Jeffery

Even if Kasich isn't elected 3C won't happen. The reason is they need a supermajority on the controlling board to approve the capital expenditure, and they don't have that. So 3-C is pretty much dead unless the Dems win more seats on the controlling board or a few more Republicans change their mindes on the issue. It really boils down to politiics, and right now the politics don't favor 3-C. But ya'll came pretty close this time around.

Heres some intel on what I was doing the past weekend in Louisville. Spent Saturday Morning at the "Soil Summit". It was hosted by Breaking New Grounds and 10,000 Farmers. Breaking New Grounds ..it started out from the good intentions of a co-owner of a local coffee chain: Several years ago, Gary and Mike started researching the composting of the 50 tons of coffee grounds produced by their five local coffee stores each year. Then, after traveling to Nicaragua and Guatemala in 2005 and 2006, they saw how the purchase of fair trade, organic coffees helped the communities of coffee farmers there. They wondered what they could do in Louisville, Kentucky to help our economically disadvantaged neighbors, and their children who go to bed hungry, to transform their lives? Was there something they could do to reduce the ecologic impact of their business and at the same time produce some added benefit for the local community? Thus, the idea of Breaking New Grounds was born—a neighborhood-based community food system that turns "waste into wealth." (BTW, I shared a table with Gary Heine at the event, talked a bit with him). The concept is to use coffee grounds and other organic material and worms to generate compost. But it moved beyond composting to urban ag. A related organization is 15 Thousand Farmers The Vision: 15Thousand Farmers helps create, empower, and inspire 15,000 new, organic, neighborhood backyard/front yard farmers in Louisville, KY to feed their families and themselves and to give away! How? By using simple and easy instructions, checklists and materials and ongoing support provided through local growers and resources that will provide everything needed to start Easy Farms in our yards, on decks or in community gardens. ...and on Facebook: 15 Thousand Farmers For the Soil Summit, it was quite inspiring, especially what Will Allen is doing up in Milwaukee Here was the blurb & agenda: If you are thinking about growing delicious veggies in your yard, or you operate an urban farm, join our panel of experts including urban farming pioneer Will Allen (via videoconference) to learn about the importance of your soil. Gary Heine from Louisville's community gardening organization 15Thousand Farmers will Join Mr. Allen and a panel of expert presenters. Named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2010, Will Allen is an internationally-recognized soil expert. He'll kick off a morning of learning about: •the risks and benefits of growing food in urban environments •easy ways to test your soil for pollutants like lead and arsenic •simple techniques for making your soil safer for growing food •easy steps for increasing your yields with sustainable growing/farming practices The Agenda 8:30-9:00 AM Registration and Light breakfast 9:00-9:10 AM Opening - BNG Video 9:10-10:30 AM Will Allen Presentation and Q & A 10:35-10:45 AM Break 10:45-11:15 AM Bob Perkins - Soil Specialist, AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc. 11:20-11:50 AM Wayne Long - Agriculture Agent, Jefferson County Cooperative Extension 11:55 AM-12:20 PM Chris Harrell - Urban Farm Planner 12:20-12:50 PM Q & A panel with presenters and Gary Heine of 15Thousand Farmers 12:50-1:00 PM Closing Most of the later stuff was pretty technical, about soil testing, contamination and levels of concern, but the fnal thing with Chris Harrell was quite interesting as he discussed what he was doing with a school in Indianapolis, who wants to mix urban ag with teaching. Harrell is from Louisville but works in Indy as a planner. So some interesting cross-regional pollenization (pardon the pun) going on. I invite the lurkers could post what is going on in your towns...could be things like CSA and organic farming and farmers markets networks as well as urban ag. Next: I will be checking out a rural farmers market this weekend in Bellefontaine.

Heres a way of using a bit of branding jujistu on the abbreviation. "Columbus, Oh!", "Columbus, the city that puts the Oh! in Ohio", " Be Suprised. Columbus. Oh!" ....trying to pun on that Oh abbreviation and riffing on how folks might be suprised by how neat Cols is. "Oh! I had no idea they had this!"

^ yeah, but it doesn't drive their economies.

The Cleveland Urban Gardens and Farms thread inspires this opening post to collect information for other Ohio cities and nearby places I'm familiar with (ie Louisville) For Dayton there are things surfacing: Miami Valley Grown... ...and their facebook page Miami Valley Urban Agriculture Roundtable An informal group for anyone wanting to be involved in farming within urban areas in and around Dayton, Ohio. Got a vacant lot in your neighborhood that you'd like to grow vegetables on? A series of 4 vacant lots together that you'd like to see growing wheat or lavendar? You're a true believer in chickens in the city or you want to donate food to the hungry. This is the place to share ideas, resources and projects - and to build coalitions. Here's a group that is actually out there growing stuff and distributing it: Feed Dayton Urban Farming Program Feed Dayton is a model urban farming program that maximizes community resources to grow large amounts of high nutrition produce for those who need it most.Mission:The mission of Feed Dayton is to locally grow food with the highest nutritional value, and help distribute it to the local agencies that are feeding people who are going through difficult times. Feed Dayton has a pretty good little website that talks about how they operate, their mission, etc: Feed Dayton Imagine, if you will, an urban farming program that grows food exclusively for those who need it most. Now picture this program growing only a small variety of crops chosen specifically for their high nutrition value and abundance of harvest, rather than based on popularity or marketability. Now what if this program engaged the residents from the nearby low income communities to come in and do the ongoing harvesting in exchange for keeping a portion of what they picked . . . 80% given to the agencies that feed people . . . 20% kept by those doing the picking. What if this program dramatically lowered expenses by collecting valuable compostable materials from throughout the community such as leaves, grass clippings, and wood chips, as well as horse manure, fish from the nearby rivers, and other organic fertilizers. Now imagine two more things that are extremely important and integral to this program. What if this entire program {including compensating the growers/farmers} could be funded without the need for any grants, donations, subsidies, or any cost to anyone at all . . . and yet still operates at full scale, entirely in the black? See “fund generating” section below. What if this entire program, including the funding mechanism, could be easily and instantly duplicated and implemented all across the country? That is Feed Dayton . . . The Feed Dayton Urban Farming Program. Read through the contents of this website and you will learn more about how all of this is possible. If you want to implement this program in your community, let us know, and we will be happy to help you get started. Next up, a report on a meeting (the Soil Summit) I went to in Louisville on this, including a videoconference with Will Allen of Milwaukee, but also with some intel as to what is going down in Louisville.

And it helped becoming a center for IT, particularly for Asian companies wanting a US location, resulting in the Silicon Forest Geographically, Portland (and Seattle) are the closest to Asia, so a locational advantage, which enhanced the Portland economy. Seattle/Tacoma benefits from this, too (though we don't talk about Sea-Tac that much)

I find this urban branding thing questionable, or at very least I find it hard to grasp. One can see it as a marketing thing, for products and services. Sure. But for cities and urban regions? Sure, places have reputations based on history, cultural factors, even economics & technology & food (like the "glass city", the "rubber city", Lubeck and marzipan, Nuremberg and its lebkuchen, Milwaulkee and its beer, Newcastle and its coals, Sheffield and its steel, Detroit and its "fabulous ruins", etc). But this is somewhat organic, part of the genus loci. Not really branding as these images or reps evolve over time, both positive and negative. Not every place has this degree of distinction that lends itself to branding. Yet there are branding campaigns, or marketing campaigns, that seem to do this. "Virginia is For Lovers" is one that comes to mind. It is? Really? For me Virginia is for Confederates. Or sailors. So I guess it's possible to do branding when the concept really has no real connection to the place being branded. Portland is the "Rose City". OK. Dayton is the "Gem City". Whatever. So the concept of urban branding can be tricky. Or leaves you scratching your head.

There's a good study out that situates the young Paul Rudolph in the context of an emerging Florida modernism: The Sarasota School of Architecture 1941-1966

*Edited by moderation.*

This is actually rather amazing. I could spend quite a bit of time studying these photos. Notice on one of the right side (east side) images you can see a stone arch bridge, which I guess crosses either Deer Creek or the Miami & Erie Canal (or both?). Mnt Adams was just getting developed, it seems. The hills are all denuded...wow...and consequently look "shorter" than they do with trees.

My last post on Northside was more about grokking on the the architecture and streetscapes. Here is one about the events: As I mentioned I didn’t see this as being much of a gay pride event. I spent some time at the Northside Tavern for the fashion show and burlesque, then to Mayday, and finally a brief stop at Bronze. But first I stopped at this little antique/second hand store on side street about a block or half-block east of Hamilton. This was interesting just because their backyard has these little decks and seating areas, including a built-in bar. Wasn’t expecting to see that. Northside Tavern Northside Tavern is a nice space, especially their spacious front bar and patio. The fashion show was in the back bar area (which I guess is where the bands play). Interesting to see this. Apparently there is a local designer called Toby Tyler who does some interesting street-style fashion, plus some vintage clothing places showing? One mentioned was Chicken Lays an Egg, which I was told was a local establishment in Northside. Crowd was probably substantially straight, maybe more lesbians than gays. But it was not really one way or another, which was interesting for a change, to see that mix. Same for the burlesque, which I think was intended to be sort of an ironic interpretation of burlesque, or a revival of this old form of quasi-vaudeville risqué performance (I saw a similar one up in Columbus as an opener for a music act I wanted to see). Melt Had lunch here. Good window seat and good salad. This place seems small but I suspect they have a back-room seating area like Sidewinder. Didn’t see it , though. Mayday This was well away from the Hamilton Avenue strip and was pretty empty when I was there. I can see this being an interesting venue for live music, and I like the patio and rooftop thing, but the place was pretty stark inside (particularly their second floor pool & ping pong table space). Front bar area was neat, with the windows facing Spring Grove. Not sure about the scene here. Bronze. The only true gay bar I went to. Yawn. Drag kings and queens, crowded, and also a patio area (they like these patios in Cincy and do a good job with them). Not really into this after the more entertaining things at Northside. Art Damage Lodge Finally got to see the inside of this space. Huge ceilings and interior spaces, but makes for a long walk up flights of stairs. The performance space is an old Masonic lodge/meeting room. Pretty nice inside, actually. But the crowd was very young, and the performance here was pretty conceptual. My reaction: “I’m too old & square for this shit”. Yet it seems people involved with this are putting on a show at the Mockbee on the 28th. I thought the Mockbee was closed? Maybe open only for special occasions? Anyway, I get this interesting bohemian atmosphere in Northside. Not really a gayborhood or gay/lesbian type of a vibe. So I don’t agree with that characterization. The place is more interesting and diverse than that, maybe more scruffy and funky and PC vs. the more trendy/fashion/consumerist thing one might see in a gentrified gay area. A Brief Downtown Note: Later in the evening was spend mostly downtown Cincy. That was its own thing, and I was particularly impressed with the nightlife there (on Walnut to Fountain Square). Very busy and active, and I notice they pipe music onto the street from the venues. For the interiors I was particularly impressed with Righteous Room and Jack Ruby. Very well-done. Nothing cheap or corner-cutting here at all! Had a later dinner at Arnolds. Still one of my new favorites. But also spent some time in the late afternoon and in the morning walking around Garfield Place/Piatt Park since it has nostalgic associations for me. I sort of wish this area would be more successful. Sad to see Benet Pharmacy is gone. I think the last thing in that Doctors Building from the old days was Café du Paris. You’d think this would be a great place for little storefront boutiques and shops and another cafe. Just seems like such a delightful space (Piatt Park) but underused or under appreciated? For breakfast it was Just Crepes on Court Street. Been wanting to try that place for a long time. Finally did (and they are open on Sunday!). Their goat cheese/red sauce crepe was pretty good. Need to come back here more as it’s a good place for a Sunday pit-stop. Finished up with yet another visit to OTR’s Main Street craft fair.

You do get the impression that this is one of the undiscovered urban gems of America.

I agree these are excellent pix. The place has sort of a bittersweet feel to it, from my impression from the pix. Yet somehow comfortable. I'd wonder what it would be like to live there? The place also looks like its in pretty good condition, more-or-less (particularly the neighborhood shots), but too bad about that building directly on the river, with the caved in roof or collapsed cornice. The most famous American of Captho-Rus ancestry is Andy Warhola, AKA Warhol. Apparently this immigrant group came to Johnstown as well as Pittsburgh.

^ I just spit an iced tea all over the screen laughing.

^ yeah! BTW, I think some of those substation buildings are still standing around Dayton. I can think of two, one on US 35 west of town and another near the old Salem Mall. (good shot of that Zanesville interurban). For me the great Ohio Interurban what-if is what if the CL&E empahsised their Cincy/Dayton service (double tracking and moving to private ROW, maybe the old canal bed) the way the North Shore did in Chicago? And if the subway opened, allowing CL&E service downtown. I'd bet the line would have survived into the postwar era.

It's certainly over for 3C+D. Kasich has pretty much made it a campaign promise to kill the plan.

Looks like some new skyscrapers are up in Philly? Yeah, it doesn't look as run-down. Looks like its been painted inside.

^ Wow, yes it does! What an in-depth history! I sort of wish someone would do that kind of stuff for Dayton neighborhoods.

I might just go on that house tour. But thanks for those links. I think Northside Greenspace was linked here before...

Frightened Rabbit was on the radio quite a bit here in Dayton. For me I'm revisting the DBTs Southern Rock Opera. Forgot how much I liked that. They are playing Louisville in September or October and I just might go see them.

If only there was TOAST in Dayton. TOAST(on Market).

^ Joes Crab Shack closed too, but that's in a different part of town. I rather like the somewhat snaggletooth fringe strips of the Dayton Mall area. I mean...Saigon Fish Market? Lots of interesting things floating around out there. (The DM Max and Ermas closed probably because there's a new one in Springboro across from the DLM)

^ Yes, thank you! I am going to have to get that Arcadia Press book, too. I think its for sale over at Shake-It Records.

What’s entertaining about this article are the readers’ comments: ” Disagreement about street art reveals differences among residents about district’s image, future. DAYTON — A recent flap about street art in the Oregon District has revealed that residents have differing visions of the district’s future. “Oregon is first and foremost a historic district and secondly an arts district,” said Oregon District Business Association President Mike Martin of Dayton’s oldest neighborhood, which includes 12 blocks of historic homes and the Fifth Street business corridor, the site of numerous restaurants, bars, shops and art galleries. The flap was sparked by this “fiber art graffiti” project that caused some controversy. I guess the local yuppies don’t “get” fiber art (which was a big deal in the 1970s, if anyone remember that scene from back then). Dayton residents wrangle over neighborhood image The issue of what kind of art is accepted in the district was brought to the forefront this summer after the group of knitters installed “knit grafs” on four streetlight poles at the corner of Jackson and Fifth streets. “It’s not really a well understood art form,” knitter Tonia Fish said of the art of wrapping squares of colorful knitting around trees, lamp posts, or other architecture. …yeah, maybe not understood here in squaresville Dayton. And the squares call “the authorities” to complain: An anonymous complaint to the city almost forced the art down off the poles in late June, but the Department of Planning and Community Development decided it was not a safety concern and left the matter in the hands of the neighborhood. Stuff like this (or attitudes like this) is why I suspect Dayton is hopeless as a sort of funky, urban bohemian place (though it has possibilities in other ways). For that "cool world' urban scene I prefer to spend my time out of town…which is usually Louisville, but during the summer months more and more in Cincinnati (and in Yellow Springs, too, which, incidentally, has quite a bit of this public fiber art).

^ Which line came first? I'd think Spring Grove since it went to the cemetary. Was this (or Colerain) a horse car or steam dummy before electrification? Or was it always electric?