Buddy Gray

Stanley "Buddy" Gray (1950 – 15 November 1996) was a political activist and social worker who lived in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio who was part of a movement for low-income housing. He described himself as "a hard-nosed radical, a street fighter for street people." His allies saw him as a "humanitarian friend of the homeless," but his enemies saw "a poverty pimp" who wanted to turn Over-the-Rhine into a "super ghetto."

Activism Gray operated the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine, which provided food, clothing, and shelter but not conventional treatment for homeless alcoholics. Around the late 1970s he emerged as the leader for the rights of the poor in Over-the-Rhine, spending much of his life fighting historic preservationists who wanted to save Over-the-Rhine's deteriorating nineteenth century architecture. Gray believed preserving the buildings would lead to gentrification, which would involuntarily uproot the poor and push them out of their homes and neighborhood. Gray believed that regardless of what the city government and preservationists said they ultimately wanted to run his homeless shelter out of Over-the-Rhine and turn it into an "artsy-craftsy" neighborhood.

National Register controversy In 1980, at the public hearing for Over-the-Rhine's nomination into the National Register of Historic Places, Gray rallied some 250 protesters to the event where he blasted urban renewal as "negro removal." There Gray and his allies were able to force a three-year delay on the Register's decision. In 1983 Gray used powerful political allies to lobby the National Register's board members, which resulted in Over-the-Rhine being rejected from the Register by a narrow 8 to 7 vote. However, preservationists appealed the board's decision to the keeper of the National Register, Carol Shull, who favored adding Over-the-Rhine to the Register.

Low-income housing in Over-the-Rhine Gray, having lost the National Register battle, vowed to make the expansion of low-income housing in Over-the-Rhine his top priority. In 1985 Gray pushed an "urban renewal plan" through city council that he presented as "a compromise" that would allow some upper-income residents to settle in Over-the-Rhine. However, the plan made additional low-income housing such a high priority that it was not likely to yield much mixed-income residential or commercial development.

The main critic of the plan was Jim Tarbell, an Over-the-Rhine resident and entrepreneur, who after 1983 would emerge as the leading opponent of Buddy Gray. Gray, on the other hand, assumed the poor had chosen a lifestyle of poverty, and for that reason should be separated from others who had not chosen a similar lifestyle. Tarbell rejected that view and argued that the 1985 plan denied the poor ready access to alternative lifestyles. HOME argued Over-the-Rhine was on path to become a "permanent low income, one-race ghetto—a stagnant, decaying 'reservation' for the poor at the doorstep to downtown." In 1993 Over-the-Rhine's housing policy was changed after several small-business owners filed a lawsuit, calling the policy "racial and economic segregation." The city settled out of court and agreed to set aside money for non-subsidized housing. ULI recommended the creation of a bi-partisan "Over-the-Rhine Coalition" to reach compromise between the polarized, deadlocked neighborhood factions. believing the city-funded ULI study was meant to derail his efforts to preserve low-income housing in the neighborhood. After Gray's murder his allies were not able to recreate his leadership, and the Over-the-Rhine Coalition was formed. but police were unable to find a connection between the shooter and a recent anti-Gray pamphlet and phone campaign. Worthen was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and sentenced to a psychiatric facility.

Legacy Gray's legacy lived on through the Drop Inn Center and ReSTOC, his low-income housing cooperative. ReSTOC was one of the neighborhood's largest property owners, However, the non-profit had trouble keeping up with the cost and work needed to maintain all of their properties. According to former mayor Charlie Luken in 2001, ReSTOC "are the owners of the most blight in Over-the-Rhine. Period." The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that despite receiving millions of dollars from federal, state, and local governments to develop low-income housing ReSTOC "actually reduced the number of occupied apartments." In 2002 the city forced ReSTOC to sell some of its properties and use funds from those sales to maintain and improve the other properties it owned. ReSTOC later merged with another nonprofit, Over-the-Rhine Housing Network, to form Over-the-Rhine Community Housing.