CITYBEAT'S BEST OF CINCINNATI IS CLUELESS ABOUT COVINGTON

by Michael Monks 

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CityBeat's annual Best of Cincinnati voting is about to come to a close Sunday but for many Covington-related places and faces the ballot is riddled with inaccuracies or out-of-date information. It is almost as though CityBeat's staff has not set foot in our city since 2007. The survey, which you can take by clicking here, is viewed by many establishments as an honor. Customers will see references to being named among CityBeat's Best Of... on the walls of many places around town, even in Covington. Unsurprisingly a lot of Covington's bars and restaurants find themselves nominated again and are deserving of more praise. Some other categories, however, are quite strange.

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Former Mayor Butch Callery

In the category Northern Kentuckian, former Covington Mayor Butch Callery is nominated. Now, we all love Butch for the decades of service he gave to our city but he lost reelection four years ago and has since moved to Villa Hills. Is CityBeat aware that they are two mayors behind in Covington? Callery is up against some worthy candidates like Donna Salyers and Bill Seitz of the Carnegie, but also Eric Deters who recently called for an armed revolution against the President of the United States. And George Clooney? Are they serious? 
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But it gets worse. In the High School Coach category, CityBeat nominates David Henley as coach of the Holmes basketball team. Henley did an awesome job at Holmes, even winning a state championship. But he left the school two years ago! He is not even in Northern Kentucky anymore! 
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And here's a funny one. Covington's signature piece of modern architecture, The Ascent, is nominated for Best Apartment Community. Seriously. Other nominees include Gettysburg Square in Fort Thomas and 4th & Plum Apartments in Downtown Cincinnati. The Ascent is home to condos for which one would pay a minimum of a half million dollars. Best Apartment Community?

Ascent... apartment community?

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CityBeat does get more than a few things right such as the many bars and restaurants up for honor. Rick Robinson is nominated for Local Author, Covington Latin is nominated for Best Private School, Gateway College, Klingenberg's Hardware, Mother's tattoo parlor, Leapin' Lizard, Cymbal House, and Devou Park all scored rightful nominations. But so did Blue Bar which has been closed for at least seven months. Oh, and in the Best NKY Neighborhood category, CityBeat nominates Mainstrasse and Covington while leaving out Oakley & Eva Farris from the Best Philanthropist category. 
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Perhaps the most glaring error in CityBeat's survey is in the category Best Place to Take a Visitor: Mount Adams, Newport-on-the-Levee, Fountain Square. Many wonderful places, but CityBeat did not list one Covington location in this category. That is probably because no one from the CityBeat offices has visited Covington (aside from the Madison Theater, which scored a nomination, too, and is a frequent topic in CityBeat's music covergae). They really seem to have no clue about what is happening here. So let's clear it up for them: Not only is Covington the best place to take a visitor, it may also be the best place to take a CityBeat employee searching for the Best of Cincinnati. It would make the Best of... survey a lot easier for them. They could just open their eyes and look around and know that they have already found it.