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06.28.06
Northern Row Park:
Communities of Gardens, Part 1
by Sam St John, iRhine Contributor
Imagine a green space in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Imagine a place where people can come together for art, for play, for pleasure. Imagine a place called Northern Row Park at the corner of Clay and Melindy Streets just a half block off of the northern end of Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. Situated in a place adjacent to Uptown Arts, the Park has been adopted by a group of community residents who affectionately call themselves, `Friends of Northern Row Park.' After an early sordid history, the park is once again the focus of a community trying to highlight the powerful and living culture that now lives in a historically German neighborhood of the City. Over-the-Rhine is home to mixed-income and mixed-race residents, but remains largely poor. The goal of this community group's interest in the Park is to focus attention on the nascent community and what it has to offer to the City.
Over-the-Rhine served first as a port-of-entry for immigrants into Cincinnati and is famous for its German heritage. It has always been a place of wide economic disparities between its wealthiest and poorest residents as evidenced by the variety of housing mixed with some of the finest architecture in America including such landmarks as Music Hall, Emery Theater, and the largest collection of standing buildings constructed in the Italianate style. The region saw a boom of building as German immigrants occupied the land north of the Erie and Miami canals in Cincinnati, now Central Parkway. They affectionately named the place "Over-the-Rhine" out of nostalgia for their homeland and the canal workers crossed on a daily basis traveling to-and-from work in the central business district. The northern edge of the City was then where Liberty Street is now. This "row" at the northern edge of the City is where Northern Row Park draws its name from and is a way to link today's community to that of the past while anchoring the historical foundations of Over-the-Rhine.
For the past 30 years, the Park has been used as a meeting place to broker drug deals, to illicit sex trade, and for the lowest levels of human activity. The space was largely infertile, thoroughly paved, and poorly lit - phenomena leading to a general state of misuse and disrepair. Although rapid changes are happening, perspective of Over-the-Rhine is still as a neighborhood plagued by drug use, homicide, poverty, and loss of economic activity; 79% of residents are below the poverty line whereas the City average is 20%. Most startling is the loss of homeowners (ownership rates are less than 5%) and population (OTR has shrunk from 100,000 peoples in 1900 to 32,000 in 1950 to less than 5,000 in 2004). Active community involvements seek to bring a more sustainable mix of lower and upper income persons and increase on property ownership. This park rejuvenation effort ties in with community efforts of other neighborhood residents and neighborhood stakeholders.
John Spencer and Ken Cunningham of KCAI, a local architectural firm, are the enabling force behind the rejuvenation of the Park space. Beginning their work nearly 8 years ago, John and Ken lobbied the City for the authority to transform the asphalt playground that had been the home of decaying and dangerous equipment as well as human squalor into a place that the community could claim as its own. In that time they have used their own resources and connections to push ahead development. They are spearheading the capital campaign to raise the funds necessary to firmly establish this green-space in perpetuity.
In 2004 a critical mass of residents came together to begin the bricks-and-mortar effort of the rejuvenation. In the spring of that year community residents began removing the debris like rail-road ties, trash, weed plants, and drug paraphernalia. In that same summer, their efforts blossomed and with a grant from The Procter & Gamble Co., the Friends were able to remove the asphalt, seed a bed of new topsoil, and install two new street lights and canopy tree lighting. Part of the goal of restoring the space is to clean and beautify it, but also to make it safer with better care and more community access and involvement. The vision is to see the Park as a community space used as an art venue, as a gathering and relaxation area, and as a symbol of the power of positive community involvement.
The Friends continued their work through the fall and spring in conjunction with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and the Great American Clean-up that focuses volunteer efforts on community areas for the purpose of dialogue and civic action. In the summer of 2005, with the help of the City of Cincinnati and countless volunteers, the granite paving stones that were once pavement of the Government Square bus station were moved to the Park space and used to pave over the asphalt, helping to complete the transformation from an asphalt playground to a park space.
The work was completed with collaboration with Stewart Ironworks of Covington, KY and the City of Cincinnati's Safe and Clean Grants to secure a historically-accurate, wrought-iron fence to ring the Park and define the space with gates open as a symbol of welcome to the community the Park exists in. After the fence the group focuses its efforts on construction of a shed and performance pavilion to store maintenance equipment, cover extra recycling containers, and serve as a stage space for performing artists. The Park is now a place of constant community events for years to come and just had its own elegant promenade when it plays host to a wedding to two of residents this early summer.
The Park work has brought together an exciting mix of people all with interest in Over-the-Rhine. The core working members of the Friends of Northern Row Park group include: John Spencer and Ken Cunningham in addition to Sam St. John, Pattie Klein, Reid Hartmann, Tamara Schwarting, and Cheryl Curtis (Over-the-Rhine Chamber). But the interest is not limited to this group of people as they have reached out to nearly 25 interested community residents and numerous downtown organizations for sponsorship and support (including: P&G, Jack Martin and the City of Cincinnati, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Stewart Ironworks, OTR Chamber of Commerce, Spring City, City Center Properties, Brooks Associates, Mies Tile, High Country Roses, the Cincinnati Park Board, Marvin's Organic Gardens, O'Heil Irrigation Co., PNC bank, and the Jeffery Allen Corporation).
For those interested in working on the park, please contact John Spencer or Ken Cunningham at kcai@one.net. Or check out the Yahoo! Group where the community shares updates and posts notices to each other: groups.yahoo.com/group/friends_of_noma
Sam St. John lives in Over-the-Rhine. He's interested in the park and in mixed-income, and sustainable, urban development. Contact: stjohn.s@pg.com
Photo Credit: Group photo by author. Park photos by Dyah Kartikawening
About iRhine
iRhine is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that develops the focus of communication for the many diversified offerings in the historic Cincinnati neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine (OTR). Through the Web site, e-mails, educational meetings, events, and volunteering, iRhine has supported and encouraged socio-economic development for OTR and the Greater Cincinnati Region since 2000.
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Feb 8, 2010
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