In the ongoing saga of Western & Southern vs. the Anna Louise Inn, there have been several court cases and zoning rulings, most of which have been appealed by one side or the other. Today it was the Cincinnati Zoning Board of Appeals’ turn to rule on something that’s already been ruled on, and it went in favor of the Anna Louise Inn. 

The Board upheld a certificate of appropriateness for the Anna Louise Inn’s planned renovation, which essentially also upholds the Historic Conservation Board’s right to issue a conditional use permit — at least for now. Western & Southern is expected to appeal that permit, granted by the Conservation Board Aug. 27, before its 30-day window to do so expires. 

Before this series of appeals can play out, the 1st District Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the Anna Louise Inn’s appeal of Judge Norbert Nadel’s May 27 ruling, which set in motion the Inn’s attempts to secure zoning approval from the Historical Conservation Board in the first place. 

(All of this could have been avoided if Western & Southern would have purchased the Anna Louise Inn when it had the chance. CityBeat previously reported the details of Western & Southern’s failure to purchase the Inn and the company’s subsequent attempts to force the Inn out of the neighborhood here.)

About 40 people attended today’s hearing, including City Councilman Wendell Young, who said he supports the Anna Louise Inn but was not there to testify on its behalf. 

By upholding the certificate of appropriateness, the ruling keeps alive a conditional use permit that could allow the Anna Louise Inn to move forward with a $13 million renovation of its historic building, once the expected appeals process plays out. (CityBeat covered the Aug. 27 Historical Conservation Board hearing here.)

The Board heard brief arguments from lawyers for both Western & Southern and Cincinnati Union Bethel and then entered executive session for about 15 minutes before ruling in favor of the Anna Louise Inn. 

Western & Southern lawyer Francis Barrett, who is the brother of Western & Southern CEO John Barrett and a member of the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees, told CityBeat after the meeting that he disagreed with the board’s finding because a designed expansion of the building’s fifth floor has not yet had its use approved. 

“With this case, the Historical Conservation Board is basically approving for the certificate of appropriateness the design of the building,” Barrett said. “But the design included an expansion of the fifth floor, and until that use issue is resolved the code reads, in my opinion, you can’t approve the design because the use hasn’t been approved.”

Barrett during the hearing read a written statement to the board arguing two main points: that the Historic Conservation Board didn’t have the jurisdiction to grant the certificate of appropriateness; and even if it did, Barrett argued, the physical expansion planned makes it a non-conforming use which wouldn’t qualify for the building permit. 

Cincinnati Union Bethel attorney Tim Burke told the Board that the Anna Louise Inn is not seeking a permit for non-conforming use because it already received a conditional use permit from the Historic Conservation Board. 

“Western & Southern is doing everything it can to block this renovation from happening,” Burke told the Board.

At the Historic Conservation Board hearing last month Western & Southern tried paint a picture of the Anna Louise Inn’s residents contributing to crime in the area because a condition of the conditional use permit is that the building’s use will not be detrimental to public health and safety or negatively affect property values in the neighborhood. But the Board granted the permit, stating that the Anna Louise Inn will not be detrimental to public health and safety or harmful to nearby properties in the neighborhood and that the Board found no direct evidence connecting residents of the Anna Louise Inn to criminal activity in the neighborhood. Western & Southern has until next week to appeal that ruling.

Ending a seven-month suspension from the air, The SistaHood Show is returning to its weekly berth at WAIF (88.3 FM) beginning today.

The program, co-hosted by Victoria Straughn and Crystal Allen, was a casualty of the ongoing strife at the community radio station between many longtime volunteer programmers and Board Chairman Donald Shabazz, about how he manages the station.

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April showers bring May flowers and the start of run/walk/roll fundraisers. Combining a worth-while cause with fitness and the great outdoors is way to stay in shape as much as it is an opportunity to lend your time and financial support to groups you believe in – toss in a few prizes and other activities and the whole family can make a day of it.

That’s what the Sixth Annual A Kid Again 5K Run/Walk is hoping you’ll do.

“A Kid Again provides fun-filled activities for children with life threatening illnesses and their families, all year long,” according to an event announcement.

The group, formerly known as Adventures For Wish Kids, “strives to enrich the lives of children with life threatening illnesses and their families by providing healing times of respite through our fun-filled group activities and destination events, which we call adventures.”

The registration fee is $25 pre-race day and $30 day of race. Proceeds will support A Kid Again.

Prizes will be awarded to:

- The team with the most team members

- The team that raises the most money

- The team with the best name

The event begins at 8:30 a.m. on May 30 at Kings Island. And for this race, early registration is its own reward – the first 500 people to register will get into Kings Island free the day of the event.

Register Online at www.akidagain.org/5k or call 513-232-5104 for more information.

When the stimulus package passed in 2009, the federal government sent out funds that worked to prevent homelessness. The funds, which seek to prevent homelessness instead of just treating the problem after it arises, made their way to local organization Strategies to End Homelessness. With the boost, the group, which coordinates efforts to combat homelessness in Cincinnati, has been helping thousands of at-risk people and those who are already homeless.

But that funding is soon coming to an end. The stimulus package was only meant to be a temporary jolt to deal with the Great Recession. It was not meant as a long-term funding package. For Strategies to End Homelessness, that prevents a new challenge.

The organization used the stimulus funding to partner with United Way and seven other local agencies to coordinate homeless aid. The organization is continuing its partnership with United Way and five of the agencies, but it will have to draw down some of its services.

“When the stimulus funding was in place, we were able to work with 250 households at a time to try to prevent them from becoming homeless,” says Kevin Finn, executive director of Strategies to End Homelessness. “Now, with the level of funding that is available, it’s more like 50 or 60 households at a time that we are able to work with.”

What this means is programs, such as the Homeless Prevention / Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP), will continue to service people who are at risk of becoming homeless, but the program will have a stricter limit on who to help.

One bright spot for Finn is that even though the organization is losing most of the funding, it’s not losing it all. Due to the success of organizations like Strategies to End Homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has decided to make some of the funding permanent. This will let the organization continue focusing on some preventive measures instead of just focusing on what Finn calls the “meat and potatoes” of anti-homelessness efforts — or services for people that are already homeless — that have always existed.

“Sometimes when you work with the homeless you struggle to find a silver lining,” he says. “That is one right there.”

Finn says preventive measures are very important in fighting homelessness because once someone becomes homeless and the longer someone becomes homeless, the harder it becomes to get them back into new homes. Finn gave one example for why this is the case: “If they would get mugged in the street and lose their ID, an ID is something that you need in order to get an apartment and in order to get a job.”

At the end of the day, Strategies to End Homelessness will continue working in Cincinnati, just with less funding. Finn says he wants his organization’s continuous work to break some misconceptions about anti-homelessness efforts in the city.

“I think sometimes the perception in the community is that services for the homeless and also prevention measures are sort of a number of little agencies out doing their own thing,” he says. “It’s very much a coordinated effort between us, the United Way and these five agencies.”

An account has been created at a local bank to accept donations to help pay for the funeral expenses of a homeless man who died last weekend.

William "Baldy" Floyd, 45, died late Sunday night after a fire spread through a camp near Mehring Way and Sixth Street downtown. Baldy was featured in a CityBeat cover story about homeless camps in September.

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The Freestore Foodbank today began its annual distribution of Thanksgiving meals to needy families. The delivery of meals will continue through Wednesday afternoon.

Workers at the Freestore will deliver boxes to about 23,000 families throughout the Tristate region.

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Despite its founder’s insistence Thursday that reaction had been mostly favorable, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity abruptly reversed course today and is restoring funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Los Angeles Times reports Nancy G. Brinker, Komen's founder and CEO, said that the breast cancer foundation's decision to halt funding to providers who were under investigation was not done for political reasons and was not meant to penalize Planned Parenthood specifically.

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Maybe you’ve heard her on BBC Radio via the Internet, when she’s filled in for Diane Rehm on National Public Radio or seen her as a pundit on one of TV’s political talk shows. No matter, British journalist Katty Kay has a growing American fan base.

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Inhabitants at the 1100 block of Race Street will lose a neighbor beginning March 1, when Media Bridges moves a few blocks away to a new location inside the Crosley Telecommunications Center in Over-the-Rhine at 1223 Central Pkwy. The move, although minor, means some improvements are in store for the non-profit.

Media Bridges provides diverse communities in Cincinnati with the opportunity to work with and produce forms of media. Although they've called their 1100 Race St. location home since 2002, the move means a larger production studio and purchase newer equipment and more up-to-date video editing software. The Crosley Telecommunications Center also houses CET and Cincinnati Public Radio. Because the facilities are shared, Media Bridges hopes to collaborate with the outlets and explore joint services, said CET Executive Vice President and Station Manager Jack Dominic in a news release. 

The decision to stay in OTR was an obvious choice, according to Tom Bishop, Media Bridges' Executive Director. "This is our neighborhood. We love this place," he says. The change comes thanks to a dent in funding; the City of Cincinnati cut Media Bridges' funding by one-third in 2007, and a downsize has been brewing in their plans since then.

Although the new facility will have a larger production facility, office space will be compressed to accommodate staff cuts. The new equipment and software will be purchased using reserved funds, but Bishop says it's worth the investment; "Some of our equipment was from 1989. You're driving dinosaurs if you're not updating your software and equipment every few years [in the media industry]."

The new equipment will make way for some promising advances in the future, according to Bishop. Plans to teach courses on Wordpress web design, computer classes for A + certification and a certification program for Adobe Production Premiere are in the works.

Media Bridges will begin its transition on March 1 while it continues to provide full services at its Race Street location. Its last day of operation will be on April 20, followed by an 11-day hiatus to complete the move to the new Central Parkway location, which is expected to open to the community on May 3.

As part of its annual Thanksgiving Day preparations for the needy, the Freestore Foodbank distributed almost 400,000 pounds of food, its largest amount ever for the holiday.

During the past three days, the emergency food provider distributed 399,660 pounds of food to 12,204 households. That's enough to feed 34,980 people, according to a spokeswoman.

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