When the next Cincinnati City Council is sworn in on Jan. 6, 2026, only one person will take the oath of office for the first time. At 29 years old, Ryan James is the youngest Black man ever elected to City Council.
James sat down with WVXU Local Government Reporter Becca Costello to talk about the upcoming term.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What is your top priority after being sworn in?
So right now my team is working on our first 90-day plan to squarely address the affordability crisis here in Cincinnati. I know that affordability is not the first thing you think of when you think of a Midwestern city, but I think there's been so many economic stressors on our residents. Right now, it's time to fight and fight with both hands to make sure that not only are we addressing the affordability crisis, but also making sure our residents are economically empowered.
Any specific policies or ordinances you have in that plan yet?
I recently served as the director of strategy for the Greater Cincinnati United Way. We had gotten thousands and thousands of calls, particularly around just basic cost of living essentials [which] have been really cost-burdening our residents, particularly things like property taxes and utility bills. Of course the city of Cincinnati [does not] directly control all of these cost mechanisms, but what we can do is take each one of these issues and create structures to alleviate costs. For example, I'm excited to lead the charge on a utility assistance program.
Something that we don't talk about enough at the city of Cincinnati is the rising cost of home repairs. We talk about the 50,000 units we are short in affordable housing, but we don't talk about protecting our existing residents through home repair programs. The city has a home repair program now called Harbor, but the big issue is you actually need a building code and inspections violation to be a viable participant. And I think when we talk about government, if you have to essentially break the law in order to have access to a vital social service, are we building trust or are we building traps?
Reporter's note: The city does have a separate program to help low-income homeowners with some repairs even without a code violation.
When we talk about affordability, we also have to talk about the city budget. We're expecting significant deficits for the city budgets over the next few years. The Futures Commission did recommend an income tax increase. Do you think Council should ask residents to increase the income tax?
No, I do not. I think there were some smart criticisms in the Futures Commission report. But I will say that we ran squarely to address the cost of living crisis [and] raising taxes is certainly not in our first 90-day plan.
I think that right now, our residents are so cost-burdened by so, so many costs that used to be affordable. The average rent Downtown is now $1,400, which to most of our families is not affordable. I know that one of the big key functions I want to have here is creating opportunity, right? So creating jobs in Cincinnati and making sure that our residents are the first ones at the table to benefit from that growth. All of these resources in the community to alleviate costs and make sure individual working family can pay their bills — skyrocketing taxes is the antithesis of achieving that.
On the other hand, you're proposing some programs that would cost the city some money. Knowing that there are some deficits coming up, how would you propose to increase revenue to the city to support your affordability programs?
I'm a big believer in eliminating waste. You know, coming from a background in public administration, I am overly familiar with public budgets and what the budgeting process looks like, and I'm very optimistic here. In collaboration with the mayor's office and city manager, we can find areas in which our tax dollars are not serving working people in the city, and I think that it's imperative that we focus on high quality, basic services. I think we saw the city do a good job of that throughout the snowstorm. We are getting better at making sure we're alleviating day-to-day barriers for our residents, but I think we can leave our communities most vulnerable on the cutting room floor in that process. So I'm ambitious and I'm optimistic to think that we can do both these things at the same time, if we focus on eliminating waste in our budget.
There have been a couple instances this year where City Manager Sheryl Long's decisions have faced some criticism from some on Council. One being placing Police Chief Teresa Theetge on paid leave pending an investigation; the other being food truck and Red Bike restrictions Downtown related to public safety concerns. What do you think the relationship between Council and the city manager should be like? Do you think City Council should have more of a supervisory role and a more involved, day-to-day look at the city manager's decisions?
Absolutely. I think that it's our key responsibility as elected officials to make sure the voices of our community are represented in our strategic decision-making at the city of Cincinnati. I also think there's a boundary where our city manager has some expertise in addressing these issues. I think that's something to be respected. But exactly like the examples that you brought up, I think those were opportunities where elected officials could have had a seat at the table — or a larger seat at the table — in that decision-making. But I don't think that's every decision at the city of Cincinnati. I think that getting too involved in the day-to-day minutia probably would pull us away from some of the decisions that we're able to make at a high level.
Is there anything else you'd like residents of Cincinnati to know before you take office soon?
Right now, we're in our listening process. We're putting together our plans. We've made sure that we've had a few key stakeholders at the table — the small business community, some of the employers in the Downtown area, the neighborhood councils, as well as the CDCs [community development corporations]. So right now, our doors are open. I would love to have as many conversations as I can to make sure that in this building phase, putting together our agenda for City Hall, we're making sure that residents are at the table.
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