On 2/26/2020 at 12:28 PM, Brutus_buckeye said:

Did you go to the Dominican ?

 

No, I didn't dare ask my parents, and I was so turned off by the post-mission trip candlelight vigils that I didn't want to. 

 

My parents were too cheap to pay for me to do the Kairos retreat, which pretty much all Catholic high school students do in Cincinnati.  It was about $300 and you missed 1 or 2 days of school so my dad said no. 

St.X makes you pay extra for Kairos??

Yeah, that's weird.  My old high school didn't have to pay anything for that wack-@ss "retreat."

3 hours ago, 3231 said:

St.X makes you pay extra for Kairos??

 

Yes, it did at the time.  I did do the junior retreat, which was only one night at the fabulous Milford Spiritual Center (which is where I'm told the Kairos retreats took place, but I don't know first-hand), but I don't remember if it cost money or not.

 

The only thing I remember from the retreat was that I was in a small group with a guy who remarked that I didn't seem like I ever got embarrassed.  That guy now makes like 10x more than me, which I find embarrassing.   

 

 

 

 

I was in a Kairos group that literally cried over a grapefruit spoon.  "We've never seen this before...we feel so poor!  Are we poor?  God, why are we poor?"

 

Again, a grapefruit spoon.

Well you know, they look like vampire spoons and vampires are rich

1 hour ago, ColDayMan said:

Again, a grapefruit spoon.

 

I didn't know what one was until just now, thanks Google. 

 

The girl I went out with senior year wouldn't tell me the "secrets of Kairos" but told me that she could tell that girls were making up abuse stories to get attention. 

On Saturday night a staffer at Salazar tipped off the twitter mob and they marched over and shouted at Cranley until he got up and left the restaurant.  I heard that his kid cried.  

 

Probably not the best time for Cranley to go out to eat in OTR if he doesn't want to confront the protestors in OTR who are demanding change...

2 minutes ago, taestell said:

Probably not the best time for Cranley to go out to eat in OTR if he doesn't want to confront the protestors in OTR who are demanding change...

Jen Mendoza is a nutjob. I am all for the right to protest, but  in my opinion she is completely unhinged from the times I have seen her act on social media . Not surprised she is lashing out even more 

Edited June 9, 20205 yr by Brutus_buckeye

 

In Cincinnati's political system, the Mayor is supposed to be little more than a figure head, with the City Manager and professional department heads in charge of the day-to-day operation of the city. But in reality, if you don't do exactly what the Mayor demands, he makes your life a living hell until you have no choice but to resign.

Mayor’s wife, former chief of staff spar over Hyde Park zoning matter

 

Dena Cranley, Mayor John Cranley’s wife, and his former chief of staff, Jay Kincaid, found themselves at odds over a Hyde Park homeowner’s attempt to subdivide her 1-acre Observatory Avenue property and allow a new home to be built on it in the back yard.

 

Property subdivisions have become a major controversy on Cincinnati’s east side, with homeowners seeking to carve up their massive lots and build new homes upon them. The Cincinnati Planning Commission has faced repeated votes on the topic, with homeowners asserting their right to do with their property as they please within the zoning code, while neighbors have accused them of “ruining” Hyde Park.

 

The latter was the view of Dena Cranley on Friday, while Kincaid, hired as a consultant for homeowner Diane Rohs, was advocating for the opposite. Kincaid managed Mayor Cranley’s successful 2013 mayoral campaign, became his chief of staff during his first term, worked on the mayor’s 2017 re-election campaign and founded a lobbying firm.

 

“Jay Kincaid, hello, I love you, but you do not live in Hyde Park or Mount Lookout,” Dena Cranley told Kincaid, who attended the meeting via the Zoom app. “The lot splits are ruining the charm of Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout. I have a huge yard. Imagine me selling my backyard and building a huge house bigger than my own. I am very concerned about the water erosion. I’m concerned about the privacy issues and having to ruin the aesthetics in our neighborhood.”

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/19/mayors-wife-ex-chief-of-staff-spar-over-zoning.html

 

25 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

homeowner’s attempt to subdivide her 1-acre Observatory Avenue property and allow a new home to be built on it in the back yard.

 

Here is the property...honestly a new house near the neighbor's pool probably wouldn't look too bad. 

 

^ One of the owners of that home has posted on NextDoor in response to people getting upset about the notification of a subdivision. If I remember correctly, he really stressed that they loved the home and that they have zero interest in demolishing the building, which is what everyone assumed. His explanation for wanting the subdivision was that they are trying to sell but can't find a buyer because no one wants to pay the property taxes. The implication is that it's too easy for people to build new mansions and get the construction abated. I don't see how the property taxes would be that much lower with 20% less land but do what you can I guess.

^I'd hate to see what people would say about the property taxes if the place was in Columbus since Columbus has no rollback and the base rates there are higher. They might double!

3 hours ago, Dev said:

^ One of the owners of that home has posted on NextDoor in response to people getting upset about the notification of a subdivision. If I remember correctly, he really stressed that they loved the home and that they have zero interest in demolishing the building, which is what everyone assumed. His explanation for wanting the subdivision was that they are trying to sell but can't find a buyer because no one wants to pay the property taxes. The implication is that it's too easy for people to build new mansions and get the construction abated. I don't see how the property taxes would be that much lower with 20% less land but do what you can I guess.

They dont have to be much lower for him, he gets to pocket an extra $200k plus in the land sale. It will offest a lot of property taxes.

 

19 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

Here is the property...honestly a new house near the neighbor's pool probably wouldn't look too bad. 

 

It seems like a rather awkward lot to subdivide. 

Are shared driveways on separate parcels allowed in Cincinnati today? New ones, I mean.

Edited June 21, 20204 yr by GCrites80s

On 3/4/2020 at 12:07 AM, jmecklenborg said:

 

No, I didn't dare ask my parents, and I was so turned off by the post-mission trip candlelight vigils that I didn't want to. 

 

My parents were too cheap to pay for me to do the Kairos retreat, which pretty much all Catholic high school students do in Cincinnati.  It was about $300 and you missed 1 or 2 days of school so my dad said no. 

I went to Catholic grade school and High school in NE Ohio around Akron/Canton. We never once went on any such retreats. I've never even heard of it. It even sounds creepy.

 

We once had a field trip planned to go to Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum in Detroit in 3rd grade where they wanted to hire a plane to fly us. One kids parents objected to flying, so we went on chartered bus. That's about my weirdest Catholic School story. My parents would have paid without question..to fly to Detroit? 

23 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

They dont have to be much lower for him, he gets to pocket an extra $200k plus in the land sale. It will offest a lot of property taxes.

 

I agree with that but he never indicated that the current property taxes were too high for them now. I assume they could use the profits from the split to lower their asking price, making it more attractive to buy, but that was not explicitly mentioned. 

19 hours ago, metrocity said:

It even sounds creepy.

 

Everything in the Catholic Church and schools is a little creepy. 

 

It's the complete opposite of the Evengelical and Baptist churches, where the single women all sit up front to compete for the preacher's attention. 

The NY Times kisses Cranley's ass:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/business/major-league-soccer-stadiums.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

 

 

Quote

“It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done in my work,” Mr. Cranley said.

 

I hope and pray that Cincinnati some day has a mayor that gets as "excited" about building high-quality public transportation and adding more residents to the city, as John Cranley gets about building a stadium.

 

Quote

The new stadium fits snugly on a 15.5-acre site, most of it previously occupied by Stargel Stadium, a high school football stadium owned by Cincinnati Public Schools. F.C. Cincinnati agreed to replace the old facility with a $10 million stadium, which opened across the street last year.

 

This makes it sound like the team paid to replace an old, crumbling stadium with a new state-of-the-art one. In reality a just fine not-that-old stadium was replaced with a just fine new one across the street.

 

Quote

Mr. Berding, the club’s president, led the team’s response to concerns about gentrification, economic opportunity, displaced homeowners and businesses, traffic, and other issues in the West End neighborhood, where more than 6,000 people live, 80 percent of them in rental housing.

 

The author praises Berding for "leading the response" but does not add any more details relating to those concerns or what the team's response to those concerns would be. He strangely mentions that the neighborhood is 80% renters but not the fact that it is 85% Black. He does, however, include this quote about the team funding youth soccer and giving out some unspecified grants:

 

Quote

“F.C. Cincinnati has definitely put in work through their community service, bringing in youth soccer programs and the $100,000-per-year grants,” said Alexis Kidd-Zaffer, executive director of Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, a community service and development group. “Transformation, like stadiums, highways and developments in the name of progress, have often come at the cost of under-resourced Black communities across our country.”

 

What a joke of an article.

Council overrode a Cranley veto today.  

 

 

Governor Cranley talks to 4 or 5 people in Athens about solar panels:

https://www.athensnews.com/news/local/cincinnati-mayor-visits-athens-to-discuss-solar-power-and-gubernatorial-aspirations/article_3635d103-2f4c-57d6-8fd5-380dfa767618.html

Cranley is clearly thinking about his 2022 gubernatorial run but it's not clear how he's going to position himself. Some of his recent positions have been very bizarre.

 

He claims that the spike in crime in the city is due to bars closing at 10pm and he is asking DeWine to lift that order. Over the summer he harassed the Cincinnati Public Schools teachers' union on Twitter and demanded that CPS return to a full-time in-person classes. So I guess he is trying to appeal to COVID deniers?

 

 

He is going to position himself as a conservative pro business democrat who is socially liberal. It would be a race between 2 moderates, Dewine Center Right and Cranley Center Left. 

Just now, Brutus_buckeye said:

He is going to position himself as a conservative pro business democrat who is socially liberal. It would be a race between 2 moderates, Dewine Center Right and Cranley Center Left. 

 

In what ways is Cranley socially liberal?

DeWine would crush him.

20 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

DeWine would crush him.

 

This.  No one wants DeWine-lite.  And as GCrites80s has said in the past, no one in Ohio trusts a Cincinnati politician outside of the Cincinnati area.

I hope Cranley doesn't win the Democratic nomination. If he does, and he is up against DeWine, I will 100% vote for DeWine.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2020/09/04/its-necessary-cranley-powerless-stop-streetcar/5714911002/

Ha, they don't know who he is.

22 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

 

This.  No one wants DeWine-lite.  And as GCrites80s has said in the past, no one in Ohio trusts a Cincinnati politician outside of the Cincinnati area.

 

We don't trust them down here, either.

 

22 hours ago, taestell said:

 

In what ways is Cranley socially liberal?

 

He declared Cincinnati a sanctuary city, LGBT rights, his stances on BLM, etc. He hasn't done much policy wise, but he likes to take up the popular talking points.

 

I don't think his just-left of center stance is going to work well against an incumbent who is just-right of center and wildly popular. Plus, DeWine has a respectable and professional demeanor and Cranley comes off like he's trying to sell you an overpriced used car.

Anyone else think the Democratic primary for Governor might be Whaley / Cranley?

Rather see Whaley/Not Cranley.

9 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

Anyone else think the Democratic primary for Governor might be Whaley / Cranley?

Cranley will be a much stronger candidate statewide. He runs a bigger city so he has more name recognition there. Plus, he has a lot of allies in NE Ohio. He went to college in Cleveland and still have a lot of connections up there plus his time in government has developed them too. Whaley is from Indiana and pretty much limited her entire adult life to Dayton.

^Sounds like someone hasn't been in Columbus in a while. Whaley gets far more positive press here than Cranley.

People in Cleveland also are familiar with Whaley, at the very least because she did build some name recognition both during her failed governor bid and because of the tornadoes/shooting. I don't know anyone up north who actually knows who Cranley is other than other urban wonks, and they all hate him. NEO simply does not think about Cincinnati. 

11 minutes ago, BigDipper 80 said:

People in Cleveland also are familiar with Whaley, at the very least because she did build some name recognition both during her failed governor bid and because of the tornadoes/shooting. I don't know anyone up north who actually knows who Cranley is other than other urban wonks, and they all hate him. NEO simply does not think about Cincinnati. 

 

This. My friends in Cleveland know who Whaley is. None of them know who the mayor of Cincinnati is. 

Just now, DEPACincy said:

 

This. My friends in Cleveland know who Whaley is. None of them know who the mayor of Cincinnati is. 

But Cranley is well connected with the political class up there and has strong connections with some in the business community given his prior ties to the area. 

So was Mandel.

5 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

So was Mandel.

True. THe primary will provide the clearest answer to the question. Will have to see what happens in 18 months. 

 

The other thing to keep in mind now is that assuming Dewine continues to be popular. How many established names would be willing to throw their hat in the ring? An up an comer looking to develop a name, yes. 

 

Could Whaley and Cranley run a stealth campaign to raise money behind the scenes. I can see that happening. If DeWine's popularity craters, then they come out publiclly. If not, they never commit to running. Cranley built his name by running and losing for Congress, so he has nothing to gain by falling on his sword and losing to a popular governor or overperforming in a loss. I think Whaley is the same way. I would not think she has greater intentions unless she had a strong chance of winning, so acting as a foot solider and running a long shot race may not appeal to her either. 

Edited September 11, 20204 yr by Brutus_buckeye

DeWine and Husted were booed at the Trump rally today for being rational, and Wetterich has an interesting take:

 

 

This is the only way I could see Cranley winning. If DeWine gets primaried by some Trump-endorsed far right candidate, Cranley comes across as the only sane choice to many Ohioans.

11 hours ago, taestell said:

DeWine and Husted were booed at the Trump rally today for being rational, and Wetterich has an interesting take:

 

 

This is the only way I could see Cranley winning. If DeWine gets primaried by some Trump-endorsed far right candidate, Cranley comes across as the only sane choice to many Ohioans.

But Cranley essentially needs to stay a stealth candidate for as long as possible. 

I bet that Trump rally was 85 percent Harley guys. 

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

Edited December 15, 20204 yr by Ram23

Given that it said older Ohio mayor and 2011-15 Cranley would have been mid 30s-early 40s it is probably not him. Plus, he did not become mayor until 2014. 

 

So mayor Coleman maybe?

9 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

Given that it said older Ohio mayor and 2011-15 Cranley would have been mid 30s-early 40s it is probably not him. Plus, he did not become mayor until 2014. 

 

So mayor Coleman maybe?

 

It never said "older Ohio mayor."  That was for another Midwest mayor.  What it states is:

 

Axios reported last night on the tale of Christine Fang, a Chinese national who, according to a yearlong investigation by the outlet, worked as a spy and developed ties to politicians in California and across the country from 2011 until 2015, when she left the U.S. amid a tightening federal investigation.

...

Though officials said it was unlikely that she harvested any serious classified information from her targets, which were mainly young politicians on the rise, she did have access to intimate personal secrets as her relationships moved from professional to personal and even sexual.

...

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.

 

So clearly not Coleman (or any other larger city Ohio mayor) between 2011 and 2015.  So yes, it could be Cranley (who was mayor in 2014).

 

^ 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.