Rollin’ On the River

The city of Newport, KY, which sits on the Ohio River, a stone’s throw across from Cincinnati, gets it. Along the riverfront, it has an entertainment area called Newport On the Levee. City officials spent 100 hours developing a proposal that would create more than 2,800 sq. ft. of signage that would face the Ohio River, and Ohio residents.

In an article on the nky.com website, city manager Tom Fromme said, "It’s all geared around creating excitement." A marketing consultant added, "What we’re trying to do is create a sense of vitality about a place that is slowly losing that." Meanwhile, although Cincinnati has a huge advantage with three sports stadiums on the river (the Reds’, the Bengals’ and the U. S. Bank Arena), ancillary entertainment venues are conspicuous in their absence.

The article further stated, "The signs also can arm the levee to compete against Cincinnati’s under-development riverfront shopping and entertainment area, The Banks, levee representatives said." Going forward, the adjective can probably be changed to "underdeveloped," given Cincinnati’s track record.

Last October, following the National Signage Research & Education Conference held at the University of Cincinnati, board members of the Signage Foundation, Inc. met with Newport officials to discuss signage.