My one complaint about that article is the pictures included. Why wouldn't they show more of 3CDC's finished work? The article does a good job of showing off the neighborhood and its progress, but the pictures really don't. Missed opportunity.

 

I thought the slideshow was very poignant.  They gave the concept of transformation tangible evidence by showing no loiterers.  They showed middle-aged white people in OTR that weren't passing through for Opening Day's Parade.  They showed blue-collar white guys being put to work by OTR's renaissance.  The pictures displayed rehabilitation, cleanliness and what downtown streets could look like if there was more investment.  The slideshow said a lot to their metropolitan readership and individuals on the fence about what's really happening in OTR.  I took a lot from those 8 or 9 photos.  That was more impressive than the article to me.

^I guess, but to me the photos made OTR look boring.

OTR is a real neighborhood that offers residents just about all and everything the need, great renovated housing options, variety of eating and dining, a blend of establishments, and the same for unique shopping options. A grocery store would be great. Washington Park is going to great when it is completed.

 

I still feel bad for the Entrepreneurs who poured in their own money and sweat to revitalize Main St back in the 90's., then only to see their investments dwindle to nothing because of the faux riots.

^ also because there was little residential investment originally.

There were a lot of apartments renovated on Main, Clay, and side streets, and a lot of the Prospect Hill stuff happened at that time.  Few if any were condos.  The volume of nightlife on Main in the 90's was at least double what is currenly on Main and Vine combined. 

^ ^ and 3CDC did not exist yet

There was talk of forming something like 3CDC in the late 90s, in order to privatize Fountain Square in order to keep the Ku Klux Klan from doing their annual Christmas display.  If it had formed a few years earlier, the sort-of riot hadn't happened, and Metro Moves had passed, Cincinnati would be 10-15 years ahead of where it is now.  Maybe 20 years ahead. 

There were a lot of apartments renovated on Main, Clay, and side streets, and a lot of the Prospect Hill stuff happened at that time.  Few if any were condos.  The volume of nightlife on Main in the 90's was at least double what is currenly on Main and Vine combined. 

 

Glad to see Neons make a comeback, with new ownership being OTR residents? Besides the 90's nightlife there was alot of dot.com types leasing office space around there also. When Neons was packed back in the day is was a suasage fest, 4 guys for every girl. They were printing money on weekends.

There was talk of forming something like 3CDC in the late 90s, in order to privatize Fountain Square in order to keep the Ku Klux Klan from doing their annual Christmas display.  If it had formed a few years earlier, the sort-of riot hadn't happened, and Metro Moves had passed, Cincinnati would be 10-15 years ahead of where it is now.  Maybe 20 years ahead.

 

Maybe the shock of the 'great recession' has had a silver lining for cincinnati by forcing economic development efforts to up their game. Even though much could have happened earlier, much might not have happened yet without the renewed urgency that the global economic shock has given to everyone.

There were a lot of apartments renovated on Main, Clay, and side streets, and a lot of the Prospect Hill stuff happened at that time.  Few if any were condos.  The volume of nightlife on Main in the 90's was at least double what is currenly on Main and Vine combined.

 

ya-  Well today there are even more market rate places on main. Prospect hill is still there, now there's stuff on Vine, Race, Clay, Pleasant, Republic, 12th, 13th, 14th and soon 15th.  That residential investment is way more important than the night life investment for long term strength of a community.

Without the riots and the bust, this would have happened five years ago or more and we wouldn't have lost as many buildings along the way.

All this "faux riot" talk is off-base.  Cincinnati's unrest and the aftermath that seen the city amidst a devastating economic boycott and blasted by the country's most prominent social activists made international headlines.  No matter what country I'm in, people know of the 2001 Cincinnati riots and the prejudice that created such a disaster.  The murder rate went up 70% immediately.  I suppose an embarrasment of larger proportions would have been more suitable for the title 'riot'.  I'm sorry to say, Cincinnati's unrest was more than dubious enough to be declared a riot.  The daily violence downtown from 2002-2007 was damn near a riot on its own.

Much of the private money that has gone into development in downtown, otr and the uptown neighborhoods wouldn't have if alternative suburban investment opportunities hadn't dried up. We have to remember that cincinnati is part of a metro economy. Even if cincinnati had gotten its act together earlier, it doesn't mean that banks and developers would have been interested. The micro and the macro are both at work all the time. Cincinnati has clearly wasted precious time, but it matters less than it may appear considering that many of the macro financial, energy, tech, and demographic trends that have started to benefit cincinnati and other cities have only emerged since the mid-2000s. Metro moves, new zoning and a the establishment of 3cdc and a port authority earlier would have helped, they are only some pieces of the puzzle.

City Blights, by no objective or subjective measure did the 2001 Cincinnati riots measure up to, say, the Rodney King riot in Los Angeles.  The Cincinnati event did not become something symbolic of a national problem like what happened in LA ten years earlier. 

 

What's so amazing to me is how all these people wanted the riot to be a bigger deal than it was.  It reminds me of how when I was a kid, the neighborhood boys would brag about whose uncle was injured the worst in Vietnam. 

 

 

I should add that the riot reputation of Cincinnati is built on cincinnati as an obscure easy target. People pick on cincinnati because they think no one will defend such an 'obivously sad nowhere place'. There is a bit of the bully in national and international media selecting cincinnati's 'riot' while largely ingoring similar occurences in philly, L.A. or New Orleans, not to mention London, that cause just as much damage and disorder.

 

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-12/justice/philadelphia.flash.mob.violence_1_teen-mob-community-leaders-mayor-michael-nutter?_s=PM:CRIME.

 

Where is the outrage? Where is the demonization? It is held in check because medialites think that philly is important enough that it doesn't make an easy target for sensationalist stories from lazy reporters. It isn't easily exploitable in their game of finding places to characterize as sad and provisional thereby making themselves feel superior, worldly, and sophisticated. Don't buy their narratives. Come to understand cincinnnati's past and present for yourself and don't buy their sensationalist 'off-the-shelf' narratives.

I agree.  The LA riot was an event painted as one to be shared by the entire country, as was the OJ Simpson trial, as were innumerable bizarre things that have occured on Los Angeles.  Meanwhile, when bad news happens in a lesser-known place, it becomes known for that bad news. 

 

I wasn't living in town when the riot happened and didn't have a TV, so it's like it didn't happen.  A friend of mine was volunteering at a social services place the first day of the riot, and didn't know there was a riot until he went home and turned on the television.  If you're 5 blocks from a so-called riot and don't know about it until you go home, it wasn't much of a riot.  Back in 1968 the Ohio national guard was called in and was driving military equipment around Avondale. 2001 got nowhere close to that point, and incredibly, OTR lost zero buildings, whereas Avondale did 30 years prior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much thanks to Brad and others for the comments in the letter. Joe Lippert posts occasionally on the Enquirer's page and there was some doubt if this person is real, but he unfortunately is.

 

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/letters/2012/04/18/city-isnt-safe/

City isn’t safe

04/18/12 at 11:58am by Letters Editor

 

The recent story about Over-the-Rhine showcases the Cincinnati Enquirer’s disturbing trend of going further and further to the extreme left (“Over-the-Rhine’s transformation far from over” April 14). OTR is seeing more violent crime and less population. Downtown is losing population at a rapid rate.

 

Their left-leaning bias is clouding the facts. Cincinnati is not safe nor has it ever been safe.

 

Joe Lippert

Hillsboro

The 'riot' was very useful for many seeking to further their agendas, including the 'poverty industry', politicians who trade in racial and ethnic identities, the many white middle class former cincinnatians who still welcome any misfortune that befalls the city of cincinnati in retribution for 'driving them out', and the outside media interests who saw an easy 'provincial' target that they were sure wouldn't dare push back against their characterizations of cincinnati as a failed ruined city on its way to being the next detroit. It's a sort of "violence porn" meant to make people feel people feel better by telling them that however bad their lives and area, there is somewhere worse.

 

All these characterizations of Cincinnati were wrong and their self-serving pilling on about the 'riot' has been shown to be what it really was. We have to be a part of establishing our own historical understandings of Cincinnati and not swallowing the agenda-driving descriptions of cincinnati by those looking for easy journalistic or political targets. I've witnessed happenings equal to Cincinnati's 'riot' on every visit I've ever made to downtown Philly or Baltimore. I once witnesses about thirty teenagers literally roll an empty cop car on its roof and them throw rocks and bricks from collapsing row houses at the cops attempting to stop them. I was simply exploring areas near john-hopkins after an academic conference. The local baltimore paper barely even reported it. The media apparently fears baltimore every bit as much as the cops fear the poor youth of inner-city baltimore. But, how can we make the media 'fear' Cincinnati? That seems to be the only thing that works.

I blame the Enquirer.  I'm sure they get uneducated letters everyday and its up to them to weed out the ridiculous ones.

 

The reason they put these letters up is to garner hits from outrage. They are desperate for revenue

 

24 comments on that letter and probably an ungodly amount of hits.  We are also going to see response LTE for Joe's idiocrisy

The 2001 Cincinnati riots led to more change in Cincinnati than has been seen in over 50 years.  That qualifies as a riot, a stimulator of change, an instrument of frustration.  Wondering why it doesn't compare to LA's riots is not comprehending the events involved in the discussion.  If not for the riot, Vine still may be a jungle south of Liberty.  It made OTR so bad that someone had to do something, finally.  That included creating a private-interest-publicly-funded triangle like 3CDC to bail out the neighborhood from the wrecking ball that awaited it due to plummeting property values catalyzed by violence that spiked in the early 2000s stemming from the riots.

^ BTW, those comments are pouring in right now.  Happily to say, though, in this case almost all of them are positive and supportive of OTR and downtown.  (can't claim that about those responses pouring in about "Bones"-- but then, that's another issue entirely...)

In one of this guys' other comments, he describes Cincinnati as "Little Moscow" and "Little Detroit" and says that there is no one in the city but "Marxists and thugs."

 

This is not a person who would recognize a cogent thought if it were to hit him in the face.

 

Also, both downtown and at least certain parts of OTR have gained population since 2000, according to the US Census Bureau. The CBD in particular has substantially gained population since then. You can see a visualization of the data, by census tract, by zooming in here: http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map

 

Also, I don't think that that accounts for the opening of the Banks, and many of 3CDC's projects.

 

I'm not really sure why I wasted a few minutes of my life typing a response to someone who thinks that "the existence of a municipal government" is synonymous with "the existence of a Stalinist dictatorship."

Damnit I could not resist reading the letter or the comments so I just fed the monster.  Glad to see the majority saw the letter for what it was, bs.  There was one commenter, Dawn H., from UC who clearly holds some disdain for the city.  I was going to reply to her thinking she was a student, but then thought maybe she is older and out of touch.  I checked her profile and she is over 70 and has about 6 friends......

 

Regardless of the impetus or one's view of how we got here, I must say this is the most confident I have felt about OTR in my lifetime.  This revitalization really seems to have staying power, and the streetcar would literally blow the lid off the neighborhood.  I heard Thom Brennaman (announcing the Reds) on the TV once again pumping up the restaurants and activity a few days ago - he said if you want to eat there to be sure to arrive early or you would be waiting at least 2 hours to get into any establishment like he did.  That is about as tangible an example of the progress I can think of, not to mention how much credibility it is given by less "adventurous" Cincinnatians based on who said it and where.

Regardless of the impetus or one's view of how we got here, I must say this is the most confident I have felt about OTR in my lifetime.  This revitalization really seems to have staying power, and the streetcar would literally blow the lid off the neighborhood.  I heard Thom Brennaman (announcing the Reds) on the TV once again pumping up the restaurants and activity a few days ago - he said if you want to eat there to be sure to arrive early or you would be waiting at least 2 hours to get into any establishment like he did.  That is about as tangible an example of the progress I can think of, not to mention how much credibility it is given by less "adventurous" Cincinnatians based on who said it and where.

 

Agreed.

Most of the loud mouthed naysayers I run into seem to fall into the Tom Lukens category.  It's people who grew up in this city, and then found themselves at the helm of making the future of Cincinnati during those critical post-war years when so much of our city was bulldozed.  I have come to feel that these people have heartburn over what transpired.  It's like if they continue to degrade the status or downplay the importance of our town, it serves to reinforce and legitimize their past actions.  Any efforts to save whats left is a slap in the face to them.  It's like someone is trying to recreate and hold onto what they fought to destroy...and they just can't stand it!

Very well put, theCOV. It is a generational thing. I don't just think they are resentful, I think they are regretful that the future they imagined that hasn't turned out as they've expected. Part of their reaction is defending against the implication that they were wrong in doing or supporting what they did. They're defending their reputations and choices as much as any self-interest. If we can provide them ways to support the new economics and politics of cities without feeling they have to renounce their entire lives, we could neutralize their attacks to some degree. On the other hand, maybe they'll just have to count on the fact that they'll die eventually.

The 2001 Cincinnati riots led to more change in Cincinnati than has been seen in over 50 years.  That qualifies as a riot, a stimulator of change, an instrument of frustration.  Wondering why it doesn't compare to LA's riots is not comprehending the events involved in the discussion.  If not for the riot, Vine still may be a jungle south of Liberty.  It made OTR so bad that someone had to do something, finally.  That included creating a private-interest-publicly-funded triangle like 3CDC to bail out the neighborhood from the wrecking ball that awaited it due to plummeting property values catalyzed by violence that spiked in the early 2000s stemming from the riots.

 

Not to mention that it seems to have sparked transformational change at the CPD and how they respond to crises.

:-o http://overtherhine.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/bill-cunningham-praises-progress-in-otr/  :-o !

It seems like someone behind-the-scenes pulled the plug on the fear campaign. Maybe some of the local corporate bigshots decided it was not in their interest to have 3CDC and the city in general persistently undermined by the local media. If the city declines, their money and power wane. Why would they let that happen just so the Enquirer can maybe get a few more page views?

 

I know OTR's progress has been very rapid, but the media has really gone from one extreme to the other overnight.

It certainly is interesting. I would like to believe that it's just because people are actually seeing how great the progress is being made in OTR and downtown, but most of me feels that they're just jumping on the bandwagon so to speak. It's the 'cool' thing to be a part of the renaissance of Cincinnati these days and it seems the media sees the financial benefit to being on the positive side of the stories. Which, regardless of motives, is good for the city. Whatever the case, having Bill Cunningham speaking so positively of Cincinnati and OTR specifically is certainly going to have an impact on some portion of the population which would never even think of walking up Vine Street.

:-o http://overtherhine.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/bill-cunningham-praises-progress-in-otr/  :-o !

 

Bill Cunningham looks like a douchebag.

"...media sees the financial benefit to being on the positive side of the stories..."

 

I've been saying this for ages!

 

But then again, I can't complain. The suburban dollar is just as good in OTR and DT as mine and I'm happy to have it here.

OTR has officially jumped the shark! Looks like its time to start hanging out in South Fairmont!  :evil:

:-o http://overtherhine.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/bill-cunningham-praises-progress-in-otr/  :-o !

 

Bill Cunningham looks like a douchebag.

 

He looks goofy, which fits into his persona well.  I've met him in person a few times and it's pretty clear he plays a character on the radio, often overreacting and exaggerating for comedic effect.

 

On a related note, people who look like the stereotypical "douchebags" are the type of people I've seen starting to hang out in OTR the past several months.  Go to one of the bars on a Friday around midnight and you'll see what I mean.

>Looks like its time to start hanging out in South Fairmont!

 

You stole that line from me.  A couple years ago I called out Camp Washington/Brighton as the next Northside, then South Fairmount after that.  Now, I actually do frequent The SF from time to time, to get something out of my locker at that self storage place on the hill. 

A long series of dominoes will fall on the road from OTR's perception as a hellish slum to the day it is perceived as a completely vibrant neighborhood.

 

Cunningham's listeners won't analyze his motives and neither will I. I'm just glad he said it.

 

I cannot wait for the day he eats his words on the streetcar system.

^ I completely agree. My reading of the transcript shows a guy who sees what is happening in the Gateway maybe for the first time or maybe just through a new lense and is truly impressed. Anyone with the tired old perceptions has to be blown away when they come upon those couple blocks on a busy night. Just as palpable, obvious success breeds positivity when it comes to OTR, the same will be true for the streetcar. The headline can't be about the empty streetcar boondoggle if the cars are well-utilized and ridership enthusiasm matches the infectious quality of the Gateway and other recent successes in the Downtown area.

Cunningham has been crusading against urban Cincinnati for a long time.  The anti-streetcar push may have been his peak of broadcast ignorance, and now the embarrassment of defeat both at the polls and on the ground in OTR has forced him to hop on the new bandwagon.  The one that says the City of Cincinnati is exciting again.  It was already beautiful and rich with culture.  Bravo to all the small-business owners downtown that fed Willie his words without a bib or a bottle.

I don't think he was speaking from a position of ignorance at all in the past, it was just the tack that he took.  And I do think he is more than perfectly willing to say whatever someone pays him say, given his various paid speaking engagements and his willingness to exploit poor people with his television show. 

I posted this in the Banks thread, but I also think it's appropriate to mention it here as well...

 

MLH and the Banks is prominently featured in Cleveland's Plain Dealer Sunday travel section today. Great writeup on Cincinnati and our renaissance. The cover photo in the print edition is from the terrace at MLH. Also lots of praise of OTR, our parks, and the arts here. It almost seems as if this Cleveland-based writer is a little jealous (especially her Fountain Square comment) ;-)

 

http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2012/06/two_days_in_the_city_cincinnat.html

 

I love that the second comment in that article is someone from Cleveland getting all upset that the author pointed out there are more higher-rated restaurants in Cincy than in Cleveland.  It reads like a bad UO thread. 

The Cincinnati-Cleveland rivalry is immaturity at its worst.  In the writer's article, she frames the Reds game by saying, "we watched the Reds get beat up by the Astros".  The Reds are a first-place team, but you wouldn't know it by reading that sentence.  I certainly noticed a little tongue in-cheek throughout the article, and it isn't the first article by the Plain Dealer to praise Cincinnati and throw soft jabs at it simultaneously.  Cleveland writers can't help themselves I suppose.  Not a big deal, but always interesting (frustrating) to see how parochial Ohioans can be.

Another one, this time from the New York Times. It mostly focuses on The Banks but does mention Over-the-Rhine, the casino, and the streetcar.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/realestate/commercial/cincinnati-comes-back-to-its-ohio-river-shoreline.html?_r=2

 

 

It's pretty incredible. We're in the middle of a Downtown Cincinnati love fest. Within the span of a few weeks, we have had massively positive coverage from WCPO, WLWT, Bill Cunningham (WLW), Cleveland Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com, and the New York Times.

^Isn't the NYT usually positive about Porktown?

I get why some people constantly use city population, as it's the easiest stat to type into Google and get, but I didn't read that article much past the point where the NYT referred to Louisville as Cincinnati's bigger neighbor.

He did mention that Cincy is 2MM+ so it would seem that maybe it was done to highlight the urban flight that has happened in Cincy juxtaposed to the rebirth of the core.  ???

 

At the same time Ville's pop is spurious because it includes all of JeffersonCo as "city pop".

^ Yeah, exactly...with unigov, Cincy would be bigger than not only Louisville but also Cbus. Also, Pittsburgh, while it's a bigger metro for sure, is about the same size by population. Only officially bigger since the 2010 census, I believe.

Mention of something being third largest without giving the actual stat insinuates that 1 and 2 are significantly larger, when it's quite possible for 1, 2, and 3 to be separated by less than 10%. 

who cares.  the City wouldn't have the streetcar if cincy had unigov.  streetcar > meaningless statistic

Correct.  Mayor Coleman dropped the Columbus streetcar proposal in 2008 because of pressure from suburban areas of Columbus that are actually Columbus.