Happy Friday, Scoopers!

🩸Hoxworth Blood Center is urgently seeking blood donors. Four year old Brynne, who is diagnosed with an extremely rare blood disorder, is inviting you to her Birthday Blood Drive Party tomorrow.

Today’s email is a 3min 10sec read. Here’s the scoop:

• 🛍️ Cincinnati Mall Plans for a Major Facelift

• 🍸 Vodka from Sheep’s Milk

• 🎙️ John Legend Going Door-to-Door in Cincinnati This Week

But first…

🐷 LOCAL

Cincinnati to invest in & redevelop old industrial sites

This week city officials announced plans to redevelop industrials sites in several West Side neighborhoods.

These sites are often referred to as brownfields - “a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

The plan is to renovate these brownfields into community areas like parks, playgrounds, and housing.

The city has received $1.3m in grants to make this possible, while mayor Pureval said an additional $16 million has been secured in state cleanup grants.

While the exact neighborhoods where this work will take place have not yet been announced, there are several areas that kept coming up over and over again in discussions.

Many of those are along I-75 and include Camp Washington, the Beekman Corridor & Spring Grove Village

Anthony Smith is a Millvale resident who works for Groundwork Ohio River Valley on sustainability projects. He says working for the environmentally-focused non-profit has taught him to look at brownfields differently…

"Now when I see a brownfield, I don't see just, like, an abandoned field or a vacant lot," said Smith. "I see potential in something that could be there and something that's useful for the whole community. I see stuff like gardens, more jobs and trees — hopefully, we can get more trees.”

Hopefully these sites can go from dangerous eye-sores, to part of a revitalization of one of the most interesting parts of Cincinnati!

🐷 LOCAL

Queen City Radio Owners Buy Longtime Service Station in College Hill

One of OTR’s most popular bars - Queen City Radio, is looking to expand with the purchase of a new building at 6014 Hamilton Ave in College Hill

The site is the old Pearce’s Auto Care and is poised to be a great addition to the burgeoning community.

Other popular spots in the area include:

• Luminary Coffee by La Terza @ 6128 Hamilton Ave

• Bacalls Cafe @ 6118 Hamilton Ave

• Bring Brewing @ 5905 Hamilton Ave

• Tortilleria Garcia @ 5917 Hamilton Av

• Fern @ 6040 Hamilton Av

There is no official plan on what the new site will be, but Casey Coston of Queen City Radio said in a statement to CityBeat that they hope to open a similar concept to QCR

🍦 MINI SCOOPS

🛍️ Eastgate Mall reveals grand plans for a facelift. "The Eastgate Mall is so sad. It is so sad," said Joy Lytle, Clermont County chamber president. Don't worry, Joy - moves are being made!

🐑 Sheep milk vodka. Ever wondered if you can make vodka from sheep's milk? One Kentucky man has and he's made it his quest. "Kentucky being the home of creating good spirits, we thought it had to be here, and having that connectivity seemed right," said Tim Spittle with Blacklion Vodka.

🗳️ Local elections. Thousands cast early voting ballots only one week into Ohio's August special election cycle. Some counties reported more early voting ballots in one week than the entire early voting period in 2022.

🎙️ Springfield native, John Legend, visited Cincinnati this week going door-to-door to encourage people to vote in the August special election.

🌭 Goettafest returns to Cincinnati for two upcoming weekends: July 27-30 and August 3-6. (don’t come at us for the hot dog emoji - options were limited)

📆 EVENTS THIS WEEKEND

• ⚽️ Women’s World Cup Viewing Party (showing every match from July 20 - August 20)

• 🎈FRI - SUN Hot Air Balloon Event - Ohio Challenge (fireworks on FRI and SAT!)

• 🌽 SAT July 22 Crazy Corn Days

• 🐥 SAT July 22 Baby Chick Encounters

• 🧶 SAT July 22 City Flea Market

• 👠 SUN July 23 Bloom OTR Barbie Drag Brunch

🐕 CINCYDOG OF THE WEEK

Did indeed, bark in the park 🦮

Thanks for being here with us. We’re looking forward to building a strong community of informed Cincinnatians who want to stay in the loop.

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