Afternoon, y’all. I hope you’re enjoying the amazing fall weather as much as I am. My morning bike ride down Sycamore to the office was brutally, eye-wateringly cold refreshingly brisk and left me 100-percent awake. Which is good, because this morning has been all hustle preparing for all the great stuff in the coming week's print issue. Anyway, here’s the news a bit later than usual.
City Manager Harry Black has little to say about Sunday’s proposal from Mahogany’s on The Banks owner Liz Rogers other than, “no, thanks.” The proposal, which read a little bit like a threat, promised no protests and no lawsuits if the city forgave a $300,000 loan Mahogany’s owes and sold Rogers the furniture and equipment from the restaurant (which the city owns as collateral) for $12,000. Vice Mayor David Mann and a few other council members, including P.G. Sittenfeld, Kevin Flynn and Christopher Smitherman have said they are very much not inclined to go along with that proposal, while Councilman Wendell Young has been the only member so far expressing openness to a possible deal. The rest deferred to the city administration. Black declined to comment further on the matter, citing the possibility of future litigation regarding the restaurant.
• Here’s something to put in the “surprise, I’m not surprised” file: Councilman Charlie Winburn said yesterday that the GOP pressured him to not support the Anna Louise Inn, a women’s shelter formerly located downtown and currently moving to Mount Auburn. Winburn is running for State Senate, and has been working his way to the left to try and scoop up some more votes against his Democratic opponent Cecil Thomas. Winburn, a Republican, voted Monday at a budget and finance committee meeting to sell city land for $1 to the shelter's new location, despite pressure from his party not to.
“I bucked the Republican Party and supported the Anna Louise Inn when I got pressure from my party to not to support this initiative for women,” he said at the meeting.
The Inn lost a protracted battle to stay at its location near Lytle Park downtown. Western and Southern had been working to buy the property, which Anna Louise operators Cincinnati Union Bethel were hoping to renovate and expand. The company won out after continued lawsuits around the Inn’s status as a shelter. Western and Southern has plans to convert the century-old shelter into a luxury hotel.
• Was it a losing gamble? Casinos in Ohio have delivered only about two thirds of the permanent jobs promised to the state during a 2009 campaign urging voters to approve them. Though the industry has come through, for the most part, on the 9,700 temporary construction jobs that built casinos across the state, including Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino, those locations have yet to create a promised 7,500 permanent positions five years later, instead employing just 4,800 employees statewide. Casino officials say that’s because Ohio also legalized electronic slots at horse racing tracks, creating so-called “racinos” and cutting into casinos’ bottom lines. They also say that they’re still “reasonably close” to the promises they made to entice Ohio voters to approve casinos. Locally, Horseshoe Casino has lost nearly 400 jobs since opening a year and a half ago, though regionally the gambling industry in Greater Cincinnati still employs about 5,600 people.
• Cincinnati-based Macy’s Department Stores will be among the first companies to use the just-announced Apple Pay system, which lets iPhone 6 owners use their phones like credit cards. Apple Pay will use thumbprint recognition for security and allow users to simply wave their phone in front of a sensor to pay for purchases. I can’t decide if this is horrible or convenient, or, if like many things in the modern economy, it’s actually both at once. Regardless, I’ve already started practicing a smooth, continuous motion where I have my phone in front of my face for texting, then do the swipe thing to pay for donuts or what have you, and then immediately move the device back to my face to resume texting.
• County elections boards across the state are gearing up to begin early voting on Sept. 30 even as Secretary of State Jon Husted fights with federal courts to roll back the number of early voting days in Ohio. Husted and the state GOP have passed laws eliminating a number of early voting days in the name of making voting uniform across the state. Federal courts have struck down those laws as unconstitutional, though Husted has appealed those decisions. Early voting begins in two weeks, and instead of just letting the matter rest for the year and keeping the voting situation stable, Husted is hoping to get a decision soon allowing the GOP to roll back voting again. The reasoning? Federal rulings allowing counties leeway to set additional early voting hours could create “confusion among the electorate,” Husted says. Because, you know, constantly fighting to reduce the number of days people have to vote two weeks before voting is to start isn’t confusing at all.
• Urban Outfitters has once again set eyes rolling across the country with a shirt that seems to play off the 1970 Kent State University shootings. The one-off sweatshirt featured holes and what looked like bloodstains and was retailing for $129 before being yanked from the company’s website after controversy. The store has said it didn’t intend to evoke one of the most famous protest tragedies in history, during which four people died at the hands of National Guard troops. It’s yet another tone-deaf move for the hipster megastore, which is ironically led by conservative mega-donor and gay marriage opponent Richard Hayne. “But their novelty whiskey flasks are so totes adorbs,” you say. I know, I know. I feel betrayed as well.
