Camp Washington

MLK Jr. Day, 2013. 24 degrees with wind gusts up to 26 miles per hour. Partly Sunny. This was what the flags looked like when we were on our way to the start of our run. In the midst of a winter filled with days in the 50s and 60s, today was a return to normal. So, equipped with our windbreakers, tights, and warm gloves we parked behind Camp Washington Chili.

But we couldn’t leave before Kayla took advantage of pointing at her surname in front front of the Camp(y) Washington Mural.

As you can see from this photo (circa 2010), this practice applies to first names, too.

The "Campy Washington" Mural was a fitting starting place. In the summer of 2008, the mural, which featured George Washington in a ball gown, was the epicenter of controversy. The mural's detractors didn’t appreciate seeing a forefather donning a ball gown with flying pigs doing laps around his head. (I think George pulls it off well). High-art controversies aside, "Campy Washington" captures a theme that is ever-present throughout the neighborhood: Reinvention. Taking something old and making it new. The Machine Flats was the first site of reinvention that we encountered. The project is an old factory turned luxury flats. From the outside the flats looked awesome--Kayla tells me that inside they are pet friendly and spacious. On one level, this is a place I could imagine living; although a UDF would be nice. The flats also made a great photo-op for Kayla “The Machine” Camp.

When we rounded the corner from the Machine Flats, Kayla stopped to snap a picture of this old factory, which represents a lot of the building stock (I stole that term from Kayla) throughout Camp Washington. With Machine Flats as an example of how such spaces can be given new life, these factories seem full of promise. Yet, on the other hand, they are so numerous that the challenge of total transformation seems daunting.

We also stopped in a park so I could have a photo that was as awkward as Kayla's. (note the jail in the background)

Despite the freezing cold temperatures and high winds we glided through Camp Washington at a much faster pace than usual. (freezing temperatures made for fewer photo stops). Camp Washington has to be the only neighborhood in Cincinnati where you could do an entire run without having to climb a single hill. I could imagine incorporating it into a long run at some point.

As we made our way along Spring Grove Ave. we passed another symbol of reinvention--the former Kahn’s meat packing plant--which is now a City of Cincinnati brownfield redevelopment. This is a massive site that will undoubtedly be a great home for a new business. (maybe a factory that produces sustainable running shoes?)

Down the street from Kahn's was this sign for Recycle America.

The Recycle America sign was prophetic: a left turn off of Spring Grove brought us into Camp Washington's post-industrial heart. The differences from block to block were notable. On one block a group of machinists directed a semi-truck into a loading dock. Their careful choreography suggested a bustling industrial landscape in which this kind of thing happens all the time. Yet in the next block, an empty lot contained nothing more than smashed glass and wrecked cars. Undoubtedly the area is a microcosm for the complicated state of American manufacturing. Of course, this run took place on Inauguration/ MLK Jr. Day, so those events were on my mind. Once we left the blocks filled with manufacturing, we entered Camp Washington's main residential area. This is the part of Camp Washington I know best. At the corner of Sidney and Rachel is the Washington United Church of Christ which hosts an after school homework club for the kids of Camp Washington. My visits to Homework Club always led me to feel hopeful for the future of the neighborhood. These kids were always enthusiastic, insightful, and excited to be a part of the program. They were no doubt a part of the unifying light that Richard Blanco spoke of throughout his great poem. The housing throughout this area brings to mind the classic Italianette structures that are present in many of Cincinnati's oldest neighborhoods. (Thanks to Kayla for the assist with that one--I thought they were called German houses).

When we emerged from the backstreets for the final time we were at the intersection of Colerain and Hoppel. To our left was Camp Washington's business district, a strip that includes a fish restaurant, an AFL-CIO hall and a hardware store. Across the street there was an old man bundled in four coats, wearing a backpack. Across the intersection was a man wearing a giant, red cardboard fish--a human billboard for the fish restaurant.

Camp Washington was probably my favorite run so far. Not only because it was totally flat and had just a few stop lights, but because like any great course it shed new light on a place that I didn't know that well. -Donnie