Cincinnati has never been known as a violent city.

        People could spend a day shopping downtown without worrying about their safety. They could do volunteer work in Over-the-Rhine or water their lawns in Pleasant Ridge or hail a cab in Madisonville without hearing gunfire.

        But all that is changing. In the three months since the April riots, a wave of violence has left residents throughout the city feeling vulnerable and afraid.

Laura Jackson of downtown says she won't let violence deter her from delivering meals to needy seniors, even in the roughest parts of town: (Yuli Wu photo) | ZOOM |

        The number of shootings in Cincinnati since April is up more than 600 percent compared with the same period last year. Ten neighborhoods that had no shootings at this time last summer have at least one this summer.

        The violence is more frequent, more brazen and more widespread. And it is getting worse.

        A 2-year-old boy was critically injured Friday when he was struck by a stray bullet in Over-the-Rhine. Two men were gunned down at point-blank range Monday after their car crashed in a front lawn in Pleasant Ridge.

        In Cincinnati, daily outbreaks of violence are now the rule, not the exception.

        In recent weeks, that violence has begun to change the way people live their lives in neighborhoods touched by the violence.

        They still go to work and they still walk to bus stops. But they are more careful, more wary.

        “People have definite concerns about it,” says Pat Clifford, director of the Drop-Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine. “Things are a lot more brazen and out in the open now. Residents are caught in the cross-fire.”

        Like many social service groups, the Drop-Inn Center relies heavily on volunteers from all over the city and suburbs. And like many leaders of those groups, Mr. Clifford is worried the violence will scare people away.

        As the shootings have escalated in recent weeks, several volunteers have called to ask Mr. Clifford about safety. So far, no one has quit.

Jennifer Johnson, a 20-year resident of Pleasant Ridge, points to stains left where a shooting victim lay on a sidewalk in front of her apartment building Monday night. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        That wasn't the case a few weeks ago at the Contact Center, another social service organization. The Vine Street center was hosting some teen-age volunteers from the suburbs when shots rang out a few doors down the street.

        The teens cut short their weeklong stint in the neighborhood, and one girl's mother took her home immediately.

        “She got shaken up,” says Kati Heins, the center's director. “This is the kind of thing that may impact whether someone wants to come down here.”

        But she said the violence is not driving most people out. Instead, it is making them more cautious.

        “People are more careful and keeping their eyes open to what's going on around them,” Ms. Heins said.

        In Pleasant Ridge, where the two men were killed Monday, residents say they are more shocked than scared. But Jennifer Johnson, who's lived there for 20 years, worries about the long-term effect the shootings could have on her neighborhood, especially its elderly residents.

        She spent Tuesday morning hosing the dead men's blood off her sidewalk. “I think a lot of these older folks are really going to be nervous,” Ms. Johnson says.

        Two blocks away, Judy Hardin, a 23-year-resident of Orion Avenue, worries about what the spreading violence means for all of the city's neighborhoods, not just her own.

        “It makes me feel really sad that this is what our city is coming to,” she says. “I just don't understand.”

        In harder-hit neighborhoods, the violence remains a daily worry. Jack Taylor is an operations manager at Skyline Taxi in Price Hill, and the shootings are constantly on his mind.

        Cabdrivers were targeted for robberies at least twice last week in Cincinnati. And Mr. Taylor says evening business is down nearly 75 percent because “people are too scared to come downtown.”

        He says the combination of less business and greater risk has led many cabdrivers to abandon some of the neighborhoods closest to downtown.

        When he drives, Mr. Taylor says, he no longer picks up anyone who hails his cab. Instead, he relies solely on radio dispatchers who field calls from homes or businesses. Those calls are safer because the caller can be identified, rather than picking up a stranger on the street.

        A few see the violence as a reason to do more work in troubled neighborhoods, not less. Even so, they are doing it more cautiously.

        Charlene Rasche is a nurse who volunteers at the Drop-Inn Center's medical clinic. She says there is more need than ever for her services.

        Although the Southgate, Ky., woman is more careful, she is not afraid. Her family, however, is another story.

        “My family is very upset — all my kids are concerned,” she says. “I'm aware that innocent people have been hurt, but I just don't have that fear. I just don't worry.”

        Laura Jackson is just as driven to keep volunteering, despite the violence.

        Ms. Jackson delivers meals to needy seniors, a job that takes her to some of the roughest areas. She handles it all with a smile and a pleasant greeting.

        “My biggest concern is delivering the meals to my clients. They depend on me,” she says.

Cops look for link in shootings
       

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