Whoa. We're already halfway through the week. That's awesome. Here's your news today as we sail toward the weekend.
The parents of four Colerain High School students filed a $25 million lawsuit yesterday against the school and the Colerain Township Police Department alleging racial discrimination violating the students’ constitutional rights.
The lawsuit claims that the students were held in a room guarded by armed officers for six hours and interrogated April 10 after school officials said threats about a school shooting were found online. The four were later expelled. Officials say they found evidence on social media that the teens had gang affiliations. These accusations stem mostly from the fact the students were making “street signs,” in a rap video, administrators say, or “hand gestures associated with hip-hop culture” as their attorneys called the gestures. Hm. Neither of those sound racial at all.
The students involved in the lawsuit, who are black, say white students at the school who engaged in similar conduct were not expelled. School officials deny any racial discrimination in discipline, though the school’s disciplinary records show that black students receive a higher number of expulsions than white students at the school, despite making up a smaller proportion of the student body.
• Mayor John Cranley has suggested that maybe the streetcar will just run part time if voters, property owners along its route, or council members don’t find some way to pay for a projected $3.8 million shortfall in operating funds. Last week Cranley told 700 WLW’s Bill Cunningham, who is not really known to host reasonable conversations about public transit, that running the streetcar on reduced hours or select days, say when the Bengals or Reds play, could be an outcome of a funding shortfall.
Supporters say the money shouldn’t be hard to find, and that there are a number of options available. They also say that Cranley and other critics aren’t taking into account the expected upswing in economic activity the streetcar will bring.
Cranley said he was looking to property owners in OTR to get behind a special taxing district or $300-$400 residential parking permits that could make up some of that money. The thing is, the federal grant application the city filed to get the funds to build the streetcar stipulates that it will run seven days a week. Currently, the streetcar is slated to run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on weekends. Cranley has said there is nothing stipulating how frequently it must run, however.
“Remember there is no obligation that we have to run it on a certain level of frequency," Cranley said in the interview. "So if it doesn't end up having a lot of ridership we can reduce the rides on it.”
• Work will begin in the next couple weeks to gut the former SCPA building on Sycamore Street in Pendleton to turn it into 142 market-rate luxury apartments under the name Alumni Lofts. Core Redevelopment, the Indianapolis-based developer leading the project, recently contracted the interior demolition out to Erlanger, Ky., company Environmental Demolition Group. There will be some special challenges in redeveloping the former school including two pools on the fifth floor that will have to be removed without damaging the building’s walls and floors. The redevelopment is a part of big ongoing changes in Pendleton, which also include the construction of single-family homes in the neighborhood and other renovation projects for apartment buildings.
• Another big apartment project in a historic building is beginning to take shape in nearby Walnut Hills. Evanston-based Neyer Properties has purchased the historic 1920s-era former Baldwin Piano Company building on Gilbert Avenue for $17 million. Neyer has indicated it is looking to turn the building, which is currently office space, into 170-190 loft-style apartments.
• A suburban Detroit man who shot a woman on his front porch seeking help after a car accident was sentenced today to a minimum of 17 years in prison. Theodore Wafer of Dearborn Heights shot and killed Renisha McBride Nov. 2, 2013 as she stood on Wafer’s front porch. She had been banging on Wafer’s front door, seeking help after she hit a parked car and sustaining injuries hours earlier. Wafer, whose car had been vandalized a few weeks prior, said he thought his home was being invaded. He grabbed a shotgun and fired through his screen door, killing McBride. He called 911 afterward. Wafer stood trial and was found guilty of second-degree murder in August for the shooting. He claimed the shooting was self-defense.
• Finally, app-based rideshare company Uber has caused some controversy here in Cincinnati and across the country. Critics say the company skirts rules and regulations that cab companies usually have to follow. But the flak Uber has gotten here is nothing compared to Germany, where a court in Frankfurt just issued a temporary ban on the service that could hobble the company’s ability to operate across that country. The ban comes after a lawsuit by taxi companies alleging that Uber doesn’t have the necessary insurance and permits to operate in Germany.
