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Gaslight Property Has Homes for Rent

Gaslight Property has homes available for rent, and we’re eager to show them to potential renters. Our houses vary in size, running anywhere from two bedroom to six bedrooms. Some are right across the street from campus, others are very close to campus, and we also have apartment spread all around Clifton. Pets are allowed in these homes, and some of the homes have parking.

To see some of the homes and other rental units, click this link:

https://www.gaslightproperty.com/find-a-property

Fill in some of the categories, and voila!, you’ll be looking at different options from a rental company that has been in business for almost thirty years. Gaslight Property is a family-owned business with deep roots in the Clifton community, and the company has a brick-and-mortar office in the heart of the Gaslight District.

To talk to a leasing specialist today, call 513.861.600. Let us know what you’re looking for and we’ll set you up with a leasing specialist who focuses on rental units that match your needs.

 

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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.

 

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James Gang Mural Now Hanging at Habanero’s

As we’re starting to see, Ludlow Avenue is being transformed into an art gallery devoted to great music.

The mural that went up this week is the second in a series of seven to appear on the street. Seven different artists chose to paint murals of a musician or band who played the Ludlow Garage in either its earliest incarnation or more recently.

The mural that appeared on the side of Gaslight Bar & Grill earlier this year portrays Captain Beefheart, whose bizarre-sounding music stood out even in the late 60s and 70s, when he first started to make records.

The new mural, which appears outside Habanero’s and was painted by John Maggard, depicts the James Gang. If you don’t  know the drummer Jim Fox or the bassist Dale Peters from the band, you probably know the group’s vocalist, lead guitarist, and main songwriter, Joe Walsh, who after the James Gang folded embarked on a successful solo career and then joined the Eagles.

By the time the James Gang performed a four-night stint at the Ludlow Garage (December 31, 1969–January 3 1970), the trio was a national act with an album on a major label and good press courtesy of the Who’s Pete Townsend. They were also a popular regional act based in Cleveland.

While many people associate Joe Walsh with his solo career and his work with the Eagles, the music he made with the James Gang should not be overlooked. At times sounding like a power trio and at other times performing warm acoustic ballads, the trio released three memorable studio albums plus a live LP recorded at Carnegie Hall.

Released in July of 1970, the group’s second studio album, Rides Again, belongs in every classic rock collection. Their biggest hits, “Funk 49” and “Walk Away,” are still played on the radio.

And the live LP is loud, crunchy rock and roll at its finest. Listen to this version of “Stop” and imagine this same trio in the more intimate setting of the Ludlow Garage.

 

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The Color-Drenched Paintings of Donna Talerico

Recently Clifton has adapted in order to address the changes brought on by the pandemic. This is true for businesses as well as artists, including musicians, writers, and visual artists. An art gallery located at 3408 Osmond (the old Clifton Post Office), Off Ludlow Art has been hanging art work in the front windows, and because Cliftonites have been walking a lot, we’ve had a chance to see some new paintings by Donna Talerico. A long-term Clifton resident who moved here in 1969, Donna has been a successful artist for decades, and these photos reveal why: combining her vibrant use of color with enticing locations (many of them in France), Donna does a superb job of setting a scene. Her paintings will be showing in the Off Ludlow Art Gallery through June 1, 2020, and everything is for sale.

Donna has also reached out to let people know that they can visit her studio, which is located at Studio 610, Pendleton Art Center, 1310 Pendleton Street in Over the Rhine. She’s usually painting there weekday afternoons from 2pm to 6pm, but she can also make appointments suitable to your schedule. And she’s taking the proper safety precautions. “Management at the art center is taking steps to make the building safe, and halls are far from crowded,” she said. “I will be wearing a mask.” Donna can be reached by phone (home 513-961-4205; cell 513-706-7917) or email (talericofineart@gmail.com). To see new work by Donna, click this link to her Instagram account. She also updates her website on a regular basis.


“My most satisfying work is unrestrained, spontaneous,” Donna has said. “I paint intuitively and do not tiptoe through the painting process. Often, subject matter is my interpretation of the culture and architecture of France. I concentrate on powerful composition and I like pushing the border between representation and abstraction—always shooting for loose edges and a more fluid, expressionistic style.”

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Clifton Dogs Having The Time of Their Lives


Everything got turned around lately. People have been stressed about the pandemic. But dogs – dogs, on the other hand, are having a jolly old time. They get to a spend a lot more time with their owners, and in their minds the humans in the house should be there all the time anyway.

And the dogs take more walks than they did before – a lot more. They’re also talking longer walks than before – walks where they have time to sniff everything and look around and take in the flora and fauna. Human beings are finally getting a clue, the dogs think.

Recently Gaslight Property asked Cliftonites to share photographs of their canines. We wanted to create a sort of scrapbook devoted to this unique period of time.  Eventually we won’t be at home as much, and we won’t be able to take our dogs for as many walks, so we better chronicle this period when the Clifton dogs are happier than ever. They’re loving every minute of their vacation. During their walks they have endless energy, but Cliftonites have also noticed that their dogs are napping a lot.

Here are some photos that fellow Cliftonites sent us. If you don’t see your dog but would like it to appear in this scrapbook, just post a photo to the Facebook page where this blog entry appeared and we’ll add it to this collection!

















Our picture album will grow in upcoming weeks, but this is a start. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! Gaslight Property’s blog has been with us for over eight years now, and during that time it has served as a sort of scrapbook of Clifton in general, with its new stores and restaurants, the reopening of the Ludlow Garage, the loss and reemergence of our grocery store, and annual events like CliftonFest and the Halloween celebration that takes place on Ludlow Avenue every year.  And its people – and now its dogs!

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MAYA Offering Special Promotions Online at jewelrymaya.com


For the time being, some retail storefronts in the Gaslight District have no store hours. Many of those stores remain open online, however, and some are holding special promotions. MAYA  currently has several online promotions to choose from,  including deals connected with Mother’s Day on May 10. The jewelry store is currently offering free shipping anywhere in the US.  Also, when requested, MAYA will make free deliveries to homes within 15 miles of the store.

The store’s Mother’s Day promotions also include the following offers through May 3:
40% off on everything with  a minimum purchase.
$10 off on purchases of $40 or more.
$50 off on purchases of $150 or more.

These special offers are available online. Also, you can call or text to Victor with any questions or special requests at 513-667-9299. Here are photographs of some of the lovely jewelry MAYA has for sale. To see more, and to take advantage of their special offers, visit their website at jewelrymaya.com.

MAYA has been part of the Gaslight District’s flora and fauna for the last four years, and the community embraced the new store immediately. The owner, Victor Morales, has been in the jewelry business for almost 20 years, but the lineage of MAYA goes back farther, all the way to his ancestors, who were native Mayans from Guatemala – hence the name MAYA.

MAYA’s jewelry is handmade and authentic; in other words, their designs are original and made by the real creators and artists they represent. From the start MAYA focused on handmade Native American jewelry from Zuni Pueblo and Navajo artists along with Sterling Silver jewelry by Mexican artists and designers. Later the store introduced more art and crafts in order to add color and charm to the store. The jewelry and crafts showcased at MAYA are all handmade by artists Victor has known for more than 20 years. The store’s jewelry and crafts collection varies from traditional styles to more contemporary and very stylish pieces.

Other MAYA links include:
Emails: maya@jewelrymaya.com
Facebook: facebook.com/jewelrybymaya/
Instagram: instagram.com/jewelry_maya/

We’ll have updates soon on some of the other stores in the Gaslight District who have also shifted their focus to online sales during the pandemic.

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King Reeves, Jr. 1938–2020

King Reeves and Charlie Wilson

What possessed me to visit the Greenwich Tavern to see a quintet led by vibraphonist King Reeves and pianist Charlie Wilson almost 15 years ago I can’t say. I hadn’t heard their music yet, and I didn’t know any of the band members. So why did I go?

Maybe Kenny, a bartender at the Greenwich, hipped me to the event, which would make sense, as his enthusiasm for jazz is infectious. And maybe the fact that the vibraphone had become one of my favorite instruments had an influence.

In any case I attended the concert, where a good-sized crowd was quite vocal in its support, the cries of enthusiasm punctuating the music and inspiring the band to new heights. The quintet was on fire, and the vibes-piano duets by King Reeves and Charlie Wilson so much engaged the audience that the performance became a conversation between the musicians and the crowd.

That was nice to witness, but the concert that evening was also a bit of a head scratcher. I wondered how, when every jazz club in Cincinnati had seen its share of nearly empty rooms, so many people made it out that evening. Clearly this was a well-connected group of middle-aged and older black people who knew a great jazz group when they heard one; entering that room, I felt like I was let in on a well-kept secret. At the same time I found it interesting that music that engaging could be so obscure, and even on a local level. Talking to band members after the show, I learned that King Reeves and Charlie Wilson played very few gigs but wanted more. Later, when I asked around town, few of the jazz fans I talked to had heard of these musicians, and fewer yet had seen them.

That concert launched a friendship with King Reeves and Charlie Wilson. I chatted with both of them on the phone many times, and sometimes I visited King at his stylish brick home a few blocks west of Central Parkway, where framed black-and-white photographs of musicians filled a hallway and original artwork added vibrant colors to cool green walls. Both King and Charlie were raconteurs, and they had a lot to talk about, including the jazz world of the 50s and 60s, when major jazz artists played small clubs in Cincinnati on a regular basis. When Miles Davis came to Cincinnati, he asked King drove him around and show him the sights, which is interesting because this was the city where Doc Cheadle chose to film Miles Ahead. King also talked about owning nightclubs where a young Bootsy Collins performed. One afternoon, after I interviewed King and Charlie, they performed “Blue Sapphire,” which was the name of the group that King led in the 70s and 80s. During that performance, King played a set of vibes that had been purchased from country star Conway Twitty and Charlie played piano.

After I met them, King and Charlie played the occasional gig, at venues that included the Greenwich Tavern, the Southgate House, and the Blue Wisp. Many of those concerts consisted of duets, and there was very something very special about those performances. Their sound was modern, with a set list that included compositions by Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, but the lineage traced back farther, as when Charlie busted out some Fats Wallers licks (it turns out Charlie had seen him perform). Those performances kept you on the edge of your seat, and they proved that jazz can be playful and dramatic and intricate and sophisticated and soulful, all at the same time.

Sadly, King Reeves passed away on March 27, 2020. For those who never saw him perform live, it’s still possible to hear some of his music he recorded. His discography includes some self-released compact discs that are hard to track down, but – for starters – Superbad, a 2005 recording of duets between King and Charlie,  shows up on AllMusic .

Also, I videotaped excerpts from some of their shows on a camera whose video quality was many strata below what a cheap cell phone would have now. Still, these YouTube videos captured something that definitely deserved to be documented. The music King Reeves played reflected the man inside: warm and soulful, with plenty of good vibes. He will definitely be missed.

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The Signs of Clifton

With well over 400 blog entries posted over eight-plus years, Gaslight Property has become an online history book of things that have endured and things that have changed.
And the photos in this blog entry definitely chronicle change. Due to the coronavirus, restaurants in the Gaslight District have completely switched over to carryout and delivery. It’s short term, but the neighborhood is very different, and very quiet.
On the positive side, the restaurants have shown tremendous resilience and the neighborhood has supported the restaurants, which will help to ensure that all of these small business will remain when we wake up on the other side of this.
While compiling a blog entry giving hours, addresses, contact information, and delivery options, I took photographs that helped me with the blog.
But I’m also making those signs their own blog entry. We could see them as depressing, but when everything reopens we will see these handmade signs as a testament to the resilience and support that make Clifton such a great neighborhood. We can get do this, and we will.