Chaos in Covington?

Not really chaos, but a political infighting among MainStrasse businesses. Is it the bars vs. retail?

Sleep is the Enemy: An Open Thread

In the spirit of Christmas so elequently alluded to in the threads by Joe Wessels and by our friends and neighbors throughout our city, accept this open thread.

Be nice.

Miami: Still #2

We love to satisfy our readers wishes. Per the comment threads below asking for more Miami coverage, we offer this link: Miami is, in fact, still number 2. Insert fight song here.

No jokes about the headline, please. We intend to keep it clean in the absence of Mr. Griffin.

Enquirer: Unite to Defeat Snow Monster

The Enquirer included a lengthy editorial about how we need to plan better for the next snowstorm. Is it just us or is this weirdly late and overkill considering the huge set of editorials that ran on Friday?

This line from Friday struck us as particularly curious:

While it seems frankly silly in an urban area that has snowplows equipped with global positioning transmitters and grocery stores overflowing with food, the instinct itself has served mankind well down through the ages.

We don't know. Maybe it's entirely rational for people to hoard food so they don't have to go out for more later, considering that they may have spent five hours sitting in traffic in a relatively minor snowstorm.

Where to place the blame? Why not just blame everyone?

Commuters stuck in Thursday's rush-hour havoc wrote e-mails to The Enquirer blaming just about everyone for the traffic jams that stretched from Southwest Ohio suburbs south to downtown Cincinnati and into Northern Kentucky.

But there's no mention of Bart Giamatti? He has to be responsible, too, after what he did to Pete.

Actually, here's the interesting point:

After last year's record-breaking snowstorm, which dumped 15 inches on the city just before Christmas, the city of Cincinnati set realistic expectations: For an average storm of 3 inches and temperatures no lower than 25 degrees, residents should expect all primary routes cleared within 24 hours, and residential streets plowed within 36 hours.

So, what's the expected target with this storm? It's clear that this response time wasn't met.

Oh, no. We're complaining about the snow. We're such sterotypical Cincinnatians.

So, This Is What We've Been Missing...

Yes, Cincinnati, there is NFL football played in December, and what fun it is. We haven't watched this much football in years.

This is the promised update on the playoff chase. (NFL tiebreaker rules are pretty easy to figure out. If you took calculus in high school.) As always, Division winners get top seeds, and the Division ties are always broken first.

Division Leaders
1. Indianapolis. 13-0. Conf. 11-0. Assured of the #1 seed and home field as long as they stay in.
2. Denver. 10-3. Div: 3-1. Conf: 7-2. (Thanks, Baltimore.) Denver beats the Bengals on tie-breakers and control their own destiny. The tie-break is conference records. This is critical, #2 gets a bye in the playoffs.
3. Cincinnati. 10-3, Div: 5-1, Conf: 6-3. One more win clinches the division and a home game in Cincinnati.
4. New England. 8-5. Div: 4-0. Conf: 6-4. Bengals have a two game lead.

Wildcards
5. Jacksonville. 9-4, Conf: 7-3. They can't win their division, but they're up a game for the wildcard.
6. Pittsburgh. 8-5. Conf: 6-5. It gets confusing here. In a three-way tie for the wildcard, you eliminate all but the top teams from each division using the Division tiebreaker. San Diego wins the AFC West tiebreaker since they are up 1-0 on KC. Pittsburgh then beats San Diego on head-to-head play (1-0). Here's where it gets weird. If KC and Pittsburgh both win out, they'll be 11-5. KC would move ahead of San Diego in the process, since they play each other (SD could be 10-6 at best in this scenario), and then KC wins the tiebreaker with Pittsburgh based on Conference record.

Outside Looking In
7. San Diego. 8-5. Div 3-1. Conf: 6-3. Denver has a two-game lead on SD and KC, but either can win the division with help. Also, SD can win the wild card with help.
8. KC. 8-5. Div 3-2. Conf: 7-3. In eighth, but it appears that they control their own playoff destiny. Go figure.

Way Outside Chance
9. Miami. 6-7. Div: 1-3. Conf: 4-5. They can still win their division, under much the same criteria as Pittsburgh. Might not be eliminated from wildcard race. (But we didn't figure it out since there's too much number crunching for something so unlikely. Check back next week if you care that much.

No one else can get in. It will take at least 9 wins to get in, probably 10, and no one else can do that.

Mayor: Buck Stops Here

Yep, the mayor said it or something close.

Enquirer: "So who's the person that pulls all of that together?"

Mallory: "OK. That's going to be me. Let me be real clear about this. It's going to be me. Because a lot of what I'm hearing around the table is, it's basically a commitment to the same conversation that I have been having over the last several months. It's about each entity, each person having to do their part. It obviously takes a person to coordinate that. It takes a person to send the message that it's what has to happen. I have said consistently each of us has a responsibility. Each of us has a role to play."

Like it or not, this is going to be the issue upon which Mayor Mallory will be judged.

In the print Enquirer, they run a huge package on gun violence issues. You can find all the related stories in the link above, just look at the right of the page. (This is one way that print is still superior to the Web: big packages are easier to lay out in print.)

The redacted version: gun violence is way up (duh) and we need a multi-faceted approach to solve it (duh, duh). All right. No more snark.

Some observations:
1. It's probably a sign of how good ER is in this town that they number of shootings is way up and the murder rate is not climbing at the same rate. That's just a guess, and we'd love to see some support for that.
2. They talk a little bit about a new jail, but that's not a big part of the article. Are we keeping shooters off the street? Or are we limited by the jail limits? Aren't most violent criminals in the state prison system? What about drug treatment? Are those enough questions about jails?
3. Also, drug-related violence is a big part of the shootings problem. But, this statement seems to make people feel better about their chances without addressing the whole problem. It's not as though innocent bystanders don't get shot. So, communities with drug problems have huge problems. So, if that's the case...
4. Why aren't communities more involved? Give Mayor Mallory credit for calling out lack of community involvement. But is it fear of police, a community-wide us-against-them mentality? What's going on?
5. Just look at the clusters. We don't have anything else to say about that.

Bengals Beat Browns: 23-20

With Mr. Griffin under the weather, I'll post some good news. The Bengals have almost assured themselves of a playoff spot with the defeat of the Browns.

It was a lot harder than it should have been, but the Bengals have really helped themselves immensely with this win. The only way that Pittsburgh can win the division is to win all three remaining games and to have the Bengals lose all remaining games. The reason: Bengals have the tie-breaker against Pittsburgh (tied head-to-head, Bengals lead in Division play 5-1 vs. 3-2, with no way for Pittsburgh to surpass 5-1). So, the Bengals are in if they win any of their remaining games: at Detroit, vs. Buffalo, at KC. Pittsburgh is in trouble for reasons we'll see in a minute.

Here are the seeds right now. (Many games are on TV right now, so I'll update later tonight.) Seeds 3 and 4 host the wildcard games. Seeds 1 and 2 host the second round. The top remaining seed hosts the AFC championship.

Division Leaders
1. Indianapolis. 13-0. Having lost to them, the Bengals can't pass them. Denver can't either. They won their division, and they're the #1 seed.
2. Denver. 9-3, Div: 3-1, Conf: 6-2. (They're on TV right now.) There's a log-jam in this division, and we'll know a lot more based on today's games.
3. Cincinnati. 10-3, Div: 5-1, Conf: 6-3. At 4:30 p.m., Denver beats the Bengals on tie-breakers and control their own destiny. The tie-break is conference games, so the Bengals can pass them on this, depending on how the rest plays out.
4. New England. 8-5. Conf: 6-4. Bengals have a two game lead. Also, the Bengals win the tie-breaker right now, based on conference records.

Wildcards
(Top 2 make it.)

5. Jacksonville. 9-4, Conf: 7-3. They can't win the division, but they're in good shape for the wildcard.
6/7. San Diego/KC. 8-4. These two are playing right now, so I'm not going to right all this out. I'll update after their games. Either can win their division--we'll look at that tonight.
8. Pittsburgh. 8-5. They can get in by winning the division over Cincinnati (doubtful), or by winning out and getting some help.

That's enough for now. Check back later, and we'll update the results and standings.

Merry Hypocrit

I have been watching conservative Christians walk around with their panties firmly in a wad over everyone not complying with their religion. Well I firmly say Happy Winter Solstice to them!

I say shame on some of them right here in Cincinnati who are nothing but hypocrits:

"There's a national frustration," Giroux said. "Christians have kind of felt empowered to take back Christmas for Christ."

These locals folks are selling bracelets that read: "Just say 'Merry Christmas.'" These bracelets cost $2 each. So I wonder what the profit margin is on spreading the word of Jesus. 50% markup maybe? We can’t exploit Christmas on anything less than 40%.

Snow Stories?

It took me almost two hours to get home last night from Mason. Hamilton County was good by the time I got there. Mason and the local township were horrible when I left work around 7:15PM. I had to wait that long because the roads were so backed up, that no one could leave the parking lot.

Looking Ahead

Mark the Twain for the tourists! Tall Stacks is reporting that more than 40% of the 50,000 cruise tickets already sold for next year's Tall Stacks are from "outside the Cincinnati area." They don't define that, but I will interpret that as meaning outside the Metro Area, at least. This is more great news for Downtown. We should have a completed Fountain Square to show off to these tourists and their wonderful money. I for one wish to welcome them at this early point. I hope they come for the weekend and enjoy Tall Stacks and the rest of the City.

Chiquita Staying

Why they are staying is not reported, but this is great news for Downtown, the City, and region.

White Death Hits the Blogosphere

You know blogging has either reached a peak or jumped the shark when we get a "SNOWBLOG" from WCPO.

City Council Rules

Council has adopted new rules. The key passage concerning citizen speakers:

There's no change in the rules on when citizens may speak.

Cole and Crowley were grumbling about the process. The meeting reportedly ran smoothly, and quickly. Is that because of the new rules, because Reece and Smitherman are gone, or because Mallory has the reins?

Creative Dems

Kudos for National Dems for not letting a Republican run company from halting their political action. Schmidt must go!

Oh, also when you think Lamar is not Republican run, why was this billboard allowed to go up and not the anti-Schmidt one?

Voter ID Proposal

Of those who are pushing to require ID to vote, who is against either a National ID card and more importantly automatic voter registration when you get your driver's license or state ID? If they are, then it is clear they are all about keeping certain voters from voting.

Automatic registration would work wonderfully. You would be forced to ask to not be registered to vote, kind of negative registration. Additionally, you would be allowed to vote where you are registered inside the state, if you have your ID. This would increase the registration rolls and any fraud could be easily traced via the state BMV database. Adding this type of provision is the only fair way to use ID in the voting process. Without it and it is unfair.

It is clearly an attempt by the GOP to keep poor people and more importantly minorities from voting. It is a GOP tactic to reduce voting. The CW is that the lower the turnout, the better the GOP does. It is very sad that the GOP is forced to do this, but no surprising. What I want to know, how many voter fraud cases have been prosecuted in the last year? How much evidence of fraud exists? If it exists now, why is it not prosecuted? The likely reason is that there are "things" happening that no one wants to prosecute, because some of their friends my get fined and kicked out of politics. Those instances are more of a wife' tale, but it is great way for the GOP to hit the Democratic base via the back door of race/nationality, without having to overtly appear to be bigoted.

More Banks Fallout

The Enquirer hits the Banks story hard. They add in an editorial and Borgman Cartoon.

The deal appears to the media to be deader than Mike Allen's political career.

Bronson?

This column appears to be written by Peter Bronson. It is recycled information, which sounds like Bronson, but it generally has a positive tone about the city, so one must wonder who actually wrote this column.

MIAMI Hockey #2

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

RedHawks jump to No. 2 ranking (Again in the Enquirer, and yesterday it was an update during the day, again WOW!)

As the Council Turns

For those of you who can't get enough of the Mallory-Crowley kerkuffel (and there are clearly a few of you die-hards who keep posting on this dying warhorse of a story), Korte has posted his (hopefully) final word on the whole fiasco. Korte's two questions are:

1. How is this a report if they didn't really meet?
2. On the document, Crowley's name has been added after the fact to the signatory list. Of course, he's also listed as being vice-chair on page three, which makes it look like they just added page 4 to the revised list.

Answer to 1: Don't think of it as a report; it's a motion to council on committees. In the Rules of Council, the mayor appoints chairs, but the council votes on committee members and vice-chairs. So, what this is is a full slate of members for all the positions that will presumably be approved by a voice vote at council. (Since we were not at the first meeting, it would seem based on press reports that the only votes were on Tarbell as vice-mayor and Cole as president pro tem. What does the president pro tem do, you ask? Not much, honestly, but she's third in line to the Big Chair... If this is the case, the committees get approved at the next meeting. If you were there, say something in comments.) Is it a violation of sunshine laws? Not as long as you think of it as a motion, not as a report. After all, if all the assumptions are correct, and Council has yet to appoint the committee, then Rules Committee doesn't exist right now; therefore, this isn't a report and can't be a report. Instead, it's a motion that can (and will) be passed by Council at next meeting (presumably, after asking consent to suspend the rules and vote immediately on the motion), along with the new rules.

Answer to 2: Who cares, really? If it makes this story go away faster, then wonderful. (If it's a lousy story, then why are we writing about it? Why not? That's what blogs are for, right?)

Also, there's one thing that Korte doesn't call out--on the "report", Crowley is listed as vice-chair of both Neighborhoods and Health/Education/Recreation on the PDF of the report.

After all Crowley's email supposedly read:

I learned tonight that Mayor-Elect Mark Mallory choose not to give me a chairmanship position on ANY City Council Committee for the term starting tomorrow. In fact, Mallory did not even recommend me for the vice-chair position of the committee I currently chair.

Read the whole "report" if you're interested in how the committees break down.

Cranley Making News, Already

One place Steve Chabot is going to really suffer is John Cranley's ability to make the newspaper constantly where he can drop moderate or even quasi-conservative viewpoints like this:

"We need a real energy policy to make us independent of Middle Eastern oil. We need to bring the deficit down and not give corporate welfare to oil companies making record-high profits. We need to improve our homeland security.

"None of this is being done four years after 9-11. That really is the fault of Congress and needs to be changed. Steve Chabot is part of the program - the things that John McCain talked about. He has gone along with the program."

Chabot is going to need to be back in town all the time. Cranley can just be Councilman, doing something for the community, while we never hear Chabot's name. Cranley needs to stay away from any negative city story, but be out in front of every other city story. He then needs to find a way to break deeper into the West side and Butler County. The formula exists, he just needs to find out what it is, and replicate it.