Cincinnati Mayor Participates in MICD Alumni Technical Assistance Program

On October 20-22, 2008, Mayor Mark Mallory hosted a technical assistance team of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) to study and recommend strategies for the City of Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills neighborhood revitalization. With the help and counsel of City of Cincinnati staff and local stakeholders, the MICD team reviewed existing plans for Walnut Hills and presented suggestions for future development and renewal for this neighborhood to the Mayor.

In 2006, Mayor Mallory attended a Mayors’ Institute on City Design session in Charleston, South Carolina. During his presentation, Mayor Mallory identified plans for Walnut Hill, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods with an historic commercial corridor. Several artist studios and small businesses are located in Walnut Hills and residents enjoy a diverse housing stock and are within close proximity to downtown and several vibrant neighborhoods. Yet over the latter 20th century, Walnut Hills residents saw increased vacancy and disinvestment in commercial and residential buildings. Consequently, the City has tried to develop a revitalization plan for the neighborhood’s residential units and business district

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) brought three expert urban designers to Cincinnati for the third MICD Alumni Technical Assistance program. These MICD resource team members included: Steve Lewis, Principal Project Manager at Parsons Corporation (Pasadena, CA); Sergio Palleroni, professor and fellow at Portland State University’s Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices (Portland, OR); and Kennedy Smith, principal of The CLUE Group, LLC (Arlington, VA). Members of the City of Cincinnati staff, local stakeholders and University of Cincinnati design faculty assisted the MICD resource team during the visit, including: Michaele Pride, Director of the University of Cincinnati’s School of Architecture and Interior Design; Frank Russell, Director of the Community Design Center and Niehoff Urban Studio; Menelaos Triantafillou, Associate Professor of the University of Cincinnati’s School of Planning; Kathy Atkinson, President of the Walnut Hills Community Council; and Jim King, Executive Director of the Community Redevelopment Group, in addition to the invaluable contribution of many City staff and local partners.

MICD resource team members and local participants visited the neighborhood, listened to presentations by city staff, local architects, developers and residents, which included the history and current condition of the neighborhood, and took part in animated discussion about the future of Walnut Hills within the context of the City of Cincinnati’s current plans. After much thoughtful discussion and drafting, the MICD and local resource team presented Mayor Mallory with recommendations for the revitalization of Walnut Hills. The public was welcome to comment on the presentation and several good recommendations from the public developed from that question and answer period.

In addition to providing comments and suggestions to the Mayor, members of the MICD resource team gave a public presentation of their work the second evening of the program. This event was held at the Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati. Resource team members presented best practices from their professional experience and took questions from the audience.

During 2008, the MICD Alumni Technical Assistance Program worked with the cities of Santa Rosa, California; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Cincinnati, Ohio. January 11-13, 2009, the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma will participate in the technical assistance program to conclude MICD’s inaugural year of this type of assistance. The program is made possible by a generous $250,000 gift from the Edward W. Rose III Family Fund of the Dallas Foundation, directed to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by Mrs. Deedie Potter Rose, a former member of the National Council on the Arts (NCA).

MICD is a partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayors. To date, the program has assisted over 750 mayors in transforming their communities through good urban design. Additional funding has been provided through a generous gift from the Edward W. Rose III Family Fund of the Dallas Foundation and the Bank of America.

For more information on MICD, call 202-463-1930 or go to www.micd.org.