Yeah total nonsense from Cranley.  People should be shamed for throwing out that much stuff.  What the hell are they doing?  I live by myself and generate about two bags of garbage per month, most of it junk mail. 

 

Jake, while you may be a proponent of many green initiatives, the issue with the trash is more of a public health issue. Ultimately, in Clifton and OTR and gentrified areas of town where people are educated on conservation, this seems silly, but for the many people who live in low income housing recycling and sustainability issues are really not that important to them. Secondly, it is challenge enough just to get them to throw their trash away in the dumpster or trash can in many cases that limiting them to one can just exacerbate litter and trash and create a public health problem in areas that already have enough other issues to be concerned with. Practically, the one trashcan limit was not working. Chalk it up to tried it and failed.

The print edition headline for this Enquirer article is, "BIG IDEAS FROM BIKES TO BEER":

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/18/cranley-next/15779273/

 

Worthiness aside, are any of these ideas - a grocery store, restaurant, beer garden or bike trail truly big ideas?  Can they really be considered big ideas coming from the mayor of a city that's the hub of a metro area with a 2 M+ population?

Reading this and watching the video really shows how trading Mallory for Cranley has thrown a wrench into progress in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, other cities continue moving ahead. We've been set back for 4 years at least, and potentially 8 or more.

 

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/pittsburghs-mayor-wants-copenhagenize-his-city-video.html

I would not be holding up Pittsburgh as the example we want to emulate

I would not be holding up Pittsburgh as the example we want to emulate

 

That seems a little closed-minded. They don't need to be an end-goal to be an example to emulate.

I honestly think Cranley is "trying" to do better now. Just stupid-trying.

 

Like his Burnet Woods proposal? Overall not a bad idea. Bier garden in Mt. Airy forest? Horrid idea. Surefire way to get more drunk drivers, or it will just be a looming boondoggle conservatives can point to later... or is that what he really wants?

 

(realization of that motive while typing btw. Cranley might be championing large, doomed projects just so this city doesn't move forward in the future. And so they will overshadow any streetcar success. Thoughts?)

I would not be holding up Pittsburgh as the example we want to emulate

 

That seems a little closed-minded. They don't need to be an end-goal to be an example to emulate.

 

No, it was just that I was recently in Pittsburgh and left very underwhelmed of the area.

I would not be holding up Pittsburgh as the example we want to emulate

 

That seems a little closed-minded. They don't need to be an end-goal to be an example to emulate.

 

No, it was just that I was recently in Pittsburgh and left very underwhelmed of the area.

 

Agree to disagree, but that is a strange reason to say we shouldn't look at Pittsburgh for anything positive. I can't stand Charlotte, NC, but I'm not going to write it off as something we can't learn from. They are definitely doing things really well that we can learn from.

 

Back to Cranley, I don't think his plans for a biergarten and grocery store are purposely bad for the city. I just think he doesn't have any broad, systemic changes he would like to make. He's not a big picture kind of guy.

Can anyone remember where it was Cranley said he was a supporter of a city-county merger? That was a big picture idea, though ironically it came a couple weeks after he told Aaron Renn that he believed Cincinnati would be better for having stopped annexing suburbs.

If there was one video that sums up John Cranley's mayorship, it would be Cranley driving a convertible through a giant banner to celebrate the opening of a new downtown parking garage:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/10/01/reinvented-tower-place-mall-adds-new-pizza-concept.html

Oh wow. That was lame.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-QW2YhKq-A

If there was one video that sums up John Cranley's mayorship, it would be Cranley driving a convertible through a giant banner to celebrate the opening of a new downtown parking garage:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/10/01/reinvented-tower-place-mall-adds-new-pizza-concept.html

 

A parking garage with a Domino's Pizza.

If there was one video that sums up John Cranley's mayorship, it would be Cranley driving a convertible through a giant banner to celebrate the opening of a new downtown parking garage:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/10/01/reinvented-tower-place-mall-adds-new-pizza-concept.html

 

A parking garage with a Domino's Pizza.

 

Interestingly enough, Cranley's wife's family heirloom (Gold Star Chili) was closed in order to build this parking garage.  I think it and Subway were a couple of the last things to operate in there.

Poor John Cranley doesn't like receiving the same treatment he gives to anybody he personally dislikes:

 

He believes criticism is motivated not by facts, but "an oppositional approach to anything I recommend, even when it's a plan to reduce poverty."

 

From: Cranley aims to help city's poor - but at what cost? (http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/27/cranley-aims-help-citys-poor-cost/17983091/)

Council gives preliminary OK to plan to spend Cincinnati's $14 million surplus

 

"A Cincinnati City Council majority approved a plan to allocate a $14 million surplus proposed by Mayor John Cranley and City Manager Harry Black on Monday, but some council members said that not enough input had been gathered."

 

"The vote was the first test of a major Black proposal before City Council, although it was clear Cranley played a major role in what ideas the city manager offered. Sittenfeld, Seelbach and Councilman Wendell Young criticized Black for offering up ways to spend the surplus before most members even knew there was one and had a chance to weigh in."

 

Hmmm, one interesting expenditure in the plan...

 

"Giving $1 million to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. The money will be used to reimburse the port for legal expenses it incurred when council and the mayor scuttled the proposed parking lease deal late last year. The port had been set to sell bonds to complete the transaction when council aborted the plan."

 

So Cranley's "pause" of the streetcar project cost the city $1 million, and his cancellation of the parking deal cost us another $1 million.

^ I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the article.

 

However, it's not really that surprising. Cranley isn't a fiscal conservative any more than he is an urbanist. He is a political opportunist and ran on pitching neighborhoods against downtown and anti-streetcar against pro-streetcar. If you could say he's for anything in particular, it's transferring money from income-generating parts of the city like downtown to west-side neighborhoods that he considers neglected.

Cran man just endorsed Cecil Thomas over Charlie win burn for state senate.  One of the reasons he said was because he wants to keep Charlie on council as chairman of the budget and finance committee. 

 

Cranley is worried that if winburn is elected,  the new council member elected in 2015 might be a progressive and break his conservative council majority voting block

 

 

^He might do that anyway by snubbing Winburn.  I can't imagine he's too happy about this development.

"I really can't decide who to vote for in the 9th Senate district. Better wait for Mayor Cranley's endorsement." - said no one ever

Cecil Thomas is a Democrat.  John Cranley is a Democrat.  Winburn is a Republican. 

Cecil Thomas is a Democrat.  John Cranley is a Democrat.  Winburn is a Republican. 

 

Anyone who is trying to represent the Hamilton County Democratic Party is going to officially endorse Thomas. Anyone who is thinking strategically is going to vote for Winburn.

@flemishinus said on twitter: @ChrisCinciBiz at a speech at the Masonic center he said that the red bike was an example of public transportation versus 19e century rail

 

Referring to John cranley

Haha! Because bikes weren't around in the 19th Century! I GET IT!

 

Oh, wait...

Here's the audio

 

http://static.theflypod.com/episodes/cmc-speaker/

 

"The red bike is more of the excitement of the future than 19th century technology" John cranley on the streetcar(and really all rail)

 

Is towards the end during q and a on red bikes

I'm so confused by him. If he was just against it, whatever, as long as his reasoning made sense. But it just never has. He makes such contradictory statements.

 

"It won't benefit anyone" followed by "those who benefit the most are the property owners along the route." Well, which is it? No benefit, or exactly what the people who want the streetcar have been claiming it will do?

 

Now this. Bicycles predate electric streetcars (the oldest form of rail which is functionally similar to our modern streetcar) by about 6 decades.  Maybe someone should send him a timeline?

I'm so confused by him. If he was just against it, whatever, as long as his reasoning made sense. But it just never has. He makes such contradictory statements.

 

"It won't benefit anyone" followed by "those who benefit the most are the property owners along the route." Well, which is it? No benefit, or exactly what the people who want the streetcar have been claiming it will do?

 

Now this. Bicycles predate electric streetcars (the oldest form of rail which is functionally similar to our modern streetcar) by about 6 decades.  Maybe someone should send him a timeline?

 

Just remember he's first and foremost a politician.  He's trying to save face after the streetcar and now the plan is to stop Wasson way rail while creating a wedge between bike and rail supporters

He's not trying to save face; he is trying to manipulate and capitalize on populist sentiment. And, yes, divide & conquer bike/bus/rail supporters.

From the Cincinnati Streetcar Facebook page

 

 

We're getting up to speed on this Wasson Way situation. Apparently the mayor pulled some underhanded tricks last week that would lead to a ban on light rail FOREVER on this vital corridor. Let's keep a sharp eye on Wasson Way!

That Cincinnati Magazine article on Red Bike is such a shill for Cranley.  He's trying very hard to court some Urbanists - ditto on his interview with the Urbanophile a few months back.  Everyone needs to remind everyone else what his history is.

That Cincinnati Magazine article on Red Bike is such a shill for Cranley.  He's trying very hard to court some Urbanists - ditto on his interview with the Urbanophile a few months back.  Everyone needs to remind everyone else what his history is.

 

The thing he said to Renn that most appealed to me, his suggestion that a metro government is a bad idea because in the long run it's better to have a denser city, he turned around and said the opposite a couple weeks later, that he would support merging with the county to eliminate redundancies and save costs.

If the Mayor does anything that is remotely considered "urbanist" its purely by accident or for political cover (like bike share).

I don't believe the mayor's office has a positive view of "urbanists" and has a lot of misconceptions about who they are and what they want.

If the Mayor does anything that is remotely considered "urbanist" its purely by accident or for political cover (like bike share).

 

Oddly enough, Cranley just took credit for the bikes, but the city had been working on those for 2-3 years. The idea came out of Leadership Cincinnati's Class 34 and Transportation and Engineering worked hard to make it happen.

Ticket amnesty for canned goods? Not so fast

Sharon Coolidge, [email protected] 7:33 p.m. EST December 5, 2014

 

Paying old 2014 parking tickets off with 10 cans of food that would be given to the Freestore Foodbank sounded like a win-win – people could clear tickets ahead of increased enforcement next year and feed the hungry.

 

But it's not that easy.

 

Councilman Chris Seelbach, who proposed the idea, called it a "good-will initiative." But Mayor John Cranley called the idea "reckless."

 

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/05/ticket-amnesty-canned-goods-fast/19972213/

Ex-planning commission chairman: Cranley wants a panel that will heel to himself, developers

Dec 11, 2014, 5:15pm EST Updated: Dec 12, 2014, 6:07am EST

Chris Wetterich Staff reporter- Cincinnati Business Courier

 

 

The former chairman of the Cincinnati Planning Commission said he is not surprised Mayor John Cranley replaced him on the commission and believes the mayor has set out to remake the panel into a less independent body.

 

"The mayor and I have not agreed on issues related to planning for quite some time now, going back 10 years," said Caleb Faux, who also is the executive director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/12/11/ex-planning-commission-chairman-cranley-wants-a.html?page=all

From the above article:

 

Cranley opposes form-based code. During the mayoral campaign, he said form-based code could lead to unwanted businesses opening up near residential areas and too much government control of property.

 

That sentence says it all.  Cranley just doesn't get it.

 

 

Former Council Member Greg Harris:

 

However, [Cranley's] unwillingness to engage and instead ridicule and disregard the city's emergent and passionate "urbanist" base is troubling and short cited. We now have a loud, vocal and proud community of people who are passionate about Cincinnati; when I moved here in the 90's, everyone bashed the city. The mayor's inclination towards a politics of division may be effective, but that doesn't make it right. His closed mindedness on the role transit can play in supporting urban core clustered development is frustrating, as are his traditional views on street use (e.g. opposing Central Pwy bike lanes). From what I see, the people riding bikes for daily transportation are mostly not the privileged class. For reasons of health, safety and economics, work to get more bikes to low income kids and adults, and give them safe streets to ride on.

This was from a facebook post forwarded by "Finish the Cincinnati Streetcar"...

 

According to a Facebook post by Senate owner Daniel Wright, Mayor Cranley's wife called Wright and threatened to 'have Senate shut down' because Wright named a hotdog in Cranley's honor (he's named hotdogs after many local politicos over the years). Cranley then proceeded to publicly call out Wright at the grand opening of Nick Lachey's bar last night and demanded that Wright apologize to Mrs Cranley. Wright took the post down in the middle of the night. One wonders how many phone calls Wright received from Cranley's henchmen insisting that he delete the post. Is there a thinner-skinned politician in the region than John Cranley?

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=900470936630769&set=gm.875866812431687&type=1&theater

Oh geez. It was a funny dog, though.

I was just watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Part’s Unknown in which he travels to Mexico. There was a story about a popular restaurant that pissed off a daughter of some official, who called in the health department to shut the place down on a busy night. The parallel between the methods used by corrupt Mexican government officials and the Cranley clan is interesting.

This was from a facebook post forwarded by "Finish the Cincinnati Streetcar"...

 

According to a Facebook post by Senate owner Daniel Wright, Mayor Cranley's wife called Wright and threatened to 'have Senate shut down' because Wright named a hotdog in Cranley's honor (he's named hotdogs after many local politicos over the years). Cranley then proceeded to publicly call out Wright at the grand opening of Nick Lachey's bar last night and demanded that Wright apologize to Mrs Cranley. Wright took the post down in the middle of the night. One wonders how many phone calls Wright received from Cranley's henchmen insisting that he delete the post. Is there a thinner-skinned politician in the region than John Cranley?

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=900470936630769&set=gm.875866812431687&type=1&theater

 

I'm confused.  Why would Wright need to apologize to Mrs. Cranley?

Excuse me, Napoleon!

It was probably a cocktail weiner!

EDIT: I didn't read above. 

NSFW, a giant dick is floating down the Ohio River: http://i.imgur.com/y2sN93F.jpg

 

The comments are golden. Guess how many are about Cranley?

Somebody asked if it was a Vienna sausage.  <snort>

A letter to Mayor Cranley from Milton W. Hinton and Calvert Smith, former presidents of the Cincinnati NAACP:

 

The NAACP is the most effective organization ever assembled to fight for civil rights and equality. Although nonpartisan, the NAACP's leadership has led it into the morass of partisan politics negating civil rights agendas. Such is contradictory to its constitution, bylaws and traditions.

 

It has come to our attention that an Enquirer article of 12-12-14 listed you among the supporters of the incumbent for president of the NAACP. By extrapolation that suggests your support of the leadership's decision to take legal action against the National office – and having done so just after you signed an agreement with it to have the much coveted Convention convene here in 2016. The Enquirer article noted that "things are in such a mess" and "in disarray" at the local NAACP chapter. Such "disarray" and "mess" can be directly attributed to the politicizing of the chapter. Your support of its leadership suggests you are a participant in the politicizing process.

 

The Enquirer named, as co-supporters of the leadership, an Independent city councilman, the County Republican Party Chairman and the Mayor of Cincinnati. In the previous NAACP election the Enquirer reported that another Republican (Hamilton County Prosecutor) gave the NAACP $25,000 just two months before he was re-elected. (His opponent was an African American female). What you have in common is that you are all politicians. You are the lone Democrat. Strange "bed fellows" indeed and all of whom seem to have more than a passing interest in who will lead the NAACP. But why?

 

When running for election you publicly rejected the support of COAST. Yet you publicly support the leadership of an organization which has a well publicized relationship with COAST. The Enquirer once reported "the NAACP and COAST have a successful track record of getting issues to the ballot and passed." You reject COAST support when campaigning but support the leader of the organization that partners with COAST. Seems a double standard.

 

The Republican Party's new "Growth and Opportunity Plan" developed after their loss of the Presidential Election, contains a section addressing ways in which the Republican Party can reach minorities. Section IV of the Plan, item 3 reads as follows:

 

"Establish a presence in African American communities and in black organization such as the NAACP."

 

Their efforts have been successful in Cincinnati. Conservative and right wing groups have established a "presence" in the local NAACP with the aid and consent of the leadership. At one point the National Office sent to the leadership a "cease and desist notice" as the leadership had endorsed a Republican candidate for council.

 

The Branch has become a purely political entity. With the weighty and voluminous matters facing our city, we are puzzled as to why you would choose to become involved in determining the next leader of the NAACP. Do you really support inclusion, a critical undergirding of the NAACP agenda, or like so many others similarly situated simply mouth that which is expedient for election?

 

Your support of the present leadership exacerbates the already over politicized local NAACP.

One of Cranley's biggest political mistake was buddying up to Chris Smitherman.  He went so far as to call him a 'dear friend' in public on numerous occasions.  Smitherman is as unreliable and unpredictable as they get.  I predict there will be a falling out at some point...Just like everyone else has had with Smitherman.  Maybe not today, this week, this month, or this year, but the history shows us that that is a high probability

 

This whole backing of the local NAACP leadership, with numerous tea party and talk radio members, is bizarre.  But then again, if he is running for the house seat against Chabot in the future, things like this and the streetcar could solidify him

^C'mon, Cranley is not doing the stuff he's doing as mayor to position himself for a Congressional seat.  The demographics of that Chabot district make it a no-win situation for Democrats anyway.  He gets into fights that are completely unnecessary because he's watched to many TV shows and movies about politics, and wants to feel like he's a big shot.  He's got an effective majority on Council, and the only places he consistently loses that majority is when he tries to do something that is already in the works and purely spiteful against the previous administration.

The demographics of that Chabot district make it a no-win situation for Democrats anyway.

 

I think that's why he moved from the west side to Mt. Lookout, so he wouldn't' have to run against Chabot in the 1st District. The 2nd District is more competitive because Brad Wenstrup doesn't have the name recognition or history.