Over-the-Rhine Community Housing - 2/23

Went down to OTR again this weekend to work with the Community Housing project. Worked with an intern from Miami University named Amy and two students I'm mentoring for their graduation/community service project.

We cleaned out a building and prepared it for a student group coming in from John Carroll University.

Those OTR buildings have a lot of character and pretty cool feel to them.

And yes, I cleaned two bathtubs. Two.

Here are some pics.

Failure.

I noticed the Cinciditarod (Cincinnati's Urban Iditarod) promoted on a local blog and thought I would do it with some of the kids I'm mentoring in a community service project. Problem. Have to be 21 and older.

Tried recruiting some colleagues from the building in which I teach. Nope. Stuff going on.

And with about 2 hours left to register I ran out of options when my wing man said, 'sounds kind of goofy' implying he was probably not in.

Failure.

Next year, I'm in that race. I may even swing by this year to check it out to prepare myself for a victory next year.

High School Sports Debate...

Tom Groeschen, a writer on Cincinnati.com, who covers a lot of the prep sports scene in Cincinnati, has some good blogging debates about high school sports on the blog section of Cincinnati.com. If you have any interest in divisional realignment for high school sports, you should take a peak...

The blog post is titled "OHSAA realignment meeting."

The Influence of Cincinnati Now

Wow... I didn't realize the power of Now until this morning. Clicked on Si.com and noticed one of the top 'rumors' going around the NFL right now is about Chad Johnson.

Apparently the Washington Redskins' influencers have taken note of recent material on Cincinnati Now and believe that Chad Johnson's status is shaky with the Bengals.

See the article here.

Chad Johnson, Phone Etiquette, and Shoving

Some select quotes/lines from the Bengals' blog on Cincinnati.com...

Chad Johnson will play in his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl game.

Reached on his cell phone this afternoon, Johnson hung up when The Enquirer identified itself seeking comment on the honor. He has not spoken to the Cincinnati-based media since October.

The Bengals would have about $8 million in dead money on their salary cap in 2008 if they traded or released wide receiver Chad Johnson.

After his first Pro Bowl practice Thursday in Hawaii, Bengals wide receiver allegedly shoved an NFL public relations official.

Johnson also went on NFL Network, the league-owned TV station, and complained about the lack of support shown him by the Bengals and his teammates.

News and SNOW!!!!

I love how our city's media outlets react to the possibility of a lot of snow. It's as if Godzilla is approaching Cincinnati via the Ohio River. What in the world?!?

I mean, a lot of snow is one thing, the possibility of a lot of snow is another, but we react to the possibility of a little snow, that in most cases, turns into a dusting or less.

One of the local stations had a video feed of Pete Rose Way downtown. The first time they put it up, there was absolutely no snow visible on the roads. None. The second time they put it up, there was a light dusting on the shoulders of the road. This of course was commented on in an overly excited and exaggerated manner. That is definitely snow and it's definitely lightly dusting the shoulders of the roads. Please be careful as you drive. Or something like that.

The sad thing is that I sit there and watch, turn to the other local stations, and watch them say and show the same thing, but with some variance in their graphics. A sad activity, like playing solitare on your computer for two hours. Sad.

Over-the-Rhine Community Housing

Spent the morning with some high school seniors working with OTRCH. A neat organization, doing real, practical work.

Worked with Ron, some kids from Napolean High School, and some students from Kings. I believe Ron is a full-time worker with OTRCH.

I haven't done much volunteer work recently. In fact, it's probably been years. It felt good getting up, heading down there, and just doing some manual labor to help out that organization, and indirectly, a family that may be having a tough time financially.

We took some pics and shot some video for the students' community service requirements. More to follow later. (Isn't a volunteer requirement a bit of an oxymoron?!?)

The last time I worked with this organization it wasn't this organization. In fact it was RESTOC.

Cincinnati Streetcar

I saw Cincinnati Blog had a post mentioning the street car proposal. I 100% agree with the positives of it. I've been in a couple bigger cities recently and saw use of a streetcar-like system.

http://www.cincystreetcar.com/

It really is amazing how systems like this connect a city.

I was in Detroit for the auto show last week (http://www.naias.com/) and they have the 'People Mover' in their downtown. It's not really a streetcar, but it was really nice to hop on it in the middle of the winter to get across town. Man, that city is cold!

There were some cool cars in that auto show too... I wasn't just impressed by the People Mover.