BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Taking a peek waaaaay back behind the scenes this morning, we find none other than Zane Miller,professor of history and director of the Center for Neighborhood and Community Studies at the University of Cincinnati, about to blow the whistle.
Sort of.
Turns out the new book he wrote with University of Windsor professor E. Bruce Tucker, Changing Plans for America's Inner Cities: Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine and Twentieth-Century Urbanism (Ohio University Press; $15.95), has a stiff title but inside, well, it's all the dirt on Over-the-Rhine. Where it's been, could have been and how it got to be what it is today.
Complete, we might add, with names of the players who led wars there at different times, including homeless advocate Buddy Gray,entrepreneur Jim Tarbell, arts patrons Fred and Irma Lazarus, the Cincinnati Business Committee and more.
"The whole second half of the book, is about turf wars that have gone on there since the 1950s," Miller says, "the Appalachian community, all the social services groups that settled there, Buddy's Drop-in Center, Irma's opposition, wars between Gray and Tarbell, between city council and the factions."
Urban anthropology, he calls it, with lots of friction.
What makes all this so tasty is Miller has an insider's view: He has served on state and local boards dealing with the future of the neighborhood, a role that got him a ringside seat for the power plays and infighting. Plus, as director of the UC neighborhood center, he studies these things for a living.
The book has nothing specific about Broadway Commons, the current neighborhood war, but brushing up on the background gives some blinding insights on that issue.
NEWS OF NEWS: More news from behind the scenes, this about the alternative newspaper scene.
Referring here to Everybody's News, the scrappy weekly that covers music, alternative lifestyles and local issues from non-mainstream points of view.
Wellsir, changes are afoot.
Seems publisher Donna Goodwin let editor Randy Katz know his services were no longer needed. He had been editor since November '94.
Shortly after that, rumors hit the street: Publisher Goodwin will take over as editor, one said.
Another said she was looking to go after a younger audience and turn News into a music publication, a move that would take it out of competition with City Beat, the city's other alternative weekly. Let's ask Goodwin:
"No, we're not turing in to a music paper ... And I can also tell you that I won't be editor. We're not going to have one."
Right. So why is Katz out? "I can't talk about Randy's dismissal." Oh. Let's ask Katz: "It came as a complete surprise when I got the phone call at home. Do I miss it? I sure do. I relished every minute because it was such a total engagement -- your heart, your brain, your blood. But I understand the decision -- it was a financial move."
Next for Katz? He's in law school right now and plans to continue."
TOPS ON BROADWAY: Oh yeah, and don't forget to congratulate Shaun Powell. Seems he's making good noises on Broadway.
Powell, 1987 St. Xavier grad, is playing Tamille, one of the lead characters in A Flea in Her Ear, a French farce that has gotten lots of good reviews.
Yeah, he is good, says Mary Ann Lackman, who saw it about a month ago. But she's his mother, so she might be biased.
This is Powell's first trip to Broadway. Previously he did lots of regional theater.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
