brian korte

The County Commissioners appoint folks to the board. You can file these appointments under "Friends of Chris" with their heavy COAST / Cincinnati Tea Party leanings. Remember, though, that HamCo only gets 3 of 13 members. City appoints 7 then one each from Warren, Butler and Clermont counties. Let us also not forget that only one of those entities provides operating dollars to SORTA.

What's the scoop? The current two vacancies on the SORTA Board were both Hamilton County Appointees Thanks Brad, I was just coming on here to say that. Can't disclose names or organizations yet though. Unless the new appointments are to replace these guys (in which I'll eat crow) I think according to this: http://www.bocc2.hamilton-co.org/sirepub/cache/2/4v0jxaorqllqm5y5pvoftphx/18455610142014034144417.PDF and this: http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/boards_commissions/docs/SORTA.asp The two new guys are: Jack Painter - Senior Counsel with Chemed Corporation. From 2011: He’s the head of the Indian Hills Tea Party, on the Advisory Board of the Cincinnati Tea Party, and on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Liberty Council (http://www.plunderbund.com/2011/02/18/meet-jack-painter-ohios-new-tea-partybreitbart-celebrity/) Daniel St. Charles - Couldn't find anything.

Interesting text of a (yet to be passed) City Council motion: I'm not really sure how significant this is, if at all, but I found it curious.

4 out of the 5 options presented to Commissioners today regarding moving the Board of Elections to Mt. Airy keeps early voting downtown. The Commissioners understand if they are going to move forward with a proposal and it includes the sales tax increase that they cannot also move early voting. They'll need to not have opposition from the City.

No city funds are being spent on this. It is a volunteer citizen panel. From a recent media release:

You can see the new language here: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/40727.pdf?rpp=-10&m=2&w=doc_no%3D%27201401097%27 I don't have a copy of an annotated version. I agree it is ludicrous that we know next to nothing about this amendment, however uncontroversial they claim it to be, and folks have already been voting for a week.

I am actually leaning very heavily toward voting for Winburn. This is why: Cecil Thomas is not the brightest bulb and I actually think my representative should be able to grasp the issues Charlie Winburn has a point that he'll be in the majority and have somewhat of a say for SW Ohio Charlie Winbrun has shown a deftness to vote for his constituency. While he'll vote with Republicans a lot (and it wouldn't matter if Cecil was there because the R's would win the vote anyway), he will also buck the party on issues that he thinks are beneficial to getting him re-elected. In other words, he'll represent the district because he likes being in office. If Charlie wins he'll no longer be on council and we can replace him with a progressive, hopefully, adding the a veto proof majority. My only fear is I don't trust John Cranley and who he might appoint to Finance if Charlie leaves.

This project is still moving forward. There has been a change to the plans, both the size of the floorplate (increasing) and the location of the buildings (shifting north). City Council is taking up this ordinance to change TIF boundaries in order to continue moving the project forward: Ordinance: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/40985.pdf?rpp=-10&m=2&w=doc_no%3D%27201401228%27 Map: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/40986.pdf?rpp=-10&m=3&w=doc_no%3D%27201401228%27

It was an HQ warehouse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Quarters_Warehouse. Basically the original Home Depot.

3CDC just closed on 1301 Walnut St. A fairly large apartment complex that I believe is full of low income residents. It will be interesting to learn their plans.

That's the CBD/OTR West TIF district that all of the properties are in, so there's no special treatment there. (There's also a CBD/OTR East TIF. As the Haile folks noted in their presentation regarding a Super SID, we already combine CBD and OTR in the same TIF district (well, two, east and west), so why not a SID also?)

I had a morning meeting at Paul Brown and walked the short distance to Main/2nd and rode up to Orchard/Main. I found the touch screen to be user friendly and intuitive and had no issues using my credit card to release a bike (I'm an annual pass holder but they haven't mailed those to folks yet, so the CC used when signing up currently acts as the RedBike pass). The ride up the hill was fast and easy. I got a few looks from folks wondering what this silly red bike with baskets everywhere was doing. When I docked the bike at Orchard/Main there were a couple neighborhood folks wondering what it all was so I stopped and chatted a bit to explain the system and the process. I'll be using it plenty to get from meeting-to-meeting or to events at Music Hall, Aronoff or shopping at Findlay and Kroger. I'm looking forward to using it more though still have my reservations about the availability of bikes and docking spaces during special events.

Red Bike starts on Monday at 10:30am. If you have signed up for an annual pass, like myself, you won't receive it until "sometime next week" according to UrbanCincy. However, you can use the credit card used to sign up for the annual pass to use a bike prior to receiving the actual Red Bike pass. Unfortunately, I only know this information because UrbanCincy wrote an article today and included that bit. I have received no communication at all from the Red Bike folks. I never received a confirmation that I purchased a pass (other than my credit card statement reflecting they took my money) nor have I been given information by Red Bike about the start of service. Inauspicious beginning, imo.

^If I had to guess it would be because the process was started with Roxanne and Mark Mallory and therefore it must be bad. Seriously. An anecdote from the most recent Westwood Coalition meeting regarding their future form based code and design of "Westwood Square": the ostensible opponents of FBC and the changes necessary for westwood square asked a "developer friend" of theirs to come discuss the potential changes from his point of view. To the surprise of all, and especially the folks who asked him to come speak, he opened with "You are so lucky to be making these changes using form based code." The opponents were wide-eyed and unhappy to hear him say this of course, while the other 85% of the community interested in seeing these changes were positively ecstatic. The naysayers will always be proven wrong. Cranley continues to be on the wrong side of every issue.

Enquirer article reads like they were upset they didn't get the exclusive. "Tax all of downtown / otr" for streetcar operations. Doesn't mention added benefits of the safe and clean program (among others) that would also come with an expanded SID. More negative comments from Cranley. And, I don't know why they would ask an elected official with nothing to do with the streetcar, negative comments from Greg Hartmann. Typical. As an OTR resident, I wouldn't agree with an OTR SID for streetcar ops, but I would agree with this Super SID.

Looks like the changes to the zoning code to conform with Plan Cincinnati are on the Crancel chopping block. From a WVXU interview: That was in response to the Mt. Adams council opposing the allowance of taller buildings, which of course the Planning Department said would not be included in the second draft of the zoning code after hearing the residents' complaints.

After leaving the Reds game on Saturday I started thinking about the availability of both bikes and spots to return them during large events. If the program succeeds, then there will be a run on places to park a rented bicycle at the 2nd/Main st stop in front of the stadium. Additionally, I suspect there would be a run on bikes post-game, leaving other annual Red Bike members with no ride back up the hill. Is the Red Bike crew prepared to move bikes quickly during these special event periods or will folks just be out of luck? What do I do with a bicycle I ride from Orchard/Main to 2nd/Main for a baseball game but I have nowhere to park it in front of the stadium? I like the idea of Red Bike but those issues concern me. Also, is there an operating funding plan in place? If not, why not? If not, where is the outrage? How about releasing pricing structure and the ability to buy passes only two weeks prior to kickoff.... if the streetcar did these things everybody would be up in arms but since this is Cranley's biking baby there's nothing.

According to Kathy at Cincyopolis:

Not exactly. Indian Hill is all residential, no commercial, unlike Beverly Hills, and despite being a city (The City of the Village of Indian Hill) it purposefully has a low payroll tax rate. I'm almost positive that property taxes are the largest source of revenue for the Corporation of Indian Hill, though other things we associate with the Village, such as the school system and their water system, encompass larger areas than the Village and consequently get more and different revenue streams. Incorrect. The Village of Indian Hill does not set its own property tax, rather it receives property tax revenue from the County. The Village of Indian Hill currently receives a little less than $800,000 in revenue from property tax (with a total assessed property valuation in the village of $813M). On the other hand, they recently increased their income tax rate from 0.4% to 0.6% and they are projecting $10.3M in revenues from income taxes. Their next highest source of revenue is "other charges and fees for service" (think inspection fees, etc) which is $433K.

Sam Malone is a good bet. I would look for David Mann to get the Finance Chair.... unless Cranley goes full crazy and gives it to Smitherman.

In the newest enquirer article about the budget there is this nugget: How is this not considered a "one time appropriation?" This money isn't currently available for any year but this one and they would have to cut elsewhere or hope for increased revenue to continue to pay for it. Therefore, this budget is not structurally balanced.

Because (according to the mayor) they'll be injecting the pension fund with $100M (from the retiree health trust) prior to lowering the annual pension contribution (from 22% of payroll to 14% of payroll). The mayor and his team are ASSUMING this holds up in court and ASSUMING they will see declines in health costs and ASSUMING they'll see enough revenue increases from raising fees and adding parking meter attendants. A lot of assumptions for a so-called structurally balanced budget.

The Mayor has no power to make any changes. Five councilmembers have all the power. Lobby your councilmembers; they're already ticked he keeps proposing these police and fire plans with discussing it with them (see PG's tweets).

From the Enquirer article on the Mayor's meeting with the FTA: Oh so NOW he believes them!

Why are we letting them get away with moving the goal posts in the middle of the game, during a $250,000 expenditure to study costs to cancel vs continue? Mann and Flynn have repeatedly said that if the costs to cancel are close to the cost to continue then they would continue. That is without having any agreement on operating costs (though I know Flynn has always been concerned). If the audit shows Deatrick's numbers are true, they shouldn't have a choice but to continue and we're giving them that choice by saying, "Welp, no agreement in place to operate it so too bad." I understand the sentiment behind cooperation but John Cranley is refusing to allow for time to compromise: They are setting the terms of the debate and it's somehow no longer what this audit we're paying for is supposed to determine. Having said all that, I've collected a full petition of signatures and I'm hopeful a solution to operating costs can be reached in a week or we're successful lobbying the Feds to extend the deadline.