How do we turn around neighborhoods, when code enforcement is broken?

[Wilson513]

Cincinnati is a complaint driven city. You can get anything you want, just complain, in writing, follow up on every letter, never talk on the phone, and escalate when you meet resistance by moving up the chain of command.

[restorationconsultant]

The problem Wislon with the VBML is its no longer used the way it was intended, its now being used to demonstrate "need' for federal funding. Otherwise restorable or in many cases livable homes are being demoed. I heard over the weekend the new county land bank is getting several million 'earmarked' just for demo.

Do the math here, it cost 15K to demo a house. If we eliminate that much tax base, what do you think will happen to the tax rates on neighborhoods remaining like North Avondate, Clifton Gaslight, Mt Adams, and Hyde Park? Who is going to want to live in the "Detroit of Ohio"?

The city is so 'addicted' to federal funding that now, nothing short of federal lawsuit will change VBML. The facts are it is governmental redlining. I have emails from one city inspector who when I told him VBML's make it impossible to get a mortgages, didn't believe me and checked around. Sent me an email back saying I was right. The response of his supervisor , when I brought this up was 'don't tell them its on there". So we have city officials advising people to commit mortgage fraud?

The council seems to be more worried about where the next piece of federal candy comes from that they do about neighborhoods.

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by restorationconsultant

. . . .

The council seems to be more worried about where the next piece of federal candy comes from that they do about neighborhoods.

There is no doubt of this truth. Our "leaders" are simply intoxicated with their power to hand out that candy.

[OlliesThoughts]

Originally Posted by restorationconsultant

The problem Wislon with the VBML is its no longer used the way it was intended, its now being used to demonstrate "need' for federal funding. Otherwise restorable or in many cases livable homes are being demoed. I heard over the weekend the new county land bank is getting several million 'earmarked' just for demo.

At the Neighborhood Summit, the Port Authority indicated that the $15M federal money was not limited to only demolition, but could also be used for structural rehabilitation - a much stronger option in many cases in my opinion.

The city definitely has buildings that need to be demolished, but I am baffled by the demo prioritization process. I agree, we are destroying restorable/livable homes, and ignoring problem buildings. In Northside, our CURC - Community Urban Redevelopment Corp. has been really effective at helping the city prioritize their efforts, identifying problem buildings, and lining up resources for restoring others. In the last 5 years, approximately 50 Northside structures have graduated from the vacated building list and back into action.

Does your neighborhood have a CURC or an organization playing this role?

[restorationconsultant]

@Ollie our organization is much smaller than a typical Comminty council. We also are at total odds with both S.&N. Fairmount community councils. The S.Fairmount CC never met a building it didnt want to demo and N.Fairmount seems intent on getting everything into low income hands. Neither in our opinion a solution for what ails Fairmount.

We have stopped several demos by threat of legal action. We filed a federal complaint with HUD a few years back that has forced the city to change its section 106 review process (they didnt really have one), although since the Urban Conservator, who is charged with determination of historic eligibility, basically "rubber stamps" everything as non eligible, the 'process' is joke. In our neighborhood's case we are placing over 200 homes on the state historic building inventory list which should over ride the urban conservators determinations and we are proposing the neighborhood as a National Historic district.

At some point we may set up a CURC but at the moment we are getting an incredible amount done with private monies and donations. Right now we are stabilizing the C.Wilkins house which the city wanted to demo. The exterior is being restored to Historic Preservation standrds and it will then be resold with protective covenenats that is must be maintained as single family and maintained to historic standrad. the new owner will then finish the interior restore. We have two more properties in the pipeline for this program.

We seem to get more done by not working within the confines of the community councils, which I think are too large and too diverse to really get things done. You turn around neighborhoods with targeted restorations and getting things into the right peoples hands.

My fear is the Land Bank will make Cincinnati look more like Detroit with wholesale demolitions and many neighborhoods will dissapear totally.