CINCINNATI — The Over-the-Rhine South Special Improvement District plans to put more "eyes on the street" in the wake of Sunday morning's shooting, according to Bobby Maly, chairman of the district and CEO of the Model Group.
"We'll have more ambassadors on the street, cleaning, eyes on the street, communicating with stakeholders, owners, visitors, to make sure that if we see anything going on we can get on top of it with the city," Maly said.
Launched in 2021, the district raises $775,000 annually from property owners and private contributions to fund "clean and safe" initiatives and beautification projects.
Maly declined to say how much additional funding will be spent on the Main Street district, but said it will not reduce the number of ambassadors already at work in other parts of the Over-the-Rhine. The street ambassadors funded by the OTR South district are managed by 3CDC under contract with the SID.
It's the latest in a series of hurdles that the Main Street business district has overcome since the early 1990s, when it led the resurgence of Over-the-Rhine with a bar district and startup community known as "Digital Rhine."
The bar district nearly perished after 1995, when musician Michael Bany was murdered following a performance on Main Street. Digital Rhine faded with the dot-com bubble of 2000. Then came the 2001 riots, which led some to believe the Main Street district would perish forever.
But then came a new wave of investments that added housing, office and retail entrepreneurs to the district, most of whom survived the COVID 19 pandemic.
"There's some intangible quality that has attracted a lot of us, myself included, to this neighborhood," Maly said. "I've been working here for the last 20 years."
John Yung has lived or worked in the Main Street business district since 2010.
"We've spent an entire generation trying to bring this neighborhood back to life," said Yung, senior project executive at Urban Fast Forward. "It has survived plenty of things and it will survive this too."
Yung said Main Street bar owners were having one of their best years since 2019 Sunday’s shooting. But the crowds they were drawing to the district have been greater than each bar’s capacity, leading to more people on the streets. City officials have said they were trying to cope with those larger crowds with an increased police presence. But Yung, who lives on Prospect Hill, suspects more will need to be done to manage those late night and early morning crowds.
Maly said the OTR South district will look for ways to have more of its orange-shirted street ambassadors during those hours. But he added the vast majority of Over-the-Rhine shootings involve people buying or selling drugs. Police haven’t concluded their investigation of the incident, but Maly suggests it would be a mistake to ask Main Street customers to leave the area when crowd counts get higher.
“The only way that we can make a neighborhood safer is to have more stakeholders who are caring on a daily basis, hourly basis about positive activities in their own community,” he said.
In a statement, 3CDC said it will work to make Over the Rhine a safe and welcoming place.
“While we believe Over-the-Rhine and the Central Business District are overwhelmingly safe, these types of isolated incidents detract from the progress that has been made over the past two decades in downtown and OTR,” the statement said. “This is a time for us to come together as a community and take every action we can to prevent this type of activity in the future. This includes the continued redevelopment of the area, which should be done hand-in-hand with good, sound community policing.”
The Over the Rhine Chamber of Commerce asked for supporters of the Main Street district to continue that support.
“We encourage everyone to ask ‘how can I help’ and follow with action, whether shopping a Main Street business or volunteering with a local OTR non-profit,” said the group’s statement. “We have hope in the collective impact of those who love Over-the-Rhine, and together, we will continue to shape it into the safest and most welcoming place possible.”
