info@otrfoundation.org
(513) 721-1317

Events:

Bockfest 2010 March 5-7
Visit www.bockfest.com for more information.

Buy the Bockfest 2010
Poster Here

Take the Over-the-Rhine Historic Church Tour during Bockfest 2010 with proceeds benefiting the Over-the-Rhine Foundation. More Information and Tickets

News:

Cincinnati Photographer and Hall-of-Fame journalist Melvin Grier’s stunning images of Over-the-Rhine have been assembled on a uniquely designed poster. Order yours today.

Win a one-week vacation in a private, luxury home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with the Over-the-Rhine Foundation's Dream Vacation Raffle

 

Over-the-Rhine Green Historic Study results presented at U.C.

Building by building, Over-the-Rhine’s history slipping away
From Business Courier

Over-the-Rhine advocates present plan, put ball in Cincinnati City Council’s court
From Business Courier

See presentations and read the full set of recommendations.




 

 

Miracle Mile

In 2001, Over-the-Rhine suffered a period of turmoil. Police practices combined with other social variables to cause several days of rioting, vandalism, and looting. While the problems occurred primarily in OTR, most of the people committing crimes during the riots were from other places. In fact, numbers from 2005 and 2006 (the last periods before the increased police presence in the Fall of ’06) suggest that roughly 85% of crime committed in OTR during these periods was being committed by people from other neighborhoods, reaffirming that when crime has been bad in OTR it has been the result of convenience. A place perceived to have no sense of community, to be disinvested, and tolerant of crime, vandalism, and filth generates more of the same.

Shortly after the riots, Jim Tarbell and James Korte decided to start hanging self-watering flower boxes on OTR buildings and filling them with dramatic floral arrangements. They approached the Foundation with the idea and we helped make it a reality. The purpose was to make the neighborhood more attractive, but also to show that it is a place that people care about – not a disinvested wasteland. Planting flowers may sound like an odd way to combat crime, but the boxes have become a source of neighborhood pride and serve as a symbol of OTR’s renaissance. They also add color and beauty to the neighborhood and help accentuate our historic architecture.

The flower box program was called “Miracle Mile” because it was started with the intention of planting a mile of boxes. Today, we’re stuck at about half way there. More boxes and flowers were planted every year between 2001 and 2007, but we lost funding for the program in 2008.

While the temporary halt in the program came as a blow, we are recognizing it as an incredible opportunity. As attractive as the flower boxes are, they have a problem. The self-watering system is driven by a timer that is connected to the building’s municipal water line. This means that they incur significant water bills and that they are not ecologically sustainable. Our goal is to re-invent the Miracle Mile program (possibly with a new name) in the spring of 2010 utilizing sustainable watering systems. The vision is to re-route downspouts to collect and harvest rainwater that is currently being fed into Cincinnati’s sewer system. Using solar or wind-driven motors, the water will then be fed to the flowerboxes by a timer. Some of this technology is simple and some may be difficult to implement.

We hope to install a first, pilot flowerbox system in the spring of 2009. The system will then be studied and improved upon by an Applied Science college course in the summer of ’09, with full-scale implementation in 2010. We have already begun assembling a team of professionals and working on creation of the college course. However, we currently have no funding for the project. As with all of our work, we are dependent on the generosity of grant sources and individual donors.