Cover Story: Cincinnati CAN? No, Cincinnati MUST

The summer of 2001 has been a season of waiting in Cincinnati. We’re waiting for action on the multitude of problems causing the racial divide here. Waiting for the shootings and killings to stop. Waiting for the black cloud over our city to lift. Waiting to feel a little bit better.

Mostly, we’re waiting for someone to tell us how to get out of this mess.

A few Cincinnatians, however, decided not to wait this summer. They haven’t been lulled to sleep with vague promises of “fundamental changes” and “action now” but instead have become activists — marching at food festivals, organizing boycotts and making demands on city officials.

They might not have accomplished much — except possibly triggering a backlash from the city’s white power structure — but at least these activists have kept the major issues alive and in the public consciousness. That’s more than most of us can say.

Most of us, it seems, have pinned our hopes for a great leap forward on the official blue-ribbon panel convened by Mayor Charlie Luken, Cincinnati CAN (Community Action Now). Formed in the wake of April’s riots, the task force was envisioned as the best way for the city to come up with solutions to the problems that caused them.

“We’ve got to make some fundamental changes,” Luken declared following the riots.

“This commission must be empowered to stick with the process until results are delivered,” said one of the group’s co-chairs, Ross Love, at the press conference announcing the panel’s formation.

Yet, four months later, Cincinnati CAN really hasn’t. While members of one of the organization’s six subcommittees went on a high-profile fact-finding mission to Boston last week, members of another subcommittee were just being named.

The total membership of Cincinnati CAN has ballooned beyond 125 people, and there’s still no real sense of when, where and how any of the subcommittees are meeting. All of which means that debates, discussion and consensus-building — not to mention actual solutions — remain a long way off.

We’re not impugning the good intentions of those who’ve agreed to serve on Cincinnati CAN. We imagine that they, as much as anyone, want to find ways to move our city forward. Everyone’s busy with work and vacations and the daily grind, so we know it must be difficult to get high-powered business executives together for another meeting.

But if there were any sense of urgency about the problems facing Cincinnati, we have to think this organization would have named its members, met and announced recommendations by now. Vacations can be put off, and business-as-usual can be rescheduled.

It can’t be that hard to get together, hash out the problems and devise some solutions, can it? We don’t think so — especially if the vitality and indeed the future of our city depend on it.

So CityBeat formed its own alternative blue-ribbon panel (our editorial staff), met a few times and developed a nine-point plan for dealing with the core issues surrounding Cincinnati’s racial divide.

We call the plan Cincinnati MUST. Sure, it can stand as a catchy acronym (Mobilize, Understand, Sustain, Tolerate), but mostly we think it communicates a sense of determination and urgency about the state of affairs here. Failure is not an option anymore.

At one point we had 15 to 20 ideas on the table, but we narrowed them down to nine — three each in the areas of government structure, city operations and police reform. None of them are brand-new concepts; many have been adapted from ideas or demands put forth by activist groups, business leaders and even Cincinnati City Council.

But each of the nine recommendations offers specific ideas that can be implemented quickly, that don’t cost a lot of money and whose effectiveness can be measured.

We tried not to be too narrowly focused on the riots and their aftermath. There’s no mention of amnesty for rioters or prosecution of police who shot innocent bystanders with nonlethal ammunition — those and other such issues must be addressed on their own.

We also tried not to be too broad. Increased spending for public transportation and more city support of the arts, for instance, are issues CityBeat backs 100 percent — which also can contribute to healing our city’s racial divide — but they’re not among the first nine things the city must do right now.

We also avoided suggesting projects that cost millions of new dollars. As tempting as it is to think wads of taxpayer money can solve any civic problem, Cincinnati’s recent past proves otherwise. And since it won’t cost much, we avoid the potential conflict — as some backlash boosters suggest — of activists pressuring the city to spend money that ultimately might end up in their own pockets.

Any or all of these recommendations can be implemented immediately — no reason to wait for a new mayor, a new city manager, new council members or a new panel’s report. Any or all of them can be put in place and not take anything away from Cincinnati CAN’s future recommendations, which likely will be more sweeping and deeper-reaching anyway.

It’s not complicated
The greatest peril facing Cincinnati is not violence, whether black-on-black, black-on-white or cop-on-citizen. The most serious threat facing this city is complacency. At great danger do we pretend the battle is o’er.

This city is ready to pop; we’re a conflagration waiting to happen. The problem is not the change that’s coming but rather the pace and the scope of that change. We are in a time of second chances, and we dare not delay further.

The mediation process in the racial-profiling lawsuit, the six “action teams” of Cincinnati CAN, the U.S. Justice Department investigation and the many citizens’ forums on race and police violence are valuable — indeed, essential — for our future. But even as we plan for the years ahead, there are steps Cincinnati must take now.

This nine-point plan will go a long way toward reestablishing trust in the police, ending our city’s reputation for intolerance and improving essential city services.

The chief must resign
Cincinnati City Council has a strange way of disciplining employees: It gives them more money. City Manager John Shirey is only the most obvious example, ousted in a coup that guaranteed him six months to look for a job, plus a $70,000 bonus when he leaves.

Perhaps more egregious is the $250,000 in overtime pay council gave the police division last week. After the indictment of Officer Stephen Roach in the death of Timothy Thomas, Cincinnati Police began a conspicuous slowdown in black neighborhoods.

The message was plain, and the results were predictable. The police held Cincinnati hostage, with both the chief and the union president justifying the slowdown as the inevitable result of public criticism. As police laid low, blood flowed in inner-city neighborhoods. Since April, 80-plus shootings have occurred, an increase of more than 900 percent over the same period last year.

But instead of expressing outrage at police conduct, council has rewarded the slowdown. The old bromide is again in fashion: “We must support the police.” The same mayor who said earlier that “too many” African-American men have been killed by Cincinnati Police now leads the parade to support the cops. Thus when police held back from protecting citizens in the months since the riots, city council rewarded their peevishness by appropriating an additional quarter of a million dollars for overtime.

Police Chief Thomas Streicher never officially acknowledged the slowdown. But he didn’t have to. By echoing the union’s complaint about public criticism, he gave a wink and a nod to officers to hold back until he gave the signal — the new violent-crimes task force he launched July 12.

Streicher’s complicity in the slowdown is the latest in a series of unsavory incidents, any one of which should have disqualified him from serving as police chief. Reprimanded for calling a black sergeant a “nigger,” Streicher has presided over a department that has seen three officers indicted in the deaths of suspects since November.

The city’s black community has experienced the worst excesses, but they’re not the only victims. In November, the police division mounted a massive show of force to stop a series of peaceful protests against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue, arresting dozens of protesters and using tear gas and Mace to disperse them. But every protester who pleaded not guilty came away vindicated.

The pattern continued in June when police sprayed and arrested nonviolent protesters in Mount Adams following the March for Justice. So far everyone one who fought the charges in court has been acquitted.

Yet instead of ordering a thorough review of training, procedures or policies in order to eliminate excessive force, Streicher has been recalcitrant. When the FBI started investigating six officers who fired on a peaceful crowd in April, he yanked the police division’s participation from a federal task force on violent crime. As a show of solidarity with the rank and file, his behavior has been on target. But the target unfortunately is us, the public.

Streicher’s term has been a disaster for the city. The police division is out of control, sometimes behaving as though the public were its enemy rather than its employer. The necessary first step to restoring public confidence in the Cincinnati Police Division is the resignation of Chief Streicher.

Like Shirey, Streicher should resign effective Dec. 1. That way, if the civil service ballot initiative passes, Cincinnati can conduct a national search for Streicher’s replacement.

A new police chief, of course, is only a start. More vigorous enforcement of policies intended to protect citizens is also in order. That’s why the Citizens Police Review Panel should have subpoena power.

Keith Fangman, president of the Queen City Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, often argues police already face too much scrutiny. In addition to internal affairs investigators, cops face potential inquiries by the Office of Municipal Investigation and prosecutors.

But the state of police-community relations in Cincinnati calls out for more accountability, not less. Distrust — and, yes, fear — of police officers in this city has reached an intolerable level. Giving the Citizens Review Panel the power to independently investigate alleged misconduct by police will help restore public faith in the people enforcing the law.

That’s also why foot patrols are so important right now in Over-the-Rhine and elsewhere. If police want to eliminate the suspicion and hostility their presence sometimes causes, the best vehicle for improving relations is no vehicle at all. Officers on foot can interact with residents too long accustomed to seeing officers only behind the wheels of patrol cars, keeping their distance.

The benefit of foot patrols is no mystery. Face-to-face communication enhances cooperation. If police truly want to work with African Americans in Over-the-Rhine and other troubled neighborhoods, they must get out of their cars and be among the people whose support they seek.

We have to go there, too
Police aren’t the only people who should be walking in Over-the-Rhine. So should you.

Cincinnati’s concentration on downtown and the riverfront has neglected the city’s original neighborhood. While we’ve built a $500 million football palace on the Ohio River, we’ve let decay and despair overcome Over-the-Rhine.

Instead of treasuring the neighborhood that once housed so many thousands of our forebears, we look at Over-the-Rhine as a place of blight and crime — for so we have made it. If ever there were doubt that the neighborhood had become a dumping ground for Cincinnati’s disenfranchised — poor black, poor white, unemployed, addicted — the police strategy during the April unrest dispelled it.

By drawing a line on Central Parkway, prohibiting demonstrators from crossing into the downtown business district, police effectively contained the fury in Over-the-Rhine, deepening the impression that the neighborhood and its residents are expendable.

But the city learned the hard way that anger cannot be restricted; once ignited, it will spread to other neighborhoods. If Over-the-Rhine burns, Hyde Park will soon be made to feel the heat.

We must make a priority of saving Over-the-Rhine, and the first step is reclaiming the 500 or so vacant buildings in that neighborhood. City council should pass ordinances to compel the forfeiture of buildings vacant more than a year and provide low-interest loans to facilitate rehabilitation of the structures by owner-occupants. In the case of buildings whose condition makes rehabilitation prohibitive, the city should expedite demolition to make room for new, affordable owner-occupied housing.

This is the one proposal that could cost significant new money, but it’s an investment in neighborhoods the city should be doing anyway.

We must make Over-the-Rhine a desirable place to live, including finishing the improvements to Findlay Market. More than the city’s favorite grocery, Findlay Market is a vital link between the residents of Over-the-Rhine and the people who moved away.

Because the market has such a strong hold on Cincinnati’s memory, it provides one of the constant sources of intersection and contact between black and white, city dweller and suburbanite. The market deserves our attention not only because it recalls our past but because it’s essential to our future.

The city already has in place a plan for improving and expanding Findlay Market. It’s been stalled since the riots and compounded further by the resignation of Tom Jackson, the city employee responsible for overseeing the market.

The plan is a sound one, and funding is in place. There’s no reason it shouldn’t move forward as soon as possible.

Because of the market’s importance both as a symbol and as an economic mainstay of Over-the-Rhine, the city should afford it all the importance we gave the construction of the new football stadium. Ten Bengals home games a year will pale beside the value of a vibrant market in a revitalized urban neighborhood.

We must give people reasons to want to live in the city. Another way to help do so is to restore a residency requirement for all city employees. We already make provisions in civil-service procedures to encourage the hiring of racial minorities, women and military veterans. It’s time to provide help to an increasingly diminishing class: city residents.

Cincinnati lost nearly 10 percent of its population in the decade between 1990 and 2000. We should make city employment an incentive to stay in the city.

Let those who work here live here, the better to invest them in public service worthy of the name.

Let those who live here work here, the better to encourage citizen participation in making Cincinnati a desirable place to be.

Injustice for one is injustice for all
We should also end incentives for staying away. We must repeal Article 12 of the city charter — codified by the passage of Issue 3 in 1993 — which singles out gays and lesbians for discrimination.

Mayor Luken’s angry denunciation of a boycott organized by the Black United Front has a certain irony. Cincinnati already suffers the effects of a boycott-in-fact, without the name. Since voters passed Issue 3, enshrining anti-gay discrimination, the city has lost an estimated $64 million in convention business.

The anti-gay legislation is a major obstacle to a proposed Summer Olympics and is a pernicious distinction for a city whose recent legacy features the anti-Semitic rantings of Marge Schott and the prosecution of the Contemporary Arts Center on obscenity charges for exhibiting Robert Mapplethorpe photographs. This city, so widely derided for intolerance, is the only one in the nation whose charter expressly discriminates against homosexuals.

Cincinnati loves to tout its international business links and the cultural amenities that make it a “world-class city.” But we remain in some ways a small town mired in the basest provincialism. We treat diversity as a problem, even a threat. As vile as the racial injustice is in this city, at least we have moved beyond legal segregation of the races; racial prejudice is a function of attitudes and practices, not ordinance.

But that’s not the case for gays and lesbians in Cincinnati, who continue to suffer under a sexual Jim Crow law. We must end it now.

The need for diversity — for new ideas and new ways of looking at things — also calls for passage of civil-service reform. The measure city council has put on the November ballot isn’t perfect. In typical fashion, council went out of its way to protect the status quo even as it tried to implement change. Thus the charter amendment would allow the city to hire a new police chief or other department heads from outside the city — but only after the people now holding those jobs retire or otherwise vacate their posts.

Finally, we must make City Hall a place driven by a spirit of public service. Too often residents and businesses are stymied by the city’s complex and inefficient bureaucracy. A legitimate request for services often is sent from office to office with no one taking ultimate responsibility for its resolution. In other cases, there simply seems to be no one to turn to when trying to identify how to address a situation.

City council should create and adequately fund an office of city ombudsman, answerable to the city manager and charged with the task of advocating for residents who have difficulty in obtaining city services. The office of ombudsman would partner with citizens and businesses to navigate through the frustrating maze of regulations, permits, policies and bureaucratic inattention that make up the ordinary person’s contact with city government.

Citizens frustrated by slow police response or unable to make sense of building-permit rules could find in the office of the ombudsman a way to have their concerns addressed.

The business world has learned the value of serving customers to create greater satisfaction. Our city must adopt the same philosophy: By working with citizens, we can move our community forward.

Resist the backlash
Just four months ago, Cincinnati was under lockdown. After three days of unrest, shocked city leaders promised quick attention to the issues that led to rioting.

But how quickly the conversation in Cincinnati has turned to repairing its image and restoring its reputation. We want the Olympics. We want conventions. We want new business downtown and more tourists at our festivals.

We want, in effect, to go back to the way things used to be, only more so. Such changes as have been wrought since April reinforce the misbegotten notion that Cincinnati is essentially in good order, with only a bit of tweaking at the edges necessary.

We want change that doesn’t hurt, change without cost. Perhaps most foolish of all, we want change without admitting we need it. In just four months we have so wearied of protests and angry voices that the backlash is full-on.

Witness Mayor Luken’s first campaign commercial, which has offered something he’s lacked throughout his term: a theme. But what an unfortunate theme it is. Having pondered the city’s civil-rights crisis, the best Luken could come up with is, “It’s time to say no.”

It would be hard to find a better illustration of what’s wrong in Cincinnati. Not enough for Luken to reject the boycott; he has also to demonize its advocates. Their agenda, he says, is nothing less than to “tear down our city.” In a city recently traumatized by rioting, could any description be more damning?

The mayor’s description is wrong. We know the people behind the boycott. They are ministers who bravely stood between riot police and protesters, preventing a bloodbath. They are longtime community activists, working for a pittance and doing great good in Over-the-Rhine. Their goal isn’t to tear down our city — they want to build it up, to make it more just. That’s the goal of the economic sanctions.

A strong case can be made against the efficacy of a boycott of Cincinnati. But casting it as an effort to destroy the city — a kind of riot without any actual burning and looting — is a none-too-subtle racial slur. In his blue suit and stern voice, poised oh so in-charge on the corner of his desk, Luken vowed to fight the boycott “with every ounce of energy I have.”

Consider what good the mayor might have done. He could have turned the ad into an invitation to both tourists and his African-American constituents: “Yes, Cincinnati has problems, and we’re working on them. Won’t you come and join us?”

Cincinnati needs change now. We are a community in crisis. Only by acting with determination can we forestall further violence and build a city where justice — not race, not class — rules the streets, governs the marketplace and guides City Hall.

It’s no longer a matter of what Cincinnati CAN do. This is what we MUST do.

· Cincinnati MUST demand the resignation of Police Chief Thomas Streicher.

· Cincinnati MUST establish police foot patrols in Over-the-Rhine and other troubled neighborhoods.

· Cincinnati MUST give the Citizens Police Review Panel subpoena power.

· Cincinnati MUST finish the stalled rehabilitation of Findlay Market.

· Cincinnati MUST clean up the abandoned buildings in Over-the-Rhine.

· Cincinnati MUST require city employees to live in the city.

· Cincinnati MUST end official discrimination against gays and lesbians by repealing Article 12 of the city charter.

· Cincinnati MUST enact civil-service reform, making department heads more accountable and opening city services to outside ideas and personnel, by passing the civil service ballot initiative on Nov. 6.

· Cincinnati MUST establish an ombudsman’s office empowered to help citizens cut through the bureaucracy and gain access to city services.

This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2001.