OPINION

Simpson: Cranley lacked poverty plan, ignored DuBose, streetcar

Yvette Simpson

Yvette Simpson is a member of the Cincinnati City Council.

Mayor John Cranley’s State of the City address had both high points and major outages. He opened by highlighting the city’s renaissance, which continues to attract businesses and residents to downtown and Over-the-Rhine. I agree that Cincinnati’s story of rebirth, growth and opportunity has transformed our city. A focus on the successful execution of All-Star Game under the leadership of Bob Castellini and the Cincinnati Reds was also a great way to recap what was a huge jewel in the city’s crown this past year. Honoring Jim Obergefell and celebrating marriage equality, the other great highlight for our city this year, was thoughtful and another high point in last night’s event. The mayor also balanced the high points of the year with a touching tribute to our two devastating line of duty losses this year: Fire Apparatus Operator Daryl Gordon and Officer Sonny Kim.

The failure to even acknowledge the fatal shooting of Sam DuBose was a glaring omission from last night’s speech. It was a significant event in our city this year for which we were in the national spotlight and it deserved some mention. What’s more, the tragedy would have provided a great framework for the issues we still face in the area of race relations in the city while honoring how far we have come since 2001.

The mayor announced his focus on neighborhoods for the coming year, highlighted by a both figurative and literal commercial for his parks levy. He started with a glaring misstatement – that half of the funds will be used for maintenance, then began what felt like a heavy-handed “sales pitch” for the levy. This levy was billed as a citizen-led effort, but the commercial and the nature of its presentation at the State of the City address didn’t leave that impression. He also unveiled his Neighborhood Activation Plan, which provides funding for neighborhood events, which he credits for the success of Washington Park and Fountain Square. What was missing was an acknowledgment of the major infrastructure and development investment that has been made in and around those spaces, which makes them attractive places for people to gather.

The omission of the streetcar from yesterday’s speech a major misstep for the mayor. The cars will be delivered later this month and it will be running by next year’s State of the City address, but was noticeably absent from the speech. While no one expected the mayor to do a “commercial” for the streetcar, his failure to even acknowledge one of the city’s most significant infrastructure projects was a major outage.

After the park levy presentation, there was little oxygen left in the room for the mayor’s other two priorities: safety and poverty. These are two heavyweights that deserved serious deliberation and consideration, but there was no commercial, no slide show, and no written plan – just a recitation of new expenditures that Council heard for the first time in the mayor’s speech. After a year of increased violence and the abrupt “departure” of our prior chief, the public deserved a strategic, well-thought out plan for addressing this issue in the future. The mayor’s return to the “get the bad guys” and “tough on crime” rhetoric was also difficult to digest, particularly without a comprehensive plan for how that is accomplished and no specific crime-reduction target. We received national acclaim for our community-oriented policing model and it was noticeably absent from the mayor’s presentation.

Poverty is a major, longstanding issue – locally, nationally, and around the globe. As one who was has been working in this area for years, I find the mayor’s interest in this issue laudable. But as one who was raised in poverty, I know personally that this issue needs and deserves more than a pronouncement without a plan. We have more than 30,000 children in poverty in our city. Proclaiming that we will “lift 10,000 children out of poverty” over the next five years when the city’s mobility rate is 5.1 percent (in a generation) is short-sighted. Further, for those individuals living in poverty and organizations actively working on the root causes and effects of institutional, inter-generational poverty everyday, organizing a “summit” and expecting it will lead to a one-third reduction in our childhood poverty rate in 5 years is, at best, out of touch and at worst, disrespectful. This announcement is even more puzzling considering the mayor and the administration’s attempt to derail Council’s unanimous decision to increase human services funding in this year’s budget. My recommendation is that the mayor develop a workable plan and a realistic goal, then announce both the plan and the goal at next year’s State of the City address.

The city has undergone an amazing renaissance, but we still have much to do. We can only get there with a clear vision and solid plans to continue the investment and momentum in our neighborhoods. We must also remain persistent in our focus on the root causes of the issues we face as a city. An integrated, comprehensive, placed-based strategy to address many of the issues and opportunities in our city would be a great start.