Golf Manor, should it be its own jurisdiction?

 

It has a population of 3682, down 8% since 2000

It has a budget deficit of nearly half a million dollars of a total budget under two million dollars.

It does not have its own water works.

It does not have its own sewer system.

It does not have its own school district.

It does not contribute any money directly to Sorta.

It does not have a hospital.

It has nine police officers total and does not have its own police dispatcher.

It is under one square mile in size.

I do not believe it has a library.

It contracts out its garbage removal to Rumpke.

 

 

Why is this an independent jurisdiction?  I would invite someone to please come to the defense of Golf Manor and explain why it shouldn't just merge into the City of Cincinnati.

 

With the exception of, "respecting home rule is great" is there something I'm missing?

I lived in P.Ridge, bordering Gold Manor and I never understood why it was separate from Cincinnati. Honestly though, the neighborhood is nothing special at all. It's mostly a bunch of small brick ranch style houses that all look identicle. The demographics are pretty interesting though, it use to be a Jewish community, now there's a lot of blacks and jews.

Silverton is in the same boat, but i can see them merging with Deer park in the future. I doubt Amberley would merge with Deer Park EVER.

Amberly Village merging with Deer Park would be economic suicide.

Yeah, Silverton and Deer Park already have a joint Fire department.  But Silverton is Cincy schools and Deer Park is Deer Park schools. 

Economic Suicide for whom

Amberly Village merging with Deer Park would be economic suicide.

 

For Amberly or Deer Park?  All they would have to do is come up with a combined name that is different from both, that way people could still say they lived in Amberly.  Also Amberly is Cincy schools, deer park might be a better district, but lets face it, everyone in Amberly send their kids to private schools.  There is also a large portion of sycamore township that is adjacent to both, a neighborhood called "Dillonvale" they might be able to annex it.

Does Amberly even have an economy?  I can't think of one business actually located in Amberly.  I think it is just million dollar houses and synagogues.

For Amberly Village obviously. No one in Amberly would EVER send their kid to Woodward (which I believe is the h.s. in that district).

Does Amberly even have an economy?  I can't think of one business actually located in Amberly.  I think it is just million dollar houses and synagogues.

 

They don't need businesses there.

I think it's entirely residential and well preserved.

French park is nice.

French park is nice.

 

French park is actually park of the cincinnati parks board, it's not a amberly village park.  Very strange but true. 

 

Also if you don't have any buisness, you really shouldn't be an independent jurisdiction.

Gibson Greeting cards is in Amberley or was there. I'm not sure if it's still in business.

Personally I think it's better that people in Amberly village do their business in Cincinnati rather than in their own community and it's better that people in Cincinnati spend their money in Cincinnati rather than going to Amberly Village to do it. That puts Cincinnati at an advantage. Unfortunately everyone still goes to the suburbs to spend money regardless.

Does Golf Manor have an elementry school? I know Silverton does, but it dosen't have a high school.

They have Losantiville elementary, I'm pretty sure it's Cincinnati public though.

I don't think so, I think it is in Pleasant Ridge. 

Losantaville School Closed, or at least thats what the cps school list seems to suggest. http://www.cps-k12.org/schools/Schools.asp

I don't know, I haven't lived around there in years :[

Golf Manor, should it be its own jurisdiction?

 

Why is this an independent jurisdiction?  I would invite someone to please come to the defense of Golf Manor and explain why it shouldn't just merge into the City of Cincinnati.

 

With the exception of, "respecting home rule is great" is there something I'm missing?

 

As I Golf Manor native, I found the mix of local/regional services to be quite effective.  Where there were economies of scale (school system, water and sewer, etc.) go with the larger system; where local control is more responsive (parks and police) do it yourself.  There was even a deal with Cincinnati to consider us city residents for UC when it was a municipal university; quite a savings over other suburbs.

 

Bit of a hassle as a teenager when all the cops knew who you were though!

That's a good point, but without a larger jurisdiction, those economies of scale would not exist.  If every jurisdiction tried that approach, nothing would ever get created.  Imagine Cincinnati as 100 totally independent golf manor sized jurisdictions.  The city wouldn't have any (or at least fewer) of its great institutions and certainly no professional sports teams.  Cincinnati's neighborhoods are even larger (52 averaging 6000 people each).  It just seems like (and I'm sorry I'm picking on Golf Manor, Addyston, North College Hill,  Deer Park, Silverton all fall into this category).  These "first ring suburbs" are just mooching off of the city.  They already went through their period of explosive growth.  Now they are beginning to realize they are essentially untenable in the long run as independent cities.  I think part of the reason the first suburbs coalition was set up was because of the realization.  Merging with the city seems like the best choice for these places.

 

Also I don't know about Golf Manor's park system (do they have any?) but I really doubt their local control is more effective at creating great parks than cincinnati's nationally recognized park board.  As for police you might have a point, but having so few officers means you have no dispatcher, almost no backup, no SWAT and if you need these things you have to mooch off of other, larger jurisdicitons.

Honestly nothing goes on in Golf Manor or even Silverton, Deer Park Crime wise. The county helps them out a bit. Everyone they arrest is sent to the Justic Center in Cincinnati. Kind of ironic.

Golf Manor has crime. Well..its probably about like Pleasant Ridge. Silverton and Deer Park are pretty crimeless...especially Deer Park.

Deer Park has a huge number of DUIs every day that go unnoticed.  With Chicken on the Run, The H, Play by Play, Silverton Cafe, Johnny Nuckles Blue whatever tavern, Deer Park Inn and all the other dive bars right there, everyone drives drunk.  The cops turn a blind eye.  Has anyone ever seen a cop on Ohio ave after midnight?  Its not crimeless, it is just not reported.

 

By the way, there are DUIs (actually OVIs now under the Ohio Revised Code) that occur in every jurisidiction that go unnoticed as well.  The point is that nowhere is crimeless.