By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati City Council has given more than $57,600 to citizen-led projects to improve safety and clean up neighborhood streets.

The city awarded six grants to community groups and agencies from Northside, Over-the-Rhine, West End, Camp Washington and Prospect Hill. The grants are part of council's Safe and Clean Neighborhood Fund, a program designed to support neighborhood-led initiatives to fight crime and blight.

The city put aside $1 million from an insurance windfall to fund the program for the next two years. Cleaning up city streets has become a priority for City Council, which maintains that trash and blight breed larger problems of crime, health and disinvestment.

"The proposed grants will support grass-roots, take-back-our-streets type projects," said Councilman David Pepper. "Safety right now is job No. 1, and council wanted to show that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is."

The Northside Business Association received the biggest chunk of money from the city, $45,599.90, to clean up three parking lots, add new money boxes and lighting, and pay for an off-duty detail for more police visibility. The focus will be on parking lots around the Gulow Street and Hamilton Avenue areas.

The Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce got two grants totaling $6,511.14 to help fund a "No Trespassing" sign program to crack down on drug dealers who come from outside the neighborhood and the placement of "Drug Exclusion Zone" signs.

A group of West End residents was awarded $3,000 to add lighting along the 800 block of Dayton Street. The West End has been one of the most crime-ridden parts of the city. Statistics show that more than 400 crimes, ranging from breaking and entering to murder, occurred on Linn, Dayton, York, Freeman, Baymiller and Bank streets during 2002 and the first four months of this year.

The Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association was awarded $2,000 to beautify the previously neglected Milton Boal Park with plants, picnic tables and benches. Residents there hope this will increase use of the park and cut down on crime.

Camp Washington Community Council received $500 to fund efforts to clean up trash and overgrown weeds and bushes along Avon Street near the Spring Grove Talbert House.

A number of communities applied to have cameras placed to monitor crime hot spots. Rather than fund them separately, an advisory committee decided to have the neighborhoods work together to create a single system for camera surveillance, to be used as a pilot program, Pepper said.

The project, he said, would be developed in coming months.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com