Editorial

This past summer the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) stated that Issue 7 “is thin on details and short-circuits the city’s ability to mitigate the causes of climate change.” 

“Because the city is already moving toward 100% clean energy, the creation of the funds in the ballot initiative is superfluous at best, and outright thievery at worst,” wrote OEC staff attorney Chris Tavenor in an email. “The initiative’s language calls for the transfer of funds into the hands of a privately held corporation, and it further permits that corporation to receive ‘administrative’ fees for the distribution of subsidies. Simply put, a corporation has placed itself in a position to benefit from taxpayer dollars when the city has already created a program in pursuit of similar goals: Clean Energy Columbus. Columbus does not need a private corporation as a financial third party in the pursuit of energy efficiency, clean energy, and electric affordability.”

A recent Dispatch headline offered this scathing condemnation as well, “Weaselly ‘green energy’ group tries to con Columbus voters out of $87 million.”

On Columbus City Council 

I’ve chosen not to follow the mini-election next week very closely. On the one hand, none of the candidates are compelling to me. None are on the level of the present leading councilors like Shayla Favor and Elizabeth Brown, for example. 

But, on the other hand, I try not to follow such “elections” because of the fundamentally undemocratic foundations of Columbus’ City Council and the disorganization and opaqueness of Columbus’ city government in general. A full explanation would require a lengthy essay in itself.  

For reasons that remain unclear and undiscussed, Columbus retains an at-large, openly elected City Council. This denies all citizens of their democratic and constitutional right to direct representation. The recent shift to one councilor in a specified geographic district is manifestly negated by the maintenance of at large elections. It is little more than a shell-game. 

The saga of Gov. DeWine’s Covid failures progresses. [https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/06/25/harvey-j-graff-dewines-blundered-coronavirus-response-vax-million-didnt-help/5335280001] 

Its downward spiral accelerates with the surging Delta variant, the relatively low rate of vaccinations, and the Governor’s unwillingness to act. The daily news conferences and active role of the Department of Health ceased, and policy making stopped. The Governor surrendered to opposition, reelection concerns, and the virus itself. 

Can't Gerrymander Statewide Races

While the Republican's once a decade gerrymander hangs in the balance, it is well to remember that one class of races cannot be grotesquely reshaped. Statewide contests, which fully encompass the often jagged borders of Ohio, are immune to the stuff.  It would be wise for Democrats to concentrate on them.

A few months ago, I was sure that the Ohio Supreme Court would step in, slap the redistricting commission's and Ohio legislature's hands and force the creation of intelligently shaped districts that would have a slight Republican advantage after tossing out the horribly GOP-skewed ones. Three appeals to the high court already have been filed but any decisions will come in December at the earliest.

No less prominent journalists than cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias and Ohio University's Thomas Suddes are hinting that Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor will join the three Democrats on the court in voting 4-3 to throw out the gerrymanders and form fair districts. O'Connor went against the grain last decade, but was outvoted by her Republican colleagues.

Let’s face it. Columbus needs to be more like Austin.

Both are state capitals and have massive urban public universities. Both are left-leaning oases. Both began to explode in growth during the 1990s, and for the most part remain landlocked boomtowns.

But one is where many want to visit and live, where the other is maligned for not much to do and a lack of culture. Worse, too much disparity between rich and poor.

Guess which one is Columbus y’all?

Austin is not the slacker hippie, Willie Nelson-loving live music paradise it once was in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. But its public access to oh-so close outdoor adventure remains unparalleled.

Take Barton Springs, called “the soul” of Austin. The natural spring or pool is open year-round, with acres of parks and trails branching out in all directions. It’s icy clear waters drawing people from around the world, its surrounding banks filled with locals and tourists taking a serious chill as someone plays an acid-sounding guitar.

As an active and now retired professor, I live in one of the city of Columbus’ older and more attractive neighborhoods. Called the University District, it abuts the Ohio State University (OSU) campus. Historically, that has been one of its assets but over the past few decades, it has become the major cause of its demise. The Columbus Police Department (CPD), the City of Columbus, the disparate group of large corporate landlords and management companies, and to a lesser extent the city’s media join in responsibility. This pattern of active and passive collusion is rarely admitted or even acknowledged (and if then misrepresented). It is a tragedy in terms of neighborhood decline; dangers to residents young and old; damage to persons, property, and life; and daily crimes and misdemeanors ranging from robbery, assault, and shootings; to property damage; illegal fireworks and gunshots; public drunkenness; noise, trash, and property desecration; and uncivil conduct. This must end now for the best interests of all parties including the students, most of whom are innocent victims. 

This article is posted from its original publication in Washington Monthly, Sept 4, 2021.

In August 10, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas proposed an inappropriate amendment to the $3.5 billion infrastructure bill currently being considered by Congress. The provision bans federal funds from going to K–12 schools that teach critical race theory. It passed 50–49.

Cotton and his Republican peers—as well as Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia—followed the direction of Tucker Carlson and his peers at Fox News and other right-wing media, who have been mounting a scare campaign to convince white America that radical educators nationwide are blaming their children and grandchildren for the sins of our nation’s past.

There was plenty of hope for change around the country when President Joe Biden’s administration finally took office in January and for the most part, they’ve been able to right the shipwreck left behind by former President Donald Trump’s incompetent administration. Plenty of improvements have been made to normalize federal government operations –– both foreign and domestic –– so everyone is feeling a little bit better. To add to this positive trajectory, the Biden administration’s recent withdrawal from Afghanistan –– after twenty years of war, bloodshed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent –– was the right step in the right direction at a new time for America. Unlike his predecessors, Joe Biden has finally been able to accomplish what other presidents could only scale down and talk about. It took major guts.

To understand the imminent likely outcome of redistricting and reapportionment of Congressional and state legislative districts in Ohio, one must look at who is calling the shots among Ohio Republicans, who dominate the process. I call it the Republican Rigging Ring.

There has been a distraction of 10 public hearings around the state hosted by the redistricting commission. They were poorly attended by commission members – Gov. Mike DeWine preferred to attend a Cincinnati Bengals practice – because what the public says is of little consequence to the Republicans in charge, who make up five of the seven members.

It was alleged at one of the hearings by none other than former Ohio Democratic Party chair and former unsuccessful candidate for Oho attorney general, David Pepper, that somewhere off the books, either behind closed the doors or on private Zoom meetings, Republicans leaders were meeting to carve up the state to their satisfaction, public be damned.

The Republicans are making diplomatic public statements promising fairness when fairness is the farthest thing from their minds.

What is on their minds?

My city sits on the western edge of a body of water that has figured large in the nation’s history, Lake Erie. My wife and I are fortunate to live in the part of Toledo where the lake is literally our front yard.

Grade school history classes, consisting mostly of memorizing wars and generals, taught that in the first battle for Lake Erie a small American fleet of wooden ships built in Erie, Pennsylvania, by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, defeated the British in the War of 1812 and that’s the reason Michigan and Ohio are not the southern boundary of Canada.