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Mayoral challenger Joe Motil and his supporters—more than 1/3 of voters in a typically low turnout mayor and council election—made careful control of tax abatements central to his campaign. Let us remember that Motil was outspent by the incumbent about 100 to 1 but defeated by less than 2 to 1 in perhaps the most corrupt and dishonest re-election campaign in Columbus history.

Just as Andy refused to debate or appear publicly in a purportedly democratic contest—exemplifying the Columbus Way, and their fear of a public democracy on which it is based—neither City Council nor its Department of Uncoordinated, Highly Selective Development—learned a single thing.

Just as Department Director Michael Stevens cannot tell the difference between Ns and percentages when he lies to the media, not one of them understands either urban or economic development. Together, they defy all odds. They seem willfully ignorant of the social, economic, and physical conditions of the city that they are paid to oversee.

Greetings Fair Food Allies — Please join us in taking a few minutes to join in this key nationwide action for the farmworkers this Thanksgiving week by writing, calling or emailing Kroger. 

Fast actions: Email Kroger.  Click-to-email using this link or write an email to customerservice@kroger.com with the suggested title: “It’s time for Kroger to join the Fair Food Program” and include your message for the body of the email. You may copy/paste our suggested script below and personalize it as you see fit. 

Saturdays are a cherished day. Many run errands such as car washes, haircuts, or pick up supplies for a DIY smart home electronics project at a local hardware or electronics store. Saturdays are grocery stocking at family-owned food markets, self-care fitness time, or making memories with family and friends at corner coffee shops, neighborhood restaurants, or bowling alleys. And more often than not, they go to small independent retailers that provide these goods and services.

But Saturday, November 25 is an especially fine day. It’s the national 14th annual Small Business Saturday when American consumers come out in droves to shop small or dine small in mammoth support of small businesses. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is proud to be a co-sponsor of Small Business Saturday, founded by American Express in 2010. 

Part 1

It’s been decades and decades of hard work, heartbreak, toil, trouble, tears, jeers, and sometimes cheers. On November 7th, Ohio voters passed Issue 2 – the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (RMLA) citizen-initiated statute – by a comfortable fourteen-point margin of 57% vs 43%. In sum, 2,183,735 Ohioans voted for marijuana that day.

Ohio’s cannabis community applauded and lauded this general election win. With a 30-day effective date, this statute initiated by voters, not the legislature, becomes law on December 7th. Or does it? Just like Ohio politics, this debate has become the subject of controversy.

Friday, November 24, 2023, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Join Bill Cohen for a unique concert of songs that express gratitude for all that we have.  It’s our 10th year for this Thanksgiving-themed concert. Playing piano and guitar, I’ll sing songs written by, made famous by, or inspired by, a wide variety of folks --- John Denver, the Weavers, Phil Ochs, Louis Armstrong, and Don McLean.  Even Johnny Appleseed, Jiminy Cricket, and the TV show, “Golden Girls.”  On several songs, Ann Fisher will add beautiful flute accompaniment, David Maywhoor will add percussion, and Joe Lambert and Joanne Blum will add soothing vocal harmony. 

This is a free concert, but if you appreciate the songs and the message, during the show we’ll “pass the hat” for donations for a non-profit charity, International Medical Alliance of Tennessee. The all-volunteer group of doctors, nurses, and medical students provides free medical care to impoverished, disenfranchised Haitian workers who live and work just inside the D.R. border. 

Thursday, January 23, 1-4pm, Wellness Forum Health, 510 E. Wilson Bridge Rd., Ste. G, Worthington, Ohio

Thanksgiving Day can be difficult to navigate through if the majority of your friends and family aren’t vegan like you. We have been challenged even finding a place that is open on Thanksgiving Day where there is a menu that is free from animal-based items.

Happily, the Wellness Forum Health is allowing us to use their space for a Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck! Please bring your favorite vegan dish to share. Please include what you will be bringing in the comments below so we will have a variety of items to enjoy. A card listing the ingredients in the dish you are bringing is nice to inform those who may have any allergies.

Compostable paper plates, cups, and utensils will be provided. We will have complimentary coffee, hot tea, and bottled water.

For those unable to bring food, we will need help with setup around noon and with teardown / cleanup when the event is over at 4pm.

Please contact any of the organizers with questions or concerns.

Have a very Happy Vegan Thanksgiving; we look forward to having you join us.

The state of Ohio boasts some of the most astounding ancient earthworks in the world, which, before the era of pioneer destruction, included more than 10,000 burial mounds, elaborate sets of parallel embankments that together extended at least a hundred miles, effigy mounds like the famous Serpent Mound of Adams County, and enormous precise geometric earthworks in the shapes of circles, squares, ellipses, and octagons that seem like beacons to the heavens.

Indeed, the first white settlers in Ohio believed that they had come upon the ruins of a bygone lost civilization. While staying in Chillicothe, the first state capital and where some of the most extraordinary of the earthworks reside, the painter Thomas Cole wrote in 1836:

“[H]e who stands on the mounds of the West [Ohio was then the West], the most venerable remains of American antiquity, may experience the emotion of the sublime, but it is the sublimity of a shoreless ocean un-islanded by the recorded deeds of man.”

Greetings from Kyiv. Yesterday my city was disturbed again by air raid sirens, so I ran from Vernadsky scientific library to hide in the closest shelter,  a subway station. Ruthless Russian aggression against Ukraine continues, as well as the Ukrainian defensive war effort. Civilians are dying, cities are being bombarded on both sides of the frontline, and that is the essence of any war — aggressive or defensive — the pure evil of war, which is barbaric mass killing by definition.

Thus begins an open letter from Ukrainian peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko. Later, he writes:

John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the National Security State on Nov 22nd, 1963. Every high school textbook in the country says the same thing, which is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from the Texas School Book Depository in broad daylight, with his wife as his side. This was 5 months after his famous Peace Speech at American University (6/10/63) and only a few days after he ordered remaining troops out of Vietnam (NSAM 263).

The City of Columbus requires residential real estate developers to provide “affordable housing units” in exchange for tax abatements. But the City has not provided any records showing they actually collect this information from these developers showing they truly do rent to moderate income tenants – this according to a longtime Eastside affordable housing activist.

Tax abatements allow a developer or resident to forgo paying property taxes in exchange for bringing jobs or revitalization to a neighborhood. But because the Short North has been one of the hottest real estate markets in the region over the previous decade, the question is: has Columbus’s most prominent corridor needed such tax breaks? Nevertheless, in 2018 the Shorth North was designated a Community Reinvestment Area offering a 15-year, 100 percent tax abatement if projects include 10 percent affordable units. A recent Dispatch article called Columbus the “tax-abatement capital of Ohio.”