Cincinnati Change Response to Changing the Gulf

Cincinnati Change believes we can change Cincinnati NOW. We started in 1988 and where incorporated in 2005. The Enquirer lists their top local stories and they limit it to 5. Here are Cincinnati Changes top local stories for 2005.

I - The Hurricanes

Katrina, Rita and Wilma should be the top story on everyone A list, we have over 800 people from the affected areas living in greater Cincinnati now. What else has affected, negatively, 25 million Americans, except for number 2.

What can we say except we are going to help 100,000 people affected by creating a fast response infrastructure for relief and rebuilding. This enterprise is being developed so that when this happens again we can be their to help rebuild based on the model we are developing in Cincinnati in 2006 in cooperation with Port Arthur, Texas where Rita visited for 12 hours.

II - The War

The War on Terrorism and the hope for Democracy is number 2. It will have even a longer term affect on us as citizens of the United States of America. We have spent 8 trillion dollars since September 11th 2001 and have a president who says, "I see a global terrorist movement that exploits Islam in the service of radical political aims -- a vision in which books are burned, and women are oppressed, and all dissent is crushed.

Terrorist operatives conduct their campaign of murder with a set of declared and specific goals -- to de-moralize free nations, to drive us out of the Middle East, to spread an empire of fear across that region, and to wage a perpetual war against America and our friends. These terrorists view the world as a giant battlefield -- and they seek to attack us wherever they can."

Our nation stands as a shining example to all the world of freedom and democracy, a unique honor that comes with a responsibility to lead. 2005 showed we are in the business of nation building. We can and have to win the War on Terror. We believe the 2006 has to be a transition year. The year 2005 showed us that we need to serve our troops better and support true freedom movements around the world.

Cincinnati Change believes in America should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world. We want to serve our people better and we want to do it smart with all the Third Frontier resources available.

III - The New Mayor

The election of Mark Mallory as Mayor. New leadership brings with it a chance to improve the city. He can use the assets of the city which are more than a billion dollars to make fundamental changes in the lives of the residents of the city. He can coordinate the leadership in the region to create a Cincinnati lifestyle that benefits everyone in the region. At Cincinnati Change we know they have the tools to deal with the problems of the city and look forward to this council to have the will to use tem to benefit the residents of the city.

Cincinnati Change and its minority small business founders are going to propose to them that they work with the mayor and his designated City Manager on a program for development that creates or retains over 50,000 jobs for Cincinnatians (who by the way are residents of Hamilton County and citizens in the state of Ohio) and sustains 12,000 low to moderate income homes while building 8,000 market rate homes in the city.

IV - The New City Council of Cincinnati

After the election of a City Council that got down to business right away. They passed a budget and set the stage for a consensus to develop on how we define public safety and go about achieving it when City Council Law & Public Safety Committee reviewed the shooting incident that occurred on Christmas Eve. This incident in Roselawn which resulted in the death of one 19 year old Chanel Jordan, who was coming to pick her brother up and was not at the "dance", and the wounding of another youth.

Cincinnati Councilman Cecil Thomas, chair of the Committee, has said it was a productive meeting, but now a holistic approach is needed to attack the problem, with council, police and parents working together. A number of community members spoke about the violence in the community and the need to take action against the problem. Cincinnati Change has declared 2006 as the year of Peace In the Hood along with Jobs in the Hood.

V - UC

The firing of Bob Huggins is cause for cheer, if it is part of cleaning up University of Cincinnati sport program into a program that treats all sports equally and increases their graduation. We believe that it should be the most important goal of all Division I schools. Although, at first, UC may not win tournaments, but they have improved not only the ethical standards of their sports program 100%. They have set a bar for the region to do no less.

Little known fact - the University of Cincinnati was the second-oldest and second-largest municipal university in the country. It became one of Ohio's state universities in 19977.

VI - Race

In 2005 racial division has not been reduced under previous leadership, but we have hope for 2006. We still had to much disconnect between the African American and poor in Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Police Department even with the Department of Justice Memorandum of Understanding (DOJ) and the Collaborative Agreement (CA). The Big story is the change in leadership of the FOP and the coming together of the African American community around the issue race and crime.

The image of police officers and the city as a whole is still recovering from race riots that erupted in April 2001, following the shooting death of an unarmed black man who ran from a white police officer trying and subsequent police slow down. The perception that emerged has been said to have embarrassed Specialist Kathy Harrell, the first woman elected president of Queen City Lodge No. 69 of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"The whole city got a black eye from it," she said in an interview. "But did we grow from it? Yes. Have we proven we're still an excellent city? Yes. Are there concerns that have to be dealt with? Definitely." We hope to work with her and other interested parties who believe that we can have Peace in the Hood along with Jobs in the Hood.

VII - Third Frontier

Ohio Governor Bob Taft pleas guilty to crime. This was a first for a sitting Ohio governor who has the lowest poll rating of any governor in polling history. Yet he has a chance during this his last year in office to make changes in Ohio's technology landscape for the future that will overshadow his past. He has the resources at hand in Ohioians passed his Third Frontier Program. For those ready it the program offers a chance to growth businesses, like the ones we currently partner with, into major global companies using Third Frontier funding.

VIII - Civic Pride

WHO-DEY: The Bengals making the playoffs is important for a simple thing that will make a big difference in 2006, increased civic pride. The bengals could be a central point of this pride campaign driven by Cincinnati Change to met the goals that are defined by the residents of the city in 2006 through an electronic village which will be in operation on our birthday June 19th 2006.

IX - The gowth of the Internet and Bloggers

The internet has 60 million home pages and over a billion possiable conncetions currently. The growth in 2005 of the blogsphere in the big news. A blog is a website in which hypertext and images (and links to video, audio and other files) are posted on a regular basis and in generally reverse chronological order. The term is a shortened form of weblog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts," or "entries". A person who posts these entries is called a "blogger".

Many bloggers support the Open Source movement. The free speech nature of its technology has helped blogging to have a social impact. Blogging makes it easy for employees to irritate their bosses, and a number have been fired. many say blogs changed the election of the Mayor in Cincinnati.

Open Source Politics, or the ability of people to participate more directly in politics, is reframing terms of debate (see George Lakoff). Many bloggers differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public.

An example of this growth is Wikipedia, in 2005 it was 4 years old online based on a very radical idea, the realization of the dreams most of us have always had for what the Internet can and should become. Thousands of people, all over the world, from all cultures, working together in harmony to freely share clear, factual, unbiased information… a simple and pure desire to make the world a better place. In 2005, it achieved 6-fold growth in pageviews with spending of less than $750,000.

Cincinnati Change has several blogs:

Cincinnati Change General Information About US

Cincinnati Change Response to Hurricane Katrina & Rita It Says It All - help those in need

MBE's in the Nati Minority - The Business Journal on Cincinnati

Nati Action Agency - a community action agency just for the city using city money

Nati Water Working for Cincinnatians - it's worth 400M plus lets use it for us NOW

Uptown Security - we can run our own police force as well as own CPD it's in the city rules

X- Cincinnati Change was "born" this year

Cincinnati Change was incorporated Juneteenth 2005, June 19th 2005, as a not for profit organization. Development efforts, that succeeded and failed in 2005, set the state for the mission of Cincinnati Change. We will serve as an innovative, proactive partner in supporting comprehensive economic development, workforce needs creation along it's development, quality housing development that is lead free and environmentally safe, supportive of historic conservation efforts where they make sense, land use management based on creating a land trust for the city, supportive of creating in Cincinnati a worldwide arts and cultural amenities infrastructure that is a tourism destination and creation of a comprehensive human and social services infrastructure for all Cincinnati's citizens to be Nati Action Agency.

In 2005 Cincinnati Change bought interest in it's headquarters at 2439 Auburn Avenue in preparation for starting operations in February 2006. Cincinnati Change believes that the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored by each other and those who we elect.

Cincinnati Change believes in the equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability, including, if needed, timed affirmative action. Cincinnati Change believes in free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

A New Tax Law Could Give You Twice the Deduction Until Dec. 31, 2005

A charitable cash gift made to Cincinnati Change this calendar year could be twice as advantageous from a tax perspective than in the past.

Through Dec. 31, 2005, donors may deduct qualified cash gifts up to 100 percent of their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) rather than the usual 50 percent limit. In addition, cash gifts will not be subject to the 3 percent reduction rule applied to itemized deductions when AGI exceeds $145,950.

This change is a result of the Katrina Emergency Act of 2005 (KETRA) enacted by Congress and the President to encourage contributions to the relief effort and charitable organizations that may have experienced a decline in gifts because of the hurricane devastation.

Another incentive is available to donors with IRAs who are at least 59 1/2 years old. They can withdraw funds, make a contribution to Cincinnati Change or another charitable organization (we will be glad to help you do so) with those funds, and offset nearly all of the income tax liability on the withdrawal.

Cash gifts can also be used to establish Charitable Gift Annuities (CGAs).

Available to those age 60 and older, CGAs provide a steady stream of income at a fixed rate for life. The gift establishing the annuity, $10,000 or more, qualifies for an income tax deduction, and a portion of the annual income is tax-free.

For details contact hershel daniels at h.daniels@cincinnatichange.com.

President Commends Congress for Passing Tax Incentives to Assist Gulf Coast Region

I commend the Congress for passing an important part of my comprehensive plan to help the citizens of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. The private sector is critical in the rebuilding effort, and these tax incentives will help boost investment, get people back to work, and return the region to prosperity. Americans will continue to stand with our fellow citizens in the Gulf Coast region. I look forward to signing this bill into law.

Hurricane Rita was the seventeenth named tropical storm, ninth hurricane, fifth major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the second-most powerful hurricane of the season, ahead of Hurricane Katrina but behind Hurricane Wilma. This hurricane is on record as being the strongest measured hurricane to ever have entered the Gulf of Mexico, and the fourth most intense hurricane ever in the Atlantic Basin.

After peaking in strength at 175 mph (280 km/h) steady winds, it made landfall between (Port Arthur Texas) Sabine Pass, Texas, and Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, at 02:38 CDT (07:38 UTC) on September 24, 2005 as a Category 3 hurricane, with windspeeds of 120 mph (190 km/h) and a storm surge of 10 feet (3 m). [1]

The storm first struck Florida after making an approach near Cuba and went on to strike Texas and Louisiana. It is doubtful that Cuba saw sustained tropical storm force winds. A day prior to landfall, the resultant storm surge also reopened some of the levee breaches caused by Hurricane Katrina a month earlier, and reflooded parts of New Orleans. [2] Post-landfall damage was extensive in the coastal areas in southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas.

Because the Gulf of Mexico is a major center for crude oil production and refineries, as well as home to some of the busiest ports in the world, Rita initially presented the potential to do damage beyond the localized wind and wave surge. These concerns have so far not been realized, as no reports emerged of long-term damage to the major U.S. refining and shipping capacities in Houston, Texas City, Port Arthur, Texas or Beaumont, Texas [3] [4]. Power outages may have the greatest related effect.

Port Arthur is a town located in Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area and is situated in East Texas. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 57,755.

Demographics

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there are 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density is 268.9/km² (696.5/mi²). There are 24,713 housing units at an average density of 115.1/km² (298.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 39.01% White, 43.70% African American, 0.45% Native American, 5.89% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 8.88% from other races, and 2.06% from two or more races. 17.45% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 21,839 households out of which 33.2% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.6% are married couples living together, 19.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% are non-families. 29.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.61 and the average family size is 3.25.

In the city the population is spread out with 28.7% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 91.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 86.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $26,455, and the median income for a family is $32,143. Males have a median income of $30,915 versus $21,063 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,183. 25.2% of the population and 22.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 35.2% of those under the age of 18 and 14.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
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Hurricane Rita

During the night and through early morning of September 24, 2005, Port Arthur took a huge hit from the high winds and rain of Hurricane Rita. The damage was extensive and widespread, including flooding in Port Arthur's Downtown area.

Port Arthur had the highest recorded winds during Hurricane Rita's landfall - at 116mph.

NOAA reported Rita's record-setting Category 5 strength as a result of achieving a minimum central pressure of 897 millibars (hPa) (26.49 inches of mercury) on the afternoon of September 21, 2005. This record strength steadily diminished prior to landfall after Rita moved over cooler waters in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan and Senior Officials on Levee Reconstruction

James S. Brady White House Press Briefing Room

12:27 P.M. EST 15 December 2005

MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. Happy holidays. I look forward to seeing everybody this evening at the White House holiday party for the press. We just concluded a meeting in the Oval Office with the President. I'm joined today by Secretary Chertoff; our federal coordinator for the hurricane reconstruction and rebuilding Don Powell; Mayor Nagin; and General Strock of the Corps of Engineers.

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Good afternoon, everybody. Not a day goes by that we don't think about what's going on in New Orleans and what we can do to promote the process of reconstruction and recovery for the people who have been afflicted all over the Gulf Coast. We continue to do everything we can to help communities get back on their feet and people reclaim their lives. And let me just give you a little bit of statistical background before I turn it over to Chairman Powell for, I think, what will be a very important announcement.

FEMA has, to date, provided rental assistance to more than 650,000 families. We are now working to bridge into longer-term assistance programs. We're going to be extending hotel stays at least past January 7th. The long-term goal here is to get people into sustainable, long-term housing, so they can reclaim their lives, get their kids in school, get jobs, and position themselves to regain their economic and personal prosperity.

We've removed 55 million cubic yards of debris, which is a critical pre-condition to rebuilding. We've approved $392 million in community disaster loan assistance, which is important to let municipal and parish and county governments get up and running, and $205 million in unemployment insurance.

In total, the federal government has now provided approximately $5.2 billion in direct assistance to victims of Katrina and Rita. So that's a lot of material assistance. But, of course, one of the greatest forms of assistance we can provide people is hope -- hope that they can get back to the Gulf Coast and hope that they can back on with their lives.

The President believes deeply in New Orleans, and is deeply committed to its future. We understand that the people of New Orleans need to be assured that they're going to be safe when they get back home; that their city has an infrastructure that is capable of sustaining a possible storm next season or in the seasons afterwards. And one of the most important decisions we can take, therefore, is one that will help us accelerate the rebirth of this great American city on the levees of the Mississippi and the Gulf Coast.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is requesting $1.5 billion more to help make the levee system in New Orleans, Louisiana, stronger than it was before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

The money the president is requesting is in addition to the $1.6 billion he has already committed to repair the breeches in the levees, correct the design and construction flaws and bring the levees to a height that was authorized before the hurricane, a Category 4 storm, hit on August 29, killing more than 1,300 people.

"That work is being done as we speak," Powell said.

The additional $1.5 billion that the president is requesting would pay to armor the levee system with concrete and stone, close three interior canals and provide state-of-the art pumping systems so that the water would flow out of the canals into Lake Pontchartrain, Powell said.

Officials said the flood protection system would be rebuilt to its previous level of protection before the hurricane season next year, and that the process of strengthening the levees further would take two years.

The announcement came after Bush met in the Oval Office with Powell, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Louisiana officials say that bringing the flood protection system to Category 5 level is crucial to the future of New Orleans, as it would be hard otherwise to entice the many people displaced by the storm to come back.

"We understand that the people of New Orleans need to be assured that they will safe when they get back home -- that their city has an infrastructure that is capable of sustaining a possible storm next season or in the seasons afterwards," Chertoff said.

Bush's public schedule in recent weeks has been almost completely bare of references to Katrina or appearances related to the disaster. But Chertoff said the attention at the federal level has not faded.

"Not a day goes by that we don't think about what's going on in New Orleans and what we can do to promote the process of reconstruction and recovery for the people who have been afflicted all over the Gulf Coast," Chertoff said. "We continue to do everything we can to help communities get back on their feet."

Nagin thanked Americans for the money to rebuild New Orleans and told former residents of the city to come home.

"It's time for you to come back to the Big Easy," he said. "This action today says come home to New Orleans."

Nagin said the flood protection system will be stronger than ever. Officials said the levee system would be rebuilt to its previous level of protection before the hurricane season next year, and that the process of strengthening them further would take two years.

"These levees will be as high as 17 feet in some areas. We've never had that," he said. "We will have the holy trinity of recovery -- levees, housing and incentives."

Nagin acknowledged that the most heavily devastated areas of the city -- Lakeview and the Lower Ninth Ward -- were not ready for returning residents, but he promised they would be eventually. He suggested that officials may need to find housing elsewhere in the city in the meantime.

"At the end of the day, our entire city will be rebuilt," he said.

On Capitol Hill, meantime, Senate tax-writers embraced the casinos, golf courses and liquor stores as part of a roughly $7 billion program of tax incentives to rebuild Gulf Coast businesses damaged or destroyed by hurricanes.

The Senate could act as soon as Thursday on a package of tax breaks and other assistance that fulfills Bush's call for a special business zone in the Gulf Coast. Lawmakers hurried to finish the bill before taking a holiday break. The House earlier had denied including the casino and other businesses in the tax relief.

The House last week passed its own package of aid. Its key benefits matched the Senate and included increased write-offs for small business investments and an additional write-offs for other businesses purchasing equipment and new property.

During the night and through early morning of September 24, 2005, Port Arthur took a huge hit from the high winds and rain of Hurricane Rita. The damage was extensive and widespread, including flooding in Port Arthur's Downtown area.

Port Arthur had the highest recorded winds during Hurricane Rita's landfall - at 116mph.

Cincinnati Change is establishing Gulf Coast Change to redevelop 20,000 homes tarting with 700 in New Orleans and 3,000 in Port Arthur. The company will start operations from a headquarters at 2439 Auburn Avenue.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said victims of the Hurricanes and their aftermath must be given more time in hotels because FEMA cannot guarantee that all applications for other aid, such as rent assistance or trailers, will be processed by the agency's Jan. 7 deadline. The temporary restraining order was part of a class-action lawsuit filed in November by advocates for hurricane victims.

The ruling was in response to a class action lawsuit filed in November by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights along with the New York law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP; John Pierre, Attorney and Professor at Southern University Law Center; the Public Interest Law Project; and the Equal Justice Society. The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.

FEMA is immediately complying with the court order. FEMA has extended the stay of all of those evacuees living in hotels and motels paid for by FEMA at least through January 7, 2006 . No hurricane evacuee will have to make the transition to longer-term housing without first receiving rental assistance from FEMA or being provided with referral options if ineligible for assistance. The federally-reimbursed hotel/motel program will end no earlier than February 7, 2006 for those still working with FEMA to receive assistance.

"We have extended the stay to all evacuees staying in hotels and motels to Jan. 7," said acting FEMA Director David Paulison during a teleconference Wednesday. "It has been our mission all along to make sure the evacuees making the transition into longer-term housing have the assistance they need. Our goals and those of this ruling are very much the same and that is to make sure no one is asked to make a transition to longer-term housing before receiving the tools to do so, such as FEMA’s rental assistance. "

Although the short-term lodging deadline is Jan. 7, during a conference Wednesday, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen said eligible evacuees who contact FEMA prior to the deadline would be allowed to reside in hotel or motel rooms after the deadline in order to find an apartment. The federally reimbursed hotel/motel program will end no earlier than Feb. 7 for those still working with FEMA to receive assistance.

FEMA has provided rental assistance to 653,000 families affected by this catastrophe so far. The Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to pick up the tab for about 41,000 hotel rooms in 47 states and the District of Columbia at an estimated cost so far of about $350 million.Judge Duval’s order requires FEMA to notify all displaced persons who were incorrectly told by the agency that they must apply for a SBA loan in order to obtain temporary housing assistance.

Pursuant to the court order, FEMA “must notify applicants and potential applicants that no such requirement exists and that no applications will be held up for Temporary Housing Assistance processing due to an SBA Loan application not being filled out, or being filled out incorrectly, unnecessarily, and/or superfluously.

”The needs of the relative few who remain in hotels and motels remain a top priority. FEMA continues to reach out to those evacuees who may not yet know of federal aid they are eligible to receive, and encourages those who have not registered to do so.This ruling is critical for the close to 100,000 hurricane survivors who are now living in at least 37,000 hotel and motel rooms throughout the country," said John Brittain, Chief Counsel of the Lawyers' Committee.

"African Americans made up a disproportionate high share of the hurricanes' survivors. Many have little or no resources and those that remain in hotel rooms are in most need of assistance at this time," added Brittain.Cincinnati Change will work to ensure that all victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have housing and economic development opportunities.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2005

A Proclamation by the Chairman of Cincinnati Change. On this day we celebrate a national remembrance for those lost on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. We at Cincinnati Change honor the courage of a generation of Americans who devoted themselves to one of the great missions in our country's history – global democracy and freedom.

After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor took more than 2,400 American lives, millions of our citizens answered the call to defend our liberty, and the world witnessed the power of freedom to overcome tyranny.

During this global fight for survival America's ultimate triumph was far from clear in the early days of World War II. When our country was attacked at Pearl Harbor as in Asia and Europe, country after country had fallen before the armies of militaristic tyrants. However, the brave and determined men and women of our Nation maintained their faith in the power of God to support our freedom and spread democracy.

They fought and won a world war against two of the most ruthless regimes the world has ever known. In the years since those victories, the power of freedom and democracy has transformed America's enemies in World War II into close friends. This is the greatness of America the ability to reach out it's hand in friendship to those who are our today our enimies as our friends tomorrow. Witness Japan and Germany.

Cincinnati Change is dedicated to the spread freedom and democracy around the world. We are a organization dedicated to secure a more peaceful world for our children and grandchildren. We are grateful to the men and women who are defending our flag and our freedom in the first war of the 21st century. We look forward to the days of peace like our forefathers have done in the past.

These patriots are protecting our country and our way of life by upholding the tradition of honor, bravery, and integrity demonstrated by those who fought for our Nation in World War II and that is continued to this day by our military.

The Congress, by Public Law 103-308, as amended, has designated December 7 of each year as "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day." The service and sacrifice of our World War II veterans continue to inspire people across our country and set an example of sacrifice. Cincinnati Change remains deeply grateful for all that these heroes have done for the cause of freedom.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this Seventh Day of December , in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the two hundred and thirtieth year in the Independence of the United States of America.

FREDERICK HARGROVE SENIOR
PE, MBA
Chairman of Cincinnati Change

Mayor and City Council in Cincinnati

Our plan is based on this speech by the new mayor for development in the Nati.

Good Evening Cincinnati.
I want to thank everyone for joining me here at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal this evening to share this momentous occasion.

I want to start by thanking the people of Cincinnati for placing their trust in me to be their Mayor. I am honored and humbled by that trust and I will work hard to make you proud.

I would also like to thank (the categories on the back of the program).

I want to thank my staff.
And, I want to thank the countless volunteers who devoted so much of their time to our efforts to bring change to the city. I would not be here today without them.

Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful family for their support and sacrifice throughout the exhausting campaign. My entire family has been dedicated to public service, and they serve as my inspiration for all that I do.

The city of Cincinnati was named after the Society of the Cincinnati, a fellowship organization for Army officers. However, the top priority of the society was to take care of the members of the society and their families.

Their motto was “He abandons everything to serve his country.” Thus our city is founded on the ideals of taking care of each other and selfless service to the city.
I believe that these founding principles should serve as the basis for how we conduct our everyday lives.

Over the last year, as I visited every neighborhood in this City, I was always impressed by the sense of hope around the city.

Everywhere, people would share their feeling that things needed to get better, and how they truly believed things would get better.

The fantastic thing about living in a democracy is that citizens are able to let their opinions be heard and make changes if they think that we can do better.

Elections are an excellent opportunity to start fresh and set a new course for our city. On Election Day, Cincinnati called for a change in the way that business is done in our city.

The citizens selected four new City Council Members and elected me the first Mayor not to come from Council since the 1930s.
We have the opportunity to have the fresh start that our city has desperately needed for a while. We have the opportunity to turn away from our past and chart a course for a new future.

This is a great city. We need to seize this unique opportunity for a fresh start and recommit ourselves to the founding principles of our city: taking care of each other and selfless service to the city.

We have the power and ability to create the change that we all know our city needs.

We share that sense that we are all part of the same brotherhood. In order to make that feeling of brotherhood stronger, we need to focus on the issues that unite us as one Cincinnati.

The desire for nice, safe neighborhoods.
The desire for good schools and opportunities for our children.
The desire for good jobs with quality benefits
The desire for a vibrant city where we can all have fun.

If we focus on these issues of commonality, it will allow us to put aside our lesser differences and work together to improve our city for everybody.

I believe that we have all felt the enthusiasm in the community. There is a sense that we are about to turn a corner and once again move forward.

People are optimistic that the time is right for a major change in this city. People are ready for that change and they believe that it can and will happen.

I share this belief. I think that in the next few years, we have an incredible opportunity to transform our city for the better and set in motion the type of progress that will once again make Cincinnati a city that is admired across the country.

But, we cannot passively sit and wait for change, we must control our destiny. If we truly want to see change then we must actively make that change happen.

Our city has taken the first step. We have elected an excellent group of talented and motivated Council Members to help us take begin down the road of change.

From my discussions with the Council Members, I can tell you that they are deeply committed to doing what is necessary to turn this city around.

Now we must turn this positive energy and commitments into accomplishments.

Change is sometimes difficult but it is absolutely necessary. This Administration will make decisions that are in the best interest of the common good.

We must seize the opportunity that we have been given a make a fresh start. It is only through our hard work that we can make that change happen.

I am dedicated to creating a team on City Council that will come together to put the best interest of the city ahead of all else. The common element that unites all of the Council Members is that we love our city and we want very badly to make it better. Much better.

Now, I would like to recognize our next City Council.
Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell
Jeff Berding
Chris Bortz
Laketa Cole
John Cranley
David Crowley
Leslie Ghiz
Chris Monzel
Cecil Thomas

This leadership team you have entrusted to turn our city around. We are going to capitalize on the energy in this room and across the city and make the necessary changes to turn our city around and make it better.

You are looking at the future of the City of Cincinnati. I am completely confident that this team will do great things for all of us in the city of Cincinnati.

But we cannot do it along. You, the citizens of Cincinnati, are part of this team as well. If we are going to truly change our city for the better, we need your help as well. We can only make this city better if we work as a team, from the Mayor’s Office all the way down to very last citizen. All working to move the city forward.

So, I want to make a challenge to you. My challenge is to get involved and be an ambassador to the city.

You must ask yourself…
What are you going to do to turn Cincinnati around?
What are you going to do to make our city better?

We are on the verge of a great turn around in the City. By working together as a team, Mayor to Council to the city departments to the neighborhoods, and not letting anything get in our way, we can create the type of change and improvement that we all know that Cincinnati is ready for.

The 10 of us standing in front of you will work hard for you everyday. I ask you to commit yourself to also working hard. Together, I know that Cincinnati will live up to its amazing potential and become the city that our country looks up to once again.

I want to thank you all for coming. Good night and God Bless Our City

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory's Inaugural Address