A decade ago, Matt Butler was selling bath fixtures, plumbing supplies and other home decor products.
Since turning Signature Hardware over to a new owner in August 2016, he’s been selling safety.
More specifically, through Devou Good Foundation, Butler and supporters are selling the notion that car-centric Greater Cincinnati can and should reduce the harm caused by cars.
Fans say he’s helping change conversations around transportation in Greater Cincinnati. Critics question his “no-car agenda.”
To that, the mild-mannered, bicycle-riding former bathtub retailer says, “Change is really hard.”
He’s likewise understated about Devou’s most current priority – to get Cincinnati voters to win the city a larger say in how federal infrastructure dollars are spent.
With more than 87% of the signatures the group needs to get on the Nov. 5 ballot and just a few weeks more to collect them, “I think it’s going to be close,” Butler said.
If the measure passes, an influential Cincinnati-based transportation group known as OKI (Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments) could be compelled to give Cincinnati more seats on its board and, with it, more influence in its spending decisions.
Business sale funds Devou Good work
Butler and his wife, Rebekah Gensler, launched Signature Hardware in 1999, with his father, Mike Butler, joining the venture.
Gensler created Devou Good Project in 2014 to back community development work in the family’s Covington neighborhood.
With a business to run and four kids (now in their teens) at home, “We didn’t have a lot of time to actively support the community,” said Butler, 50.
When they sold Signature Hardware to Ferguson Enterprises, they asked “What’s next for us and our family?”
The answer: More hands-on involvement in causes they care about, along with funds to move them forward.
Today, Butler heads an unpaid board of three, working with a staff of six and more than four dozen volunteers to support Devou Good Foundation projects.
Since its start, the foundation has collected about $3 million in revenue, substantially all from Signature Hardware profits and then its sale, Butler said. It’s spent about $2 million in that time, including more than $679,000 last year on 17 different causes, the foundation’s 2023 filing with the Internal Revenue Service shows.
Being self-funded allows Devou Good to pick its own projects. “We’re not beholden to anyone to fund the work that we do,” Butler said.
The foundation's overarching mission, according to its report to the IRS: "Cultivate vibrant communities out of transitional neighborhoods."
'Stop spreading inaccurate info'
Matt Butler calls OKI – with a staff of 30, a board of 118 and a focus on coordinating transportation projects in eight counties – a “quasi-governmental group that reports to nobody.”
OKI Executive Director Mark Policinski said Devou has critical facts about OKI wrong. "We wish they would stop spreading inaccurate information," he said in response to Enquirer questions.
OKI is taking seriously a Devou-affiliated group’s efforts to amend the Cincinnati city charter and win the city more board seats. In May, the 60-year-old transportation group presented a 12-page analysis of the initiative to its board.
“Changing governance would be disruptive and significant hurdles discourage it,” the analysis concluded.
The Devou group – called Fair Share for Cincy and funded by a political action committee called Sustainable Cincy – is incorrect in asserting that Cincinnati is denied dollars and power by OKI, Policinski said. It is wrong too, he said, in believing the city charter can dictate OKI practices.
For its part, Fair Share for Cincy is taking its case directly to voters.
Through the end of June, as they continued knocking on voters' doors and speaking at community council meetings, volunteers had collected close to 7,700 of the 8,800 signatures they need to get the OKI measure on the ballot. They must submit verified names by the end of July.
“It’s all in the interest of fairness,” Butler said. “People recognize that my vote should count.”
Devou would also like the OKI board to include more members who want to reduce, not grow, car traffic. “If we elect people who are car-centric, that’s what OKI is going to build,” Butler said.
Devou projects aim to reduce harm
Transportation plans aimed at moving as many vehicles from point to point as quickly as possible are “outstandingly short-sighted,” according to Devou board secretary Jim Guthrie, owner of Hub+Weber Architects.
So too is a focus on creating new roads and widening existing ones, added Devou staff member and volunteer Jody Robinson.
Those approaches raise taxes, harm the environment and endanger pedestrians, bicyclists and anyone else sharing the road with cars, the Devou leaders said.
Recent Devou projects reflect that thinking:
- Last year, Devou pushed a three-lane option for a new Fourth Street Bridge connecting Newport and Covington over the Licking River. Its design, created by Hub+Weber, allowed for a streetcar track and wide multi-use paths. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet stuck with plans for four lanes, with paths on both sides, to accommodate current and future vehicles and mass transit. “The bridge could possibly be retrofitted with streetcar tracks in the future,” department spokesperson Jake Ryle said. Newport and Covington would need to fund a streetcar system for that to happen, he added.
- Earlier this year, Devou hosted the Cincinnati Streetcar Forum to float nine ideas for new streetcar routes to add to the 3.6-mile existing Cincinnati Connector system. Five could be built immediately and four would need to be worked into planned bridge projects. The city has yet to move forward on any.
- Last fall, College Hill installed bike lanes, street parking and other traffic calming features at North Bend Road and Hamilton Avenue. Devou provided $475,000 toward the work, part of the city’s Vision Zero program to slow traffic.
- Early last year, Devou raised what it called “environmental justice concerns” about the $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project. In a letter dated this May 29, the Federal Highway Administration confirmed it is investigating whether the giant bridge project is “discriminating against residents based on race, color or national origin.” Federal highway officials will visit Cincinnati in August as part of its investigation, Butler said.
- Devou’s 2023 donations also went to All Aboard Ohio, which supports train travel; Tri-State Trails, which promotes Greater Cincinnati trails and bike paths; Girl Scout Bridge, working to make another Northern Kentucky bridge safer, after two bicyclists were hit and killed by vehicles there; and Bridge Forward, which helped Cincinnati win the promise of a street grid from downtown to Queensgate as part of the Brent Spence work.
Devou ‘amplifies voices of communities’
Butler applauds the city of Cincinnati’s Vision Zero program to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries caused by motor vehicles. The city has installed or designed 67 such traffic-calming projects, and is continuing to work with community council to identify where more might go.
The state of Ohio deserves credit, too, he said, for launching a $25 million pilot program this spring to reduce motorists’ speeds on eight roadways. U.S. 22 (Montgomery Road) in Norwood, U.S. 42 (Reading Road) in Reading and some streets around the University of Cincinnati will all see safety enhancements for the state to study, said Matt Bruning, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Everyday people sometimes don’t know how to address road safety issues, said Kathy Cunningham, president of Queen City Bike. With its funds and experience, Devou Good “amplifies and helps support the voice of neighbors and communities,” she said.
City officials and community leaders likewise benefit from Devou’s work, City Council member Mark Jeffreys said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to partner block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood to ensure our streets are designed for people,” he said.
Changing conversations, changing minds
Bridge Forward founder Brian Boland has crossed paths with Devou Good multiple times. His wife, Beth Boland, is working on the Fair Share for Cincy campaign. He’s a campaign volunteer. Like Devou, Bridge Forward favors urban design “that puts quality of place before speed and volume of traffic,” Boland said.
Butler gives Bridge Forward credit for getting Brent Spence Bridge planners to consider its street grid concept. “Kudos to them for taking that on,” he said.
Win or lose – on the November ballot measure or any other project – Devou Good aims to alter thinking with its work, too. “Even if we fail," Butler said, "we’ve changed the conversation."
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