Part One
Governments make thousands of decisions and policies, but only a few are so important and so enduring that they have the power to shape the very environments within which we live and raise our children.
In the nineteenth century, Cincinnati developed with little or no direction. The resulting chaos caused council in 1924 to adopt the first local zoning code. Classical zoning codes separated the urban environment by use. Residential went in one place, offices went somewhere else, manufacturing somewhere else.
Like so many things, pursued to its logical end, zoning often created not just order, but sterile, unexciting, built environments. Citizens of Cincinnati have been invited to join in a series of design workshops under the rubric of plan, build, live. The goal is to developed an alternative approach to community design, what has become known across the country as form based codes.
To discuss form based codes, I am joined this morning by Roxanne Qualls, the Vice Mayor of the City of Cincinnati. And Doug Hinger, an architect and the president of Great Traditions Homes, which focuses on the development of lifestyle-oriented master planned communities, including places like Wetherington and Legendary Run.
Part Two
Last week Hebrew Union College opened a new exhibition, The Jews of Częstochowa. The exhibit commemorates the Jewish contributions to the Polish city of Częstochowa, the once thriving community of 40,000 Jewish inhabitants before the devastation of their lives by the Nazis. It features photographs and documents, depicting life in the Jewish city before, during and after World War II.
I am joined now by Sigmund Rolat who was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1931. He survived the Holocaust, and after the war came to the United States in 1948 and earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati. He is chairman of the North American Council for the Museum of History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Mr. Rolat has helped make this exhibit and its appearance in Cincinnati possible.
Also joining me is Krzysztof Matyjaszcyk, current Mayor of Czestochowa.
