Cincinnati community members are rallying together to create a response to new building developments throughout the city.
"The West End Must Be Saved" is a call for community members to address development that results in displacement. A dispute between housing advocates and FC Cincinnati is driving the conversation.
Neighborhoods United Cincinnati is a coalition of various neighborhoods. Members of the group say the West End is an example of challenges throughout the city.
"If we come together with a unified voice than we can make our demands be known that we are not opposed to economic development," said Mount Auburn resident Katie Hofmann. "But we want to make sure it is equitable."
Organizers say communities have had to fight city-wide challenges alone for too long. Community members say the West End is an example of challenges throughout the city.
"We feel very clearly if we are silent about what is happening in the West End then we are just as bad as those perpetrators moving people out of the neighborhoods," Hoffman said.
The group wants to end development that alters primarily African American communities.
“Cincinnati absolutely has to get this right. We’ve been working on new, comprehensive policy to ensure that, as a city, we continue to attract new investments and good paying jobs, while also making those investments and jobs accessible to folks who live in our city and have small businesses in our city," city councilmember Greg Landsman said in an email to WVXU. "This new policy must also incentivize efforts to be sure our folks can afford to stay here – it’s their city, after all. This will take a thoughtful, balanced approach, bringing developers and community together, to create an entirely new framework that will take us through the next decade – and that’s the role we plan to play.”
The rally will be held Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in front of 421 Wade Street, one of the buildings at the center of the FC Cincinnati dispute.