CINCINNATI — A large fire pit, numerous homeless encampments and enough trash to fill a dump truck.
That’s what is stored underneath the Martin Drive overpass and Columbia Parkway — and strewn across the hillside next to the road.
“It bothers us because you don’t know who is living around here, and because of the filth,” said Gary Bryson, who has lived in the nearby Captain’s Watch condominium complex on Adam’s Crossing for 16 years. “Many different people over the years temporarily live here — sometimes for weeks, sometimes for years.”
Watch: What the WCPO 9 I-Team found at Columbia Parkway
The WCPO 9 I-Team has been investigating fire hazards underneath bridges and overpasses since the Big Mac Bridge fire in 2024. So far this year, the I-Team has discovered two dumpsters of used cooking oil, first under an I-75 bridge in Lockland in January, and a second dumpster under the Taylor Southgate Bridge in March.
“We from time to time smell fires up here,” Bryson said, as he pointed out a blackened, circular fire pit underneath Columbia Parkway next to a wooded hillside that was littered with trash. “When things get really dry, and you’ve got a fire pit, the whole bridge is going to catch fire.”
Bryson also pointed out a propane canister lying on the ground near the bridge: “There’s a danger right there.”
“About four years ago, the state and the city … showed up here with about five or six hazmat vans and about 15 guys in hazmat suits, and they worked for like three days to clean all this up,” Bryson said. “They did a pretty good job, but this is all just back from then … all the garbage. It looks like Rumpke. Just garbage everywhere down there.”
Bryson and other Captain’s Watch residents got tired of the mess and cleaned up part of the hillside two years ago. But the homeless residents and the trash returned.
He estimated that 50 to 60 bags of trash were strewn across the hillside as of April 22, enough to fill a dump truck with items such as shoes, food containers, plastic bags, broken chairs and bedding.
Over the past few months, Bryson and other neighbors complained and made service requests using 311 Cincy for trash, graffiti and homeless encampments. After Bryson said he was ignored, he contacted the I-Team for help.
“The city said they came and looked at this and closed their file because another department was going to take care of it,” Bryson said. “But … they haven’t taken care of it. They haven’t cleaned up the mess.”
Days after the I-Team contacted the city and sent photos of the area on April 22, crews began to clean it up. A spokesperson said crews had finished clearing out the city-owned portion of the public space on Wednesday.
But a large portion of the site is owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation, which is partnering with the city to clean up once any remaining homeless people have left the area.
“Crews from the Centers for Employment Opportunities (CEO) were working Monday, and they are returning (Wednesday) to finish what they can. If there are any other unhoused individuals still in the area, we will wait until they’ve moved to resume additional cleanup efforts,” said ODOT spokesperson Kathleen Fuller. “We’ll continue working with the city manager’s office for remaining cleanup in the areas we don’t tackle this week or can’t access. Beyond this week, though, I don’t have a schedule for this to occur.”
In the 16 years Bryson has lived here, he and his wife have contacted the city 25 to 30 times over trash, fires and issues with homeless people. He said more people are living in camps under those bridges now than ever before, and it’s become a real concern since the Big Mac Bridge fire.
The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, known as the Big Mac Bridge, was severely damaged on Nov. 1, 2024. It happened after a playground at Sawyer Point Park, beneath the bridge, caught fire overnight and burned for hours. It was large and hot enough to warp some of the steel beams supporting the bridge.
The fire caused extensive damage that cost at least $10 million to repair.
The I-Team began touring bridges in December 2024 and discovered the City of Cincinnati was storing wood guardrail posts, wood form boards, unmarked buckets, barrels of substances and wood pallets under the U.S. 127 bridge over I-75 and Mill Creek, near the Environmental Health Department.
After the I-Team contacted the city in 2024, its crews removed the items.
After the I-Team contacted the Ohio Department of Transportation and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet about the cooking oil dumpsters earlier this year, those items were also removed.
But the elevated portion of Columbia Parkway could be a trickier site to clean because it involves multiple public agencies, is on a steep, wooded hillside, and still has homeless people living there as of this week.
Bryson cleaned up this hillside area himself two years ago, but the trash and human excrement now fill the area once again. He said when it rains, the human waste is washed down the hill to his home.
“We complain constantly when there is a problem, and sometimes the city fixes it, sometimes they don’t. Most of the time they don’t,” Bryson said.
He said some people with mental health problems “scream all night,” and “there are domestic squabbles and people are beating up women or beating up each other,” and “there have been a couple of shootings.”
A spokesperson for Towne Properties, which owns the Captain’s Watch complex where Bryson lives, said the company is encouraged by the recent cleanup efforts.
“This represents meaningful progress, and we remain hopeful for a timely resolution that improves conditions for residents, protects surrounding properties, and addresses ongoing concerns in the area,” said Anne Baum, Towne’s vice president of marketing. “Towne Properties shares residents’ concerns regarding ongoing noise, litter, and quality-of-life issues associated with conditions on nearby public property.”
Towne Properties has worked closely with the Cincinnati Police Department, used the city’s 311 service to report issues, contacted public officials, and has “invested significant resources in the upkeep and security of adjacent property,” Baum said.
The I-Team will continue to monitor the cleanup at this site, and so will Bryson.
“I’d like to see more enforcement without it getting to this point every time,” said Bryson.
