Hey hey Cincinnati. It’s gorgeous, it’s Friday, it’s spring, so let’s get this news thing over with quickly.
Let’s play good news, bad news, shall we? First, a new ranking puts Cincinnati as the top city in the country for recent college grads when it comes to jobs. That ranking from ZipRecruiter.com, a job-searching site, considered job availability, number of young folks in a city, affordability and a number of other measures when putting together its list. Good news, it would seem.
• Bad news: A program that provides low-cost or free bus fare for the city’s lowest income residents is in danger of disappearing, possibly exacerbating Cincinnati’s already difficult transit situation. Everybody Rides Metro works with 100 social service providers in the area to make sure some 30,000 low-income folks have access to transit so they can get to jobs and other important places. But the nonprofit is facing the loss of $200,000 a year from the federal government, a big chunk of its budget.
• Are you ready for the election? In 2017? Local political players are already gearing up for what is sure to be an intense contest as both Council and mayoral elections jump off. Mayor John Cranley is preparing by… going to Columbus. Cranley made the trip to the capital last week for a Democratic fundraiser for his reelection campaign. “I have to prepare to defend myself,” the mayor told media after the event. Cranley’s had a tough year, with the resounding defeat of a parks ballot initiative he went all-in on, the tumultuous dismissal of Cincinnati Police Department Chief Jeffrey Blackwell and other rocky events over the past 365 days. Cranley doesn’t have any confirmed primary or general election opponents yet, though Councilwoman Yvette Simpson’s name has been floated as a possible challenger.
• Speaking of the mayor of Cincinnati, a major TV show threw a diss our way yesterday. The season finale of Scandal, a political drama that kinda makes hyper-unrealistic House of Cards look like a documentary, got a low blow in during a particularly dramatic moment. The plot points are complicated, but basically, a fictional former GOP president is throwing support behind his ex-wife, the current GOP nominee, after passing on an endorsement in the primary. As he does, though, he tells her he doesn’t get any respect, saying, “You’re treating me like an unpopular, first-term mayor of Cincinnati, Mellie.”
Some folks have wondered whether this is a Cranley putdown, but that seems incredibly unlikely. Most viewers of a overheated political soap opera are unlikely to to be aware of a medium-sized city’s mayor, especially one who hasn’t been embroiled in any national controversy. A slightly more likely, but still remote possibility: The line is a crack on former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer, who, well, you know. The most likely possibility, however, is that Cincinnati here is used as shorthand for “unimportant Midwestern city.” It’s a name people know, but don’t really know anything about. It’s in Ohio, perennially the punchline for flyover country jokes (you could fill a book with the slights Cleveland has received in pop culture in the last decade). So, clever joke about our mayor, or lazy joke about our city? I’m betting on the latter.
• The U.S. Department of Education has instructed public schools that they must allow transgender students to use the bathrooms corresponding with their expressed gender identities. Bathroom rights for transgender people have been a big issue since North Carolina passed a law restricting access to bathrooms for transgender people, who the state says need to use restrooms corresponding to their physical sex, not to the gender identity they express. The Department of Education says that such laws, and similar rules created in schools, violate Title IX, the federal government’s anti-sex discrimination law.
• Finally, I’ve already taken you ahead to the 2017 election. Let’s press onward to 2018! Why not? God knows this year isn’t providing enough excitement and stress for us all. Anyway, Ohio’s gubernatorial race two years from now may already be lining up, with popular former Democratic state lawmaker Connie Pillich making motions like she’s going to run. Pillich won’t confirm the rumors herself, but many state party officials say she’s considering it. She’s also stacked a large amount of cash — nearly $150,000 — in her campaign fund, even though she doesn’t face reelection this year. Pillich ran for State Treasurer in 2014, but lost to GOPer Josh Mandel during a very, very tough year for state Democrats. Pillich, from Cincinnati, polled a full 10 points ahead of the Democrat gubernatorial candidate that year. The 55-year-old Air Force veteran says she’s focused on aiding Democrats in the 2016 presidential and down-ballot races, but it’s never too early to save for future projects, eh?
This article appears in May 11-18, 2016.