CINCINNATI — Cincinnati City Council is considering expanding the city's chronic nuisance ordinance to include bars, restaurants and nightclubs — but a vote is on hold after sharp pushback from business owners who say they were blindsided by the proposal.
The ordinance would give the city more power to track commercial properties linked to repeated violent crime, drug activity, or disorderly conduct calls.
Councilmember Seth Walsh's efforts come after multiple high-profile nightlife incidents, including a November shooting in OTR where 4 were shot and a March mass shooting that injured 9 at a venue in the East End.
"The goal is to catch people early and work with them to come up with the plan for how to correct whatever the issue is happening," Walsh told WCPO.
WATCH: business owners share their concerns over the sudden proposal to expand the city's chronic nuisance ordinance
City leaders say the process would start with collaboration, not fines. City officials say only specific verified crimes would count toward nuisance status, with reports manually reviewed to prevent false complaints.
But some business owners — especially Black business owners — aren't convinced.
"I think that is unfair that we live in a city that chooses to legislate black businesses away," one business owner told city council Tuesday.
Gregory Parker, Director of Membership Services with the African American Chamber of Commerce, said the proposal caught many off guard.
"It just came out of nowhere!" Parker said.
"It just seemed to be really vague. And again, it came at the last moment. There was not a lot of participation from bar owners that were members of our organization," Parker said.
Parker said concerns from bar owners are rooted in history.
"There was a concern, yes, absolutely," Parker said. "And the concern came from some historical issues that have been voiced by some of the bar owners that have had issues in the past with being targeted."
Another business owner raised concerns about the economic impact on the Black business community during Tuesday's council meeting.
"It affects our business," the business owner told council. "I know this to be a fact because over the last two years there's 26 black restaurants, bars that have closed," the business owner said.
One business owner also challenged the city's outreach ahead of the vote.
"You have not given the public, businesses, or property owners enough notification," the business owner said.
Walsh pushed back on the characterization that the legislation is punitive.
"The focus of this legislation is trying to be able to work with businesses very early in the process, because right now by the time businesses are ending up on the news, it's for really bad reasons," Walsh said.
City Council is now on summer recess until September. If you believe you may be impacted by this proposed ordinance or if you have questions, contact WCPO 9 News reporter Jay Shakur.
