Report This!: Writer and (Former) Journalist Joe Wessels personal blog

Category: Community

  • About to be on City Talk Radio

    About to be on City Talk Radio in Cincinnati. 550 AM. We are in studio with Tom, Brandon, Marianne (from – gasp! – Cin Weekly) and Sweets, also known as Courtney. 🙂

  • Free condoms in Northside!

    Schaeper’s Pharmacy, my favorite alternative to chain drug stores (it’s locally-owned), is having their 6th Annual Health Fair until 4 pm today in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood (Chase and Hamilton avenues).

    Besides health screenings, including vision screenings and body mass index screenings (I don’t wanna know, thank you), they are giving away condoms all afternoon.

    The woman working the condom booth said a guy just walked by upset that abstinence-only education funding was being cut.

    “It didn’t work,” she told him. “But it is amazing that a little piece of latex can save a life.”

    Amen. And thank God for finally some rational, realistic public health policy.

    Come on up to Northside and say hello to Rick (his dad Jerry Schaeper started the drug store). He is the guy behind the counter putting pills in the little bottles.

  • Walking the pig in Ft. Thomas

    Spotted father and son walking their dog – and pet pig – on the streets of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Eating at Midway Cafe.

  • Fernald’s magical tranformation

    Wandered Into, what is now called, the Fernald Nature Preserve. I’m here now. They have done a wonderful job transforming an old nuclear weapons processing facillity into a nature preserve and museum.

    The visitors’ center is the first LEED platinum certified buliding in Ohio. Seems like they are doing their darndest to fix a horrible wrong

  • Cincinnati skyline from Chez Nora

  • Building Cincinnati drinking in downtown Cincinnati

    Kevin LeMaster, author of the wonderful Building Cincinnati, is drinking on Fountain Square during Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

  • Miscommunication

    In my CityBeat column this week, I get a litte perturbed by the fact that there is a police officer sitting a local hospital recovering from, what it appears, could have been a preventable accident during a recent police chase.

    While Gehring sits in a hospital recuperating slowly but surely, we should take his injuries as our lesson on how to fix the problem before something like this happens again — maybe with even a worse result. The local ham radio club is better suited to deal with this type of emergency than our local police officers. That’s unacceptable and needs to change.

    via Miscommunication.

    Have the right tools to do their job is only half the story. They should. But their inability to communicate could also cost lives in a more serious and widespread emergency. Why wasn’t this fixed with the influx of Homeland Security dollars? A Cincinnati Fire Department tractor trailer that is seldom, if ever, used sits parked. A wonderful communication center with state-of-the-art communications sits in a pricey piece of real estate in Price Hill – and was virtually useless for this very real emergency. What gives?

  • Cheap concessions? Sure, but miss the game.



    Cheap concessions? Sure, but miss the game.

    Sought out the $1 concession stand at Great American Ball Park during
    a recent Reds-Pirates game. There they have cheap, yet tiny sized in comparison to other stands, hot dogs, drinks, etc.

    Great idea. Definitely. But the lines were so long a customer might wait through an inning or two just to get a coney-sized wiener and kids’ Coke.

  • California in Cincinnati is green



    California in Cincinnati is green

    At the California Nature Preserve in the Cincinnati neighborhood of California, they have one of the only “green” paved parking lots in
    the region.

    Ever since I returned from Germany last November I have been interested in what it would take to get more of this type of pavement here (over traditional asphalt or concrete). In Germany they are everywhere, not being just aesthetically more pleasing than the alternative, but it also allows rain run-off to seep into the ground (guess it’s not really run-off then, is it?).

    Just one of the many ways to improve the local environment…

  • CityBeat column: Let the Segways roll unimpeded

    I wrote my column this week in CityBeat about the city’s apparent requirement to tax each Segway that hits a Cincinnati street. Bad, bad idea.

    I took a Segway of Ohio – Cincinnati tour Sunday with a friend and we both loved it – and learned a bit about the city.