Cincinnati's latest "solution" to illegal drug trafficking is to stop traffic altogether - by blocking off a significant city intersection.

While the barricade erected Wednesday at 13th Street and Reading Road in Pendleton may stem from an understandable concern over the dangers of the drug trade, it creates a major disruption for the area's businesses, an inconvenience for passing motorists, and a mixed message about Cincinnati.

The idea is to disrupt access from nearby Interstate 471 to what has become an easy-on, easy-off drug drive-through on that section of 13th Street. But the city may as well have topped the barrier with a white flag, for this barricade is more of a surrender than a solution. Besides, it's just plain ugly.

"They at least ought to come to us and let us block it off in a more visually appealing manner," said David Day, a designer with offices in the nearby Pendleton Art Center.

That might have softened what has become an ironic clash of symbols. The forbidding barrier sits in the welcoming shadow of the award-winning Gateway Bell Tower at 13th, Liberty and Reading, which Day designed in the mid-1990s. The tower contains 19 bells, symbolizing 19 cultures that contributed to the city's urban core through history. Ringing them together, Day said, "is about harmony, about working together."

Those are traits the barricade process apparently lacked. Nearby businesses weren't informed of the city's intentions, claims Tabatha Anderson, office manager of the Mr. Bubbles car detailing shop on 13th - which, also ironically, has a contract to detail city vehicles.

"City officials call the barricade a six-month experiment. Afterward, they will evaluate its success in reducing the drug trade.

But even if it works, the drug traffic will go somewhere else, maybe just down the street. What then? Close off another intersection? The whole neighborhood? Install checkpoints?

There must be a better way to find longer-term solutions - increased police presence and community involvement, for starters. The city ought to address the roots of the problem, not the routes of the problem.