Category: Announcements

April 2020

Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) is your local community council.  CTM advocates on behalf of the Clifton community, and your membership entitles you to vote on issues that directly affect our neighborhood.  This is particularly important in this time of Shelter in Place and the impact it is having on our community.

Some issues that CTM has recently promoted include:

• Funding $2,000 for Clifton Cares – an initiative to support local restaurants and health care workers impacted by the Shelter in Place order – membership dollars go directly to this.
• Establishment of a new neighborhood school (Clifton Area Neighborhood School)
• Establishment of pilot “Parklet” on Ludlow Avenue during nice weather
• Trialing removal of parking restrictions on Ludlow Avenue to reduce vehicle speeds for safety improvement
• Opening of an art gallery in the former USPS location on Ormond Avenue
• Replacing worn out benches in the business district.

CTM also sponsors a variety of activities and festivals throughout the year to enrich our community experience. These include the annual Memorial Day Parade & Cookout, Lantern Walk, CliftonFest, Holidays on Ludlow, and our ever popular triennial house tour. Rest assured that when the COVID-19 crisis ends, we will resume our practice of creating opportunities to celebrate our community and socialize in person. We also fund beautification projects such as the flower pots & holiday decorations on Ludlow Avenue; provide communications including the community email list, Clifton Community website and the Clifton Chronicle; and partner with the Clifton Business Association (CBA) to operate the Clifton Plaza.

To provide this important community work, we need your generous support. Membership dues and contributions are tax-deductible and make up the second largest source of income for Clifton Town Meeting (the triennial House Tour is our main fundraiser). Starting or renewing your membership will help us keep Clifton a vibrant, desirable, and fun place to live, work, and play. Memberships received now are good through December 31, 2020.  

Click here to submit your application online. If you prefer to mail in your application, you may use this Membership Form. (Eligibility is open to all neighborhood residents, neighborhood property owners, and operators of neighborhood businesses, age 18 years or older). And please join us for our monthly CTM Board meetings held the first Monday of the month, 7 – 9 pm, now streaming live.  

Thank you for your support!

CTM Membership Committee

P.S.  If you have recently renewed, please disregard this reminder and THANK YOU for your support!

Recently CTM worked with the City’s Department of Transportation and Engineering to conduct a trial removal of the rush hour parking restrictions along Ludlow Avenue. The DOTE is now asking for community feedback on the trial.

Please go to https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/…/dote…/ludlow-parking-survey/ to fill out the survey.

Greater Cincinnati is blessed with exceptional hospitals and health care professionals. 

Our neighborhood benefits greatly by our proximity to these institutions – and also from daily patronage by their employees.  The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing these professionals to long hours and unprecedented levels of stress as they answer the call of duty. At the same time, they are exposing themselves and their families to the danger of this new little-known virus.

Our restaurants contribute enormously to our quality of life, and they also find themselves in a perilous situation.  Dining-in seating and service are not permitted, so to stay open, they must rely solely on curbside delivered carry-out orders.

Clifton Business Association (CBA) is launching a fundraising initiative called “Clifton Cares.”  

Your tax-exempt contributions can be made to a fund managed by CBA.  Any healthcare professional can call in an order for a carry-out lunch or dinner from the menus of participating restaurants, then follow with pickup of the order in front of the restaurant, including Dusmesh, The Whole Bowl, Habanero’s, Proud Rooster, Sitwells Act II, Biagio’s Bistro, Marrakech and Gaslight Bar & Grill. 

The goal of our fundraising effort is to provide 500 meals, priced from $5 – $20 per meal.  This offer will be promoted throughout our local healthcare facilities. CBA will track the sales at participating restaurants weekly and funnel community sponsorship to them in measure of their sales.  This relief food initiative will last as long as our fundraising allows.

To contribute to this CBA “Clifton Cares” initiative, click on QR Code or go to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JL474S5UQUNVG&source=url .  

Thanks for supporting our healthcare workers!

The Cincinnati Zoo is still challenging everyone to cultivate “Plants for Pollinators,” and asking for feedback on what the Zoo can do to support you during the coronavirus crisis. See below for a message from the Zoo.

Send CTM your feedback, and we will pass it to the Zoo!

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The good news – spring is officially here! Flowers are popping up everywhere and our pollinator friends are getting busy.

The bad news – well, you already know the bad news. How will COVID-19 impact the Plant for Pollinators Challenge? Very few garden registrations have come in over the past few weeks when we would have normally expected them to start ramping up in March. Understandably, we all have more pressing issues on the top of our minds; planting and registering a pollinator garden is not likely to be a priority.

On the other hand, people have been ordered to stay home. They need fresh air and exercise. They need a break from the 24-hour news cycle and social media feeds. Their children need hands-on, real-world learning opportunities. And our pollinators still need their help. Gardening is a great way to recharge, find hope, and regain some sense of control while making a positive difference.

While all of our in-person promotional events and opportunities are on hold for the moment, how can we continue to reach out to the Greater Cincinnati community with our message of planting for pollinators? Social media, for sure. Perhaps we can do more through radio and tv. What about hosting virtual workshops or presentations for your audiences? How can we support you in such efforts?

For those of you who run garden centers and nurseries, what do the stay-at-home orders mean for you? Are you closing or are you considered essential services like the home improvement stores? How do you expect this to impact your business and what can we do to help? Can we still encourage people to patronize your businesses?

And if people are not able to purchase new plants in the upcoming months, what else can we encourage them to do in their yards to support pollinators?

I’d love to know more about how this COVID-19 crisis is impacting you and your organizations, and really want to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we continue to serve both our human and pollinator communities during this time. Above all, I hope you and yours are all staying safe and healthy.

Here is Ohio’s Stay at Home order, which will be in effect starting at 11:59pm on Monday, 3/23.

Please note that folks are allowed to go out for essential activities, such as to buy groceries and medicine, to care for relatives, to perform essential jobs, and to purchase carry out food from restaurants.

Click here to read the order.

Because this order will impact our many small businesses in Clifton, we are also sharing the Small Business Association’s Fact Sheet on emergency loans for small businesses available during the Coronavirus crisis.