GetLocal!???

A new attempt to to try and localize news from the Enquirer. I have not looked at it much at all. Is it just a filter of the paper based on community or is there additional new content? Is this were they are putting their news/postings from the public, the lazy journalism effort (Real Life, Real News, Real Crap?)?

Crap on a page!

How lazy is a journalist to write an article based solely on tying a B Movie to Sports?

Smoke Filled Musical Chairs

The Hamilton County Republican Party has decided for the Republican Party Voters who will represent the GOP on the November ballot in two location statehouse district.

Bait and switch.

Neither candidate in the 31st or 32nd district stands a great chance of Beating the Democrat so the impact here is minimal, but if I were a Democrat I would be really pissed off if let's say the Ohio Dems choose to take off Ted Strickland at this point and put up someone else for Governor. They are not going to do it, but Ted won the primary and unless he breaks a law or is unfit for office, he should stay on the ballot. The principle of it should be that the voters voices, even in the primary systems, are heard and respected.

Yes, the 32nd the view is that Mike Poast doesn't currently live in the district. He could still have moved in time for the election.

"Law Dog" Taking on Water

Infamous Lawyer Ken Lawson has a $660,000 back tax bill hanging over him. Instead of walking the plank, he is forced to sell his boat, the "Law Dog," to help offset some of the back taxes.

According to the article Lawson is claiming an illness caused him to miss work and in part caused him financial issues. These unpaid taxes go back as long as 5 years ago. I don't know what his cut of the Timothy Thomas and Roger Owensby Jr. cases were, but it went somewhere other than paying off what he owed to the Government.

More Bad Press!

More of this type of thing and you know what will happen? People will wake up and understand that Cincinnati has a lot to offer. The best part about this article are the hundreds of great things to do not mentioned in it. Sorry to say folks, we don't live in a ghost town. We just have a bunch of dead weight trying to bring down this great place.

Praise Zeus! Ponch is Coming to Town!

Buried in this article we learn Erik Estrada is signing autographs at Tri-County Mall. Ladies, better get in line now!

Molly Malone's Reviewed

I don't know if they have replaced the "ER" on the front, but the food gets a test from the Enquirer. It passes. Molly's is not going to get four or five starts, but when I went early after they reopened, it was ok. I hope to return for a second go around soon.

Is trivia night as fun as it was?

Alchemize to Reopen Sept. 6

Great news for live music in Cincinnati.

Wasting Money

This Township knows how to waste money.

COAST Backs Poor Tax

It is very strange that an Anti-tax group backed pro-tax calls. I guess taxes that affect rich people is their focus.

Phil Heimlich's Tax Hike on the Poor

I knew it, you knew it, but now everyone can know that it was all about getting Phil Heimlich elected, not about doing the business of government.

A Victory

Great news for civil rights in Cincinnati. Lets hope the forces of darkness fold up shop and move on to something void of the hate.

Trashin' the Larry

I was hesitant to respond to Larry Gross's Column in last week's City Beat, but in the end I am going to put out the basic problems with Larry's points and what I believe he is missing:

1. Criticize Cincinnati all you want! - The problem Larry misses is that when you are gloating with "I-told-you-so" blog posts and articles, you are not criticizing, you are bashing the city.
2. Larry's basis for attack was flawed! - Larry missed the points I was making that soon after restaurants and bars close something reopened in its place, something he failed to note. Granted that doesn't always happen, but the vast majority of the locations Larry cited had something similar reopen within a year.
3. Larry missed how he's stuck in stasis! - Larry, get over not have a movie theater downtown. We have many more theatres showing live people on stage downtown and in OTR than existed in the 1970's, no???
4. Playing the NKY vs. Cincinnati game is more bashing! - When you pit Newport and Covington as the bizzaro Cincinnati, then you are attacking, not criticizing. What is the basis to say that Newport, Cincinnati, and Covington shouldn't be thought of as the unified central urban core of the Metro area? Why aren't they thought of as complementary, not competitors?
5. What gives with the rest of the column? - Ok I don't know how mentioning me or Nick Spencer does much for the point of column, and I know even less how including references to my blog post titles and background on Rick Hines adds anything. I guess that is just adding some of the backstory to the non-blog readers out there, but I don't know that it helps much.

I hope that Larry wants the downtown and the city to thrive, as he stated in his column, but claims don't supersede acts. When you add to the negative perception of downtown using flawed comments and you fail to put into perspective the fears people have of downtown and OTR, you feed the beast. When you provide no suggestions for improvement, you look like you are enjoying the perceived decline.

I am embarrassed that people who have lived here longer than I have refuse to maintain a positive attitude and look at change not as a negative, but instead as what we need. You can't go home again Larry. Your old Cincinnati died 30 years ago. Join us in building a new Cincinnati.

Real or Fake, Certainly Irrelevant

I don't know if this email is real or fake, but it should be ignored by the powers that be, or what ever "movers and shakers" received it in the first place. One person is pissed off, big fucking deal. One person has a bad experience in any city and you don't go and change everything you are doing as a government or as a community.

If you assume for moment she is real, then she has a huge preconceived notion of Cincinnati or of the United States in general. She reads like she got a handout from a boycott activist.

Her ignorance is clear in her original email.

We decided to watch the local news each day. From doing so, one might never know that Cincinnati's population is 47% Black, as we learned on the internet before choosing to visit. We saw one Black reporter on each of two stations, but watched many reports on Black people being arrested for drugs in a place called OTR.

She obviously doesn't know the difference between the racial breakdown of the City proper and the Metro Area of Cincinnati. Sure, 47% is a possible number for the City, but not one I could find on the Internet, but the TV market reaches an area where blacks are less than 12% of the population. If she is going to play a quota game, then play it fairly. Also, how many folks from Canada are quick to pick up on the "OTR" abbreviation? I would be surprised if a anchor on local news is calling Over-the-Rhine "OTR," but you never know.

As a sidenote, if she is indeed an activist trying to stir up a little trouble, I wonder if she thought about following the boycott? Oh, wait, that's been over for a while now, and last week Al Sharpton appeared at the new Convention Center just to make it official.

The Cincinnati Metro Area still has a great many racial problems, but this lady's observations are trivial/anecdotal at best, and faked at worst.

What Happened to Democracy?

Do Republicans even care about holding primaries anymore? If they are going to enact the smoke filled room form of picking candidates, then they might make with a little more smoke and a lot less of the jockeying candidates around when circumstances change. It is great how they stick with their candidates until they have no more use for them. What made them stick with Bush? Is Hero worship that strong in the GOP?

Add a Crate and Barrel

More Retail is coming to Cincinnati and this time it's in Kenwood.

Can Kenwood get more congested? We'll be finding out soon.

IKEA Picks Cincinnati

Great news for Cincinnati, furniture retailer IKEA has picked an Ohio location in West Chester. A suburban location is a common thread for choice for IKEA, so it not being closer to the city center is not a surprise.

Overall this is a good sign for the Metro Area.

Schmidt Misleading Public

How stupid is Jean Schmidt or how stupid does she think the voters are? Promoting the use of ethanol is not striking a blow against Terrorism. It is especially not going to reduce the money going to terror groups.

If I am not mistaken the only way Schmidt's stupid ploy makes any sense is that if all of the Oil companies and oil producing county's governments in the world are funding terrorism.

The reason for reducing foreign oil use is not so we don't buy from "them," instead it is so we don't have to go to war to secure the oil supply, like both of our wars Iraq.

What a dunce.

Chabot In Panic Mode?

Bringing in the big gun Dick Cheney for a fundraiser is as big a sign as you can get that you are in need of help.

News that Chabot's opponent John Cranley is running even with him in the Democrat's internal polls must be a cause for fear in the GOP camp. The Cranley Camp reports the following poll results:

In just five months, John Cranley has gained 9 points on his opponent -- making it a dead heat.

July 2006 Poll
Cranley 45%
Chabot 45%
Undecided 10%

March 2006 Poll
Cranley 40%
Chabot 49%
Undecided 11%

Both the July and March polls were conducted by Anzalone-Liszt Research and paid for by Cranley for Congress. In March, Cranley for Congress released its results. Attached is a memo provided by Anzalone-Liszt comparing the two polls.

Note: Neither Chabot, nor the National Republican Congressional Committee has ever released the results of their extensive polling. (Roll Call, 7/31/06)

The reason you know it's bad for the GOP occurred when Chabot is pictured on a walking tour of Over-the-Rhine with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in both the Enquirer and the Post. I wonder when the last time Chabot has been in OTR? He was no where to be found when the riots were going on, so unless there's a photo op or someway to gain some vote, then Steve hasn't had much reason to do anything for or even visit OTR, until now.

I will be waiting for Chabot to make crime his big issue and attack Cranley for the City's crime issues. At the same time he'll try and make the people of Ross and Harrison fear a violent crime problem that doesn't affect them at all.

It's politics 101, but it's still disgusting.

"The Heimlich Remover"

David Pepper's poll has him leading Phil Heimlich in the race for County Commissioner. According to the Post's article Pepper is showing an increase is his numbers from a prior internal poll to now. Moving from a 33% to 33% dead heat to a 42% to 37% slight lead is a positive step for Pepper.

Heimlich is currently hanging his hopes on a plan that most likely makes him the only Republican up for reelection in Ohio who is advocating raising taxes. That is likely to piss off the Conservatives more than any of his other stances would turn of liberals.