Reinventing the River City: Riparian Infrastructure, Cincinnati Elites, and the Ohio River (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation)

As the first major U.S. urban center located west of the Appalachian Mountains, Cincinnati depended on the Ohio River for its early development, eventually becoming one of the country’s iconic river cities, with incredible growth during the golden age of steamboats. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the river had lost its shine and became known as the “poor man’s highway.” The twentieth century ushered in a period of incredible activity concentrated on the Ohio River. Local elites began a series of infrastructural projects focused on transforming both the Ohio River and Cincinnati, bringing to the fore a new kind of river city. Unlike many water management projects that wanted to tame rivers, Cincinnati elites sought to build a sustained relationship with the Ohio River. For its part, the Ohio River actively took part in these projects, becoming a major contributor to the successful realization of elite objectives around urban growth, public health, and white supremacy.

RAYMOND PETTIT is a researcher committed to a multidisciplinary investigation of the past. His work has straddled anthropology and archaeology for more than two decades, including studies of Icelandic settlement patterns as part of the CUNY Hunter College Zooarchaeology Laboratory and human rights investigations with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team for cases such as the Cadereyta and Ayotzinapa massacres in Mexico. In the last decade, he has also been active in fighting for worker rights, including at the Cincinnati Interfaith Worker Center and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. He currently works as director of partnerships at Possibility Labs, an organization he helped found in 2020, providing flexible infrastructure for building a solidarity economy that works for everyone and the environment.