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Buying Personal Protective Equipment and Cleaning Supplies on Ludlow Avenue

Do most people who live in or around the Gaslight District know how much is available in the way of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies? Probably not. Fortunately three Ludlow Avenue stores stock everything you need to keep your residence and workplace clean and to protect you from the spread of Covid-19 both inside and outside.

The store some people overlook is Ace Hardware. It turns out Ace has gone out of its way to stock the store with everything you need for this period. Among other things, Ace Hardware sells the following products:

Face Masks. Ace Hardware sells both individual masks and ten packs.

These cotton face masks are for sale at the checkout counter at Ace Hardware. The employee told me these were all the way around the best mask out there – and in fact, it was the one she was wearing.

Face Shields.

Rubbing Alcohol.

Hydrogen Peroxide.

Cleaning Supplies, including products like Fantastik All Purpose Cleaner Liquid and disinfectant wipes.

Disposable Gloves.

Shoe Covers. Shoe covers are now considered Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) due to their Covid-resistant qualities.

Safety Glasses.

CVS also sells many of these above-mentioned items, including masks, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, and cleaning wipes. Much to their credit, they go out of their to keep everything stocked. This was the image that greeted me when I walked into the store on Monday morning:

And there’s also Clifton Market. An employee told me today that the store stocks as many items as it can for cleaning, including Lysol, hand sanitizers, and cleaning wipes, but they sell out very quickly.

Overall, it sounds like Ace Hardware is the closest thing we have to untapped resource for handling  this situation.

The pandemic has been a challenge, but our businesses have done an excellent job of facing that challenge.  Their commitment to community is why we’re happy to support these businesses.

 

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Keeping the Gaslight District Safe During the Pandemic

Keeping the Gaslight District Safe During the Pandemic  – Part 1: Food

Clifton has been challenged due to the pandemic that threw a curve ball into the year 2020.

The businesses in the heart of the Gaslight District are facing a particularly bumpy road.  Our shops and restaurants need to keep employees and customers safe while still earning enough money to keep their doors open, and this is no easy task.

Fortunately small businesses in the neighborhood have done a great job of responding to this challenge. That includes the restaurants and other food-based businesses that have worked hard to ensure safety for their customers as well as their employees.

 Clifton Market. Since the lockdown began, Clifton Market has been such a safe place for people to buy groceries that it has pulled in plenty of new shoppers who have witnessed the lack of safety measures in other grocery stores. The employees all wear masks, store social-distancing measure are in place (including Plexiglas windows and clear-cut signs). The Market also provides disposable gloves for those patrons who wish to use them.

The Market has set aside Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8am to 10am as shopping times for customers more vulnerable to the virus. During these periods only seniors or people with underlying health conditions can shop in the Market. On top of that, Clifton Market offers delivery service to at-risk customers.

The majority of the people who shop at Clifton Market wear masks, but yesterday an employee of the Market told me that the store has masks they will offer to customers who walk in without one. The masks won’t be there for you to grab when you walk in, but you will be asked to wear one if you start walking around without one.

Say hi to Hillary Williams the next time you are eating at Clifton Plaza. During lunch and dinner hours she cleans everything off between visitors and helps ensure that proper social distancing measures are taken. And she with her warm smile she helps set a positive vibe for the plaza.

 Outdoor Seating. The Clifton Community, LLC (a joint venture between Clifton Town Meeting and the Clifton Business & Professional Association) has gone out of its way to provide outdoor seating so people can order carryout on and near Ludlow Avenue and have a nearby place to eat. At Clifton Plaza, seating has been added that allows for social distancing, and CBPA hired Hillary to help keep things clean and cheerful for guests. The benches at Telford Avenue serve a similar purpose, allowing people to eat outdoors (plus you can dine next to William Shakespeare). Another outdoor choice would be the benches surrounding Diggs Fountain at the corner of Clifton and Ludlow.


The Rooftop. When it opened, Clifton Bar and Grill’s rooftop offered a picturesque scenario for drinking and dining, but the fact that it’s outdoors provides an added safety element, as is also the case with the Plexiglas dividers they installed between tables, their mask policy, and their readily available hand sanitizer. We should also mention here that at Ludlow Garage the doors are often open, which is closer to eating outdoors, and a similar scenario exists when the huge windows are opened at Clifton Bar and Grill. Outdoor ventilation means the virus is less likely to spread.


Walk-up Windows. Ludlow Avenue has a couple businesses with walk-up windows, which, along with being convenient, add an extra layer of safety to food service. The Whole Bowl at 364 Ludlow Avenue serves tasty vegetarian food. You can call the new bakery, Ardor Bakeshop, at 272 Ludlow Avenue.

Did you know about Ambar India? Ambar India has seating behind the restaurant.

Don’t Forget About Arlin’s. Arlin’s has always had outdoor seating, and they serve food.

Finally, I should mention that I’ve ordered carryout at pretty much every restaurant on Ludlow Avenue, and the proper protocol has consistently been followed in regard to the virus.

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Iggy and the Stooges on Ludlow Avenue

Iggy and the Stooges have come to Clifton—or their mural, that is. The artist who created the mural is C.F. Payne, and the work hangs beside the James Gang mural outside of Habanero’s and across the street from Captain Beefheart.

Talk about keeping good company.

It makes perfect sense that some sort of tribute would appear for Iggy in the Queen City, as one of the defining moments in his career occurred here. In June 23, 1970, at the Cincinnati Pop Festival, Iggy spread peanut butter over his body and then jumped into the crowd, who kept him afloat in an early example of crowd-surfing.

During that same year Iggy and the Stooges played two concerts at the Ludlow Garage, which has reopened, and the mural is two doors away from the historic venue. Like MC5, who also rocked the historic venue, the Stooges were a Michigan-based group who played a lot around the region during that period.

A seminal proto-punk band, Iggy & the Stooges reunited between 2003 and 2009, and Iggy Pop has also had a successful solo career and appeared in a number of movies.

Iggy has been to Cincinnati many other times, by the way. My first Iggy show was at Bogart’s around 1980 or 1981—something like that. The concert was sold out, but an admission specialist offered to let us in if we paid full ticket price in cash, to him.

I doubt we were the only people that evening who were extended that offer, and the room was beyond packed. Concerts used to start really late during that period, and Iggy was still going strong at two o’clock in the morning, and so was the crowd.

Then off went the lights and the sound, at exactly two o’clock in the morning. “The power blew” was the official report, but there were skeptics in the overstuffed crowd that took its sweet time filing out of the club, grouching the entire time.

They wanted more, and Iggy wanted more. No one believed that bit about the power.

But if anyone was going to make the power blow, it was Iggy.