Good morning all. I hope your Labor Day was grand. In addition to the requisite parties and what not, I packed some snacks, rode my bike to Spring Grove Cemetery and read for hours. It was lovely. But now it’s back to the real world. Let’s talk about the news.
Former President Bill Clinton dropped by Cincinnati yesterday, spending time at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic before making stops in Over-the-Rhine, where he grabbed some Graeter’s sorbet, and Clifton, where he stopped in at the campaign office of his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Bill avoided slamming Hillary’s opponent, Donald Trump, though he did some stumping for Hillary at the picnic in an attempt to woo more blue collar voters in our big, crazy swing state to cast their ballots for her. He also hung out with crowds at his other stops, doing some more informal politicking. Bystander commentary at the Clifton stopover was truly something. “His hair is amazing,” one woman remarked. Another complained about just trying to catch her bus. A man next to her told her a former president was visiting. “I don’t care,” the woman replied. Clinton got neither a burrito from Habanero nor any cool new-agey stuff from the shops up and down Ludlow Avenue, which was somewhat disappointing.
• Speaking of campaign visits to the Queen City, a relatively high-profile third-party candidate made an inadvertent one Friday. Green Party nominee Jill Stein meant to head to Columbus for a rally there, but Ohio is treacherous in that every big city we have starts with the letter “C,” which is really, really confusing. Long story short, Stein flew to the wrong place and ended up in Cincinnati instead. Oops. Stein delayed her rally in Columbus, where about 100 had gathered, as she sped up I-71 to get to the right city. She appeared again in Cincinnati on purpose on Sunday.
• 2014 People’s Liberty grantee Bradley Cooper has unveiled the final designs and price points for his two tiny homes in Over-the-Rhine, revealing both will be larger and more expensive than previously discussed.
Cooper was one of the first to receive a $100,000 grant from the Haile Foundation-funded philanthropic organization, which set up shop across from Findlay Market two years ago to give grants to individuals with civic-minded “disruptive” ideas. Cooper’s original plan called for two very small, affordable and ecologically friendly houses in OTR costing about $70,000 — cheap enough that someone making $25,000 a year could afford them, he said. In addition to receiving the $100,000, Cooper was able to purchase two 1,300-square-foot plots of land, 142 and 144 Peete St. in northern Over-the-Rhine, for $100 from affordable housing organization Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. Those properties are valued at over $6,800 each, according to the Hamilton County Auditor’s site.
Cooper, working through his LLC Start Small, adjusted his plan last year, announcing that one house would be sold at market rate while the other would cost an eligible moderate income family $80,000. But late last week, Start Small announced that both houses would be bigger and more expensive than originally anticipated, due to an inability to find workable financing for the earlier plans. The originals were to be about 200-square feet on one story, while the new plan calls for houses that are three stories tall and about 700 square feet. What’s more, instead of $80,000, both houses will run about $194,000. I guess every price-point is affordable to someone. Cooper says he ran into dead ends in terms of reducing construction costs and making the houses viable under the income restrictions. Both houses have solar panels and other environmentally friendly features that will mean nearly net-zero energy usage for their owners.
• Let’s keep talking about OTR for a bit. The most active and influential developer in the neighborhood, the deep-pocketed private nonprofit known as the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, is changing up how it sells properties there. 3CDC has contracted a larger realty team to help market its residential offerings. It’s also converting some of the apartments it currently owns into condos. The development giant, which has poured more than half a billion dollars into OTR, doesn’t want to be in the rental business, officials with the group say.
• Media is getting a sneak-peak of the streetcar today, and our Steve Rosen is there to check it out. Meanwhile, Councilwoman Yvette Simpson spoke to media last week about transit proposals for the first second time since announcing she’s running for mayor. Simpson told The Cincinnati Enquirer that she would be interested in transit proposals, including expanding the streetcar, but would really like to have a bigger conversation about regional transit first and foremost. Simpson outlined her views on transit, including the streetcar, and a number of other policy issues during a wide-ranging Q&A with CityBeat last month.
• Finally, here’s an interesting bit of analysis: Is the long-vaunted position of publisher dead at The Cincinnati Enquirer with former leader Rick Green’s departure for the Gannett hinterlands in New Jersey? Looks like that’s the case. There are no immediate indications that Gannett plans a successor for Green, who came home to Ohio to take the Enquirer reigns just a year and a half ago. Shedding the publisher role has become something of a trend in the legacy journalism business, indicating that the big office in the Enquirer building could stay empty for some time. Green oversaw the paper plus 10 other sites in Ohio. His duties have been parsed out for now to underlings, including Enquirer Vice President and Editor Peter Bhatia.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 7, 2016.
