PG Sittenfeld Is Getting Some National Attention

It is a long held axiom that any attetention is good attention, but for PG Sittenfeld when that attention is positive attention, it it triples the value. The National Journal has given him some of that good attention.

Give a cigar to his PR team.

The next few months wil be where the most the political action will happen when we see who runs for Senate against Portman and who does not. PG wants to run, that much is obvious, but is it wise for home to run now? That is the action that is turning in his head. I don't envy having to make that political judgement, but I'd like to be a fly on the wall when he discusses it with his advisors. 

Strategic planning is the holy grail of political analysis.

Cranely Using Smoke and Mirrors on Pension Deal to Hide City's Sacrifice

From a financial perspective, there are actual steps in the City's pension deal that on the surface appear to help reduce the funding problem, but that is only half of the story.

Yes, getting the retirees to suspend COLAs for three years and then reducing the COLA formula will mean lower benefits paid and help solvency.

Yes, the city paying more into the fund certainly will help solvency.

The details Cranley is hiding deal with where the city will get the additional money to increase funding for the pension trust. Here are the problems:

1. What is the long term impact of moving $200 Million from the retiree health care trust?  Is this the fund Cranley and Luken already screwed up?  Previously this year the Plan was only going to be $100 million, so how did it double in size and still have Council backing?
2. Where does the $38 Million a year for seven years come from?  Saying the City will "borrow against future revenue" is no different from saying "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."  Revenue from what?  The pension fund?  Income Taxes? A bake sale?  Cranley's hiding the details. He does not want us to know what he's doing.
3. Where does the additional 2.25% of the annual operating budget come from? How much is this actually?  Is this based on the $358 Million in expenses or just of salaries? What is Cranley going to do, increase revenue or cut something?  Which ever he is planning, he's not giving the details and is once again hiding something.

What Cranley is doing is typical Cranley.  He's making something sound comprehensive, but he leaves out nearly all of the substance. Either Cranley has no clue where the money will come from or he is hiding it because it will be politically unpopular.  The answer is mostly likely the latter and as is the Cranley way, he's hiding the details in hopes that people will accept half of the truth and forget the rest later.

This is the type of Mayor we have, one who hides the real sacrifices the city has to make to allow him self the ability to take a faux victory lap.  This plan may actually be workable, but the Citizen of Cincinnati deserve to know the real impact this will have on the City Budget and the services the City provides. Hiding details is dishonest.  This is insulting to people of Cincinnati. This is, however, how Mayor John Cranley operates.  We must demand the truth from the Mayor.  We won't get it, but everyone in the City must call out the Mayor's half truths and lies every chance we get.

Zombie News Gone National

Gotta love how the suburbs can look like idiots on a scale to get some national attention.



At least the local media was there first. Can't beat the visuals, so TV wasn't going to miss out on this.

Enquirer Channelling the New York Post

When ever you start out a headline with the phrase "uh-oh" like the Enquirer did with the article Uh-oh, streetcar savings account running out, then you start sounding like a tabloid. Picture the New York Post.

Cincinnati does not need bad attempts at comedy in the headline of a serious news article.

The only reason for this was to YET AGAIN garner the eyeballs from anti-streetcar readers (that means most of the GOP),  and drive up website traffic. The bias comes through once more n the Enquirer. It's what we expect from the hollow news outlet.

Enquirer Appears to Have No Editors Now

I don't know how a news story like this: Suspect in custody in stabbing near casino would be allowed to be published if the Enquirer still had any editors. Review the first sentence of this very short article:

A suspect is in custody after a man was fatally stabbed just a few feet from the entrance to the Horseshoe Casino on Monday night, police said.

Now read the fourth sentence:

He was stabbed in a wooded area on Gilbert Avenue beneath the Interstate 471 overpass about 10:30 p.m., Neville said.

In the third sentence Nevill was identified as Cincinnati Police Capt. Michael Neville. So where does a "few feet from the entrance to the Horseshoe Casino" come from when the man was stabbed in a wooded area on Gilbert Ave? Does this reporter think the entrance to the Horeshoe is in a wooded area under I-471? Does the reporter live in Cincinnati?

This is just horrid reporting. At best the "entrance" being referenced was the Gilbert Ave PARKING LOT entrance to the casino and that is still ACROSS THE STREET from any "wooded" area under I-471. Depending on the location of wooded area in question, saying this was near the Casino may not be 'wrong.'  It would likely be near many places, including the BOE and P&G headquarters. Seriously, the picture with the article includes a shot of P&G in it.

I realize this was written over-night, so it has fewer filters to be passed through, but this can't continue. We can not have stories that are either being reported by ignorant journalists who can't understand when the police are using hyperbole or reporters looking to increase clicks by putting false details into stories to scare the public and create more web traffic.

UPDATE: Compare the WCPO Story.

Is the County's Deal For Mt. Airy Hospital Dead?

The Enquirer is reporting that county has stated it will likely cost 100 million dollars to convert the former Mercy Heath Hospital complex in Mt. Airy to a facility that could handle the coroner, crime lab and Board of Elections.

They don't have that kind of money and the Republican majority won't raise taxes for the critical needs of a new coroner's facility.

They've increased the Sheriff's budget this year.

The Republicans should be looking for a cheaper way to update the Coroner's facility and it possible the crime lab, but give up on moving anything else out of downtown and keep the BOE where it is.

It appears Monzel and Hartmann are not doing anything to update Hamilton County's critical needs. Punting responsibility is horrid governance.

Minor Reporting Error or Sign of Lack of Experience at the Enquirer?

It may just a be a simple mistake, but the following Enquirer article Car strikes building, semi stuck under bridge has a huge error in it.  It reports that a building in the 1200 Block of Vine Street was hit by a car and had to be propped up to keep it from collapsing.

Well I can report that after I walked the entire 1200 Block of Vine Street  at about 5:15 PM there is no evidence of a building that had been struck, let alone one on the verge of collapsing.

The reporter obviously doesn't know the OTR neighborhood because if she did, she'd know that the 1200 block is the heart of the Gateway Quarter and if any building about to collapse here would include a business and/or people's residences, thus a much bigger story.  Also, if they had ever been to that block they would know that at that time of day, everyday, cars line the street, so the crash would have more than likely hit a car, not a building.

Hopefully the article will be updated soon to reflect the correct block.

I really hope this was a simple careless error and not the sign of what we will be getting more of with the new changes to the Enquirer: fewer editors and less experienced reporters. Also an environment where staff will NOT be rewarded for knowing about the places and people they write about, but instead will be judged based on the number of hits their articles get.