Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Is there room for strangers in our homes?
BY LAURA PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was, I suppose, an unremarkable evening in Cincinnati.
Several dozen well-dressed people gathered at a reception and dinner. OK, I'll admit it was a little remarkable. No one was asked for money. All we were asked to do was listen. And that was painless.
Billed as an “evening with a great teacher,” the star of the show was Dr. Zane L. Miller, professor of American history at the University of Cincinnati.
His topic was segregated housing. I went to be polite. Same old, same old, I thought. But it has been a long time out of the classroom for me, and I'd forgotten what can happen when a gifted teacher takes hold of a subject.
People stood and applauded for a teacher who simply said — with the authority of an historian — that now is the time, Cincinnati is the place to solve our most pressing national problem.
He calls it “involuntary racial residential segregation.” Slums. Ghettos. “Everybody ought to have a full and free choice to live in a neighborhood of his preference,” he says. Those who would choose to live in a genuinely integrated neighborhood have limited choice.
A leaky roof
Our country is prosperous right now. We are at peace. Unemployment is low. Crime is down. We have most of the big problems under control. Our house is in order. Except that the roof is leaking. If we do not fix it, our foundation will rot.
Of course, Dr. Miller said this with considerably more eloquence.
He ducked his head, fiddled with his glasses and seduced the audience with humor. When everybody was laughing and relaxed — comfortable — he swooped with some uncomfortable truth. Over-the-Rhine, he says, “has become a six-mile-long involuntary black neighborhood” and the highest concentration of the Tristate's poorest citizens.
With segregation comes “a climate of mutual fear, misunderstanding, mistrust and resentment.”
Just look at Cincinnati's City Council if you want proof. Or, even better, take a look at the growing discord between the county and the city. Let's not kid ourselves. It is about race. And economics.
If you're still in the looking mood, drive around Over-the-Rhine, where you'll see some great buildings. With boarded-up windows. Gentrification shoving out poor residents? Of more than 3,000 properties here, one in five is vacant and less than 4 percent occupied by property owners.
There is room for change here, and nobody would have to move out.
This neighborhood — close to the central business district, to cultural attractions — is ripe for empty-nesters, baby boomers swarming from their four-bedroom suburban houses in search of a more streamlined life.
Somebody needs to lead the way.
Dr. Miller says “people with some visibility” should take the lead, suggesting a regional civic group of business, academic, sports and cultural leaders. Just imagine. A group of movers and shakers aiming their brains and clout at helping us live together by, well, living together. And putting their money and homes where their mouths are.
“We want to spotlight our great teachers,” UC President Joe Steger said at the beginning of the evening. Instead, Dr. Miller seized the spotlight and shined it directly in the eyes of the audience.
People were sitting there who can make things happen, leaders in business, the arts, law, religion, media. The guest list neatly matched the leadership Dr. Miller would recruit.
It remains to be seen whether we will really listen to this great teacher. He was enthusiastically applauded. Then we put on our coats, climbed into our cars and drove to our mostly segregated neighborhoods.
Meanwhile the roof is leaking.
Laura Pulfer's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. E-mail lpulfer@enquirer.com or call 768-8393. She can be heard Mondays on WVXU radio and on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and InterMedia's Northern Kentucky Magazine. Her book, I Beg to Differ, is available at (800) 852-9332.
Is there room for strangers in our homes?
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