The Nati

Looks like another section of the skywalk is about to meet its demise. And not a moment too soon... probably one of the clumsiest and ulgliest of the all the skywalk links (and in one of most prominent spots), the span that connects US Bank/Westin to Fountain Square is set to be chopped down. I am hoping the Fountain Square plan gets rid of the skywalk over Rock Bottom as well. They skywalks are ugly, and kill the street level foot traffic that the city needs.

Interestingly enough, everyone is claiming this development has nothing to do with the 3CDC. Maybe it's true, but I find that hard to believe... At best, 3CDC is not making any arguments to keep the skywalk :)

For those of you that didn't make it out to BoldFusion in 2004, you need to put it on the calendar for 2005. They haven't 'officially' confirmed/anounced the date for the event yet, but I can tell you it will be Friday afternoon September 30th at Longworth Hall. You'll likely see a lot more about this event in the coming months at events across the city, but wanted to get it on your calendar. It will be the weekend after Midpoint Music Festival (which is also the same weekend as the dowtown tour of living).

For thost of you that don't know much about the event, it's a great forum for young professionals to both learn about initiatives in the city that affect them, but also to sound off to the leaders making decisions for our city. As a result of last years events, we saw Stephen Leeper and 3CDC make some changes to plans for Fountain Square (and hold YP Specific forums) after it became perfectly clear that YPs were less than enamored with the original Fountain Square plans (Speaking of which, the new plans for Fountain Sqaure should drop on City Hall on or around April 21st). It also led in part to P&G stepping up as a corporate sponsor for MPMF after Bill Donabedian pointed out that most Cincy corporations were not putting their money where their mouths were, and talking about YP retention, but not taking action to help make the city attractive to Young Pros.

This years event should be even bigger and better with panels focused on the issues we all care about... something you'd like to see on the agenda for us to talk about? Comment here, and I'll do what I can to get it on the agenda.

I mean... Jerry Springer was mayor of Cincinnati and we've even embraced him back into the city with his new 'political' talk radio show. So if that can happen, why not a boy band member? Justin Jeffre, a former member of boy band 98 degrees and cohort to the ever so popular Nick Lachey (Of Nick and Jessica), is considering running for mayor. He obviously has no real care about the office (as it lays out in the article, he's looking for VH-1 to create a reality show to follow his mayoral campaign, and it's not clear if he'd run if they didn't pick up the show). As David Pepper indicates in the article, this isn't what Cincinnati needs, this is a very important campaign for Cincinnati's future, and a reality show wouldn't be helpful... but one can only dream about the wonderfully choreographed announcement dance... er I mean announcement speech.

Cincinnati USA - All Together Surprising. That's the slogan that they marketing folks came up with. Now I don't know a lot about marketing, but that slogan seems workable to me. All though I think it has more to do with the money you spend, and who you get your marketing in front of. Not so much on what the actual slogan is. I think they could have made it "Cincinnati USA - It's Not a Dump', and if they spent a lot of money and targeted the folks vacationing and booking conventions they might have still been successful. But overall, I think the slogan is good, I have no objections to it. I think the title 'surprising' is a good one for not only marketing Cincinnati outside the region, but also to the folks in the 'burbs who haven't been downtown for 7 years, but complain that Cincinnati has nothing to offer.... come on down... you'll be 'surprised' at what you find.

Sorry... This post is not going to be as light-hearted/upbeat as most. But this is something I think is crazy, and the more I read/learn about it the worse it seems. What does it take to put sex offenders (especially those who committ crimes against minors, and even more so against those under 12) behind bars and keep them there?

I mean, John Couey (the scum who kidnapped, sexually assulted and killed Jessica Lunsford in Fl) is a guy who has been in and out of jail for 25 years, and has a least some history with crimes against children under 16. Not only was he released, but in most cases he got out early... Small sampling of his past by TexasRainMaker




Do I feel unsafe? No, not really, I would be surprised to find any neighborhoods that don't look like this. But it seems amazing to me to know that there are that many known sexual offenders living amongst us. Check our your neighborhood in Ohio or Kentucky.

Can't we get something done to get these guys behind bars and keep them their. And IF we are going to let them out... can't we do a better job of tracking them? With all the technology we have out there to track movements on everything from UPS shipments to Cars on streets, we ought to have a better reporting system than having a guy register himself. Can't we tag them with RFIDs, or ankle bracelets? I mean if Martha Stewart is going to have an ankle bracelet on, is it too much to ask for a sexual offender to wear one?

Does anyone disagree that if you committ a sexual crime against someone under 12, you should spend the rest of your life in jail (preferably sitting in a cell next to Bubba)!

Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend and end of last week... I'll try to catch up, but I had a case of 'March Madness' that started around Noon Thursday and lasted all weekend...

Interesting article in Sunday's Boston Globe. It looks like the big mergers from P&G and Federated is starting to generate some attention for Cincinnati. It talks about some of the bad things in the past (Marge, Mapplethorpe, and the riots), but it focuses on how things are turning around. Cincinnati is a medium size 'livable' city with an abundance of attractions. From collegiate and professional sports, to an amazing selection of cultural attractions (playhouse, ensemble, taft, CAC, Aronoff, Music Hall, etc, etc) for a city of any size, let alone a city of 330,000. But maybe the most telling item of why Cincinnati is so great.... not only do you get all of these big city ammenities in a small city package, but you also get small city prices... Median home price $143,000, compared to 387,800 for Boston... You can buy two houses in Cincy for the price of one in Boston... no wonder my Buddy Rob never seems to have the cash to take any fun trips!