A walk through downtown Cincinnati on a typical Sunday afternoon can be rather eerie. Empty parking lots and sidewalks are surrounded by dimmed storefronts and "Closed" signs. The only thing missing is tumbleweed.
The Downtown Tour of Living did something to change that for a few hours Sept. 14, as about 4,000 people dropped in on 17 apartment buildings, condos and homes downtown and in Over-the-Rhine. Still, the fact that nearly every pedestrian downtown Sunday wore a pink "Downtown Tour of Living" sticker raises a question: Will downtown ever become more than a 9-to-5 business center?
Kathy Schwab -- residential development adviser for Downtown Cincinnati Inc., which sponsors the tour -- thinks so. Tickets for this year's event increased by 1,200 over last year. Those numbers, she says, show an increased interest in living downtown, where 80,000 people work but only about 5,500 live.
Other numbers seem to back up Schwab's theory. Overall condominium and home sales downtown are up 44 percent compared to last year, according to a DCI report. The 65 condos sold so far this year is three times more than the 23 sold in all of 2002.
But perhaps more telling than the numbers is the testimony of those who live downtown.
Jim Phillips, a resident of Sycamore Place at St. Xavier Park at Seventh and Sycamore streets, moved downtown from the suburbs last year -- and he loves it.
"I wouldn't live anywhere else," he says. "It's very convenient. I work down here, I go to the theater, the ballet, the symphony, and I walk everywhere."
Along with convenience comes character, Phillips says. His building is an example of adaptive reuse. Originally a shoe manufacturing plant, the building later housed the Hamilton County Board of Elections Office and the social welfare office. After sitting vacant for several years, historical-status tax credits helped Neyer Inc. and North American Properties convert the building into apartments.
Phillips' residence includes 15-foot ceilings with exposed piping and beams, two brick walls and 12 huge windows. The 1,435-square-foot apartment runs about $1,460 a month, typical of many of the apartments on the tour.
While Phillips and other residents have few complaints, the lack of small grocery stores and delis seems to be an inconvenience experienced by nearly all the residents.
"I'll be glad when there are more convenient places to shop," April Bolton says.
She and her husband are empty nesters who recently moved into one of three units they own on Ninth Street. They say their former home in Clifton offered more convenience, but it simply wasn't worth maintaining a family-sized house any longer. Despite car break-ins, the Boltons feel safe in the city's heart.
"What has happened recently is that we are getting a lot of attention from the police and from city council," Ralph Bolton says.
He's standing next to a window that looks out into an alley the couple converted to a porch, with hanging plants and patio furniture.
"They've started a program called Virtual Blockwatch, where they inform you what happens over the computer," Ralph Bolton says.
He can now find out about crimes almost as soon as they happen. Earlier this month, surveillance photos sent over the Internet to downtown businesses helped catch a man accused of breaking into the Taft Museum of Art.
With violent crime down 11 percent from last year, the arguments of those who shudder at downtown living because of crime are becoming less convincing.
The growing downtown population is gaining the attention not only of city officials but also of businesses such as delis and grocers, which until recently have been sparse downtown.
"It's been kind of dry downtown for decades," says Todd Razor, property manager at Sycamore Place. "I think the city is making it a lot easier now with streetscaping and helping to facilitate small businesses, delis, diners, bars."
The Renaissance, another adaptive-reuse apartment building, plans to open a grocery and deli in its building on Eighth Street in November. Another deli is set to open on Elm Street.
"The smaller businesses are coming back downtown," Razor says. "It's just kind of a rebirth to the whole city. Those businesses bring residents. ... It has to feel like a neighborhood."
Restaurants and bars down the street have become places of real community for downtown residents, according to Alan Hills, a resident at the Renaissance and executive director of the Cincinnati Ballet.
"People don't think it's a community, but it is," he says. "I feel a lot less isolated here than when I was in the suburbs."
While increased interest in downtown condos and apartments might create a more dynamic downtown vibe, many worry about gentrification and the threat it poses to low-income housing in places such as Over-the-Rhine. City Councilwoman Laketa Cole says she's excited about the new sense of cooperation between contractors and the city, but she also has grave concerns about gentrification.
"I do have a worry about that," she says.
Cole wants the city to do a better job of looking after the people it relocates, such as those displaced by upgrades at the Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court housing projects in the West End.
"We can't forget about them," she says. "We have to make sure it went well and that they're satisfied with where they are at. That's something that hasn't really happened." ©
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