Residents: White in Winton Terrace? Probably buying drugs

If you’re white and driving through Winton Terrace, chances are, you’re there to buy drugs.

So said Winton Hills residents, community leaders and interested outsiders during a meeting with Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley about the recent uptick in violence citywide.

The point of the meeting – the second of four planned through next week – was to give residents a chance to float crime-fighting ideas to the mayor. “I want to hear what they think are the issues and solutions,” Cranley said before the gathering.

One of the ideas floated: keeping out people who don’t belong in the neighborhood.

“If a caucasian ain’t walking their dog or jogging, they don’t live here,” said Ishaq “Coach” Nadir, who grew up in Avondale and said he plans to attend as many of Cranley’s meetings as possible. “They’re either driving through or they’re getting drugs.”

In Winton Hills, 15 shootings were reported between Jan. 1 and July 26 of this year. That’s more than double the number of shootings through the same period last year, according to data released by the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence.

The story’s the same in many other Cincinnati neighborhoods: Avondale shootings are up 28 percent; Westwood, 350 percent; East Westwood, 80 percent; and Walnut Hills, nearly 13 percent. The only neighborhood highlighted with a decrease is West Price Hill, which had nine shootings year-to-date in 2014 compared with eight so far this year.

Cranley acknowledged he didn’t have an answer yet, but he pitched an idea: installing a gated entrance to Winton Hills’ public housing developments, complete with armed guards.

“If you had an armed guard and you lived there or had permission, you’re allowed in,” suggested Cranley, who said the guards would turn away people wanting to enter who weren’t invited. “It’s something worth exploring.”

Nikki Steele, president of the Winton Terrace Resident Council, said they’d pondered the idea before – and decided it was “horrible.”

“I don’t know that putting more gates up around us is going to make us feel secure,” she said. “It may make us feel more imprisoned.”

The meeting didn’t last an hour before Cranley said he had to leave. He promised a follow-up meeting.

His next two meetings are 4 p.m. Wednesday at The Village, 3060 Durrell Ave., and 1 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Price Hill Recreation Center, 959 Hawthorne Ave.