Sense of Place: Lindenwald collaborates

By Chris Vogt, The Ledger

HAMILTON — Lindenwald residents and business owners joined forces with Hamilton City officials on Monday, Jan. 23, in a neighborhood meeting that kicked off the city’s Sense of Place movement.

The Sense of Place operation is one of the four strategic plans approved by the city last year.

“It’s through collaboration. It’s through communication. It’s through trust,” Sense of Place chairperson and council member Kathy Klink said to the approximate 85 people who were in attendance at Linden Elementary School. “It’s about caring for one another and caring for what’s going on in our community so that we can move forward with positive change.”

Klink began the meeting by introducing keynote city officials who were in attendance, including City Manager Joshua Smith and Mayor Pat Moeller.

“The city has a new strategic plan, and this is a pillar of it — the Sense of Place,” Klink said. “We wanted to know what your sense of place was all about.

“We were hoping to help everyone understand boundaries and perhaps pull together a group of interested Lindenwald residents who might be willing to meet with us on a rather regular basis to begin to address many of the topics that are discussed,” Klink added.

“This is our first neighborhood meeting,” City Manager Joshua Smith noted. “It is a great template for us to utilize. This is about generating excitement and enthusiasm within the neighborhood.”

The meeting’s format ran smooth, consisting of three groups, or tables — Past, Present and Future. Each table, headed by city officials and Lindenwald residents, discussed certain items related to those three topics for 20 minutes before rotating.

“This is the pioneer group of people who will help establish the Sense of Place movement,” Moeller said. “I see a lot of pride and enthusiasm about Lindenwald.”

Questions and ideas were formatted and discussed at each table.

Past

Lindenwald before the 1980s was the notable focus.

Many residents reminisced on the businesses, churches and family-friendly features that most characterized the area.

“Lindenwald was a city within a city,” said Frank Downie, who was a scribe for the Past Table. “There wasn’t anything you couldn’t do in Lindenwald.

“You had the ability to walk wherever you wanted.”

Swimming pools, banks, a library, family-owned corner meat markets, doctor’s offices, Taylor School, a post office, city run and operated major parks were also mentioned as Lindenwald’s past assets.

Notable Lindenwald families were mentioned.

“Any church is an asset to the city. That was and still is the case for Lindenwald,” Downie said.

Residents expressed that a different sense of trust was orchestrated decades ago.

Present

Lindenwald was a family-oriented neighborhood, and it still is to this day.

“The people have come to know each other,” said Sarah Woitesse, who moderated the Present Table. “We’ve heard how many people are friendly. The generations of people who have families here and are born here — that really is a mark in terms of assets.”

The churches, older and unique homes, different events and Trick-or-Treaters fell under a “positive” note for Lindenwald.

“There are a lot of familiar things that people are comfortable with,” Woitesse said. “People in tight-knit communities tend to stay connected.”

The Present group also touched base on ways to improve the area by fixing and monitoring empty vacant lots, run-down properties, rental homes, failing street structures and crime and drugs.

“All these things exist in every community, however, to varying degrees,” said Tommy Puma, a Lindenwald resident and scribe for the Present Table. “We just have to have a conscious effort to look out for all of these.”

Bordering neighborhoods, according to some residents, were considered a negative impact, specifically along Route 4.

Lindenwald’s boundaries were eventually defined by residents.

The western boundary of Lindenwald is, and was all agreed upon, along River Road. So was the southern boundary as being Symmes Road.

“A lot of the discussion was where Lindenwald extended to the east, at or past the railroad tracks,” said Brandon Saurber, a Lindenwald native and Hamilton City Small Business Liaison.

The eastern boundary of Lindenwald, by the residents, was generally set at Route 4, while Knightsbridge being the northern.

Future

Lindenwald residents expressed a great deal for the need to make positive changes to the Lindenwald area.

“A lot of people make a reference to economic development,” said Assistant City Manager and Director of Strategic Initiatives Tim Werdmann, who assisted the Future Table.

“A lot of people made reference to Lindenwald Station just opening up,” Werdmann added. ‘They want to see more businesses taking hold in Lindenwald.”

A common theme was the beautification of the area — community cleanup and taking care of the parks.

Providing more opportunities for the youth of Lindenwald was mentioned.

“Changing some of the buildings and making them into community centers,” Werdmann said. “That was mentioned from many. People want to see more for their kids than just hanging out.”

Other improvements noted by residents were street improvement, pothole and alley fixation, curb and gutter maintenance, property maintenance (public and owned) and utilization of parks.

“It was discussed that a lot of this comes down to a collaborative effort,” Werdmann said. “The city doesn’t always have to have a role in all of this. The city is aware that resources do need to be put into a lot of this. We know there are a lot of solid volunteers that are willing to step up and take action.”

What's Next?

Contact information was collected from those who attended in order for city officials to communicate and reach out to attendees.

“Because that’s what we would like to do,” Klink said.

Klink expressed her thoughts about passing along the meeting’s information to those who didn’t attend.

“What about the people who were not here?” Klink questioned. “We need to find a way to keep this conversation going.

“This isn’t just a one-night, gosh-this-is-great get together,” Klink added. “It’s more about how we can work together and move forward. We will work to make sense of that.”

City officials plan on making steps to ensure that similar meetings will be conducted in the future for the Lindenwald area. These ideas and thoughts, as well as the meeting format, will be used in other areas throughout the city.

“Just to see a lot of the people who are staples in Lindenwald here talking about why they love this area is great,” Moeller said. “They care about the future of Lindenwald. I’m really proud to see so many people come out.”

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