Local

I take the unprecedented step in the history of the City of Columbus to voice a demand publicly for an apology and reparations for neighborhood destruction by the City in collusion with large corporate property owners and developers, and in the case of the University District (UD) and Weinland Park, The Ohio State University and its purposely misleadingly named Campus Partners for Urban Community Development.

This is one critical chapter in the long and continuing tragedy of the Columbus Way: private over public, for-profit developers and corporation over publics, and disregard and disrespect for residents’ legal rights including homeowners, taxpayers, and voters. It is no wonder that Columbus cannot define or delineate actual “neighborhoods.”

I am concerned specifically with the University District. But I urge residents of Weinland Park, Franklinton, Linden, and The Hilltop, at least, to follow suit (pun intended).

Earlier this week 23-year-old Tabias Cunningham was shot and killed on an indoor basketball court on the Far West side. Recent events on this gym’s court strongly suggest Cunningham was killed over a meaningless game.

Another terrible reality is a 10-month-old child will be raised without their father and a mother will spend the rest of her life wondering why this happened to her son. Also soul-numbing is the fact the gym – Esporta Fitness, a lower-cost membership brand of LA Fitness – re-opened the very next day. They did close the court, as were the rest of their courts across Central Ohio.

Re-opening of the gym hours after a human being was murdered within its walls tells us how desensitized and apathetic we’ve become to gun violence.

Just a week prior, a friend of the Free Press had broken up a fight on that very basketball court. The source said they “yelled and begged for peace.” An hour later this same group of players were amicable and still playing basketball. The source’s effort to de-escalate worked on this night.

Friday, March 31, 2023, 5:00 PM
Location:  Goodale Park, West Goodale St., Columbus.  
For more information, email to coyl614@gmail.com or DM on Instagram.
https://queeryouthassemble.org/march-for-queer-trans-youth-autonomy/

Partners working at the 1085 West 5th Avenue Starbucks had worked side-by-side in cramped quarters through the entire COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet the day before their scheduled in-person unionization vote earlier this month, Starbucks corporate leadership suddenly felt it was unsafe for workers to be together in the same building.

Starbucks’ corporate offices filed an emergency motion with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the election be rescheduled due to safety concerns. A Starbucks partner – what Starbucks calls their employees – at the West 5th location had tested positive for coronavirus, and the unionization vote was temporarily suspended.

However, concerns for safety subsided immediately following the NLRB ruling. All partners were back at work the next day. It was immediately clear to all that the motion to delay the vote was an intentional effort by management to derail unionization efforts. The vote has been rescheduled as a mail-in.

“We would have crushed it, easily,” recalled one union organizer.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said this week, when asked about UK shipments of Depleted Uranium weapons to Ukraine: “If Russia is deeply concerned about the welfare of their tanks and tank soldiers, the safest thing for them to do is move them across the border, get them out of Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesperson Garron Garn said Depleted Uranium had “saved the lives of many service members in combat,” and “other countries have long possessed depleted uranium rounds as well, including Russia.”

City of Columbus mayoral candidate Joe Motil states, “CoverMyMeds announced today that it will be cutting 815 jobs nationwide, converting 1,100 employees to fulltime remote work, and plans to sublease portions of its 200,000 square foot Columbus headquarters for office space.”      

Motil continues, “Columbus taxpayers need to be reminded that on July 25, 2018, CoverMyMeds received one of if not the largest tax abatement handouts in our city’s history of $77,741,415. This corporate pork chop to one of the wealthiest corporations in the nation. The McKesson Corporation, will result in the loss of $55 million that should have gone towards providing revenue to educate our children in Columbus Public Schools. I testified against this tax abatement in City Council Chambers in July of 2018 as I have against dozens of other corporate gifts over the last 8 years.”      

Thursday, March 30, 5-6pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 is a day dedicated to celebrating transgender people, recognizing their contributions to society, and raising awareness about the discrimination they face. In this installment of Meetup Live’s “Dismantling Social Injustice” (DSI) series, we’re holding a panel discussion on pressing issues within the trans community.

Hear from panelists Hope Giselle, author and activist; Mandy Giles, advocate and parent of two transgender adults; and Ryan Sallans, international speaker and author, about current anti-trans legislation and its effects as well as its historical roots. Learn about ways to advocate for trans rights and protections. Stick around for a question-and-answer session at the end.

Agenda:

• Introductions (5 minutes)

• Fireside Chat (40 minutes)

• Question-and-answer session (15 minutes)

RSVP for this event by using this link.

Hosted by Meetup Live.

I knew Future’s “1 Big Party Tour” at Nationwide and Ohio States women’s basketball NCAA Tourney were my week.

People watch a show on Netflix, or Hulu for a week and nothing else.

I avoided every form of entertainment except for watching OSU women’s basketball and blaring Future from my Beat’s Headphones. Dogma 23 March Madness.

The Ohio State women’s team were in NCAA playoffs. I felt like my week would have a different meaning if I immersed myself in the Lady Bucks and didn’t watch anything besides Lady Bucks, and Future.

The first couple games where Ohio State beat James Madison and North Carolina were in Columbus. We found this compelling because Senior Jacy Sheldon is from nearby suburb Dublin. Jacy’s sister Emma Sheldon could seen on the sidelines cheering Jacy. Watching Jacy make a play, and then a young girl with Down Syndrome in an OSU shirt smiling embraced the local and endearing.

Lady Buck’s Taylor Thierry wore a clunky plastic mask. It looked as if the Lady Bucks were a heartwarming film about a band of orphans or foster kids who found sports which helped outsiders find beauty within Columbus.

I write in sadness but with admiration and memories of pleasure. I am of an age. I dedicated my 2022 book, Searching for Literacy, to four scholar/friends who I knew well for between 25 and more than 50 years. I published obituaries for two of them, and dedicated earlier books to former adviser and professors, and two doctoral graduates who died tragically prematurely.

I write to remember for myself, his Columbus Free Press family, former students, and beloved family Jack (John K.) Hartman, since 2015 the Media Insider columnist.

I met and immediately established a collegial friendship with Jack as soon as he contacted me after reading my own Columbus Free Press Busting Myths essays. We bonded immediately over coffee in my dining room because of our lifelong progressive activism and as retired professors and active tennis players in our younger years. When Jack taught journalism at Central Michigan University, he read my younger brother’s rock and pop music reviews in the Detroit Free Press (until my brother lost his job during a major strike during which the newspaper illegally broke the union). Our new and 18-month friendship had many bases.