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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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George Beatty, Omar Childress and Lincoln Ware
(L-R) find room for Ware to sleep in the van. The stunt
was part of a food drive by WDBZ and the Sentinels
Police Association.
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Vice Mayor Alicia Reece and City Councilman John Cranley will deny any link, but their proposal for a "living wage" law is right in sync with one of the key demands of the civil rights boycott of the city. The Finance Committee is set to debate the proposed ordinance Monday. The proposal calls for "a living wage of $8.70 per hour with health care benefits or $10.20 per hour without health care benefits for full-time city employees or for work performed for the city of Cincinnati in any contract for the delivery of services with outside companies."
That fits quite well with the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati's demand (see www.cincyboycott.org): "The city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County governments must pay a 'living wage' to all city and county employees, and employees of firms doing business with these governments, based on the cost of living in Cincinnati."
A living wage is a matter of economic justice, according to Cranley.
"If you're willing to put in 40 hours a week doing a productive job, you shouldn't be below the poverty level," he says.
Cranley's language virtually mimics the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati: "No one who works 40 hours a week should live at or below the poverty level."
Cranley is the same councilman who last year successfully pushed the city to block the development of low-income housing. The ordinance he sponsored bars the city from spending money on subsidized housing in the city's poorest neighborhoods and encourages housing projects be built outside the city instead.
Cranley denies that his living wage proposal is at odds with his stand against low-income housing. In fact, he denies ever having been against low-income housing at all.
"I've never tried to restrict new low-income housing," Cranley says.
He just wants it spread out.
"Historically what the government has done is put all low-income in one place," he says.
Feed at Last: Talk Show Host Gets to Go Home
To help promote the WDBZ (1230 AM) Food Drive, morning talk show host Lincoln Ware agreed to live in a van until it was filled with canned goods donated by listeners. By Nov. 14 more than 2,000 food items and $400 had been collected. Two days later Ware visited Junebug's Bar-B-Q and collected an additional 700 cans and $225. That was enough to fill the van and keep Ware from living in it. The Sentinels Police Association, collaborating with the station, has agreed to purchase 50 turkeys. The goal is to provide food for at least 75 families identified by the Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services. Everything else will go to the FreeStore Food Bank.
City Planning Director Liz Blume hasn't resigned, but don't be surprised if it happens.
"I haven't made any announcements yet," she said Nov. 19.
Blume is facing the likelihood that her department will account for 26 of 100 planned job cuts recently announced by Mayor Charlie Luken and backed by City Manager Valerie Lemmie. If passed by city council, the Planning Department would be combined with the Community Development Department -- a reorganization similar to one carried out in Dayton under Lemmie's leadership. Coincidentally, Blume was also the planning director there when that happened.
Blume acknowledges her position seems to be on the chopping block.
"I think if you don't need a planning department, you don't need a planning director," she says. "At this point I'm certainly keeping my options open."
Blume, who left Dayton for Cincinnati in 1999, because she thought it was a good opportunity, was largely responsible for managing a compromise redevelopment plan for Over-the-Rhine that includes both affordable housing and market-rate development -- something unsuccessfully attempted twice before.
Do Something Disorderly for Peace
Anti-war activists are organizing a campaign of nationally coordinated nonviolent civil disobedience to oppose war in Iraq. The Iraq Pledge of Resistance calls for action against the U.S. military machine Jan. 15-20, 2003, timed to coincide with observances of the life and work of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But if the Bush regime attacks Iraq before then, the campaign hopes participants will be ready to act early.
Sponsoring organizations include the American Friends Service Committee, Global Exchange, the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, Pax Christi USA, Veterans for Peace and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. To join the civil disobedience campaign, visit www.peacepledge.org.
Porkopolis TIP LINES: 513-665-4700 (ext. 138) or pork@citybeat.com
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