Michael L. Redmond

Max, I did not want to sit here and type out the different names of communities that I have rentals in that are a couple of blocks apart and all have different names. However I have more time now so let me rephrase.... I am not sure what is available in the rental market outside of CBD, Mt. Auburn, Main St. Dist, Brewery Dist. West End, Prospect Hill, Sycamore Hill, Pendleton, Mt. Adams, Liberty Hill, Sycamore Hill, or City West. From now on I will just copy and paste and invite others to do so when referring to what most consider...Downtown. Downtown is a relative term, not an equivalent term to the CBD. It is relative to the one who is speaking as Kenwood is uptown to me and so is Blue Ash and so is Amberly and so on. When speaking to my family in Amberly they believe and say I live "downtown" and that is correct. Main Entry: 1down·town Pronunciation: "daun-'taun Function: adjective 1 : of, relating to, or located in the lower part or business center of a city

I have always thought that I knew everything that happens on that hillside but I was surprised at what I saw today. 160 Goethe is almost complete and they have done one hell of a job on this place, I barely recognized it. If anyone is out and about with a camera, post this place.

Other than just a couple of rentals that I have in my inventory, I really am not sure what is available outside of downtown.

It is the gateway into the sector. I believe I had posted, or someone had about the steetscaping I was referring to. If not, I can dig one up somewhere.

Last night was the Mulberry/McMicken Safety Sector meeting and we had several guest speakers including OTR Housing Network, Vernon Rader, Doug Spitz and Chris Zimmerman-each spoke of their different projects in the sector so here is a brief recap. OTR Housing Network is proposing market rate housing to be located on the south west corner of Mulberry and Antique, Peete and Antique, and one almost across the street on the north side of Mulberry and Antique. GBBN is the architects, I believe it was approx 10 condos in all, each with parking. Vernon Rader and his 5 buildings on the corner of Main and Liberty (on the north side of the intersection) just signed his first tenant yesterday. All market rate rental, 18 rental units and 6 commercial spaces. He has already received intrest in the commercial spaces. Completion date of this project (all 5 buildings) is scheduled for June of this year. He also just purchased Don's Crank Shaft and will turn that into a gallery. Vernon also says the new street scaping will be completed by this time as well. Doug Spitz is going to start construction on the Seitz building that has the yellow boards in the windows. 6 market rate rental units will go there. He is still working out the plans for the lots that he is clearing between Seitz and Mulberry. He just received approval for a teardown next to these lots and is pushing for some something to be done to 300 Mulberry as well. Chris Zimmerman is moving forward with his plans for a new Shell Station on Liberty. He is fighting for a carry out beer license right now and has negotiated an agreement with the sectors not to sell certain items. Unfortunately, members of Pendleton are trying to place unreasonable demands on him right now but we will get this worked out in short order.

Thank you Ink, I am on the job. I only represent a few rentals, but I am sure I can find something.

clearing has begun on Mulberry Lots just east of the Main St. Steps on the north side. I believe this is part of Doug Spitz's as well. We may see new const. sooner rather than later on Mulberry. I must be mistaken about the 318 or 316 address, the only one I can tell that would perhaps be a canidate is 300 for demo.

Grapevine news... I just heard that 88 and one other house on Mulberry, 318 or maby 316 (I am going to have to drive by) are scheduled for demo. 88 I believe is coming down in Feb. the other I am not sure. 88 was Johnny Van Steins house and has some serious structural damage (you can tell it even from the street) Chris Rose now ownes it and is planning to build his new home there-relocating from his other house on Mulberry. He also has purchased 5 lots behind 88 for a back yard for his daughters. The other, as I understand it, Doug Spitz is building on.

cramer, I guess I am on the outside as well because as I said earlier, I thought this was a dead issue and wasn't happening.

Cramer, I remember and still haven't forgotten...better watch your back man. Keep in Mind that my argument there that the name truly was a marketing issue for a home tour (Mulberry Hill Tour for Life) Mulberry Hill was used to encompass the whole hillside that fell under that tour. And that is why I had no problem with the brewery dist doing this for marketing purposes either, however if it is indeed the intent to then this is totally different from what we were doing. Prospect Hill is still Prospect Hill, Keys Hill is still Keys Hill, Sycamore Hill is still Sycamore Hill, Mt. Auburn is still Mt. Auburn and OTR is still OTR. And on that note I also personally went to each community meeting along with the Miracles for Life Chairman and discussed what we were doing. Also keep in mind that this is not one person defending his turf, the person on the other end of this conversation is a resident and co captain of the Mulberry/McMicken Sector (and a good friend) And these concerns were brought to my attention (they did not originate with me) by Tarbell, Capt. Jones and Cherly Curtis. It was even something fiercly debated within the BD itself, correct me if I am wrong Steve, but wasn't Duane Donohoo even against this expansion? Market all you want, but the one group who has done more than anything for our area is the OTR Chamber of Commerce and unless things have changed recently, they opposed this expansion for the same reasoning that I am bring up here.

What you said in your response is exactly what was presented to me and I do not doubt that this is what is being told to you. However it is the belief of many in the know that some within the group have other plans. And once again, I am ok with that, however what is the reasoning for extending the boundries over to Main and through E. Clifton? The development that is being lobbied by the dist is in an area that is not within the expansion. None of the development projects that I am working on or am aware of within our sector have been a result of efforts of the brewery dist, but those of the Mulberry Hill Assoc, which extends beyond the sector's efforts into development (we see these two as inseperable components of sustained development and are in talks of duplicating the same approach on Main) but follows the border outlines of the Mulberry/McMicken Safety Sector. Once again, it is the feeling of some, I now included, that the brewery dist is positioning itself boundry wise to form its own Pendleton/Prospect Hill style community that is seperate from OTR and therefor entitled to recieve the same funding. This is something that was done without, not just the consent, but even the knowledge of the residents and property owners within the expansion. I am supportive of the Brewery Dist and all of its initiatives within the old boundries, but I believe the Mulberry Hill group is making head over heals progress on its own and even outpacing dev. efforts seen within the Brewery Dist.

I see that as a commonality but was all of the other things that the sector is proposing also proposed for Collins?

I heard about the expansion of the brewery dist to try and encompass the Mulberry/McMicken Sector and then I thought that died. This may seem trivial to others hear on the board but I was told that this was being done only for marketing purposes and wanted to include development within our sector to try and raise the total number of development within the brewery dist to make it seem more attractive. I am fine with that. However, I spoke with the chamber about this and capt. Jones and a concern came up that some within the dist were actually trying to set up a Pendleton style splinter group and take resources, financial and otherwise, as a recognized community. OK, fine and good, however, what does this do to Mulberry/McMicken Sector? As you said, the borders would be Main and up to E. Clifton, leaving aside Peete, Mulberry, and parts of Lang in no mans land. and where do those resources go? Peete, Mulberry? not as defined by the dist. nor was the annexation, or proposed annexation even discussed with the residence, (other than me, and who am I?) So can you help me understand this a bit better or am I and the Chamber confused on some facts? The brewery dist heart is in the right place, and so is the Mulberry Hill Assoc. and the Brewery Dist should know that they can work with us and not try to annex us without any input from those being annexed. Other than you Steve, who from the BD has said anything to our residence at any of our meetings? We should be careful in running away from the name OTR. Main St wants to disassociate itself, Pendleton wants to disassociate itself, and now the Brewery Dist is doing the same thing (in my opinion). Pretty soon there will be no OTR left, just a bunch of carved out neighborhoods within the real neighborhood. I live on Mulberry in Over the Rhine, I don't live in the Brewery Dist. P.S. If I have seemed cranky in my past few post I appologize, I think it is the weather.

Max, I believe they begin peering in 3 days. This is a great design and Milton is very fortunate that the Fielers are building one for themeselves, they are a wonderful couple. On the steps, this is neither permanent, nor is it a foregone conclusion that it will even happen. That being said, Collins steps are a different issue and even Burke's arguments we feel do not apply nor has his arguments even been proven in this case and therefor only represent an argument. Cincinnati kid, I am not sure exactly where in Mt. Adams these steps are, can you give me a landmark or street that they intersect. On a development note, new drives have been cut into the north side of Goethe st for the two homes that face Dorsey (corner of Dorsey and Sycamore) Seitz and Goethe both I feel are the next two streets to see some major development.

Steve, I went on to the site to see what the current boundries defined by the dist are but something must be wrong with the link or my computer one. Can you give me the Eastern and Northern most boundry?

Very well said Riverviewer and understood. These are proposals at this point, only the cameras and the signs have been ordered so far. The Sherriffs as well have contacted several of the residents to insure us that they will step up patrols. It is not up to me as to whether these steps are closed or not. I still believe that a temporary closure is part of a larger plan inluding the cameras, signage, lighting, and brush and tree clearing that will all work in conjunction with one another to solve this problem. However it is ultimatly up to the residents as a whole, the police dept, and the city as to whether or not this will happen. Let me get away from the topic of stairs for a minute and get to the what I feel is the most important thing to come out of this. When a crime is committed in our sector, I want not just the residents feel safer, but for the ones who committed the act and others who may do so in the future that an immediate and overwhelming response will occur. One of the reasons that crime of opportunity like this happens is because of the belief that they can get away with it consequence free. The one who did the robbery was confident enough that he walked down Mulberry 24 hours later at the same time of day, wearing the same clothing. HE WAS CAUGHT. Out of all of this I would like to say the the police and sherriffs dept. have been such a tremendous help. Capt. Jones of Dist. 1 could not have acted any quicker or done things any better. We are all fortunate to have a system in place, put there by the OTR Chamber, that allows for this level of interaction and information sharing. If there is ever anyone who says that nothing ever comes out of safety sector meetings and they are a waiste of their time, let them know of what happened in this case.

Riverviewer, some of what I say is meant to be taken tongue in cheek but I guess on here it may not come across that way. We can leave the steps open and not consider a temporary shut down, I can live with that. I also do not want the feeling of big brother watching over me at all times, that is not why I moved here, cameras can be reconsidered. The feeling of living in a police state was not high on my priority list when searching for a new home either, CPOP can be eliminated. Literally having your neighbors turning you in for a crime sounds a bit Stalinist so Citizens on Patrol should be dissolved. Once again, I say this tongue in cheek however no matter what methods are proposed to eliminate a problem can and will be rebutted by someone. Steve brought up 13th St. and that solution (which was working) met opposition by a resident and it went away, now the problem is back. I was kinda serious when I said,"I was actually thinking of extending the 6' privacy fence across them but the details haven't been worked out yet" Now much of my response in the past couple of post was stemming from the statement that steps should be kept open "at all cost", I simply disagree because I do know a cost that we are not willing to pay. Also, I see the unfairness in the argument is the spin back to permanent vs temporary closure. My first concern is addressing a problem, and if everyone else in the sector is agreement then we can wait on asking for a closure. I would like for everyone to know that we were approached about closing down the Frintz St. Steps almost 3 years ago (about the same time that they were impassible due to a fallen tree). A group of neighbors, myself included decided to utilize other alternatives including clearing the overgrowth on both sides, planting and maintaining, and the removal of an entire house (with the help of the fire dept) on Peete. We have gone through extraordinary measures to keep open those stairs, Sharpe Alley, and made the Main St. Steps (the longest single set of stairs in the City) a more appealing place to walk. There is an initiative by the residents (one of whom was quoted in the story) to reclaim the steps leading from Mulberry to Jackson Hill Park and Pauline VanderHaar has asked that we look at clearing back the rest of Main all the way up the hillside by 3' on either side. Lets just say that Mulberry has done more than most to protect and beautify its steps. All this being said, we are in jeopardy of loosing a couple of people on the street. The reason for the meeting the other night was meant to be a powerful message to the residents that we are doing everything in our power, without exception, to address their safety concerns. Max, Quim, riverviewer and everyone else, your arguments do not fall on deaf ears, I understand your desire to keep open stairs and I am certainly not an advocate to close stairs because theoretically they may pose a problem, but this is a real, and current problem that we are dealing with.

We will have to agree to disagree on this. I am not ready to say that these stairs are more important than the safety of our residents, they are the ones who should be protected at all cost. If the stairs never reopen then I will be happy to take the blame, but if another person is mugged or worse on them because we did not act, that is something I am not willing to bear. I do agree with you that this got blown way out of proportion by the news story, but these are the cards we are dealt and we must deal with them. The problems at that location are real, the stories I have told you are true and the solutions are a matter of opinion and conjecture at this point. The important thing is that we have a problem and the community is working toward a solution.

These will be private cameras bought by the sector but placed on to adjacent buildings. We have one on 103 and several on 97 that are monitored by the owners (and by monitoring I mean if something happens we can pull tape.) The same will be true with 29. The camera will serve a double purpose, one it gives a record of a criminal activity and secondly it serves as a deterent so that perhaps the crime will not happen in the first place. We will not have staff watching a monitor 24/7. well for those people who want a 3rd set of steps over safety then I guess we have the place for them, bring them on, there are 2 condos for sale at 29 now.

I was actually thinking of extending the 6' privacy fence across them but the details haven't been worked out yet. If I can get some volunteers here to hang out on the steps day and night to patrol them then hey, Im all for it. I see one of the coordinators for Citizens on Patrol is reading this topic now-Steve can you get them signed up for patrol? Why be more up in arms about a set of steps being temporarly closed then the victimization of residence? Send some emails out to the residents saying that your desire to leave them open is greater than their right to live safely. I will give you the email addresses. Here is the reason we are faced with people not wanting to live on Mulberry Crime Wave Hits Home For Residents Of Tri-state Street Reported by: Jenell Walton Web produced by: Neil Relyea Photographed by: 9News First posted: 1/9/2007 8:33:17 PM Now I'm no Realtor, but which do you think perspective buyers will take most into consideration, steps or crime?

I understand that they don't want to be seen and that is why we are installing cameras. I understand that they want easy access in and out of an area and that is why we are taking that away from them. I understand that they want to intemidate the residents, this is why we are putting together a show of force that will make them think twice. What do we do for the residence who come to us with problems that are stemming from these steps in the meantime? How do we say that we are taking action to correct this problem and doing everything we can to protect you so that you do not choose to move? What do I tell Josh and Jim of 29, Chris who lives just a couple of doors down with his wife and 2 kids? If we have any means to disrupt the criminal activity and do not utilize everything in our arsenal, what do I tell them if anything else happens to them? That baby in the bathwater is the residence, not the steps. Those steps are useless if people feel it is unsafe to live on Mulberry because then it truly will only be the criminal element who is left using them.

Max, what about sharpe alley steps or Frintz St steps? You are correct though about the ease of getting to Findlay using these steps. I learned it first hand about a year and half ago. Breakins were happening through the back of 29 Mulberry, property was being destroyed by vandals and was in danger of being set fire (burning candles were everywhere in the lower unit) with 2 residence living upstairs. We caught these people in the act one day and these steps were their point of egress which led us on a foot chase along with what seemed to be half of district 1 into Findlay. Luckily we caught both of them but criminals also realize that these steps are an excellent method of escape. Once again, we are simply trying to disrupt and monitor hot spot areas. They hopefully will not be hotspot areas for long. We need lighting, we need cameras, we need to cut back the overgrowth on Peete, we need flashcams on Peete. All of these need to take place but in the meantime, we still have a resident of 29 that was held at gunpoint at the entrance of his home on whose only access is going down this dark set of stairs. His right to walk into his front door without having to worry about him or his girlfriend being attacked in some way supersedes our right to have multiple options to enter Findlay. I however am not the final say in this nor do I feel that we have thought of everything. The problem is that these stairs are proving to be a problem that is facilitating criminal activity and we want it stopped, give me other suggestions or alternatives.

29 Mulberry steps have been the site of 2 armed robberies and increased drug running between Rice and Vine as well as a staging area for car breakins. These steps past the entrance of the side of 29 provide access to no homes on Peete or Vine (19 Peete is a vacant property slated for demo) A temporary closure to disrupt known criminal activity is only one step in a more comprehensive plan to monitor, disrupt and finally end the problems that we are having on one of the most closed in drug cooridors to the west side of Mulberry.

I had the opportunity to speak to both last night and this was a knee jerk reaction to a situation before hearing what law enforcement had to say. Both understand that in the future there are better ways to handle things. The meeting last night took place at the OTR Chamber office on 14th Street. It was standing room only, the police had as many reps as we did residence. This was not your typical bitching session to the police but an information sharing event. Most people in OTR do not understand the layers of enforcement which include everything from Dist. 1 & Dist. 4 patrols, CPOP, Citizens on Patrol, Vortex, Sheriffs and Street Corner. And last night showed to the residence that there is a virtual army working nonstop to stop these crimes. Oct. showed a spike of 15 crimes on Mulberry, Nov showed 0. This is because on Oct. 31, a resident further down Mulberry toward Vine was arrested while breaking into a car (not on Mulberry) and from that day on, it stopped. CPOP is working on eliminating pay phones in the Mulberry/McMicken Sector that are being used by drug buyers to call into the dealers. Most all pay phones in the sector are illegal phones to begin with (no license) CPOP is working with Citizens on Patrol to identify the locations of these phones and Cincinnati Bell is cooperating (these are not Bell pay phones) Video surveillance is being placed on the the three southern steps on Mulberry (Sharpe Alley, Frintz, and 29 Mulberry Steps) as well as signage to help discourage drug running. Frintz is already monitored. We will request a temporary closure of the 29 steps leading to Vine. Additional lighting will be placed on the 29 Steps, and we will begin working with the Park Service to address lighting issues at the Jackson Hill Park side of Mulberry. Additional lighting as well as a "flash cam" is being requested for the Western side of Peete st. CPOP is forming to address the issue of E. Clifton from Lang to Frintz and we are doing this with the help of OTR Housing Network as well as other property owners in the area. Network is addressing putting additional lighting on their properties and we are working with this organization more than ever to clean up E. Clifton, McMicken and Peete. Is this the picture of a neighborhood under siege by criminals? Does this seem like an area that is going down hill and spinning out of control? This is only the beginning of a permanent, positive change in our sector.

well projects and construction is very appropriate, because that is what stories like this will affect the most. Everyday 3 Comey agents push this street and the sector hard, not because it is easy or we make a whole hell of a lot of money off a $50,000 shell, but because we are married to it, we live, work and breathe Mulberry and OTR and it only takes one small story like this to turn the clock back