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"In our in opinion and I think others would agree that is a win-win for the community when MSD is constructing this asset to reduce CFO’s and improve water quality but they’re serving a dual function as sort of all these educational interactive opportunities, at the same time with all things at place."
-Gary Wolnitzek, Principal Landscape Architect at Human Nature. (left) / Joseph Danyluk, Environmental Planner at Human Nature. (right)
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS...
What do you believe are the underlying causes of the decline in South Fairmount?
Wolnitzek: When they started the outer suburban rings outside of Cincinnati, like Westwood. People started to bypass South Fairmount and then they created bigger roads for people to bypass South Fairmount. That in conjunction with the higher traffic and people moving out of the industrial basin, that’s when jobs started to decline and industries started to move out the basin.
...Cars going by at 30, 40, 50mph, it doesn’t make it a very desirable place to walk around.
Outside of the design field people don’t know much about community engagement, can you speak a little about that?
Danyluk: Multitude of things. First and foremost its coordinating with the different city departments and agencies and assessing all the different technical constraints that have to be dealt with, and working one-on-one with those different representatives and teams oand show that the project is feasible. Once the project was shown to be feasible it was a lot of one-on-one interaction with the property owners in the area. Also with the community, and MSD opened up that process through a series of three community design workshops and public open house. We were working directly with residents and stakeholders and other interested people to define not only what this project looks like, but what the goals and objectives were. Not only for the South Fairmount neighborhood and the urban water way but also the entire Lick-Run watershed and how that connects to the city at large. That was a really integral process they went through for several years knowing that a project of this scale needs to have this level of input.
Three distinct phases of master plan:
l. Awareness: We try to collect all the information about the community, about the project and we try to bring everyone to the same level of information so community leaders and citizens not only know about the project going on but why does the MSD need to do this.
ll. Explore alternatives.
lll. Create final vision of where we want to go with the project.
What challenges do you see taking place in terms of acceptance, tourism and opportunities?
Danyluk: The construction of whats shown in the master plan in terms of the urban waterway and all the storm water management and water quality components are needed for CFO reduction first and foremost…..but through the input we gather through the master planning process we able to incorporate opportunities for walking trails along the waterway or environmental education opportunities…
In our in opinion and I think others would agree that is a win-win for the community when MSD is constructing this asset to reduce CFO’s and improve water quality but they’re serving a dual function as sort of all these educational-interactive opportunities, at the same time with all things at place. There has been studies over the past 20 years the benefits open space brings to communities and how those can serve as catalysis for redevelopment efforts by other entities.
This project doesn’t define what this is outside this project. Washington park is an example of if you build they will come. It might take a while but you got to start.
South Fairmount is currently known for high crime, how do you think the VCS will impact crime in the area?
Wolnitzek: Having more and more people in this area, using this space, visiting this space, bring that activity down [crime] will certainly, hopefully long-term help remediate some these challenges the neighborhood currently has. You see it downtown now, where years ago OTR was a very different neighborhood than it is now. Getting more and more people in the area using the space, we think long-term it will certainly provide those benefits.
“The broken window effect. “If a window is broken it stays broken or graffiti is plastered on something and nobody cares then that just perpetuates more of nobody caring. So if somebody even in a small way starts to care about the community, then more people will start to care about the community. It’s just infectious; it grows.
Q: Often times people view projects in impoverished areas as a sign of gentrification. Do you believe that’s a case with the MSD Project or something wew should actually worry about at this moment?
Wolnitzek: It’s certainly not the intent [of the project] I think what we’ve seen is that we’re creating an amenities, but we’re not defining what happens outside of that. The community council has become very strong and very vocal. I feel they have a good handle on what they see as the future of the community and we hope that they can be guiding what kind of development happens or doesn’t happen in that community.
This project is the foundation for future discussions that will need to occur with continued public involvement, interaction with the people who live and want to stay in that neighborhood. Everything that’s being done as part of the lick run project is really the foundational framework for what continues to happen long term in the future.
Environmentally speaking, do you see projects such as Lick-Run project positively impacting South Fairmount street litter conditions?
Wolnitzek: If people see that somebody is willing to pick up the trash then they are less likely to toss the trash and you get more people engaged, and more pride in your community. It’s been such a flight out of the community with vacant buildings and the crime that hopefully that’s the bottom and now this project and the interest in the community will only go up from here.
Dealing with litter is a problem that every neighborhood faces in every city. It happens all over the place and it really comes down to the people who are living in that area, being aware of that, and what other entitles might be in place to help remediate those problems on a continual basis. The ambassadors downtown walking around every day of the year, picking up litter. It’s a common thing that occurs in urban areas.
Where do you South Fairmount economically/commercially speaking 5 years, and 10 years from now, with the Lick-Run project and in an alternate universe without the Lick-Run project?
Danyluk: If this project hadn’t been done, MSD was still going to construct a solution to reduce CSO’s and that would have been a tunnel and those impacts are a lot more localized. You still achieve the objectives that MSD is required to find, but a lot of the trends of crime, building disrepair and vacancy: it seems like a lot of that would continue because there weren’t any other big investments that would be coming go that neighborhood to make a change in the direction of where this community was headed. But with this project, and outlined in this master plan for the entire watershed, MSD is construction the base framework that hopefully, through other coordination and collaboration in the neighborhood and other investments from outside, will make this sustainable future for this community.
I think we eager to see where this goes and we feel confident that this will be a catalyst. I don’t think there’s a road map that we’re aware of other than there’s good people in place that are driving that future and I think it’s more than most other projects, born in this community and the leaders and the people that have grown up there are coming back. It’s pretty exciting to hear their side of what the community was like when they grew up and how they want to try to save it and they want to turn it around and that interest is heartening to hear and I think that’s their future.
Wolnitzek: When they started the outer suburban rings outside of Cincinnati, like Westwood. People started to bypass South Fairmount and then they created bigger roads for people to bypass South Fairmount. That in conjunction with the higher traffic and people moving out of the industrial basin, that’s when jobs started to decline and industries started to move out the basin.
...Cars going by at 30, 40, 50mph, it doesn’t make it a very desirable place to walk around.
Outside of the design field people don’t know much about community engagement, can you speak a little about that?
Danyluk: Multitude of things. First and foremost its coordinating with the different city departments and agencies and assessing all the different technical constraints that have to be dealt with, and working one-on-one with those different representatives and teams oand show that the project is feasible. Once the project was shown to be feasible it was a lot of one-on-one interaction with the property owners in the area. Also with the community, and MSD opened up that process through a series of three community design workshops and public open house. We were working directly with residents and stakeholders and other interested people to define not only what this project looks like, but what the goals and objectives were. Not only for the South Fairmount neighborhood and the urban water way but also the entire Lick-Run watershed and how that connects to the city at large. That was a really integral process they went through for several years knowing that a project of this scale needs to have this level of input.
Three distinct phases of master plan:
l. Awareness: We try to collect all the information about the community, about the project and we try to bring everyone to the same level of information so community leaders and citizens not only know about the project going on but why does the MSD need to do this.
ll. Explore alternatives.
lll. Create final vision of where we want to go with the project.
What challenges do you see taking place in terms of acceptance, tourism and opportunities?
Danyluk: The construction of whats shown in the master plan in terms of the urban waterway and all the storm water management and water quality components are needed for CFO reduction first and foremost…..but through the input we gather through the master planning process we able to incorporate opportunities for walking trails along the waterway or environmental education opportunities…
In our in opinion and I think others would agree that is a win-win for the community when MSD is constructing this asset to reduce CFO’s and improve water quality but they’re serving a dual function as sort of all these educational-interactive opportunities, at the same time with all things at place. There has been studies over the past 20 years the benefits open space brings to communities and how those can serve as catalysis for redevelopment efforts by other entities.
This project doesn’t define what this is outside this project. Washington park is an example of if you build they will come. It might take a while but you got to start.
South Fairmount is currently known for high crime, how do you think the VCS will impact crime in the area?
Wolnitzek: Having more and more people in this area, using this space, visiting this space, bring that activity down [crime] will certainly, hopefully long-term help remediate some these challenges the neighborhood currently has. You see it downtown now, where years ago OTR was a very different neighborhood than it is now. Getting more and more people in the area using the space, we think long-term it will certainly provide those benefits.
“The broken window effect. “If a window is broken it stays broken or graffiti is plastered on something and nobody cares then that just perpetuates more of nobody caring. So if somebody even in a small way starts to care about the community, then more people will start to care about the community. It’s just infectious; it grows.
Q: Often times people view projects in impoverished areas as a sign of gentrification. Do you believe that’s a case with the MSD Project or something wew should actually worry about at this moment?
Wolnitzek: It’s certainly not the intent [of the project] I think what we’ve seen is that we’re creating an amenities, but we’re not defining what happens outside of that. The community council has become very strong and very vocal. I feel they have a good handle on what they see as the future of the community and we hope that they can be guiding what kind of development happens or doesn’t happen in that community.
This project is the foundation for future discussions that will need to occur with continued public involvement, interaction with the people who live and want to stay in that neighborhood. Everything that’s being done as part of the lick run project is really the foundational framework for what continues to happen long term in the future.
Environmentally speaking, do you see projects such as Lick-Run project positively impacting South Fairmount street litter conditions?
Wolnitzek: If people see that somebody is willing to pick up the trash then they are less likely to toss the trash and you get more people engaged, and more pride in your community. It’s been such a flight out of the community with vacant buildings and the crime that hopefully that’s the bottom and now this project and the interest in the community will only go up from here.
Dealing with litter is a problem that every neighborhood faces in every city. It happens all over the place and it really comes down to the people who are living in that area, being aware of that, and what other entitles might be in place to help remediate those problems on a continual basis. The ambassadors downtown walking around every day of the year, picking up litter. It’s a common thing that occurs in urban areas.
Where do you South Fairmount economically/commercially speaking 5 years, and 10 years from now, with the Lick-Run project and in an alternate universe without the Lick-Run project?
Danyluk: If this project hadn’t been done, MSD was still going to construct a solution to reduce CSO’s and that would have been a tunnel and those impacts are a lot more localized. You still achieve the objectives that MSD is required to find, but a lot of the trends of crime, building disrepair and vacancy: it seems like a lot of that would continue because there weren’t any other big investments that would be coming go that neighborhood to make a change in the direction of where this community was headed. But with this project, and outlined in this master plan for the entire watershed, MSD is construction the base framework that hopefully, through other coordination and collaboration in the neighborhood and other investments from outside, will make this sustainable future for this community.
I think we eager to see where this goes and we feel confident that this will be a catalyst. I don’t think there’s a road map that we’re aware of other than there’s good people in place that are driving that future and I think it’s more than most other projects, born in this community and the leaders and the people that have grown up there are coming back. It’s pretty exciting to hear their side of what the community was like when they grew up and how they want to try to save it and they want to turn it around and that interest is heartening to hear and I think that’s their future.