Transformation, One Neighborhood at a Time

After racially charged riots broke out there in 2001, Cincinnati hired a real estate consultant who offered this advice: For the city to thrive, it would need to address two of its roughest neighborhoods. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation was soon created by the then-mayor, working with major community and business players, including the former CEO of Procter & Gamble. Today, one of those neighborhoods—Over-theRhine, once among the most dangerous in the country—has become a hotbed of commercial activity, linked via streetcar to the neighboring downtown. The district is now also attracting talent and money: Aspiring founders flock to the Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami University, while VC funding for local startups is expected to hit more than $100 million by the end of 2018. But perhaps most telling is that the city’s startup scene has become a magnetic force: 71 percent of tech startup employees in Cincinnati went to college outside of Ohio.