Meeting summary:
- A local three-person team is working with Johns Hopkins University to solve inequities in access to public transportation and the inability to easily get around town, an issue that residents in some Cincinnati neighborhoods are experiencing.
- Cincinnati could become the new owner and caretaker of a gateway to the city – if the price is right.
Documenter’s follow-up question:
- What methodology is the i-Team using to identify a “low car ownership – high transit access neighborhood?”
- Are recent highly publicized incidents that involved violence on Cincinnati Reds Opening Day and the Saturday night of the Cincinnati Music Festival heightening concern about how an Open Streets concept would work in city neighborhoods?
Notes
Cincinnati City Council’s Climate, City Services & Infrastructure Committee met in Room 300, Council Chambers, City Hall, 801 Plum St., downtown. Committee Chair Meeka Owens called the meeting to order at 10:01 a.m. The committee adjourned at 10:43 a.m.
Committee Members
Meeka Owens, committee chair
Ryan James, vice chair
Mark Jeffreys council member
Seth Walsh, council member
TIME SPENT
00 minutes: Public Comment
40 minutes: Cincinnati Innovation Team/City Partnership with Johns Hopkins
02 minutes: Paul Clock Bell Tower
PRESENTATIONS
See agenda item 1 below.
AGENDA
Item 1. City Partnership with Johns Hopkins University
The Cincinnati Innovation Team, or “i-Team” as it is called, was created three or four months ago to partner with the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University to support the priorities in the Financial Freedom Blueprint (FFB) and Green Cincinnati Plan while focusing on transportation and mobility equity.
Joshua Pine, i-Team director, said he, team civic designer Nia Baucke, and team community storyteller Rachel Cranmer (who was at a conference in Cleveland) have been together only a few months. Pine said the team is funded by a grant through 2027.
According to the FFB, transportation and education are major barriers to higher wages and benefits, and getting to and from work is a barrier for one in 10 people. According to the Green plan, mobility goals include increasing public transit ridership 25% by 2030, increasing zero-emission vehicle use 25% by that same year and increasing the number of people living within a half-mile of safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure by 50%.
“The team has been working at the nexus of these two plans,” Pine said of the Blueprint and the Green plan. The “i-Team,” according to its presentation, “combines experience in local government, community-driven design, and strategic communications to understand community needs and translate those insights into innovative solutions.”
The i-Team has been analyzing mobility data, interviewing and conducting focus groups with stakeholders and residents in Evanston, Walnut Hills, Northside and East Price Hill to develop insights and quantitative data.
Pine said that, later this spring and into summer, the i-Team is hoping to launch a few “pilot mobility” programs to engage with and learn from residents to inform the information being gathered by the i-Team and researchers at Johns Hopkins.
Plans are being finalized, he said, but one involves Open Streets activations where we can better utilize our public space, Pine said, using Cincinnati Reds Opening Day as an example, “just to see, when we remove cars from the equation, where we can gather together and celebrate that human connection.” Another idea being explored involves e-bikes as a greener mobility solution.
Johns Hopkins University is pulling data on the mobility piece, Baucke said. The i-Team has been doing qualitative work, such as mapping car ownership and transit availability in those targeted neighborhoods (Evanston, Walnut Hills, Northside, East Price Hill).
For example, Baucke highlighted Evanston as a neighborhood that has low car ownership but technically high transit access (to bus stops). She cited no numbers or percentages, but noted that Evanston is in a food desert and most residents live about 15 minutes’ walking distance from a route that would get them to a grocery store.
“Technically, the access is available, but it becomes very effortful to get to where you need to go, especially if you do not have a vehicle,” Baucke said. “The amazing thing, as we craft this story, we begin to see is there is a lot of high transit access, but there’s a lot of things that need to be true in order for people to utilize it in the way they need to – to get to work, to get to essentials … and enjoy their lives socially as well.”
The i-Team’s goal is to invite stakeholders and residents to come up with solutions to the issues and barriers that have been identified. Baucke said a full report, complete with qualitative and quantitative data, should be available within a week or so and will identify insights and where opportunities for solutions might exist.
In response to a question from Council Member James about how the i-Team is engaging communities and whether communities see the issues about mobility and transportation and affordability as important right now, Baucke said that, anecdotally, qualitative research has involved employing a “community connector” – someone well known in a neighborhood who can identify true residents with lived expertise and not just those who always show up. As an example, she cited a female participant who has no car, no license, who bikes to work daily and whose children bike to school daily.
As far as the focus group work and investment in the mobility and transportation issues, Baucke said she was amazed that members of a focus group of Evanston and some Walnut Hills residents all reported experiencing the same thing in different ways – the cost of car ownership, caregiving and child care difficulties; isolation for those without a vehicle; and the effortful piece.
The committee filed the report without objection.
Item 2. Paul Clock Bell Tower Acquisition
The Paul Clock Bell Tower, at East Liberty Street and Reading Road, serves as a prominent gateway and historic landmark for the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, according to a statement Council Member Seth Walsh filed as part of a motion he submitted March 23 asking the city administration to evaluate the city’s ability to acquire and maintain the bell tower.
According to Walsh, the structure needs repairs, and the OTR Foundation, which owns the bell tower, does not have the money to restore the tower or pay for its ongoing maintenance. Walsh would have the city, through the parks department or other appropriate agency, assume the cost of acquiring and preserving the significant community asset.
He is asking the administration to produce a report on his motion within 60 days.
The committee adopted the motion and sent it on to city council.
No public comment.
The meeting adjourned at 10:43 a.m.
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