Latest news with #ConnectedCommunities
Business Journals
05-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
As primary nears, Mayor Aftab Pureval touts Connected Communities at new rowhouse development
In order to build 29 new townhomes in Evanston, developer Onyx + East needed 36 variances from Cincinnati's zoning code, more evidence the Connected Communities zoning reforms passed in 2024 were needed, Mayor Aftab Pureval said.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sanctuary city status, gay rights, crime: Where mayoral candidates stand on issues
Cincinnati's hottest race is the one for Cincinnati mayor. This race has everything: The half-brother of Vice President JD Vance, a candidate who campaigned outside the city limits, two raucous debates and a question about a "ridiculous hat." The candidates on the May 6 ballot are: Incumbent mayor Aftab Pureval, a Democrat. Cory Bowman, a Republican and half-brother of Vice President JD Vance Brian Frank, a Republican who said he wanted to "Make Cincinnati Great Again." The top two finishers will advance to the November election. The race is officially nonpartisan. Where do they stand on the issues? Here are their responses to The Enquirer's survey of eight questions. Note some answers have been abridged for space and clarity. "I do not support the Connected Communities policies. Citizens and local community leaders have shown disapproval of these reforms. They oppose the policy because it was rushed through, the policy is "top down," "one size fits all," and takes away the voice of the neighbors about development in their neighborhoods. The ordinance was rushed through by abusing the emergency ordinance process. The neighborhoods had constructive suggestions that were ignored such as trying it out in a few neighborhoods first." "Yes." "Start fresh and throw out Connected Communities zoning ordinance and announce that the City of Cincinnati is seeking maximum citizen, community councils input and business community input and participation in creating a new zoning code that is simpler and easier to understand and less restrictive and complicated. I want the city of Cincinnati to be viewed as our region's preferred community to open or expand a business with less red tape, complexity and onerous restrictions. I want the city of Cincinnati to be viewed as the first choice for a homebuilder, and a business owner to bring their business opportunity and be welcomed by their new neighbors as an opportunity to grow our economy and our built community. " "We are a sanctuary city and we follow all laws. Under federal law, local law enforcement has no role in federal immigration enforcement. Accordingly, our officers will continue to focus on violent crime in our communities. If federal law changes, we will follow the law. "Maintaining Cincinnati as a welcoming city is not only the right thing to do, but it's also important for our economy. A recent study showed that our population growth has been due in part to immigrants moving here. And if we want to continue to support strong employers like P&G and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, we have to continue to be a global destination for top tier talent." "I do not support sanctuary city status. We need to use our city's limited resources to support our existing African American, Appalachian, and other under-served minority communities that are struggling economically and support these communities. We should not risk federal funds being diverted away from Cincinnati's underserved existing citizens. We can show compassion to undocumented immigrants but we must not risk losing federal funding to non-sanctuary cities or communities." "I do not support Cincinnati declaring itself as a sanctuary city. While declarations have been made in the past regarding our city having a sanctuary status, there have been no clear directives toward local law enforcement regarding noncooperation with federal agencies such as ICE. So I would be curious, after the 2017 resolution, what have the city officials done to reinforce this decision?" "As mayor I would propose establishing a blue ribbon committee of residents, business owners with commercial trucks, school administrators, police, fire and City of Cincinnati transportation drivers (snow plow and other vehicles) and transportation planners to explore what are the best practices for street calming and test out those potential solutions on a small scale before broadly implementing calming solutions that may have unexpected issues or simply not have an actual reduction in pedestrian accidents. "The speed humps we have installed are already notorious as being a key reason why many of our fleet of city of Cincinnati owned snow plows were out of commission this season as some plows were damaged by the speed humps. There are also numerous owners of cars with low profile tires and low rider sports cars that have been damaged." "While the measures may reduce accidents, I believe this is a Band-Aid solution to a greater problem. We must encourage and enforce local patrols in these areas of the city. We must also allow the brave individuals of our police department to do their job by removing impractical non-pursuit laws regarding traffic violations." "I think they're annoying too. But they're working to save people's lives. If drivers become less distracted and slow down, we will scale back our efforts. But unfortunately we have seen an increase in irresponsible driving and speed bumps are a proven traffic calming measure." "Youth violence is one of the most difficult problems to address and one of the most painful. Too many victims of violent crimes are children and far too many perpetrators of violent crime are children. I'm proud that we have seen a 35% in youth violence over a single year due to our strategies, but of course, we have so much more work to do. ACT for Cincy details all of our violence intervention programs including: increasing police personnel through historic investments in recruit classes, relying on 21st Century police tactics in partnership with the FBI and ATF through the first CGIC(Crime Gun Intelligence Center) in Ohio, innovating with ARC(Alternative Response to Crisis), and deploying our CDRT(Civil Disturbance Response Team) and SWAT officers every weekend throughout our entertainment districts in our urban core. "We've also enacted laws to keep guns out of the hands of kids and we've sued the state to reclaim our authority to pass our own local gun laws." "Rising youth crime is a major issue that must be addressed by the business community. As mayor I would reach out the business community ideally with the assistance of Dr. Victor Garcia who is the founding director of Children's Hospital's trauma program ... I want to elevate the business community's awareness of what this trauma is doing to our children and set a goal of raising $50 million in corporate and non-profit donations from major corporate donors so that Cincinnati can be a national leader in addressing childhood cannot and should not rely primarily on our police, schools, recreation centers or afterschool Boys and Girls Clubs to address youth violence. This is a very serious mental health crisis for our urban children who are suffering from childhood trauma on a daily basis and need counseling services and referrals from parents, teachers, school counselors and nurses and other health care professionals for counseling. We need their help to identify youth who are at risk of becoming violent as they get older or are already acting out and help them with treatment so as to give them the skills to manage their childhood trauma experiences. "I myself was a victim of early childhood trauma by an adult family member who violently abused my older brother and myself. I was removed from my house temporarily and lived with my grandparents fifteen miles away and changed schools. To me this childhood trauma is still very real and as mayor I would seek to address this citywide issue in our underserved urban community through a private partnership that would not rely on taxpayer funding." "We experience this issue firsthand with our church and business in the West End. There is not a quick solution. It takes investment and a mindset change. This can be done by: 1. Encouraging the model and importance of the family. 2. Improve education outcomes & options. 3. Invest in entry level jobs. 4. Hold parents accountable. 5. CPD needs a no loitering ordinance and a youth curfew to enforce." "I would look at the record of the last 4 years and consider her along with other possible candidates to ensure the best and most qualified individual has the position. " "Yes. City Manager Long's leadership is principally responsible for our city coming out of the pandemic swinging. Because of her leadership, crime is down, while housing, population, and investment is up. In fact, the Business Courier just reported that Cincinnati is third in the country for lowest office vacancies in our urban core. Given our relative small size and how much uncertainty existed about the future of our economy in 2021, City Manager Long's resume and track record speak for themselves. Personal attacks on her are misinformed and classless." "As mayor I would seek to remove Sheryl Long from her current position of city manager. She is not fulfilling her role effectively as city manager and has actually relinquished the strategic decision-making to the current mayor who is now the de facto city manager as well as the mayor. They are both violating the city charter and both should be removed from their respective office. I am hard pressed to identify what Sheryl Long has accomplished as city manager, and it appears that the $1.2 billion a year city budget has been overseen by our current mayor ... There are multiple other egregious examples of where the city manager has been a complete failure, most recently not taking timely action to repair all the huge potholes on our streets and only finally addressing it bringing in a third party when there was public outrage ... If I am elected the new mayor, I would seek to replace Sheryl Long with a capable and qualified City Manager who would perform all the duties of City Manager." "I would not be supportive of the city being responsible for investing city resources in making these mostly abandoned assets a city attraction. I would be in favor of requesting proposals to sell the property and ensure the new owners were properly vetted to follow through on their plans and be responsible for upkeep. "I would not expand the subway route. If there is vacant and unused land that could be used by the successful buyer/developers, I would be open to having the new owners expand their attraction. Making this an operating subway is not something I would support." "As of right now, the priority needs to be fixing the roads and potholes above the surface." "We should take advantage of all of our infrastructure, including the abandoned subway. I have not reviewed the submissions for the RFI but I'm confident we will land on a strategy to utilize the space in the best way possible. Expanding or finishing the subway is sadly unrealistic at this time given its cost." "Pave roads. A newly paved road is impervious to potholes for approximately five years. We need to pave more roads." "Repair and improve existing infrastructure/roads." "An immediate project I would use the Southern Railway funds for on capital projects would be to remove the speedbumps on Colerain Avenue and Columbia Parkway and other city streets. I would also remove the dedicated bike lanes on Central Parkway, Clifton Avenue and other city streets. Dedicated bike lanes in a city such as Cincinnati with at least seven hills is a complete waste of capital dollars as my experience is that the bike lanes never seem to have any bikers using them when I drive on these streets." "Not sure this is for me, but yes." "As an openly gay man and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, I support protecting and enforcing all LGBTQ rights in Cincinnati and any current funding that the city has committed to this community. I would seek to ensure our annual gay pride celebration remains a successful regional event and would work with non-profit organizations to close any gaps created by the loss of corporate funding. As the event is held at Sawyer Point park, I would also explore having the city waive any fees that are being charged for this important regional celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters." "We are to uphold the law as public servants but it's also the job of elected officials to look through each case/policy individually to make the best decision based on the current needs of the citizens of the city, not to give broad empty statements regarding a whole issue." This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Where do Aftab Pureval, Cory Bowman, Brian Frank stand on issues
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cincinnati's Connected Communities policy could change. Give your feedback this Saturday
Cincinnatians will have another chance to weigh in on possible changes to the city's Connected Communities zoning policy. The independent working groups created last fall to review the policy will host a town hall on Saturday, Feb. 15th that's free and open to the public. The event comes nearly eight months after Cincinnati's city council passed the controversial overhaul of the city's outdated, century-old zoning code. Designed to address the city's housing shortage, the policy changed zoning around neighborhood business districts and major transit routes to bolster the development of more multi-family buildings. The policy was approved after two years of public engagement but not without significant public outcry. This led three of the city's nine council members − Scotty Johnson, Victoria Parks and Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney − to vote against Connected Communities. They cited the need for more engagement and the potential inclusion of an affordable housing clause. Five volunteer committees of Cincinnati civic leaders and average citizens make up the official "Making Connected Communities Better" working groups. Since last fall, the committees have met regularly to research and create policy suggestions that address the need for accessibility, affordable housing, improved infrastructure and the preservation of neighborhood character. 'We are looking for feedback from the public,' said Vice Mayor Kearney in a press release. 'All expert and non-expert opinions on the policy suggestions are valuable." The working group plans to share a draft report of their recommendations with the city administration, city council and the public. More: "Change to happen overtime" Cincinnati just passed Connected Communities. What happens now? The town hall meeting will take place on Saturday, Feb. 15th from noon to 3 p.m. at the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency at 1740 Langdon Farm Rd. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati's new zoning policy challenged in town hall this Saturday
