Category: Politics

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News Politics

Cincinnati’s RecycleBank program to be Midwest’s largest

The City of Cincinnati announced, in June 2010, that they would partner with RecycleBank and Cascade Engineering to completely change the way Cincinnatians recycle. After a false start on larger recycling carts earlier in the year, the news came as a pleasant surprise to those looking to increase the volume of recycled household waste.

The RecycleBank partnership will make Cincinnati the largest Midwestern city to take part in the program that offers tangible incentives for residents to be greener in their everyday lives. The program works by effectively paying participants for their household recycling. Residents earn 2.5 points for each pound of recycled material that fills their recycling “smart carts” which are weighed at the time of pick-up. The points are then automatically deposited into an online account where the participants can use them to purchase products or gift cards to both local vendors like Park & Vine or national vendors like Target.

There are winners everywhere in this agreement. Users win because they are effectively paid to recycle their household waste. The City of Cincinnati wins as there is an up-front savings of over $1 million in collection (it will be changed to bi-weekly) and landfill costs for an initial investment of $750,000 which is coming from federal stimulus money. And finally, the environment wins as RecycleBank has shown positive returns as residents recycle more, by as much as 30 percent more, of their day to day household items.

While the City has yet to officially announce how people can participate in this free program, those interested can visit RecycleBank’s website to start an online rewards account now. It is free to sign up and the site offers helpful hints to be more green throughout day-to-day life. Additionally, users can jump start their account by earning points through other programs including a mail in electronics recycling program. The points earned through these other programs can then applied to the account used for Cincinnati’s curbside recycling program expected to start this October.

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News Politics

New Cincinnati non-profit takes on education equality

A newly formed Cincinnati-based non-profit is attempting to take on one of the more complex issues facing cities: Education. DevonshireSmith Diversity & Education Solutions (DVS) was launched last week with the goal of increasing high school and college graduation rates among minority groups.

DVS emphasizes that a lack of educational opportunities within minority communities can lead to other significant issues such as poverty. The non-profit points out that, in 2008, the median earnings of young adults (ages 25-34) with a bachelor’s degree was $46,000; $36,000 for those with an associate’s degree, $30,000 for those who complete high school, and $23,500 for those who did not earn a high school diploma or equivalent.

The progressive group will utilize community and school based initiatives, while also working towards filling service gaps and support for non-profit organizations, high schools, colleges, and universities. Some of the group’s projects include campus diversity education, curriculum development, and recruitment and retention plans.

Michael D. Griffin, Co-Founder and DVS Executive Director says “DevonshireSmith aims to shift the public conversation from the equality of educational access of minoritized groups to the equity of educational attainment for these groups.”

According to DVS, the state of education for minority groups has two major hurdles to overcome. First, the number of minority students being retained and graduating from high school and college has either become stagnant or is on the decline. Secondly, education and youth professionals are lacking the required level of cultural familiarity to effectively address the significant needs facing these students.

DVS believes that youth development and empowerment can lead to an increased number of minority graduates, thus leading to stronger communities in Cincinnati’s urban core. To help achieve their goals, DVS has created a plan that consists of three organizational hallmarks:

  1. A comprehensive youth development strategy that focuses on academic success, self-assessment, heightened expectations, personal development, character development, leadership development, civic engagement, career exploration, cultural/social justice education, and post-baccalaureate education exploration.
  2. A comprehensive community based approach that includes the participation of parents and other surrogate caregivers, educational institutions, the nonprofit community, the faith community, and the corporate community.
  3. Creating a process for educational institutional transformation that includes the participation of better prepared and engaged students and more culturally competent faculty, administrators, practitioners, and staff.

The most astonishing statistic provided by DVS compares the cost of a college education with that of a prison inmate. The group states that The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction spends about $2 billion annually, an average cost of $25,367 per inmate each year. Conversely, in 2008-2009, the average cost for one-year of tuition fees at a four-year public university in Ohio was $8,588 according to CollegeAdvantage 2010 data.

At the same time, the average reading level of inmates is at a grade level of 7.5, while 80 percent of the offenders are high school drop outs. According to the Ohio Department Rehabilitation & Correction, approximately 30 percent of the males and 20 percent of the females read at less than a 6th grade level and are considered functionally illiterate. DVS is hoping that they can begin to reverse these numbers by reaching out to a ‘hard to serve’ population in a more direct fashion.

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Development News Politics Transportation

Reconstructed Fort Washington Way generating variety of societal advances

Each Wednesday in July, UrbanCincy is highlighting Fort Washington Way (FWW), the I-71/US-50 trench bisecting the Cincinnati riverfront from its downtown.  Part one of the series discussed what the area looked like prior to reconstruction a decade ago, and how that reconstruction made way for the development along Cincinnati’s central riverfront.  Last week’s article discussed some of the unseen assets included in the project that continue to benefit Cincinnatians in a variety of ways today.  This week’s piece will highlight even more of the unique features that the 1.25 mile-long highway boasts.

In addition to the combined sewer overflow fix along Cincinnati’s central riverfront through added containment capacity, engineers also increased the capacity for municipal water under Third Street.  This led to an opportunity for the City of Cincinnati to share its high-quality water supply with communities in Northern Kentucky through a new tunnel built underneath the Ohio River.  Those in Kentucky benefit by receiving clean water, and the City of Cincinnati benefits from an increased revenue stream.

On the southern side of the FWW trench is a wall that supports Second Street and conceals the Riverfront Transit Center, but it also serves as the primary flood protection for downtown Cincinnati.  Cincinnati choice to build its flood protection into its everyday infrastructure maximizes utility while also conserving urban space.  Since this wall was engineered to lift Second Street above the floodplain, it effectively extended the street grid south while also maintaining safety.

The benefits discussed so far were not accomplished in isolation.  In fact, the reconstruction project was helped paid for by entities in the state of Kentucky including the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) who saw better connections with Cincinnati as an economic gain.  The project fixed the entanglement of on- and off-ramps to the bridges over the Ohio River, and has led to a better transfer of people and goods across the state line.

The fact that the Cincinnati area calls so many large and lucrative companies home demonstrates that the city once had the ability to draw major economic players to the region.  The fact that they have stayed demonstrates that the area has done well to keep up with changing business, technological, and infrastructure demands.  One such example of keeping up with changing times can be found buried under Third Street, behind the northern wall of Fort Washington Way, where engineers included the capacity for a bundle of fiber optic cables, approximately three feet in diameter, spanning the length of the roadway.

This dark fiber has the capability to be activated and connected with a larger fiber optic network when needed, ensuring that downtown Cincinnati has the ability to stay at the cutting edge of technology.  Possible uses include connecting large-scale data centers to the Internet backbone, or providing high-speed fiber-to-the-home Internet access for Cincinnatians, such as Cincinnati Bell’s FiOptics or Google’s Fiber for Communities.

Next Wednesday’s article will conclude the series, and look to the future of the area.  What can be done with the space over the FWW trench in terms of the capping?  How will future development be impacted?  And, ultimately, will the reconstruction of Fort Washington Way reestablish the strong ties that once existed between Cincinnati and its riverfront?

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Development News Politics

Properly implementing form-based codes is essential to success

[This op-ed was originally published in the Cincinnati Business Courier on July 9, 2010. Visit the original op-ed for more comments, thoughts and opinions on how to effectively apply form-based codes – Randy.]


As Cincinnati officials move closer toward their goal of implementing some variation of form-based codes in Cincinnati it is important that the application is done correctly. Form-based codes, when done correctly, offer a simpler approach to land planning than their awkward land use/design overlay contemporary. In order to achieve the full benefits of a form-based code there are a few practices that should be followed.

Keep It Simple:
The problem with contemporary zoning codes is that they feature layers upon layers of regulations that are complicated to understand by the general public and developers. Most zoning codes have an underlying Euclidean Zoning Code which regulates land use and basic design elements like building setbacks, heights, and densities. Then in the more stringently regulated areas there are often overlay districts created that layer an additional set of regulations on top of the land use regulations. These overlay districts tend to focus more on design features within a given area, and allow any land use regulations that are not covered in their guidelines to fall back into the realm of the underlying zoning code.

The primary functional gain of form-based codes is that they presumably eliminate this layered zoning effect that creates confusion. As a result, form-based codes should NOT be implemented in a layering manner. Form-based codes should completely replace any existing overlay districts and all land use zoning codes that currently exist in the area. The end result would be a district that has only a code that regulates the urban form of an area without the constraints of land use controls and the arbitrary design standards set out therein.

The reason this is often not done is due to a fear that form-based codes will not have the teeth to prevent communities from being destroyed by “undesirable” uses. I assert that this fear is misguided as our current zoning practices were set out during an industrialization period in the United States that saw many polluting industries locating in or around residential neighborhoods. This is certainly not what is desired, but this will not occur in modern society for two main reasons.

  1. Industries locate based on transportation access. An industrial user will seek out access to freight rail, barge, air, and truck access, and as a result, this will eliminate the vast majority of our residential neighborhoods from consideration as they have self-selected to locate in areas away from these industrial amenities.
  2. If a form-based code is done well an “undesirable” will often not be able or willing to locate in a higher transect district. A good example would be Cincinnati’s T6 “Urban Core Zone” where presumably a coal cleaning facility could set up shop due to the lack of land use controls, but if it were to open, the coal cleaning facility would have to design its facility to fit the form of that found in the T6 Urban Core Zone. Such a form would not only be undesirable for such a use, but it would also be cost-prohibitive for its business function.

Forget the Piecemeal Approach:
Many form-based codes are applied in a piecemeal approach that selectively implements the form-based controls in a particular neighborhood or business district. In the Cincinnati region this is presently being done in both Bellevue, KY and Covington, KY as those cities incorporate form-based codes of their own.

The problem with this approach is that it ignores the all-important transect for which a form-based code is derived. The piecemeal approach allows for the individual form-based codes to be developed in an insular manner without taking into consideration the form of the urban region.

The reason this is problematic is that form-based codes are meant to be living, breathing creatures that can change as a community changes. Cincinnati’s center city has not always been as densely built as it is today, and it got to this point by growing and changing over time. This means that a code that can change with the city is more ideal than one that cannot. If a neighborhood or business district wants to evolve upward from T4 “General Urban Core” to a T5 “Urban Center Zone” it should be able to do so, but if that individual form-based code is developed without these other districts in mind, it prevents such evolution from taking place.

Form-based codes offer a variety of tangible benefits, but they can only fully be realized if we leave the fear of the unknown behind and truly take a risk on something bold and new. No major American city has embarked on such a dramatic reform of its land-planning techniques, but what better city is there than Cincinnati – where modern planning was first implemented – to explore such an effort?

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Development News Politics

Cincinnati Park Board doubles number of BigBelly units thanks to $88k grant

The Cincinnati Park Board has installed an additional 20 BigBelly solar-powered trash compactor units throughout Cincinnati’s center city. The new BigBelly units were made possible through an $88,000 grant from the Eva Jane Romaine Coombe Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.  The Park Board states that the fund honors Mrs. Coombe’s interest in green stewardship.

The BigBelly solar-powered trash compactor units grow and update the Park Board’s existing ten unit collection. In addition to compacting trash, higher capacities, less needed maintenance, and being powered by the sun, the newest BigBelly units utilize a web-based mapping system designed by students at the University of Cincinnati that notifies park managers when individual units are filled and are ready for collection.

This next evolution of waste collection is seen as a way for municipalities save money on fuel and labor costs.  The smart trash cans enable staff to be deployed more effectively without wasting time or resources on trips to units that are not in need of collection.

In Boston the city has been aggressively expanding its use of the smart trash cans, and its efforts have been joined by those of the Boston Red Sox and Boston University who have also begun using the BigBelly units.

“The public response has been nothing but positive, and we have realized the desired benefits for the city – it will save the city time and money, keep litter from overflowing, and discourage illegal dumping of trash,” said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. “This will save us a lot of time when guys are filling potholes, fixing sidewalks and doing other things.”

In Philadelphia, after the city replaced 700 standard trash cans with 500 BigBelly units, the city estimated a savings of $13 million over a ten year period – or approximately $2,600 per unit.

The 20 new units in Cincinnati have been placed in Lytle Park and Piatt Park in Downtown and Eden Park in Mt. Adams. The ten older units will be used at the Park Nature Centers for “demonstration of environmentally sound maintenance practices.”