event helps balance out the rest of our stodgy, by-the-book year.  

I got to thinking recently of Cincinnati archetypes. Let's start with Creative People Who Make Interesting Things, since they basically make life worth living. Some of them host a music/art "campout" in an Over-the-Rhine building (see our Bunk Warehouse report), some start bands to play in bars around town and some work with teenagers to host a temporary Outdoor Museum in Eden Park.  

Americans proudly believe we live in a nation of laws where no one — not corporate executives, celebrities or presidents — is above the law. A place where justice is applied evenly and consistently regardless of class, wealth, race, gender or any other factor.  

Restaurants serve important functions in society in addition to serving us food. We celebrate the big moments of our lives in restaurants, from birthdays and new jobs to wedding receptions and anniversaries. Getting dressed up, spending money and being treated well at a top-notch restaurant makes any special occasion more special.  

As Earth Day arrives once again, it's comforting to know that our political leaders are safeguarding the environment for future generations. Take U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the pride of Southwestern Ohio. He says the climate changes all the time, people breathe and cows do what they do. Hey, shit happens — literally — so stop worrying.  

Is your company going to be receiving stimulus money? Will you be partnering with the state or local government to build something for your community? What, you don’t know how to become part of the stimulus program? You don’t have connections with legislators to get your idea funded? You’re not part of the club? State Sen. Eric Kearney (D-Avondale) feels your pain.   

The Western Wildlife Corridor organization is offering a special hike for CityBeat readers to check out the fields of Virginia Bluebells in Delshire Nature Preserve, which has been temporarily closed due to a slide; it’s a “guided trail” only until the hillside reconstruction is finished. (The wildflowers were featured in CityBeat’s recent Best of Cincinnati issue on April 1.) WWC President Tim Sisson will begin the hike at 1 p.m. Sunday at Delshire’s southern end at the gravel parking area on Hillside Avenue, 1.6 miles east of Anderson Ferry Road just past Clyde Street.  

What's always impressed me about Cincinnati, as someone who didn't grow up here, is how the whole city embraces baseball and the Reds on Opening Day. It's another of those small ways that locals have stubbornly held on to a collective individuality, as quirky as three-way chili and "Please?" Baseball is the only American sport with any romance, so it's not surprising that Cincinnatians bond with the Reds.