Buddy Gray

In 1980, at the public hearing for Over-the-Rhine's nomination into the National Register of Historic Places, Gray rallied some 250 protesters to the event where he blasted urban renewal as "negro removal."[9] There Gray and his allies were able to force a three-year delay on the Register's decision.[10][11] In 1983 Gray used powerful political allies to lobby the National Register's board members, which resulted in Over-the-Rhine being rejected from the Register by a narrow 8 to 7 vote.[12] However, preservationists appealed the board's decision to the keeper of the National Register,[13] Carol Shull, who favored adding Over-the-Rhine to the Register.[11] Despite several last-minute derailment attempts by Gray, Over-the-Rhine was added to the National Register in May 1983.[14]

Gray, having lost the National Register battle, vowed to make the expansion of low-income housing in Over-the-Rhine his top priority.[15] In 1985 Gray pushed an "urban renewal plan"[16] through city council that he presented as "a compromise" that would allow some upper-income residents to settle in Over-the-Rhine. However, the plan made additional low-income housing such a high priority that it was not likely to yield much mixed-income residential or commercial development.[17]

The main critic of the plan was Jim Tarbell, an Over-the-Rhine resident and entrepreneur, who after 1983 would emerge as the leading opponent of Buddy Gray.[4] Tarbell wanted to help the poor who cared, but believed social activists like Gray were "naively sympathetic" to the "sloppy people" who "threw garbage out of windows, played loud music night and day, got drunk in the street, and let small children roam the streets unattended."[18] Gray, on the other hand, assumed the poor had chosen a lifestyle of poverty, and for that reason should be separated from others who had not chosen a similar lifestyle.[19] Tarbell rejected that view and argued that the 1985 plan denied the poor ready access to alternative lifestyles.[19]

No one seriously challenged Gray's 1985 plan until 1992 when Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) noted the plan did not yield balance in the composition of Over-the-Rhine's population, nor did it produce any significant commercial and industrial development in the area.[20][21] HOME argued Over-the-Rhine was on path to become a "permanent low income, one-race ghetto—a stagnant, decaying 'reservation' for the poor at the doorstep to downtown."[21] Furthermore, HOME strongly challenged Gray's assertion that the poor had all chosen their lifestyle, arguing that some wanted to move up the socioeconomic ladder.[22] In 1993 Over-the-Rhine's housing policy was changed after several small-business owners filed a lawsuit, calling the policy "racial and economic segregation."[23][24] The city settled out of court and agreed to set aside money for non-subsidized housing.[23]

In 1996, the city invited the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to study Over-the-Rhine and create a plan for revitalization.[25] ULI recommended the creation of a bi-partisan "Over-the-Rhine Coalition" to reach compromise between the polarized, deadlocked neighborhood factions.[1][25] Gray refused to participate in the coalition unless specific demands were met,[26] believing the city-funded ULI study was meant to derail his efforts to preserve low-income housing in the neighborhood.[25] ULI panelists questioned whether Gray had too much power over City Hall, and asked the city to question whether they should continue to fund Gray—whom they considered "an impediment to revitalization."[25] Later that year, near a critical point in negotiations, Buddy Gray was shot to death by a mentally-ill homeless man whom he had helped.[27] After Gray's murder his allies were not able to recreate his leadership, and the Over-the-Rhine Coalition was formed.[1]