ABSTRACT GEOGRAPHIES OF NEOLIBERAL REGULATION AND THE EVERYDAY URBAN EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY OF OVER-THE-RHINE, CINCINNATI Jean-Paul David Addie This thesis analyses the impacts of neoliberal urbanism through conducting a qualitative case study of the inner-city neighbourhood of Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. Drawing upon the geographic concept of 'actually existing' neoliberalism, combined with in-depth interviews with neighbourhood organisations, community advocacy groups and residents in Over-the-Rhine, I explore the complex, often contradictory and dialectical relationships between neoliberal regulatory-institutional restructuring, the production of urban space, and the practices of everyday life. Played out against a background of racial tension and civil unrest, the creation of a new, neoliberal institutional landscape in Over-the-Rhine politically and economically disenfranchises the most marginalised neighbourhood inhabitants through re-articulating urban and political space, and re-imagining the ideological form and function of the inner city and the urban poor. I assert the significance of place-based studies to explore the place-specific articulations of neoliberal urbanism and in doing so, present directions for future research. GEOGRAPHIES OF NEOLIBERAL REGULATION AND THE EVERYDAY URBAN EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY OF OVER-THE-RHINE, CINCINNATI A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Geography by Jean-Paul David Addie Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2006 Advisor ________________________ (Dr. Patricia Ehrkamp) Reader ________________________ (Dr. Bruce D’Arcus) Reader ________________________ (Dr. Tom Klak) Table of Contents List of Tables v List of Figures vi Acknowledgements vii Welcome to Over-the-Rhine viii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Neoliberalism and Contemporary Urban Geography 2 Statement of Research Purpose and Questions 3 Study Area: Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati 4 Presentation of Study 10 Chapter 2 GEOGRAPHIES OF NEOLIBERALISM: REGULATING CONTEMPORARY 11 CITIES 2.1 Neoliberalism and the Geography of Regulation 12 Spatio-Temporal Fixes 13 From Keynesianism to Neoliberalism: Capital Mobility, State Workfare, Labour Insecurity 15 Critiques of the Regulation Theory Approach 18 2.2 The Urbanisation of Neoliberalism 23 ‘Actually Existing Neoliberalism’ 23 There is No Such Thing as Neoliberalism 25 Moving Urban-Geographic Studies of Neoliberalism Forward 26 The Process of Urban Neoliberalism: ‘Roll Back’ and ‘Roll Out’ 28 Neoliberal Socialisation: Class Compromise / Class Discipline 29 2.3 Neoliberal Urbanism and the Everyday Urban Experience 31 Research Purpose 33 ii Chapter 3 A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF NEOLIBERAL URBANISM: 36 METHODOLGICAL REFLECTIONS 3.1 Case Study Approach 36 3.2 Primary Data Sources 37 Interviewing 38 Sampling 39 Researcher, Participant, Positionality: The Interview Process 43 Placing the Interview 48 Accessing Over-the-Rhine: Participant Observation 49 3.3 Secondary Data Sources 52 Archival Research 52 3.4 Data Analysis 53 Coding Transcripts Through Grounded Theory 53 Discourse Analysis 54 3.5 Urban Neoliberalism Through Qualitative Methods 55 Chapter 4 THE NEW INSTITUTIONAL LANDSCAPE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF 56 RESTRUCTURING IN OVER-THE-RHINE’S POLITICAL-ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE Three Key Moments in the Neoliberalisation of Over-the-Rhine’s Governance Structure 58 4.1 Usurping the Existing Neighbourhood Infrastructure 59 The Emergence of the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement 59 Grounding a Neoliberal Alternative 60 Political Contestation and Succession 61 4.2 Devolving City Authority and the Neoliberal State 63 Establishing the Neoliberal State 64 Eroding Democratic Public Space: Restructuring Access to City Council 69 4.3 Rescaling Over-the-Rhine’s Governance Regime 72 4.4 Operationalising a Neoliberal Governance Regime: Contextuality, Contingency, Coercion 76 4.5 Producing Neoliberal Urban Governance 79 Chapter 5 THE ‘ARTS OF DOMINATION’ IN CONSTRUCTING AND CONTESTING 81 NEOLIBERAL SPACE 5.1 April 2001 and the Neoliberal Project in Over-the-Rhine 82 Constructing Over-the-Rhine Space and Society through ‘the Riots’ 83 Reclaiming Cincinnati: Commemorating April 2001 and the Damage of the Boycott 85 The ‘Downtown Hop Around’ 85 5.2 The Production of Paradoxical Space? Policing OTR 88 Where Downtown Ends and Over-the-Rhine Begins 89 Policing the Neighbourhood as Over-the-Rhine and Downtown 90 iii Not So Paradoxical After All: The Police and the Production of Over- the-Rhine Space 97 5.3 Legitimising Displacement and the Spaces of Development 99 The Physical and Symbolic Significance of Washington Park 99 Stigmatised Communities and the Conflict over Park Space 102 The Drop Inn Center and the Discourse of Displacement 106 5.4 Geographies of (In)Visibility: the ‘Arts of Domination’ and Neoliberal Ideology 110 Chapter 6 EVERYDAY LIFE AND THE NEOLIBERAL URBAN EXPERIENCE 112 6.1 Grounding Neoliberalism through Urban Policy: Producing Social and Spatial Structures 113 HUD Section 8 Restructuring 115 The Impaction Ordinance 118 Historic District Status / Most Endangered Historic Place 121 Shaping the Social and Political-Economic Future of Over-the-Rhine 126 6.2 Urban Governance, Everyday Life and Resistance 127 The 13th Street Barricade 127 The Illusion of Democracy: Coercing Residents / Shaping Everyday Life 130 6.3 Constructing and Contesting Practices of Everyday Life 132 Drug Dealing: Neoliberalism and Everyday Spatial Practices 132 Living the Divide 136 Loitering? 139 6.4 Reclaiming Neighbourhood Space 143 Resistance Tactics and the Production of Neighbourhood Space 146 6.5 Everyday Life and Neighbourhood Development: Future Trends 148 Chapter 7 CONCLUSION 151 Establishing and Legitimising Neoliberalism in Over-the-Rhine 152 Urban Neoliberalism and the Everyday Urban Experience 152 Implications for Future Research 153 WORKS CITED 155 iv List of Tables 1.1 Over-the-Rhine Population by Race, and Housing Stock by Tenure 7 3.1 Table of Interview Sample Population 40-1 4.1 Over-the-Rhine’s Regulatory Landscape 58 4.2 3CDC Over-the-Rhine Working Group 74 6.1 Key Policies Shaping Over-the-Rhine’s Physical and Social Structures 114 v List of Figures1 1.1 Study Area: Over-the-Rhine 5 Key Institutions, Landmarks and Districts 1.2 Per Capita Income by Census Block Group (2002) 8 1.3 Current and Projected Patterns of Gentrification 9 5.1 Development and Displacement Surrounding Washington Park 101 6.1 Historic Resources in Over-the-Rhine 122 6.2 The 13th Street Barricade 128 6.3 Tender Mercies’ anti-drug dealing banner, 12th and Republic Street (bottom) 145 Findlay Street / New Findlay Playground 19 days after Teresa Hill was gunned down in the same location 30/06/2005 1 Over-the-Rhine base street-map after Cincinnati City Council 2002:3 vi Acknowledgements I wish to offer special thanks to Dr. Patricia Ehrkamp for her patience, assistance and encouragement from the conception of this thesis, to its completion. Further thanks go to Drs. Bruce D’Arcus and Tom Klak for their thoughtful and provocative comments and critiques throughout my conducting this project. I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to all those who took the time to participate in, and contribute to this research, without whom this thesis would not be possible. Finally, I wish to acknowledge and thank the support of the Geography Department and Graduate Student Association of Miami University for providing funding for this research project. -- Jean-Paul Addie vii Imagine that some of the most influential and moneyed local businessmen form a development corporation that gets the go-ahead from your city to take charge of redeveloping your neighborhood. They don't ask what your neighborhood should look like or what you think of how they want to go about changing it, even though Fountain Square, which they're also redeveloping, gets a series of hearings for public input. They don't talk to you at all. They create a plan -- two years after you'd already participated in creating one and a year after you'd started helping redesign your neighborhood schools. They introduce the plan first to the city, then to you. Then they ask you to focus on their ideas, not on your anger about the way they got them. They say they're listening to you; they want your approval. They say they're committed to keeping the housing in your neighborhood affordable, though you're not really sure for whom they mean. Do you trust them? Welcome to Over-the-Rhine. Stephanie Dunlap ‘Taking over the Park’ CityBeat 14/07/2004 viii Chapter 1 Introduction This thesis seeks to address the central question of how neoliberal capitalism, as a specific articulation of political-economic accumulation and regulation, affects contemporary cities. Furthermore, as the implementation of neoliberal doctrine in practice tends towards increasing social polarisation and repressively attacks labour conditions and security – thus exacerbating the inequalities inherent within the capitalist mode of production – I aim to understand how neoliberalism, as a distinctly spatial strategy, is legitimised and naturalised in the everyday urban experience. I address these concerns through conducting a qualitative case study in the inner-city neighbourhood of Over-the-Rhine (OTR), Cincinnati. In order to unpack these issues, I utilise the neo-Marxist conceptual framework of regulation theory. This has several significant implications for the political and theoretical projects of the thesis.