Best Artist Studios with a Conscience:
The Essex Studio complex, which is gathering together hundreds of studio artists in a massive former factory in Walnut Hills. It began as spill-over studio space for those shut out of the Pendleton Arts Center but has become a hot spot on its own. Its heat index recently rose after artist Eric Triantafillou hung an 18-foot-by-18-foot banner on the building that portrays a woman of color gagged by a U.S. flag. The protest of the erosion of free speech under the Bush Administration was seen as anti-war by some passersby and neighbors, but Essex owner Trent Heimann stuck by Triantafillou’s right to have his say. Essex Studios, Essex and McMillan avenues, Walnut Hills.

Best New Trend at Findlay Market:
The availability of prepared foods — pizza, soups from Madison’s, grilled sandwiches from Kroeger Bros., etc. You can buy your cake (or lunch) and eat it too. 100 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-665-4839.

Best Alternative for Urban Transport:
Bajaj Scooter from Autobahn Craft Werks. Whether you’re a mod or rocker, you can grab one of these retro rides in Northside. Save money and cut down on smog with your Euro-style commuter-scooter, which Len Kherkoff and staff can customize with anything from a carrier basket to a sidecar. Autobahn Craft Werks, 4111 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, 513-591-2629.

Photo: Sean Hughes/Photopresse Best Semi-Naked Woman in Public: The new Clifton fountain In the short life of Matt Kotlarczyk’s creation at the corner of Ludlow and Clifton avenues, the bare-breasted woman offering water from her left hand has yet to work her full magic on passersby. But her time is now — we want to be outside bathing in stingy sunlight and holding hands at the foot of a fountain. What started in early June 2000 as “the woman” less than 2 feet tall in the basement studio of Kotlarczyk’s Norwood home is now an 8 1/2-foot-tall bronze gatekeeper to the Matthew Diggs Park. Now he says it took so long to complete and erect the fountain and still longer for its full warm-weather glory that he sometimes forgets it’s there. “We’ll be driving down Ludlow toward Clifton Avenue and I’ll forget it’s coming up,” Kotlarczyk says. Still, he’s the proud papa of a piece of posterity. “In 100 years will everybody be going around in white polyester suits with high collars like Star Trek and will it still fit in?” It will every spring. (KYW)

Best Use of an Urban Studies Report as a Weapon:
Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class. The Pittsburgh-based urban sociology guru has become big news here and elsewhere with his thoughts on how cities can benefit economically by catering to the “creative class” (i.e., mobile young professionals). Several new groups interested in improving the region for young professionals have taken Florida’s thoughts to heart, and now even Cincinnati City Council members and the mayor have started slinging around the term “creative class” as ammo to get cool things in motion in Cincinnati.

Best Urban Plan to Sit on a Shelf:
It took two years of meetings, trust-building and generally tough work for the city’s Over-the-Rhine Master Plan to be written. The mayor and other city leaders received it with great fanfare last spring, but it only took several weeks of budget negotiations last fall to throw it off line and simultaneously dismantle the department in charge of it. Word is the original parties will reconvene in May to see if they can move things forward. Thankfully, former Cincinnati Planning Director Liz Blume landed on her feet in January at Xavier University’s Community Building Institute, where she should be able to do some of the same thoughtful work she did at City Hall.

Best Urban Plan That’s Not on the Shelf Yet:
The Creative City Plan, a 42-page product of Cincinnati Tomorrow, the all-volunteer group that’s among the private efforts popping up to promote Cincinnati as a cool place for young people to live and work — and thereby boost the city’s economic fortunes. Among its lo-fi proposals are playing local music on outdoor speakers in public spaces, help for black musicians who want to record their work, a late-night bus to connect the city’s entertainment venues, a streetcar for downtown and Over-the-Rhine and an arts and culture Web site. Since it’s a non-government venture (see OTR Master Plan above), it actually has a chance to work.

Best Time Travel:
Take the elevator up 11 stories to the Mercantile Library — it’s like traveling back 100 years in Cincinnati’s history. Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St., Downtown, 513-621-0717.

Best Temporary Trip to Twin Peaks:
The Arby’s downtown is either the world’s largest bus stop or the No. 1 reason to disavow fast food. This peddler of “slow roasted roast beef” is David Lynch-ian in its attraction of ER waiting room caliber hangers-on. If only it were attached to the Greyhound station, it would make perfect sense. Arby’s, 1 E. Sixth St., Downtown, 513-684-9210.

Photo: Brandon Brady Dan Savage Best Urban Revewal: Dan Savage invades CIncinnati Cincinnati’s incurable romantics — as well as curiosity seekers — swarmed to see sex advice columnist Dan Savage at two local appearances last fall. At the first, Savage read from his latest book, Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. The chapter he chose to read concerned adultery and revolved around his visit to New York City when, on different nights, he hired a female escort and a male excort — who were dating each other. Audience members peppered Savage with questions about his “Savage Love” column, raising a son with his gay partner and U.S. foreign policy. Later that eveing, a different crowd packed Hamburger Mary’s downtown, where Savage riffed on sex in the new millennium and answered slightly more pointed audience questions. For those who can’t get enough “Savage Love” in CityBeat every week, his visit was just the right tonic. (JF)

Best Comfort for the Cash Poor:
The Peeble’s Corner Check Cashers says, “Open 24 Hours,” which is secret street language for, “Hey, crazy people! Come in here!” But if you’ve got a check burning a hole in your pocket that must be cashed at 4 a.m., look no further. Just be careful to step around all the leftover extras from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Ohio Check Cashers, 799 E. McMillan Ave., Walnut Hills, 513-281-4200.

Best Anniversary:
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. Local author John Fleischman has culled together photos, stories and general history for a wonderful book, Free & Public. In his research, Fleischman uncovers gems like librarian Thomas Vickers, who stabbed himself repeatedly with his own acid pen, or philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s back-handed gift of nine branch libraries. Main Public Library, 800 Vine St., Downtown, 513-369-6900.

Best Deal on Used Books:
The Main Library bookstore offers everything from the latest novel by Don DeLillo to a how-to guide on mushroom cultivation, all for super reasonable prices. Main Public Library, 800 Vine St., Downtown, 513-369-6900.

Best Destruction of the Past:
Cincinnati lost some of its natural history when WCPO (Channel 9) swooped in and knocked down the original Natural History Museum on Gilbert Avenue to begin construction on its new studios. Sure, the building was sitting there collecting dust, but surely there’s a better way of moving forward while retaining the past.

Photo: CityBeat file photo Todd Portune gets HIP Best Way to Keep Us Home: Hamilton County Home Improvement Program It’s no secret that the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are losing their most precious resource — their own residents. Last year County Commissioner Todd Portune came up with a practical way to stanch the population exodus and increase home-ownership rates: the Hamilton County Home Improvement Program (HIP). Offering subsidized loans at 3 percent below the lowest rate a bank would normally offer, HIP makes it affordable to improve existing housing stock and stay in the county. Loans can be for $1,500-$50,000 for a five-year term, and homeowners can use the money for room additions, landscaping, siding, windows, doors, central air conditioning, furnaces and other home improvements. So far more than $7 million has been loaned to 478 property owners, according to Kevin Brown, HIP coordinator for the county. Another $22 million is available, he says. This program could accomplish what everyone thought impossible — making it HIP to live in Greater Cincinnati. (GF)

Best Lost and Found:
The TANK offices downtown will do just about anything to recover lost items — and, yes, they do call back. When a customer stops by to pick up a lost cell phone, all the employees at the desk “know” who she is and have fun making jokes about the phone, her losing it and the international calls they might or might have made (they didn’t). Granted, the buses themselves are never on time, but their staff makes it worthwhile to “keep on moving.” TANK, Mercantile Building, 120 E. Fourth St., 513-665-9551.

Best Neanderthals:
The guys on the Cincinnati side who yelled and whooped during the moment of silence for World Trade Center victims before last fall’s Toyota/WEBN fireworks. The moment was a brilliant idea that almost brought an eerie silence to a crowd of 500,000. But then several attention-starved guys — apparently unable to grasp the concept of a moment of silence — started yelling. Then others in the crowd yelled at them to shut up, and the whole thing fell apart.

Best “Can Do” Attitude:
Speaking of Women’s Health has designated 2003 the Year of the “Can Do” Woman, trying to remind her to focus not just on the needs of others but on her own needs and health as well. Speaking of Women’s Health is a nonprofit agency that began as a one-day conference in Cincinnati in 1996 but has gone national with conferences in 30 cities now; its recent national conference at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center was sold out. Speaking of Women’s Health, 1223 Central Pkwy., West End, 513-345-6587.

Best Alternative St. Patrick’s Day Celebration:
The All Snakes Day Faire at St. John’s Unitarian Church in Clifton. The March 15 event was devoted to celebrating paganism, Celtic culture and its followers — the metaphorical “snakes” whom St. Patrick set out to convert in Ireland in the year 432 A.D. Green mead, anyone?

Photo: Jymi Bolden Best Sign of Life Downtown: The Ambassador program Downtown has long struggled to overcome unfortunate — and often unfair — public images of panhandling, empty storefronts and a dirty appearance, but the Downtown Ambassador program has started to address some of those concerns. The folks in bright blue jackets sprouted up this winter like flowers in the snow, offering directions to visitors, cleaning up sidewalks and generally keeping an eye on things. Downtown Cincinnati Inc., which manages the program, reports a number of recent good deeds by its ambassadors: changing a flat tire for someone, assisting injured riders and cleaning up after a bus accident, retrieving clothes from a trash can that resembled the description of a bank robber’s outfit, busting someone for fraudulently charging people to pay for parking and helping police nab an overly aggressive panhandler. (JF)

Best Hope for Race Relations:
Staff members of Search for Common Ground — a conflict resolution organization that’s worked in several world hot spots, including the Middle East and Africa — have been visiting and researching the city recently, trying to determine how they might be useful in helping Cincinnati confront its problems of relations between the police department and the community. If Palestinians and Israelis can sit down at the negotiating table, certainly someday Cincinnati political leaders will sit down with African American citizens to work on common solutions.

Best Break in the Weather:
The annual Bockfest managed to squeeze itself into the only decent 24-hour period all winter here, and those attending the March 7-8 festivities were rewarded with cold beer, hot sausages, good music and a fun time in Over-the-Rhine. Doesn’t Jim Tarbell somehow seem more at home as the festival’s main monk or beer god than he does at City Hall?

Best Student Hunger Strike:
Ursuline Academy students went hungry for a weekend in February to participate in a 30-hour “famine” and listen to presentations by such groups as the Coalition for a Humane Economy, Su Casa Hispanic Ministry Center and the Cooperative for Education. The groups were the beneficiaries of student fundraising.