Cincinnati's Riots: One year later

Tuesday, April 9, 2002

Faces of Over-the-Rhine

Jimmy Heath walks up a stairway in Over-The-Rhine looking for flowers for a photo project. (Photo by Brandi Stafford)

Photographer
Jimmy Heath

Jimmy Heath can't decide the best way to display the photos of the riots that shook Cincinnati a year ago.4/01

In one photo, a squad of riot police march past a lone pedestrian on a downtown street. In another, an angry man, fist raised, confronts a line of police officers.

Other images adorn Mr. Heath's 14th Street studio: Flowers growing in an alleyway, a portrait of a homeless man, children playing in front of abandoned buildings.

"There are a thousand pictures on every corner," Mr. Heath, 47, says. Once homeless himself, he's now a professional photographer and neighborhood activist. He runs the Center for Community Photography at the Peaslee Neighborhood Center. He's lived in Over-the-Rhine since 1995, when he found his way to the Drop Inn Center. "I haven't been able to leave," he says.

The neighborhood has changed since last year's riots, Mr. Heath says, and not in a good way.

"People are angrier and some of those feelings I think are a direct result of the actions of city leadership," he says. He points to the acquittal of Officer Steven Roach, the Rev. Damon Lynch III's ouster from CAN after he called Cincinnati police "murderers and rapists," the controversy over ReSTOC developments and holdings in the neighborhood and Mayor Charlie Luken labeling boycott leaders "terrorists." All of those add up to attacks to Over-the-Rhine's African American residents, he says, and city leaders "missed a real opportunity" to mend fences in the first few months after the riot.

"Look at Over-the-Rhine now. We've got more violence. We've got businesses moving out because they're afraid. We've got people feeling disenfranchised and angry," he says.

Even with more police on the streets, the drug dealers near his Republic Street home are active every day, he says: They're out when he leaves for work in the morning, and they're out when he comes home at night. "They're out there with impunity. What does that say to a community? It says, "We don't care about you.' "

More than anything, Mr. Heath wants to see Over-the-Rhines schools fixed up and equipped with computers and books and supplies to give students the education they need.

"You get the kids and you break the cycle," he says. "The kids are everything. Give the kids what they need."