Service Learning - Michael Hesselschwardt Abstract

This paper will examine controversies over whether or not the City of Cincinnati is knowingly displacing the poor population of Over-the-Rhine in an effort to bring in more affluent, and generally white, residents.  Based on the economic decline and drastic crime rate increase in the past few decades, efforts have been made on the city’s part to implement residential and commercial rehabilitation in the neighborhood.  Several factors play into the city’s idea of “successful” revamping, though, as crime rates, living standards, and economic status are being used as gauges of the betterment of the community, while lower-income residents may be being displaced from their homes in the process. 

Despite focuses on permanent homeownership and increased property values in the area, it is a concern that these results are in direct correlation with the intentional removal of lower-income citizens by the City of Cincinnati.  Also, discrimination in this regard based on income and race have led to the supposed belief of an “outside-in” rather than “inside-out” approach to the Over-the-Rhine problem by city organizations in recent years. 

Essentially, the gentrification issue in Over-the-Rhine is indeed a reality, and the consequences have been substantial for lower-income residents – but the fact of the matter is that it is a virtual impossibility to determine if these results are due to discriminatory intentions on behalf of city officials and organizations.  Until any evidence of this can be unearthed, there is no way of hindering the direct or indirect gentrification-based displacement of lower-income residents of Over-the-Rhine.  Therefore, based on the research obtained through this paper, it can be concluded that intentional displacement by any discriminatory factors is not present in the Over-the-Rhine area.

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