Big City, Little City, Mega City

A few weeks ago UncleRando at UrbanCincy asked the question "What is a city to you?" I am going to extrapolate on this and ask, "What is a big city to you? I ask this because often when people think of Cincinnati, they think of it as a small city. They do so I think because of the context and definition that any city outside of NYC, Chicago, and LA is just a small town. This context I believe often stems from those who have lived in cities the size of Cincinnati their entire lives. Be it someone from Cleveland, Atlanta, Tampa, Denver, or Phoenix. I believe the false perception they acquire is that success and growth can only be achieved on a bigger stage or in this context a larger city. They then perceive where live as a small town. That is not unique to Cincinnati, but we have many shining examples of it. To a degree this is also influence by the notion of kids growing up and wanting to leave home, and thus leave the city they grew up in, but that spills over into wanting something "bigger," therefore a mega city is what they think they need.

I'm from a small city. It had a population of about 35,000 when I lived there and it is down to about 30,000 18 years later. For the Couty I grew up in it's MSA has around 133,000 people in it, a number also down. In another comparison, Hamilton county's land size is about 413 square miles, while Chautauqua county (where I grew up) is well more than three times the size at 1,500 square miles. I have two points: 1) My town is shrinking far more than Cincinnati, and 2) I lived in a small city. I knew basically everyone who was withing 3 years of my age. I went to school with nearly all of them. That is the definition of a small city.

Cincinnati is a big city. No matter how much people want to paint this area as a small town, it is not. Also, just to be clear, I am talking about the entire metro area, not just the actual city, but even there, we are still a big city.

What Cincinnati is not a mega city, on that much everyone should be clear. 100 years ago Cincinnati was a mega city, which I believe is why we are a special place still now. We have history and Institutions other cities our size don't have. We are not NYC or Chicago or even Boston or San Francisco. We never will be and I for one don't want us to be, however this city has special qualities that you can't find anywhere else.

I just would like people who live here, especially those who grew up here, to try and see this city from a different perspective. Take off the blinders used by the news media. Ignore the city hates who seek to either build up their own fiefdom out in the outlying areas or those who out to tear down the city from within in in order to enable a futile attempt to gain political power.

The first step is attitude. Don't expect things are going to stay they same, unless you are going to sit back and let them. All you have to is walk, run, ride the bus, hop in your car, or someday ride the streetcar and try out something new in your Big City.

You can't buy publicity like this.

Jerry Springer the Musical is opening at New Stage Collective tonight. So, naturally, we get tons of protestors...

(Yes, the same ones that protested Know's Corpus Christi a few years ago.)

For me, my thought is "If you don't want to see it, don't see it," however the group America Needs Fatima sees it differently. America Needs Fatima (not a link to them, but a background on their group) is an ultra-conservative, Catholic group that it seems most Catholics think is fringe and freaky. Freedom of speech and all of that, but hey-- they're getting the show more publicity than it could ever pay for.

And, why yes, those ARE jackboots. I'm so glad you asked.

The Banks Demo

The newest buzz at the Enquirer is the recently released "first look" at The Banks. It looks close to I would have expected. I still feel rather ambivalent about it. I want it to be built and succeed, but I don't see myself hanging out there with all of the tourists (aka people from West Chester et al).

One More Sign I'm Getting Old: Everyone Else Is Too Young

Is it just me, or is anyone else convinced that for the last couple weeks, Channel 5 has been letting one of its high school interns do its morning traffic reports? She's just so . . . young.

It's amazing how much a little Googling with turn up. The easiest Google hit, this Enquirer article, reveals that the new traffic reporter, Randi Lynn Robison, was previously a ski reporter for a television station in Park City, Utah. She moved to Mason with her fiance.

But Google gives us much better gifts. Here, courtesy Youtube, is Ms. Robison's "hosting reel," apparently a collection of clips from her Utah gig. Watching it, we learn two important things. First, she's not a high school intern (she's 25--she says she was 11 in 1994). Second, she's actually pretty engaging in the clips. So for those of you who aren't quite sure about her early performance, be patient: if history is any indicator, she'll quickly grow into the job and probably be a viewer favorite on the show. Let's hope Channel 5 gives her the time and room to make the job her own (I'm thinking she could be a younger, more feminine version of Bob Herzog, but I can't tell--there were no chicken dancing clips in the hosting reel).

Welcome to the 'Nati, Randi.

Hey Glad Girls!

Great news for the Midpoint Music Festival: Robert Pollard will appear with his new band Boston Spaceships. This is a twist on the MPMF but one worth seeing! Last year the Pollard concert at Southgate House (benefiting Enjoy the Arts) was a big sellout with people coming from Japan and England to see his show! This concert will be the kickoff for his tour, so be sure to see it and rest of Midpoint. It is just over three months away.

Change Ahead?

It appears that in addition to the presidency, the future structure of Cincinnati municipal government may be at stake in the 2008 election. The Enquirer reported Friday that the executive board of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP has decided to have its full membership vote (this Friday) on whether to attempt to change the City Charter to require Council to be elected through "proportional representation." How does "PR" work? Essentially, voters would be given a ballot on which they would rank their choices for Council. For an explanation of how votes are counted under the system, go to this website and scroll down to "Single Transferable Vote or Choice Voting."

The city actually used the system from the 1920's through the 1950's. According to this history of PR, the end of the system in 1957 was fueled by fairly nasty, racist motives:

In Cincinnati, race was the dominant theme in the successful 1957 repeal effort. The single transferable vote had allowed African Americans to be elected for the first time, with two blacks being elected to the city council in the 1950s. The nation was also seeing the first stirrings of the Civil Rights movement and racial tensions were running high. PR opponents shrewdly decided to make race an explicit factor in their repeal campaign. They warned whites that PR was helping to increase black power in the city and asked them whether they wanted a "Negro mayor." Their appeal to white anxieties succeeded, with whites supporting repeal by a two to one margin.

In the same article (almost as an aside, despite its seeming importance), the Enquirer reports that Jeff Berding plans to ask Council to approve another Charter amendment for the November ballot. His proposal would implement the 2004 Election Reform Commission's recommendation (scroll to page 9 for the pertinent discussion) that Cincinnati move to a true "strong mayor" system of government. As noted in the linked document, under Berding's proposal, the Mayor--not the City Manager--would appoint administrative officers and department heads, like the City Solicitor, the Directors of Finance and Public Utilities, and the Superintendent of Water Works. The City Manager would be replaced by a "Chief Administrative Officer" who would serve at the pleasure of the Mayor (Council's advice and consent would not be required for appointment or removal) and have only so much power as the Mayor chose to delegate to ensure the day-to-day operations of the City. And the Mayor would no longer have a role in City Council (instead, Council would elect its own President, equivalent to the Speaker of the House in Congress, and select its own committee chairs).

Intrepid Cincinnati Blog readers will remember that we had a discussion about these issues earlier this year (here and here). If either or both of these proposals makes it to the ballot, I anticipate that we'll discuss it a lot more. But these are huge changes in the way City government would be elected and operate. If they're on the ballot, I hope we have a broad, City-wide discussion that isn't completely drowned out by the presidential and county-wide elections.

Obama's Cincinnati Connections

Today's New York Times contains an excellent profile of Michelle Obama. Quoted in the article, albeit briefly, is University of Cincinnati College of Law Professor Verna Williams.

As Cincinnati Magazine has previously reported, Professor Williams attended Harvard Law School with Ms. Obama. Her husband, David Singleton, the executive director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, was a classmate of Barack Obama at HLS.

The Obamas' ties to the local legal couple is old news, certainly. But now that Senator Obama is the Democrats' "presumptive" nominee, it's interesting to speculate as to who might be part of an Obama presidential administration (especially in light of today's news that the Illinois senator has a six-point lead in Ohio over the Republicans' "presumptive" nominee, Senator McCain). Add to the mix that Mr. Singleton and Professor Williams are each highly distinguished in the legal field--we've previously reported on his litigation successes (his pre-OJPC career is equally impressive), while she's a widely respected, well-accomplished legal academician--and speculation turns into outright daydreaming. How about a Supreme Court Justice Williams? Or a Solicitor General (or Attorney General) Singleton?

Just some food for thought on an otherwise slow day.