Hey hey Cincy. Here’s what’s happening today.
Cincinnati Police officers shot and killed a man in Cheviot yesterday after they say he pulled a gun from his waistband. Officers say they were responding to calls about a man intoxicated and waiving a gun in neighboring Westwood when an accident happened a few blocks away. They determined the driver in that accident was the same person from the initial call and followed him, ordering him to stop. He initially complied, according to officers, but then pulled a gun, at which time officers opened fire. Police have not released the person’s name, but say he is a 36-year-old black male. No dash cam or other footage of the incident, if it exists, has been released yet, but police officials say they will release more information about the shooting today. A witness named Clites Holloway saw the shooting from a nearby van and told reporters, “I barely seen him move his body, and as soon as I seen that, first cop took the shot.” All involved officers are on a seven-day paid leave of absence as the shooting is investigated.
UPDATE: Police say 37-year-old Paul Gaston pulled an Air Soft toy pistol from his waistband while he was on his knees in the street complying with officers. A video of the incident taken by a member of the public doesn’t show Gaston with a gun, though he does reach briefly for his waist area.
• Improper prescriptions, dirty surgical implements and receiving extra money as a head surgeon without actually performing surgeries are accusations being leveled at the head of Cincinnati’s Veterans Administration Hospital Dr. Barbara Temeck, who is caught up in a federal investigation of the VA branch. A WCPO investigation alleges Temeck takes in more than $100,000 extra a year for a surgical role she doesn’t perform, that she prescribed prescription pain medicine to her boss’ wife, seemingly without the necessary licenses, and that she has looked the other way at dirty instruments, staffing shortages and other problems at Cincinnati’s VA hospital.
Detractors interviewed by the news organization say Temeck’s tenure has resulted in a quantifiable drop in the quality of care at the hospital. The investigation features interviews with doctors and patients, as well as public records supporting some of its findings. Supporters within the VA point out the hospital routinely gets four- and five-star reviews from the administration and that Temeck has done a good job at her post. They also say that the report doesn’t include information about whether or not the hospital has seen budget cuts from the federal government and what role those cuts may have played in quality of care.
• Cincinnati streetcar riders won’t be able to buy a specific, month-long unlimited use pass like the kind you can get for METRO buses, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority says. Such a pass would be very similar to the $70 METRO passes, SORTA says, and could run afoul of federal regulations about segregating ridership. Some council members have said that potential riders may not want to ride the bus, but will want to ride the streetcar, and that SORTA should look into a separate pass for them. Riders will be able to buy unlimited-use daily passes for the streetcar at $2, however, and can also use their monthly METRO passes on the cars.
• Cincinnati officials, including Mayor John Cranley and representatives from 3CDC yesterday held a groundbreaking event for upcoming renovations to Ziegler Park, which sits on Sycamore Street at the border of Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton. Those renovations will include a new pool and a 400-car underground parking lot. The renovation plan calls for at least $20 million in public money from state New Markets Tax Credits and city parks and recreation bonds. 3CDC says it still needs $12 million to finish the project and will continue fundraising from public and private sources to fill in that gap. The project comes even as the Cincinnati Parks Board has said it is running low on funds to complete needed maintenance on parks across the city, though much of the money for Ziegler is coming from other sources. Cincinnati City Council recently approved giving the parks and recreation bonds to 3CDC.
Neighborhood residents this summer took part in a three-session planning effort to garner feedback about the park. Among concerns expressed by residents, including advocates for low-income tenants in the neighborhood worried about the area’s ongoing gentrification, were preserving the park’s basketball courts and the possibility that Ziegler could become a busy “destination” park like Washington Park. Planners assured community members that those wishes would be honored. Cranley suggested hosting “a mini-LumenoCity here sometime soon” in his remarks, though park planners say the park will remain passive, or without major programming. Let’s see what happens there.
• Finally, the question continues: Who owns the Western Hills Viaduct, and who will pay to repair or replace it? Right now, Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials are basically doing this about the question: ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The mile-long bridge, built by the city in 1932, needs to be replaced or seriously repaired in the next decade or so, and officials are finally getting serious about figuring that whole thing out. Sort of. The county and city are still fighting over who has ownership over the bridge and will foot the expected $80 million share of the $280 million replacement project. That conversation would be a lot easier if we as a country, you know, prioritized public infrastructure funding at the state and federal levels, but, ya know, times were different in the 1930s and we were just swimming in cash back then… oh wait. Anyway, now I’m editorializing. Maybe we can just build a giant zipline when the thing finally collapses?
This article appears in Feb 17-24, 2016.