Mt. Auburn

Mt Auburn Town Crier, December 2008

Dec 10, 2008

From the Editors,
Welcome to the December issue of the Mt Auburn Newsletter. We wish you a wonderful holiday season. This is the time to enjoy the company of friends, family, and neighbors; to eat in good food, take long walks, extend a helping hand to someone in need, and warm yourself with hats, mittens and all the holiday decorations in Mt Auburn. We thank all of you for helping to make Mt Auburn such a welcoming and beautiful neighborhood!
In October, the members of the Mt Auburn Community Council elected a new set of officers. We would like to thank the outgoing officers for all the work they have done for Mt Auburn and its residents. Dr. Stanley Broadnax, who has served as President of the Council for the last four years, deserves a very special thank you. He has worked tirelessly to promote Mt Auburn, to protect the interests of the community, to find opportunities for community residents, and to establish connections with other community organizations, both within and beyond the boundaries of Mt Auburn. He has initiated and participated in numerous collaborative efforts to improve the lives and surroundings of our residents, he has spoken up on our behalf at City Council meetings, and – not the least – he has secured funding for and organized several ongoing programs in our community, (1) to help young people develop the kinds of skills that will facilitate educational and/or job-related successes and (2) to connect adult residents with various employment opportunities.
The newly elected Council is a mix of old and new faces, and we welcome them all. The new President is Freeman McNeal, a long-term resident and community leader; he is joined by Penny Carnes (vice-president), Anthony Thompson (treasurer), and the following board members: Stanley Broadnax, C. J. Gunn, Anna Linders, Jay Nachod, Dena Reed, and Pauline Vanderhaar.
As always, we encourage you – the residents of Mt Auburn – to become involved in the Mt Auburn community. Your experiences and your insights are invaluable resources. So, become a member of the Community Council, come to meetings, serve on committees, work with you block club, or participate in the various activities that the Community Council and other neighborhood groups organize.
We also invite you to contribute to the newsletter. Perhaps you have an issue you want to tell your neighbors about? Perhaps you have written a poem you would like to share? Perhaps you are organizing an event you would like your neighbor to know about? Whatever it may be, we would be more than happy to publish it (we reserve the right to edit contributions, but not without your agreement).
We wish you all a good start on the New Year!

Antionette Jones
684-9115
lawofmaat@fuse.net

Anna Linders
421-2757
Anna.linders@uc.edu


Neighborhood Support Program

Projects for 2009 will be presented at the December 15th meeting of the Mt. Auburn Community Council.

The Neighborhood Support Program (NSP), as many of you already know, is a program designed to foster resident initiative and involvement in the city’s communities. Funded by the City of Cincinnati, and administered by Invest in Neighborhoods, the program provides up to $7,000 per neighborhood for projects aimed at building and strengthening the community in various ways, including newsletters, efforts to increase community participation, beautification projects, and programs for youths.
Programs funded in 2008 include youth baseball, youth football, the community newsletter, membership support for children joining the Mt. Auburn Recreation Center, and several beautification projects. If you are interested in putting together a proposal and need more information, please visit the website, www.investinneighborhoods.com, or contact Anna Linders, current NSP manager for Mt Auburn, at 421-2757 (home), 884-4957 (cell), or via email, anna.linders@uc.edu.
We also encourage all residents to come to the meeting and share their thoughts about the projects. All Mt. Auburn residents are eligible to vote on the proposals, whether or not they are members of the Community Council.


Citizens on Patrol

Citizens on Patrol is a volunteer organization associated with the Cincinnati Police. Its mission is to patrol neighborhoods and observe. If necessary, members of a patrol can contact Police Communications with a police radio that they are carrying with them on patrol if they observe suspicious activity. In addition, patrols address quality of life issues such as litter, abandoned buildings improperly boarded up, non-working street lights, etc.
The organization is community based, that is, the members patrol in their own community. Mount Auburn has had a Citizens on Patrol unit for several years but I sense that many residents of Mount Auburn are not aware of it. Because of the size of Mount Auburn, we usually patrol by car and we may not always be noticed. We also patrol on foot but in a limited area.
We normally set our own schedule for patrols but in the aftermath of tropical storm Ike, we were specifically asked to patrol for several nights, which we did. We reported on a water line break, a gas leak and vandalized street signs. In addition, we reinstalled yellow warning tape around a location with downed power lines along with putting up a yellow warning “sawhorse” that had been lying along the side of the road.
To participate in Citizens on Patrol, you need to fill out an application and send it in. We recently had two new members go through the training but we could use more because we’ve had several members leave because they had moved out of state.
The next training will take place at the beginning of March, 2009. Training normally consists of three evenings though later in the year there are to be weekend training sessions.
If you need an application, contact me, Jay Nachod, either at 421-0359 or jenachod@hotmail.com and I will deliver or mail one to you.


William Howard Taft
National Historic Site
will celebrate a
Victorian Christmas
On Saturday December 13, the site will join the Mount Auburn Chamber of Commerce to usher in the holidays. From 12-3 p.m., park rangers and volunteers will assist you in making a Victorian Christmas keepsake. Father Christmas will also visit the site and children will receive a free Polaroid picture taken with him. At 3 p.m. visitors will be able to assist in decorating the Mt. Auburn tree located across the street from Christ Hospital. Enjoy a performance of holiday songs and free refreshments.
The program is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in a small lot in front of the Taft Center or a lot on Southern Avenue. Call (513) 684-3262 for accessibility assistance and information. Driving direction and map, as well as other useful information about your visit can be found at www.nps.go/wiho


Letter from a Resident

Dear Mt. Auburn Neighbors,
I am one of your newest residents, I moved here from Texas just 8 months ago and I decided to move into your beautiful neighborhood because it is centrally located and has the most beautiful antique homes I have ever seen. I came here for a job after recently graduating from college and so far have enjoyed living here and getting involved with many organizations, including the Mt. Auburn Community Council. I feel it is important to get involved in my neighborhood that is such a wonderful community and has great potential of being an even greater area.
I found out at the museum my first month in Cincinnati that Mt. Auburn was established in the early 1800’s and was once the most exclusive areas to live in Cincinnati, and I feel so lucky to be able to own a home in a community with such a rich culture dating back to before my great great grandmother was born. I look around and see the large non-ostentatious beautiful homes around me everyday and think what a great place to live and I feel proud of this fact. I will end my letter of introduction here and will conclude with saying that I look forward to further interacting with all the members of the community and I hope we can continue this tradition of making Mt. Auburn the most exclusive area to live in Cincinnati.
Sincerely,
Nick Shaver


News from the Mt Auburn Community Council

As always, we encourage the residents of Mt Auburn to stop by a Council meeting. It is perfectly fine to come and just listen. Many of issues that come before Council are of interest to the residents of Mt Auburn. Police officers from District 4 give crime updates every month and also invite residents to discuss their particular concerns, ranging from hazardous buildings to drug trafficking, from abandoned cars to wayward teenagers; in short, no issue is too small or too large to discuss at the meetings. Moreover, representatives from various city departments, proposed development projects, and various neighborhood groups and organizations often come before Council to discuss issues that affect us all.
It has been a busy year at the Community Council. The last few months, the Council has discussed the future of the swimming pools in Mt Auburn, the proposed condominium project at Highland and McMillan, the projected renovations of Taft Elementary School and the Recreation Center, the demolition of a few buildings on Auburn Avenue, the Cincinnati Empowerment Zone, the revitalization of the Mt Auburn Business District, the investment of Christ Hospital in the Center for Closing the Health Gap for the purpose of providing community based prevention services to Mt Auburn Residents, and many other issues.
Here we provide a brief update on the Youth Work Readiness Program that was initiated by outgoing president Dr. Stanley Broadnax a few years ago. The Mt. Auburn Work Readiness Program, funded by the Empowerment Zone, has recently formed collaborations with other community organizations to do work readiness and skills training. These organizations include the Life Skills Center in Walnut Hills; the Job Corp of Cincinnati; and the Urban Leagues ACE and SOAR programs. Through these collaborations, residents who participate in the programs get hands-on training in particular vocations and/or various job-readiness skills that facilitate entry into the labor market.