Introduction > 2. History - Draft V1
Title: Before you brand a place: making visual communication design that advances an inner-city neighborhood and its multiple identities.
Topic Statement: A place brand cannot serve all identities living in Price Hill; visual communication designers must make better contributions when working in an inner-city community.
Reflexivity Statement
In their article about designing in the age of differentialism, Ely recommends that designers begin their projects reflecting on the worldviews that they bring into a project {Ely, 2020, #28842}. Doing so acknowledges that there are many different worldviews and approaches possible. Mine is but one. The following paragraphs are a reflexive statement on my motivations for doing this project.
A through-line in my personal life and work is a strong desire to be in, have, and build community. Sustainability is a significant driver. As the world’s climate changes, an individualistic way of being will turn disasters into pro-longed crises (Solnit, 2010). As a society steeped in polarization (Brooks), we need to work together toward increased social capital (Putnam), sense of community (cite), neighborliness (Cite).
I make small attempts to this end in my community. I live in the Cincinnati neighborhood of East Price Hill, which is my study site. There, I try to mediate relationships with my neighbors through a community garden, shared meals, and different ways of exchanging care (cite Manzini?). I hope to extend my engagement beyond my immediate street through this research.
However, as a white male, age 37, from an upper middle social class, I do not reflect all the various populations of the Price Hill neighborhoods. My quality of life is higher than many of my Price Hill neighbors; my functional and ideal realities differ from others. Sharing the same neighborhood boundaries does not automatically mean similar lifestyles, values, or preferences.
Furthermore, my work in the neighborhood will likely lead to future paid work with an academic institution, non-profit, or design studio. Cognizant of these points, I enter this space, humbly knowing that to design with this community means to start by listening (cite Daniel’s interview).
This study is not my first civic visual communication design project. My prior work includes a custom municipal typeface (cite Wheeler), public library identity, community workshops, and neighborhood flags (cite Enquirer article). While I am proud of these projects, they needed more rigorous research into their communities. I step into this current work slower. I hope it can lift the many voices within the Price Hill neighborhoods and expand what visual communication design can do in the neighborhood. As their neighbor, I know they will hold me accountable for my missteps.
A Brief History of Price Hill
The name of the land now known as Price Hill (three neighborhoods – Lower, East, and West Price Hill) has changed over the years since the first contact between European's and America's First Peoples. The area was once called Boldface Hill after Chief Boldface of the [Miami?] tribe {Hale, 1959, #124752}. The area is said to be an Indian hunting ground once, but former mounds in the area indicate it might have been more to the Native Americans {Mersch, 2008, #57940}. Indigenous peoples may have been in the area as far back as 8,000 to 6,000 BCE {Geiger, 1999, #110929}.
As the Europeans settled, the land eventually became Price's Hill for a Welshman Named Evans Price, who instigated the hill's first significant European American developments. His son Reese called the development project "Prospect Hill" {Unknown, 1978, #262575}. Once a dry community because of the Price's religious beliefs, locals called the area "buttermilk mountain" {Geiger, 1999, #110929}. Later, it would become a drinking community after the Germans, and Irish moved in, with at least 52 bars {Mersch, 2008, #57940}.
Today, there are fewer bars, and the three neighborhoods West of Mill Creek go officially by Lower, East, and West Price Hill. The city split the neighborhoods into three in the 1980s to better distribute funds across the vast area {Aldridge, 2003, #182767}. Some still use Price Hill as a catch-all for the neighborhoods. Businesses, for instance, Price Hill Washland, generalize instead of specifying Lower, East, or West.
Perceptually, the neighborhood has changed over the years as well. It has been a place for the wealthy to escape the city muck {Murdock, 1884, #267415}, a distant or wild frontier identified as "homogenous" and "a sort of Galapagos" {Unknown, Unknown, #231712}, a place perceived as unwelcome to outsiders {Howard, 1997, #128980}, an opportunity for developers seeking to invest {Smith, 2021, #19951}, and more. On the internet, one can find several unofficial neighborhood identifiers, including the hashtag #PriceHillGhetto and "Hood" name "Crack Hill" (Cite Real Streetz).
Price Hill ranks poorly across factors like education and safety (cite). In recent history, a local official suggested calling in the national guard because of gun violence in the neighborhood {Borchardt and Coolidge, #211542}. Media headlines like these affect the perception and reputation of the neighborhood. Many individuals and organizations exist in Price Hill to counter the negative headlines and care for the community {Broderick, 2018, #43214}. These people work tirelessly across the Price Hill's on after-school programs for kids, economic development, community gardens and parks, creative activities, religious services, justice work, food pantries, ESL classes, soccer programs, and more. There are saints among us in Price Hill.
While there are undoubtedly internal factors that shape Price Hill, the external factors stand out. These include government policies and decisions made nearby in Cincinnati and further away in Washington. Price Hill is not unique in this way. Many inner-city neighborhoods across the United States suffer because of decisions made outside the community. Expounding on the systemic effects of automobile ownership {Aldridge, 2003, #182767}, globalization effect on jobs {Swarttsell, 2018, #118793}, razing of black communities and institutions {Overbey, 2020, #287348}, white flight, immigration {Curnette, 2019, #84966}, austerity measures {Harvey, 1989, #59561}, and pollution {2018, #114895} to name a few, would take several papers.
For my immediate purposes, it is essential to acknowledge their existence as they influence the state of the neighborhood today. One can witness the neighborhood's historic friction with these challenges going back as far as the forties and fifties {Mayfield, 1978, #296616}. Challenges may have sprung earlier. While there are no official redlining maps in Cincinnati, one geographer speculates that tracks of Price Hill were marked "definitely declining" in the 1930s {Overbey, 2020, #287348}.
Today, Price Hill is one of Cincinnati's most diverse neighborhoods (cite diversity index?). The predominant populations are Black (African and African American), Caucasian (including Appalachian), Central American, though they are not exclusive. Likewise, these populations, 30,000+ across the neighborhoods, cross social levels, and statuses. The neighborhood is home to people low and high on the the social ladder, and everything in between (cite social status ladder). Some residents have lived here their whole life, and others recently migrated or moved to the neighborhood because of inexpensive housing.
Considering Punter's factors of sense of place, it is not easy to peg down Price Hill (Cite). There are multiple meanings, activities, and forms across the neighborhood and its histories. As one resident put it, Price Hill is a neighborhood in flux (Cite). Frankly, branding the whole place or anyone of its neighborhoods is impossible. However, I see evidence that place branding exercises are on the horizon and already in motion (footnote about Incline District and Warsaw Avenue Creative Campus). Primarily, the white population engages in "official" community events and leadership (according to conversations with leadership). Thus, it is likely that a future Price Hill neighborhood brand will manifest from and represent a white (European American) habitus {Mayorga-Gallo, 2014, #27672}.
That is not an accusation of those involved. In some ways, place branding can feel like an inevitable "solution" or a false dilemma. Neighborhoods like Price Hill need to address their reputations. To not brand the neighborhood might feel like a form of neglect.
An audit of place identities in the Cincinnati region shows that these branding exercises happen across multiple political levels, including states, cities, neighborhoods, districts, campuses, sub-neighborhoods, parks, and even alleys. When left to find funding, neighborhoods like Price Hill must compete for attention (Harvey, 1989). Commercial designers lean reflexively into this mode of operation (cite Design Thinking article in Gainesville). Neighborhoods like Price Hill deserve better options. They need design for neighborliness, not competitive place branding activities.
Note: I will include a bibliography in a future draft.