Rob Kern wrote a very good email to City Council members urging them to not abandon development plan for a bank at Seymour & Vine. Maybe he'll post it on this bulletin board....Following is the response I wrote to further support Rob & CCL, even though I know it is a lost cause. The tone is indignant & fed up but that's how I feel. I don't have much hope that anything positive is coming to the residents of Carthage from the City of Cincinnati. There is a concerted effort by the City to give Carthage over to industry....residents have no voice...here's what I wrote - yes, it's a rant.....
And, adding to the list of businesses that have left Carthage, contributing to the continuing urban decay - Frederick's Landscaping - one of the only businesses to beautify a property on Vine. (The property now stands empty) Fred was located in Carthage for over 30 years, thanklessly contributed much to beautifying & improving the area & was "Deeply Rooted, Planning to Stay" but his efforts were thwarted and unsupported at every turn. He finally got fed up when planned to buy and improve a prime piece of real estate on Vine only to have that property sold out from under him to yet another used car dealer. That was the final straw in a long series of lousy treatment from the police and other government types, too extensive to go into here....Everybody in Carthage was so surprised when Fred relocated to Lockland! Gee, why would he want to leave the area that took everything from him & gave nothing back? Now it's Lockland that has a beautiful, thriving, quiet business in the center of their business district, while Carthage remains a repository for every sleazy, noisy, oil leaking car dealer looking for cheap land, every big rig barreling through at top speed and every train engineer laying on his horn at 4AM. We watch helplessly as green space is replaced with asphalt and toxic waste & noise pollution increase to unbearable levels.
I, for one, am sick of being penalized and ignored by the City of Cincinnati for living in Cincinnati. I am just as disgusted with the passivity of the residents. It's as if we believe that we don't deserve a quiet and pleasant place to live. Should we change our community motto to "Deeply Rooted, Too Poor to Move?" Just look at the years of neglect and denial that City Council has applied to Over the Rhine & Price Hill & you see the future of Carthage. Why can't the city government see that it is to their benefit to help Carthage and other inner city neighborhoods that are disintegrating before their very eyes? Other cities reward their residents who choose to live & own businesses in the city & I just don't mean the very rich who are buying condos downtown but still shop in the suburbs. I don't have a degree in Urban Planning but I know that low interest loans and other incentives for home and business owners to stay and improve inner city property help stave off urban decay. If I can see it, why can't Major Mallory & City Council? Our City is dying - Do something! Rob, I applaud your effort but I fear it falls on deaf ears. Carthage is rotting from within and the city government doesn't give a damn.....
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