Meeting summary:

  • Unaccompanied minors will no longer be permitted to be out past 9 p.m. on Short Vine after council approved a new special extended curfew district in the Corryville bar district.
  • Council continues to weigh how a proposed agreement with Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council (SOPEC) would affect residents’ utility bills.

Documenter’s follow-up question:

  • If children and teens are being booted from Short Vine during the late hours, will they just go somewhere else to hang out? How do enforcers know they’re actually going home to be supervised?
  • What’s the status of the curfew centers at Lighthouse? Are they being utilized?

 Notes

Find agenda and other meeting materials here.

Citizen forum and public comment

Public comment lasted about 27 minutes, with speakers commenting on an array of topics, including Gaza, concerns over SOPEC, and late-night noise complaints from Over-the-Rhine residents who live near bars.

Regular agenda

Minutes were approved and filed without objection. Items 1 to 20 were filed as indicated. Item 21 is transmitted by the mayor. Items 22 to 30 are as indicated. 

Discussion on Item 31, a complete streets project set for Gilbert Avenue:

About $25 million in federal money is being distributed by the Ohio-Kenutucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI).

This corridor will connect Uptown and Downtown, explained City Council Member Meeka Owens. There are more community partners that are excited about this transformation, she said.

All voted yes on the motion.

Lick Run Connector

The planned Lick Run Connector, a bike path to connect the West Side – Westwood, Price Hill, North Fairmount and South Fairmount – to the Mill Creek Trail.

Other items

Item 33 allows the Cincinnati Recreation Commission to accept in-kind donations for the 2025 holiday gift drive.

Item 36 is an amendment to the Main Street Small Business Success Program, adding five Over-the-Rhine businesses to the program.

Items 37 to 39 relate to selling wholesale water to Fairfield and Butler County. Council OK’d standby agreements with those entities in case of emergencies. 

Council also commissioned a report to see how an agreement with SOPEC would affect customers’ utility bills.

Item 41 is a resolution rescheduling a hearing for a proposed Convention Center District authority board. This hearing will take place Dec. 1.

Short Vine curfew district approved

Item 42 was an emergency ordinance to establish a special extended curfew district on Short Vine in Corryville. Anyone under 18 is not allowed in the area, unless accompanied by an adult over age 21. 

Council Member Scotty Johnson said this is another tool in the toolbelt to ensure young people are safe.

In the last few months, Short Vine has had some incidents that are “completely unacceptable,” Johnson said. He thanked University of Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaacs for his partnership on this ordinance. 

Johnson did not reference specific incidents on Short Vine, but several instances of gun violence in the bar and entertainment district have made the news this year. This month, a video circulated online showed people running away as shots rang out on Halloween night. In April, a 25-year-old man was shot and killed on Short Vine.

These notes can be found on documenters.org.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcincinnati.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

Find more Documenters’ notes on Cincinnati City Council here.