Saturday, February 06, 1999
Over-the-Rhine residents: What about us?
BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Donald Whitehead, Nannie Hinkston and Otis Stevens want us to know they have more to say than just no.
That's how the Over-the-Rhine community leaders say they are usually quoted, in interviews debating the worth of stadiums and arts schools in their neighborhood.
Recently, they and other residents gathered to talk about what they want for their neighborhood, rather than what they are protesting.
They want to make clear that they are not against development, growth or progress. “Who would mind revitalization, if the people here are revitalized in the process?” says Lemuel Israel, a musician and resident.
And that's what their own vision for the community boils down to. The people.
The people over the land.
Home, not an obstacle
For many of us, Over-the-Rhine is a corridor, a north-south or east-west gantlet to get through on our way to the suburbs.
We forget that it is also a neighborhood. A place where people grow up, and grow old. Where people go to school, worship God, get their hair cut, buy their groceries.
Elm Street, Race Street and Central Parkway lead most of us away. They lead these people home. It's funny how differently people look at a piece of land when it is their destination.
None of these leaders miss the point that their neighborhood happens to be the heart of the city, a controversial, fascinating, beleaguered area that will either draw crowds downtown, or repel them.
But they say too many big-name, big-money “projects” have been thinly veiled efforts at dispersement or displacement. “It's not that people here oppose mixed-income housing,” says Andy Hutzel, an OTR resident who works at the Drop-Inn Center. But, finishes resident Donald Whitehead, “the city leaders' idea of mixed income is that the only way to get people to move into Over-the-Rhine is to get everybody here now to move out.”
They are especially insulted at the idea that simply recruiting other wealthier, “better” people will “fix” Over-the-Rhine.
“People overlook the potential of the people here,” says Mr. Israel. “Their lives are wasted resources, untapped resources.”
The steps they favor will rebuild lives, not just buildings. Mr. Stevens, owner of a maintenance company, wants support for small businesses within the community, with more community work going to Over-the-Rhine entrepreneurs. He wants relaxed regulations that allow small businesses to compete, and incentives to employ other OTR residents. He wants development grants to improve the safety of the neighborhood — not just the areas targeted for attracting middle-class newcomers.
Along with the jobs, the residents want banks. A key, they say, is financial institutions that will invest in local growth and understand the needs of local businesses.
Many needs
Resident Steve Smith wants more educational opportunities. “The socialization of young people is being short-circuited because incarceration has become the main way of socializing them,” he says. The group applauds a community high school, an art center serving first the needs of local residents, a research facility where people have access to technology, a recreation center.
Too often, the resources already in place have had an uneasy coexistence with the neighborhood. “There's a YMCA here, but how many community residents use it?” asks Mr. Whitehead, director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. “How many employees at Music Hall are from Over-the-Rhine? Erich Kunzel talks about the safety of the school he's proposing near Music Hall. Washington Park (Elementary) has been here for years, and I've never heard Erich Kunzel worry about Washington Park.”
These people do worry about Washington Park. They worry about crime and unemployment, about restless teens and young families and broken street lights.
They worry over everything in this neighborhood.
They worry because it is theirs.
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202.
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at the Enquirer, 312 Elm St. Cincinnati 45202.
RAMSEY ARCHIVE
