Smoking Still Has Baby Teeth

The State Agreed at the last minute not to enforce the smoking ban until rules are established. That will hopefully happen quickly. This does not give smoker's the freedom to smoke as they please. This does give business owners to do as they please without the state sanctioning them. Businesses would do more in the long run to comply with the law now. Let the diehards at neighborhood dives keep smoking, but large bars should just get used to it.

Smitherman Loses, Again

Former Councilman Chris Smitherman lost his bid for President of the Cincy Chapter of the NAACP.

A Freddies Christmas

Murder Rate - 90% Drug Related

Too many People have an insane fear of the city. Some fear Downtown or the "ghetto" which they can't differentiate. What people need to understand is what the County coroner is saying:

However, in the majority of the city's homicides, authorities say the suspect and victim knew each other.

The Hamilton County coroner says 90% of the cases were drug-related.

"It's just not one factor," said Dr. O'dell Owens. "Its the guns, the [lack of] education and the drugs and the family unit. A lot of things we have to work on."

Yes, it is bad that the murder rate is up. We as a city, county, state, and country need to work broadly to decrease it. This does not make the city unsafe. I know childish commenters are going to now chime in. They'll make trite cracks about gun shots and Washington Park and some will make poorly veiled bigoted/racist statements. What they fail to grasp is that they are pussies. I say that with full offensive intended. They are scared little girls who see something on TV and think it is real. I think these idiots might even think that the 2001 riots happened along the river or in Mt. Adams.

The problems of crime are not unique to cities, they just are the easy scapegoats for those look for a rhetorical or socio-economic advantage. How many people are going to run away from Trenton because a guy was stabbed in bar fight with a screw driver? Someone breaks a car window at a downtown garage and panic and fear rips through the countryside.

If you don't mess with drugs, you are not going to be murdered..anywhere. Is that 100%, of course not. Does that mean you walk around with $100 bills sticking out of your pants? Of Course Not! That means you might grow a pair of balls and stop making crime your excuse for not exploring the city. If you are a lazy SOB, fine, don't blame crime for not going to Northside to see the band you like. If you are a cheap bastard, don't blame crime for not wanting to dare set a foot inside of the city limits after dark to hit a vibrant restaurant in Oakley or Downtown. If you are a bigot who hates blacks and uses crime as your excuse for being a bigot, well, you can just shut up and rot in Hell.

UPDATE: Errors corrected to silence the grammatical prudes. No Doubt there are errors I missed, but honestly, I don't give a shit.

Clear Channel Blood Letting

It is very interesting to read the comments on John Kiesewetter's blog from what sounds like either some posers, or many inside Clear Channel current and former staffers.

Local Radio blows. It has sucked for years. When I say local, I don't means just here in Cincinnati, I mean everywhere. I say that because the same 3-5 companies own most of the stations.

Of all modern media, Radio is the one that people really demand be local. If you are going to just be a jukebox with commercials, you will lose out to IPods or to Satellite.

More from CC Alumnus Rick Bird in the Post.

Korte's Blog

Greg Korte now has his own niche blog on the Enquirer's site. It has an interesting description:

Gregory Korte is the Enquirer's investigative and enterprise reporter, database reporting specialist and resident wonk. A West Side native, he worked at newspapers in Cleveland, Lorain and Akron before returning to Cincinnati in 2001, covering city government and politics for five years. "Footnotes" is his ongoing attempt to understand and explain the changing Cincinnati region.
E-mail: gkorte@enquirer.com Phone: 513-768-8391

It is called Footnotes and believe it or not, it actually uses footnotes. Is that a first in the blogging world? Could be.

Smitherman to Lead Local NAACP?

The votes are in, but its not settled. I am not a fan of Chris Smitherman. I look for Smitherman to use the NAACP as a weapon for his own personal crusades.

Enquirer Publishes Lie - Shows Bias

From today's Letters to the Editor we are treated to this falsehood published by the Enquirer:

WULSIN'S RECOUNT COSTLY, UNNECESSARY

Regarding the article "Wulsin gives up quest for congressional seat" (Nov. 29): Her strategy was to hold out acknowledging losing and receive free publicity and exercising her "right" to force an inconsequential vote count on the pretext of honoring each voter's vote. So, how much did this exercise in futility cost in dollars? Well, she shares the cost with those "voters" who couldn't take the time to confirm where they were to vote. Don't voters have some responsibility to be informed? Wishy-washy politicians and judges condone the procedure.

James Krueger
Green Township

First thing, there was no recount! The processing being undertaken was the normal process of counting the provisional ballots and some absentee ballots. There was no recount. The headline to the letter I am betting was not written by the writer, but was instead written by the Enquirer. Who at the Enquirer agrees with printing a lie like that? The Letter as printed NEVER USED THE WORD RECOUNT!!!!!

Second Thing is that James Krueger is an idiot. People who cast provisional ballots often at no fault of their own, but of the failure of the BOE or the poll working. Also, is he that fucking stupid to think that on the first general election since passing a new law requiring ID that people should be punished using the legally allowed procedures that law provides? Freddie Krueger seems to want to keep people from voting. There should not be additional costs of counting the votes in an election the first time, so Freddie's has been sniffing too much of the glue he uses for the novelty fingernails.

Downtown Living to Boom?

The Post is reporting that development is in the works to build a Condo/Retail/Parking high rise at Fifth and Race streets Downtown. This is huge news! The proposed 15 to 20 story building would fill an empty eye score and put up a YP centered development that would give a shot into the arm of Downtown that will drive the Fountain Square area to new heights. If this building gets off the ground and keeps its market target in focus, then the sky is the limit. Downtown living has been rising for quite some time now, but if they put affordable Condos for a wider YP demographic, then development may enable a Downtown revival beyond anyone's hopes.

Yea, I am optimistic on this, and we are a long ways from it becoming a reality. The key to a Downtown revival has always been having a real neighborhood of residents. Make it easier for people to live downtown, and they will want to work and play downtown.

Bronson: Van Go I Ain't

In what can best be described as a column by numbers, Peter Bronson has made it clear he is artistically tone deaf. Here's his formula for his mendacity:

1. Make a trite "Elvis-on-velvet" quip, like he did here and here.
   
2. Criticize a Play you have never seen. It's not the first time, and likely will not be the last.
   
3. Create a false premise by claiming the police budget was being cut by restoring funding for the arts, which it wasn't.
4. Finish off by slamming downtown, yet again, then get out the paper (aka more cops dogma) to cover up the crime problem.

If Peter Bronson could think beyond his bible, his gun holster, or his pocket book, he might see art beyond his broken car radio that is stuck on 93.3FM. There is something to act of thinking. Thinking in a manner that stale minds don't want to try to understand is what artists try and do. People like Peter Bronson always complain about art, no matter how its funded, but fear the effort and the change that may come from thinking in a new way. Art is about expressing ideas, ideas that exist to make the viewer/listener/reader think in a new way. I go downtown to see art and I challenge Bronson, again, to see the art before he attacks it, but I will not miss him if he chickens out.

More About Main Street

WCPO ITEM Bongs its way into a hard charging story about the changes on Main Street. The biggest bong comes from this portion:

BOB SCHNEIDER OWNS THE MAIN STREET BUILDINGS THAT USED TO HAVE FOUR NIGHTCLUBS.

(Laure Quinlivan, I-Team Reporter) "I think a lot of people really believe that the reason the Main Street entertainment district is dead is because of those riots in 2001. Riots killed the clubs.(Bob Schneider, Main Street Landlord) That's really not the case. The real problems started in 2004. One of those clubs in 2004 basically turned their business over to a promoter on a Friday night and this promoter basically put on venues, entertainment venues that brought in a thug element to the street. "

HE SAYS ANOTHER CLUB STARTED THE SAME THING AND SUDDENLY ARMED THUGS SCARED EVERYONE OFF.

(Bob Schnieder, Main Street Landlord) "Basically threatening people on the sidewalk, it just wasn't a comfortable environment."

Two things came to my mind upon reading on this. First is what was the club that killed the club scene on Main and Second is who is going to go crazy because the guy used the word "Thug" to describe those who he claims drove off much of the Main Street crowd.

I am not going to come out and say the guy is wrong. I myself don't and didn't go to the dance clubs on Main. I do hit the North Main Bars and Kaldi's on occasion, so who goes to the dance clubs is something I am gleefully ignorant about. I instead will sit back and watch the venom flow.

Fountain Square Ice Rink

This is a great start to the Square. It is wonderful hearing suburbanites coming to Downtown and planning on coming down again!

Cincinnati Advance is going skating there this Thursday Night. I would bet you could skate and watch the game on the big screen too!

OTR on the Rise?

Very interesting article in the New York Times on the renewal of Over-the-Rhine.

I am sure someone will hate this. Whether you hate the city, hate seeing the poor, hate the poor having to live a block from nice condos, or you just hate black people, you will surely be pissed off and attack this article.

"When Black Friday comes I'll stand down by the door"

Get out there and shop people! Buy Buy Buy!

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!

Question

I have never had much luck when trying to use CityBeat's event listing online, but has the music listing been working like this since the launched it or is it relatively new?

Maybe I just don't like the way the arts section is organized, I don't know. It seems to work better than I remember, or I just use cincymusic.com most of the time.

"Some City Hall observers believe"

I guess I qualify as one.

No Respect

When people talk about the decline of culture and the poor quality of the media they should look no further than the following letter to the editor of the Enquirer:

THIS ISN'T THE COLUMBUS ENQUIRER

The University of Cincinnati wins the biggest game in the history of the school, yet The Enquirer puts the Ohio State-Michigan game on the front page of the paper. To paraphrase Sam Wyche, you don't live in Columbus, you live in Cincinnati. The Bearcat football team will never get the respect they truly deserve thanks to the local media who'd rather talk about a team in another city then their local team.

Steve Heller
Reading

Mr. Heller is correct in his comments. The Enquirer should be very ashamed of giving preference to Ohio State of the huge victory by UC but part of the problem lies not with the media, but with the readers. People do not value what is around them. This is not just a problem here in Cincinnati, but nearly everywhere. Too many People don't respect effort and accomplishment. All they respect is popularity, rankings, money, aggression (conflict). The Enquirer chose to downplay the local story and play up the National Story of the Ohio State game. Yes, Columbus is close by, and there are lots of Ohio State fans in the area, but so what! The job of the local media is to serve the community by reporting the local news first and foremost. The problem with the media is that they are serving what they view as the demand of the local readers who don't care about their community and only seem to care about the national hot topic. That leaves a void that contributes to the false perception that Cincinnati is a small town where nothing good happens. We are big city, where culture, sports, and action play out every day. It is exciting and is worth paying attention to what happens.

When culture warriors opine about the decline and fall of American Society and Culture, I hope they look at the real decline and fall, that of local media coverage of local stories. When it is seen as a chore for the local newspaper to cover City Council meetings, how much long before they don't cover it at all or worse yet, just print press releases? Valuing community and taking pride in the places where we live is a founding value of our society. When people say buy American, I cringe. Instead, why don’t they say buy Cincinnati or buy local? Buy from the guy who runs the store a few streets over instead of at Wal-Mart. See the local band playing music instead of buying a CD of a manufactured “group.”

Just printing press releases is close to what our local media does a large part of the time. We are dangerously close to becoming what could be considered a closed society, cut off from what is happening just a few miles or blocks away. This sports story is not really important in the big picture of life, but it illustrates the problem very clearly. The media is not causing this problem, but they are enabling it to grow and fester. Get your local news first, then worry about the rest of the county. What is happening in Tampa or San Diego may be happening here too, but don’t assume it is happening everywhere without finding out first. Keep on eye on the rest of country and the world, but don’t take your eye of your own community. In the end, your neighbors will affect you more than someone in a bus wreck 1,000 miles away.

No Charges For Running Over Alleged Thief

Anthony Stone, who ran over and killed an alleged Thief with his truck, will not face charges for his actions, so says Joe Deters, Hamilton County Prosecutor.

With the information presented, Stone would not have been convicted if tried. If witnesses state the alleged thief had a gun and was aiming at Stone and shot at him, then self defense is plausible. I hope evidence was found that the alleged thief did fire his gun.

It still appears like there is more to this case. How did Tyree Henderson happen to pick this person to allegedly rob her? According to the article, police are asking the same question:

Deters said that, although Stone has been cleared, Cincinnati police are continuing to investigate why Henderson targeted Sherry Doud, the woman with Stone.

Someone else likely was involved in this incident, and that person or persons may lead to a common link between the victim and the alleged thief. That puts this crime not into a random theft category, but instead into target crime, something that law enforcement and the public can do little but react when it happens.

In Your Face, Brinkman!!!!!!

Anti-gay bigot, activist, and State Representative Tom Brinkman took one on the chin yesterday when Butler County Common Pleas Court dismissed his lawsuit against Miami University for offering domestic partner medical insurance.