The Struggles of South Fairmount
Despite being an unapologetic cheerleader for Price Hill, there are other neighborhoods across this city that I root for and pay attention to. One neighborhood that seems to have been forgotten by most Cincinnatians is South Fairmount, a small neighborhood with a population of about 2,300 residents. The neighborhood is situated adjacent to the Mill Creek, a large railroad yard and the it connects many west side neighborhoods to Interstate 75. In the early 90s, I attended pre-school at the Immanuel United Church of Christ when the neighborhood still had a bit of life and character to it. I remember swimming at the local pool along Queen City Ave which was eventually converted into a spray ground. I also recall a wide variety of businesses existing within South Fairmount along the Queen City Avenue corridor. In South Fairmount’s current state, the number of actual businesses that exist today is few and far between. More so than most other neighborhoods in this city, South Fairmount has seen decades of disinvestment and general neglect from our elected officials. That was until the $90 million Lick Run Greenway project began to take shape in 2013. It’s taken a long eight years for the project to finally reach completion, but it is scheduled to have an official grand opening ceremony take place in late Spring of 2021. Will this project be the catalyst to finally bring South Fairmount back to its former glory?
Before we delve into answering that question, we need to go over what exactly is the purpose of this project? The Lick Run Greenway project came about when the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati decided they wanted to expand the Mill Creek watershed. They did this to reduce the amount of overflow sewage that would eventually find its way into the Ohio River. The project itself is extremely exciting in terms of reducing water pollution and it gives the neighborhood a very aesthetically pleasing look. It took MSD years to buy up and tear down the blighted and dilapidated properties in between Queen City and Westwood Avenues. This may be another contributing factor to the ever-present affordable housing crisis in our city, but that is another conversation for another time. From my perspective as someone who drives through South Fairmount daily on my way to and from work, construction was completed several months ago and the greenway is fully functional and operational. But as the months went on since this project was unofficially completed, a few issues continue to arise.
It’s my belief that the biggest issue that hinders growth in South Fairmount is the two parallel one-way streets known as Queen City and Westwood Avenues. Despite a posted speed limits of 35 miles per hour, driving on these two streets is like entering some sort of no holds bar racing event where you’re allowed to compete against your fellow Cincinnatians without penalty. I’d estimate that on a weekly basis, I see drivers blow through red lights without a care in the world. The way these two streets are designed is to get drivers in and out of South Fairmount as quickly as possible which is what hurts this neighborhood the most. Not only do the residents of South Fairmount have to account for speeding drivers with no disregard for speed limits or traffic signals, they also have to account for very few drivers stopping to frequent their businesses or parks. With the current design of Queen City and Westwood Avenues, I do not foresee much economic growth happening in South Fairmount. Especially when buildings continue to be torn down with no regard. With the completion of the Lick Run Greenway project, black wrought iron fencing has been erected in between both Queen City and Westwood Avenues to protect pedestrians from falling into the underlying waterway. But over the past few months, it’s vehicles and not pedestrians that seem to have trouble avoiding these fences.
The image above are provided by the South Fairmount Community Council’s Facebook Page. Early on March 21st, a driver finally did it. A white van careened through the wrought iron fence and found themselves in the Lick Run waterway. This is truly an impressive feat when you consider the distance between the road, the side walk and the fence that they tore through. This isn’t the first time a vehicle wrecked into the fencing either. Parts of the fence are already seriously damaged by vehicles after only being erected for a few months. The City of Cincinnati needs to take a serious look at traffic calming in this corridor which will assist bringing this neighborhood back to life. Traffic calming isn’t extremely popular among the suburban crowd because many residents from Delhi Township and other surrounding suburbs use Queen City Avenue to reach I-75. But here’s the thing, they don’t live in our city and shouldn’t get a say at turning our urban neighborhoods into neighborhoods with a suburban feel. I’d argue that both Westwood and Queen City Avenues should be two-way streets instead of one way. Additionally, raised cross walks and bump-outs for pedestrians would go a long way in slowing down traffic. When the current purpose of an entire neighborhood is for drivers to simply drive through it, something needs to change for the sake of the residents that live there.
And that brings me to the blight and abandoned properties that encroach upon the Lick Run Greenway Project. Countless homes are abandoned, in disrepair and have large amounts of trash and graffiti on them. How can absentee property owners get away with such blatant neglect of their properties? This type of stuff would never fly in other parts of Hamilton County. I’ve personally reported some of these vacant properties to the “Fix It Cincy” app and virtually nothing has happened. I assume these absentee property owners are waiting for some major real estate boom to happen in South Fairmount due to the Lick Run Greenway Project and they plan on unloading them to the highest paying developer that comes calling. In reality, what should happen is the city should seize these properties from their owners due to excessive code violations and find someone to turn them into affordable housing. Probably easier said than done, but something must be done about these negligent property owners who are bringing down the quality of a neighborhood that desperately needs to be uplifted. Ultimately, I see the potential a place like South Fairmount has. This is a neighborhood that has been at the bottom of the political pecking order for decades, primarily due to its residents being low-income. There’s a saying that high tides raise all ships. In order to truly have a great city, we must uplift and begin investing heavily in neighborhoods like South Fairmount. South Fairmount is the way it is because the city allows it to be that way and that needs to change immediately. I sure hope the new crop of 85+ City Council candidates are paying attention to our neglected neighborhoods and stop directing all our city’s resources to neighborhoods like Hyde Park, Oakley and Mt. Lookout.
