CityLink To Be Built * YIKES !!! (Cincinnati, Warren: real estate, apartment, condos)

[YoMikey617]

The Enquirer - Battle over; Citylink will be built


I would actually be supportive of this group if they had any respect whatsoever for the residents of the West End. Every bit of assistance helps even if you don't agree with forced prayers in return for help. And these days the poor need all the help they can get.

But CityLink has never demonstrated such respect. These "so called Christians" have been SHADY AS HECK every step of the way in their dirty tactics... ...all the while HIDING from West End Community Council and playing a game of CROOKED politics every step of the way.

Who Would Jesus Scam ? I mean seriously do Evangelicals teach this behavior in their churches ???

[hillside]

amen yomikey617. amen.

[Hartwell Girl]

I love how the Mayor is quoted in that article as "not having a problem with CityLink" How about supporting your neighborhoods and what they want and dont want in their back yards? I feel bad for the West End. It is very easy to loose the passion for your City when all your years of hard work to better a neighborhood is wiped away with a decision from a judge who probably lives in a nice house far away from CityLink.

[YoMikey617]

Originally Posted by Hartwell Girl

I love how the Mayor is quoted in that article as "not having a problem with CityLink" How about supporting your neighborhoods and what they want and dont want in their back yards? I feel bad for the West End. It is very easy to loose the passion for your City when all your years of hard work to better a neighborhood is wiped away with a decision from a judge who probably lives in a nice house far away from CityLink.

Mayor Mallory's brother Dale Mallory is one of the main backers behind CityLink. There's a good reason Mayor Mallory doesn't have a problem with CityLink... ...while at the same time just about everybody in the city has opposed CityLink.

City Beat: Dale's Deals: Impeached and under investigation, Mallory still has a good chance to win state rep race: Cover Story: Cover

Politics Extra: Dale Mallory lobbied for CityLink

I've been in the homes of federal judges before (in other states)... they're almost always in a pastural rural setting with $50K security systems to guard against anyone out to harm them.

I think the worst part about this is it sets a precedent... Which neighborhood is next ??? I live on the Walnut Hills / East Walnut Hills line so this is of major concern to me. We have St Ursula demolishing mansions to add parking spaces (years ago StU hired a "lobbyist" to lie to the neighborhood attempting to crush efforts to designate historic district status to the neighborhood).. ...We have Skyline demolishing historic buildings to build a new Skyline next door to the old one, and "Billy Bubba" contractors putting up hideous new-build condos with front facing garages in between 100+ year old historic homes. It's like there's no respect for history in this town and anything in the central city is fair game. And yet our historic buildings are a sleeping goldmine !!!

I could easy see another CityLink in Westwood, Walnut Hills, Evanston, St Bernard... All it takes is another group of overzealous "suburban Christians" eager to make their mark in someone else's neighborhood.

[YoMikey617]

Here's the "No To CityLink" Website:

No To City Link

[restorationconsultant]

I am moving to Cincinnati from Indianapolis, years back we had a suburban charity group that decided we needed a "one stop center" in our area, because we were "blighted" and needed help. Actually historic restoration was in its early stages. We fought and won. Today that "group" that wanted to "save" or neighborhood is long gone and the houses in our "blighted" neighborhood start at 250K and rentals are 950-2000 a month.

POINT: The poor are leaving Over the Rhine and west end. The apartment houses are being condoed and every week or so we hear of another condo development coming to the area. The reality is that in a 5-7 years the people that CityLink wants to "help' wont be anywhere in the area. Where will they be? the burbs, thats what happened in Indy, The Downtown became expensive enclaves, you cant uy a house in downtown for less than 250K and many are over 500K . The poorer rental areas are now pushed out to Warren Township, Speedway and the Northeast side. Charitable organizations are always the LAST to see the writing on the wall. I predict the same thing will happen with Cincinnati but that nice Citylink center will make great condos some day.

[YoMikey617]

Good insight !!! Unfortunately as it stands, CityLink has the green light to build their shelter. And as you know the real estate market is bottoming out so who's to say what will happen to the West End over the next decade.

[YoMikey617]

Originally Posted by restorationconsultant

I am moving to Cincinnati from Indianapolis, years back we had a suburban charity group that decided we needed a "one stop center" in our area, because we were "blighted" and needed help. Actually historic restoration was in its early stages. We fought and won. Today that "group" that wanted to "save" or neighborhood is long gone and the houses in our "blighted" neighborhood start at 250K and rentals are 950-2000 a month.

POINT: The poor are leaving Over the Rhine and west end. The apartment houses are being condoed and every week or so we hear of another condo development coming to the area. The reality is that in a 5-7 years the people that CityLink wants to "help' wont be anywhere in the area. Where will they be? the burbs, thats what happened in Indy, The Downtown became expensive enclaves, you cant uy a house in downtown for less than 250K and many are over 500K . The poorer rental areas are now pushed out to Warren Township, Speedway and the Northeast side. Charitable organizations are always the LAST to see the writing on the wall. I predict the same thing will happen with Cincinnati but that nice Citylink center will make great condos some day.

Do you know the name of the proposed center in Indy? Or any keywords that I could google ???

[restorationconsultant]

The organization was known as eastside community investment (ECI), they owned tons of section 8 rental property all the time claiming to be for home ownership, most of the homes they sold were so poorly done that they quickly fell apart. The building was an old school that they wanted to co-locate their offices in with a one-stop welfare center. Our neighborhood organization fought them tooth and nail including picketing their offices on 10th street at the time. They were laughing until the camera crews pulled up. We were called "radical preservationists" who were out of touch with the "needs" of the community. After we brought hundreds of people to the zoning hearing they asked for a continuance. They were worried because we announced plans to picket in front of the board members and major contributors houses in suburbia. We were taking the issue to the source! (might not be a bad tactic to consider there) They finally were willing to sit at table with us. We finally allowed them to have "just" their office there and nothing else. The amount of negative publicity helped do them in but there was alot of bad management decisions made also that came out during this battle that became public. They went under one day with hardly a notice. People quickly grabbed up the homes in our neighborhood and today all of them are restored and very valuable. Lesson to learn, sometimes good intentions arent what a neighborhood wants, or really needs. Article about the rise, and fall of ECI: After the Fall: the collapse of Indianapolis's Eastside Community Investments

By the way I think the west end has great potential, Lots of very nice architecture that restored could be a jewel in the downtown. It will take a few people with money to start buying a block at a time. Wouldnt be hard to do since its so affordable!

[ccb1122]

In all fairness to both sides of this, please read the attached from OneCity. I found it after following your link with the relational map and it answers some questions I had - specifically about turning people away if they aren't christian - that's not true. OneCity Foundation Cincinnati

In being transparent, I'll tell you that I've been going to Crossroads for 3 years now and have had a huge amount of healing in my own life based on relationships I've made there. I live in Oakley, work for a nonprofit in queensgate and spend most of my time in and around the city. I tell you that b/c I don't want you to later just write off my comments as being a crossroads suburbanite. I'm not and I'm deeply concerned about our city. I don't think that everything Crossroads does is some perfect piece of magic and that's one reason I like going there- I can actually tell someone that I'm not sure about the whole God thing and be welcome.

Anyway - It just seems to me that there has been so much fluff flying around about Citylink and rationale heads have got to prevail here. Cincinnati was ranked #2 in the nation in terms of the % of our population at or below the poverty line. Something is terribly terribly wrong with how we are taking care of our city. I think the leaders of CityLink really screwed up, but I also think that talking about them as being "shady as heck" isn't really honest either. The name calling doesn't educate anybody any further or change minds. It just doesn't make sense to say that they're being shady about doing something like helping the poor. It's just an oxymoron in itself. You're shady to make money off of someone but to give charity to someone? I just think it's an easy way to label them without really engaging in the solution. So, if you step back from it and just look at it honestly - do you really think people were purposely being shady? Or do you think that there was a huge cloud of mis-information and anger surrounding this whole thing that prevented anyone from seeing the other's POV? That's personally what I think. I think the CityLink leaders did a sh*tty job in getting to this point and I really hope that they can somehow prove people's opinions of them wrong.

And in the meantime though, we still are the city with the second highest population of poverty in the nation. That is something that we all should be ashamed of and angrily trying to find solutions to.