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How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

politico.com

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Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#11

Post by logn »

aab0 wrote: post #7
fhood wrote: post #2

Short answer, by pricing out the poor people.

And execute the do-gooder liberal activists. EDIT: I am being literal. Read the article.

Ha. Never has executing liberal activists been part of the gentrification there.

Is this the basis of your statement?

> Wilbur Worthen, a mentally-ill 56-year-old whom Gray had befriended, burst into his office at the Drop Inn Center and shot him to death with a .357 magnum.

The Drop Inn Center is a homeless shelter. Buddy Gray was shot by a person he had previously helped at the shelter.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#12

Post by mywittyname »

ececconi wrote: post #4

Never knew Over the Rhine used to be the nation's most dangerous neighborhood. I'm on a consulting assignment here in Cinci and I go there all the time for trendy food and bars. Yes it does have pockets where I'm a bit scared to walk at night, but not enough so that I don't.

If you were here even as recently as 2010, you'd have been scared to drive in OTR in broad daylight. This isn't an exaggeration at all. Attempted car jackings were pretty common.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#13

Post by api »

logn wrote: post #5
fhood wrote: post #2

Short answer, by pricing out the poor people.

The 2001 riots destroyed the neighborhood and most people left. Then 3CDC bought the majority of the buildings.

I grew up in Cincinnati and was in OTR during the riots, albeit in a third floor secure apartment. It wasn't nearly as bad as the press coverage made it out to be... mostly a bunch of stupid kids trying to smash and grab. But the bad press definitely ruined OTR's economic prospects for a decade.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#14

Post by antisthenes »

subzidion wrote: post #3

Here's a TL;DR > "the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.—better known as 3CDC—has invested or leveraged more than half a billion dollars into Over-the-Rhine, buying and rescuing 131 historic buildings and building 48 new ones, while maintaining subsidized housing, rehabilitating parks and driving out criminals with cameras, better lighting, liquor store closings and the development of vacant lots"

Here's a TL;DR for your TL;DR.

Real estate development corp invests $500 million into gentrifying an area.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#15

Post by skrowl »

I'm from Cincinnati and have lived here my entire life.

Much of the area formerly referred to as OTR remains unsafe after dark. In addition to the gentrification, they've also successfully rebranded "OTR" to just be considered to be the 2 streets (Race and Vine between Central and Liberty if you're looking at a map) that are revamped.

The remainder of what used to be called OTR is still derelict buildings, soup kitchens, and other obvious signs of a blighted area.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#16

Post by mywittyname »

fhood wrote: post #2

Short answer, by pricing out the poor people.

This is really disingenuous. The poor people left long before the transformation started because there was no where for them to live. The housing collapsed pushed most of the land lords out of business and the buildings were left vacant. The article itself says the population of the neighborhood fell to under 5,000, in a city of 300,000.

Most of the buildings in the neighborhood were empty and collapsing. Renovating the dilapidated building and infrastructure and bringing in new tenants is what seems to have had the biggest impact.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#17

Post by mathattack »

skrowl wrote: post #15

I'm from Cincinnati and have lived here my entire life. Much of the area formerly referred to as OTR remains unsafe after dark. In addition to the gentrification, they've also successfully rebranded "OTR" to just be considered to be the 2 streets (Race and Vine between Central and Liberty if you're looking at a map) that are revamped. The remainder of what used to be called OTR is still derelict buildings, soup kitch…

I thought that the gentrification happened in the mid-90s. What happened? Not enough new residents? Things set back by riots?

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#18

Post by gk1 »

moultano wrote: post #10
ececconi wrote: post #4

Never knew Over the Rhine used to be the nation's most dangerous neighborhood. I'm on a consulting assignment here in Cinci and I go there all the time for trendy food and bars. Yes it does have pockets where I'm a bit scared to walk at night, but not enough so that I don't.

A acquaintance of mine lived there 10 years ago because he and his roommates could rent a whole floor of an old factory for $1000 a month. Thousands and thousands of square feet. He was robbed at gunpoint on his front porch 4 times in a year. (Best parties I've ever been to though.)

Reminds me of the Simpsons episode in which Bart and Millhouse bought an abandoned factory. I think they turned it into a skate park.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#19

Post by hackeradam17 »

I am from and live in Cincinnati. As some others have stated, this article greatly overstates the changes that's occurred in OTR. Yes, parts of Vine and Race street have been cleaned up a great deal, but go just a street over, or even a little further on said streets and you are right back in an area that is anything but the "good" part of town.

It's not at all uncommon to go into these areas and see sights such as drug deals and prostitution occurring right out in the open. When I worked for Kroger (which, granted, has been several years now), they used to have to keep a police presence at the Vine street store because it was so common to have problems there. Sadly, much of OTR is still what I would consider urban plight.

Re: How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood

#20

Post by mediaserf »

mathattack wrote: post #17
skrowl wrote: post #15

I'm from Cincinnati and have lived here my entire life. Much of the area formerly referred to as OTR remains unsafe after dark. In addition to the gentrification, they've also successfully rebranded "OTR" to just be considered to be the 2 streets (Race and Vine between Central and Liberty if you're looking at a map) that are revamped. The remainder of what used to be called OTR is still derelict buildings, soup kitch…

I thought that the gentrification happened in the mid-90s. What happened? Not enough new residents? Things set back by riots?

It did start in the mid-90s with people buying and renovating townhomes on Milton and Liberty Hill. I'm sure the riots slowed it down, but the article does inaccurately assert the speed of the change as well as where it came from. A lot of the residential turn-around wasn't corporate sponsored.
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