40 Years of Census Data Adds Up to Fresh Perspective on City s Neighborhoods

Two local researchers – Chris Auffrey of the University of Cincinnati and area activist Michael Maloney, a one-time community organizer in Over-the-Rhine – will soon present their findings regarding changes in Cincinnati neighborhoods over the past 40 years.  The pair will present their work at a meeting of Cincinnati’s Community Development Committee in Council Chambers (300 level) of Cincinnati’s City Hall at 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 4. 

Using U.S. census data from 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000, Maloney and Auffrey have been able to track income, education, occupation, changes in family structure and other factors in specific neighborhoods throughout the Cincinnati metropolitan region over the past four decades.  It’s information – summed up by the term “socio-economic status” – that community groups and the city can now count on in allocating resources and winning grants.  Among their findings (all listed in rank order):

Neighborhoods that have improved markedly in recent decades:

• Mt. Adams
• Oakley
• East End
• California
  

Neighborhoods that have declined dramatically:

• Mt. Airy
• Bond Hill
• Westwood
• College Hill
• N. Avondale/Paddock Hills

Neighborhoods once in decline but which have now stabilized:

• Mt. Auburn
• North Avondale
• Corryville
• Kennedy Heights
• Downtown Cincinnati 
  

According to Auffrey, neighborhoods that have experienced more recent declines, just in the past decade, include both Fairview-Clifton Heights and University Heights.  Meanwhile, Maloney explained why some neighborhoods have improved, “Oakley is a rising star, especially with the development of Rookwood Commons, while the East End is undergoing gentrification.  Mt. Auburn was once in serious decline but seems to have stabilized, as have North Avondale and Corryville thanks to the civic and employment centers represented by the university and by the hospitals.  Most recently, the West End is the only one of 12 blue-collar African American neighborhoods improving in terms of the socio-economic indicators.”   

As for downtown Cincinnati, he and Auffrey perceive that the city’s efforts to revive the central business district for residential living is paying off.  Explained Maloney, “These are ‘new’ neighborhoods almost 40 years after being abandoned.  For fuller neighborhoods downtown, amenities like urban grocery store must be included that appeal specifically to downtown residents and workers while the larger city events – Tall Stacks, the fireworks, sports and musical festivals – serve to draw suburban residents.”

Maloney’s and Auffrey’s 150-page “The Social Areas of Cincinnati: An Analysis of Social Needs” is more than the information it includes on both broader trends regarding the metropolitan region and neighborhood-by-neighborhood details.  It’s presented as a tool, a compendium of easy-to-read-and-understand information that the city, community groups and the region can use in order to allocate resources and win funds for neighborhood needs.

For instance, according to Maloney, earlier versions of the report – completed after each census – have been used in the 1980s and 1990s to lobby for and build a recreation center in Price Hill, provide a senior center for Hyde Park’s growing elderly population, and revise police district needs.  In addition, groups have used past reports to gain millions in institutional grants from outside the city. 

Other findings from their latest research (listed in rank order):

The core inner-city became more African American but less poor during the 1990s, and African Americans are more likely to live in middle-class neighborhoods now than in 1970s.  However, some inner-city neighborhoods are moving toward “ghetto” status.

Several African-American neighborhoods have become more integrated over the past 40 years, including:

• East Walnut Hills
• Evanston
• Corryville
• South Cumminsville-Millvale
• Walnut Hills
• West End

Cincinnati’s growing Hispanic population is settling, in the largest numbers, in:

• Westwood
• East Price Hill
• Mt. Airy
• Oakley and Hyde Park (Hispanic families which are not newcomers to the nation) 
  

After their Oct. 4 presentation, Auffrey and Maloney will provide the report – as long as supplies last – free of charge to community groups, thanks to a grant from UC’s Institute for Community Partnerships (ICP).  The report will also be available via the Urban Appalachian Council’s Web site at www.uacvoice.org.

Supporting their research are UC’s ICP, UC’s Urban University Program, UC’s School of Planning, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, the Urban Appalachian Council, the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, Christ Church Cathedral and Catholic Social Services.