Good Neighbors
Uptown Consortium’s Tony Brown and Lajuana Miller outside the Herald Building, one of the buildings included in the revitalization plan for Burnet Avenue.
Working with the Uptown Consortium, we’re creating a healthy environment beyond our hospital walls.
In the shadow of the steel and glass structures that make up Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati medical campus are the remains of once-grand homes, many well-worn and still occupied, others graffitied and boarded-up.
This is Cincinnati’s “uptown,” a study in contrasts. Uptown Cincinnati includes the neighborhoods of Avondale, Clifton, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Fairview, Mt. Auburn and University Heights. Together with downtown, it forms the city’s urban core.
Uptown is the second largest center of employment in Cincinnati, home to four of the area’s largest companies that provide work to some 50,000 people. Yet in large portions of the residential areas that dot the uptown landscape, signs of unemployment, poverty and struggle are evident.
Easing that struggle—and restoring the vibrancy that this historic district once enjoyed— is the goal of the Uptown Consortium, a community development organization that Cincinnati Children’s helped form in 2005.
Restoring Health to a Community
Consortium members wanted the neighborhoods surrounding their organizations to be safe and welcoming places to live, work and visit, says Cincinnati Children’s president and CEO James Anderson.
“The Uptown Consortium shares our broad definition of community health that includes quality of life,” Anderson says.
To ensure that quality of life, Consortium president and CEO Tony Brown says, “We had to address safety, affordable housing and easy access into, around and through the community.”
It’s a tall order, but the Consortium developed a committee approach that brings neighbors and businesses to the table together to solve the problems.
Making the Most of Committees
“Committees expand our capacity by combining the knowledge of representatives from our member institutions and our neighborhoods,” explains Lajuana Miller, the Consortium’s consultant for neighborhood services. Cincinnati Children’s employees serve on a number of Uptown’s committees. Their initiatives this year tackled improving neighborhood safety, easing traffic congestion and working with community councils.
One of the most exciting projects underway is an $85 million redevelopment of the Burnet Avenue corridor. The first phase was made possible by a collaboration among Cincinnati Children’s, the Avondale Community Council and the Consortium: a 200,000-square-foot building that will house the headquarters of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper, patient care and office space for Cincinnati Children’s, retail shops and parking.
Ultimately, the Burnet Avenue redevelopment will include affordable housing for neighborhood residents, including senior adults. Watching the progress, Brown notes, “Without Cincinnati Children’s catalytic investment, this never would have happened.”
