For years, an almost mile long stretch of land parallel to I-71 stood neglected between Avondale and Evanston. Weeds grew up around a long-unused rail bridge passing over Victory Parkway.
Now Cincinnati officials say an extension of the city's Wasson Way Trail is a small step toward reconnecting the two neighborhoods to the rest of the city decades after they were isolated by the highway.
Mayor Aftab Pureval says the $2 million project — phase 6A of the trail running from the city's East Side into Uptown — is a small way to right a wrong done to those predominantly Black communities.
"We are doing everything we can at the city to divert resources, whether it's infrastructure or economic development dollars, to communities like Evanston and Avondale that have been under-invested," Pureval said during a ribbon-cutting for the trail Wednesday. "We are here today intentionally because the big infrastructure projects of the '50s and '60s that bisected historically Black communities were an injustice then and an injustice now. We're doing everything we can in collaboration with the passionate people here to stitch our communities back together. This bike trail is a perfect personification of that commitment."
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The land was once home to a rail line and is owned by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority.
Development of the trail — and another proposed extension to the University of Cincinnati — sparked some concerns among residents about increased property values and interest in development along the route causing displacement. But city leaders have presented the project as a way to make it easier for people living in Avondale and Evanston to get to the city's big employers.
Avondale Development Corp. Board Chair Royce Sutton says the residents of Avondale deserve amenities like the trail.
"This is an important part of what it means to be a community," he said. "You need walkable spaces. You need green spaces. You need safe spaces. This is what helps to make the fabric of a healthy community."
Some Avondale residents expressed other concerns about public safety along the new path. Cincinnati City Council approved extra funding for the project so that lighting can be installed along the extension. Work is still ongoing on that part of the extension.
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Bicycle and walking infrastructure advocacy group Tristate Trails says the Wasson Way Avondale extension is an important piece in its CROWN plan — a network of bicycle and walking trails that would stretch 34 miles and connect a number of Cincinnati neighborhoods in the Mill Creek Valley, the city's West Side, along the riverfront and in other areas.
Wasson Way currently starts at Old Red Bank Road near Ault Park, though the municipalities of Columbia Township, Fairfax and Mariemont are working on completing trails there that would connect Wasson to the Little Miami Trail. That trail connects to a network that runs all the way to Cleveland.
Wasson Way ends at Montgomery Road near Xavier University now and picks back up on the other side of the school at Woodburn Avenue. The university is eyeing a connector trail through its campus.