CINCINNATI — Cincinnatians voted in favor of selling the municipal-owned Cincinnati Southern Railway on Nov. 7, but the city wasn't overwhelmingly in favor of the transaction.
Issue 22 passed with 52% of the vote — just over 2,500 votes made the difference in a city of more than 200,000 registered voters.
Votes for and against the sale of the railroad predominantly came down to one factor: Where in Cincinnati the voters lived.
Voters in districts on Cincinnati's east side voted mostly in favor of the sale, with just a couple of exceptions. Voters in districts on Cincinnati's west side, however, voted more solidly against the sale, with a few exceptions.
Here's how each district in Cincinnati voted on Issue 22
The divide is stark, but not shocking.
The process to get the railroad sale on the Nov. 7 ballot was a long one and along the way, some Cincinnatians didn't like what they were hearing as officials discussed what they hoped they could do with the funds if the sale went through.
City leaders promised they'd spend the annual interest of the trust fund from the sale's $1.6 billion on improving existing infrastructure within Cincinnati. But many residents felt that promise, which isn't fully guaranteed in Issue 22's ballot language, wasn't guaranteed to every Cincinnati neighborhood equitably.
In October, the Cincinnati Black United Front submitted a draft of a proposed ordinance to city council members, requesting the city use funds from the sale to pay reparations and work to close the city's racial wealth gap.
But the request was about more than money. Pastor Damon Lynch III said at the time he was a "hard no" on the sale of the railway because he felt there hadn't been enough outreach in Black communities, but if voters approved the sale he said he still wanted to make sure Cincinnati's Black communities weren't forgotten.
Roughly one week later, city leaders announced they would hold three community workshops to gain feedback on what was giving residents reason to hesitate about the sale.
After that, three Cincinnati city council members introduced a motion to prioritize equity while spending money the city would get from the sale. City officials recognized 15 different neighborhoods as traditionally underserved within Cincinnati.
That motion proposed more money from the railroad sale go to projects involving existing infrastructure within those communities:
- Villages at Roll Hill
- Millvale
- English Woods
- Lower Price Hill
- Queensgate
- Winton Hills
- South Fairmount
- West End
- East Westwood
- Avondale
- Roselawn
- Mt. Airy
- East Price Hill
- South Cumminsville
- North Fairmount
For the most part, this promise seems to have helped city leaders pass Issue 22.
The districts on Cincinnati's west side that did not join with the rest and instead voted in favor of the railroad sale were located in or near many of these neighborhoods, including Villages at Roll Hill, Millvale, English Woods, Lower Price Hill and Mt. Airy.
Some of those districts still passed Issue 22 by the slimmest margins, however. Cincinnati district 26, which partially overlaps into English Woods, passed the issue by just one vote.
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