On Feb. 7, white supremacists waved swastika flags on the I-75 overpass in Lincoln Heights. No arrests were made by officials. Lincoln Heights residents took matters into their own hands. They flocked to the overpass to let the agitators know their actions wouldn’t fly under the radar. No physical altercations took place — as much as the neo-Nazis intended to intimidate residents, the residents intended the same. Their message, in contrast to the agitators, was one of unity and solidarity, not hate and violence. A neighborhood that rallies its community when threatened is strong indeed. Lincoln Heights supporters from within the community and beyond continued to turn out to the overpass in the days following the Nazi flag demonstration, displaying instead posters with words of positivity, support and love. While the agitators remain unidentified, one thing is clear: hate has no home in Lincoln Heights.
The Middletown Women’s Wine & Chocolate Walk is a lot cooler than you think. Blocks of downtown Middletown are reserved for local ladies to shop, sip and snack while a DJ plays hits that will take you (and your mom) back to slumber parties past. One ticket gets you a swag bag, tasting map and wine glass – which you’ll need as your companion for the 10 different wine stops and chocolate stops throughout downtown Middletown. Along the way, shop for everything your home and wardrobe needs (or doesn’t, but still wants) while you run into friends old and new. If wine isn’t your cup of tea, a handful of restaurants will offer to-go drink specials that will make you dance in the street and sing into your cup like it’s a hairbrush. If you thought the Women’s Wine Walk was just for your mom’s friends from high school, note that I found myself dancing in Central Pastry bakery with total strangers in broad daylight like it was the club. In that moment, it was. downtownmiddletown.org.
From his earlier videos wandering around beloved Cincinnati events like Taste of Cincinnati and the Northside Fourth of July Parade, to his more recent content involving dubious dips in the Ohio River, softmaxplus (real name Michael Sawan) has built a brand being a kind of nonchalant, everyday bizarre. As a vintage-suit-wearing, Miller-High-Life-drinking clown, his videos and interviews started as a way to promote his many books, but he’s tapped into something else along the way: the ability to commune with strangers when and where they are, about pretty much whatever. Softmaxplus is just a clown, standing in front of people around Cincinnati in various settings and situations, asking them to talk to him. softmaxplus.com.
The name Pete Rose, when mentioned in Cincinnati, elicits one of two reactions: disgust or joy. Rose played for the Cincinnati Reds from 1963-1978, and again from 1984-86, eventually becoming the team’s manager. During that time, Rose built a reputation as one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball, and quickly ascended from mere celebrity to a status few ever achieve: legend. An award was named after him, along with a street, and a Pete Rose statue was built in his honor outside of Great American Baseball Park. When Rose died last year, his face lit up the ballpark’s projector, and thousands flocked to lay flowers and affectionate notes on his statue. For many, Rose wasn’t just a baseball player — he was an aspirational figure, a man whose life represented the values this country was built on: ingenuity, and accomplishment made possible by a lifetime of hard work. For others, Rose was a disgrace. Yet another powerful man allowed to cross moral and ethical lines with impunity while his fans drowned out the voices of critics. They point to his decision to gamble on games while still being a player and manager for the Reds, which ultimately led to his banishment from the MLB and the Hall of Fame. Or the five months he spent in prison for tax evasion, after not reporting memorabilia profits and gambling winnings. The official Pete Rose story rarely mentions the serial adultery that ended numerous marriages. Or worse: a sworn statement from a woman who alleged that Rose slept with her when she was a minor, and he was in his mid-30s. Ultimately, Pete Rose was talented. But his actions were objectionable, and so was the culture that protected him, defended him and made him into a hero.
The Warsaw Avenue Creative Campus in East Price Hill is a $10-million mixed-use revitalization project from neighborhood nonprofit Price Hill Will. The development takes up a full block along Warsaw Avenue and features eight newly renovated historic buildings, along with 13 affordable apartments, the new home of the MYCincinnati Youth Orchestra in a former historic firehouse and six commercial spaces, which include The Empanada’s Box, Urbana Coffee, Wendigo Tea and more. pricehillwill.org/wacc.
Back in early January, when Cincinnati received a nearly record-breaking 6.4 inches of snow, Local 12 anchor Bob Herzog became our fearless guide to the worsening weather conditions, making us cackle with every pun and joke he made while out in the elements. In a Reel that has now received millions of views, Herzog is seen outside of the Local 12 station, making snow angels, complaining about the snow and throwing a rubber chicken into a pile of snow to show just how much precipitation we received. Apart from providing essential updates on the snowy conditions, Herzog also proved that he could leave the news desk for a job as a comedian any day of the week.
The Bridging Back Business initiative was launched by several Northern Kentucky cities and organizations as a way to help local shops, restaurants and bars recover after the Big Mac Bridge fire and closure impacted business. Bellevue Mayor Charlie Cleves says he and his team heard from businesses in the community that they experienced as much as a 30% decline in sales from 2023, which they attributed to the unexpected bridge closure. In an effort to bring customers and patrons back to Kentucky, several small local businesses offered discounts, specials and events, including lunch specials, extended happy hours and complimentary appetizers, promotions from retailers and specialty cocktails and mocktails with Molly Wellmann. New Riff also hosted a cocktail-making competition between local bars and restaurants, where they created a signature New Riff-based cocktail to help drive foot traffic.
A pair of downtown libraries experienced some much-needed updates that have made each of them more attractive. The main Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library location has a spiffy new entry courtyard and an airy, bright lobby with a magnificent staircase featuring colored bars of information about musicians, bands, singers and composers from the 1940s through the 2020s. And speaking of staircases, the Mercantile Library, a private membership institution founded in 1835 that’s open to all, now has a memorable set of steps of its own. It makes it possible to visit the longtime space on the 11th floor of the Mercantile Building on Walnut Street, and then to hike up to a gorgeous 12th floor, doubling the square footage and providing conference rooms, comfy furnishings and a few phone booths for making calls without disturbing others. chpl.org, mercantilelibrary.com.
For nearly a century and a half, Cincinnati Music Hall audiences have been walking across the lobby’s red-and-white checkerboard stone floor. All those footsteps, as well as well-intended but harsh cleaning processes and acrylic coatings, made for a lot of wear and tear on the marble and limestone pavers. So the Friends of Music Hall, charged with the historic preservation of the iconic cultural venue that opened in 1878, hired Eighth Day Stone Restoration from Charlotte, North Carolina. In July-August of 2024, a team of professionals repaired more than 7,000 cracks, chips, holes, pitting, crazing and spalling. Now the floor of the “Grand Foyer” glistens and glows just as it did when it was installed in 1878. cincinnatiarts.org.
The world isn’t kind to impoverished people. In a city with increasing housing prices, fewer well-paying jobs and a lack of social mobility, even buying groceries can be a struggle for some. This is why the work of the Freestore Foodbank is so valuable. The foodbank dedicates itself to fighting food insecurity and poverty in Greater Cincinnati, offering a food market that is open to anybody, for free. A trip through their doors reveals how important their work really is: dozens upon dozens of people, some of them clearly experiencing homelessness or suffering from unemployment, are able to get fruit, vegetables, cereal and a myriad of other products when they otherwise could have gone hungry. The staff are friendly and helpful, and capable of dealing with large quantities of people, in a compassionate and kind way. Not only does the foodbank offer food products, but it also helps with drug addiction, mental illness and even workforce development. In an age where we uplift individual billionaires and millionaires who offer a portion of their fortunes to the needy, it’s time for organizations like the Freestore Foodbank to get their place in the sun. As so many other institutions fail the poor, the freestore, and entities like it, are the chain keeping the social contract from collapsing. freestorefoodbank.org.
Where do you get your news? Reading this venerable publication? Turning on the TV? TikTok? (Please, no.) How about Lamenuel Scales, aka Hilarious Scales, aka Hood News 75? The Greater Cincinnati resident has blown up on social media thanks to his, yes, hilarious recountings of various regional news items. The Ohio River’s flooding? He’s wading in it ankle-deep. The Bengals re-signed Tee Higgins? He’s in Bengals-striped overalls and a bucket hat racing through muddy grass to tell you. Cincinnati weather is weather-ing? He’s vocalizing our collective exhausted whiplash in an empty downtown parking lot. Scales is also a do-gooder; he’s been featured in local news stories (how meta) about helping a homeless neighbor in Amelia find shelter, and for live-streaming an in-progress car theft in Union Township. Next time you have a newsy tip, drop Hilarious Scales a DM — but chances are, he’s already reporting live on the scene. instagram.com/hilarious_scales.
For the uninitiated, woah woah season refers to that magic of the fall season when the weather is gloomy and the vibes are oh-so-vampy — very similar to the movie Twilight and its accompanying soundtrack that included the song “Eyes on Fire” by Blue Foundation, which is where the title of the season gets its name. If you’re looking to capture the essence of the mystical fall gloom, there’s no better park to capture all of the glory of the season than the Mt. Airy Forest. Just as the sun starts to sink through the trees decked out in the most beautiful hues of autumn, grab a camera and venture through the acres of wooded trails. Bonus points if you stage a photo shoot in the magical treehouse. cincinnati-oh.gov.
Emmanuel Ayanjoke opened the Altev Community Pharmacy in Avondale Town Center last year, helping many residents of the predominantly Black neighborhood reconnect with their health care needs. Before opening Altev Community Pharmacy, Ayanjoke said Avondale had gone years without a CVS or Walgreens. But growing up in a local pharmacy back home in Nigeria gave Ayanjoke early experience in being the sole provider of medication and other health needs for a community. "Growing up, my dad was a pharmacist back at home in Nigeria; his dad was a pharmacist. I almost always knew I wanted to go into pharmacy in some way, and I always knew I wanted to be a business owner," said Ayanjoke. Altev Community Pharmacy is also the only Black-owned independent pharmacy in Cincinnati, something that helps to build trust with Ayanjoke’s customers, who are also his neighbors. Altev Community Pharmacy accepts all Ohio Medicaid insurance plans, including Buckeye Health Plan, CareSource, Molina Healthcare, Paramount Advantage and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan. They also offer customers (and pets) free access to discounts on prescription medications. altevrx.com.
Perhaps downtown Cincinnati’s oldest corner took on new life with the renovation of Lytle Park on the east end of Fourth Street. After a long-term argument about tree removal, Lytle Park now features a lovely fountain, a jogging path, a bocce ball court, a playground with picnic tables and beautiful seasonal flower beds (supported by Western & Southern Life Insurance Company). Around the park’s perimeter, visitors can find the Taft Museum of Art, the posh Lytle Park Hotel, the Phelps Hotel with a scenic rooftop bar and several historic buildings. The statue of a beardless Abraham Lincoln that’s been there for a century moved closer to the curb, as if he might be waiting for an Uber. cincinnati-oh.gov.
Cincinnati deserves international name recognition, and now the Queen City is back in a big way thanks to an ACE move from a local tennis icon. For more than a century, the Western & Southern Open has played host to Wheaties-worthy tennis stars such as Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Coco Gauff, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi and countless others. The tournament was called the Cincinnati Open when it first began in 1899 at the Avondale Athletic Club. Since 2002, the tournament has been called the Western & Southern Open. Finally, Cincinnati reclaimed the name of the iconic tournament in 2024, officially returning to its roots as the Cincinnati Open. With the name change came a substantial investment of $260 million for on-site enhancements to the Mason arena. The upgrades were designed to accommodate an expanded player field and an extended schedule beginning in 2025. Whether you’re a die-hard tennis fan or just really loved seeing the Queen City shine in the Challengers movie, you can bob your head back and forth at the Cincinnati Open knowing your city’s name is once again on the world’s stage. cincinnatiopen.com.
The folks who started a fire under the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, aka the “Big Mac,” on Nov. 1 probably didn’t intend to disrupt Cincinnati’s traffic patterns for months as repairs were made to replace a section of melted steel girders. But that was the result since southbound I-471 traffic had to snake through Newport from Downtown Cincinnati. Backups, slow-moving traffic and short tempers were the side effects. Kudos, however, to the hardworking crews that suffered through a colder, snowier winter than usual to get things running again.
Whether you’ve just moved to Cincinnati and are looking for new friends or just want to find someone to go on runs with, Cincy Girls Who is a great way to find new friends and meet new, interesting people in Cincinnati. The group (open only to women, sorry guys) plans meetups for members of any age and background with a variety of interests, from trivia to book clubs to hiking. The club also offers unique ways to get involved in the local community, an added bonus if you’re new to the city. If you’re looking to try new things and meet new people (and maybe you’ve been let down by local Meetup groups…), Cincy Girls Who is the social group for you. cincygirlswho.com.
Missy Spears isn’t just an advocate — she’s a force. Whether she’s rallying for LGBTQ+ rights, amplifying marginalized voices or speaking out against discrimination, Spears brings an unwavering passion to the fight for equality. Though she’s been part of numerous organizations dedicated to helping others throughout her career (in her own words, “half of the projects on my resume are because I got mad and just did something”), Spears’ latest contribution to the area is incredibly special. Spears is the executive director of Queer Kentucky, a publication and storytelling platform that “enhances Queer culture and health through storytelling, education, and action.” When you’re feeling especially down about the state of the world, it’s nice to be reminded that people like Spears are actively fighting for marginalized voices.