A single word can say a lot, and that's why the word "diversity" was expunged from a list of 12 goals for planning Hamilton County's future.
The word was dropped by a group of government and civic leaders called the Planning Partnership, charged with refining goals collected from public input.
The list of goals was supposed to be community-driven, part of Community Compass, billed as a way for citizens to influence county planning. But conservative political leaders objected to some of the language in the goals and, as a result, "diversity" didn't make the cut.
'The biggest problem is we don't know it'
Community Compass started two years ago, an effort to update the county's 1964 master plan. Each of Hamilton County's 49 political jurisdictions agreed to fund the process, paying $500 to $5,000 each.
In January 2002 the planning commission gathered more than 1,000 people for a town hall meeting to brainstorm ideas for the new master plan. Last summer, teams comprised by a broad variety of residents wrote a list of 12 goals for the county.
The list included increasing mobility, wise management of natural resources, improving economic development and improving education.
Few would disagree with those broad goals. But eventually county planners will lead Community Compass participants to suggest specific actions by specific parties to achieve the goals. That's where the conflict will intensify.
Suburbanites fear they'll have to compromise their quality of life to accomplish some of the goals in Community Compass, such as reducing inequity of all types, according to Anderson Township's Russ Jackson Jr. This is especially true when someone brings up regional government, he says.
"Their first reaction is that all that people want is (for) us to give up all our good things without receiving anything positive in return," Jackson says.
In Anderson Township, 87 percent of homes are single-family, owner-occupied. Yet people there know the township's fate is linked to Cincinnati's, according to Jackson, chief executive officer of Peterbilt Cincinnati and a township trustee.
"We very much want the downtown area to be successful and vibrant," he says. "We don't want the core of our community to be in Butler County, for crying out loud."
Anderson Township residents don't want to commute to Butler County or Warren County for work. They'll just move there, Jackson says.
Suburban officials want to see tough leadership clean up Cincinnati's streets — someone like former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Jackson says.
Symmes Township Trustee Kathy Wagner says city leaders spend too much time "bickering with themselves."
Township trustees want to help the city, according to Wagner, president of the Hamilton County Township Trustees Association. But township leaders draw the line at encouraging more public housing in the suburbs. The vast majority of the Tristate's public housing has always been inside Cincinnati, but Wagner thinks Symmes Township has enough.
"We don't want anymore," she says.
Wagner also says Symmes Township is a "diverse" place already, with whites, African Americans and immigrants from Russia and China.
"We're not discriminatory at all," she says.
Ron Miller, director of the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, doesn't underestimate the challenge of getting residents to see eye-to-eye. During a recent event, he says, Dan Radford, secretary-treasurer of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, summed up the Tristate's main impediment.
"The biggest problem is not that we're a racist community, but that we don't know it," said Miller, quoting Radford. "Until we recognize there's a problem, it can't be solved."
'Something has to be done'
In 1999 the Fannie Mae Foundation asked urban scholars around the country to pick their top 10 past and future trends in American cities. As part of Community Compass, the Regional Planning Commission asked local experts to name the trends that will most affect the county in the next 50 years. The 25 participants include representatives of local colleges, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and social services.
Their effort shaped "External Influences: The Impact of National Trends on Hamilton County's Future," released last month by the Planning Commission.
The 89-page analysis is a handy guide to some of the major issues facing the county in the next half-century. The participants were not optimistic.
In the past 50 years, highways, malls, air conditioners and the closing of urban factories all rate high as influences on American cities.
In the next 50 years, growing urban inequality, more outer highways and the decline of the first suburbs should have major effects on U.S. cities, according to "External Influences."
The Fannie Mae panel ranked growing disparities of wealth as the top influence of the next 50 years. Next on the list are the emerging suburban political majority and the aging of the Baby Boomers.
The local panel named inequality in education, political fragmentation and racial/ ethnic/economic discrimination as the top three local influences.
Many of the national influences and trends can't be changed, such as the aging of the Baby Boomers.
"You just have to plan for the consequences of these things," Miller says.
Surprisingly, the lists of national and local future influences share only two factors: the decline of inner-ring suburbs and growing disparities of wealth.
But more startling still, all of the local influences cited by the local panel are problems — not trends — Miller says.
"I tend to agree with the respondents that currently the 10 biggest influences are problems," he says. "I think that can change, though."
But change is sure to meet resistance in the suburbs of Hamilton County.
Wagner even rejects the idea that the quality of education in the county makes it harder for people to succeed. If students work hard enough, they can create opportunities for themselves, she says.
Wagner says she used to visit downtown a lot but thinks it isn't as safe as it used to be. She admits neither she nor anyone she knows has been a downtown crime victim. But she cites unruly kids cussing and bumping into people.
"Something has to be done about the crime," she says. "Something has to be done about the panhandling."
Wagner says she'd like to see Over-the-Rhine redeveloped but thinks people hesitate to invest there for fear of more riots.
Still, she believes Community Compass will serve an important purpose. The county and the city have been losing population, so something needs to be done.
"We realize that Cincinnati has to thrive, because without Cincinnati we're hurt," Wagner says.
Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes is less enthusiastic. Every decade or so, he says, a commission or panel brings up these issues and talks about political fragmentation and regional government.
If Rhodes were in charge of the process, he "wouldn't be talking about issues that divide us." Instead he'd focus on luring businesses and cutting taxes.
"It's a great place to raise a family," Rhodes says.
A 2000 survey by the planning commission seemed to share that view. In a survey of more than 1,100 households, 80 percent said they're satisfied with living in Hamilton County. About 35 percent said they were very satisfied.
"As long as that condition exists, there's not much room for substantial change," Miller says.
Top 10 influences on Hamilton County in the next 50 years, according to a panel asked in 2003 by the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission:
1. Disparities in education quality
2. Fragmentation of political interests
3. Racial, ethnic and economic discrimination
4. Weakening of the urban core
5. Population loss
6. Deterioration of the inner-ring suburbs
7. Growing disparities of wealth
8. New economy
9. Quality and diversity of cultural amenities
10. Education's poor funding
Top 10 national influences on American cities in the next 50 years, according to national panel asked in 1999 by the Fannie Mae Foundation:
1. Growing disparities of wealth
2. Suburban political majority
3. Aging of the Baby Boomers
4. Perpetual "underclass" in central cities and inner suburbs
5. Smart growth
6. The Internet
7. Deterioration of the "first-ring" post-1945 suburbs
8. Shrinking household size
9. Expanded superhighway system of "outer beltways" to serve new edge cities
10. Racial integration as part of the increasing diversity in cities and suburbs
Source: External Influences: The Impact of National Trends on Hamilton County's Future
For more information about External Influences, the Planning Partnership and Community Compass, visit the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission's Web site at The word was dropped by a group of government and civic leaders called the Planning Partnership, charged with refining goals collected from public input.
The list of goals was supposed to be community-driven, part of Community Compass, billed as a way for citizens to influence county planning. But conservative political leaders objected to some of the language in the goals and, as a result, "diversity" didn't make the cut.
'The biggest problem is we don't know it'
Community Compass started two years ago, an effort to update the county's 1964 master plan. Each of Hamilton County's 49 political jurisdictions agreed to fund the process, paying $500 to $5,000 each.
In January 2002 the planning commission gathered more than 1,000 people for a town hall meeting to brainstorm ideas for the new master plan. Last summer, teams comprised by a broad variety of residents wrote a list of 12 goals for the county.
The list included increasing mobility, wise management of natural resources, improving economic development and improving education.
Few would disagree with those broad goals. But eventually county planners will lead Community Compass participants to suggest specific actions by specific parties to achieve the goals. That's where the conflict will intensify.
Suburbanites fear they'll have to compromise their quality of life to accomplish some of the goals in Community Compass, such as reducing inequity of all types, according to Anderson Township's Russ Jackson Jr. This is especially true when someone brings up regional government, he says.
"Their first reaction is that all that people want is (for) us to give up all our good things without receiving anything positive in return," Jackson says.
In Anderson Township, 87 percent of homes are single-family, owner-occupied. Yet people there know the township's fate is linked to Cincinnati's, according to Jackson, chief executive officer of Peterbilt Cincinnati and a township trustee.
"We very much want the downtown area to be successful and vibrant," he says. "We don't want the core of our community to be in Butler County, for crying out loud."
Anderson Township residents don't want to commute to Butler County or Warren County for work. They'll just move there, Jackson says.
Suburban officials want to see tough leadership clean up Cincinnati's streets — someone like former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Jackson says.
Symmes Township Trustee Kathy Wagner says city leaders spend too much time "bickering with themselves."
Township trustees want to help the city, according to Wagner, president of the Hamilton County Township Trustees Association. But township leaders draw the line at encouraging more public housing in the suburbs. The vast majority of the Tristate's public housing has always been inside Cincinnati, but Wagner thinks Symmes Township has enough.
"We don't want anymore," she says.
Wagner also says Symmes Township is a "diverse" place already, with whites, African Americans and immigrants from Russia and China.
"We're not discriminatory at all," she says.
Ron Miller, director of the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, doesn't underestimate the challenge of getting residents to see eye-to-eye. During a recent event, he says, Dan Radford, secretary-treasurer of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, summed up the Tristate's main impediment.
"The biggest problem is not that we're a racist community, but that we don't know it," said Miller, quoting Radford. "Until we recognize there's a problem, it can't be solved."
'Something has to be done'
In 1999 the Fannie Mae Foundation asked urban scholars around the country to pick their top 10 past and future trends in American cities. As part of Community Compass, the Regional Planning Commission asked local experts to name the trends that will most affect the county in the next 50 years. The 25 participants include representatives of local colleges, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and social services.
Their effort shaped "External Influences: The Impact of National Trends on Hamilton County's Future," released last month by the Planning Commission.
The 89-page analysis is a handy guide to some of the major issues facing the county in the next half-century. The participants were not optimistic.
In the past 50 years, highways, malls, air conditioners and the closing of urban factories all rate high as influences on American cities.
In the next 50 years, growing urban inequality, more outer highways and the decline of the first suburbs should have major effects on U.S. cities, according to "External Influences."
The Fannie Mae panel ranked growing disparities of wealth as the top influence of the next 50 years. Next on the list are the emerging suburban political majority and the aging of the Baby Boomers.
The local panel named inequality in education, political fragmentation and racial/ ethnic/economic discrimination as the top three local influences.
Many of the national influences and trends can't be changed, such as the aging of the Baby Boomers.
"You just have to plan for the consequences of these things," Miller says.
Surprisingly, the lists of national and local future influences share only two factors: the decline of inner-ring suburbs and growing disparities of wealth.
But more startling still, all of the local influences cited by the local panel are problems — not trends — Miller says.
"I tend to agree with the respondents that currently the 10 biggest influences are problems," he says. "I think that can change, though."
But change is sure to meet resistance in the suburbs of Hamilton County.
Wagner even rejects the idea that the quality of education in the county makes it harder for people to succeed. If students work hard enough, they can create opportunities for themselves, she says.
Wagner says she used to visit downtown a lot but thinks it isn't as safe as it used to be. She admits neither she nor anyone she knows has been a downtown crime victim. But she cites unruly kids cussing and bumping into people.
"Something has to be done about the crime," she says. "Something has to be done about the panhandling."
Wagner says she'd like to see Over-the-Rhine redeveloped but thinks people hesitate to invest there for fear of more riots.
Still, she believes Community Compass will serve an important purpose. The county and the city have been losing population, so something needs to be done.
"We realize that Cincinnati has to thrive, because without Cincinnati we're hurt," Wagner says.
Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes is less enthusiastic. Every decade or so, he says, a commission or panel brings up these issues and talks about political fragmentation and regional government.
If Rhodes were in charge of the process, he "wouldn't be talking about issues that divide us." Instead he'd focus on luring businesses and cutting taxes.
"It's a great place to raise a family," Rhodes says.
A 2000 survey by the planning commission seemed to share that view. In a survey of more than 1,100 households, 80 percent said they're satisfied with living in Hamilton County. About 35 percent said they were very satisfied.
"As long as that condition exists, there's not much room for substantial change," Miller says.
Top 10 influences on Hamilton County in the next 50 years, according to a panel asked in 2003 by the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission:
1. Disparities in education quality
2. Fragmentation of political interests
3. Racial, ethnic and economic discrimination
4. Weakening of the urban core
5. Population loss
6. Deterioration of the inner-ring suburbs
7. Growing disparities of wealth
8. New economy
9. Quality and diversity of cultural amenities
10. Education's poor funding
Top 10 national influences on American cities in the next 50 years, according to national panel asked in 1999 by the Fannie Mae Foundation:
1. Growing disparities of wealth
2. Suburban political majority
3. Aging of the Baby Boomers
4. Perpetual "underclass" in central cities and inner suburbs
5. Smart growth
6. The Internet
7. Deterioration of the "first-ring" post-1945 suburbs
8. Shrinking household size
9. Expanded superhighway system of "outer beltways" to serve new edge cities
10. Racial integration as part of the increasing diversity in cities and suburbs
Source: External Influences: The Impact of National Trends on Hamilton County's Future
For more information about External Influences, the Planning Partnership and Community Compass, visit the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission's Web site at www.hamilton-co.org/hcrpc, www.planningpartnership.org or www.communitycompass.org.
