Hello all. Here’s some quick news for you this morning.
Catching up a little, Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County Commissioners Monday signed commitments to a new 45-year agreement governing the region’s Metropolitan Sewer District. That agreement would create a five-member board to oversee MSD, with three members appointed by the county and two by the city. It would also make MSD employees county workers, but keep them in the city’s pension plan. The deal passed after some minor tweaks to stipulations about the board’s meetings — which will be held in public. Republican Commissioner Chris Monzel voted against the deal, saying the board was unaccountable to voters and that the city walks away with too much power in the deal.
• In the aftermath of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend, Cincinnati City Councilmembers will ask the Cincinnati Police Department to apply extra scrutiny to event permits coming from groups with white nationalist or racist ideologies. The Cincinnati branch of the NAACP suggested that CPD, which is responsible for vetting permit applications, check groups to see if their members have a history of violence. Councilmembers Yvette Simpson, Wendell Young and Chris Seelbach will hold a news conference at City Hall at 11:30 this morning to respond to that request and ask CPD for the extra scrutiny. That call comes after Ohio resident James Alex Fields Jr. was arrested and charged with driving his car into a group of anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville during last weekend’s Unite the Right event. Other Ohio residents were also at that event — underscoring our region’s active role in the growth of white supremacist ideologies.
• A white nationalist group led by former Greater Cincinnati resident Matthew Heimbach, who was also in Charlottesville last weekend, will rally in Lexington, Ky. soon to protest the removal of confederate memorials there, Heimbach says. After Charlottesville, municipalities across the country have taken steps to remove such memorials, including Baltimore, which took down statues dedicated to confederates last night.
• Cincinnati is suing three large prescription drug companies for their role in the toll the opiate epidemic has taken on the city. That move follows a lawsuit filed by the state of Ohio on similar grounds. Drug companies were partly responsible for a wave of over-prescription of opiate-derived pain killers last decade, state officials have argued, leading to increases in addiction.
• Well, FC Cincinnati fell to the New York Red Bulls last night, ending their hopes in the U.S. Open Cup. But Cincinnati is still a winner when it comes to soccer — and bigger things may be coming. The city has received an invitation to compete for the FIFA 2026 World Cup from the United Bid Committee of the United States, Mexico and Canada. Officials have asked Cincinnati to send more information if it would like to be considered. It’s the first step toward scoring the huge event, or smaller, but also prestigious, World Cup-related events. Paul Brown Stadium would be the city’s venue if it were to win a bid. The city must declare its interest by Sept. 5 to make it to the next round, when the bid committee will present FIFA with 20 to 25 potential venues.
• Speaking of soccer, an anti-stadium tax group is asking Major League Soccer to reconsider its rule requiring franchise teams have their own dedicated stadiums. That rule could hamstring a bid to join MLS by FC Cincinnati, which currently plays at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium. FC has made motions toward asking for a taxpayer match on $100 million in private investment toward a new stadium — something city and county officials, as well as grassroots group No More Stadium Taxes, have taken a dim view on.
“MLS should welcome successful venues like Nippert that attract far more fans than their own soccer specific stadiums,” No More Stadium Taxes Board Member and North College Hill Councilman Matt Wahlert wrote in a news release. “While MLS has full control over their admission standards, they have no control over Hamilton County tax dollars. Hamilton County has much bigger needs than subsidizing a new soccer stadium for billionaires, especially when we already have at least one fantastic soccer stadium.”
• After residents of Loveland launched a tumultuous recall effort against him, the city’s mayor Mark Fitzgerald stepped down Monday night. His resignation comes after months of political battles in Loveland. Fitzgerald will be replaced on an interim basis by Vice Mayor Angie Settell.
• Mariemont has temporarily banned the public from trails near where Native American and other historic sites were damaged by mountain bikers. The village has enlisted the help of Native American elders, state government officials, trail experts and scientists to ascertain what happened to those sites, how to protect them and whether to re-route the trail before eventually reopening it to the public.
This article appears in Aug 16-23, 2017.