CINCINNATI —

Rain in the forecast is bringing flood alerts to some communities and changing weather conditions are also helping to create another problem – potholes.

“It’s horrible, horrible,” said one driver.

In February, Cincinnati received more than 600 pothole reports. That’s twice the number in January and the highest number of potholes reports in the last several months.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen it in years,” Jon Seymoure said. “It’s like driving through land mines. Everybody is trying to weave around them.”

The top neighborhoods for reported potholes are Westwood, followed by Oakley and West Price Hill.

The top roads with reported potholes are River Road, followed by Glenway Avenue and Montana Avenue.

Reporting the problem can be done by phone or on the city’s website, but getting a fix is more difficult. The tracking page shows many are going unfixed for between 40 and about 75 days.

Meanwhile, auto repair shops are also seeing the results of more potholes.

“We’ve had bent tie rods, bent control arms, bent struts,” said General Manager of Bob Sumerel in Newport Russ Zolnowski. “If a tire blows out when it hits a pothole it can take out fenders.”

CINCINNATI — At least two people were left without a home in Hyde Park Saturday following an early morning fire.

Cincinnati firefighters responded to a house fire in the 3600 block of Edwards Road around 4:45 a.m.

At least 27 firefighters from Cincinnati Fire Department responded to the blaze.

A new release said when firefighters arrived, they found a fire in the attic and roof of the single-family home.

While the fire was quickly extinguished, the release said extensive overhaul was required to extinguish any remaining fire.

Firefighters believe the cause of the blaze was electrical.

The fire department said no one was in injured in the fire.

The release estimates damage to the home to be approximately $50,000.

CINCINNATI —

As a member of Crossroads Church in Oakley, Robbie Dufek said she has been inspired to give back.

"I'm a kind of giver that I do it for me, the joy that it brings me knowing that somebody else is going to receive the gift that I give them. I don't need to know who it is," Dufek said.

Knowing she's making a difference is what means the most to Dufek.

"It is just the act of giving that is important to me, and what I like to share and what my family likes to do," Dufek said.

Her family is one of the thousands participating in this year's Thanksgiving food drive through Crossroads.

Everyone who picks up a box is asked to load it up with a turkey and all the fixings.

"Each meal feeds six to ten people. So, across all Crossroads sites, we're looking at 100,000 people will be fed from all of these boxes throughout the region," said Keymonte Crooms, ReachOut Site Director at Crossroads in Oakley.

Boxes should all be filled by this weekend, just in time for the big-drop off. Like in past years, donors won't even have to get out of their cars to share a meal that feeds the soul.

"We've even had people see the collection going on and run to Kroger without a box and show up with plastic bags and say, 'Here's the food' and we'll have a box and can box it up for them that way," Crooms said.

Every box collected with then be distributed to 70 organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati that will then give Thanksgiving dinners to their members.

Anyone who wants to get involved can pick up a box at any Crossroads location.

CINCINNATI —

One person was injured in a house fire in Oakley Tuesday afternoon.

The fire occurred at a home in the 4100 block of Ballard Avenue. Firefighters said they arrived to a "fully involved" fire on the second and third floors of the home. The fire was also burning through the roof, making it too dangerous for firefighters to make entry through the roof.

The fire caused extensive damage on the top floor of the home.

Fire crews have extinguished the fire at this time.

Five people live inside the home. One person who was in the house at the time of the fire suffered from smoke inhalation and burns on their hands and arms, fire officials said.

WLWT spoke with the homeowner, Jack Loge. He said he's lived in the home his entire life. Loge was inside the home when the fire started and so was his brother.

"My baby brother was upstairs trying to get his cat and dog out. I don't know if he got burned or what, but he was black," Loge said. "Nobody's dead. That's the good news. Nobody died."

Damage is estimated to be around $150,000.

It's unclear what caused the fire, but crews are still investigating.

According to Cincy Fire & EMS, 60 firefighters responded to the house fire.

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OAKLEY — The city of Cincinnati is holding an inventory study in various neighborhoods to evaluate the state of the housing market. The effort has a special emphasis on assessing housing affordability; officials are currently holding the study in the neighborhood of Oakley.

“The inventory relies heavily on available and what we call 'accessible data' from of course the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and then also the National Housing Preservation Database," said Markiea Carter, the interim director of the Department of Community and Economic Development. "The 2019 American Community Survey is also our primary data source."

The Oakley study began last year; officials hope to finish the project in July. Carter explained the effort is strictly meant to create a snapshot of neighborhoods' housing markets with clear, organized data that other entities can turn to as a resource. She said the city is refraining from making conclusive statements or theories about what is happening in Cincinnati's markets and their affordability.

Carter acknowledged that city workers have had to adjust their workflow to the constraints of the pandemic and said that there have been resulting connectivity problems. She also said that much of the impact of COVID on the populations they are studying in 2020 likely will not be apparent for months or years to come. Still, she does not believe the pandemic will have a large impact on the figures they are gathering. The city was more concerned with keeping the project a priority and sticking to the timeline it set for the project.

Results from the study will be posted to the Department of City Planning's website. This housing inventory study stems from Plan Cincinnati, a 2012 guide that strategically outlined the city's desired growth and development. The original housing inventory conducted in Over-the-Rhine was conducted by the Community Building Institute (CBI). Carter said that CBI has offered guidance and support to the city to coordinate the methodology being used in the current study on Oakley. However, CBI is no longer involved with the project. CBI declined to comment on the effort for this story.

Carter hopes gathering the information will foster a productive conversation about how to achieve goals and visions people have for their own communities.

“We know that housing is a deeply personal topic. We know that people are extremely passionate about it..." Carter said. "We see this as a goal to kind of bring local leaders and elected officials and administration together.”

Oakley, like a number of other Cincinnati neighborhoods, has seen a dramatic rise of new real estate developments in recent years. This has resultingly sparked concerns among residents about the affordability of their community.

Jason Wilcoxon is a pastor at Legend Community Church and a board member of the Oakley Community Council. Wilcoxon and his wife have been living in their Oakley home since 2002. He said it felt like there was a new development in the neighborhood every week.

“My house has at least doubled, if not tripled, in value since we moved here. Not because we've done amazing work to it. Just because the neighborhood price has gone up so high.”

He went on to say that the issue of Oakley's dwindling affordability has particularly been burdensome for some longtime residents. Initially, most of Wilcoxon's neighbors were retired blue-collar workers who had been living in their homes for decades. Now, many of those elderly neighbors have been phased out with other young professionals and their children. Some of those new neighbors have also torn down old homes and built newer, more expensive, homes in their place.

The neighborhood changes has meant that Wilcoxon will be shouldering higher taxes due to the rise in property values. However, he is more worried about his older, more vulnerable neighbors who live on fixed incomes and are less equipped to handle the rising costs of living. Two of his retired neighbors had to move out of their homes because they could no longer afford to stay.

Describing Oakley today, he acknowledged the various positive changes that have come to the area as a result of its ongoing development. He also recognized that remodeling homes in the area has been cost-effective for some his fellow residents. But it is hard to reconcile those positive changes with the disadvantages and unintended consequences for old-timers who might now be caught living on the edge.

“It's cool now to go outside and see kids, like lots of kids, running around in the neighborhood," Wilcoxon said. He was referencing the demographic changes that have also resulted from Oakley's development. "That's good for the city overall. There's just probably a more strategic way we can incentivize that kind of development that's good for everyone.”

The effort is being led by the Cincinnati Department of City Planning with help from the Department of Community and Economic Development. Officials say an AmeriCorps Vista grant is funding the study, while respective community groups are also partnering to facilitate the project. The city is also conducting inventories in North Avondale and Paddock Hills. The current study in Oakley follows others that were previously held in Over-the-Rhine and Walnut Hills.

Monique John covers gentrification for WCPO 9. She is part of our Report For America donor-supported journalism program. Read more about RFA here.

If there are stories about gentrification in the greater Cincinnati area that you think we should cover, let us know. Send us your tips at moveupcincinnati@wcpo.com.

CINCINNATI — Hyde Park resident Terry Grefer's first impression of the new Oakley Kitchen Food Hall on Madison Road was a simple one.

"We're just excited to be here," Grefer said. "My main first impression is I'm just impressed with the whole concept."

Grefer decided to check out Oakley Kitchen, located at 3715 Madison Road in Oakley, on a recent Thursday with neighborhood friends.

One of those friends, Jeannine Winkelmann, learned about the kitchen through Facebook.

"I think it's really exciting," Winkelmann said. "And it's really convenient and I certainly remember when my kids were little and nobody liked the same food that this would be a great place for families."

Winkelmann referred to the concept behind Oakley Kitchen that makes it a unique neighborhood concept.

"It's special because all of the kitchen owners, and there are seven of them, have their own recipes, and these are all restaurants that you would go elsewhere to find and they might be in eight different neighborhoods," said Doug Hart.

Hart acts as a consultant to the seven restaurant space owners, plus one bar space, operating out of Oakley Kitchen. As Hart explained, each owner leases a small kitchen space for one year in the food hall.

The food served by those vendors ranges from traditional American fares like hamburgers and New Orleans-style cooking to the eclectic, which includes Syrian and Hawaiian outlets.

"We don't have any chains," Hart said. "These are all chef-driven, local concepts. Most of them are starting restaurants for the first time."

He added there is a story behind each food hall counter.

"There are all kinds of stories, including a refugee story," Hart said.

Hart referred to the Olive Tree, run by a Syrian refugee and her two daughters. He described the fare as something similar to Mediterranean dishes people might be more familiar with.

Then there are places such as Jimmy Lou's, a New Orleans-style eatery operated by Jeffery Harris.

Harris moved to Cincinnati with his wife, who is from the Queen City, after Hurricane Katrina decimated his hometown of New Orleans in 2005.

"This has always been a dream of mine, probably all my life, all my culinary life," Harris said.

And by all of his culinary life, Harris does mean all of his life.

"My great-grandmother, who this restaurant is named after, she started me cooking," Harris said. "So, and every story that I was taught about would always lead to her and her influence on me cooking. And so with that it was easy for me to go into naming this place after her."

Harris also worked in multiple New Orleans kitchens as a young adult before moving to Cincinnati, where he's spent the past decade and a half building up to the point where he could own his own place.

"For me, it's all about just giving people honest, real food from where I'm from," Harris said. "And that's all I want to do. I know the reasons why this food is what it is and why people are drawn to it."

Food on Jimmy Lou's menu includes red beans and rice, po'boy sandwiches and fried okra. Harris also started offering fried chicken dinners on Fridays.

Harris said the popularity of his spot within the first two weeks of Oakley Kitchen's opening has been "ridiculous." He also said he has future plans but isn't quite willing to fully announce them just yet.

"Until this is the machine I want it to be, then those thoughts are kind of on hold," Harris said.

Learn more about each of Oakley Kitchen's vendors and what they have to offer at www.oakley-kitchen.com.