[Patti Hogan and writer Liz McEwan were interviewed on WVXU's "Cincinnati Edition" April 9; listen here.]
Heading west from downtown Cincinnati, a steep incline with a few winding roads leads from the neighborhood of Lower Price Hill up into East Price Hill and then, just a few blocks further, into West Price Hill. Add Westwood and the three riverfront neighborhoods of Sedamsville, Riverside and Sayler Park to the mix, and you’ve seen the city of Cincinnati’s famous West Side.
Neighborhood loyalties run deep in our region, but perhaps none more than the loyalties of life-long Westsiders.
There is a common misconception among Cincinnatians that West Side residents are too conservative, too working-class or too suburban to ride the redevelopment waves now crashing around the city. But an honest look at community life in these neighborhoods and the way residents address their own growing and changing needs proves that the West Side has its own story to tell.
Before very long, Cincinnati we’ll all see the fruits of various large-scale improvement projects in and around the Price Hill neighborhoods — a viable
Incline District, the
Ohio River Trail,
Price’s Landing, the
Western Wildlife Corridor and various other projects — that have been in the works for a long time and are wrapping up without much grandstanding or public acknowledgement.
As the city's West Side neighborhoods experience this ebb and flow of development, the residents — many of them tried-and-true Westsiders — work to bolster them block-by-block and street-by-street. One resident, Patti Hogan, has been instrumental in organizing citizen volunteers and community resources to combat the challenges that come with change.
“You know what they say about us Westsiders…”
Patti Hogan has spent all but two years of her life in the same pocket of East Price Hill. It’s a neighborhood that runs so deep in her veins she simply wasn’t happy during the years she was away.
“Leaving never felt right,” she says. “You know what they say about us Westsiders: We never get too far from the West Side. There is something that pulls people back here. There is a charm about this city. What is there that you could possibly want that you cannot find in Cincinnati?”
East Price Hill afforded Hogan and her four siblings a childhood worth reminiscing about. The neighborhood was safe, and kids were free to roam about with trusted neighbors keeping just enough watch.
“When I was growing up, we used to swing on grapevines and run through the woods,” she says. “My mom was a single mom for a while because I lost my dad when I was young, and the neighbors kept my mom tuned in to what the little Hogan ‘rugrats’ were up to.”
Hogan says she was just an average resident for years, but the challenges of a changing neighborhood shocked her into action.
“I used to be one of those people that would go to work in the morning, come home, cut the grass, take care of my house, go inside, turn the TV on for an hour or so, go to bed and then start the cycle all over again,” she says. “I knew only my neighbors on either side.
“But in 2003 a neighbor’s son was nearly shot in a drive-by shooting and I thought, ‘We’ve got to really take this bull by the horns; we can’t let someone else solve our problems.’ So I started a block club. And I’ve learned since then that it really takes a village to raise a child.”
Tackling crime by removing trash
Hogan started organizing. But rather than addressing the community’s safety concerns by specifically addressing crime, she chose to tackle an oft-overlooked symptom of neglect: trash.
The aging of older residents and homes, along with an influx of both lower-income renters and younger residents, brings a new set of challenges for a neighborhood.
High rates of vacancy, property maintenance issues with absentee landlords and increases in graffiti, litter and illegal dumping are all hallmarks of struggling communities. In most cases, increases in crime go hand-in-hand with an all-around decrease in a community’s physical and environmental “quality of life.”
In East Price Hill, these problems are made worse by the steep hillsides and heavily wooden areas. The same environment that hosts wild areas and swinging vines for neighborhood kids provides cover for illegal activity and perfect spots for dumping unwanted trash, furniture, construction waste and other debris. Accessing these littered items is tricky and laborious.
Cleaning up the neighborhood is not glamorous work, but it’s important work for any community looking to attract residents, developers and investors.
“I got involved because of safety,” Hogan says. “I’ve learned that safety and cleanliness are critical to the livability of the neighborhood. Without a safe neighborhood, without a clean neighborhood, we can’t move forward. … Without that, the other things aren’t going to come. Nobody wants to invest in a place that isn’t safe.”
One of Hogan’s strongest allies in cleaning up her neighborhood is
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB), which has provided supplies and support for Lower, East and West Price Hill’s cleanup events for years. Marissa Burroughs from KCB has worked alongside Hogan during a few community events and has seen her hard work.
“Patti does it all,” Burroughs testifies. “She plans the cleanups, gathers tools, supplies and volunteers, gets food donated and then participates in the cleanup herself. She uses her personal vehicle to haul dumped tires, furniture and whatever else she can find. … Many people in Patti’s position would have given up a long time ago, but Patti doesn’t give up. She works with anyone and everyone to find a solution.”
What It takes to build an army
Hogan knows that cleaning up a neighborhood takes more than one woman and a pickup truck.
“It takes an army,” she says, “and I’m willing to organize it.”
She is quick to credit her neighbors and their “sense of community” more than herself for any success. “There’s a really collaborative effort here to get things done. A lot of communities don’t get that level of cooperation.”
Among her partners, she names
Price Hill Will, Elder High School, the East Price Hill Kroger, the City of Cincinnati (which brought the
Neighborhood Enhancement Program to East Price Hill in 2014) and many more. It’s thanks to these strong partners, Hogan says, that she's able to mobilize hundreds of volunteers in multiple neighborhood-wide cleanups each year.
Because her primary motivation is the safety of Price Hill residents, it makes sense that Hogan partners so closely with the Cincinnati Police Department. East Price Hill Neighborhood Liaison Officer Melissa Emody knows firsthand that Hogan is “very passionate about her community and getting others to get involved.” But Hogan’s works doesn’t stop in her own neighborhood.
“Patti also assists several other neighborhoods in District Three to improve their neighborhoods,” Emody says. “She has offered her experience and volunteered her time. … She is truly an inspiration to many with her passion for improving her community.”
In Hogan’s world these days, being a good neighbor extends much farther than the view from her front door. So it’s commonplace to see her flinging illegally-dumped tires and discarded furniture into a dumpster on a Saturday morning when most people would rather be home drinking coffee and watering their own lawns.
“I’m willing to do the dirty stuff,” she admits with a shrug, as if it’s really no big deal. To her, it’s not — It’s just the right thing to do.
Where neighbors are family
Hogan and many other life-long Westsiders are happily aging with their communities, growing pains, wrinkles and all.
“This neighborhood has changed a lot in sixty years,” she says. “The people that are still here stayed become they welcomed the diversity. The people who fled fled because of fear. My personal opinion is that they missed a wonderful opportunity.
“(One) thing that makes Price Hill really neat is the diversity. And not just ethnic diversity, but economic and religious diversity … and I think we (current residents) think our differences are assets. Most people welcome those differences and realize that we are always learning from the time we are born until the time we die.”
This all harkens back to another common West Side stereotype: It’s the more Catholic side of town. And although the statistics may no longer support the stereotype, Hogan agrees that there might be something to say for the Catholic influence in her community, where parish life creates bonds with neighbors that are as strong as family.
“The concept of extended family is kind of inbred in us from the time we’re young,” she says. “I don’t care if you’re green or yellow or orange, we have to work together.”
In Hogan's view, there may be no better place to become a neighbor than on the West Side.