5 Questions Answered by MiCA’s Carolyn Deininger
If you get the chance to look at a neighborhood, a place, or a city without any preconceived ideas about what is possible, you will probably see all the good that can be. I hear it over and over again from outsiders who visit OTR. They see the architecture and a place that is unique and wonder why more people are not living in the neighborhood, or beginning a business, they are confused as to why more people are not enjoying the neighborhood’s resources. Carolyn Deininger was once an visitor to Cincinnati and OTR and she knew that there would be a time that she would have a shop in Over-The-Rhine.
Carolyn Deininger in her shop MiCA 12/v
What do you do in Over-The-Rhine? I co-own and run the fine craft gallery & design-based gift shop called MiCA 12/v with wonderful husband, Mike. ( Mi (Mike)+ CA (Carolyn) = MiCA)
Why did you decide to set up business/work in OTR? First we fell in love with our building and space on the corner of 12th & Vine. But we would never have even looked at the space if we didn’t already feel that architecturally, historically, culturally, this is the most fascinating neighborhood in Cincinnati.
Is there anything that has surprised you about working or having a business in OTR? As someone who is relatively new to Cincinnati it shocks me that the entire city of Cincinnati doesn’t necessarily appreciate what we have in OTR. We’ve lived in some cookie-cutter kinds of places. Places where concrete and cinderblock and national chains reign over what might once have been a more organically grown, diverse kind of neighborhood like OTR, with independently run businesses & people who live and work and are sincerely devoted to the place they call home. OTR isn’t cookie-cutter. It is artful and beautiful and one of a kind.
Do you have a favorite place you like to go in OTR? Too many to pare down to one, but to name a few – Findlay Market, Iris Book Cafe, the Senate, the Ensemble Theatre.
If you had a magic wand what would you change in OTR? If I had a magic wand there’d be a streetcar that would connect Main Street and Vine Street and Music Hall and Findlay Market to the rest of downtown & beyond. Damn, that was a good idea.
