[WINNER]
MT. AIRY FOREST
: One of Cincinnati’s unique treasures is celebrating a major anniversary this year. Mount Airy Forest, the 1,471-acre park and nature preserve on the city’s northwest edge, was established 100 years ago. The Park Board commemorated the event earlier this month with a day-long event that included songs, storytelling and historical reenactments. Mount Airy Forest is the largest park in Cincinnati’s park system and provides an urban oasis for residents. It includes natural areas, planned landscapes, hiking trails, bridle paths, walls, gardens and pedestrian bridges. The park is believed to be the first urban reforestation project in the United States and includes structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
[LOSER]
FOP
: They say politics make for strange bedfellows, but we suspect all sides in this incident will be doing the walk of shame after November’s elections. The Fraternal Order of Police recently decided upon its City Council endorsements. Among the seven candidates endorsed was local NAACP President Christopher Smitherman. During Chrissy’s last term on council, in 2003-05, the FOP declared him an enemy for what it perceived to be his “anti-police” positions including criticizing the department’s abuse of overtime and his claim the command staff was dominated by Elder High School graduates. Nevertheless, the FOP likes Smitherman’s stance against the city’s streetcar project and the fact that he’s pledged not to lay off any officers. Mark our words: If Smitherman isn’t elected, the union will kick him to the curb quickly.
[WINNER]
MIAMI UNIVERSITY
: The marching band from the Oxford, Ohio, university was selected this year to join the line-up of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Miami is one of 10 bands chosen from more than 150 applicants nationwide. Parade organizers say the band’s superior musical ability, marching and performance skills won them a slot in the parade, which will be held on Nov. 24 in Manhattan. The Macy’s Parade takes more than a year to plan with bands chosen by a special committee over an 18-month period. With more than 50 million TV viewers across the nation and more than 3.5 million spectators that line up along the route each year, the parade marches down a more than two-mile route in New York with roughly 8,000 participants in tow. Go RedHawks!
[LOSER]
MONZEL & HARTMANN
: Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot. The two Republicans on the Hamilton County Commission, Chris Monzel and Greg Hartmann, played pure politics with a recent vote involving the Metropolitan Sewer District. The pair pandered to conservatives by voting to stop MSD from spending money to upgrade sewers while certain streets are torn up to install track for the city’s planned streetcar system. The GOP is hot to stop the project, but this decision will have no impact on it — although it will end up costing taxpayers more in the long-run. That’s because the city is paying the cost to install the track. MSD merely wanted to repair or replace century-old sewer lines while the work was underway, meaning less construction headaches. Oh, well: The county can just dig up the streets again later.
