CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is safe, and getting safer. That was the central message of Mayor Aftab Pureval’s State of the City address on Nov. 10 at the First Financial Convention Center Downtown, where he spent a large portion of his speech assuring the public that crime has decreased this year, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Pureval pointed first to the city’s biggest stages. The large events Cincinnati hosted in the past year — the Omega Psi Phi conclave, Cincy Music Fest, Oktoberfest and more — showed how safe the city is, he said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “There is a network of live event experts making sure that these showcases, on the largest stages, run smoothly and safely,” Pureval said, in remarks reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. “That the streets are managed, the messes are cleaned up, the issues are fixed, and folks get home safely.”
The statistics he cited were the speech’s core, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer: homicides are down 25 percent from last year; Cincinnati is on pace for the fewest gunshot victims since the city began tracking that statistic in 2010; and property crimes are down 13 percent from the three-year average.
Pureval acknowledged crime remains a concern, citing the police officers attacked Halloween night while breaking up a large crowd at a gas station near the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “I know it can be difficult, it can be frustrating, to talk about positive progress when we continue to have tragedies in our community,” Pureval said, in remarks reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. “But being proud, looking at and investing in what’s working, is not the same as being satisfied.”
The mayor also talked about “hitting the gas” on major development, building affordable housing and expanding the city’s climate efforts, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The city will soon break ground on two projects using its BuildReady program of pre-approved designs — six designs for two-, three- and four-family homes that a developer can pick from, backed by a $2 million federal housing grant and aimed at speeding construction of “missing middle” housing, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “We are going out and building the damn housing,” Pureval said, in remarks reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
On climate, Pureval said the city will keep moving forward with the Green Cincinnati Plan and the Climate Migration Readiness Plan, and he pointed to the solar array the city broke ground on in April on a 65-acre former landfill in Winton Hills, which will generate enough electricity to power 1,700 homes a year, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Now is the time for investments like these. Generational storms are becoming increasingly frequent,” Pureval said, in remarks reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Two political notes framed the address. Pureval, a Democrat, praised outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, saying DeWine “put real leadership over politics” and defended cities during “an extremely cynical stretch of political history at the national level,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer — and he expressed excitement about incoming Democratic state leadership under Gov.-elect Amy Acton. And the income tax hike he proposed in his January inaugural address, to fight crime and build housing, went unmentioned: Pureval shelved it this year amid cost-of-living pressures, though he said he would like to push for it at some point before his term ends in three years, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. What happens next is the new year’s agenda he laid out — BuildReady groundbreakings, the Green Cincinnati Plan, and whether the crime numbers he cited hold.