Good morning, Cincy. I hope you’re navigating the winter weather OK. I took the bus to work and the driver of my Route 43 bus handled the icy roads like a champ. Thanks for the ride, my man.
Anyway, here’s some news for you.
Let’s think back wistfully to January, when it looked like Cincinnati City Council might actually become something other than the dysfunctional swamp of petty arguments it usually is. Remember? Savor that, because it’s gone.
Monday, five members of council were absent from or left a Budget and Finance Committee meeting where, among other important items, council was to consider a motion about ways to ensure West End residents benefit from a potential FC Cincinnati stadium there. The committee couldn’t vote on anything, however, because they didn’t have quorum.
More than half of council didn’t show up or finish out the meeting. Three members were absent or left the council meeting early before votes could happen for reasons that are unclear.
Two others, Jeff Pastor and Amy Murray, missed it to appear at President Donald Trump’s speech in Blue Ash. On the one hand, appearing next to the president is a momentous chance and a duty you probably take on when you become a candidate for a political party. On the other, Trump literally called his political opponents “treasonous” for not clapping for him during his State of the Union address, undemocratic sentiments both Pastor and Murray later had to distance themselves from.
So yeah, all that’s not great inasmuch as it’s not at all conducive to doing the city’s business — the job voters hired council members for — and addressing our transit woes, all the ever-changing details around FC Cincinnati’s stadium, the fact that businesses are leaving the area around Fountain Square downtown, the city’s affordable housing crunch and overall poverty issues, crime and so forth.
Ah, and then things descended to middle school playground fight levels. Councilman Chris Seelbach, a Democrat, called out Murray and Pastor in multiple tweets as the reasons the committee didn’t have quorum, despite the fact that three other council members, including Democrats, were also absent. Pastor fired back with his own tweets calling Seelbach a racist hipster, because that’s the kind of substantive political discourse that will solve the city’s problems. Back to business as usual in Cincinnati!
• As we reported last month, a federal court recently upheld the city’s responsible bidder ordinance, which requires that contractors working on Greater Cincinnati Water Works and other projects have training and apprenticeship programs. But City Manager Harry Black sent a memo yesterday to City Council warning about “adverse unintended consequences” for that rule and another stipulating that contractors hire locally, saying the regulations could impact the city’s efforts to expand the number of women and minority-owned firms it contracts with. Black claims that, had the rules been in place last year, the city would have seen roughly 93 percent fewer contracts going to women-owned or minority-owned businesses. Mayor John Cranley, who hired Black, has opposed the responsible bidder rules, and non-union contractors with the city challenged the ordinance in a series of lawsuits. Councilman Chris Seelbach, who has championed the rules, say they require the expenditure of city money to go toward contractors who invest in programs that give the region’s workforce better opportunities.
• Hamilton County Clerk of Courts and Democrat congressional candidate Aftab Pureval, along with his fiancee, have filed a police report saying they’ve been stalked at their former Hyde Park home (they have moved as of Feb. 1). The report states that unnamed “suspects” have been sitting in cars outside Pureval’s house and banging on his doors in attempts to photograph him and his fiancee since Jan. 29. Campaign officials for U.S. Rep Steve Chabot, who Pureval is challenging, admit to sending volunteers to his house Feb. 1 to see if he still lived there — the residency is outside Chabot’s district, something the Republican looks to make a campaign issue — but deny the volunteers did anything like what is mentioned in the report.
• Downtown denizens should grab any jewelry they need now because soon you won’t be able to get diamonds or something after you hit up the Fountain Square Graeter’s. (Is this what rich folks do on dates? I dunno. I’m not rich and I don’t really go on dates.) As I alluded to above, another anchor tenant, Tiffany’s, is leaving the Fountain Place building across from downtown’s Fountain Square. The news of Tiffany’s departure to Kenwood Towne Centre comes a month after Cincinnati-based department store giant Macy’s announced it was shuttering its downtown store, which is in the same building as Tiffany’s.
• Here’s some good news, though: Findlay Market officials are considering expanding the Over-the-Rhine landmark’s hours for its weekend Biergarten. The market may also soon feature more music, themed programming and other attractions, a response to the increase in businesses and residential space opening up around the market. Probably still won’t have a Tiffany’s though.
• Another day, another report of a racist incident at a local high school. This time, it’s at Elder, where students chanted racist and homophobic slurs during a basketball game against St. Xavier High School. Those chants, leveled by Elder students against the opposing team, continued well into the third quarter, witnesses say, and even targeted St. Xavier’s coach.
“Elder High School sincerely apologizes for the remarks made by its student section and for the severe lack of respect displayed by its students toward the St. Xavier basketball team, its coaching staff, the opposing student section, and all the fans, family members, and alumni of both schools,” reads a statement from Elder High School Principal Kurt Ruffing promising internal disciplinary action and educational efforts. “This type of behavior is not condoned at Elder, nor is it indicative of the lessons taught and learned in our classrooms, hallways, and on our fields of play, and it will not be tolerated. We promise to do better in order to reestablish your trust in us as we continue committing ourselves to preparing our students for life after high school.”
• Here’s an awful story about sexual harassment uncovered by investigators at the University of Cincinnati. Bradley Garner, a flutist with an international reputation who taught at the College-Conservatory of Music for nearly a quarter of a century, engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual conduct with students, according to investigations by school officials. Garner resigned in 2016 after a UC official suggested he be fired. Multiple female accusers say Garner made lewd comments to them, attempted sexual contact with them or engaged in sexual relationships with them. Garner denies the charges and says he left UC because investigators weren’t giving him fair due process.
• Two Ohio abortion clinics could face closure after the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of restrictions passed by the Ohio legislature. One clinic, in Toledo, has a legally required transfer agreement with a hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. 50 miles away. The state, and now the court, says that’s not good enough, as state law says the hospital must be within 30 miles of the clinic. Another clinic in Cleveland may also have to close after the court yesterday ruled that it doesn’t have standing to challenge the state’s restrictions. The Ohio legislature has passed increasingly tighter restrictions on clinics. First, lawmakers required clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in case of emergency. Then, in 2013, the state went further, prohibiting publicly funded hospitals from entering into those agreements. The laws have led to the closure of a number of clinics — the state went from 16 to eight over the last few years, and remaining clinics are now scrambling to comply with the state’s rules.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 7, 2018.