I spent some time in Cincinnati as part of my economic development survey of 70 cities across the country. I was a little surprised by the recent fight at 4th and Elm, as I was at that location the week before, although not at 3 AM.

Here I was, a 75-year-old man walking around with a clipboard and a $2,000 Nikon camera, trying to determine where the downtown begins and ends. The reason, as I have learned during these trips, is to be kind to the city and not exaggerate the vacancies. As you move further from the center of downtown, the vacancies can outnumber the occupied buildings.

I considered the area where the incident took place to be on the edge of downtown. I judge this subjectively by thinking about how far I would walk to reach the next store. Having homeless people or drug addicts hanging out nearby does not influence my assessment.

At no point did I feel that my safety was at risk; it seemed like a pretty nice place to visit.

Qualifying 4th and Elm as downtown is more of a technical assessment, and it seemed to me to be more of a judgment call. There is a large parking lot and an Avis rental car lot on one side, and two apartment buildings with parking lots on the other side. I determined that it was a non-transition zone, and the downtown ended at Elm Street. 4th Street is a central commercial corridor, and the Vine Street to Walnut Street intersection, which is two and three blocks to the east, is the center of town.

Cincinnati isn't too large, and I was able to take the inventory in about an hour and a half. While reviewing it, I noticed that Club Envy was closed for being a public nuisance on July 17th. It is located more centrally downtown on the 600 block of Walnut. The city has shut them down. This shows that the city recognized potential problems and took action by closing Club Envy.

It should come as no surprise that there were issues in the town at night. However, I vouch for the city as being pleasant during the day and incident-free, as far as I could see. The way the incident has been presented, people are portraying a late-night problem as a negative reputation for the downtown in general.

When incidents like this happen, people who manage downtown commercial districts, like me, struggle to make the town look safe. It's not always easy, like the time on South Street in Philadelphia when they kept showing the Mardi Gras riot video in front of Fat Tuesday. I remember calling the TV news stations and asking them to stop airing the video. 

Repositioning is challenging when the media descends and twists the story, which may or may not be accurate. This issue is entangled with politics and receives nationwide coverage, even though many mainstream outlets initially downplayed it because it conflicted with the prevailing narrative. Downtown Cincinnati might appear dangerous when, in fact, it isn't that bad. Vacancies were minimal, and there was a good mix of people on the street. 

One of the main objectives would be to introduce more family-friendly events in the downtown to widen the audience attending the events.  I remember on South Street, I was unable to do nighttime events, and we did a children’s event and introduced street performers to broaden the audience.  I was always sure to include classical music.

Initially, I requested more bike patrols and was told there wasn't enough money in the police budget to purchase additional bikes. I asked, “how much are they?” and was told $1,500. I immediately bought 15 bikes and handed them over to the police stationed at the South Street mini station. I then showed up every weekend night, from Friday through Sunday, until 2 AM, when they cleared the street of hangers-on.

I am not sure that the problems in Cincinnati are that severe, but the closure of Envy, which was a fairly loosely run dance venue, indicates that the government was paying attention to the situation. However, the fringe areas on the outskirts of downtown need to be examined for crowd control at 3 AM when the bars close. They can't be everywhere at once, but an assessment of how these incidents occurred and adjustments in personnel deployment could make a difference.

Barry Cassidy is a freelance grant and economic development consultant. He can be reached at barrycassidy@comcast.net.