Neighborhood blitz program wins national award

The Cincinnati Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP) has won a prestigious national award from the non-profit group Neighborhoods, USA at its annual conference in Hampton, Virginia. The program, which seeks to improve neighborhood quality of life through concentrated city services delivery and community redevelopment efforts, bested four other finalists in the "Best Neighborhood Program - Physical Revitalization" category.

After the 90 day "blitz" is over, the fully-engaged community is equipped to carry on the revitalization effort. Although the NEP has been successful in four city neighborhoods, Ethel Cogan of the city’s Department of Community Development says that they selected Northside because it presented an interesting case study.

Presenters included Cogan, Northside Community Council president Tim Jeckering, city manager Milton Dohoney Jr., Linda Holterhoff of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and Lt. Col. Cindy Combs and Cpt. David Bailey of Cincinnati Police District 5.

Cogan says that she believes the Northside presentation won because they brought a group of presenters that represented a broad spectrum of the neighborhood's stakeholders.

"Other cities, everyone they brought was from neighborhood services," she says.  "We had a diverse team - representatives from the city, neighborhood, non-profits and public services."

And the fact that so many groups worked together in harmony really wowed the judges.

"One question they asked was about community involvement," Cogan says.   "This really was a city-community partnership.  They saw that, after the 90 days were up, it was up to the community to take the reins and sustain it."

The city was awarded a plaque, which hangs in the Office of the City Manager.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Ethel Cogan, City of Cincinnati Department of Community Development