Hey all. It’s been a busy 24 hours in Cincinnati. Here’s what’s happened.
• Council also approved $315,000 in planning funding for a proposed bridge between South Cumminsville and Central Parkway near Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Currently, an exit from I-74 serves as a gateway between the neighborhood and the college, but it’s being removed as the Ohio Department of Transportation continues its revamp of the I-75 corridor. The proposed bridge has been controversial, and some council members argued it’s unnecessary as bigger infrastructure needs like the Western Hills Viaduct loom. The viaduct, which will need replacement in the next decade, will cost hundreds of millions to fix. Mayor John Cranley, who supports the so-called Elmore Street Bridge in South Cumminsville, says the viaduct replacement is a separate matter that will hinge heavily on state funding, and that the Elmore Bridge will provide much-needed economic benefits to the neighborhoods it serves.
• Council didn’t talk about it in their meeting yesterday, but shortly afterward, city administration dropped a minor bombshell about Cincinnati’s streetcar. Per a memo from City Manager Harry Black, the city will pay $500,000 less than expected for the five streetcars it purchased from CAF USA, the company that constructed them. That’s because some of the cars were delivered late. The cars were supposed to be in the city’s hands by December last year, but the last one wasn’t delivered until earlier this month. The late deliveries didn’t cause any delays in implementation of the transit project, but a clause in the contract between CAF and the city stipulates the financial penalty for late delivery. The city will withhold the money from its payments to CAF.
• The Greater Cincinnati area’s largest construction company is moving its headquarters from Bond Hill to the West End after Cincinnati City Council yesterday approved a land deal with Messer Construction. The company will get land at 930 Cutter St. from the city for $2 to build its new $12.5 million headquarters, which will house more than 115 employees. Mayor John Cranley said the deal was an incentive to keep Messer here, and calls it a “huge win” for the city. Messer has said that they were attracted to the location because it’s close to redevelopment happening in downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
• Meanwhile, Hamilton County Commissioners yesterday voted to move the Hamilton County Board of Elections headquarters from Broadway Avenue in downtown Cincinnati to Norwood. Voting access advocates have decried this move, saying it will make the BOE harder to get to for many in the county and that the HQ should stay centrally located downtown. Supporters of the move, including board of elections members like Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Tim Burke, say the Norwood location will be more central for everyone in the county. Both the four-member board of elections and three-member county commission unanimously approved the move. The move won’t happen until after the 2016 election cycle.
• Here’s an interesting piece about the increasing amount Cincinnati Public Schools spends on advertising to try and compete with the area’s 50 or so charter schools. CPS spent more than $123,000 on billboard, radio and TV ads aimed at parents of children in the district. Next year, that looks to increase to $345,000. CPS loses hundreds of thousands of dollars to charters every year, though that loss has been decreasing recently. The marketing expenditures are somewhat in line with other large urban school districts in Ohio, though far less than suburban schools nearby, many of which have little to worry about in terms of competing with charters.
• Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Ohio over recently passed legislation seeking to strip state and some federal funds from the women’s healthcare provider. Conservative lawmakers cite the fact that Planned Parenthood provides abortions as the reason for the move, though the funds being kept from the organization go to health screenings and sex education, not abortions. In its suit, Planned Parenthood claims the law, which will go into effect later this month, is an illegal attempt to penalize it for providing abortions.
• Breaking news: there’s drama in the GOP. Well, ok, you probably already knew that, but anyway. The hangover from the party’s presidential primary is still on the horizon for a lot of Republicans, and one of them could be Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel. As a statewide GOPer, Mandel was expected to line up behind Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s presidential bid. But instead, Mandel endorsed Rubio, tweaking Kasich’s nose several times in the process. Those snubs included predicting that Kasich would leave the race quickly and voting for Rubio in the Ohio GOP primary. Mandel has made moves to court the hardline conservatives in his party, whose support he will surely need, according to this Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed, since the Kasich wing of the Ohio GOP now has him squarely in their crosshairs.
