DR. KNOW

Q + A

Charles McMicken’s name is disappearing at the University of Cincinnati. Probably McMicken Street will also get renamed soon. But I wonder why McMicken’s name went on that particular street in the first place. It’s nowhere

near UC. - SO FAR AWAY

DEAR FAR: Poor Charlie McMicken. Well, he actually wasn’t poor at all—not even close. In Cincinnati and elsewhere he owned vast amounts of money, land, and—in case you didn’t know—human beings. That is why, despite helping to launch the University of Cincinnati, he has become nom non grata.

As for the street bearing his name (at press time anyway), the Doctor urges you to look at a satellite view of McMicken Avenue at Elm

Dr. Know is Jay Gilbert, weekday afternoon deejay on 92.5 FM The Fox. Submit your questions about the city’s peculiarities at drknow@cincinnati magazine.com

Street. You will notice a large, steep hill. McMicken built his final home around 1850 at the bottom of this hill; the street was called Hamilton Road then. UC later built its first home on the same hill. So it made sense in 1876 to rename Hamilton Road as McMicken Avenue, the better to honor a famous city father. Unfortunately, we now know that McMicken was also an infamous father to at least two of the above-mentioned human beings. His good name is no longer good.

And that hill? A huge landslide in 1972 obliterated most of it, leaving no trace of McMicken’s footprint. Maybe UC should be renamed Karma College.

Attached are screenshots showing the decibel levels of a public restroom hand drier, the new kind where you dangle your fingers down inside. It turns out these things are louder than leaf-blowers, and actually dangerous to unprotected ears. Don’t they violate some kind of Cincinnati noise ordinance?

- I CAN’T HEAR ME

DEAR HEAR: The Doctor will not judge the kind of person who goes around with an app measuring decibel levels. Take comfort in knowing that you have a kindred spirit who addressed a similar topic in our April 2019 column, asking if the explosions and musical thuds in movie trailers cross some auditory threshold into illegality.

Our answer from then is the same as now: Cincinnati noise ordinances apply only to acoustic disturbances that travel from their source to another place, such as over-enthusiastic concerts reaching your home or that early-morning leaf blower next door. There’s nothing about noises inside a room with you, especially a room you’ve voluntarily entered in a venue you may have paid to be in.

The Doctor is not a lawyer, but perhaps your particular example presents a slim legal opportunity. Since you’re in a public restroom, maybe you could claim that your presence is not voluntary! Just throwing