Full Biography for James R. Tarbell

Candidate for
Council Member; City of Cincinnati

James R. Tarbell Biography

Proprieter of Arnold's and Grammer's, promoter of exotic events, champion of downtown, fine arts board member, founder of Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, DCI Board Member, party planner, music promoter, neighborhood activist, nostalgia collector: Jim Tarbell has done it all.

Schooled at St. Mary's grade school, St. Xaiver, and Withrow High Schools, Jim moved to Cambridge, MA in the mid-60's. He studies at the Lowell Institute, and worked for local hospitals and as a commercial fisherman.

When Jim Tarbell returned to Cincinnatiin the late 60's, he moved to Hyde Park where he served as executive director of the Hyde Park Teen Center. In 1969 Jim peeked in a rat-infested truck depot in Clifton and saw the makings of a new kind of nightclub. After overseeing the Ludlow Garage's conversion, he spent the next 2 1/2 years bringing in progressive rockers and the blues men- B.B. King, the Allman Brothers, Grand Funk Railroad, Neil Young and the Grateful Dead.

In 1971 he moved to an apartment in Over-the- Rhine. Mr. Tarbell and a circle of friends believed that with a mixture of rehabbed housing, private investment and neighborhood businesses, Over-the-Rhine could be revived. jim Tarbell saw the potential in downtown long before anyone else did. Without training in city palnning, but following his stubborn sense of belonging, he became a City Hall regular, testifying at housing hearings and economic development meetings. In 1976, he bought Arnold's, the city's oldest tavern, est. 1861. Arnold's, at 210 E. 8th Street, became a neighborhood center first for downtown, then for the greater Cincinnati area.

Jim Tarbell considers Arnold's financial success something of "a coincidence". It also allowed him 1984 to buy the old German restaurant, Grammer's, at Walnut and Liberty in Over-the-Rhine, and "put my money where my mouth was". Arnold's was sold in 1999, but he remains the owner of Grammer's.

In the interim, in the interest of improving civic involvement in the rebuilding of the inner city, he founded the OTR Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber now numbers over 500 members and, outside the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, if the largest organization of its kind in the city.

For 51 years, he's been preaching that the salvation of Over-the-Rhine rests in the diversity of people, incomes and housing. Jim Tarbell's goal is larger than Over-the-Rhine and deeper than public policy. As he and his children have aged, he's become concerned about traditions, values, enduring institutions- for the entire city.

In 1994, the Chamber Committe of Greater Cincinnati slected Jim to receive its Charles P. Taft Civic Gumption Award. The biennial honor recognizes persons of enterprise, ingenuity, and perspicacity. He was honored as OTR Chamber's Man of the year in 1997, voted in City Beat ad Best City Council Member in 1999, and Cincinnati Magazine's "most trusted" civic activist in 1995.

Jim Tarbell's activities have included:

• Cincinnati City Council, member since July, 1998
• Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati, board member
• Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce (450 members), founder
• Downtown Cincinnati Incorporated, board member
• Emery Center, board member
• Grammer's Restuarant (est. 1872), owner
• Arnold's Bar and Grill (est. 1861), former owner
• Baseball at Braodway Commons Committee, founder and chairman
• Hillside Truct, Long-standing member
• Cincinnati Preservation Association, Advisory Board
• College Conservatory of Music, Friend's Board
• Cincinnati May FEstival and Taft Museum, board member (ret.)