Community Profile
Location: less than a mile from downtown Cleveland
Number of homes: 4,000 total households
What $300,000 will buy you: a fully renovated cottage (1,700 square feet or so) with $100K left over
For more info: ocnw.org

Just over the cuyahoga river from downtown Cleveland, this historic urban neighborhood fell into nearly irreversible chaos beginning in the 1960s. In the late ’70s, recognizing the gracious street layout and fine 19th-century homes—from brick worker cottages to porch-fronted Victorians—urban pioneers traveled against the suburban-bound current to land here and work shoulder-to-shoulder with existing residents to turn things around.

Bernie Thiel arrived with the second wave of pioneers in the late 1980s, fixing up a house with a childhood friend. Now Bernie lives with wife Angela Hummel in a different home, an 1860s clapboard vernacular the couple restored. You can hear the pride and pleasure in his voice.

"Ohio City is very friendly. It's a real talking-over-the-fence community," he says. And one that’s more active than ever. "I think at any given time you can find either a party or a meeting of some sort in the neighborhood."

Lessons from Ohio City
If crime is a problem, organize a block watch program. The residents of Ohio City maintain a Yahoo! site where they post information about vandalism, robberies, and other problems almost as soon as they occur. Police and city officials are more likely to respond to block watch groups than individuals.