wow. where to even start. brian loves to talk so much about biases but seems to be in denial of his own. i particularly enjoyed brian's accusation of bigotry/racism behind the crackdown on illegal immigration (must have been a typo since brian actually acknowledged it's ILLEGAL immigration being targeted). i'd argue it's the fear of being labeled a bigot or racist by people like brian that has prevented society from doing more to combat illegal immigration than we have. and i've read and heard plenty from those who have cried bigotry and racism as results to racism. but we all know brian is pretty selective in what he sees, hears, and remembers.
also don't see how he can leave off the record number of murders, although it's not surprising at all. when a 40-some year old record is broken (and the population now is smaller), i think it has to be considered a big issue regardless of who's getting killed and why.
i could go on, but i'll save some of the fun for others.
Thanks Matt had mine..
Brian,
I generally agree with you that the Enquirer is far too pessimmistic about downtown. And I agree, they over-cover each restaurant closing.
But we (people who live in/work in/care about downtown) do need to have a serious discussion about what's happened with downtown restaurants in the past year. Look at what we've lost: Redfish, Aoli, Bella's, Za's (f/k/a Uno's), that Thai place just north of Seventh and Vine, House of Sun II....and that's just what I can think of at this second.
Yep, the addition of McCormick and Schmick's (which replaces the Fifth & Vine restaurant) is great. (If you haven't been there and have a chance to splurge, GO!) Via Vita will be a great addition, as will the Brazilian steakhouse coming to Carew Tower.
My concern, though, is that downtown may be oversaturating itself with high-end restaurants and squeezing out middle-income diners. Downtowners are starting to run out of places to go to get dinner for less than $20 per person. And that would be a shame....
BTW: Downtown lunch-eaters...if you lost sight of Paula's when she lost her skywalk location, she's set up in the old Graeter's on 4th. And ingredients, the new sandwich/pizza shop inside the Westin, is also a good lunch spot.
I'm with Matt on the item: "Level of bigotry/racism behind illegal immigration crackdown" At least the word illegal was used, caught me by suprise. I don't really think either(racism/bigotry) plays too much into it.
Also not sure if it is necessary to report every restaurant opening.
IMHO, I would probably give the #1 nod to the smoking ban or the Dems election success.
kudos on the WAIF mention. It seems no one cares any more, and since the threat of a law suit CityBeat lost their balls about keeping up on it.
Oppose illegal immigration? RACIST!
Worry about a record murder rate? RACIST!
I've got one more. Support David Pepper? RACIST!
Jeff the Doorman.
Really, you don't think the fact that we have had so many murders this year is a Top 10 story? You think the movement of bars is a bigger story? Wow.
I am waiting for you to accuse Richard Muhammad of being involved in drugs.
Matt,
Just ignore the cries of "bigot" or "racist" from the lefties (of which I am unsure if Griff is one as to my dismay he has not directly called me any of these things yet).
The left loves to use name calling as many of their arguments and views are ultimately not supported by verifiable facts so they have adapted this as a strategy. In fact their vernacular is quite extensive with new words they are promulgating throughout the mainstream media.
I am a homophobe, xenophobe, racist, sexist, etc according to the left. Once you realize this is just a childlike tactic the left uses in lieu of substance in an argument these names will no longer bother you but rather when heard in a debate or conversation you can be proud as it is a signal that you have flatly won the argument.
Rover's Morning Glory getting cancelled in Cincinnati and some crappy country station put in its place.
What's tricky--and racially biased--about current immigration policy is that American citizens scan be arrested and detained for suspicion of being an undocumented alien. This technique has been used in Butler County.
Now... this policy obviously targets only one group of people, which is in flagrant violation of the 14th amendment. And before you make the stupidest argument of the day, I'm talking about Hispanic American citizens.
And if you think what happened in Colorado wasn't a big deal, you probably wouldn't've minded when your Romani and Jewish neighbors were arrested, either.
I suppose this is my first year of reading the Enquirer online; from that perspective, I actually got a considerable portion of my news from them--like 5%. Since I didn't click on news about Strangled by Snake!, my impression of their reportage this year is pretty favorable. Weird.
Comment on restaurants... I'm not sure how accurate an indicator restaurant failure is because restaurants have an infamously high rate of failure. It's a tough business to run.
Perhaps it's more informative to compare the ratio of startups to failures in Cincinnati versus other similar cities.
And don't cry for Redfish. A lousy restaurant that manages to stay open for almost a decade should be regarded as a success story.
Time magazine use to name the Man of the Year based on impact, regardless of whether it was a positive or negative. This list only names positive stuff as the 'most important', and negative stuff as over reported.
The most important stories should be based regardless of whether they were positive or negative.
Luke, if I'm not mistaken, the operation in Colorado was carried out against alleged illegal aliens who were using stolen Social Security #'s. They were/are not citizens, at least not legally. I haven't followed the story much since, so perhaps the charges have since been dropped. But people get arrested "on suspicion" of all kinds of things, not just their immigration status - DUI, homicide, etc. Comparing that to Nazi Germany is a pretty big stretch.
Westender, good point about restaurants being a tough business to make it in. Perhaps we shouldn't make much of them closing in light of that, so by the same token, a restaurant opening should be taken with a grain of salt as well. A different methodology such as the one you suggested might be a better indicator.
"Fountain Square got a facelift and a high-tech message board, but its grand reopening was marred by incomplete work. Meanwhile, city-county bickering continued over development of the Banks project on the riverfront."
Backhanded praise of Fountain Square? Where is the praise? I just see insults and mentioning of the Banks project. WTF does this have to do with Fountain Square?
Where is the mention of the Bulter County budget short falls or Covington's soaring crime rate?
Kung Fu, here at CityBeat our balls are just fine. If there is a new development with regard to WAIF, I'd like to know it.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4842979
"Scores of illegal workers deported" is the misleading headline; according to the article, there were 62 people from one plant who were taken to undisclosed locations (aka, disappeared) of whom 11 are being charged with fraud for holding false social security information. Presumably, if one was required to present fake IDs to get hired, the other 51--if they didn't have FAKE ones--had real IDs, meaning that they were American citizens.
So, a week before Christmas, ICE disappeared 51 Americans from a factory. Nationwide, there were a total of 1100 arrests, all of whom were quickly deported; I believe 94 are being charged with "identity theft", ie having a fake ID. There is no evidence that I've seen reported that the remaining thousand are NOT American citizens.
Needing to actively prove your citizenship on absolutely no advance warning--and subsequently being denied access to representation, or informed why you've been arrested, or where you're being taken--is a very BAD thing. I suppose, if you're white, it's no big concern--although that means it's unconstitutional (because, seriously, Gonzalez thinks it's constitutional to disappear possible citizens).
Luke,
Are you against deporting illegals, or just against the method you assume was used? Those are two different discussions.
I suppose I'm against deporting undocumented workers because that's WAY more effort than merely enforcing the labor laws in place. Case in point: Swift, the 3rd biggest meat-packer in the world (whose plants were raided), MIGHT have to pay a $200,000 fine, if they don't win their appeal. It's not that these are jobs "Americans don't want", it's that corporations are unwilling to hire Americans to do them.
The Gulf Coast reconstruction, for example, is largely being undertaken by migrants. Why? Because Halliburton doesn't want to pay decent wages, and nobody is going to make them do so. So we can A) lower wages across the board, B) deport the migrants, or C) actually enforce the long-standing laws.
The recent change in methodology is the ability of law enforcement to arrest people on "suspicion of not being a citizen" and, since it's assumed they're not citizens, they're given the rights of "enemy combatants" (ie, no rights whatsoever). This method is by no means original--it's what was referred to as "being disappeared" under Pinochet or Peron, or "the holocaust" under the Nazis. Targeting 5% of your population and arresting them without access to legal process is bad, bad, bad, bad news.
Furthermore, I'd contend that mass migration along the Southwest can be stopped--it's been going on for 17,000 years. Phoenix has been around for 40.
Luke is right and I hate to agree with him. Going after the problem by going after the Mexicans is like treating a gunshot wound with a bandaid. Essentially this strategy can't work as the Mexicans have nothing to lose and their country's economy is third world versus ours.
What our government needs to do is establish an information system to detect identity theft and hold employers truly accountable for their actions. Right now about all our national government can do is detect if a name doesn't match an SSN which is disgraceful. As long as an illegal has a match he's okay.
That is because Senor Bush and his cronies would rather have their corporate profits over the prosperity of America. We need to hold business owners accountable and send them to prison for violating our immigration laws. Going after the Mexicans is like trying to stop a rat infestation in a cheese factory without attemtping to find the holes in the wall.
Huh.
On top of all of that, Bob, the only valid complaint made about undocumented workers is that they drive down wages, which is just a bad argument. Employers want to pay as little as possible (as a universal) and employees want to make as much as possible (again, as a universal); PLENTY of Americans are willing to do the jobs which are filled illegally, it's just that they're unwilling to do those jobs for so less money than can legally be paid. This lowers the number of jobs on the legit market, which increases desperation for legal jobs.
So how do we combat this? By enforcing minimum wage laws. After all, being in this country without a visa is NOT a crime (it's against statutes, but not laws); working for less than minimum wage is NOT a crime; paying somebody less than minimum wage IS a crime.
The originary law is broken by the employer; if we stop that crime, the rest are stopped.
And I reiterate that migrant labor has been the modus vivandi in the Southwest for 17,000 years. Trying to stop migrant labor is akin to trying to putting a cap on fishermen in New England.
Luke,
To start, they are illegal aliens, not undocumented workers. An undocumented worker is a teenager who doesn't get the proper work permit from school. An illegal alien is someone who is in this country either longer than permitted at customs and immigration, or who bypassed that all together.
Next, a violation of statute is a crime. Entering this country without permission is a crime. Staying in this country passed statutory length is a crime. By definition, they are criminals. (I hate it when people sugar coat stuff.)
That said, I agree that we need to go after the employers. Some decent jail time for the management of a company who hires the illegal aliens would be a good start. If employers had to do more than pay a fine, they might reconsider this, and it wouldn't just be another cost of business.
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