The Parking Plot -- several paths to victory

Let us say for starters that when the fix is in in Cincinnati, the fix is in.  We are under no delusions about that.

The only question for the power players is not if they are going to screw the taxpayers, the honest, rule-abiding, hard-working citizens of this community, but rather how they are going to split up the pie.


So, we know the fix is in on the Parking Plot, but as with the Super-Sized Jail Tax, as with Red Light Cameras, as with the sale of the Water Works, as with the Trash Tax, and as with the glorious defeat of Congressman Jean Schmidt, we don't ask for easy victories, we simply ask for a chance -- a chance to change the outcome and win a battle for the little guy.

Even the smallest sliver of hope is enough for us to keep fighting.

And with the Parking Plot, they have several chinks in their armor.  We have them worried.  We have them dodging, bobbing, and weaving; we have them wriggling and squirming.  In short, we have a chance; but just a chance.

Here are four potential paths to victory even at this late date:

• The Ohio Supreme Court can do the right thing, properly interpret the City Charter, and require a vote on the Parking Plot as demanded by the 19,803 petition signers.
• The Port can do the correct and honest analysis of the Parking Plot lease with Xerox and Guggenheim, and terminate the deal as being a screw job of Cincinnati by New York investment bankers.
• Because of COAST's taxpayer demand letter, here, Council will be forced to re-vote on the issue in September and vote it down, or with only five affirmative votes, allowing for a referendum on the Parking Plot, which is all we ever wanted.
• Or, the City Solicitor does not demand a re-vote, they proceed with the illegal contract and COAST defeats the Parking Plot with yet another glorious taxpayer suit un-doing the illegal acts of the administration.

So, make no mistake about it.  The fix is in.  The City and the Port simply want your money, and will come up with any excuse or justification for it.  But "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip," and thus we have a chance, just a chance, to win a key victory for the fine people of Cincinnati.

The fix is definitely in, but we have a fighting chance, four of them in fact.

March onward!