What's Next After the Dennison Fight?

The anti-urbanist forces won a victory with a recent ruling on a last minute court cases, removing the last remotely hopeful effort to block the demolition of the historic Dennison Building.  Some futile efforts are still hanging on to stage protests that will not change minds and may instead turn some people against efforts to preserve the history of the urban core of Cincinnati.  I applaud those who fought a long and passionate fight to save the building, but there comes a time when you must save your strength and channel it towards a new cause or effort that has a real hope of success.

What are those new causes?  This is an election year, so most candidates for Mayor or Council will have issues or causes they are championing.  Most of those causes will best be addressed by supporting that candidate, who then when elected would have power to work toward that cause.

Outside of the candidates, are there other grassroots efforts that can bring out the same passionate people to support?

At this point I don't know of any going on locally, so that leads to the real question: Do you use your time and resources to work with candidates or wait and work independently?  I believe that if you don't have a specific cause with a detailed achievable goal, the only way to affect change is by working with candidates for office.  Waiting for the next cause to come along is not going to help the community. Finding a candidate or candidates to give your time and money to the best way to spend that passion now. I think most of those who were working to save the Dennison understand this and will channel their effort accordingly.  I hope everyone else can see the wisdom in this thinking and find a new way to move the ball down the field.

Hey Chabot, What Federal Funding?

Steve Chabot is in a tizzy about the City of Cincinnati declaring itself a 'Sanctuary City.' He's not sure the City will escape penalty. That's of course just political bullshit.

Immigration was made into a massive political football by Trump and the Republicans. It is a minor issue that has been artificially inflated into an important issue because it creates fear and hate which were effective motivators to get people to vote for Trump and Republicans.

Another surprise here, all of the sudden Chabot wants local officials to do his job and that of Federal officials. He and Trump and their brownshirts (See Richard Jones in Butler County) are foaming at the mouth to round people up they fear and hate, instead of actually effectively fighting crime and providing national security.

Trump and his minions are now so concerned about how local governments enforce laws on immigration, but don't care about any other Federal law. There is an entire constitution that is far more important for the Cincinnati Police to worry about. The next time the Treasury Secretary is in town, Cincinnati Police should inforce federal law and arrest him for his actions while working for Goldman Sachs. Also I am sure Chabot would support the CPD enforcing all Federal Law. I'd also like to have the 14th and 15th Amendment enforced in Cincinnati with the fair redrawing of the 1st Congressional District to be entirely in Hamilton County and included all of the City of Cincinnati, instead of Racial motivated Gerrymandered district Chabot "represents." I'll be looking for that fancy email blast covering the establishment of fair and equal congressional redistricting in Ohio.

Finally, why is Chabot worried about federal funding Trump may use to punish Cincinnati for not being loyal fascists?  Does Chabot just assume Cincinnati gets funding?  I ask that because he has done nothing over the last 20 plus years he has been in office to bring federal dollars to Cincinnati, so we don't have much to loose.  If Trump tries using the Brent Spence Bridge, that will be funny because Kentucky owns that and the current governor there is a Trump supporter. Chabot needs to get Cincinnati some federal funding before he can worry about Cincinnati losing it.

No More Fun From City’s Commissioner of Fun

For an unknown reason back in 2014, Mayor John Cranley created a "Commissioner of Fun" role for the City of Cincinnati and he picked former radio station owner Frank Wood Jr, a man in his 70's, to be that "Commissioner of Fun."

WCPO is reporting that the City is stating there are no more fun events coming from the Commissioner.  Frank Wood has stepped down and admits that this special position was a failure.  He believe it lacked staff to help him.   To me that seems like a cop-out.  Instead the failure should land squarely at Cranley's feet.  Cranley created this thing and allowed a tiny factional amount of money to be spent on it.  He incorrectly looked back to his youth and WEBN radio and thought Frank Wood did stuff magically.  No, it took money.  Having a drunk fest every Labor Day weekend along the river didn't just happen with access to the City Hall copy machine.  It took money. Also Cranley doesn't get is that the craziness of Riverfest Cranley knew ended 25 years ago.

This idea was pointless.  It was Cranley's vain attempt to appear cool, while not actually doing anything and having something he can point to when it fails. I am pointing at Cranley, so he can forget about letting this slide without notice.  Also, I am not sorry to tell John that there is nothing he can do, ever, to be cool.  I know uncool things very well and John Cranley is the modern day prototype.