Saturday, April 14, 2001
Some bristle at curfew, others shrug
By Mark Curnutte, Janice Morse
and Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati resembled a ghost town Friday on the second night of the curfew.
People throughout the city sat on balconies and front porches not straying too far from their doors on the warm evening, while University of Cincinnati students held another peace rally.
Students spoke through an open microphone behind UC's Calhoun Hall, then commiserated about the downside of the city's order to clear the streets by 8 p.m.: It was tough to get pizza.
And for a Delhi Township woman, it was tough to get her medicine.
Anne Curry, 65, was grateful to find an open pharmacy on the west side of Cincinnati. She had broken her ankle hanging curtains earlier in the day, spent the evening in the hospital and needed even past curfew to get her medicine.
It would have been some thing if we had to go all the way to Fairfield for medicine, she said.
At UC, students were looking for a replay of Thursday evening, when about 400 students white, black and Asian traveled from dorm to dorm, said Zenith Milton, 19, a freshman psychology major from Columbus. They then talked about race relations and other issues through an open microphone set up behind Calhoun.
It was just people standing up for what they believe in, he said.
A brother is a white person or a black person.
"Run off the streets'
Several speakers challenged the crowd to break down barriers on campus, such as blacks and whites eating separately in dorm cafeterias.
Some students, however, were bitter about the curfew.
A lot of us feel even those of us not from Cincinnati like we're being run off the streets, said Samuel Pete, 19, of Youngstown, president of Calhoun Hall.
A friend literally ran from a pizza place, through back parking lots and back to campus, as the clock struck.
A black man, 17-year-old Antuan Roberts, was walking quickly across Calhoun Street after being told by police he had two minutes to get home. He had missed a bus after eating dinner out.
Chris Williams, 28, of Northside, walked home from work at the Corryville Kroger on Calhoun Street with two bags of groceries.
I've never seen the city like this, said Mr. Williams, who was hoping to catch a bus and planned to watch TV and go to bed early on the curfew's second night.
In Westwood, a Staples store had plywood over the door and huge tables blocking its windows. It was a precautionary measure. A police car cruised the plaza parking lot.
In Covedale, most of the traffic was taxis. Streets were nearly deserted in Price Hill, Lower Price Hill, Avondale, Corryville, downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
One man in Price Hill sat on his porch and watered his grass with a garden hose.
The Short Vine entertainment district near UC normally would have been packed on a Friday night. Only three cars were parked in the diagonal spaces.
In Over-the-Rhine, Washington Park where protests heated up early in the week the only sign of life was litter on the grass.
A police helicopter buzzed overhead, shining its searchlight down on the quiet streets.
Dozens of police officers mustered in the parking lot across Central Parkway from Kroger headquarters, showing they mean business with the 8 a.m.-to-6 p.m. curfew.
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