One hundred years ago, a mere century into the past, Cincinnatians awoke not only to a new year, but to the dawning of a new city. The City Directory for that year encapsulated the change succinctly:
“With the advent of 1926, Cincinnati’s new Council-City Manager form of government became effective on the assumption by the new members of Council of the offices to which they had been elected in November 1925. At the same time, the City Manager, appointed by Council, Colonel Clarence O. Sherrill, became the city’s executive head.”
Gone were the last rotten vestiges of Boss Cox’s graft-fueled political machine. Gone were the bribes and corruption. Gone the patronage jobs offered only to the faithful minions of the Cox machine. Within a decade, Cincinnati would gain renown as the best governed city in America. Vice that flourished under the Cox administration was banished (mostly) from the city, much of it slithering across the river, transferring to Newport a reputation once stained the Queen City. The 1926 City Directory noted changes already underway:…