Shannon Hardin's first, and perhaps final, stand
If Council President Hardin would like to prove his reign would be different than Mayor Suburbs', he has an opportunity to show that tonight at City Hall at 5 p.m.
City Council will vote on the corporate astroturfed #NWLtoColumbus plan tonight.
The legislation, which calls for a $25 million upfront payment to billionaire Jimmy Haslam and the removal of the only green space in Columbus’ poorest neighborhood, appears on the agenda in the same form as last week’s reading.
The former is a sad, albeit standard, scam in American politics that the billionaire class has propagated upon American cities and states for the last 30 years.
The latter is especially galling given that Columbus would reneg on a long-awaited transformation of McCoy Park into the only accessible outdoor park for disabled residents, not only in Franklinton, but the city as a whole.
From the Franklinton Area Neighbors Civic Association:
As one West Side reader told The Rooster over the weekend, McCoy Park was set to be the only park in the city where her husband, a disabled veteran, could play with their children.
That’s all set to go away, because the Haslam Sports Group, in their quest for haste, wants the only public land in the vicinity of downtown that they won’t have to remediate, as evidenced by this EPA map of area brownfields and hazardous wastes:
Mayor Suburbs is already in the tank for the deal he negotiated in private months ago, with details made public only at the full City Council’s “economic impact” meeting two weeks ago.
From abc6onyourside.com (brackets mine):
“Mayor Ginther has identified an opportunity to create $118 million in new tax revenue, create hundreds of jobs, bring global attention to our city, and show Columbus girls and women that their city believes and invests in them.
He is also committed to working with the neighbors of the South Side to provide them with the recreation opportunities they desire and deserve.
As the Mayor said on [April 9], no one will be left behind in the opportunity this team will create. And that starts with our neighbors on the South Side.
These simple sentences exemplify why I’ll see our mayor in the deepest pits of Hell.
“Creating $118 million in new tax revenue” is a fabricated figure intended to justify the deal and to hide the $25 million upfront payment to the Haslam Group that the city is putting on its credit card.
There will be no repercussions or even any evidence provided to the public, as the Haslam Sports Group fails to produce anywhere near the $118 million that Mayor Suburbs specifically avoided providing a timeline for.
But again, this is where, at times, it’s easier to deal with the antics of the Republican Party. They rob from the poor and give to the rich. Why? Because fuck you.
Mayor Suburbs is doing exactly what the Republican State Legislature did this year, but since he’s an alleged Democrat, he’s obligated to peddle a bunch of woke bullshit about being “committed to working with the neighbors” he’s robbing while also claiming “no one will be left behind” in a deal that’s more corporate welfare in exchange for an expansion of a soccer franchise.
Just because he says those words doesn’t make them true! But he (or his team of paid gremlins) knows they have to at least peddle the illusion of sympathy for the plight of the poor people that they’re about to screw over for “global attention” to Columbus.
Much like the Republican Party, we expect this from Mayor Suburbs. Selling out common residents for corporate interests is how someone as unaffable and mean-spirited as him climbed the ladder of the city’s machine politics to his current position.
The bigger question, however, will be whether Council President Shannon Hardin wants to follow the mayor down that path a little over a year before he’ll campaign as a better alternative.
While the agenda item remains unchanged since last week, it’s at least possible that an amendment could be added that would radically alter the terms of the deal.
The Haslam Group, to put it bluntly, is pregnant.
Jimmy Haslam has most likely felt stirrings in his pants over the idea of a new asset with which he can further inflate his net worth; that the asset would come at the expense of poor people probably makes it as close as he’s come to an erection in 20 years.
Council could take a lesson from Brook Park, which is now demanding $24.8 million from the Browns to pay upfront infrastructure costs for their new cybertruck stadium.
Council could demand a similar payment from the Haslam Sports Group. It could tell them that McCoy Park isn’t for sale. It could just vote down the entire deal as it stands.
Councilmembers Melissa Green and Nancy Day-Achauer will do their part and vote no.
Nick Bankston is in the tank, as he’s clearly been tasked with shepherding the Haslam-approved message through council.
The rest of the members, other than President Hardin, have remained silent for the past two weeks, preferring instead to discuss their thoughts in private, where this deal has been primarily negotiated since January.
No half-measure will be acceptable in my eyes, because as Day-Achauer pointed out last week, finding a new park in South Franklinton would take years to develop, even if there were an ideal alternative site available, which there isn’t.
If Hardin can’t differentiate himself on this issue from Suburbs and a serial fraudster like Haslam, then why should anyone trust him to govern differently than Suburbs if he’s elected mayor in 2027?
By voting for this deal, he would show that he serves the same interests as Mayor Suburbs.
Perhaps Hardin feels that he can make this deal, given that, in electoral terms, next year’s primary is roughly 500 years away. He wouldn’t be wrong, especially given the minuscule number of voters who know the grisly details of this deal ahead of tonight’s pivotal vote.
Hardin is well aware of the power that the Columbus Partnership wields in our local politics—especially in the post-Citizens United era, when the CEO class can funnel millions of unaccountable dark money dollars into a mayoral election if they want.
Unseating an incumbent mayor—even one as flawed as Suburbs—is no easy task, even without that corporate money flowing into various PACs.
But if Hardin goes down this road, he will show that he, like a lot of politicians before him, see their electorate as a lump of mass that can be manipulated for their personal gain.
How can he campaign on changing the city for the better if he’s not willing to say “No” to a MAGA superdonor like Haslam?
He can’t play both sides on this issue. Either he’s going to protect vulnerable residents and the revamped park that the council promised them, or he’s going to bankrupt his future campaign before he’s even officially launched it.
I’d love to be wrong about my suspicion about tonight’s vote. It would delight me to know that City Hall is reading this morning’s dispatch and chuckling to themselves.
But I have seen how politics works in this city. I’ve seen the interests that have backed this astroturfed campaign while calling it “equity.”
Those same interests are hosting a fundraiser for Vivek Ramaswamy in Columbus on Thursday because they know that a little public outcry about poor people being screwed over pales in comparison to their plans.
