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 The Columbia JournalSeptember 2008 | |
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CT Calendar
Sept. 15: Monthly CTCC meeting, 7:30 p.m.,
Carnegie Center, 3738 Eastern Ave.
Oct. 6: Deadline to register to vote.
Call 632-7300 for more info.
Oct. 11: Cincinnati Fire Department Open House, 1-5 p.m.
Oct. 12: Columbia Tusculum Home Tour, 1-6 p.m.
Oct. 20: Monthly CTCC meeting, 7:30 p.m.,
Carnegie Center, 3738 Eastern Ave.
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The Journal gets a new look! Welcome to your neighborhood's first electronic newsletter. The Columbia Tusculum Community Council hopes you'll find this a handy and informative way to keep up with our up-and-coming quarter of the Queen City. Here you can:
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Track neighborhood news, events, meetings
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Learn about city actions that affect you and link to useful resources
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Discover new businesses or proposed developments
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Get to know your interesting neighbors
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Find ways to get involved in the community
Whether you have news to spread, a comment, a question or a photo to share, we want to hear from you! (See below)
We're also building an email address book for The Journal. Please forward this to neighbors and other interested parties, asking them to sign up using the button below.
-- Your Community Council
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Help Us Show Off!
CT Historic Homes on Tour
 Sunday afternoon, Oct. 12 |
It's almost time for the Columbia Tusculum Historic Home Tour. This year's tour, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Oct. 12, features 17 stops throughout the historic district. We expect more interest than ever in our lovely Painted Ladies and other historic buildings. Thirteen generous neighbors have graciously agreed to scrub, shine and show off their homes for the first tour in more than three years.
And check out a CT-themed art show in the parking lot of Starbuck's at Columbia Parkway, our chief sponsor. Margo Warminski, preservation director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, will also lecture on local architecture.
Tickets are $15 and available after Sept. 12 at Stanley's Pub, Allyn's and Tostado's. On the day of tour, tickets will be sold at the Carnegie Center. Don't worry about the hills! Free shuttles will be available.
If you're a Facebook member, you can get more details on buildings in the tour now. Just go to www.facebook.com and search for Columbia Tusculum Home Tour. Or go directly to (one long link): www.facebook.com/group.php?d=20632928795&ref=nf
We need more than 50 volunteers on tour day as house monitors, ticket sellers and to help keep the tour humming. Help us show off Columbia Tusculum. If interested, please contact Angela Lyman at 319-7136.
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| Columbia Tusculum Community Council News |
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Columbia Square Update
Molly Paquette, Al Neyer Real Estate development manager, updated the Columbia Community Council on the status of construction and tenant leases at the August Council meeting. The main building is complete, but awaits tenants. The slowing economy has made businesses hesitant to sign new leases. Neyer continues to seek a "high end" restaurant for the main floor and office tenants for the second and third floors.
You are seeing construction in progress for two medium-sized buildings on the side and back of the property. A fitness center and salon are discussing lease agreements for one of these buildings. Meanwhile, major sewer lines are being replaced, running across the Neyer property from Stanley Avenue to Columbia Parkway.
Neyer is ready to begin construction on two smaller buldings facing Columbia Parkway at the main entrance. A bagel cafe will occupy one of the buildings, originally slated for a bank. Slowdown in the banking industry changed plans for this building.
Ms. Paquette sought input from CTCC on property design details now needed since the last discussions in 2007. Motions were passed with community support for:
- Consolidating drive-through lanes for the new small building facing Columbia Parkway from three lanes (originally planned for a bank) to one lane for the bagel cafe.
- Basic design for one large monument sign at the main entrance with unlit "pin" lettering for all small tenants. This contrasts with the city code which allows for a separate sign for each detached building.
- Basic design for signs on the main building for major tenants. These would be individually lit letters on the second level, based on the tenant's logo (no full light boxes). One sign would face Columbia Parkway and one would face Delta Avenue, of square footage allowed by city code for signage.
Al Neyer continues to work with the Columbia Tusculum community on a collaborative basis. Actual construction is closely following development plans mapped out by Columbia Tusculum community leaders with the city nearly 20 years ago. A long time in coming -- but looking good! Council by-laws updated & ready for September 15th member vote
The Columbia Tusculum Community Council's by-laws have been revised for the first time in nearly 20 years. Key changes include:
- An expanded Steering Team for broader community input, with addition of three new Director-At-Large positions
- New process for proposing and approving expenditures
- Quorums defined for decision making
Proposed by-law changes were presented at the August Council meeting. A member vote to accept by-law changes is planned for the Sept. 15 Council meeting. You can request a copy of changes to review prior to the September vote by contacting ctcc@columbiatusculum.org.
Are you interested in providing more direction for Columbia Tusculum and input to the Council? Want to get more involved in your neighborhood? Come to the Sept. 15 Council meeting to learn about filling officer and director roles for 2009. |
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Want a Neighborhood Watch group? Cincinnati Police will work with you to set one up:
- First, identify interested neighbors
- Assign a block leader
- Then, contact Officer Germaine Love, Neighborhood Liason Officer, at 979-4480. She will help your group to get started.
Tusculum Avenue Parking Residents here were suprised in June to receive tickets for parking over the curb. Obstructing pedestrian traffic was cited as the reason. Police have advised us that the street meets city criteria for parking on both sides. To be sure of no new tickets, park with all wheels on the street.
Support our local Fire Department Saturday, Oct 11, is our chance to say thanks to the Cincinnati Fire Department. All 26 CIncinnati fire stations are hosting an open house from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Bring your families for a fun and informative event. Tour fire stations, see fire trucks up close, learn about fire-fighting techniques like thermal imaging and update yourself on smoke detectors.
Local fires -- including one the morning of the Flying Pig Marathon on Eastern Avenue -- are good reminders of how much we depend on the men and women of the Fire Department. Come out on Oct. 11 and show your appreciation. Our local fire station is Engine and Ladder 18, 478 Wilmer Road, at Lunken Airport. You can feel free to visit any CIncinnati fire station for this open house.
Make your vote count! Oct. 6 is the final date to register as a voter for the November elections. Other key election season dates are:
- Sept. 30 - Voting by absentee (mail-in) ballot begins
- Nov. 1 - Last day to request an absentee ballot (you no longer need a reason!)
- Nov. 4 - Election Day
New polling place: The Columbia Tusculum polling place for the Nov. 4 election has changed; it will be in the Carnegie Center on Eastern Avenue.
For additional Information on voter registration, absentee voting or polling place locations, please call (513) 632-7000.
Get involved - Volunteer Opportunities
If you would like to get more involved in your community and make new friends, we have opportunities for you, right now:
- Historic Home Tour - help on the day of event, Oct. 12.
- Columbia Tusculum Beautification - planning, planting, weeding, watering, grass cutting - we need it all. Help keep us looking sharp. Help plan new projects as part of a cohesive beautification plan.
- Columbia Journal Editor and support - like what you see here? Have ideas to improve the look and content? Whether leading or contributing to the Journal, we need you.
If you can help on any of these projects -- contact ctcc@columbiatusculum.org.
Get paid for what you think!
On Oct. 6 and 7, Seek Research (www.seekresearch.com) will be hosting focus groups in the Columbia Tusculum area on the topic of church and religion. Focus group times will be scheduled throughout the day and will last 1 1/2 hours. Participants will receive $25 on that day for their time and thoughts. The groups will take place at LeBlond Recreation Center, 2335 Riverside Drive.
If you are interested in participating, please call Denise Mead at Parkside Christian Church at 231-9482, x4701. She can answer all your questions and schedule your interview time. |
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* Special thanks to Cindy Mayti, our own resident artist, for generously making one her paintings of Columbia Tusculum available for the CT Home Tour program. That beautiful painting you see in the article above is one of many Cindy has done of the neighborhood. If you ike her work, you will also enjoy her recently published children's book, "Little Town of Spirals."
* Welcome to Tusculum Therapuetic Massage at 3540 Columbia Parkway, above 24-Hour Blinds. Bill Hulsizer recently opened this business which treats problems such as pain, TMJ, carpel tunnel, fibromyalgia or any other soft-tissue injury or repetitive motion-related issue. By appointment only. Call 505-3541. Entrance is at the rear of the building. Welcome, Bill.
* Many thanks to Tarvin Plumbing for coming to our aid and fixing the leaky water line for the CT Gateway sign park on Columbia Parkway -- at no cost! Saved us from overpaying on water bills and a big repair bill. A family-owned business, Tarvin's on Eastern Avenue has been a neghborhood fixture for over 50 years. We appreciate the help!
* New Edgecliff Theater - our neighorhood theater Do you know about NET at 3800 Eastern Ave.? These thespians want us to think of them as our neighborhood repertory theater. To get better acquainted, NET will be offering CT residents free tickets to its Nov. 2 Halloween-season production of Orson Wells' "War of the Worlds." More to come. Thanks NET! To learn more now, go to www.newedgecliff.com. |
| Make a Difference - Riverview East Academy |
Columbia Tusculum is fortunate to have one of only a couple newly built school s in the Cincinnati Public Schools system in many years. But, if you're like me, you drive by Riverview East Academy several times a week, and know little of what's going on there.
The unique Riverview East Academy has just started its third academic year for K-12 students. But it's community involvement, not just a new building, that makes it the community's school. If you'd like to know how you can make a difference, read how one person found out through Riverview East Community Learning Center:
"I am a substitute teacher at Riverview East Academy. I work with many students on a daily basis. One student in particular is a boy who was in the sixth grade last school year.
He had a very difficult year in terms of his behavior and academics. This student would barely come to school and when he did, he would just sit in class and do nothing. Sometimes he would not even come inside the classroom or even talk to anyone. It was a very rough year for him and as a result he had to attend summer school.
"While in summer school, he signed up for Cincy After School Summer Camp. One day, his mother came to me in tears about how she had not seen this side of her son in a long time. She explained that he was acting like a normal kid by playing basketball, swimming and hanging out with other children his age. When she told me this I was in tears as well, because we had made a difference.
"The mother said that this was definitely a great program and she was happy to have her son a part of it. I believe Riverview East Community Learning Center and all the programs that are offered are making a tremendous and lasting impact on our community."
You, too, can make a difference. Please volunteer as a tutor or mentor by contacting Courtney W. Haynes, Riverview East mentor coordinator, voicemail telephone, 363-8462, or chaynes@cycyouth.org
And please note: Riverview East Community Learning Center is not just for youth; it's for teens, young adults, parents and seniors, too. For more information about services offered, contact Patrice Tiggs at 363-3489. |
Share your favorite CT scene
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 Do you have a favorite view of Columbia Tusculum to share? A street scene, a local event, a house or landmark detail, your favorite scenic view. We'll feature a picture in each issue of the Columbia Journal and keep a file of neighborhod scenes on our website.
Do you have old pictures of Columbia Tusculum? We'd love to see those, too. Let's archive the Columbia Tusculum we love -- old & new. This Sachem Avenue sunset was taken in July '08.
Send your picture to ctcc@columbiatusculum.org. |
| Share YOUR CT News |
We're making it easy for you to send us news. Do you have a local event to tell your neighbors about? Know of someone who's won a special award, a new business owner or some other noteworthy news? Send us just the facts, ma'am, to ctcc@columbiatusculum.org. |
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