Posts tagged “hamilton county”

Work on Smale Riverfront Park Progresses Despite Lack of State, Federal Funds

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The $120 million Smale Riverfront Park will celebrate its next wave of progress two months from now when the Women’s Committee Garden and Duke Energy Garden are opened to the public – more than doubling the central riverfront park’s completed acreage.

According to officials from the Cincinnati Park Board, the project is still on-time and on-budget thanks to an influx of private contributions.

Originally, park officials had planned on approximately half of the project’s cost being covered by state and federal funds. While those funds flowed early in the project’s life, they have all but dried up over the past two years.

Cincinnati Central Riverfront Plan

“We got into this pretty aware of what the challenges were, but the biggest challenges thus far have probably been the state and federal funding,” stated Smale Riverfront Park’s project manager, Dave Prather. “It’s been a pretty big adjustment when half of the funding you were counting on hasn’t come, but thanks to the private funding we’ve been able to stay pretty much on schedule.”

Prather says that the city leadership understands the realities facing both their state and federal partners, but that without the private and local support the project would most likely be behind schedule.

He is, however, optimistic that things will turn around and says that the park board is working on other ways to get state and federal dollars. One such element that could be the beneficiary of such efforts is the planned 1,000-foot transient boat dock which may be eligible for up to $3 million in grants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Watercraft.

Should such funding fall into place, Prather says that the boat dock could be operational as early as May or July 2015.

“We received $3 million in the State capital fund three years ago, and that’s what we thought we would get as we worked through the phasing plan,” Prather explained. “Hopefully the state will get back in the business of being able to help with significant capital projects.”

Not all of the funding news has been grim, as Prather noted strong support from Hamilton County, private sources, and the City of Cincinnati which includes a recent $4 million allocation from the proceeds of its recently approved Parking Modernization & Lease agreement.

That $4 million will go towards accelerating the construction timeline of phase four of construction work which will now include the PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground and carousel. According to Prather, both of these projects will now be completed by May 2015 – in time for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

One of the features that will be open in two months is the new riverwalk, of sorts, that will run from the Walnut Street Overlook approximately to Sycamore Street immediately south of Great American Ball Park. One of the key features of this riverwalk, Prather notes, is that the guardrails will be 48 inches in height instead of 42 inches so that both pedestrians and bicyclists can enjoy the pathway.

“Our observation has been that you can’t tell cyclists where to go,” said Prather who noted that he is an avid cyclist himself. “So we’re going to construct the closest to the river pathway to accommodate both pedestrians and cyclists – right where they both want to be.”

While much work is left to do, both in terms of construction and securing funds to continue construction, the project team maintains excitement for the transformation they are overseeing.

“I’ve been an architect and a planner for the city for years, and a lot of the time you spend a lot of time and energy on plans that don’t get built,” Prather concluded. “This one [project] is different…we’re just on a roll and it’s awesome to have ideas that everyone embraces, you feel right about what you’re building, and you get the resources to actually build it. We’ve gotten a lot of cooperation from the city and county, and I feel like we’re all rowing in the same direction.”

Officials hope to complete the 45-acre park in its entirety by July 2017, excluding improvements to the river’s edge that will need to be coordinated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

STUDY: Suburban Residents Have Longest Commutes in Cincinnati Region

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The Cincinnati region scores better in several metrics that most American cities with regards to commuting patterns.

That is according to new study released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Out-of-State & Long Commutes, which shows that Cincinnatians spend three fewer minutes commuting each way when compared to the average American. The study also finds that only 2.9% of Cincinnatians spend more than 60 minutes one-way during their commute, as compared to the 8.1% national average.

The central concentration of jobs and economic power in the Cincinnati region also impacts the distribution of these travel times, with close-in neighborhoods boasting lower commute times and far-flung neighborhoods with the highest.

Cincinnati Commutes

“It is well known that Hamilton County draws a lot of commuters to work,” said Brian McKenzie, a Census Bureau statistician who studies commuting.

The draw of Hamilton County is strong. According to the Bureau, more than 188,000 people commute to and from Hamilton County each day, placing it at the top end of the spectrum in the U.S. Within Hamilton County, however, the East Side has it better off with lower average commute times, by about five minutes, as compared to the West Side.

The study also found that a mere 3.9% of Hamilton County commuters used public transportation in 2011. The rate of public transportation use is slightly lower than the national 5% average, and also does not take into account recent ridership increases that have outpaced national gains.

“The average travel time for workers who commute by public transportation is higher than that of workers who use other modes,” McKenzie continued. “For some workers, using transit is a necessity, but others simply choose a longer travel time over sitting in traffic.”

Due to the lack of a comprehensive regional transit system, approximately 79.3% of Cincinnatians are stuck behind the wheel of a car by themselves, and another 9.2% are carpooling to work each day.

The data for the study came from the American Community Survey (ACS), which collects information on education, occupation, language, ancestry, housing costs and transportation. The ACS has been ongoing in some form since 1850, approximately 60 years after the nation’s first decennial census, and is currently in jeopardy of losing its funding.

“This information shapes our understanding of the boundaries of local and regional economies, as people and goods move across the nation’s transportation networks,” McKenzie concluded.

Cities won the 2012 election for President Obama

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President Barack Obama (D) was reelected on Tuesday, November 6. President Obama won approximately 51% of the popular vote, but won in convincing fashion with the Electoral College, earning 332 out of 578 total electoral votes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, cities appeared to deliver the victory of a second term for President Obama this election season. According to Edison Research, President Obama earned approximately 69.4% of the vote in cities with more than 500,000 people, and 58.4% of the vote in cities with 50,000 to 500,000 people.

Furthermore, with the exception of Jacksonville and Salt Lake City’s home counties, President Obama won the plurality of votes in every major American city. This includes Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Akron and Youngstown in Ohio.


The President Obama won all but two counties with major cities, and swept the major demographics that are changing urban American. Map courtesy of The New York Times.

The browning of America
Cincinnati’s traditionally conservative Hamilton County has been trending more liberal over the past decade. Over that same time frame, American cities have seen a long foreseen demographic shift take root.

In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau found that minority babies are now a majority of those born in the United States, and that 50,000 Hispanics reach voting age every month. Furthermore, 11% of all U.S. counties are now majority-minority, and half of the 40 largest metropolitan regions now have a while population below 60%.

The trends, when compared with the results of the 2012 election, are profound.

According to NEP Exit Poll conducted by Edison Research, President Obama earned the vote of 92.7% of black voters, 70.6% of Hispanic voters, 73.2% of Asian voters, and 57.7% of all other non-white voters. Mitt Romney, however, did earn the vote of approximately 58.7% of white voters.

Not only are these demographic groups growing in numbers, they are increasingly showing up to vote, with both black and Hispanic voters showing up in record numbers for the second consecutive presidential election.

The single, urban woman
Single women are another increasingly powerful force behind the resurgence of cities. There are an estimated 17 million women who live alone in America, and President Obama won that voting bloc by a whopping 39%.

Sociologist Eric Klinenberg attributes the foundation for this demographic shift to larger cultural changes in American society. In his book, Going Solo, he describes the rapid entry of women into the civilian workforce over the past 40 years, the delay of marriage for young people, and the “divorce revolution” that took place during the 1970s.

In short, young people, especially young women, are much different in contemporary America than those from 50 years ago.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of women in the workforce has grown from 14.8 million in 1967 to 43.2 million in 2009. And in 2009, it is estimated that approximately 30% of all women over the age of 25 have earned a bachelor’s degree or more.

Should these trends continue, the single urban woman may continue to become an even more powerful voting bloc.

With single women and minorities becoming an increasingly dominant portion of 21st century American cities, it may force the hands both major political parties to focus more of their energy on public policies that positively relate to urban voters.

Ohio early voting rules work against voters from heavily populated counties

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Line for early voting on Saturday, November 3 outside of the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Photograph by David Pepper.

Early voting for this 2012 election season comes to an end today. Those registered to vote, in Hamilton County, will be able to do so by visiting the Board of Elections office at 824 Broadway Street from 8am to 2pm.

According to the Hamilton County Board of Elections, 564,429 people have been registered to vote in Hamilton County – a number slightly higher than that in 2008. The difference between 564,429 voters in 2012, however, is that their early voting days have been greatly reduced.

On top of the reduced number of days to vote early, voters across Ohio are only allowed to cast an early vote at one location per county. This means that voters in heavily populated counties with big cities are subjected to longer waits. So far, voters in Hamilton County have reported up to 4.5-hour-long waits downtown.

Polling numbers show an incredibly tight presidential race that may come down to how Ohio votes on Tuesday. Furthermore, with Hamilton County being the most populated swing county in Ohio, the race for the presidency may end up being decided in Cincinnati. It’s no wonder President Obama (D) held a rally before 13,500 people at the University of Cincinnati last night.

UrbanCincy would like to see all voters offered the opportunity to cast their ballot for every election. It is extremely unfortunate, however, that the cities are at the front line of having voting capacity restricted.

Not only do politicians in Washington D.C. rarely talk about cities, which include the vast majority of Americans, but the fact that a segment of those politicians are actively working to reduce the ability of urban voters to vote is truly disgusting.

While it is too late to change anything for this election, we would like to see the administration of Governor Kasich (R) move quickly to expand early voting for future elections, and expand the number of voting locations in each county based on population totals.

$809M identified for extension of I-74 through Hamilton County

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The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) published its 2011-2015 Major New Construction Program List on December 9. The list included six funding allocations totaling more than $809 million of expressway work that will set the stage for the long-envisioned extension of I-74 through Cincinnati.

The money is being allocated through the veil of the controversial Eastern Corridor Project. $115 million has been budgeted for reconstruction of the US 32 – I-275 cloverleaf, grade separation of US 32 near this interchange, and modifications to Red Bank Road that anticipate its reconstruction as a fully grade separated expressway. Another $13.8 million has also been budgeted for the long-planned $366 million US 32 bypass and Little Miami River bridge between Red Bank Road and Interstate 275.

This partial funding of all segments of the Eastern Corridor Project on ODOT’s current Program List illustrates that the project is still very much on the table, and that ODOT will likely turn its full attention and funding toward the project after the reconstruction and widening of Interstate 75 is completed later this decade.

I-74 Extension Details
Many have suspected the use of the Eastern Corridor Project was being used as a veil for an interstate project, but until now there has been no financial backing to these claims. The extension of I-74, through Hamilton County, would be realized by upgrading US 32 between I-71 and I-275, and by upgrading other stretches of local expressways to interstate status and giving them the I-74 name. Once the extension is complete, I-74 would run from its current terminus at I-75 in Cincinnati to existing sections of I-74 in North Carolina.

In such a scenario, three miles of I-75 between Northside and Bond Hill would be co-signed as I-74, the entirety of the Norwood Lateral would become I-74, and I-71 between the Lateral and Red Bank Road would be co-signed as I-74. From that point, the planned “Eastern Corridor” US 32 bypass, which is being built to interstate highway design standards, can with the stroke of a pen become I-74.

Critical pieces of such a cross-county plan will soon commence construction as part of the I-75 Millcreek Expressway project. This year, the Millcreek Expressway project will fund $9 million in modifications to the I-74 Colerain Avenue interchange near Mt. Airy Forest. The nearby I-74/75 interchange in Northside, the present site of I-74’s terminus, is scheduled to be completely reconstructed in 2013. The I-75/Norwood Lateral interchange is scheduled to be rebuilt between 2016 and 2018.

Beneficiaries of an I-74 Extension
US 32 between I-275 and eastern Ohio, completed in the late 1990’s, was built to near-interstate specifications in anticipation of its future designation as I-74. In the fifteen years since its completion, it has attracted almost zero development along its more than 200-mile path. It is unlikely that replacement of its at-grade intersections with diamond interchanges will encourage increased private investment.

In the Cincinnati area, the most obvious beneficiaries of the Eastern Corridor plan, aside from those construction companies who would actually build it, are those who control tracts of land in Clermont County, who no doubt wish to develop large-scale sprawl along US 32 outside the I-275 loop. Such a roadway would only marginally improve the area’s access to downtown Cincinnati, and therefore strengthen the position of Kenwood, Blue Ash, and other suburban areas that compete with it for jobs and commerce.

The possible designation of the Norwood Lateral as an interstate would make its reconstruction a priority, and reconfiguration of its ramps could make possible the redevelopment of vacant land in Norwood and Bond Hill. Reconstruction of the I-71/Norwood Lateral interchange could accelerate the redevelopment of the Cincinnati Milacron site.

Potential Impacts
The US 32 bypass will negatively affect property values and the quality-of-life presently enjoyed by those who reside in the Newtown area. Additionally, the Sierra Club has campaigned against the highway’s Little Miami River bridge since the concept was introduced, arguing that its construction will negatively affect the river’s wildlife.

From the 1930′s on through the 1960′s, every mile of the 43,000-mile Interstate Highway System first appeared as a line on somebody’s map. In Cincinnati, remnants of abandoned subway right-of-way gradually became parts of what we know today as I-75, I-71, and the Norwood Lateral. The idea was to spread the population of Cincinnati into suburban areas. Another cross-town freeway in the form of I-74 will further depopulate the core of our region.

Hamilton County leaders eye land banking as potential cure for area’s housing woes

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Our nation’s housing crisis and subsequent economic recession has led to an enormous increase in housing vacancy, abandonment, and foreclosures across the country. Hamilton County is no exception; the crisis has left many in the region homeless and has put a fiscal burden on local governments across the region, leaving them with the multifaceted challenges associated with widespread vacancy.

In many cases, property vacancy creates a domino effect that leads to further desertion and vacant properties within a neighborhood. This not only results in less tax revenue for cities; vacant property can also lead to increased rates of crimes such as drug dealing, prostitution, and arson. Because vacant property damages are so extensive, it is becoming more and more important for a metropolitan area to have a mechanism in place to transfer vacant property to owners who can/will pay taxes and redevelop the property.

A land bank is a tool that is growing in popularity, and on Tuesday morning local governmental and nonprofit leaders met to discuss how a Hamilton County land bank should be formed, funded and operated.

In April, Ohio Sub House Bill 313 was passed, enabling Ohio counties to create a Land Bank/County Land Reutilization Corporation (CLRC). The purpose of the CLRC is to facilitate the acquisition, reclamation, rehabilitation, and reutilization of vacant, abandoned, tax-foreclosed, and other real property. While there are still many steps that need to be taken before the CLRC is fully functional, county officials are hoping to have the land bank chartered by the end of the year.

Although no specific funding decisions were made at the meeting, there are multiple ways the CLRC can be supported fiscally. For example, the treasurer could recapture penalties and interest on delinquent taxes and assessments on behalf of the CLRC, the group could generate revenue from the resale of rehabbed property, and/or the CLRC could be authorized to issue bonds, accept gifts, and apply for grants. The recently announced NSP3 dollars can also be used to acquire homes for the CLRC.

Not only will the land bank help to address vacancy problems regionally, it will also give local CDCs and nonprofits a chance to obtain blighted property before private out-of-town investors. With a broad jurisdiction, the CLRC will be able to acquire both mortgage foreclosed and tax foreclosed properties. Moreover, the legislation allows land banks to waive delinquent taxes owed in order to clear the title on the property. This tax abatement component is crucial because often the taxes owed on abandoned property are more than the property’s actual market value.

At Tuesday’s meeting, there was a clear consensus that the land bank not just be a pilot program, but instead be a comprehensive and wide-ranging tool that helps to alleviate one of our region’s most pressing problems.

“The Board of County Commissioners want to ensure that the way this is set up is consistent with the community’s vision,” Assistant Hamilton County Administrator Jeffery Aluotto stated on Tuesday. “Land banking holds a great deal of promise as a means of addressing the increase in vacant housing stock we have seen since the recession, and the direct impacts that those vacancies have on the quality of life and economic vitality of our communities.”

With successes in Cuyahoga County and Gennessee County, Michigan, local leaders have high hopes for the potential impact that the CLRC can have on our region.

UrbanCincy will continue to follow this story as it progresses in the coming months.

Weigh in on local policy issues in 2011 Hamilton County Citizen Survey

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Officials are encouraging Hamilton County residents to take the 2011 Citizen Survey. The annual survey asks for input on 12 key issues including topics like the legalization of marijuana, public transportation investments, land banking policies, government consolidation efforts, and even a variety of election-related issues.

The survey takes approximately eight to ten minutes, and allows residents to share their opinions about difficult policy issues facing Hamilton County.

One of the biggest elements of the survey is the issue of government reform. Presently there are 49 different jurisdictions throughout Hamilton County. Many of which have overlapping services and functions, that if consolidated, could present significant cost savings for taxpayers.

Several questions also focus on jail overcrowding and criminal treatment programs. The issues at hand include how to immediately address the jail crowding issue while also solving the problem long-term in a cost-effective and socially acceptable manner. Two such solutions include the legalization of marijuana and an increased focus on treatment and prevention programs for repeat offenders.

Residents of Hamilton County can access the 2011 Citizen Survey online now by visiting the county’s website or by visiting the survey directly.