City Blights

I can't believe I just heard someone suggest that a Three Strikes law is a solution of any kind.

There it is again. Homer goes seven innings and gives up two runs and the team loses, 2-1. Walt Jocketty, where is the offense?

Ohio is more Eastern than Midwestern, and so is Detroit. Indiana is the frontier of the Midwest. Cleveland and Chicago are very Midwestern in character but not in infrastructure. Cincinnati is Eastern and Southern at the same time, but not really Midwestern. Inner city Columbus has neighborhoods that can remind you of an area in any city east of Indiana and north of Maryland.

You can quote examples from many neighborhoods who resisted school integration; it isn't a Glendale thing, it's an American historical issue. And it also occurred in the 1950s when Princeton City Schools united, a pretty long time ago. There were minor issues when Lincoln Heights joined in the mid 1970s, but again the residents weren't up in arms against the additional students. It happened and no major acts of violence or harassment ensued. Glendale was home to the only African American school in the Tri-County area for years (Eckstein Elementary on Washington Ave, an Ohio Historical Site). Glendale also has one of the largest black churches in the Tri-County area, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Coral Ave (http://www.mtzionglendale.com/), so I do not know what you are referring to with problems establishing black churches (although Quinn Chapel AME used to be in Glendale on Troy Ave and moved across the border to Sprindgale, but that was necessary to build a larger church). I walk the streets of the village with my dog at all hours of the night and day and never get stares from neighbors or suspicious looks from police. If that ever did occur to others, those days are well passed so it's definitely not appropriate to label Glendale as "racist". The predominantly white population reflects the high home values and per capita income of residents, not to mention the high taxes as well (Glendale is an old money community for sure). If there are other neighborhoods with similar economic demographics and a larger black population, please point them out. I encourage you to read about the history of Glendale. It's quite unique for a village of that wealth, given the historic black population (which is growing actually according to the census), and its difference from similar older communities that actually did resist blacks for a while, such as Reading, Sharonville, and Wyoming. It may have to do with Glendale's history as an Underground Railroad town, but either way it's an interesting read. I respect your knowledge of your town, but I'm not convinced that Glendale has undergone any evolution over the past forty years. Almost every corner of the United States was segregated 40 years ago, so it is important to examine how a community has changed in the ages since. Having one black chapel suggests that the few blacks that did live in Glendale and surrounding areas established the church as a haven for their community. There is strength in numbers, and within a discriminatory society, church is often the only organized structure that minorities are allowed to form or participate in. Church is seen as a tacit form of organization because when examining the trajectory and history of minority churches across the nation, it often takes decades for a constituency to accrue enough wealth to even erect a respectable structure, let alone be mobilized enough to be a part of any decision-making processes within that community. Being accepted into a political structure like a community council is very different. Protection from the elements of the time is how most religious ideologies were founded, and the same is true about individual homes of worship. You can go to almost any town in any state and find a black church because in the past that was the only unifying element that was permitted to exist for that community. You cannot prove that Glendale is or has ever been progressive when it comes to welcoming black residents by saying that it had two basic social functions of the segregationist era because the areas around it did not. Eckstein Elementary is a landmark of segregation. It was closed because Brown vs. Board told it to.

That doesn't make it a sundown town by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, this attitude towards what a "culturally healthy" environment is for blacks is truly saddening. There are serious shades of the attitude that "rich blacks aren't real blacks" in there, which is about as culturally unhealthy a belief as one could fathom. Likewise, as I said earlier, political power is not everything (not to mention that race isn't everything in politics ... in a place like Pickerington, or most places, for that matter, a wealthy black probably has more political access than a poor white). And while many affluent communities may well have a small minority population, Pickerington isn't even all that affluent (more than most inner-city neighborhoods, certainly, but not New Albany, Bexley, or even Dublin), and it's minority population is not small--in fact, it's above the state average for demographic makeup. Are we supposed to count only majority-minority districts as having sufficient black representation? Numerically, you can't make that many of those. This is going ridiculously far afield. We started talking about a town that took deliberate public policy steps to reduce its black population by more than 95%, and we're now trying to lump in with that a town that has a significant black professional community and a school system with a black presence above the state average, because too many of those blacks somehow don't count because they're "affluent" and "assimilated?" I can see that you're not going to let this go, but I seriously don't get it at all. If anything, I should think you'd want more of those "other blacks" you mentioned to end up "affluent" and "assimilated" rather than trying to dis-assimilate (and perhaps de-affluence) the blacks of Pickerington. "State average" should not be a water mark that is relevant to a suburb of a major city because there are hundreds of towns around Ohio that only have a handful of minorities, literally. In the suburbs of many major cities, minorities are sometimes the majority or at least a third of the population. Pasadena outside of Houston and some of the Paris suburbs are a couple of examples. Gramarye, your argument is rooted in complacency. From what I understand, assimilation is a dirty word within minority communities because it suggests that one needs to mold themselves into the image of the majority in order to ratify themselves as palatable. I've never even heard of the conjunction "de-affluent", but the concept of minorities behaving, speaking and dressing however they want to, within the law, should be welcomed as cultural diversity. You are arguing for sameness. Just because a black family lives in a middle-upper class environment doesn't mean that they want be viewed as inferior not because of their bank account, but because of how they don't have a desire to be part of the status quo. A major frustration within minority communities is the belief held by some (you) that it is an achievement to make themselves culturally more like white people. It's as if minorities already aren't forced to make enough concessions in life from the time that they are born. Can't understand that point of view, but we can agree to disagree.

To address Glendale for all of you: Glendale has never embraced a black community. Doesn't the stagnation of growth illustrate resistance? Why has every community around it seen its black community grow while Glendale's has stayed the same since the beginning of time? Does anybody think that's a mistake or coincidence? Saying a community is 10% black means nada in a region like Cincinnati that has one of the oldest urban black communities in the country and the oldest in the state. A-Rhyme, you grew up there so I don't want to dismiss what you're offering the discussion, but from the info I've gathered over the years, black Cincinnati does not feel wanted in Glendale, and that is de facto segregation. Otherwise the black population would be over 10%. The police in Glendale are notorious in the area for racial profiling, and I received this information from old black pastors and police officers from other agencies who told me that the community fought hard to NOT be part of the Princeton district and that decades back, it was made very clear for them that establishing churches and moving to that community was not desirable for the white residents and powers that were. It's still a community with a tiny black population in an area that is surrounded by communities that are much more well-known for having black communities like Woodlawn, Springdale and Forest Park. I'm happy that some of you were never profiled in Glendale, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen and that their police force isn't patently racist. It is. To address Pickerington: The influx of black people in that community is brand new. The police are notorious among the black community in Southeast Columbus. Gramarye, you said it yourself, there are no blacks on council and most of the blacks that live there are affluent. Almost every affluent community is going to have a small minority population because most minority neighborhoods across the country range from bad to horrifying and there is no motivation for those mobilized professionals to raise their children there and send them to a big-city school district. The black kids in a place like Pickerington feel pressure to assimilate and don't seem to feel comfortable around other blacks as they grow up and go off to college unless they were raised in a similar environment. I even went to college with some black kids from Pickerington. They were so uncomfortable around other black people that it was depressing to watch them fumble their interactions with other black students and then return to their comfort zone around rich white kids. They would only hang out with white kids because that's all they knew. They did not appear to have been raised in a culturally-healthy environment. Pickerington is a community that is overwhelmingly white upper-middle class and a few blacks with money doesn't change anything there.

23% black at a high school doesn't suggest that black people in Pickerington have very much power in Pickerington, Ohio. That is not an impressive statistic. The police are known to target black drivers and the city of Pickerington does not have a good reputation within the black community of Columbus because according to many of them, they don't feel wanted in that community.

Areas where racial profiling and de facto segregation is in full force in the Cincinnati area: Lebanon, Trenton, Green Township, Glendale Around Columbus: Pickerington, Canal Winchester, Worthington

I think it's better to build LRT in dense regions, but constructing rail in more sprawled environments is good too. The word "sprawl" itself insinuates a need for mobility, or transit. Introducing people who live outside of the urban shell to options of transit will increase their QOL, financial and social interest in the city's core, and strengthen their personal connection to the city as an urban dweller. Well-planned rail can also turn low-density into high-density. Aligning rail through low-density residential areas is great for teenagers. Many sprawled neighborhoods contain only so much entertainment, and the young people end up with the feeling of being stranded and bored in their borough. They get older, go to college and move away because they have so little pride in their community, and there goes your next generation of taxpayers. Raising the picket fence crowd to appreciate advanced transit will pay great sociophysical dividend for future generations.

Mark Mallory argued that Cincinnati had over 375,000 people just a few years ago. The US Census believes the City has 296,000. That's almost a 25% difference. Cincinnati is suffering from being too big to have so little tax revenue and federal/state assistance. It's a robust, dynamic middle market under the veil of a smaller, simplistic, constantly diminishing economy because of how its TV market is drawn up and the dysfunctional county government that supposedly serves it. The local media knows the city limits needs more residents living within them and that the Streetcar can only increase tax income, but they obviously aren't being paid to tell that story. Media members at large are paid to do what their bosses want them to do or put themselves at professional risk.

No offense. When a pitcher K's twelve and the other team only scores three, you should win that game. Votto isn't Votto but he doesn't have a lot of help. That's been my complaint about this team since Dusty has been here. The GM keeps ignoring the offense and they fail to meet expectation every season. You have to hit to win.

Where is the "ON TOPIC" police when you need them?

What?? How old are you. Cranley was on council for 8 years, top vote getter in 2005 and second to Roxanne by only 3 votes in 2007. At what point does someone stop being novice? Only Winburn and Roxanne have served longer. Old enough to know the difference between being in office and working towards goals. The amount of years a politician has sat does not solely determine their value. Remember Jean Schmidt? The suave to manage themselves is what makes them a master politician, or at least a competent one. Those with the skill to present themselves as who they are, true or false, can survive political defeat and regain office again. Where is Cranley's political career after he loses by four points to Qualls? Your example is bad, too. Winburn wouldn't get elected in a bunch of towns with the garbage campaigns he puts together. Maybe it's because Cincinnati expects their council to be clowncil so he fits the mold, but he is a terrible tactician and most of his ideas fall on ears that can't support him politically or financially.

Cranley is not getting elected. Too many people like Qualls whether she supports the streetcar or not. The Streetcar is happening, so let's enjoy watching it happen instead of wondering if a novice politician can defeat one of the City's most experienced.

Of course. I explained how I calculated the figures in the big post above. I did the legwork to show that the "criminals vs. criminals" argument correlating to urban homicide is much more complex than that. I would never say that black males that commit crimes shouldn't be prosecuted. I'm saying that the environment that many were raised in is even more violent than most think because the standard for calculating homicide rate does not really analyze demographic data outside of total population. Off the top of my head, here are the round figures for total black male population of all ages in those five cities: Cleveland: 98,000 Baltimore: 180,000 Detroit: 270,000 Chicago: 410,000 Cincinnati: 62,000

If Cincinnati had 100,000 black males, that's how many of them would be murdered.

Committing a crime and being convicted of it does not mean you deserve to die. That misconception of urban homicide needs to dissolve. People in suburban communities commit crimes, they just aren't targeted the same way as urban, black youth are by law enforcement nor are they prosecuted as diligently. Many urban offenders wouldn't have an offense on their record if they had proper legal representation. Within every city in the industrialized world there are pockets of violence, and large areas where there isn't. Writing homicide off as black criminals killing other black criminals is ignorance of the plague right in front of us. Black males are born into communities where the homicide rate for people that share the same race and gender are above 60 per 100,000. I calculated homicide rates for black males in a few cities. This is taking into account that 90% of almost any American city's homicides are black people and 90% of those or more are males. Blacks in almost every city are mostly clustered into a few areas, so the concept at large of communities suffering through epidemic is maintained. I also considered that within the crumbling areas of inner cities, there are many more women than men on average, so I used a breakdown of 54% female, 46% male. I used a 10-year average on homicides, but only the most current population figures. I realize that population is a flexible figure, but part of the reason some of these cities have declined in population is because of homicide, so I wouldn't consider using 2012 population estimates as artificial inflation of the statistic. For Chicago and it's unique demographic, I used different metrics. 75% of Chicago homicides are committed against black males instead of the standard 90% in more monochromatic cities like the other four. Keep in mind that this includes infants and the elderly, so for males from ages 11-55, the numbers would be much higher. Detroit: 110 black males murdered per 100,000 black male residents Baltimore: 112 per 100,000 Cleveland: 70 per 100,000 Cincinnati: 92 per 100,000 Chicago: 81 per 100,00 black male residents Are these acceptable environments to raise a family? Is it not likely that a black male may find himself in trouble based on the circumstances he was born into?

Shuttle/express Metro service from the streetcar stop close to Court and Main to the casino and on to Mount Adams could be huge. Service from 10pm-3am on Friday and Saturday nights isn't too much of an undertaking.

Very few people seem to shy away from taking shots at Mahoghany's. Completely inappropriate, but if you've been following Ohio politics, which you have, why did Kasich get elected? Why does Mike Coleman run unopposed? How is Joseph Deters not in prison? Ohioans are poorly educated, and the poorly educated are typically too busy trying to survive to sift through the lies that permeate their television and radio.

Spain is a leader in streetcar manufacturing as well as one of the tops in the world in complexity and flexibility in their transit network. Ford is making products in Valencia, Spain instead of Cincinnati nowadays. Labor is far cheaper in Spain, and the Spanish government is incredibly pro-transit. Pro-education? The exact opposite.

A grocery, which 90% won't happen, would be the best thing for future residential in the 5th and Race vicinity. There are plenty of lots going west. Once the tracks are in the ground and people are paying for a ride, ambitious projects we want to see will pepper the blocks adjacent to the line.

^When you accept payment (CVG) in exchange for extortion (Delta), the consequences are rarely transparent but the risks should be acknowledged. CVG may have never had its moment in the sun in the 2000s, but it would be a more sound business structure today. I don't think a well-ran airport befalls your example of dead strip malls and Home Depot as its lone survivor. Said strip mall was poorly managed, that's why it became a slave to its sole tenant. I understand Delta going with Detroit over Cincinnati, but Charlotte has benefited massively from the downgrade of CVG also. When you let someone extort you, once they're done with you, they throw you away.

I've called out CVG's Board of Directors and Kenton County Trustees multiple times. They are the stupidity and shortsightedness that fuels this debacle. If you feel that they had no say in being pushed around by Delta in the good old days, then you probably believe them when they say they aspire to be a 250-flight domestic airport for the sake of it being feasible. CVG should be better than a lot of airports within 300 miles; as you point out, it's a big city airport minus the population threshold, we agree there. But when you're at a geographic, physical and logistical advantage over any Midwestern port not named Lambert, O'Hare or Detroit International, you should perform better than what's going on down at CVG. Lack of low-cost carriers, price of flights, zero international gateway. The only thing left to pacify Cincinnati fliers with is having a greater number of direct domestics than a lot of cities within that 300-mi radius. That's insufficient for me.

The City itself better get better if it wants CVG to evolve into a relatively balanced organizational structure. The Board of Directors would rather take handouts than risk losing their financially lucrative job by committing to something meaningful, meaningful meaning long-term. 500,000+ city, 3,000,000 MSA, 4,000,000 CSA stabilizes CVG more than any "action" I expect to see in the next 15 years. I tend to agree much of the problem with CVG is connected to Cincinnati. You mention a 500,000+ city. How long do you think that is going to take to happen? Quit complaining about CVG as they are only reacting to both the airline industry and what is happening in Cincinnati, neither one of which are exactly upstring. If subsequent transit lines are completed almost sequentially after the opening of the father line, i.e. Oasis, Uptown Connector, I-75 LRT, Central Parkway subway, Wasson, then Cincinnati could eclipse 500,000 in 2027. There's also the possibility Cincinnati annexes before then. I complain about CVG because I have impetus to. They knew the hub explosion in the 2000s was fifteen minutes of fame and never lifted a finger to promote passenger confidence outside of Delta providing over 300 daily flights. CVG has to be the worst of all its similarly-sized brethren. There isn't a major airport within 300 miles that's worse. Geography plays a big part in airport potency, but no one was complaining about Cincinnati's geography when half the West Coast was being welcomed to Kentucky on all their cross-country and Old World destinations.

It wasn't the box itself, it was the lot and "presentation" of the box that looked eerily similar to an office park in Columbus I used to work at. As far as Fifth and Race goes, either the City is preparing a speech to emphasize the importance of any and all development downtown however small, or Channel 9 is reporting this accurately.