For those of you who don't know, our home is in Linwood. It's a little neighborhood on the east side, near a small airport and between the Ohio River and the Little Miami River. Linwood is in Pat's opinion, "The greatest little neighborhood in the city." Pat and I have been active in that community council since 1993.
After we left town, our longtime President suffered a heart attack and also left the council (not related to our leaving town...) and then the council was really struggling. But Stacey and Megan stepped up, Elaine stayed on, and Karen continued to host them, until a new group could step in. Now Stacey and Elaine have left, Karen has retired, and Ralph and Jack stayed on from the old council to help Megan and Holly who have added Eileen, Fred, Pam and Sarah and now just this month a whole new crop of business owners are becoming involved.
That neighborhood has all the heart of a huge community and then some. I have stayed active and need to brag a little. Linwood now has a new group of officers and a board, who were immediately confronted with a stone crushing company that wanted to move into a residential area. The council said no, and several folks showed up at City Hall to fight them. Then, with the drought, the Wooster Road dirt problems and the smells were out of control. The residents stepped up and took it on -- now a business district is being developed, the largest polluter has hired a landscaping company and fixed the leaking pipes, and the city (with the help of my great friend Chris) has stepped up to sweep the streets and increase the litter patrols. We have applied for a Keep Cincinnati Beautiful award for all of the hard work. I will let you know if we get it.
The new board is updating the bylaws, creating a quality of life committee and hopefully a business district committee. It just goes to show, if you can just plant some seeds -- big (Linden) trees will grow.
