Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thanks Chris. Thanks Todd. Now I can get that case of beer I've had my eye on.
Worst Drivers in the Tristate ?

Living in a border community, especially a 3-way border community, rivalries arise. A common one is, who is the worst goram state for driving? The debates are endless but Car Insurance Comparison has given us the answer.
Kentucky

By a landslide. At #7, they are in the top 10 worst states in the country. Contrasted against Ohio, which at #41 is the top 10 best states for drivers. Indiana is somewhere in the middle because, as we all know, Indiana is average average average…..
Of course, if you look at their numbers, the rankers don't even follow their own numbers, so Ohio & Indiana might be in an eternal quibble, but manoman, Kentucky, where people stop at the end of entrance ramps because it's always easier to merge into 60MPH traffic from a dead stop? No question. Stick to horses, guys.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Whither the Southgate House ?

The closing of the Southgate House is kinda sad, the fact the people behind it intend to continue on in a new location is good news, not specifying a new location doesn't fill my heart with confidence.
While it's great to have the big union entertainment like the Reds, Bengals, Ballet, Symphony & Opera and the BOC passing through the Aronoff & GestapoBend are great, it's the smaller places that offer innovative & creative types a venue that really mark a community as a cultural leader.
Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the avant-garde arts organization Art Damage. They celebrated with an eviction notice. A number of small theater groups like ETC & Know seem to be going strong but the music scene of 1980s Cincinnati are sorely missed. Not the actual local acts so much as the venues & promoters that graced Bogart's & The Jockey Club. Bogart's has turned into….. - nothing good. The demise of The Jockey seemed to have helped spawn The Southgate House.
Sill, The Southgate House ballroom just wasn't really big enough to host a lot of acts. Hope those guys can find a good new location that's a bit bigger so they can thrive & keep the Cincinnati region on the radar of upcoming bands well into the future.
UPDATE: the Fishwrap unravels a sordid tale of family intrigue
HT to Cincinnati Blog & Each Note Secure
OTR - Highest Income Inequality Tract in America

I have read the McClatchy article, Highest income-inequality tract in America is gentrifying twice & I don't get it. It's a little weirder than Stadium tax rebate favors wealthy, which is, duh, just a fact.
FWIW, the wealth distribution should be a little smoother in OTR in time. Middle class people will follow the wealthy but pretty much nobody follows the poor. In fact, the poor have been leaving OTR for years. While the article points out the neighborhood is predominantly poor they don't do much to point out it is predominantly vacant. Anyway, I guess the Liberals© have to wail about something.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Cyber Monday
Black Friday
Buy My Stuff !


Cincinnati Iconography.

Shirts, mousepads, mugs, clocks, tote bags, aprons AND MORE !!!
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~ or ~


Get your Jaguar & Thunderbird gear for your music geek friends. (& I mean serious geeks)


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Sunday, November 27, 2011

SOPA is Bad
Anonymous Commenting

The Porkopolis Fishwrap has announced it will "end anonymous commenting" by forcing would be commenters to register with FaceBook.
Anybody who follows the comments knows who the regulars are & what to expect from them. I imagine it can be pretty shocking for someone who isn't used to the wholesale sociopathy that is SW Ohio to read the comments on an article about their kids or local school or charity. That's ok. They probably wouldn't have returned to the mosh pit anyway.
UPDATE: yeesh around 1,400 comments - 98% negative.
Anyhoo, if you don't want to participate in an online dialogue on local current issues the FishBook way there's lots of other choices.
For example:
Springfield Navistar Plant Adds Production

Springfield's Navistar plant will absorb production from the recently closed Union City, Indiana plant. No new jibs but the recently recalled employees can be a little more confident in their jobs. Employment at the plant has gone from a low of 300 people to now looking at 1,000.

Noose Son story here.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Derek & the Dominoes Music Hall 11/26/70

Earlier in '70 there was the Midsummer Rock thing at the baseball stadium with Iggy Pop, Traffic, Alice Cooper, Mountain, Grand Funk, 10 Years After.....
WTF happened?

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Black Friday is for Wusses

On Friday, 11/25, people will be up at the crack of dawn, armed with big bank credit cards, camping out at mall, shopping center & big box chain stores in a sort of bizzaro world anti-OWS movement.
And What are you going to get? Sure, maybe it's cheaper but it's still just the same old uninspired Chinese gizmos & gadgets…..
Don't worry, Blogging isn't Cool has a solution (as usual)
SHOP NORTHSIDE

Sleep in. Go out & have a leisurely breakfast in a bright warm dining room full of friendly folks at Take the Cake, Park Chili, The Blue Jay, Sidewinder, White Castle….
Beats the hell out of Slim Jims & cold coffee in the stark pale glow of a neon sign while sitting on cold damp pavement as the bitter November winds howl through your bones.
Then let the shopping commence. Wouldn't dad love a 75lb fryer from Restaurant Equipment Outlet? And installation is a snap with the help from the crack crew Bill's assembled at Ace Hardware. Show mom how much you love her with a MOM tattoo from Skincraft. Your sister who lost her job & is getting evicted January 1? Check out the survival gear at Northside Surplus. Your 17 yr old niece who just got her 6th drivers license suspension? How about a Metro Card from Ohio Check Cashers or a refurbed bike from MoBo Bicycke Co-Op? Your creepy alcoholic chain smoking uncle? How about a nice shiny headstone from Schott Monument? Got an animal lover in the family? Maybe they'd be interested in something from Whitman Taxidermy. Or how about a new website for grandma & grandpa from Ella Net?
Don't let your sugar levels drop while you shop! Refresh yourself at Melt, Ko-Sho Japanese Restaurant, The Painted Fish or Picnic and Pantry, to name a few.
And when the shopping orgy is over, kick back at the Northside Tavern, Junkers Tavern, The C&D, scarf down a burrito at The Comet or grab a pie at The Don's Pizza Lounge.
Seriously, camping out on private property can be unpleasant.
These guys will not pepper spray you if you shop at their stores.
Ralph Nader Meets Pat Buchanan

2 political minds that might strike a person as nemeses, actually have a lot in common in this exchange on C-Span's Book TV as they discuss Buchanan's latest book which I previously covered. Nader is infinitely more intelligent (and mature) than James Edwards of The Political Cesspool.
I'm gonna have to read this book I guess.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Kennedy Assassination on WLW

And, to get an idea of what was going on that day @ 5AM

Listening to these broadcasts is really strange. I remember a bunch of this stuff going on but I never put it all into one time period. I also distinctly recall JFK being shot in the late morning on a sunny day. wrongo…..
As my old boss, Hank, once said, "Memory is a dangerous thing".

Monday, November 21, 2011

CGI on WCPO ?

Or is this just old video? Where the hell did all those people come from?

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Munsters
again…..


Great, NBC wants to do a remake of The Munsters using the writer for the fairly lame show, Pushing Daisies.
Why?
The Munsters idea wasn't s good as the cast with 3 pros, Yvonne DeCarlo, Fred Gwynne & Al Lewis. Gwynne & Lewis had been in Car 54 prior to the Munsters.

What possible team can the TV network assemble to pull a 1 hour show off? And who in the hell is going to replace this chick?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ohio - Smoking Capitol of the North

A recent survey concluded that about 26% of Ohioans smoke, putting it in line with Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri and other southern states. No northern state comes close. And, yet, we have public smoking bans in effect almost everywhere. Should we really be persecuting such a large minority of the state's population? Is it the conservative thing to do? Where is our smaller, less intrusive, business friendly state government on fixing this?

Noose Son story here
Zombie Lake

A low budget movie from 1980 about a French town full of slow moving, bloodless, nudists who can't shoot worth a damn and wind up getting terrorized by a squad of Nazi amphibi-zombies.
Really it oughtta be called something like Swamp Nazis or Lake of the Living Dead or something as this semi-organized squad of undead Nazi soldiers can move, have some reason & don't eat people. They are more like really sloppy, green vampires.
Who live in a lake.
The whole walking around at the bottom of the lake in uniform thing is kinda cool. Probably the best part. Well, that and the gratuitous nudity…..
One quibble - back in WWII, when the French resistance fighters slaughter the soldiers & throw their carcasses into the lake, one Frenchie steals a dead soldier's boots. Subsequently, as they shamble-march (no shamble-goose-stepping) through the streets of the town, nobody is barefoot.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Happy Friday !

Graham Bond Holy Magick

Bond, a Brit, got into mysticism around 1970 and, having deep roots in American music, made a couple albums that married R&B, gospel, Soul, Psychedelia & Golden Dawn mysticism emphasizing Kaballah into a weird & wonderful mess.
No clue where the video came from.
Ohio & The Movies

A new website that has received a lot of web press is devoted to promoting Ohio & Ohioans that have been on TV & in the movies. Music videos, I guess, don't count. Actually a lot doesn't seem to count. Dean Martin, Jonathan Winters, the Gish girls, John Holmes, Theda Bara, Doris Day, Mike Douglas, Ron Jeremy, Paul Newman, Martin Mull, Jerry Springer & Roy Fucking Rogers don't count. Light of Day, Vamps, Howard the Duck, Ferndale 2 Night, Airborne, Traffic, Harper Valley PTA, 6 episodes of Route 66, (5 in Clevo), Stranger Than Paradise, Cornhole, Thankskilling, The Dead Next Door…..
forget it.
heck, a Wiki search
or IMDB comes up with all sorts of stuff.
oh well, HDDs are like Doritos, we'll just make more.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Enon Firm to Expand - Create 50 Jobs
State Support a PITA

seepex Inc., a manufacturer of fluid pumping equipment, is embarking on it's 4th expansion in 15 years.
We manufacture and export world class product, we do not export jobs," said Kamran Mirza, seepex director of business development.
Seepex has seen an 18% annual growth over the last few years. One of the industries seepex sells to is the gas industry so coveted by the Kasich administration. But they say the state has not held up it's end of the bargain regarding aid for jobs. The business friendly administration keeps coming up with more and more hurdles & reversals. The owner, Mike Dillon, says he will only take some state incentives to purchase some equipment.

Springfield Noose Son story here

For more on natural gas extraction, see Gasland
Talking Fare Boxes !!

I love the way the announcer gets all excited about the "things to come". I am sure someone will want the voice to speak foreign languages. I'm fine with English but I think a Jamaican or Irish accent might be nice. The little LCD monitor will be hard for visually impaired folks. Some high contrast signage on the thing would be handy.
Accepting $2 bills is TOTALLY AWESOME!! I can't believe they left that out of the video.
It'd still be nice to just use a debit or credit card but I guess that would require a PIN keypad & a signature screen thing. Of course, just scanning a chip implanted in your forehead would be the best way to go, but…..

More from Metro.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Futility

I'm with Renee.
UPDATE: In the original airing of this piece the announcer, Renee Montagne, could not help but dissolve into laughter over PETA's antics. It has since been re-recorded. PETA's looniness is still silly.
My title takes on a bit of a new meaning, tho. :-)
Statesmanship and Zombism

The Chiller Television movie, Remains that takes place in Reno Nevada but was filmed in it's lookalike counterpart, Norwich Conneticut will have it's debut theatrical showing there in December.
"I’m interested to see if I survived the cut," Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said of his non-speaking cameo part. "I wasn’t allowed to speak. It was the perfect setting for a public official."


Norwich Bulletin story here.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

HOME

Buddy Gray was murdered 15 years ago, November 15, 1996. Whether you agree with his goals or strategies doesn't matter. He did care & have some kind of vision for the homeless. In 2010, His Drop Inn Center cared for 2,200 men and women. It provided homeless people with 55,000 bed nights.
Interestingly (to me) is that 5,000 new housing units are slated to be built in Cincinnati next year while at the same time Building Cincinnati reports that there are currently 5,373 abandoned/vacated buildings in the city, up 14.1% over last year.
There's something seriously wrong with this picture.

Fishwrap story on Gray

Monday, November 14, 2011

While seemingly everywhere before the last election, the Enquirer was quoting Chris Finney on a daily basis. With the defeat of his latest ballot initiative, he even hung out at his opponents victory party to get a little more free press. So when the Daily Fishwrap wrote an article about Cincinnati's first gay councilman, who got his start repealing Finney's anti-gay ordinance, Article XII, his quotes were uncharacteristically absent.
Instead, all we got was the perv, Burress of Sharonville (City of Progress), telling us the reason for population decline in Cincinnati is due to rampant faggery.
yeah, God Hates Fags.
Job Killing Monopolies

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Listing Loon

While it sounds like some kind of reaL estate company, the Listing Loon is will be a craft beer & wine store slated to open in February '12 @ 4124 Hamilton Avenue in Northside, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.. The building has been home recently to the Cumminsville branch post office, Art Damage Lodge & Feldenkrais Within. The Feldenkrais Method is dedicated to a full & more dynamic life & fittingly, that group is moving up the street to breathe new life into the old Charles Miller Funeral Home.
With the addition of American Can apartment dwellers, the store will have a good number of potential customers in walking distance - handy since there's not a lot of parking nearby.

SoapBox story here

Friday, November 11, 2011

Waughtel Hopper Named Deputy of the Year

Clark County Deputy Suzanne Waughtel Hopper was named Clark County Deputy of the year 11/10/11. Waughtel Hopper, 40 & mother of 2, was senselessly murdered by Michael Ferryman a fuck up in Enon Beach Trailer Park 1/1/11. Another officer was wounded and the gunman was killed.

Noose Son article here

What happened here
Monster - 1970

Steppenwolf

rough ending but you get the idea.....

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Midnight Meat Train

This is what Cincinnatians should expect when the streetcar line is built.
Rededication of Mohawk Honor Roll

On Veterans Day, 11/11/11 @ 2:00 PM (why not 11?) at the intersection of Ravine & McMicken. Bishop Binzer from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Bagpipes from the Hamilton County Sheriffs office, Chambers Hauptmann Budde Post Honor Guard, Military and political dignitaries in addition to surviving Mohawk Veterans with their families will be in attendance.
The memorial was originally dedicated in 1945 to honor World War II vets from the once bustling community. Over the years it fell into disrepair, the lot was not maintained and vandals stole the metal plaques bearing the names of the soldiers to sell for scrap metal. Charles Barnett bought the lot in the late 80s and maintained the grounds.
A group led by Mike Kirchgessner got labor & materials donated from Bricklayers Local 18, Schott Monument, American Facade Restoration and others to do a complete rebuild. The names are engraved in granite now to dissuade parentless metal thieves.
I moved to & started working in the area of this monument around 1982 & I remember stopping to see what the hell it was. I had to trudge through debris infested weeds to get near it and a number of the metal plaques had been ripped off. It was really sad to see the condition & to recognize that the area used to be so much more vibrant. My hat's off to the guys that rebuilt this monument (although I kinda preferred the funky old type & color scheme at the top on the original).
Mohawk Memorial Fund
513-377-2988

Bilden

(images snagged off UrbanOhio)

Later, with doors opening at 4PM, there will be a fundraiser to renovate The Emery Theater - Details
Secrets of the Bones

WKRC looks at remains found in Washington Park & how researchers deduce their lifestyles. Urban archaeology - yay!
11/10/11 @ 11 - don't blink

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

12 mil Tax Down in Flames

Tremont City residents voted down a proposed 12 mil increase in taxes almost 2-1. Final vote:99 - 51.
Clark County Election results here.
Election Analysis

Because you know you come here for the hard hitting, in depth analysis…..
How come the votes on electric aggregation & gas aggregation were different? weird.
I really thought 2 & 3 would sink or swim together. whatever
hey, Chris, Kevin, Amy, Leslie, Wayne, Jason, Mike, Nick, Cathy, Pat, Kathy, Jacqueline, Sandra! How's it feel to be less popular than a lunatic? Hey Orlando! How's it feel to get beat by 2?
Despite being exdorsed by the Fishwrap, COA T & me, freakin' Cecil Thomas came in 4th! I mean WOW, just WOW. Has anybody seen this guy run a committee meeting?
And some non-committal rich kid, who LOVES Cincinnati, placed 2nd!
This has gotta be the most liberal council in years.
And North College Hill re-elected the same guy they have had for mayor for 28 years? Talk about the poster boy for term limits.

WKRC Election Results
NEWS FLASH

Cincinnatians LOVE big government.
side note - my internet is fucked up at the moment so posting is going to be short & sparse for awhile.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

While the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) celebrates it's self proclaimed National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, local animal shelters aren't exactly feeling the joy. Actually only about 1% of the HSUS budget goes to local animal shelters. They have no official affiliation with local animal shelters. Donations to HSUS do not trickle down to your local shelters. They mainly line the pockets of the executive staff & their lush pensions.
From HumaneWatch:
"We haven't seen any money from the HSUS."
--Teresa Johnson, PALS [Prevent-a-litter Program] president, in the North Platte Telegraph
"We are not in any way associated with HSUS or PETA. I think sometimes, people look at humane societies as being all one, and we're not at all. Nobody is paid. We're all volunteers. We also don't pay any memberships to national organizations. When Hurricane Katrina struck, we sent $500 down there in emergency money, but it didn't go to HSUS. Other than that, I don't know of any donations that have gone anywhere other than in and around North Platte."
--Jo Mayber, Paws-itive Partners Humane Society secretary, in the North Platte Telegraph
"Not one penny. We receive nothing from them, and the amount of money they get nationally and don’t share with needy shelters like ours is a shame."
--Roseann Trezza, Executive Director of the Associated Humane Societies (on News 12 New Jersey)
"It's a good source of confusion for a lot of our donors. We have had issues with people who would intend to name us in their will, but actually name the Humane Society of the United States."
--Amanda Welby, Seattle Humane Society (on MyFoxSpokane)
"In my experience, in the last 15 years, it's been nothing, in this area, that I know of. We got without food here and we couldn't find a place for it, so I contacted the national humane society, to ask them for help, to help us find some or donate some food for the animals. They wouldn't even give me the time of day, hardly. In fact, they were rude about it, in the office. I think that is tugging at people's hearts, showing those animals and also to receive money nationwide. They need to send it directly to us or to the other shelters."
--Del Nesmith, Director, Humane Society of Odessa (on News9 Texas)
"There is no humane society in the sky; there is no big brother, you are your own entity, all of us are volunteers. We operate with donations and fundraisers and that’s where our money comes from."
--Shirley Jarmon, Humane Society of Faulkner County (on KARK Arkansas)
"This is what we’re always trying to educate people about. The Humane is not affiliated with any other national group. But both groups are helping animals in different ways….We are autonomous."
--Donna Canazo, Humane Society of Charlotte (on WCNC Charlotte)
"We often hear, 'We gave to the national organization.’ It's frustrating. I'd appreciate it if they didn't do direct-mail [fundraising] pieces here."
--Lynae Gieseke, executive director of the Minnesota Valley Humane Society, in the Star Tribune
"We hear it all the time, ‘But I already gave to the Humane Society.’ They think they are helping the shelter here, but they don't understand that money doesn't come locally."
Donna Clark, Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association executive director (West Virginia)
"I definitely think it’s an issue. We have people walk into the shelter and say, ‘Oh, I give to the Humane Society of the United States. That’s our opportunity to tell them, ‘No, it doesn’t work that way.’"
Arlette Moen, Circle of Friends Humane Society executive director (North Dakota)
"My own mother was confused and thought that when she was writing a check to the Humane Society of the United States that was going to support me and my work … If you give to the Kansas Humane Society that’s helping animals locally. When you give to the Humane Society of the United States that’s going to them in Washington DC and they’re choosing how to use your money."
Jennifer Campbell, Kansas Humane Society communications director (on KSNW-TV)
"[People think] that if they give to the national organization that somehow the local organization is benefitting. That's completely false. There's no money whatsoever. We have never received one dime from the HSUS."
Raynette Mayer, Central Savannah River Area Humane Society volunteer (Georgia)
"People are also under the assumption that the term ‘humane society’ connotes that that organization must be part of a formal network. In fact, ‘humane society’ is a generic term."
Joe Grisanti, Humane Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania director (on WJET-TV)
"These are our communities, this is where our money should be staying. People send it to the national humane society when they see these ads thinking it's going to come back to us, when it's really paying their salaries and paying for these ad campaigns and not doing a thing for our local animals."
Olive Sullivan, Southeast Kansas Humane Society promotions director
Has Ohio Left the Union ?

For the first time I had to vote via provisional ballot. Why? The state of Ohio does not recognize U.S. Federal identification. They would prefer a phone bill.
There actually seemed to be more people than usual filling out provisional ballots this time around. Another guy, who looked about like me was shaking his head laughing about it. I was mad. Apparently other people were, too. Earlier, a woman whose federal ID was denied just got mad & left without voting.
We hear all the time about disenfranchising black voters. Well, now they are managing to disenfranchise white, middle class, middle aged voters, too.
waytogo……

Monday, November 07, 2011

An FOP Endorsement ?

Chris Smitherman, in yet another bid to be a Cincinnati City councilman has received an endorsement from the FOP.
In 2004 when he managed to get elected, the nquirer wrote
The memos to the city manager's office come at the rate of about one a day, and sometimes as many as three or four. They started on the second day of Christopher Smitherman's first term on Cincinnati City Council, and have not let up.
The requests for information are usually no longer than two or three sentences. The answers sometimes take days of staff time to complete.
EXAMPLE:
"Please provide my office with the following information: A listing of each sworn officer in the Cincinnati Police Department. For each sworn officer, the name of the high school that he/she attended."
He has made deliberate attempts to keep some of his memos quiet. On Jan. 13, he asked the city manager not to release the information she had submitted to his office about police overtime. (The city manager responded that it was a public record.)

He was defended by none other than Ken Lawson, however
"Whenever a strong black man in a position like Chris is in speaks his mind, he's told in no uncertain terms he better get back in his place," said lawyer Kenneth L. Lawson

Of course, Lawson, later disbarred, was probably stoned at the time.
Of course, he is also endorsed by the ethically challenged ~er~ ethically challenged COA T organization this year.
His FOP endorsement is baffling. It's hard to believe they would want to be in such company.
Ohio Issue 2

The Fishwraap reports that Issue 2 is likely going to go down in flames.
That is as it should be but we definitely do need reform. SB5 just showed a complete disconnect from reality. I am assuming legislators will go back to the drawing board. Maybe they won't. That would be too bad. On the other hand, if they haven't figured it out, they might just come back with something else as disconnected as this last stab. Maybe worse. The boys at the Beacon are suggesting the next step might be to just target specific unions & let police & fire unions off the hook. That would be pretty.
No wonder 75% of the country thinks we're on the wrong track.
Because I know you've been on needles & pins to know…

Issues
  • 1. YES
  • 2. NO
  • 3. NO
  • 32. NO
  • 37. YES
  • 38. YES
  • 44. YES
  • 45. YES
  • 46. NO
  • 47. NO
  • 48. NO


Council Candidates
  • Chris Bortz
  • Kevin Flynn
  • Nicholas Hollan
  • Roxanne Qualls
  • Laure Quinlivan

  • ~maybe~
  • Wendell Young
  • Kathy Atkinson


or - for a more Craptacular Cincinnati
  • Sandra Queen Noble
  • Chris Smitherman
  • Charlie Winburn
  • Cecil Thomas
  • Leslie Ghiz

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Issue 48 (Cincinnati)

Cincinnati's Issue 48 was introduced by COA T & the NAACP to halt passenger rail in Cincinnati a second time. Their previous attempt would have required public votes on any & all rail projects. This one provides a 10 year ban on building and planning effectively creating a 15+ year ban.
Proponents have said the money could be spent on other things from wages to eminent domain programs. They have engaged in a campaign of disinformation on social media, their spokespersons on radio, TV & the local paper have cited a wide range of factoids and figures that are completely unsubstantiated but have generally been given a free pass. Cincinnatians for Progress has called out COA T on their part and, apparently, the organization's counsel is arguing that lies in political campaigns are some kind of constitutional right. The thrust of the campaign has been primarily spreading fear, uncertainty, a dash of class warfare and they seem to be having some success. The thing is, their very use of referenda causes an unhealthy air of uncertainty that damages the entire city.
In this video, around 3:40, Steve Chabot goes fishing for a statement from SBA to defend his stance on taxes scaring businesses but doesn't get the answer he wants. What scares businesses is uncertainty. The referendumania rampant in Cincinnati and pushed primarily by COA T & the NAACP creates a climate of uncertainty and is clearly not good for business in the city.

So who supports this ill conceived proposal?
Supporting
  • Cincinnati Chapter NAACP
  • COAST
  • FOP
  • Local Firefighters Union
  • Baptist Ministers Alliance of Cincinnati
  • Westwood Concern
  • Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless
  • Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees
  • Southwest Ohio Green Party

Opposed
  • Cincinnati Enquirer
  • League of Women Voters
  • All Aboard Ohio
  • Alliance for Regional Transit
  • American Institute of Architects, Cincinnati Chapter
  • Blue Green Alliance
  • Brewery District Community Redevelopment Corporation
  • Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati
  • Cincinnati Democratic Committee
  • AFL-CIO
  • Cincinnati Preservation Association
  • Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
  • Cincy PAC
  • Downtown Residents Council
  • Mt. Auburn Chamber of Commerce
  • Ohio Environmental Council
  • Ohio Public Transportation Association
  • Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce
  • Pendleton Neighborhood Association
  • Sierra Club
  • SORTA
  • Uptown Consortium
  • Women's Political Caucus
  • Cincinnati Business Courier
  • Simon Leis, Hamilton County Sheriff
  • Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, former general counsel, national NAACP
  • Dr. Milton W. Hinton, former president, Cincinnati NAACP
  • City Beat
  • Cincinnati Herald

A quick look at the supporters of this issue reveals a rogues gallery of self interest groups who all derive their existence in part or whole from the public trough - all led by an Erisian COA T.
Some of the Greens are pretty wack. Their position explanation uses phrases like "mowing down people in the street". Westwood cares little for other neighborhoods or the city at large. This is the neighborhood that considered secession from the city. The ministers group seems to be the same crew that got called out for being absentee slumlords in WCPO's Visions of Vine Street.
CODE is the city employee union that was concocted by a woman seemingly for the sole purpose of swindling her coworkers. It will be interesting to see how that pedigree effects them in the future. The safety unions don't seem to see the benefit of improving a neighborhood where they frequently risk their lives dealing with vice and abandoned buildings owned by uncaring absentee landlords. Given the low scores of council candidates on the NAACP's scorecard, one has to wonder how relevant the organization is. If their goals are so important, how come next to nobody seems to realize it?
It reminds one of William Burroughs' discussion of Junky Relations. They all need each other but absolutely hate each other because they all are competing for the same supply of junk.
Count me OPPOSED.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Cincinnati City Council Endorsements

no - not mine
I put together a chart showing some of the endorsements for Cincinnati City Council Candidates here. I left out party endorsements. It's pretty obvious. Reps aren't endorsing any Dems this year and no Reps got Dem endorsements. Nobody endorsed SHERO. COA T & the Fishwrap came out opposed to some candidates and those disdorsements are listed, too. COA T hasn't endorsed Noble, yet. Police, fire unions, Sierra Club, Right to Life are on there. I'll add more as I find them.

Cincinnati City Council Endorsements
The handy Cincinnati Election Guide - exclusively from Blogging Isn't Cool.

City Beat Who's Endorsing Whom chart.