I recently came to the conclusion that Columbus City Hall is basically your Junior High School Student Government, but with millions of dollars to spend.
Most people hated Junior High (Middle School).
Your body was changing, you had bullies, you were slowly figuring out who you were going to be. The only people who seemed to enjoy Junior High were the popular students, or in this case City Council and the Mayor. The only people allowed to spend money and know what is actually going on.
Unfortunately, they only listen to wealthy business owners, real estate investors, and the rich calling them to ask for our tax dollars.
https://freepress.org/article/billionaire-vs-columbus-democracy
https://freepress.org/article/it-s-not-your-park-give-away-billionaire
https://freepress.org/article/word-day-anocracy
Therefore, they have people (with lots of money) being nice to them with the added benefit of getting thousands of dollars of campaign donations.
Once you get elected you’re expected to “follow the leader” and do as you’re told. Loyalty and obedience are more important than service to the citizens or having new ideas. It’s a broken system that exists not to serve the needs of the people.
The Destruction of McCoy Park is Just a Symptom.
The billionaire Haslam decides to start another women’s soccer team (we already have the Columbus Eagles) and chooses McCoy Park as a training facility. Doesn’t matter that the City Commission had been working for years on a major improvement to the park. No other location is under consideration because this billionaire wants a location “close to downtown.” No communication from City Hall. No negotiations, nothing.
When a billionaire snaps his fingers City Hall stops what it’s doing and obeys what he wants. That’s what democracy pretends to be in Columbus.
It’s an insult to the volunteer city commissioners, but City Hall hates this unique system anyway since it slows down new building development. City commissioners ask too many questions.
Never Planning. Never having Goals.
Columbus has important needs that are not being met.
- We have thousands of homeless living and dying on the streets. No problem for City Hall since unhoused people may not vote, and certainly do not donate to their campaigns.
- Private equity is buying all the single-family homes and driving prices higher.
- Flock cameras and drones are watching and recording every movement across the city. The Mayor loves to watch us 24 hours a day.
- The price of water and electricity continue to rise year after year. No recognition from City Hall.
- No movement towards adapting to climate change from City Hall; just lots of talk and color brochures.
With these (and many other) challenges, what has City Hall spent all of their time and effort on? The dream of a billionaire to destroy a public park for his hobby of owning another sports team (and having taxpayers pay for it).
A sign of a great leader is being able to prioritize what’s most important first and then solve that problem. For months it was a housing shortage and City Hall talked about nothing other than Zone In. Since phase 1 passed, City Hall doesn’t care about having affordable housing anymore. The rich and powerful can now build high-rise luxury apartments without any parking (still no master plan either).
An observation by Columbus resident Steve Van Kuiken was as follows: “When we lived in Chicago, we had much more responsiveness than here in Columbus. Even though it was a much larger city, the alderman was dedicated to your ward/neighborhood. Here there seems to be a firewall set up between the constituents and the administration/police. There is no one to talk to and no accountability, in my view.”
When we lived in Chicago, we had much more responsiveness than here in Columbus. Even though it was a much larger city, the alderman was dedicated to your ward/neighborhood. Here there seems to be a firewall set up between the constituents and the administration/police. There is no one to talk to and no accountability, in my view.
It’s incredible to watch nine grown adults (and the Mayor) work so hard to convince themselves that serving the needs of a billionaire are more important than the citizens of Columbus.
Luckily for City Hall, almost nobody votes anymore. Most people are just trying to survive from one paycheck to the next and don’t have the necessary bandwidth to follow how badly City Hall wastes time and money.
Watch the End of Local Democracy.
I’m inviting you to come to City Hall on Monday, April 13 at 5pm to watch as City Council wraps itself around the dreams of a billionaire and votes to approve the destruction of McCoy Park.
An area of Columbus that is in dire need of more green space will now have none as the Haslam Group pumps thousands of dollars into the campaign bank accounts of the Mayor and City Hall to get what he wants. I’ll be there to watch the likely 5-4 vote (members of council like to have close votes to make it appear that they debate the issues) and see in person the end of a functioning democracy in our city. Remember to say the new Pledge of Allegiance.