Hey all! We’re just two days away from an end to the ceaseless campaign ads, yard signs, life-size cardboard cutouts, mailers and other political spam candidates have hurled our way for months now. That’s exciting. To celebrate, maybe go out and vote if you haven’t already.
Speaking of voting, early voter turnout in Ohio has been especially low in this election so far — 40 percent lower than 2010, the last mid-term election. No one really agrees why, by the fact that Ohio has seven fewer early voting days this year can’t have helped the dynamic. Democrats say the reductions have limited the ability of low-income and minority voters to get to the polls. Republicans point out that Ohio still has more early voting days than many states. Some, like Kentucky, don’t have any.
• For months, a fight has been brewing around the iconic and dilapidated Davis Furniture building, which is on Main Street near the intersection with Central Parkway. Today may be a decisive one in that fight as the city’s Historic Conservation Board votes on the building’s fate. The building is something of a landmark, with that weird guy dropping a bowling ball on some mattresses welcoming visitors into OTR’s arts corridor. The Stough Group, a local developer that owns the Hanke Building and others across the street, bought the building earlier this year and promptly applied for permits to tear it down. That caused protest among historic preservation advocates and a six-month delay by the preservation board as alternatives were researched. Stough says the building is too far gone to preserve in a cost-effective manner. Preservation advocates point out that other groups aiming to save the building, including 3CDC, have tried to purchase it so they can fix it up. The conservation board meets at 3 p.m. to vote on Stough’s demolition application.
• Four of the five clocks that once adorned the long-lost globe mural over Union Terminal’s now demolished concourse have recently resurfaced. The clocks marked time across the U.S. for passengers on cross-country train journeys boarding trains from the concourse at the rear section of the terminal. By 1974, those trains had stopped coming, and the concourse was seen as an antiquated liability. It, along with the enormous 16-foot high, 70-foot-long mosaic, were torn down that year.
And as far as anyone knew until recently, that was the end of the story. Other murals depicting the history of industry in Cincinnati were saved and moved to CVG International Airport, but the largest and most ornate of them ended up in the landfill. The terminal itself eventually became the Cincinnati Museum Center. But now, the clocks have surfaced again from the warehouse they’ve been resting in for 40 years. And the owner, whose father owned the rigging company that helped tear down the building, is looking to find a good place for them. Let’s hope these timepieces find their way back to their original home.
• A local mega-corporation is caught up in an international tax fight. P&G is temporarily barred from doing business in Argentina, which has accused the Cincinnati-based company of tax fraud over $138 million in imports from Brazil that went through a Swiss-based P&G subsidiary. The country has experienced a rocky financial road over the past decade plus, including two defaults on international debts.
• A gun group started by two Indiana women for women looking to pick up weapons in self-defense has skyrocketed in popularity, drawing hundreds of calls and steadily increasing membership. Women Armed and Ready started five months ago in Aurora, Indiana. Since that time, the group has opened up a second chapter in Batesville and looks to branch out nationally. The group, which offers gun safety and self-defense training, has received attention from national gun groups and will be featured in the National Rifle Association’s All Access TV program, which runs on the Outdoors Channel. They’re also set to appear in gun-themed magazines and other publications.
• Home ownership rates across the United States are at the lowest levels they’ve been in nearly two decades, driven by the lingering 2008 housing crisis, generational shifts in living patterns and other factors. It’s easy to find the trend in Ohio cities, and now Columbus is considering ways to address the shift. The city is mulling programs that could provide grants or low-interest loans for landlords who want to upgrade properties or renovate vacant ones for housing. The city is also looking at ways to continue to incentivize home ownership.
• Finally, to put into the “freedom of the press isn’t free” file, it’s come out that airspace restrictions requested by law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo. were put in place mostly to restrict media coverage of the massive protests happening over the Aug. 5 death of 18-year-old Mike Brown. Recorded conversations between law enforcement officials make it clear that the number one concern for those officials was restricting press helicopters and other aircraft, and that safety was at best a secondary concern. If you think that sounds like some conspiracy theory stuff, I agree. But this is the Associated Press reporting this, so yeah. Disturbing.
