1654 State Ave.
1654 State Ave. Address: 1654 State Ave., Price Hill Built: 1890 Value: $18,900 Owner: Michael Kinman Comments: This property first became a problem in October 2001, when the city of Cincinnati issued a "keep vacant" order. Since that time the property has significantly deteriorated. Several upper windows are broken and vandals have repeatedly removed barricades…
Music: Mr. And Mrs. ‘Universe’
Marital Pop bliss: Micah and Lori Wilshire moved their eponymous Pop duo act from Nashville to L.A. to find success "where the real music is." Lori and Micah Wilshire live, breathe and sleep their band, appropriately called Wilshire. The husband and wife team can't get away from the band (pronounced to rhyme with fire), because…
Puttin’ Out the Bone
Let's not change to district elections in Cincinnati City Council. I can't believe I'm writing this. I've always seen selecting council members from clusters of neighborhoods as the pathway to electoral equity for Cincinnati African Americans. You know — maybe you'd have some candidates run against each other from, say, mostly white Mount Washington, Mount…
Cover Story: Change for a Change
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com Homelessness doesn't take the weekend off. Brent Chasteen (left), an outreach worker hired by Downtown Cincinnati Inc., chats with Richard, a homeless man, on a Sunday afternoon. The city of Cincinnati's method of dealing with panhandling — increased restriction, coupled with cuts in social service funding — has prompted a private initiative to…
Jim Tarbell and Broadway Commons
Vol. 3 Issue 5 Then: In December 1996, Hamilton County was up in arms about where to put the new baseball stadium. People had flocked to the polls to support the half-cent sales tax increase to build two new stadiums but were divided over where to put the Reds' new home. Jim Tarbell, then-owner of…
That’s Soooo Cincinnati
Ryan Greis They've been 'scoping things out here for the better part of a century and a half. We're talking the Cincinnati Observatory Center, located in aptly named Mount Lookout, which boasts a number of record titles: It's one of the hemisphere's oldest operating observatories, it's labeled "the birthplace of American astronomy" and it's the…
Cover Story: Bed 45
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com The only solution to homelessness is more affordable housing, according to Pat Clifford, director of the the Drop-Inn Center. People said I was going too far. My mother is a psychiatric nurse and a former Drop-Inn Center volunteer. Her advice was biased: "You're not mentally prepared for something like that, and it's dangerous."…
Mari Lunde Thomas delivers a sister act
This weekend offers an alternative to shopping and football in the form of a "sister act," with MARI LUNDE THOMAS, the concertmistress of the KENTUCKY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, conducting and performing as a featured soloist for two concerts, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at NKU's Greaves Concert Hall. She'll bracket the concert…
Tampons used to enhance masturbation fun
I'm a woman in my early 20s, and I love to insert a tampon in my rear end when I masturbate. It gets me off, but I feel dirty. Is this normal? Do other people share this pleasure? Does it have a name? — Confused About Tampons In selecting your letter for the column, CAT,…
Locals Only: : New Clear Reaction
Dale M. Johnson The Reaction The Reaction is so new, it hasn't even officially had a "first show" yet. So why is CityBeat doing a story on an as yet unproven band? Because of its stellar line-up of established musicians, that's why. The band's history reads like a local Indie Rock family tree. Carl Kinsel…
Cover Story: Test Your Homelessness IQ
1. In the list of 20 meanest cities for homeless people, Cincinnati ranked: A. 1st, B. 6th, C. 10th, D. 13th 2. On any given night, approximately how many in the United States are homeless? A. 100,000, B. 350,000, C. 540,000, D. 760,000 3. What is the federal minimum hourly wage? A. $4.65, B. $5.15,…
Whirlygig: 103: Out on the Town
A tasty new name for the Purple People Bridge Unlike most of my friends who are single now, I really don't mind being single at most times. I have tons of female friends for social interactions with the opposite sex, and if I need a little more there is always the strong right hand. The…
Protecting Catholic, Inc.
It was about the most pathetic photo I've ever seen. There on the front page of the Nov. 21 morning paper were Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, his lawyers and Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen standing in front of Judge Richard Niehaus. Everyone looked like there were a million other places they'd rather be than in that…
News: Academic Sweatshops
Jymi Bolden Part-time professors need a union, according to Howard Konicov, founder of the Adjunct Faculty Association. Thirty years ago Edward R. Murrow's documentary Harvest of Shame shed light on the deplorable conditions migrant workers in this country endured to provide fruit and vegetables to millions of Americans. The farmworkers lived in squalid housing and…
In Praise of Thom Collins and Boxes
A blue sky, picture-postcard fall afternoon and day-long schedule of free tours and performances made a recent November afternoon the ideal time to visit the newly opened Walt Disney Concert Hall, architect Frank O. Gehry's first major project in his hometown, Los Angeles. The programs were part of an ongoing series of free music, theater…
Cover Story: How Far to Homeless?
I never gamble, because I always lose. The only thing I've ever won was a limbo contest, which had nothing to do with luck. I do consider myself an extremely fortunate person. I've never had a broken bone, a sprained ankle or a bad relationship. When my wallet was stolen two summers ago in Chicago,…
Cover Story: Strangers in a Violent Land
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com The YWCA tries to empower abused women to act as their own advocates, according to Theresa Singleton, director of protection from abuse programs for the YWCA. Imagine living in another country without your family. You have a child. Your marriage is an abusive nightmare. Communication with the world outside your private hell is…
Cover Story: A Family Problem
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com Shelters for abused women also have to care for kids, for whom long-term effects can be severe, Theresa Singleton says. As you gear up for the holiday shopping blitz, think about this: Families make up 40 percent of the homeless population, according Project Connect, a nonprofit agency providing supportive services to homeless children.…
Ten differences on holiday dinners
I love the holidays. Really, I do. It's just that this is the time of year I feel intense competitive stress with several of my friends who are so skilled at creating the warm and fuzzy stuff that gets cut and pasted into scrapbooks. I have one friend in particular, Perfect Jane, who's a hosting…
3145 Van Buren Ave.
Jymi Bolden 3145 Van Buren Ave. Address: 3145 Van Buren Ave., Avondale Owner: Edna Plater Market value: $41,200 Year built: 1890 Comments: This charming Irish green house was a beautiful residence when Edna Plater occupied it. Now an abundance of weeds and grass cover the property. In August the city of Cincinnati Department of Buildings…
Locals Only: : ‘Water Chestnuts
Stonewater Seems appropriate that a gang of fiercely proud Northern Kentucky residents would entitle their newly released disc, Common Wealth. But it's not Stonewater's Kentucky origins that provided the inspiration for the title, according to drummer and current Devou Park resident Chris Mueller. "We are from Kentucky, but it's more of a universal thing," he…
Film: Family Business
Elf's Will Ferrell Take an actor whose most recent film credit had him funneling beer and streaking butt-naked across campus. Take a director whose only behind-camera credit heretofore involved organized crime. Take a distribution company whose last big hit featured a chainsaw massacre in Texas. Throw them into a pot, stir liberally and bake. The…
Termite Artist
One of my favorite phrases of criticism originates from veteran painter and film critic Manny Farber, who frequently referred to Hollywood film directors as "termites." Farber's point was that, like those burrowing bugs, a talented Hollywood director manages to make a personal, artistic imprint despite the layers of casting, script, costume and sets that surround…
News: At Home with Art
Sara Beiting Condy Beavers' five-year dream is nearly a reality downtown. If Condy Beavers and Leslie Aronoff wanted to complain, they could say that getting city approval of their plan to rehab a downtown building was like pulling teeth. In their case, the expression has literal meaning. While they were gutting the basement at 807…
That’s Soooo Cincinnati
Ryan Greis "97X … BAM! … The future of Rock & Roll!" — Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man If Clear Channel and the country's other radio monoliths are the poison, then Doug and Linda Balogh of Oxford are the antidote. As owners of WOXY (aka 97X, 97.7 FM), they're among the last of…
Should all Hamilton County property tax levies be on the ballot at the same time?
Jeff Cramerding, Executive Director of Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati Instead of the current practice of spreading different county tax levies over multiple elections, the recent proposal by Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes and County Commissioner Phil Heimlich would place different levies on the same ballot on a common Election Day. According to Rhodes and…
Cop Eye for the Black Guy
People act like racial profiling doesn't exist. Do the math. They act like cops — bad cops — don't detain drivers based first on race and then, while they're at it, rifle through the car for anything worthy of adding us to the "just us" system. Cops who profile are hoping, just hoping, the broken…
Mike Malone
Then: Back in 1994, sax man Mike Malone was living in Cincinnati, playing gigs at the Blue Wisp and the Hyatt. CityBeat reported the CCM grad was leaving town for four months to play on a cruise ship. "I'm planning on returning to Cincinnati," he said. "It's a good place to live with a good…
Publico
James Czar Matt (left) and Paul Coors PUBLICO is dead center of the backstreet Over-the-Rhine art district, a block removed from what's casually called the "Main Street Art District." Publico is tucked into the middle of Clay Street at 1308. No storefront announces its existence; just a door, a sign and groups of young artists…
When is a cheat actually a dirty rotten scoundrel?
My boyfriend of three years cheated on me with a girl in Canada. Then he came home and had a phone and e-mail relationship with her, and then he went to visit her in Canada again. When I found out what was going on, I offered him an open relationship and he refused. He promised…
