Yesterday that meant giving Mayor Mallory a tour of "what's working" in Price Hill, namely:
- razing vacant buildings
- condemning and razing buildings that house nuisance tenants who produce lots of police runs
- local businesses with commitment and vision that serve the community
- surveillance cameras (Glenway Avenue will soon have thirty)
We vigorously applaud every such effort to improve this part of Our Fair City, as well as other parts. Keeping in mind the fundamental problem in Cincinnati of aged, substandard housing stock, we think that efforts like these can improve the quality of life for Cincinnati's citizens.
We'll go so far as to say that Price Hill is about to turn around. We concede that the turnaround may take awhile, like our lifetime plus ten years. But the fundamental factors that led to the neighborhood first being settled, i.e. its proximity to the central commerce and transportation center of the city, will make it resilient.
1 comment:
The nuisant tenants that you speak of are those that have been left out of the lottery of life. And they have been superficially held back by the racist and greedy power structure of this country.
The educational establishment didn't teach them. The Salvation army didn't cloth them. And as they came of age, the tobacco companies addicted them. The beer companies keep them drunk and the snack companies are fattening them up. The gun companies arm them, and K-mart sells them armor piercing ammunition.
Rumpke refuses to pick up the trash from their yards. Dan the Barber (who people mistakenly think is a pillar of the Price Hill / Covedale community) doesn't cut their hair or shave them.
P&G won't wash their clothes, and because of that I refuse to buy Tide detergent or Dawn dishwashing soap.
The Department of Family and Children's Services hasn't job-trained them. And the job market has excluded them.
It is not buildings and roads and businesses that make a community. It is the people that make a community. And these people are people. They are the people of Price Hill, the people of the Price Hill community.
Rather than disparaging them for no good reason, you should follow their example. They are happy with themselves and are not unhappy with you. They are also not unhappy with your unhappiness with them. So you can continue in your unhappiness, all the way until 10 years beyond your metabolism. Or you could choose to be happy the way they have chosen to be happy. So, I urge you to join the community as I have.
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