"I told (Janke) I thought Cincinnati police were outgunned down here and having (deputies) come in could only help. He said, 'They're going to screw it up,'" he said.

 

Er..."they're going to screw it up."  Uh, what, exactly, would it be that they're going to screw up?  Man, I could throw out a host of sarcastic comments here, but I'm sure that's utterly unnecessary...

This article confirms my worst suspicions about the leadership of the Cincinnati Police.  After 3 murders, on one block, in one week, and after Leis jumping into the fray, the Cincinnati Police finally decided to actively patrol the area.  It is amazing how peaceful Race Street at 14th has been the past two days.  After 5 years of neglect and growing violence, they see now that they better get back to work, or someone else may be hired to do it for them.

Sorry, this is copied from the other post about this story

 

Well not exactly.  John is a client of mine and a friend of mine.  I regret what happened between he and Janke.  Janke was out of line in my opinion for attacking John when John really didn't make any derogatory comment about the police dept in that article.

I have been named as one of the 3 heads of this citizens on Patrol along with Cheryl Curtis and a player to be named later.  The safety of our community is the first and formost concern of ours.  It is regretable that this incident happend however the attempted dismantling of COP is not the answer, nor is a delay even an option.

John helped recruit several volunteers from the Brewery Dist., (not 34 but a significant number of people were contacted by John((34 is the total signed up)))  6 came from my sector of Mulberry Mckmicken and the rest from the other sectors.  We filled an entire class, we exceeded the 25 necessary to form our own seperate class.  COP will go forward, we will protect our neighborhood, we will do our part.  I hope John can see past the missteps of one person and look toward the greater good of our community.

I know this is a sensitive issue, but I was talking to someone who works for the Hamilton County Sherrif's Dept last night who said he and a number of other deputies seriously doubt that they ever end up patrolling OTR.  He said there are just too many unresolved operational issues of how it would actually work and a lot of the deputies have no desire to work OTR; some would rather leave the department than do so.   

 

Now I realize that this is one person's view of things and I could not tell you with certainty what my company is always planning to do next because I don't make those decisions, but it made me think about this proposal a little more.  Simon Leis never misses an opportunity to make the CPD look bad.  Even on little things like when COPS wanted to film with the CPD and council shot it down.  The media jumped on this as being ridiculous and who did the COPS producers get the first phone call from...Simon Leis.  Sure you can ride with the Sheriff's's Dept!  The Hamilton County Sherrif, unlike the Chief of Police, is an elected official which means public opinion is vastly more important to him than Tom Streicher.  This proposal has generated a ton of favorable media coverage and is extremely popular with voters who are fed up with crime in the city.  Correctly or incorrectly, who looks like the good guy and who looks like the bad guy in all of this?  Whether the Hamilton Co Sheriff's Dept ever steps foot in OTR or not, Simon Leis (and the dept) look like the white knights riding in to save the city and they were not the ones who were going to let police dept turf wars or government bureaucracy stand in the way.  If they have been going down this path knowing that eventually the City will find a way to block them from patrolling within city limits then how much goodwill and good press did the Sherriff's Dept just get for free without actually doing anything? 

 

I really hope they do patrol down there.  The citizens of OTR and everywhere in Cincinnati need our core to be cleaned up.  Please understand I am not saying that this is necessarily the case, but the conversation I had last night just made me question motives a little more and with the local politics in this area I am now sceptical of everything.

I completely understand what you're saying about the politics.  There are very valid reasons for the CPD to be incensed at grandstanding by the Sherrif's department.  But, that being said, I couldn't give two shits less about who in the CPD is annoyed at whom - I want the crime to stop.  I'll be the first to side with the police in an incident, to support big raises for them, to get them the equipment they need to stay safe and fight crime effectively, to support increasing their ranks to cover problem areas better, and to be polite and respectful in any interaction I have with them.  But, that being said, they have GOT to make fighting crime their #1 priority.  And if efforts to fight crime are weakened in the slightest by political considerations, turf wars, PR stunts, work slowdowns - then I absolutely condemn them for it.

I agree with you 100%.  I do not care who does the policing...I just want to see it being done.  I didn't intend that to be pro-CPD as much as I meant it left me wondering if the Sheriff is soaking up the press while waiting to let the city pull the plug on this somehow. 

This article confirms my worst suspicions about the leadership of the Cincinnati Police.  After 3 murders, on one block, in one week, and after Leis jumping into the fray, the Cincinnati Police finally decided to actively patrol the area.  It is amazing how peaceful Race Street at 14th has been the past two days.  After 5 years of neglect and growing violence, they see now that they better get back to work, or someone else may be hired to do it for them.

 

So, the Cincinnati police let OTR become an "open city" for bad guys becuase of the riot?  That sounds like what you are saying.

 

 

 

 

There was a pretty well publicized work slowdown after the riots.  Arrests dropped, proactive policing was non-existent, and yeah, to some degree, they let OTR become an "open city"...I don't know the details like I'm sure other forumers do, but I certainly heard about it a number of times.

I know John personally and think he is one of the great pioneers along the same lines as jim tarbell. I hope that janke gets fired for dissing john. What has janke done for the neighborhood? NADA I don't care if securitas patrols OTR. We need lots of cops and the CPD hasn't been doing there job in OTR till 2 days ago. Bring in the sheriff we need to get these thugs off the streets! I love OTR lets git-r dun! :-P

As someone who knows John as well, and I can only commend him on all the work he has done/initiated in OTR.  I just can't believe that someone from the CPD leadership would sink to this level.

 

None the less, I agree with Michael that the COP group must proceed.  As a resident and business owner myself, I have signed up and am looking forward to the classes next week.

 

i have never heard anyone badmouth the work that CPD is doing, but I have also heard no one resist adding more police down here, whether it is CPD or HCSO.  As John said, I can look out my window and see drug dealing and prostitution going on with no repercussions.  Whether that is due to lack of CPD effort or lack of numbers, to a certain point I don't care.  Whatever we need to do to regain control of this neighborhood is worth it.

I can see Janke's point of view.  He and his fellow District 1 officers are doing their best with the resources the department has given them (if you disagree, schedule a police ride along).  But he should have swallowed his pride instead of confronting a neighborhood activist.  He could have applied some internal pressure on CPD to increase patrols.

My fear is that we lose site of who the real enemy is, the criminal.

 

As I read the story the headline was "OTR organizer insulted" and it isn't until you read the very last line that states "A police sweep through Over-the-Rhine continued Wednesday. More than 115 people have been arrested since Monday, Capt. Kenneth Jones said".

had this argument not happened between two people then the latter would have been the headline.

 

CPD is not the enemy here, the criminal is.  Just two weeks ago I sat in a meeting that was not called by the community, but by Streicher himself.  All of those sweeps you are reading about are part of a CRT is based on information provided by the community in that meeting.  I and every member of OTR meet every month with Captain Jones and what is now a team of officers assigned to regions within OTR.  I and many others throughout our community have our own surveillance person who is payed by the chamber that CPD gives officers to.  Citizens on Patrol in and of itself is a collaboration between the community and CPD.

 

One of the ongoing arguments is that the only reason that the CPD is doing what they are doing with the CRTs is in response to the Sherriffs, well I don't think so.  Our meeting with Streicher occured before the Sherriffs recieved their nod for financing by the county.  And secondly, this is just off the city site concerning CRTs for last year "Community Response Teams Make 188 Arrests. The Cincinnati Police Department conducted its ninth Community Response Team operation of the year " There was no talk when these CRTs were going on about motive and now we think that the sweeps that are occuring this week is simply in response to the sherriffs.  This just isn't the case.  I keep hearing "well why had they not done this before?" Well they have, read the link http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/police/pages/-11458-/

 

I was talking to someone who works for the Hamilton County Sherrif's Dept last night who said he and a number of other deputies seriously doubt that they ever end up patrolling OTR.  He said there are just too many unresolved operational issues of how it would actually work and a lot of the deputies have no desire to work OTR; some would rather leave the department than do so. 

 

If we decide to postpone Citizens on Patrol so that we wait for the sherriffs and let them form one, what happens if they don't come?  What are we left with?  I will not gamble with the safety of our community.  I hope that we all just keep in mind that everyone is working very hard and in many cases risking their own personal safety for the betterment of the community.  There is strength in numbers and the more people that we can get to participate in this patrol the better.  The efforts to try and stop this patrol will fail because it only takes 3 people to do a patrol, and if three people is all we have to walk the streets of OTR then that is what will happen.  We will move forward, Citizens on Patrol will happen.

 

f we decide to postpone Citizens on Patrol so that we wait for the sherriffs and let them form one, what happens if they don't come?  What are we left with?  I will not gamble with the safety of our community.  I hope that we all just keep in mind that everyone is working very hard and in many cases risking their own personal safety for the betterment of the community.  There is strength in numbers and the more people that we can get to participate in this patrol the better.  The efforts to try and stop this patrol will fail because it only takes 3 people to do a patrol, and if three people is all we have to walk the streets of OTR then that is what will happen.  We will move forward, Citizens on Patrol will happen.

 

Michael, just go for it and dont wait for this turf war to resolve..... I think these citizens patrols sound like a neat idea thats certainly worth a try...anything to save OTR.  Though I don't live there I appreciate that neighborhood and just want to cheerlead you all a bit from up here in Dayton.

 

 

 

 

^ I second that Micheal.  I have been in and thru OTR several times this week (Alabama Fish Bar, Schwartz's Point "jazz nite", a walk up Vine and Main St. twice (Shadeau Breads - yumm) .  I'm not sure I felt any "safer" but the community is certainly buzzing and almost always line of sight with CPD, bikes & cruisers.  Any idea how long this effort is scheduled to last? I understand it's all overtime. 

If you want to reduce jail overcrowding, quit sending people to jail for petty drug offenses, quit passing zero tolerance legislation that paints "repeat offenders" as mass murderers, quit sending first time DUI offenders to jail for 3 days.  In short all the drug/alcohol/vice sentencing needs to be reoriented towards PRODUCTIVE rehabilitation, not cold jail time.  I have been in court-ordered rehab in Hamilton County, it is a complete joke.  They insult you, treat you like a baby, feed you the jail's food and Tang, only have one cigarette lighter on the whole premesis, make you watch stupid outdated instructional movies, and the small-group sessions are just a set-up.  They WANT you to mess up, to say key words, so that they can advise you to go to more of their bullshit rehab.  That almost happened to me when I called the police "corrupt"; the guy said threatening a police officer is a felony and that if I said anything like that again he would report me and I'd end up in jail for a few months.  Just for something I said in a supposed rehab discussion. 

 

The thugs in OTR need serious attitude adjustments, they need job skills, they need to be able to read and write and hold a pencil in their hands, I don't know how that is possible by incarcerating them in the company or others like them.  But putting them back on the streets while college kids with 4th degree misdemeanor convictions clog up the Justice Center is just foolish.  I agree that the riot over Thomas's death was an overreaction, but the fact is Cincinnati police officers are in on the local drug trade just like cops are virtually everywhere.  You need outside people like the County guys coming in the clean up OTR because the Cincinnati Cops are all in with those dudes.       

   

^Hah that's not surprising the police are in on it. I know someone that worked at an illegal strip club in Cincinnati, they rent the commercial space from someone working at CPD

^Yeah one of my friends has been to an illegal after-hours bar in Chicago run by a Chicago police officer, I don't know of any in Cincinnati but then again I haven't lived there in awhile.  In Athens, OH I lived directly across the street from a steel building that was a meth lab and there were marijuana plants growing on their wooded hillside, the Ohio State Troopers pulled over DUI offenders by the dozen every weekend a quarter mile away but never investigated the steel building where people were coming and going at all hours.     

, but the fact is Cincinnati police officers are in on the local drug trade just like cops are virtually everywhere. 

Your evidence for such an insult?  some facts please....

Well the responses started in the right direction but we deteriorate back to police corruption discussions very quickly.   Freeing the drug buyers while prosecuting the police is not the solution.

quit sending people to jail for petty drug offenses

Cincinnati police officers are in on the local drug trade

This gets us nowhere.  It is that petty drug buyer and seller that has destroyed, not just OTR, but countless communities.  If you think that the police are contributing to this problem, I will help you put those officers in jail, just give me a name.  But if you really want to make a difference, walk the streets with me, your presence on Republic at 11:00 at night by my side while wearing a Citizens on Patrol jacket and holding a police radio could make the difference.  If you don't trust that the police are doing their jobs to clean up your community then you must take it upon yourself to do it, but with rhetoric like that against them, don't expect for the police to respond quickly to your emergency call.  But if you decide not to join me on patrol, for god's sake don't try and cause a divide between the one's who are willing to do this and CPD.

 

The CRT moved to the Mulberry/McMicken Sector approx 2 days ago.  I had two showings yesterday at 72 E. Clifton and I watched, no lie, a virtual convoy of undercover police roll in. Granted it did nothing for my sale, but it was one of the most impressive sites I have seen to date from the police.  This morning Lang and E. Clifton was clear, no one at Rothenberg, Frintz St also was clear, and this on a nice sunny morning in OTR.  I made a call in about a drug dealer on the North West corner of Lang and E. Clifton, they sent in a criss cross of undercover agents to get this guy, multiple undercover agents hitting several buyers at one location.  I watched KY cars fly out of McMicken being chased by CPD.  I saw lookouts on the run because Vice knew their locations also.

 

I look at the big, ongoing picture for OTR.  These sweeps are putting a major dent in the crime activity but this will not last long, so the sectors as well as Mt. Auburn (and other surrounding communities, but I am not part of that organization) are pulling together to do a joint Citizens on Patrol to keep pressure on these areas (a bit of zone defense vs the polices man to man) and this will be combined with a communication system that will alert each sector captain of problems ie. car or home breakins, or moving hotspots so that the captains can disseminate that information out to the residents.

Will this level of enforcement go on forever by the police? No, but the residents can provide gap enforcement to keep them on their heels.  We have picked up several more volunteers for Citizens on Patrol since the article came out about John and Mike Morgan.  This is just the first wave of it, hopefully it will continue to grow and evolve into a major piece of the enforcement puzzle.

But for those who do not wish to stand behind your police, stand behind your neighbors because they will be out there on Vine, Republic, 13th and Clay, E. Clifton and McMicken just to name a few.  The ongoing rhetoric that is going back and forth between just a couple of residence and one police officer needs to stop, because those neighbors are going to be relying on the police dept. assistance and cooperation if and when we run into any trouble.  They are more than an ally to the volunteers, they are our lifeline.

Officers Get 'Thank-Yous' For OTR Patrols

POSTED: 6:18 pm EDT April 13, 2006

UPDATED: 7:01 pm EDT April 13, 2006

 

Email This Story |  Print This Story

 

CINCINNATI -- With hundreds of pat-downs in Over-the-Rhine this week, many business leaders and residents said it's about time.

 

Cincinnati officers have saturated the area, trying to root out drug dealers and violent thugs.

 

"I've seen shootings and killings," shop owner Larry Ashford said. "Furthermore, I think the adults would walk the streets more if the kids would leave."

 

Another businessman told News 5 that sheriff's deputies really need to learn the turf before their patrols start in the next two or three months. 

 

 

"If they could spend some time in the community talking to the business owners ... they'd get familiar with who's who," Otis Stevens said.

 

Beat officers in the neighborhood said there's no learning curve for them. So far, they've made 176 arrests, 45 of which are drug-related -- and the police are getting "a lot of thank-yous," Officer John Heine said.

  http://www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=8702C891-74E9-474B-BCDE-4D3DB4C6266A

 

Major Drug Bust

 

LAST UPDATE: 4/14/2006 6:04:46 PM

A crime crackdown in and around Over The Rhine leads to a big marijuana bust. Police found 20 pounds of pot in a home in the 500 block of Gennessee Street. That's in the City West Development. Officers also seized 450 dollars cash. Twenty five-year-old Rahim Zanders now faces charges of drug possession and trafficking. The second charge carries more weight because the home is near Taft High School.

 

If you want to reduce jail overcrowding, quit sending people to jail for petty drug offenses, quit passing zero tolerance legislation that paints "repeat offenders" as mass murderers, quit sending first time DUI offenders to jail for 3 days

OR

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/NEWS01/604150390/1077

 

Inmates moved to Butler Co.

Hamilton Co. paying neighbor to ease jail crowding

 

BY KIMBALL PERRY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Forty-six Hamilton County prisoners were moved to the Butler County jail Friday - the first group under a new agreement between the two governments aimed at easing overcrowding at the jail in Cincinnati.

 

Another 46 will be shipped to Butler County today. "We have 100 criminals who would have been out on the streets robbing people or committing crimes who now will be locked up," Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich said Friday. "I can't say enough about how quickly (officials) acted."

 

Hamilton County will pay $65 per day per inmate housed at the Butler County jail, which has excess beds.

 

Many people (I am not speaking here to anyone on this forum, just making a general comment) have lived their lives with little or no exposure to the drug world and police corruption, to them racial profiling and police brutality are a myth, they think people are making it up and whining.  They have little experience on one side of the law or the other, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of a case.  In a perfect world what individual police officer responds to a call would make no difference, but the fact is it does.  If you have one officer versus another show up for a call, you may or may not be charged with this or that offense.  If he's got a new guy with him who he's trying to show the "right" way to do things, you might get charged with everything possible whereas you might not have been charged at all if he alone had showed up.  The scenarios are endless, but the bottom line is that some officers are better, sometimes MUCH better than others, but there ARE bad cops out there, they aren't just characters on cop dramas.   

 

>If you think that the police are contributing to this problem, I will help you put those officers in jail, just give me a name.

 

Well I do know some names outside of Cincinnati, but why would I risk getting roughed up by them or their goons?  Going to court is a huge, huge hassle, court and attourney fees are massive, and if you plan on living in a community for a long time, for years later the police will know where you live and target you on routine traffic stops if they know about the situation.  If you or other people reading this don't think this stuff goes on, I've got upwards of ten stories about the police from my own life or from my immediate friends.  For example I have a friend who was beaten up in a police station bathroom by thugs who chased him off the street and the thugs weren't even charged because it would have made the police look bad.  He ran into the station, fearing for his life, and there were no officers in the station because they were out partying.  He locked himself in the women's bathroom and they beat down the door and kicked the crap out of him and of course were gone by the time the police got back from Dunkin' Donuts.     

 

 

> But if you really want to make a difference, walk the streets with me, your presence on Republic at 11:00 at night by my side while wearing a Citizens on Patrol jacket and holding a police radio could make the difference.  If you don't trust that the police are doing their jobs to clean up your community then you must take it upon yourself to do it, but with rhetoric like that against them, don't expect for the police to respond quickly to your emergency call.  But if you decide not to join me on patrol, for god's sake don't try and cause a divide between the one's who are willing to do this and CPD.

 

Well I don't live in Cincinnati, I am living and working in Alabama this year so I am nowhere even close.  When and if I move back to Cincinnati I definitely would get involved in things around town to some extent, but I am certainly not going to stand there like Phil Heimlich (who I do respect, btw) and act like the police are infallible. 

 

 

>I look at the big, ongoing picture for OTR.  These sweeps are putting a major dent in the crime activity but this will not last long, so the sectors as well as Mt. Auburn (and other surrounding communities, but I am not part of that organization) are pulling together to do a joint Citizens Morgan.  This is just the first wave of it, hopefully it will continue to grow and evolve into a major piece of the enforcement puzzle.

But for those who do not wish to stand behind your police, stand behind your neighbors because they will be out there on Vine, Republic, 13th and Clay, E. Clifton and McMicken just to name a few.  The ongoing rhetoric that is going back and forth between just a couple of residence and one police officer needs to stop, because those neighbors are going to be relying on the police dept. assistance and cooperation if and when we run into any trouble.  They are more than an ally to the volunteers, they are our lifeline.

 

Well good luck with that, I think it can be effective if the presence is relentless for months on end, but I think once the thugs sense a break in your activities, they will immediately return.  And I don't think it's you or anyone's responsibility, as tax payers and law-abiding citizens, to have to go out and do the police's jobs.   

 

 

Thanks I will give them a call tommorow!

 

I was just reading the wkrc.com news and came across this weird headline.  Man Shot Near Local Market What market?? Are they trying to make people think Findlay market??

 

You would think that with 50 extra cops in OTR  they would have cops lined up and down vine st on a saturday night.

 

LAST UPDATE: 4/16/2006 11:50:46 AM

 

 

Cincinnati Police are looking for a black male with the nickname of "Chico" in the shooting of one man and the near-shooting of another. It happened around 11 Saturday night in the 1200 block of Vine Street in Over The Rhine. One victim was shot in the right foot. Another was grazed on the left forearm. No motive given for the shooting.

 

I was just reading the wkrc.com news and came across this weird headline.  Man Shot Near Local Market What market?? Are they trying to make people think Findlay market?? down vine st on a saturday night.

shooting of one man and the near-shooting of another. It happened around 11 Saturday night in the 1200 block of Vine Street in Over The Rhine. One victim was shot in the right foot. Another was grazed on the left forearm. No motive given for the shooting.

I heard the shots last night, and turned on the police scanner, and they were saying it was a drive-by shooting at "Elder Market", which I guess is the name of the package liquor store at that corner.

The fun never stops with Nate......

 

Reported by: 9News

Web produced by: Neil Relyea

Photographed by: 9News

First posted: 4/16/2006 11:15:50 AM

 

Controversial community activist Nate Livingston is challenging a new Cincinnati law places people in possession of small amounts of marijuana under arrest.

 

Livingston filed a lawsuit Friday calling the year-old law unconstitutional.

 

People found with 100 grams or less could be arrested.

 

If convicted they could face up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine.

RiverViewer, that stuff's in the Washington Park/3CDC thread.

County Approves Funding For Patrols In Over The Rhine

 

Reported by: 9News

Web produced by: Mark Sickmiller

First posted: 4/19/2006 5:15:54 PM

 

It looks like Hamilton County Deputies will soon be working with Cincinnati Police in Over The Rhine.

 

On Wednesday, the county commissioners approved the funding necessary for deputies to patrol that neighborhood.

 

"This has never been a knock on the efforts of any law enforcement agency or anything like that," said commissioner Todd Portune.

 

"The fact is, the issues of crime we've witnessed over the past several years are beyond the ability and jurisdictional limit of any law enforcement agency to deal with. And, what the public wants is for us all to work together," Portune said.

 

The extra patrols will cost $1.8 million.

 

Jail overcrowding also addressed

 

Hamilton County Commissioners also approved a proposal Wednesday to help alleviate overcrowding at the Hamilton County Detention Center.

 

Commissioners approved funding for plans to house prisoners in Butler County.

 

The decision follows recent crime sweeps in Over The Rhine resulting in a big increase in arrests.

 

"I think that's a very good thing and certainly we're more than happy to pay for the cost to house the additional prisoners," said commissioner Pat Dewine.

With all of these arrests, I'm assuming our crime rate is going to look really bad this year even though it will look really good for next year if this effort really is effective.

<i>This sounds encouraging. Now hit the landlords.</i>

 

<b>New Approach To Fighting Crime In Over The Rhine </b>

 

Reported by: Shannon Kettler

Web produced by: Mark Sickmiller

Photographed by: 9News

First posted: 4/20/2006 6:04:53 PM

 

You've heard about the crime sweeps in Over The Rhine, but now there is a more preventive effort to fight crime.

 

This time, Cincinnati Police and city workers are targeting blighted buildings and vacant lots in the neighborhood that have become a magnet for criminals.

 

This is considered a multi faceted approach to getting rid of crime in Over The Rhine.

 

The city wants to not only take criminals off the streets but they also want to keep the streets clean in order to keep offenders from coming back.

 

On Thursday, contract workers hired by the city cut up plywood to cover up windows and doors on buildings in Over The Rhine that are in disrepair and neglected by property owners.

 

"They've become havens for prostitution, drug usage, by doing this we hope to crack down on some of the crime activity in Over The Rhine," said Captain Ken Jones of Cincinnati Police.

 

A used in syringe was clearly seen on the outside of a building on East 15th Street. Before it's boarded up, Cincinnati Police searched through the rooms filled with trash and drug paraphernelia to see if anyone was inside.

 

They found a man sleeping and also a couple who had been inside the building.

 

"The biggest challenge is the re-barricading and constant breaking in and determined nature of persons to break in and get inside. So, it's a constant battle to keep them secured," said Edward Cunningham, Supervisor of Inspections.

 

Choya Jackson lives right across the street.

 

"I've seen them board this building up and turn around three days later and traffic through this alley and you wonder what's going? Then you see them come out the windows again," Jackson said.

 

Besides empty buildings, the city is also targeting trash filled lots like one on Green Street.

 

A reccuring problem for the city are absentee landlords. But a recently passed ordinance hopes to change that.

 

Those who own a vacated building must now get a maintenance license, where fees are increased up to $3,000 if they fail to maintain the property.

 

The city could also foreclose on the property and put it in the hands of someone else who could develop it.

 

Now, owners are fined $200 to $300 for every time the city has to come and board up the windows and doors.

 

The city's building department now plans to assign a crew to deal strictly with vacant buildings so this doesn't become a reccuring problem.

 

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/04/20/otr.html

^ it's the old "broken window" theory in play. I do notice more boarded windows and doors, plus this protects and stabilizes them against weather.  I like the increased pressure on these landlords.  Litter and just plain ol'  "grit" predominates even the main streets like Vine, although Main St. is always cleaner (thanks to the many businesses there I suppose).  I do notice some of the yellow-shirted 'downtown ambassadors' up in OTR sweeping up litter, but many sections of the sidewalks need replaced/repaired and a good POWER WASHING!  The work on the 12th&Vine Bank Cafe building is coming along and those buildings on the NEC of 12th&Vine look ready for work too.  neat stuff

<i>More good news, I think. Though the inside of these "abandon" buildings are nasty. I have a feeling a lot of terrible things happen inside of them, creepy. I learned a new word, abandominium"</i>

 

<b>Over-the-Rhine 'cleanup'

Police sweep nets 527 arrests in 10 days</b>

 

BY EILEEN KELLEY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

OVER-THE-RHINE - Geneva Lewis sits outside her corner hair salon at 15th and Elm streets, perched in a wheelchair, and shoos away the "dope boys."

 

"When I say get off my corner, I mean it: Get off my corner," the 74-year-old said Thursday, before digging into a Styrofoam container of pancakes in her lap.

 

Lately, she's had help.

 

For the past 10 days, police on bicycles and horseback or in their cruisers have fanned out and saturated some of Cincinnati's toughest streets, rounding up people and making good on long-standing warrants.

 

As of Wednesday evening, 527 people had been arrested and 508 warrants had been served.

 

The stepped-up police effort comes after two people from the suburbs were shot and killed during the first week of April as they tried to buy drugs.

 

The added police presence and the zero-tolerance policy for even the most minor offenses, such as jaywalking and spitting, aren't the only things officials had in mind April 10 when they announced the monthlong cleanup effort.

 

In addition to Thursday's sweep through the area to help people such as Lewis chase away the drug dealers and make more arrests, the sound of hammers, shovels and rakes echoed through the neighborhood of 19th-century buildings.

 

The area is riddled with trash and vacant properties - about 500 in all. The blighted buildings provide refuge for rats, addicts, the homeless and women who sell sex to support their drug habits, police say.

 

At one point Thursday morning, three people were rousted from sleep when contractor Ron Taylor and his crew pulled up to a former apartment building on Moore Street - what police and neighbors call an "abandominium" - to put plywood over its empty windows. The three wound up in a police cruiser because they had outstanding warrants.

 

Inside, where the two men and woman had been sleeping, police found crack pipes and syringes.

 

"What it takes for people to live like this is beyond me," Taylor's grandson, Erik Taylor, 24, said.

 

Police think they know: drugs.

 

"That man's drugged 24/7," Lewis said of one man. Reginald Ballew, 45, was carted off to jail along with Leonard Thomas, 57, after police said they found them down the street from Lewis' salon with several hundred dollars' worth of heroin and pills.

 

Ballew's record reveals a variety of charges, including trafficking in drugs, disorderly conduct, rape and domestic violence against children. Some were dismissed, but he has been convicted of felonious and aggravated assaults.

 

"With all the guns and the shooting and the throwing of wine bottles going on, I appreciate it any time anybody wants to help this neighborhood," Lewis said. "I really try and keep my own corner clean because I got my babies and my grandbabies down here. So I watch them boys, and I keep them off my corner."

 

JUST ONE SHOOTING

 

Since the sweep started, there has only been one shooting in the notoriously violent neighborhood, Capt. Kenneth Jones said Thursday. There are no records kept for the average number of shootings in a 10-day period in the area, but police say one is well below the usual.

 

Sgt. Jim Perkins, an Over-the-Rhine beat cop, can also see the difference in just 10 days.

 

"It's dead out here; it's like being in Hyde Park," he said. "Everyone is minding their P's and Q's; it's great."

 

Ron Taylor, 66, grew up here and said it almost broke his heart in the 1960s when his family outgrew its Over-the-Rhine apartment.

 

Now, the Price Hill man is back at least once a week boarding up buildings the city has declared vacant.

 

Taylor said that what he sees on the job is more heartbreaking than when he said his goodbyes four decades ago. "You got rats, and rodents and even the two-legged vermin that we are trying to keep out," he said.

 

Many of the boards Taylor and his crew nail up become fresh billboards for graffiti and rest-in-peace signs for the dead.

 

"Yep, they got that one," police Officer Mark Williams said of a new "R.I.P." sign.

 

Down on Green Street, the 100 or so drug peddlers who usually hang out scattered as police, Taylor's crew and a building inspector moved down the street, searching for vacant buildings.

 

"This is unacceptable. This is just unacceptable," Sgt. Steve Saunders said as he stood outside what has been dubbed the "beer cemetery" - a patch of land, roughly 50 by 150 feet, covered with beer bottles, empty cans and a decomposing cat. "Whose gonna want to buy property next to this?"

 

OWNERSHIP LACKING

 

Adjacent to the beer cemetery is a shanty in a breezeway - complete with a mattress and walls on three sides, courtesy of a former effort to clean up the neighborhood and board up the glassless sockets of empty buildings.

 

Police and community leaders have long said Over-the-Rhine problems stem from lack of ownership.

 

Only about 4 percent of the roughly 7,000 people who call this place home own where they live, city statistics show.

 

Throw in the fact that most of the people causing the problems come here to sell drugs on the streets all day - and then return to the comfort of their own homes - and the mixture can be toxic.

 

"Without ownership, if something falls apart, or breaks, or if it's dirty, are you really going to care?" Williams asked. "And if you come down here and stand on the streets all day long, what do you care where you throw your beer bottle?

 

"Over-the-Rhine is getting a bad rap all because of the people who don't even live here. The majority of people in Over-the-Rhine want the same thing that people in all the other neighborhoods want: They want a good, safe neighborhood."

 

Lewis couldn't agree more.

 

"Thank you. Thank you," she said within easy earshot of the nearby police. "I'm happy to see the police. I sure am. I sure am."

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060421/NEWS01/604210414

I could not be any happier with our police dept.  Last night we had the first class for Citizens on Patrol and I would say that we are probably 1 month out on the first actual patrol.  Then followed up by the sherriffs.  There is a perfect storm that is forming around OTR, it will change.

  I could not be any happier with our police dept.  Last night we had the first class for Citizens on Patrol and I would say that we are probably 1 month out on the first actual patrol.  Then followed up by the sherriffs. There is a perfect storm that is forming around OTR, it will change.

Thats great news.  It is also good to hear that Chief Streicher and the CPD made nice with everyone after the incident last week.  The last thing the CPD needs to be doing is antagonizing concerned citizens who are getting involved in something positive for the good of the community.  Let's hope the police and sheriffs keep the pressure turned way up in OTR after the media coverage starts to fade.  I am certain that you the the rest of the Citizens on Patrol will do your part. 

I agree, we need to keep the pressure on, this is why I used the term perfect storm, everything is coming together at just the right time.  Increased policing now, CRT's in OTR in April, Citizens on Patrol in May, Sherrifs soon after.  The pressure is high now and will get even higher.  All of this coupled with increased VBML's, more projects coming on line in OTR and did anyone hear that Denhart is going Market Rate? I just heard that on 700 WLW this morning.

I think someone already alluded to this, and I think it is great they are pushing more to clean up the area, but it is disappointing the police have not shown more of a presence until now.  While I am sure there was work before, it really seems they are buckling down with the "threat" of Hamilton County assisting.  The area obviously is an untapped treasure, and I miss the days when Main Street was more of an entertainment destination (at least there is more living space being developed).  I hope we see the results improve, and more importantly the media reports on those improvements.  I am very weary of the media-fed whining about it being so dangerous.  Finally, last week there were a few obvious sound bites that should have been apparent - if you aren't buying, selling, or doing drugs (or other illegal activity) you'll be fine - really?

The police are all over OTR like ugly on Flava Flav

What shocks me it that Cincinnati PD would let this area get that far out of control.  I have never been to Cincy, but from the pics, it seems like a cool area.  I am glad for Cincy that this area is being cleaned up!

^There's a good bit of history that goes into why it is the way it is today.  When I first moved down here, maybe I was just naive, but I'd drive through OTR any time of the day or night.  But after the riots five years ago, there was a menace there I hadn't felt before - maybe it was just my perception.  But then after the fallout from the riots, there was a police slowdown, and all hell broke loose.  Drugs and gangs spread like mold - they'd always been there in the grout before, but now they spread everywhere - to extend the analogy, they took root in the drywall and the studs and the floorboards.  And, to extend the analogy way beyond its useful reach, it looks like the police and the citizens and soon the county are finally starting to apply some serious-ass bleach...

 

Very simplified version, and folks who know more should feel free to correct and upbraid me for it!

I hope we see the results improve, and more importantly the media reports on those improvements. I am very weary of the media-fed whining about it being so dangerous

 

Just in the past week in the media

 

The new face of OTR

B2B Equities partners work to rehab dozens of buildings

Cincinnati Business Courier - April 21, 2006

by Lucy May

Senior Staff Reporter

Scaffolding and construction fences have replaced the street-corner drug dealing that once was visible from 12th and Vine streets.

 

 

Peaceful Atmosphere In Over-The-Rhine

LAST UPDATE: 4/22/2006 11:29:58 PM

It's been almost two weeks since Cincinnati Police began a new push to make Over-The-Rhine a safer place. Officers stepped up patrols on foot, on bicycles and on horseback.

 

Cleanup volunteers tackle neighborhoods, river banks

BY FEOSHIA HENDERSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

OVER-THE-RHINE - Lynne Wu and Rob Gilson could have been replacing a burst sewer pipe at their Mulberry Street home Saturday morning. Instead, they spent a few hours cleaning up their neighborhood.

Wu was one of an estimated 250 people scouring Over-the-Rhine as part of national Keep America Beautiful campaign. Volunteers had filled more than 800 bags of trash by early afternoon.

 

New Approach To Fighting Crime In Over The Rhine

Reported by: Shannon Kettler

Web produced by: Mark Sickmiller

Photographed by: 9News

First posted: 4/20/2006 6:04:53 PM

You've heard about the crime sweeps in Over The Rhine, but now there is a more preventive effort to fight crime.

 

Over-the-Rhine 'cleanup'

Police sweep nets 527 arrests in 10 days

BY EILEEN KELLEY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

OVER-THE-RHINE - Geneva Lewis sits outside her corner hair salon at 15th and Elm streets, perched in a wheelchair, and shoos away the "dope boys."

 

And I saved the best for last

 

Denhart trading rent subsidy for condo rehab

Cincinnati Business Courier - April 21, 2006by Dan Monk

Low-income landlord Tom Denhart is selling off hundreds of rent-subsidized properties in Avondale to finance a new career as an Over-the-Rhine condo developer.

 

 

It has indeed been a very good week for OTR in the press.  If we can keep the violence at bay, we should be seeing more stories like these.

^I can't see that old codger figuring out how to make a cool condo.  It would be like matter and anti-matter colliding.

 

The neighborhood had a fantastic feel this weekend, with the fabulous weather and tons of people comming together to do a major clean-up.  The market seemed very busy Saturday, and hardly any gunshots in a week. 

^ I popped down Saturday to take a few pix of the clean-up and drove around a bit.  OTR was hopping, Findlay Market was PACKED, little kids swinging at the parks...  very nice.  The trick is keeping the momentum.

 

I am heading to Schwartz's Point Tuesday for 'jazz nite'...  let me know if anyone else is interested.  There is already one 'urbanohio' couple coming. 

Maybe we should change the topic to 'Is Over-the-Rhine as awesome as we hope?'?

I second that.

I was touring OTR Saturday & finally made it to Mulberry.

That is FANTASTIC what folks have done over there.

The market was seriously jammin.

It really did look good this weekend.

But everything looked good this weekend.....

:-)

I concur ...

 

My wife and I had the great opportunity to meet Michael and his wife a couple of weeks ago and we also got to see some of the changes that are taking place as far as condo conversions and it is very exciting to see OTR go through such an awakening of what it has been (not that the work is anywhere near done).

 

It is great to see people have such a pride and see potential in an awesome neighborhood that many people have turned their backs on! Keep it up!!!

I was doing a paper with the 10:00 news on (Channel 19) and I heard they did a very positive story about how OTR is on the upswing.  I was shocked to hear good press about OTR...God knows it's due for some

Over-the-Rhine gets more help

Probation office to open in neighborhood

BY KIMBALL PERRY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

Besides having sheriff's deputies patrol Over-the-Rhine, Hamilton County is placing another crime-fighting weapon in the neighborhood.

 

In a few weeks - an exact date has not been set - a satellite office of the Hamilton County Probation Department will open at 1321 Vine St. It will be staffed by three probation officers and a supervisor.

 

"This allows probation officers to have more direct contact with criminals," Commissioner Pat DeWine said Monday.

 

 

Most probation officers work in a downtown office. There is a satellite office in Madisonville.

 

Probation officers know who is on probation and the conditions of the probation - something police officers often don't know. For example, if police don't know the specifics of a court-ordered curfew, a person they encounter after hours would not be arrested. A probation officer familiar with the curfew conditions can make the arrest.

 

People on probation are subject to search and arrest, said Robert Ruehlman, presiding judge of Hamilton County's Common Pleas Court.

 

The court, which oversees the Probation Department, noted that the similar satellite probation department office in Madisonville already has shown good results, so much so that other neighborhoods are asking for them.

 

Ozie Davis wonders why Avondale, where he is on the community council, has been told for two years it can't have a satellite office because there is no money.

 

"Me and the community council are pretty devastated" after hearing Over-the-Rhine is getting an office, Davis said. "It seems quite fishy. Maybe it's political."

 

Avondale, Davis noted, has 311 probationers living there, far more than who live in Over-the-Rhine. There are about 5,300 probationers in Hamilton County at any one time, 2005 statistics show.

 

The satellite office is opening in Over-the-Rhine because Art Reckman and Steve Smith of Model Management donated the space, Ruehlman said.

 

That neighborhood also is targeted because it has between 155 and 200 probationers living there.

 

"This is part of the overall effort ... to lend out support to the Cincinnati Police Department and the (Hamilton County) Sheriff's Office," Commissioner Phil Heimlich said.

 

The announcement comes just weeks after Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. said deputies would begin patrolling the neighborhood. Those patrols will come in addition to patrols done by the Cincinnati police. Deputy patrols are expected to start within two months.

 

The cost of the additional probation officers will come from savings Hamilton County Administrator Patrick Thompson said resulted from cutting staff after he took over in January and holding other positions open.

 

E-mail [email protected]

 

I was doing a paper with the 10:00 news on (Channel 19) and I heard they did a very positive story about how OTR is on the upswing.  I was shocked to hear good press about OTR...God knows it's due for some

 

Has this aired already....or when is it scheduled to air?

Congratulations Michael and all, this is all good news.  Keep in mind, of course, that all the police in the world cannot do for a neighborhood what an active, engaged community can do for itself.  One thing that I have really enjoyed about the Citizens on Patrol program is the constant interaction with people who have been disengaged for a very long time and the opportunity to let them know what's going on in the neighborhood (Northside, in my case), listen to their concerns (many and varied but the most popular is simple - safety), and bring them into the fold, so to speak.  Kudos and good luck to you all, I think you've got a good start!