LincolnKennedy

It's the classice Bait and Switch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch I know you didn't need the Wikipedia reference, I just thought it was funny that they had an entry on it. Anyway, Bronson is getting his audience angry about the red-light cameras, and then moving their anger toward that to something completely unrelated, the streetcar. Really the Bronson column is in and of itself an example of the bait and switch. We go to a newspaper assuming unbiased information reporting from multiple sources, and we read an article where one source is referenced. It reminds me of the "comparison" between downtown Cincinnati and downtown Indianapolis The Enquirer made back a year or so. They compared an 0.8 square mile of Cincy with 4.8 (or so) square mile of Indy. Real accurate. Those red-light cameras are nothing but a way for the City to make money. They do not improve safety. They tried to get those through when Luken was still mayor and they lossed in Council. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't pass this time either. Well, a fatal car accident is a crime. There's no reason to think you are going to get assaulted on public transit more than anywhere else.

This is probably the biggest problem the average citizen has in understanding how government works.

I don't understand. Why is this awesome?

Or from New York City. Maybe Citibank will move here to save some of all that mortgage money they lost.

Swish. You win.

The refurbishment of Over-the-Rhine doesn't require moving any law-abiding residents out of the neighborhood, since so much of the neighborhood is vacant. That doesn't mean there is any political will to make sure the current residents can stay. The United States is atypical in having the majority of it's poor located in the center city. If you look at Manhattan, San Francisco, etc., (and even Cincinnati- how many people with incomes below the poverty line live downtown?) the trend seems to be that American cities will end up conforming to the style typical of the rest of the world.

I re-read the entire series of articles and have to say that I think this is the most important point (from the second article): Now it is clear that the problems of the major cities didn't start in the mid 90s. While Mayor Plusquellic may be going too far in his statement, implying conspiracy, the complete and utter disrespect for the semi-sovereign rights (I will go as far as to say that) of chartered cities, i.e. public corporations, is a revocation of freedom and democratic rights. I always wondered why Cincinnati didn't have a workers residency law (though I'm not saying that such a law is necessarily a positive). What I don't understand is why these usurpations weren't challenged legally. Or if they were, on what grounds did the State Supreme Court rule against the cities? Public corporations have lost more and more of their rights over time (an excellent book- Citymaking by Gerald Frug, describes this process), but I wouldn't be surprised if the cities didn't put up much of a fight. It seems to me that there needs to be something written into the state Constitution that could guarantees a place for the eight major cities of Ohio and guarantees certain corporate privileges to them. Perhaps a third category for public corporations aside from just cities and villages.

I re-read my previous post on this and I think the thrust of my argument is pretty clear. You don't seem to understand my point or how I am presenting it. I'm not particularly interested in re-hashing this.

^And Alcoa, and Heinz, and Mellon Financial. Excellent point.

If this is the case then I suppose modern society is doomed to be leaderless, because this sort of thing is the birth and thrust of modern management. I've never worked on an assembly line, though I have worked in what I always termed a "machine shop". Assembling 300 air whip hoses in a day certainly wasn't terribly stimulating, and perhaps it has effected my mental acuity, but it certainly didn't stop me from being able to make my own decisions after work. I still think the statement is specious on its face and racist in its implication, even if the man didn't consciously mean to put it that way.

Interesting fact: After the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was taken over by radical students in 1979 they pumped that place full of smooth jazz sounds for the entire 444 days of confinement. And they call us the Great Satan!

Here's a quote from an article in today's Enquirer about selecting an architect for the Banks project that supports Cramer's point about these public/private partnerships: Article link: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/BIZ01/712140357/1076

I think it is absurd to suggest that the hierarchy of steel mill is unique in its ability to squelch independent thought in their workers. I don't see the difference between what you are suggesting and what I considered to be what Morrison was implying.

I wouldn't put much hope in that. Initiatives of questionable value become worth paying for when the "right" people want them. Is their any other explanation for the sound barriers along I-71?

Well, do you prefer the term ethnocentrist? Who constitutes "immigrant" in American history? A broad view would say that every ethnic group except Native American Indian would qualify as an immigrant. But the clear though unstated implication is Eastern European, Southern European and perhaps Irish, either way overwhelmingly Catholic, in essence, people who did not come from the original stock of British settlers. This sort of prejudice may not be considered racism today but it certainly was when it was most virulent, termed as such by the proponents. When Teddy Roosevelt railed against "hyphenated Americans" he was not talking about African Americans. So I believe I termed it correctly, though it may not seem that way to some who may not have an historical perspective.

^Great point. That is a real tragedy, and one of the many horrible things about large media corporations. Back in the day when radio and TV stations were locally owned, they actually produced their own programming. No you just get whatever corporate puts out. This is progress? I'm sure Steve Allen was objectively funnier than Paul Dixon, but it's still a shame that there isn't room for guys like that anymore. But I wouldn't worry too much about Willie. What these corporate media hacks gain in audience share they lose in influence.

The taxing power mentioned above is the prerogative of all cities in Ohio and villages too, I believe. Unincorporated areas (i.e. townships) do not have this power, which is one of the reasons companies like to move into these jurisdictions, though most corporations in the area are still headquartered in incorporated communities (Cincinnati, Blue Ash, Mason). A city is an incorporated community with a population above 5,000 while a village has a population of fewer than 5,000. I think that is the only difference between the two, although I believe there are fewer members of a village council than a city council. So for example, when the Village of Indian Hill grew to over 5,000 people recently, and they could not legally call themselves a village anymore, they changed their name to the City of the Village of Indian Hill. No joke. The payroll tax that you mention falls on both workers and residents- so if you live in the City of Cincinnati but don't work there, you pay the tax to Cincinnati, and if you work in Cincinnati but don't live there, you pay the tax as well. If you both live and work in Cincinnati you are only taxed once (I believe). If you live in Cincinnati and work in Milford, like I did for a couple of summers, you pay to both Cincinnati and Milford, though they have different rates. I remember a while back that some bill was mooted in the statehouse about giving townships the right to tax to pay for certain things. I think the whole idea was to apply a tax on non-residents in the townships, so basically those who worked at all those new businesses. I don't believe that the bill was passed- it certainly went against the spirit of nearly a millennium of tradition of representative government, but who gives a damn about that in Columbus?

I think the above statement is pretty racist. I think the lack of money and the relatively rapid destruction of the local economy probably has more to do with the powerlessness. The local economic elites in places like Youngstown can cash out and move on to brighter prospects, which the average mill worker can't. A perfect example, albeit from Dayton, is the Cox family. The airport is named after Cox, the newspaper is still owned by them, but after Atlanta got big they moved Cox Enterprises down there from Dayton. No other reason. They owned the Atlanta Journal since 1939 but only moved down there sometime after the Second World War.

Great pictures. Those views of the Parliament across the river are impressive.

Just curious cuz I don't know how it works, but does 3CDC offer a decent price, or does the property sell for whatever market value is (rather than holding out and making them offer a higher price)? We held our property for two years and the initial buy was cheap, so we made quite a good return on it. The intention from the initial purchase wasn't to flip it to the government, but we had an opportunity to move on another building at a much better location soon after we purchased Pleasant, so 1531 got put on the back-burner. When this opportunity to sell to 3CDC came up my sister was enthusiastic about it. I had moved out of town by that time, so she handled the negotiations and details. I was pleased with the profit and am still hopeful they won't tear the buildings down.

Something "the man" may want to consider when the streetcar becomes fully operational is to have ticket ATMs that will discharge tickets for parking as well. You pay for your time, the machine gives you a ticket and you display it in your windshield. They could start doing this for all downtown.

^Aside from discouraging any sense of responsibility or ownership (the same reason there is such a high rate or abandonment of free puppies) free transit on the streetcar is a pretty inefficient way to pay for it. Instead of charging the people who ride it, you'd be charging the merchant (and therefore their customers) or property owners whose businesses or property would benefit from the value added. That's quite a round about way of going at it.

What was the address of this building, if you don't mind me asking? 1531 Pleasant. The property consisted of two buildings, both shells.

^Isn't there a Lookout Joe's right in the Federated Building on 7th just barely west of Vine? Is it really that far of a walk?

^Prepare to have you ass handed to you by the pro-district crowd. The Blue Wisp was in O'Bryonville before it moved to Garfield Place. I think it was where the Chateau Pomijie or however you spell it is now. I saw an episode of WKRP when Johnny Fever reconnects with a daughter he had and there is a poster for the Blue Wisp in his apartment.