CINCINNATI — In the wake of a mass shooting, city leaders said they are poised to "get things right" on Main Street.
“The city has been working ever since to develop a strategy to make sure that we can prevent that kind of violence and prevent the mass shooting from happening again. While balancing the need to maintain Main Street as a diverse, vibrant, and beautiful part of our city,” Mayor Aftab Pureval said.
During an online town hall meeting, Pureval said the city has deployed several short-term interventions to help make the Main Street corridor through Over-the-Rhine safer after nine people were shot on Aug. 7.
“We made it a point to be out in the community to solicit feedback," Pureval said. "As with our violence prevention plans, we deploy them and assess/reassess them to make sure they’re effective and collaborative. And make sure the community has been heard."
Some of those safety interventions were still evident Tuesday. Sidewalks were lined with metal barricades, no parking signs were attached to parking meters, and mobile lights were installed on street corners.
Those measures, though, were not welcomed by many residents and business owners.
“Whoever put them up, they should come take them down today,” Kevin Norris said. “I don’t think any of these things right here are going to stop a shooting at the end of the day. It’s a huge inconvenience to people like me in a wheelchair, and other people walking down the sidewalk.”
"These little metal posts aren’t going to stop somebody from pulling a gun out and shooting someone if they want to," Kevin Norris, from Colerain, said the barricades have made it difficult to get anywhere in his wheelchair on Main Street. pic.twitter.com/AwcC0ssi3P
— Jake Ryle (@JakeWCPO) August 16, 2022
The city did send staff members out to Main Street to push the barricades closer to surrounding businesses, but Urban Transit OTR co-owner Carl Hunt said business owners have struggled over the past week.
"I didn’t feel like it was going to do anything other than deter people from coming down here. It’s definitely done that," Hunt said. “There’s a little bit of foot traffic last week, but how the barricades are everywhere ... there’s no one down here. The past week and a half there has been nothing going on on the street.”
During Tuesday’s Zoom meeting, Pureval said the focus of the safety implementations is not to target folks living on or near Main Street.
“Rather focus on improving the public safety of the area — things like gun violence and pedestrian safety, as we’ve talked about, while also making sure businesses are thriving and strong,” he said.
The mayor mentioned multiple times the need for the city to gather feedback from people who live nearby. He said they are assessing and reassessing the needs of all.
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