More than 20 residents showed up to a city council meeting on Wednesday with the same message: keep Piatt Park open to everyone.
The unusually large turnout was in response to a proposal to allow the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., a nonprofit real estate development organization known as 3CDC, to lease Piatt Park.
3CDC must control the property in order to pursue nearly $128 million in state grant funding to redevelop the park and the surrounding Vine Street corridor, according to Katie Westbrook, executive vice president of 3CDC. The park renovation would account for $7 million. The Cincinnati Board of Park Commissioners voted on April 16 to authorize this proposal, but the city council has not yet approved it.
Public commenters warned that the plan could push out the people who rely on the park most.
Photo By Noah Jones | CityBeat
“They’ll lose out on food,” said Kylee Ham, president of the Registered Nurses Association of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. “When you have malnutrition, you’re more susceptible to illness because you don’t have the proper food.”
An Instagram post by the Cincinnati Practical Education Coalition said at least 150 people rely on weekend meals provided at the park.
3CDC has framed the project as a necessary response to deteriorating conditions in the park and the surrounding area since the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of drug use, just kind of unwanted behavior,” Westbrook told the parks board.
That framing drew pushback from public commenters.
Olivia Merrill, secretary of the Cincinnati chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, pointed to the park’s long history as a gathering place for people who have been, in her words, “deprioritized by corporations and wealthy people in the city.”
The proposed lease would last 39 years but could be terminated if the grant is not secured, Westbrook said. The nonprofit must control all properties included in the grant application, including surface parking lots, the Garfield Suite Hotel, and the Garfield garage in addition to the park.
Piatt Park, is the city’s oldest park, originally opened in 1887. It was last significantly updated in the 1990s, according to Rocky Merz, division manager of communications, engagement and volunteers at the Cincinnati Board of Park Commissioners.
Preliminary redevelopment concepts include expanding the area in front of the 3CDC-owned Garfield Hotel and potentially removing a dividing street while maintaining the tree canopy.
Prior to the public commentary, Mayor Aftab Pureval said the city would not sell the park, remove it from public use or interrupt social services.
“That is not going to happen on our watch,” Pureval said.
Councilmember Ryan James told CityBeat before the meeting that there had been no official council discussions and that he did not believe the city had signed a contract. In a statement, 3CDC said no immediate changes are planned and that any future improvements would require city approval and community input.
“This lease is a first step in the redevelopment process; in the interim, nothing is changing at Piatt Park,” the statement read. “The City of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Parks remain in full control of the park. Any future improvements or expansion of the park will require their approval and would include community input and engagement. We remain committed to ensuring that Piatt Park is a welcoming space for everyone.”
But the concerned citizens who spoke to the Mayor and city council want to be sure the people who rely on the park for resources can still obtain them.
“I don’t care who uses our parks, as long as they keep them as nice as they found them,” said Anna Sullivan, a local attorney.