In the early years of Ohio, Cincinnati was known as Porkopolis for the amount of pork that shipped from its docks. And no-one knew more about turning pig into provender than the German immigrants.

These immigrants built a neighborhood in Cincinnati in the style they were accustomed to back home, featuring distinctive tall, narrow brick row houses. The neighborhood came to be known as Over-the-Rhine, as the natives imaginatively compared the canal that ran through their neighborhood to the main river of northern Germany. OTR became a place where the German language, food and culture thrived.

Eventually, though, OTR fell on hard times. With the dying of downtown industry came poverty and the associated blight. In 2001, a riot sparked by the shooting of a black teenager by Cincinnati police marked the low point of the neighborhood's history.

Now though, as noted in Sunday's New York Times, Over-the-Rhine has caught the imagination of the gentrification industry. Perhaps looking at the similar but prosperous German Village neighborhood in Columbus, developers, led by the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), are turning the two and four-story walkups into condos for the upwardly mobile. 3CDC has invested $28 million in the last 18 months alone.

Three questions seem to haunt the reconstruction process, though. Are the buildings too far gone to rehab? What will happen to the current residents that cannot afford the renovated housing? And can the transition take place peacefully?

I've seen enough downtown restorations to know how beautiful such an area can be. I only hope these steps are enough, and in time to succeed.