Sunday, May 06, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Photo courtesy of here.
In an email distributed Sunday afternoon, the Cincinnati NAACP has asked citizens to be present on Wednesday, May 9th, and Thursday, May 10th, 2007, to speak out concerning The Banks project. In addition to inviting NAACP members, Christopher Smitherman has encouraged these details be distributed to increase overall citizen involvement in The Banks project, a huge economic development opportunity for the City of Cincinnati (and hopefully for all of its citizens).
The local NAACP asks that citizens come to the regular meeting of City Council. By showing up at 1pm, visitors will have plenty of time to fill out speakers’ cards—earning the right to speak before council.
Smitherman has also called an “emergency meeting” of the NAACP regarding the Banks project—at The Thomas Moore Building, 3457 Montgomery Road. That meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 10th at 6 pm.
Economic chair Jim Clingman is set to share what he has learned about the latest developments, so the NAACP membership can vote on whether or not they will support The Banks deal.
This could be big news for both The Banks Working Group and the NAACP. So far, we have seen Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, and City Councilmember Jeff Berding, appoint two African Americans to the group. This only happened after both the NAACP, and the new leadership of the AMOS project, took an active stance against the City’s exclusionary tactics toward The Banks.
Portune’s and Berding’s behavior shows the Establishment is listening to the City’s new grassroots leadership (or that they were at least looking for a way to give Berding some “credibility” when he was fighting to keep the endorsement of the Democratic Party). The more that these organizations can keep building momentum, the more the inner-sanctum will need to open the door toward more inclusion, transparency, and oversight.
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