Ram23

Also Cranley, seemingly celebrating the death of a woman who was shot and killed for climbing through a window at the Capitol building:

I think the cell towers and adjacent equipment/generator buildings are almost prefab kits and easy to install/maintain. If the land and property tax is cheap enough, that's what they'll default to. They also don't have to rely on any agreements with a third party, like they would if the equipment were on somebody else's roof, using their generator power, etc.

I don't design residential, but I wonder if they are either directly or inadvertently designing accommodations for Ubers. That or they're secretly targeting students and that'll be the UC shuttle bus stop.

This was one of the greatest moments in local politics in the US this year - and according to their menu, this new Pendleton "wing" restaurant is guilty:

That is certainly a part of it - but in general, the demand for wings outpaces the demand for the rest of the chicken, which creates waste and raises the cost of the wings relative to the rest of the bird. I suspect that lots of chickens are slaughtered solely for the wings and breast meat, and the rest ends up thrown out or underutilized.

I track these things closely. The chicken wing market is an interesting one. At $1.45 per wing, they're about 10-15 cents higher per wing than the city-wide average. And most places have a half off or bogo deal at some point during the week, bringing the wing price down close to $0.60 or $0.70 each. For comparison sake, I bought an entire rotisserie chicken at Kroger for $5 a couple weeks ago. Since most wing places take a wing, chop it in half - into a flat and a drumette - and sell it to you as two wings, you can get four wings and the rest of the entire chicken for cheaper than you can get 4 wings by themselves at most places.

Ron's Roost is a million times better than Raising Cane's. It's second only to Richie's, in my book, if only for the lack of some sort of spicy version.

I think Cincy got snubbed. The 4th spot was certainly tough this year. Whoever was chosen would be a multi-score underdog to Alabama. Notre Dame just got destroyed by the #2 team, who wants to watch a repeat of their poor performance? A&M already got routed by Alabama once, why let them go at it again? Oklahoma is a two loss team and one was at home to a bad 4-6 Kansas State team - they're probably the most overrated team of the bunch and certainly don't deserve a spot. Although Florida gives them a run for their money - they shouldn't even by in the top 10 after their home loss to what was a 4 win LSU team. IMO, UC should be ahead of those teams and would be if not for name recognition and P5 status. The only two who have an argument for being ahead are A&M and Notre Dame, but each has already lost convincingly to another playoff team. And don't even get me started on OSU not being assessed differently for playing half a schedule. IMO, if the NCAA is going to allow this to still be called a "playoff" in the future, it needs to be expanded. The model I like is 24 teams, with the top 8 getting a first round bye. Use the old BCS rankings to seed teams. All 10 conferences get an AQ. Shorten the regular season to 10 games and let all non-playoff teams play a pseudo bowl game. Call it "exhibition week" and make it something wild like literally picking teams out of a hat to determine matchups. This way every team gets at least 11 games, with a few playoff teams getting to 12-14 games, and a rare chance for a Cinderella to end up with 15 games. This would ensure that only one team ends the season with an undefeated record.

A few months ago I thought it'd be possible, if not likely, for the next council to have zero Republicans. But now there will be at least a couple people with name recognition come November. Keating has a good chance of keeping a seat, all she has to do is say the right things a few times and not take bribes. Plus, if PG continues to fight the charges with such vigor it could impact others downballot in his party if they don't distance themselves.

I think this development and the possible changes to Findlay Playground will help property values in Clifton Heights. As it stands, I think there's still a "gap" of sorts in the walk from the curve on Clifton Avenue to the area around Findlay Market. As in, it's a place I walked all the time, but not a place I'd suggest my wife walk alone. Especially after dark. On more than one occasion I've seen/heard something odd afoot in that little patch of woods just west of the Ohio steps. I remember walking down those steps a day or two before this was in the news, for example. But once Vine is developed past 5 points to Clifton Avenue, I think the floodgates will open for Clifton Heights. During Lumenocity, I walked down and remember cars lining the Clifton Avenue Hill to take advantage of the free parking. If that became the norm as development spreads up towards the hill, the walk would feel a lot safer, even at night. More eyes on the street always helps.

^ Glad to see it looks like they are keeping the U-Haul Clock Tower: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/u-haul-clock-tower-revitalization-in-flushing-queens

^ Yeah, there are two different mayors she was involved with - the Axios exposé has more info: Details: Fang engaged in sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern cities, said one U.S. intelligence official and one former elected official. At a 2014 conference in Washington, an older Midwestern mayor "from an obscure city" referred to Fang as his "girlfriend" and insisted the relationship was genuine despite the clear age difference between Fang and himself, according to former Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong, who was directly present for the conversation. Fang also had a sexual encounter with an Ohio mayor in a car that was under electronic FBI surveillance, said one current U.S. official. When the mayor asked why Fang was interested in him, Fang told him she wanted to improve her English, the same official said. The older mayor is the oddball, her typical target was a young, ambitious male politician who was a possible candidate for higher office in DC (Eric Swalwell being the prime example). Cranley fits the mold. I don't know enough about other city's mayors to come up with other suspects.

Odds are this is the wrong thread for this story, but the right one is somewhere on this site. Which ambitious, young, Ohio mayor would have had his car bugged by the FBI about 5 years ago? https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21147079/which-ohio-mayor-had-a-sexual-encounter-with-an-alleged-chinese-spy-in-a-car-that-was-under-fbi-surveillance

If there are no Republicans or other conservative leaning candidates in the primary, I think Smitherman would do extremely well and probably even take the top spot. There will be 4+ established, well known Democrats splitting the liberal vote, but Smitherman will get all of the conservative vote - including a portion of Cincinnati's religious/conservative black citizens. I had to look back at the Cranley/Simpson primary and was shocked to see that only 23,339 people voted. If 2021 has the same turnout, I could see Smitherman taking 8000 of the votes while the other ~16,000 votes get split somewhat evenly between the likes of Mann, Young, Thomas, Seelbach, and some PG holdouts. Whoever comes in second likely wins the general, though.

He's convinced himself that he's innocent and thinks quitting council would hurt his mayoral campaign. He's probably picturing a triumphant return to City Hall a month before the election. The latest stats I could find are from 2018 - and of the 79,704 people to face federal charges that year - only 320 went to trial and won. That's a long shot. And even if PG manages to get an acquittal, it will probably be the end of his career in politics. Tamaya Dennard and Jeff Pastor will likely both be sitting behind bars while a rich, young, white male walks on what are virtually the same charges (minus some nuance). Talk about bad optics for a progressive Democrat.

Re: number 2, the state law requires the city to pay, in full, both the suspended candidate and the temporary replacement until the charges are resolved.

PG is temporarily stepping down from council: https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/p-g-sittenfeld-to-temporarily-step-down-from-cincinnati-city-council-amid-federal-charges

I don't think there's much question as to whether or not WVXU has a liberal bias, is there? I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm not sure if that was a factor in their coverage of it, but as someone who used to be a donor - that bias is the reason they don't get a check from me anymore. The premise seems right, though - NPR and their affiliates have a subtle way of framing their coverage in a manner that is inherently bias. They aren't as obvious as WLW or the CNNs' and Fox News' of the world but the bias is real - which makes them even more dangerous, in my opinion. Their bias is obfuscated in the nuance of the quasi intellectual questions they ask and answer. They lead people to predetermined conclusions in a way that convinces them they did their own critical thinking. I'll try to watch the movie and listen to the Cincinnati Edition to confirm my speculation.

^ Here is the process that was followed to suspend Pastor from office and is now being used by the AG against Sittenfeld: https://codes.ohio.gov/orc/gp3.16v1 Assuming the same process unfolds (albeit with less cooperation on the part of Sittenfeld), Winkler, a Republican, will get to name Sittenfeld's temporary replacement. Sittenfeld could have a council member of his choice pick his replacement if he resigns (permanently), but I think he's way too into himself to do that. We will likely see him suspended by the state attorney general since his circumstances are virtually identical to Pastor's, meaning Winkler will get to pick another council member. It's possibly Sittenfeld will be on the mayoral primary ballot next spring while he is suspended from council.

I couldn't figure out a way to do it on that site. The FEC's website has quarterly and annual reports you can flip through that list all of the donors and expenses: https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00668640 I flipped through casually and there are some oddities in there - like $20,000 in donations from people and LLC's at the same address on Main Street. It looks like the exact same thing PG told the undercover FBI agents to do (you can see the FBI's donations, too, all from LLCs at Illinois addresses). I'm surprised no local journalist has bothered to flip through the FEC documents, look at the large donations, and cross reference them against what developments PG was pushing and/or voting at the time. FOX 19 hinted at it, but didn't do any of the legwork.

Here's a link to the PAC's public info: https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/progress-growth-pac/C00668640/donors/2020 I thought I'd poke around and see what other names are on the donor rolls. There are lots of interesting $5000 donors over the last several the years. Mom and Dad, of course, but dozens of others - some familiar, some not so. Some - perhaps - proceeding tangentially related council votes? I doubt these FBI agents were the first people PG brazenly asked for money from, I wonder who else got shaken down over the years? It's also interesting to see how PG had started to use the money. A few "consultants," other PACs, and candidates like Charmaine McGuffey and Kate Schroder, among others - financed by what was, at least in part, dirty money.

This will come back to haunt the county the next time an issue comes up that asks for a temporary tax hike. The commissioners burned a bridge by making the icons tax permanent with the swipe of a pen instead of asking the voters to decide. Although I share the surprise at how quickly people have forgotten about this. Everyone still complains about Paul Brown Stadium funding, yet the surprise permanence of the Icons tax was just as conniving of a political maneuver and will cost the taxpayer $40 million every year, forever..

That's a bizarre site for an apartment complex. That corner is one of the most pastoral areas inside the city limits. The stuff on the other side of Spring Grove Cemetery around Wooden Shoe Hollow takes the cake, though. The old greenhouse chimneys are an interesting sight. It's a very unique part of the city. This statement is true every day of the year. That group is hilarious.

I know when I moved to the suburbs it was almost entirely because of the schools, not the built environment. I'd have stayed in the city if it had schools that I could realistically send my kids to. The private schools we'd consider we're so costly that staying in the city made no financial sense at all. Ironically, in Cincinnati we actually had to move to the suburbs to find some diversity. Our kids will be mixed race (White and Asian) and we wanted to live in an area and school district that had some other Asian and/or mixed race kids. Cincinnati's only real urban Asian population is composed of college students clustered around UC. The vast majority of Asian families live in the northern suburbs.

I know her name is "McGuffy" but I can't stop hearing "McGruffy" and thinking about these old infomercials: That said, I listened to the Cincinnati Edition and agree with the sentiment that she seems a bit unhinged. She talks in platitudes that might sound good to the voter base she needs, but they seem to indicate she doesn't really know what she's talking about. I suspect that if elected, she'll have very few loyal followers in the department and struggle to achieve much because of that lack of support.