Porkopolis

Playhouse Considering Another Downtown Site

Facing stalled negotiations about building a facility at the long vacant site at Fifth and Race streets downtown, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is now considering a move one block east to a new structure that would be built atop the Macy’s department store that overlooks Fountain Square.

Fifth Third Bank has the development rights to build on top of Macy’s, and a company vice president confirmed to CityBeat this afternoon that it’s reviewing the feasibility of allowing the Playhouse and Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati to be part of a new project there.

“It’s very preliminary discussions that started about a week ago,” said William Moran, Fifth Third’s senior vice president for corporate facilities.

Playhouse in the Park currently performs at a two-theater facility in Mount Adams it leases from the Cincinnati Park Board, while the Children’s Theatre rents space at Taft Theatre.

When the downtown Macy’s — then known as Lazarus — was built at the prime Fifth and Vine site in the 1990s, it was part of a larger project known as Fountain Square West. The two-story building that contains the Lazarus, Brooks Brothers and Tiffany stores and Palomino restaurant was designed to accommodate a 26-story, 440,000 square foot office tower above it someday, once market conditions made construction viable.

CityBeat was the first news outlet to report in March that Playhouse in the Park was floating a plan to build a facility at Fifth and Race streets, which has been vacant since the city’s plan to lure a Nordstrom department store there failed in 2000.

Phil Flops in Clermont County

Phil Heimlich hasn't had a good couple of years.

After pinning his re-election hopes as a Hamilton County commissioner last year on a proposal to raise the sales tax to build a new jail, Heimlich saw both his campaign and the tax go down in flames at the polls. Voters rejected the tax by a 57 percent margin and preferred Heimlich’s opponent by a 53 percent margin.

Now Heimlich is facing more troubling numbers.

You're Doing a Heckuva Job, Dohoney

With Cincinnati’s municipal workers being told the tired old corporate-speak phrase about “doing more with less” because of deficits and some city programs facing cuts in the New Year, there’s plenty of grumbling in the halls of 801 Plum St. about City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. getting a 7 percent salary increase yesterday.

Cincinnati City Council unanimously approved the pay hike, which means Dohoney will get about $12,950 more next year. The amount — more than three times the raise that most city workers will receive — was recommended by Mayor Mark Mallory, who selected Dohoney for the job last year.

Dohoney’s recommended city budget adjustment for 2008 includes 2 percent salary increases for employees not represented by unions and some higher pay hikes for unionized workers that were agreed to in contract negotiations. Of all full-time city employees, more than 91 percent belong to unions and less than 9 percent are non-represented.

Also, the proposed budget calls for numerous cuts to avoid a $25.4 million deficit next year. They include abolishing 92 full-time positions at City Hall, most through an early retirement incentive program.

Don’t Piss off the Delivery People

Boxes, bubble wrap, shipping popcorn and mailing labels are all part of the holiday frenzy for people this time of year. Whether shipping gifts or orders, the name of the game is getting stuff there on time.

How to do that is rather simple, but it does require planning.

“What people don’t realize it that when you think about a package from point A to point B is seems rather simple, but it’s not, “ says Monica Wehr, a customer experience manager based at DHL's Wilmington, Ohio. “Planes having to make their way through in all kinds of weather situations, on the ground trucks … have to overcome weather situations, especially this time of year. Once in the facility, the volume goes up - you have to sort through all of those packages.”

The turn-around time for packages coming from and going to destinations all over the world is rather fast, but delays are possible if shipping labels fall off or packing materials don’t hold up.

Romney Bashes Muslims Again

Republican presidential wannabe Mitt Romney has a long history of flip-flopping on important issues. Now Romney can add hypocrisy to his list of sterling character traits.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has asked voters to overlook his Mormonism, stating that religion is a private matter and shouldn’t be a factor when people decide whether he’s fit to be president. But he does think a person’s choice of religion is important enough to decide whether he or she holds a high-level position in his administration.

In a recent Op-Ed article for the Christian Science Monitor, Mansoor Ijaz related Romney’s answer when Ijaz asked the candidate if he would consider appointing a Muslim in his cabinet as an adviser on national security matters. “Based on the numbers of American Muslims (as a percentage) in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified,” Romney replied. “But of course I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration.”

Leaving aside the dubious logic — if we’re going to base such matters on percentage of the population, a Mormon probably shouldn’t hold the highest office in the United States — Romney’s response reveals he doesn’t adhere to his own proclamations about the role of faith in making such decisions.

Expand Your Holiday Horizons

There's more to do this winter than hanging up and taking down colored lights. Learn something new or just come up with a reason for a part during the season of cabin fever. Despite the myopia that perpetuated by "the shopping season," the multi-national nature of many organizations and businesses in Cincinnati mean our culturally diverse community recognizes more holidays than advertisers do.

Here are a few dates and opportunities for moving beyond the overly commercialized events we all know and are tired of:

Si Likes His Toys Big, Hard and Fast

Sigmund Freud and many early psychologists tried to link most adult impulses to childhood fixations. Although later research shows the theory to be overstated, in the case of Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr.’s fascination with big weaponry, ol' Siggy might be onto something.

During the recent campaign to increase the county's sales tax and raise $736 million to pay for a new jail and other law enforcement programs, tax opponents claimed Leis wastes money on unnecessary expenses. Opponents cited such items as a tank that so far has only been used for parades, speedboats, helicopters and construction of a heliport, along with coloring books and Teddy Bears for a children's anti-drug program.

Demanding Cell Phones

No, this isn’t a new crime wave in Cincinnati; it’s school administrators bullying teens.

William Mason High School in Mason has been confiscating the cell phones of kids to read text messages for the purpose of trying to find out if the students have attended parties on weekends off school grounds.

"School officials cannot just confiscate a student's private property because they think a student attended a party after school hours," says Jeffrey Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio (ACLU). "Attendance at a private party that does not disrupt classes and does not occur on school grounds is none of the school's business. Private student social activities are issues for parents, not the school."

Showdown in Over-the-Rhine

Tonight's meeting on plans for Washington Park could prove confrontational. A group of Over-the-Rhine residents opposed to plans to revamp the park could walk out en masse if their alternative proposal is ignored.

The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) — which is either the young professional savior for Over-the-Rhine or the gentrification devil, depending on your point of view — will hold its final meeting on the park at 6 p.m. tonight at Memorial Hall. A group of residents, aided by students with the Miami University Center for Civic Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, has collected more than 400 signatures on petitions demanding the city keep a deep-water pool and a basketball court in Washington Park, according to Tom Dutton, director of the center. The final plan presented by 3CDC includes neither, Dutton says.

"This is a showdown," Dutton says.

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Jimmyheath.org)

Afraid to Monitor Leis?

A prominent elected official believes Hamilton County commissioners are afraid to properly exercise their oversight of how Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. spends his budget.

Statements by two Democratic county commissioners that much of the money the sheriff confiscates from criminals cannot be used for intervention and treatment programs for county jail inmates is simply wrong, according to their Republican counterpart.