Bridging Broadway, an organization that evolved out of the anticipated development of a downtown casino site, is hosting the first of three community dialogues this Saturday, from 12:30-4pm, at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. Saturday's half-day session is designed to gather feedback from residents, businesses and landowners of the historic neighborhoods surrounding Broadway Commons with the goal of contributing to the recommendations ultimately made to the city.
No ordinary design charette, the session includes a guided walking tour of Pendleton developed by University of Cincinnati Professor and Planning Commissioner, Michaele Pride. Pride says the walking tour, which will take several different routes to ensure all aspects of the study area are observed, is an important part of the process.
"The idea comes from an established body of best practices from the community development industry and is used as a tool for residents and stakeholders together, to inventory the possibilities, problems and opportunities of their neighborhood."
Pride says the tours will concentrate on areas that are within a direct impact zone of the casino development and are the greatest to benefit from - and also to be concerned about - the kinds of new interests and attention that will come with the casino's development.
"Rather than just gathering information from census data and aerial photos and GIF databases, we acknowledge the role of personal, direct experience, directed view and feel as a valid dataset and so we're mining the experience and views and perspectives of the community," Pride adds.
Following the tour participants will discuss their observations and findings in small groups. Jeffrey Stec, Executive Director of Citizens for Civic Renewal, will help to integrate and conclude this part of the process. The second and third dialogues will take place this winter. Pride, an Over-the-Rhine resident, noted the importance of these early sessions.
"The process helps build community capacity for addressing change," she said.
The next steps will be getting information collected from the dialogues into the hands of decision makers. To that end, Stephen Samuels, Bridging Broadway's founder, says the City of Cincinnati - who funded a substantial portion of the study - is "eagerly awaiting our results." Bridging Broadway is also a member of the city's Casino Stakeholder Group which meets semi-regularly with the developers who are also getting involved in the dialogues.
"Rock Gaming and Harrah's will participate in the study and meet at two to three critical points throughout the research to provide their feedback," says Samuels.
But getting residents and interested parties to the table early is key to the study's effectiveness, according to Samuels.
"There's no good point to develop a vision and implementation plans for this new destination unless everyone is at the table and has taken a role in shaping this collective future."
The community dialogue is free and open to the public and takes place this Saturday October 23 from 1-4pm at Memorial Hall. You can register
here.
Writer: Sean Rhiney
Photography provided.
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