Campaigning in Carthage

From the Carthage Civic League's candidates' night Monday:

Candidates came and went, working the Carthage meeting in with appearances in Westwood. Here's what a few of them had to say to this neighborhood:


Roxanne Qualls: The crowd of about 40 people cheered her when she talked about redeveloping Carthage Mills into new housing and "creating a new future for Carthage" and the rest of Cincinnati's neighborhoods.


Joan Kaup: Trying to get the residents to understand how to pronounce her name and remember it, she told them it sounds like "cow" as in "Holy cow." She wants a creative, inclusive, safe and green Cincinnati. "I'm asking you to think differently, be part of the solution."


Wendell Young: He started his police career in Carthage in 1967. "I'm the guy who's made a lot of tough decisions, some on these very streets."


Justin Jeffre: He mentioned traveling the world yet still seeing so much potential in Cincinnati. "We continue not to meet our full potential...I think it's clear that we need change." He told the residents to watch for his neighborhood rescue plan, to be released this week.


Greg Harris: He passed out his magnets, with kitchen measurements on them and told the people if they didn't like what he had to say, they could keep the measurements and just cut his face off them. He thinks Cincinnati's coming out of a 30-year crisis in confidence.


Chris Monzel: He got involved in city government first as a vice president of his community council in Spring Grove Village. He said he prides himself on sending an aide to as many community meetings as possible.


Cecil Thomas: Like Young, he started his police career in Carthage. He said the focus of his first two-year term, the current one, was to reduce crime by "taking the handcuffs off the police" and show them more support from City Hall. "There is no longer that us-versus-them mentality."