Cranley Prefers Big-Box Development

Many people have forgotten, but John Cranley was a big supporter of putting the Big-Box retail into Oakley 10 years ago. The residents of Oakley very opposed to putting a big box style strip-mall in their neighborhood.   John Cranley's answer to their concerns of suburban creep in their neighborhood and the waste of land for a bland and dysfunctional development:

"Beggars can't be choosers."

Yeah, Mr. Neighborhood is all about doing what he thinks is best (or what benefits him), not what the neighborhood thinks is best.

Council Race - One Week Out

This year's Council Race has many unknown variables to it. Turnout will drive who wins and who loses as much as how well a particular candidate has run their campaign. Conventional wisdom says that 2011 was an outlier year, where Dems won big.  This year when the GOP could have picked up seats, they only endorsed two credible candidates.  The battle will be along the varied voting fault lines in the city.  How deep will Republican voters go, will they vote a short ticket of five or six?  Will the conservative African-American vote rally around Charlie Winburn and Chris Smitherman and build a bridge to the GOP or with other more liberal/moderate African-American voters?  Will  African-American voters in general stay home?  Will the moderate GOP/Dems support the Charter backed group pushed by the Enquirer or will they splinter?

The biggest question this year will be how much will the Streecar & Parking issues out weigh traditional party based voting? Secondarily: will the average number of votes per ballot drop this year below six?

Here are my gut feelings on who stands the best chance of winning next Tuesday.  This breakdown is based on my review of the candidates: strengths, weaknesses, and performance thus far. In 2011 I was way off.  This year I generally followed similar logic as used two years ago and gave much deference to incumbancy, which threw off my predictions back then.  If things turn out differently, there is not much out there to predict the results.  The turnout question likely could affect this most, with low turnout favoring the both the incumbents and the Republicans.

Likely:
P.G. Sittenfeld

Strong Position:
Greg Landsman
Laure Quinlivan
Chris Seelbach
Yvette Simpson
Charlie Winburn
Wendell Young

In the Mix:
Michelle Dillingham
Kevin Flynn
David Mann
Amy Murray
Christopher Smitherman
Pam Thomas

Outside Shot:
Shawn Butler
Kevin Johnson
Sam Malone
Mike Moroski
Melissa Wegman
Vanessa White

Also Rans:
Angela Beamon
Timothy Dornbusch

My take is that there is only one candidate who will breeze into a victory and that is Sittenfeld.  There are 12 others with varied levels of significant possibility.  Who makes it from that group is up to the campaigns, the voters, and the weather.  The rest of the candidates have large hurdles to over come to win.  Several of the them are first time candidates who normally would be paying their dues this year as a set up for another run in two years.  With the unwise change in the length council terms, we are losing out on our ability to create new candidates.  I hope those candidates can hold on and run again in four years with more experience and resources.

Cranley Company Delinquent on 75K Loan From Non-Profit

Mr. Cranley seems to have forgotten to mention that his company is over two years delinguent on a 75,000 loan from a non-profit made as part of the Incline District development. The loan was originally due to be paid off in 2011.

It appears that Cranley has made arrangements to get the loan paid off, but Mr. Transparency isn't disclosing what those terms are. He could have agreed to pay the loan off in 10 years or only when he gets elected. We just don't know since he will not release the detailed agreement to the media.

So, how can we trust Cranley to pay the bills for the City and balance a budget legally, if he and his company can't be trusted to pay back the money he got from a non-profit organization? Cranley helped get the City in the current budget problems we are in. He failed to fully fund his increase in police 10 years ago and he failed to do anything but starve the Pension fund. He thinks everyone will forget his past record of magic tricks to balance the budget, and punt the bill down the road. Those paying attention remember and won't let the rest forget.

Proof John Cranley Lied, AGAIN

I really don't know why John Cranley lies so often.  I also really don't know why he or someone on his campaign staff decided to produce the following false statement on a Cranley mailer that I happened to get in the mail today:

For those of you who might have problem reading what is shown in in the photo, here is the text:

"I have been, and I always will be, against the streetcar and privatizing our parking meters and garages." - John Cranley

Since this is in quotation marks, I am taking this as a direct quote from John Cranley and therefore why it can so clearly be declared a full on Lie.

There are no dances around this.  There are no dodges.  There is no doublespeak that can untie the clear lie John Cranley and his campaign have disseminated to the people of Cincinnati.

Sure, Cranley will likely blame this on his campaign staff, but he can't claim it is not dishonest, if he didn't say what is quoted.  So either John Lied, or someone on his staff lied.  Let's face facts, if Cranley hired a liar, then that provides yet another example of his bad judgement of character.  I would bet that this is instead something he's said often on the campaign trail.  If you've heard this from his or one of his supports lips, please chime in on comments below.

Oh, might want to know how I know this a lie?  Well of all days to get this in the mail Cranley chose to send this to me on the day I WROTE A STORY ABOUT WHEN CRANLEY VOTED IN FAVOR OF THE STREETCAR.  If I were Alanis Morissete, I might find this ironic.

Cranley Supported Streetcar Before He Became the Tea Party Candidate

While a member of Cincinnati City Council and Partner in the City Lights Development company, John Cranley found time to sponsor a motion, along with his right hand woman Laketa Cole, to support building the Streetcar.  He later voted in favor of said motion.

I hope you aren't shocked, but he did and then he flip-flopped.

Yes, this is the same John Cranley out bad mouthing the progress Cincinnati is making.  He changed his tune on the Streetcar the second he decided to run for Mayor of Cincinnati.  He changed his position because he knew then, as he knows now, that the only way he can win is if he gets ALL of the GOP support.  The GOP is dead set against development in OTR and the Urban Core of the City, so John's got to dump progress in favor of a chance to win. The GOP and the Tea Party are deadset against urban development in general, they see Suburban/Exurban expansion as the only future.  Anyone with any foresight can see that model as the past and the cause of many of our current economic and environmental problems.  America and Cincinnati in particular, would have continued to grow as a metro-area in a far greater manner if we had not fell into the trance of the suburban sprawl barons over the last 50+ years.

Cranley's attacks on the streecar have rested mostly on the operating budget.  He doesn't think we can afford the approximately three million dollar a year price tag.  Where was his concern for that five years ago? At that point, he was more concerned about how we spent TIF money.  I wonder why??? Is it possible that he didn't want TIF money used for public projects over private development deals? He couldn't stand for that precedent, could he?  If Cranley had a concern about the operating cost he should have voted against the plan back then, but he didn't.  He will say what ever it takes to get elected, no matter who how many times he lies or flip-flops on an issue.

Cranley Attempts to Smear Opponent, Ends Up Getting Burned

John Cranley will say anything to get elected. This has been demonstrated by the number of lies he says about the value of the Streetcar and by the many times he promises to use the money for the Streetcar for someone's neighborhood, whiling knowing damn well he can't do that, legally.

This time Cranley and his minions decided to undertake a coordinated effort (COAST and Mary KKKuhl were on board too) to smear Qualls. Well after a press conference and an email exchange with the Ethics board Cranleys was proven wrong.

What is so troubling about this latest instance is the Cranley should have known better. He should have know that the actions Qualls was taking were fully within the ethics rules. He knows what idea that the articled quoted:

“It would be unreasonable to hold that lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, and other professionals have an interest in the contracts of their business clients.

John knows this. He was a lawyer while working on council. He has not come forth with any documents saying that the business deals he worked on as a lawyer were clear of ethics violations.  Additionally, the information on the property sales, are public documents.  His claim of her hiding these actions is preposterous.  He's the one who keeps his business dealings in private, hidden from the public.

More to the point, he only came forward with one document, after sitting on it for months, that covered the company for which he as an owner and that he was working on getting funding from a TIF entity that he help create and voted to enact, all of this while being a sitting member of City Council.  Instead of being investigated, he appear to think it over, waited nearly six months and then resigned.  No one ever fully and officially reviewed his actions in office and John never came forward to demonstrate that none of his prior actions violated the ethics rules.

As long as John wants to champion transparency, why doesn't he submit to questions from an enterprising journalist and answer about his past.  Here are few questions that could be asked: Did John ever vote on zoning in any area of East Price Hill?  Did John vote to recognize the Incline District or did he leave that to his associate, former Council member Cole?  When did John begin conversations about joining the company he later resigned from Council over, was it before or after he introduced the motion to establish a TIF entity for East Price Hill? How much money did John have to invest in the company in order to become an owner?  How much money has John's business partners donated to his political campaign?

John has gall, I give him that, but he's a dishonest and hypocritical politician.  That's often assumed in politicians, but in John's case he is acting out that dishonesty.  It is a small victory that he is being called on the carpet for it.  The problem is that he and his surrogates won't back down.  I expect to hear these same claims repeated over and over again, likely via word of mouth on social media.  Each time they are repeated, they are clear lies, especially when they come from Cranley's supporters who are current and former elected officials. They know better, but will backing up John's say anything to get elected mantra.

ICYMI: COAST and the Tea Party Lose Again

In case you missed it, COAST and the local Tea Party lost in their effort to try and deny a Streetcar supporter his right to vote.