13 March 2006

3CDC: Non-Cincinnatians Controlling Cincinnati Government?

City Council has the votes to pass a non-discrimination ordinance relating to sexual orientation. Phil Burress & Co. are in conniptions. People are asking why Burress should even have a say when he doesn’t live in the city.

But Phil Burress is not the only one playing the game of non-resident intervention. He is just the one playing divine intervention. What about its sibling, corporate intervention? What about 3CDC? 3CDC has influenced local decisions much more than Phil Burress. I call 3CDC the unelected city council. Do the board members of 3CDC live in Cincinnati?

Not really, as it turns out. There are 26 board members. As far as I could determine without making a major time commitment, only 7-9 (less than a third) live in Cincinnati.

So where do they live? The most common choice of 3CDC is Indian Hill, which accounts for the residences of 7 board members (27%).

9-11 board members have property in Indian Hill or Hyde Park. And there are 10 board members who do not own property in Hamilton County at all. So out of 26 board members, 19-21 of them have property in Indian Hill, Hyde Park, or somewhere other than Hamilton County.

The final tally of the 3CDC board, as best as I can determine, is this:

Seven board members (27%) live in Indian Hill. Property values range from $1.2 million to $7.6 million.
Two confirmed to live in Hyde Park in homes valued at $2.6 and $2.8 million.
Ten (38%) do not own property in Hamilton County.
Five (19%) live within non-Hyde Park Cincinnati.

I could investigate further and get complete and precise information on the 3CDC board, but I don’t get paid for this. Enquirer reporters, on the other hand, do get paid for it. Wouldn’t it be great if they followed up and got the details?

It sure would. Except that Enquirer publisher (and Indian Hill resident) Margaret Buchanan is a member of the 3CDC board.

(I did click on “contact us” at the 3CDC website. The required fields are full name, telephone, email, and mailing address. I didn’t feel the need to give 3CDC- a private corporation- my personal information).

So blog posts like this pretty much constitute the totality of the 4th estate when it comes to 3CDC. To reiterate: 19-21 (about 75%) of them have property in Indian Hill, Hyde Park, or somewhere other than Hamilton County. They are mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly old, and mostly not in the city. Is this the most ideal group to be making city decisions? If so, on what basis?

11 comments:

Someone said...

Mind if I syndicate this at The Beacon? Never thought about residency with 3CDC before. Great point!

Or maybe someone should do a bit more footwork to build off of your start here.

Maybe Andrew has some time this week...

Anonymous said...

I will take a look at this also. See if I can negotiate who 3CDC uses as lobbyists in both Columbus and other places. Lobbyists are where many of the latest political deals have been made on behalf of the Democratic party. Republican lobbyists for Democrats?? Republican lobbyists manufacturing Democratic candidates for sale to rank and file Democrats. What a hoot! ----zandermann----

TravisG said...

Excellent reporting, man. I'd never thought of that before.

WestEnder said...

By all means syndicate the post. I have an adequate disclaimer that my investigation was cursory. Hopefully someone else can follow up and post a more complete analysis.

The question raised by this post is entirely germane. The subject of residency has come up with police officers and municipal employees, including city government. The Ohio GOP last year made a stink about non-Ohio money funding Reform Ohio Now.

The question of how much influence should be had by people that live outside a region is a fair one. It's been brought up before and there's no reason it shouldn't be addressed with 3CDC.

Anonymous said...

Great post. Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

And the problem with Indian Hill and Hyde park residents is what? Not ghetto enough for you? Not enough willing pimps for Cincinnati's contingent of entitlement whiners?

WestEnder said...

Where did I say there is a "problem" with Indian Hill, Hyde Park, or areas outside of HamCo? I have no problem with those areas or the people that choose to live there. I expect they have no problem with me or where I choose to live. That is not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to identify 2 problems: First, should local decisions be made by non-local residents? Secondly, does a private entity made up primarly of wealthy corporate execs accurately reflect Cincinnati's population?

That does not imply- nor should you infer- that the areas in question are bad or that corporate execs are bad.

I ended my post with a clear question (in anticipation of anyone pro-3CDC). So far no one has answered the question and defended 3CDC, and the only disagreement is your bigoted, classist rant.

You hardly make a good case for 3CDC, if that's what you meant to do.

Anonymous said...

You make this statement:
They are mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly old, and mostly not in the city. Is this the most ideal group to be making city decisions?

and you have the freaking temerity to suggest that I am bigoted and a classist? But actually, I'm not surprised that you can't recognize the hypocrisy. Tell ya what sweetie, every dollar I have earned is due to the wealthy "class" and nary one boon has come to me from the "welfare and entitlement classes". But then your primary concern isn't for those who work for a living, is it?

It is so easy to dismiss someone with your contrived little epithets. Is classist suppose to be an insult? If so, you'd be the deserving recipient. Those of you in your ivory tower clubs who have managed to elevate the trash of the city into "a class of protected people"- mere pawns for you to barter with in pursuit of your elitist social engineering. Tell me what class do you social engineers fall into? Worker class? Intellectual class? Or do you just write scripts for all the other parasites sucking the life out of cities across America, because, unfortunately, you are not unique but like a common virus , a type of dry rot eroding the will of this country. But then, that is what you want, isn't it?

I'd much prefer those denizens of Indian Hill and corporate Cincinnati who actually create wealth be the determining influences propelling the course of this city than race card extortionists and a bunch of collegiate brats prattling leftist tripe in the name of "urban planning" and whatever other regurgitated and tired 60's socialist theories that you tools wrap your propaganda in.

I have nothing to do with 3CDC - I'm just a simple, working citizen sick of preening pompous asses who violate reality every time they open their mouths or touch a keyboard.

WestEnder said...

It's unfortunate that you can only fabricate the meaning of my post rather than make dispassionate, objective, reasoned consideration of the issues I clearly laid out (twice, for your benefit).

And there is no hypocrisy in my statement. I simply described the makeup of the 3CDC board. I did not make value judgments about their character or evilness (that was you, "sweetie"). I specifically (twice, in fact) pointed out that they simply do not represent the citizenry of Cincinnati. I could do it a 3rd and 4th time, but I think it's fairly clear that what I put on the computer is different from what goes into your mind.

You are not a smart person. You are simple-mindedly and ignorantly buying into the notion that anyone who thinks differently is a lazy, far left atheistic socialist who hates work, especially hard work (I worked in college while double-majoring in two subjects you couldn't handle and worked two jobs for most of my life. I taught college-level physics, chemisty, biology, and organic chemistry before the age of 30. And I've found time to engage in sports and politics as well. Don't fuck with me, asshole).

As much as you want to believe the world is black and white and everyone is "either with you or against you," it just isn't so. If you can stick around and read this blog for a while without having a stroke, you might learn how to think for yourself.

Or you can keep doing the easy thing and let others tell you what to think and who to hate. Rant on!

Anonymous said...

Good freaking gawd. What a little rooster you are, just preening and strutting in the glow of that dull little spotlight you imagine yourself worthy of. You are like some deluded vaudevillian, unaware that his jokes are inane and his stories are regurgitated banalities, and his costume is smelly and soiled.

So it simply must take a tremendous amount of energy for you to sustain this world where you imagine your self to be some knight errant, a benevolent seer dispensing wisdom to the ungrateful masses....
.."If you can stick around and read this blog for a while without having a stroke, you might learn how to think for yourself"

At this juncture, please imagine raucous laughter... what a pompous little blue boy you are.

"I did not make value judgments about their character or evilness (that was you, "sweetie")..."

It is irrelevant at this point, but I simply have to state that I made nary one reference to anyone's character nor did I conjure up any notion of evil, but, to quote you "I think it's fairly clear that what I put on the computer is different from what goes into your mind."


"I specifically ...pointed out that they simply do not represent the citizenry of Cincinnati."

I hate to break it to you genius, but neither do you.

"I worked in college while double-majoring in two subjects you couldn't handle and worked two jobs for most of my life. I taught college-level physics, chemisty, biology, and organic chemistry before the age of 30. And I've found time to engage in sports and politics as well. Don't fuck with me, asshole."

I can't imagine why you think this self-masturbatory account of what you imagine to be impressive accomplishments would be of interest to me but, I do find it amusing that you apparently very much need to establish your superiority to one whom you have deemed to be "stupid", but hey - tell me - before you typed in "Don't fuck with me, asshole., did you huff and puff and blow your chest real far out and put on your Super Man cape?

Exactly how does a simple peasant like me fuck with such a brilliant little dude like yourself? My my, are ya gonna slap me around with one of your degrees? What a joke. One prick to your thin, jaundiced hide and all that gas will come spewing out just like ordinary, everyday flatulence and there you will be, hanging out there limp in the wind, which, now that I think about it, that would not be an unfamiliar condition for you to find your self in, but, I digress.

My dear boy, you are a dime a dozen and ultimately of little consequence. In the end, it will not be the empty chatter heads and spineless pseudo-intellectuals who build the future of this city or this country. Those architects -who are by every measure your superior -are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Knowing men and women of that mettle and caliber exist assures me that folks like you will recede back to the irrelevant foot notes that your feeble ideologies and contrived utopian prattle dictates.

When it matters, there is always an 'us' and a "them". I'm very pleased to keep it that way.

Now go back to playing building blocks with Cincinnati,like the good little tool you are and, please, don't bother with another of one of your rapier sharp and devastating retorts. Save your posturing nonsense for some one who gives a damn.

WestEnder said...

You give a damn, or else you wouldn't feel the need to keep coming back and projecting your outrageous insecurities to everyone.

Your posts are crystal clear manifestations of emotional/psychological issues. To those of us who have experience with such people and problems, it's as obvious as Jessica Simpson is stupid. Your entire personality is basically a symptom of dysfunction, so nothing you say, write, or do will do anything but prove the point.

Unlike the rest of us, you do not control your mind; your dysfunction controls you, just as it does for an alcoholic, a drug user, an abusive spouse, a godaholic, or any similar obsessive profile.

As is typical, your can only reaction is to deny, deny, deny with more and more vehemence and anger, hoping that one day you'll actually be what you say you are if you keep saying it louder and louder.

It doesn't work that way, but telling you that you ain't right in the head is about as fruitful as telling Pat Robertson he doesn't understand the Bible or telling W God isn't talking to him.

It's not that you won't listen to rationality, it's that you CAN'T.

It's good that we got these comments from ZEE, as they are about as good an illustration of abnormal psychology as I could have hoped for. It's a good insight into the warped mind of a right wing zealot.

And it didn't take much, did it?