Friday, May 06, 2005

Fire Station segregation?

The facts as to how integrated the Cincinnati Fire Houses are is an open question. It is a bit of a loaded question as well too. When words like segregation and integration have traditionally be used to show that people were forced to segregate, as opposed to self segregation. If the fire houses are segregated one could argue logically that it is self-segregation. One could argue it is not and it is wrong. No one has yet claimed that blacks or whites are being forced into racially separate fire houses.

What I wonder is why is this a major issue for council to bring up? As the article points out it is Union contract time again, so I am sure that has something to do with it, but with recent fire coverage brownouts plaguing the city, wouldn't funding be better topic? It may be true that the way firefighters are assigned to units plays a part in the coverage, level, but as far as I know, that was not mentioned in the article.

What we got instead was a campaign salvo from Chris Smitherman:
Smitherman believes where and how Fire Department personnel are assigned is a policy decision that should be made by city administrators, not a contractual issue.

The city's negotiating team is discussing the topic in the latest contract talks, which began two weeks ago and should be completed by late this month.
So, City Council knows better when it comes to who should be stationed in what firehouse? Does Mike DeWine know best what Airman should be manning the gates at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?

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