CityWatcher.com cameras are now operational throughout College Hill to help prevent crime and preserve our safety as we go out and about in our community.

Citizens on Patrol is accepting applications from individuals who want to give a few hours a week or more to monitor the cameras. The Cincinnati Police Department will provide training. Monitoring is done from a safe location. To get an application,

• call the College Hill Forum at (513) 542-7263 and leave your name and address or
• come to the next Citizens on Patrol meeting Monday, July 18, at 7:00 PM at the Llanfair Campus Center Meeting Room or
• pick up an application at the next Forum meeting on Tuesday, July 26, at 7:00 PM at the Recreation Center.

For those of you who are not really familiar with what the Linden Park Commons project is, let me provide you some background. Linden Park Commons is the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) development plan for the three vacant corners at Hamilton and North Bend. The project includes the Masonic properties west of the corner. Linden Park Commons Phase 1 will develop the properties on the north side of North Bend Road. Phase 2 will develop the southwest corner.

Phase 1 will build "twin" buildings on each of the northern corners--the former sites of Shullers Restaurant and the Kroger grocery store. These buildings will house retail stores on the first floor and condos on the second and third floors. We will build town homes and single family residences on the former Masonic properties. Phase 2 on the southwest corner will be a building that will house retail on the first floor and office space on the second floor. Parking for shoppers will be located behind the new retail spaces. For a picture of what the development looks like, check out our website..

Many of you might be wondering what is really happening since all you see on the northern corners of that intersection is the same vacant land. The first part of any project is to get control of the land. Al Neyer, Inc., CHCURC's chosen developer, has been working since February to get control of all the parcels of land. As of the end of May, all of the Phase 1 property owners had indicated they are willing to sell. The cost of the property to Neyer and their return on investment leaves a gap in the financing. Therefore, Neyer has gone to the city for "gap financing." This is a common procedure. Sometimes it involves direct grants but more often it involves special tax programs like tax increment financing (TIF). So now the city and Neyer are negotiating the gap. CHCURC expects to see a signed contract by the two parties by the end of September. Razing and remediation of the existing properties will then begin.

This eNewsletter has been well received by those who have seen it. We've received many positive comments--and no negatives. In four issues, we've quadrupled our subscriber list, from 120 for the first issue on June 18 to 600 for this issue. We've used names provided by individuals and community organizations to build our subscription list. We only added names of people we believed to be interested in College Hill events, and apparently our judgement was pretty good--only two people have unsubscribed themselves.