The neoliberalization of urban governance has profoundly problematized issues of
‘local’ and ‘urban’ democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. This paper explores the
changing modalities of urban democracy under neoliberalism through a case study of
Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. A historically maligned inner-city neighbourhood,
Over-the-Rhine is the locus for a concerted neoliberalizing gentrification drive and
site of a coordinated resistance to market-oriented redevelopment. Three key
processes of neoliberal restructuring are analyzed to highlight the centrality of
contestations over local democracy for local economic development. Governance
restructuring and the implementation of key spatial imaginaries are argued to produce
a neoliberal articulation of urban democracy that discursively legitimizes
development from above via an understanding of the neighbourhood as a physical
environment, usurping pre-existing grassroots organizations conceptualizing
Over-the-Rhine as a social structure.
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