This spring, Ohio City Shines, a community-wide initiative to improve the neighborhood, was launched. Its purpose is to create a more vibrant and welcoming neighborhood with an emphasis on participation from residents and stakeholders. The first project for the program was to train volunteers and hold assessments to determine what problems were in which areas, followed by clean-ups to address those issues. With help from Case Western Reserve and NPI, volunteers were able to use a spreadsheet to document blight and code violations that corresponds with a web application in which this data is entered.

So far volunteers have gathered data in four areas, Fulton-Lorain-Bailey, RWJW (Randall Whitman John Woodbine), Bridge Carroll Jay, and SoLo. These assessments have helped to clean up or report 10 illegal dumping sites, 9 potholes, 24 trash hotspots, 23 graffiti hotspots, and 5 instances of high grass and weeds with the help from the City and the Health Department. Graffiti was removed from light poles and walls and over 25 bags of garbage were collected by volunteers.  Dump sites were also cleaned up, and code violations on residential and commercial buildings as well as vacant structures were identified to the City. These are just the first steps in how the Shines program hopes to improve conditions in the community, while helping residents engage with their community at the same time.

One resident, Jeanne Jenks, has been volunteering with Shines since the program kicked off in the spring. “[Ohio City Shines] has shown me how many engaged, great people we have in our neighborhood. Walking around and seeing things up close really put me into focus with the neighborhood.” When asked how she think Shines will help improve things in the future she said, “It’s like the Broken Window Theory—If we keep our problem areas like the alleys clean over time, then the littering [will be] less likely to happen again in the future.”

Ohio City Shines is planning to expand to small scale landscaping projects, neighborhood walks, and other programs and projects that will not only help to eliminate blight in Ohio City, but also to make it safer for residents and visitors alike. The next areas for assessment and cleanup will be Franklin-Clinton and 45-52. For more information about Ohio City Shines, check out the “For Residents” section of ohiocity.org. If you would like to be involved with future projects, please contact Alexandra DeBiase by email, adebiase@ohiocity.org or by phone at 216-781-3222 ex.109.