Continue to support for Environmental Justice in Cincinnati. There will be a final vote at the full Council meeting on June 17 th, 2009 at 2pm.
City Council members will have the opportunity to attend a public hearing on the City’s budget at an evening meeting on June 16 th. I will then call for a vote on the Environmental Justice Ordinance the following day at the full Council meeting. This will ensure council members will have the opportunity to make an informed decision on the EJ ordinance in the context of the budget.
Please come to City Hall and show your support for this legislation The Chamber of Commerce is making an all out effort to oppose this legislation, and we want to demonstrate the broad support that is present in our City.
Vote Postponed
To speak on this Ordinance, please note you have to fill out a speaker card with the Clerk no later than 1:30pm in order to speak at the Citizen’s Forum portion of the meeting. Having this Environmental Justice Ordinance will offer the citizens of Cincinnati an added measure of protection from industrial activities that pose significant health risks—protection that we currently do not enjoy.
Cincinnati has ranked as the 8 th most polluted city for year round particle pollution by the America Lung Association 2009 State of the Air Report.
Cincinnati may be a leader in pollution, but we now can be a leader in the important fight against pollution.
The City’s Human Services Policy: Josh Spring, Director Of The Homeless Coalition, Talks About The Issue That Won’t Go Away
Media Release by Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless
Work is being completed to fix the problems found in the process used to allocate city funding to Human Services. These problems nearly resulted in close to a $700,000 cut to Human Services a month ago. In the midst of this work, council-members Chris Bortz and David Crowley have put forth a motion (see below) that if passed, would remove both “Emergency Services and Homeless Services” as well as “Services to Persons with Disabilities” from the current list of priorities used to determine what Human Services received city funding.
A POSITIVE VOICE FOR THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM
James Cunningham, Director of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for Southwestern Ohio, made a strong case for the Housing Choice Voucher Program in his keynote address at the MARCC annual meeting on February 10 th. MARCC (Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati) voted last November to make affordable housing/homelessness one of its priority issues in 2009, and in light of this decision it chose Cunningham as its speaker and held its annual meeting at the Metropolitan Housing Authority office in the West End. More
COMMUNITY FORUM REFLECTS CONTINUED CONCERN ABOUT THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THE PROPOSED ZONING AMENDMENTS
At a recent Community Issues Forum at Christ Church Cathedral, a diverse group comprised of concerned citizens and representatives of social service agencies heard a panel depict the impacts that a series of proposed zoning code amendments would have on social services in Cincinnati. The panel included Elizabeth Brown, Executive Director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), Roger Howell, President of the City Gospel Mission, and Trey Daley, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, and they offered different perspectives on the negative effects these zoning changes would create for agencies and religious institutions that operated human services. More
CITIZENS’ VOICE CONFAB HEARS ISSUE UPDATES AND CONTEMPLATES SETTING A CITIZEN AGENDA
A group of diverse citizens met at the Peaslee Neighborhood Center on February 27 th to share information about recent events and policies and to begin a discussion about developing “a citizen agenda.” Known as “the Citizens’ Voice,” these informal sessions have taken place in recent months to explore ways that civic activists representing different issues can share common ground while reinforcing each other’s work.
Previous interest by the group in the proposed Environmental Justice Ordinance led to an update from David Altman, the co-chair of the citizen task force that sponsored the proposal. Altman reported that a redraft of the ordinance had just been completed, and he had not yet had a chance to read it. He confided some concern that such a redraft may weaken environmental protection for neighborhoods, and he promised to provide a written evaluation once he reads the new version.
Next, Rick Dieringer, the Director of Invest in Neighborhoods, told attendees that the City Budget passed by Council in December eliminated the funding for his organization to administer the Neighborhood Support Program. Dieringer believes that the City lacks the internal staff to run the Support Program and events such as the annual Neighborhood Summit, and he wonders how support for the City’s Community Councils will fare without Invest in Neighborhoods’ involvement. “Invest”, he said, will continue to work with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation on neighborhood initiatives such as the Youth Council in Avondale. MORE
Agenda 360
Greater Cincinnati today is at an important crossroads. Our region is endowed with exceptional resources. Yet there is no clear and comprehensive picture for deploying our assets in a manner that will allow us to achieve continued social progress, economic prosperity and community building.
With this in mind, a group of passionate leaders from a variety of sectors of society in Greater Cincinnati have come together to organize an action agenda for the four primary counties of Southwest Ohio (Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren). As this agenda emerges, it will be aligned with similar initiatives already well developed in Northern Kentucky (Vision 2015) and Southeast Indiana to form a comprehensive regional agenda for the Tri-State region.
For more information please visit the Agenda 360 web site.
