To best fight for the future of this marvelous, historic city, we must promote practical public policies based on Urbanist principles. Properly applied, the following policies could help reverse the demographic slide of the last four decades: Safe and Clean. If we don’t get safe and clean right, we won’t be able to get anything else right. People won’t move into a historic neighborhood if it means putting their lives and property in constant danger or tolerating filthy sidewalks, derelict parks, and crumbling streets. The city’s budget, beleaguered as it is, must emphasize safety and cleanliness. Additionally, we should give hearty support to creative proposals like using Sheriff’s deputies to patrol Over-the-Rhine and other key neighborhoods, designating “no tolerance for crime” zones around our key cultural amenities, and transferring more desk-bound police officers to neighborhood walking patrols. Neighborhoods of Choice. The City of Cincinnati and local foundations must help each neighborhood in the city develop and implement a concrete, practical, citizen-based marketing plan that “sells” the neighborhood based on its unique assets and identity. These plans need to be based on sound market analysis and include strategies to improve the housing product, civic assets (like parks and walkable districts) and consumer amenities (business districts) in the neighborhoods. Generous support needs to be given to for-profit and non-profit developers who are willing to create new or renovated market-rate housing in neighborhoods. City government, foundations, and businesses (including realtors, developers, etc.) need to pay the advertising costs associated with implementing these plans. Finally, by engaging residents to create and implement their own plans, we offer an intangible – but critical – human element the suburbs cannot match – neighbors intimately connected and working together for their common good. Concentration of Re-Development Efforts. Al Tuchfarber, U.C. professor of Political Science and early Urbanist, likes to point out that the re-development of the city is likely to follow a geographic pattern similar to its original development – i.e., it will begin with the historic basin area and then encompass the surrounding hillside communities. The emergence of a fairly robust housing market in the Central Business District and, to a lesser degree, Over-the-Rhine, and the dramatic redevelopment going on in Uptown bear out Dr. Tuchfarber’s view. We have to finish the job in these key neighborhoods before launching significant revitalization efforts in others. As a practical matter, this means concentrating public and private investment for the time being on the Banks, the Central Business District, Over-the-Rhine and the key Uptown neighborhoods just above the basin. In the past we have spread our development efforts too thinly and, as a result, we’ve fallen into the trap of “doing projects” rather than “creating places.” This is an error which we cannot afford to keep repeating. Read more...

The application of Urbanist Principles can reverse the demographic slide

of the last four decades.

To best fight for the future of this marvelous, historic city, we must promote practical public policies based on Urbanist principles. Properly applied, the following policies could help reverse the demographic slide of the last four decades:

1.Safe and Clean. If we don’t get safe and clean right, we won’t be able to get anything else right. People won’t move into a historic neighborhood if it means putting their lives and property in constant danger or tolerating filthy sidewalks, derelict parks, and crumbling streets. The city’s budget, beleaguered as it is, must emphasize safety and cleanliness. Additionally, we should give hearty support to creative proposals like using Sheriff’s deputies to patrol Over-the-Rhine and other key neighborhoods, designating “no tolerance for crime” zones around our key cultural amenities, and transferring more desk-bound police officers to neighborhood walking patrols.
2.Neighborhoods of Choice. The City of Cincinnati and local foundations must help each neighborhood in the city develop and implement a concrete, practical, citizen-based marketing plan that “sells” the neighborhood based on its unique assets and identity. These plans need to be based on sound market analysis and include strategies to improve the housing product, civic assets (like parks and walkable districts) and consumer amenities (business districts) in the neighborhoods. Generous support needs to be given to for-profit and non-profit developers who are willing to create new or renovated market-rate housing in neighborhoods. City government, foundations, and businesses (including realtors, developers, etc.) need to pay the advertising costs associated with implementing these plans. Finally, by engaging residents to create and implement their own plans, we offer an intangible – but critical – human element the suburbs cannot match – neighbors intimately connected and working together for their common good.
3.Concentration of Re-Development Efforts. Al Tuchfarber, U.C. professor of Political Science and early Urbanist, likes to point out that the re-development of the city is likely to follow a geographic pattern similar to its original development – i.e., it will begin with the historic basin area and then encompass the surrounding hillside communities. The emergence of a fairly robust housing market in the Central Business District and, to a lesser degree, Over-the-Rhine, and the dramatic redevelopment going on in Uptown bear out Dr. Tuchfarber’s view. We have to finish the job in these key neighborhoods before launching significant revitalization efforts in others. As a practical matter, this means concentrating public and private investment for the time being on the Banks, the Central Business District, Over-the-Rhine and the key Uptown neighborhoods just above the basin. In the past we have spread our development efforts too thinly and, as a result, we’ve fallen into the trap of “doing projects” rather than “creating places.” This is an error which we cannot afford to keep repeating.