Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said the state of the city is improving and he intends to accelerate the pace of the progress to ensure the city's growth works for everyone.
Cranley delivered his state of the city address Monday night to more than 700 people at Great American Ball Park. He reviewed the last year, and used a baseball theme.
“We want to hit more home runs as a city,” Cranley said. “And those magical home runs always come after hard work. And the harder we work as a city, the more magical home runs we will hit.”
As expected, Cranley's top priority is public safety. He pledged to give interim Police Chief Eliot Isaac “whatever he needs to reduce the shootings and lower violence.”
The mayor is asking city council to approve several items related to safety as early as next week.
Those include:
- Money necessary to add a civilian criminal analyst in the Office of Performance and Data Analytics in order to more fully map crime patterns, identify the worst offenders, and track gang activity.
- An additional $500,000 for more walking patrols and to allow the gang unit to conduct undercover operations to bring down the worst gang violence.
- An additional $200,000 for the witness protection program that a police department homicide detective has started.
In the long term, the mayor wants the city solicitor to work with the U.S. Attorney's office to bring more federal gun charges for illegal guns, and to train city lawyers to bring those cases in federal court if necessary.
Cranley also wants the solicitor to work with the Hamilton County Prosecutor to free up prosecutors to bring more actions against landlords who allow criminal activity to occur on their properties.
The mayor is seeking more involvement too from the city's recreation department.
“To find ways to keep our recreation centers open for longer hours and to mentor kids,” Cranley said. “We will ask them to formalize new relationships with proven mentorship program like Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and the Boys and Girls Club.”
Cranley's second goal is to strengthen the city's neighborhoods.
He said that can begin if voters approve Issue 22 on next month's ballot, which is a permanent one-mill property tax levy to fund city parks.
He also wants city council to approve selling the last portion of the city-owned Blue Ash Airport and use the money for neighborhoods.
“We should use this money to activate our neighborhood parks and civic spaces the way the city and 3CDC have done in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine,” Cranley said.
Cranley said he wants the upcoming year to be the year of the neighborhoods in Cincinnati.
His final goal involves reducing the city's childhood poverty rate.
He and other civic leaders are forming a task force to make actionable recommendations on the issue by the end of June.
“Our goals include lifting 10,000 children out of poverty within five years,” Cranley said. “In addition, we will help 5,000 unemployed and underemployed adults get into jobs and out of poverty.”
During the address, Cranley presented the “Cincinnatian of the Year” award to Bob Castellini for his work to bring the MLB All-Star Game back to the city.
He also presented the “Humanitarian of the Year” award to Jim Obergefell, who was the lead plaintiff in Ohio's equal marriage case that the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June.
This was Mayor Cranley’s second state of the city address since being elected in 2013.
