Becoming a Bicycle Friendly Community

Quietly, today marks a big day for our community.

As the respective representatives of the Transportation Improvement District from the County and City, I and Councilmember Jeff Berding are convening a group of leaders to organize our region to apply for and receive a designation, and ranking, as one of our nation's Bicycle Friendly Communities.

Whether it's for recreation, or commuting to work, or doing other everyday things, it's clear that more cycling is one solution to many of our challenges: energy, environmental, economic, quality of life. Those communities that are "with it" when it comes to bicycles are getting ahead, attracting new residents and visitors, enhancing their economies, and cleaning their air. (Just check out Loveland on a sunny weekend to see the effect it can have; or read what Louisville is doing: http://www.louisvilleky.gov/BikeLouisville/bikefriendly.htm).

Our goal is to join that club, and to do so in a unique way by including all the jurisdictions of the County. So we are gathering leaders of business, law enforcement, planning and engineering departments, transportation, bicycling advocates and enthusiasts, along with leaders of cities and townships alike, together to chart out our plan to get there. It will start with inventorying what assets we already have (a growing network of trails, some very active riding groups), and then prioritizing what else we need to do.

For more information on the Bicycle Friendly America effort, go to: http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/

You'll see from the website how many ways, large and small, we can make our community more bicycle friendly. From public safety and awareness. To advocacy. To trails. To employers who make commuting to work easier. To more bike racks. To planning and design as we construct roads, development projects (the Banks!), etc.

The sky's the limit, and the work (and fun) starts today. We plan to use this application process as a way to think through, and then implement, everything we can do to maximize bicycle use.

If you're interested in participating in this community-wide effort, let me know.

Take the Agenda 360 Survey

One of our community's more inspired efforts in recent years has been the work of Agenda 360--a partnership of many citizens and institutions working to create a shared, proactive and forward-thinking agenda for our region.

They are in the process of seeking broad-based input from citizens as they build that agenda.

You can help them by taking their survey at the following website:

http://www.cincinnati360.com.

Filling the Stadium, and Not Just for Football

For the past year, Todd Portune and I have been very clear on one goal--given the taxpayer investment in Paul Brown Stadium, we want to see the stadium used far more than 10 times a year for football games. It's a community asset, and should be used as such.

We are pursuing this goal in numerous ways, but today we have an exciting announcement--local star Heather Mitts and the gold-medal winning U.S. Women's Soccer Team will play a game here next month.

To quote the press release:

"CHICAGO (October 7, 2008) – The gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team will continue its Achieve Your Gold Tour at Paul Brown Stadium vs. South Korea on Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The U.S. will be visiting the hometown of U.S. defender Heather Mitts, who has 91 caps for the USA and started all six games in China, for the second time. The U.S. also passed through Cincinnati on the 2004 Victory Tour to celebrate the gold medal in Athens, Greece.

The tour, which is taking the Olympic champions across the USA to celebrate its historic run to the top of the podium in Beijing, also announced stops in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 1 and Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 8.

Tickets go on sale Sunday, Oct. 12, at 10 a.m. ET at ussoccer.com, by phone at 513-562-4949 and at all Cincinnati-area Ticketmaster ticket centers. Groups of 20 or more can obtain an order form at ussoccer.com or call 312-528-1290."

So come out and watch a Cincinnati-born and -raised superstar play in her hometown!

Windstorm Survey Results -- Surprising

Since people from across the County and region had such individualized experiences over the course of September's windstorm, I expected results to be all over the map. But still, the results (out of 138 responses) surprised me.

Question 1: 42.7% said the windstorm was an inconvenience, 20.2% said it had a major impact on them and 26.6% said it was in between a major impact and an inconvenience. Only 10% said it was less than an inconvenience, or had no impact at all.

Question 2: Almost 2/3s of respondents lost power for two days or more. About 1/3 lost it for 4 days ore more. 15% lost it for more than 5 days.

Question 3 and 4: About 60% suffered damage beyond losing power, and 69% threw out their food.

Question 5: Most people kept up about the storm through the radio, and word of mouth (53% each). Perhaps not suprisingly due to the blackout, television, the internet and government briefings were significantly lower (24.2%, 21.1%, 4.7%).

Question 6: As to communication about the storm, you ranked the institutions in the following order: media (2.91 out of 5); government (2.68); law enforcement (2.62); health department (2.53); Duke Energy (2.47); Time Warner Cable (1.97).

Question 7: As to the overall response to the storm, you ranked the institutions in the following order: Duke Energy and law enforcement (each with 3.36); government (County/municipality) (3.30); health departments (3.12); Time Warner (2.53).

Given all the attention on Duke Energy, here is the breakdown on the rating of their response, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being outstanding, 1 being very poor):

1 -- 15.3%
2 -- 13.7%
3 -- 18.3%
4 -- 23.7%
5 -- 28.2%

Substantive comments:

Your substantive comments were incredibly helpful. The majority of people were understanding of the difficult circumstances, and their number one frustration was simply wanting better communication of when they might get the help they need, and get their power back. Others wondered why there wasn't a better, more transparent prediction of the storm, so they could have prepared.

Almost all agreed we need to be better equipped and prepared for the "next one."

And most people said they will themselves be better prepared: having emergency kits, back-up batteries, nonperishable foods, buying generators, batter radios, and water.

Thanks again for taking this survey. I will pass all these results along to the relevant entities as we together assess how to do better next time.

The "Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere"?

Sadly, the politics of the Presidential election seem to be degenerating every day that goes by. But I'm a firm believer that substance and policy still matter.

One of the starkest differences out there is the candidates' approach to health care. Lost in the play-by-play commentary about who won last Thursday's debate, I think Joe Biden turned a lot of heads when he described the way that the McCain health care proposal would work.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/vp-debate-mccains-healthcare-plan-is-the-real-bridge-to-nowhere/

As Biden described it, the plan essentially increases taxes (by taxing health benefits as compensation) while pushing a lot of employers out of the health benefit business, leaving employees to find health care themselves with a $5,000 tax credit. This was news to a lot of viewers and voters. Gov. Palin didn't rebut Biden's basic claim, and I haven't found any commentary that rebuts that this is in fact what McCain is proposing.

Today, Paul Krugman commented on it:
'http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

To give a counterview, here's an article by the Cato Institute defending the plan:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9380

I find the proposal to be deeply worrisome. I'd love to hear other thoughts. And if you support the McCain plan, I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you do.

Either way, if McCain is serious about a proposal this dramatic, it's something every voter should know about as they enter the voting booth (or mail in their ballot).

Today is the last day to register in Ohio, by the way.

Cincinnati Must-See TV

For those who haven't seen it, this was incredible publicity for Cincinnati that was recently aired nationwide. These are only a few snippets of what was a non-stop PR bonanza. Thanks to all involved for making this happen . . . .

http://www.metaphorinteractive.com/vh1cincinnati/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca_2f3shkDE&feature=user

Positive Developments in a Tough Time

Believe it or not, several very positive developments recently occurred on key County priorities:

$8M To Abate Blight Caused by Foreclosures

First, we recently learned the great news that due to the recently passed Housing Bill in DC, Hamilton County will be receiving close to $8M in federal funds that will allow us to redevelop blighted, foreclosed properties in jurisdictions across the County. (The City received about the same amount for its neighborhoods).

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081001/NEWS01/810010318

While we had expected some dollars, this was definitely far more than I had expected.

Practically speaking, these dollars will allow us, working in partnership with those communities that are seeing the highest numbers of foreclosures, to eliminate the blight that those foreclosures are causing, which erode the value and quality of life of the surrounding neighborhood. We can invest to either demolish or rehabilitate blighted properties--and in the case of demolition, we can then invest to create greenspace, or new commercial or residential development opportunities.

Last week, anticipating that these dollars are coming, we called together leaders from the highest foreclosure communities to seek their initial input on how these dollars can be allocated to be most helpful to their needs, and we are reviewing the many guidelines and regulations that will instruct how the funds can be spent.

By December 1, guided by that input, we will submit our community plan to the federal government. Overall, this is a huge opportunity for many communities.

(Of course, our top priority continues to be to prevent foreclosures in the first place through our Homeowner Preservation efforts.)

Treating the Mentally Ill in Our Criminal Justice System

Second, like our drug court (see discussion in blog below), one of the more positive reforms in the County Courthouse in recent years has been the creation of the Mental Health Docket at the misdemeanor level.

This approach, led by Judges Stautberg and Allen, allows us to pay special attention to those arrested for nonviolent offenses who suffer from substantial mental illness. Rather than simply locking these folks up for a short time, ignoring their underlying mental illness, and seeing them reoffend a short time after release due once again to their untreated illness, the mental health docket has provided a great way to intervene and get them the help they need. It will reduce recidivism, and reduce the costs of our criminal justice system.

So far, this specialized approach has only been in place at the Municipal Court level. The Criminal Justice Commission has been clear that some type of specialized attention to those with mental illnesses should also be available at the Common Pleas level, as it is in other counties.

And here's where the good news comes in--the Health Foundation recently awarded the County a $75,000 planning grant to study and propose a comprehensive and concentrated effort to respond to those with mental illnesses at the Common Pleas level. This process should lead to a concrete plan by mid-2009 as to how we can apply best practices from across the country, as well as what we've learned here, to make sure we have a cutting-edge, safe and smart approach to dealing with mentally ill inmates at the Common Pleas level.

Thanks to all those involved in securing this grant, first and foremost the Health Foundation, and thanks to Judge West for leading the effort in the coming months.