The story of downtown Cincinnati's current revival is told alongside similar tales from other cities as told by prominent urban planner Alexander Garvin.
In his new book, The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century, Garvin, an adjunct professor at Yale University, traces Cincinnati's renaissance to 2003 with the creation of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC). He notes the targeting of Over-the-Rhine for redevelopment and the launch of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar.
"The leaders of Cincinnati were convinced that for OTR to become a popular destination, it needed to be connected to the rest of downtown and its sports stadiums by light rail," Garvin writes. "However, streetcars were not needed to spur development in OTR. The revival of OTR was already well under way before the system opened."
Garvin joined Cincinnati Edition earlier this year to talk about his book and the role Cincinnati's urban transformation plays in it.
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