As the fall sports season approaches it’s not painfully clear that both the Reds and the Bengals are faced with one serious issue of attracting fans to downtown Cincinnati. If you go…you might not get home.
By now everyone has seen the video of the public beating on 4th Street in downtown Cincinnati, two weeks ago. It’s disturbing, it’s disgusting, and disingenuous on the part of city officials – mayor, police chief, and councilperson Victoria Parks – who have publicly said that 1) it’s been overblown by the media, or in Parks’ case 2) that it was warranted…”They asked for that beatdown.”
Let me say this about going to Cincinnati, or Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Tempe, Tucson, Dallas or any downtown in 2025. I’ve been to each of these places within the last five years and I really don’t plan on going back on a casual basis.
One of the last times I went to Cincinnati I passed under an overpass where I saw kids throwing rocks at cars driving in and out of Clifton (University of Cincinnati).
Another time I parked across Mehring Way to photograph a Bengals game, and when I returned mine was the only car in the lot that didn’t have it’s mirrors knocked off. Just a big dent in the door.
Downtown Los Angeles was so creepy-looking when we were there for the Rose Bowl in January that the doorman at the Sheraton Hotel advised me not to walk by myself more than two blocks from the front door of the hotel.
When I was in Tempe two years ago for Ohio State baseball I saw groups of individuals pan-handling people waiting to cross the street. One said, “You’re supposed to give us money.”
I no longer eat at the Hyde Park restaurant in downtown Columbus because of the capital city’s nasty reputation now for car-jackings. The mayor, Andrew Ginther, hasn’t gotten the word yet.
Even at Ohio State, if you have a parking credential for Tuttle Garage you have to be concerned about people gaining access through a back door and walking up and down the rows of cars, looking for one that isn’t locked.
So if I’m the Reds or the Bengals, I’d be concerned at this point about how to attract fans downtown, and have them feel safe enough to park their car, go to the game, then return to their car and sit in downtown traffic until you can get on the interstate and floor it out of town to safety.
And to exacerbate that concern, the city officials in Cincinnati show little or no ownership about what’s painfully obvious for all the world to see. That video, that the police chief is now condemning, is all over the world – the topic of every podcast and cable news channel. The same video that the police chief, Theresa Fiji, says she wishes people would quit showing. She blames the media for reporting it. Which, in reality, is like Christians talking about the crucifixion of Christ 2,000 years after the fact.
Said Fiji: “I, like many, woke up in the morning to the video” – sounding like “Why me.”
Councilwoman Victoria Parks: “They begged for that beatdown. I’m grateful for the whole story.”
What? You’re grateful that something like that happened in your town?
Mayor Aftab Pureval: “Let me be clear. There is no place for violent crime in Cincinnati. We will pursue those responsible and we will hold them accountable no matter who they are.”
What he should have said was…it might take us a couple of weeks, but we’re going to get right on that.”
Or…”Damn, I wish they’d quit showing that video.”
Of course, actions speak louder than words, where Cincinnati, like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, has the reputation now for being soft on crime and they hold no one accountable for anything…shoplifters being back on the street hours after they were arrested to rob again. Social justice, of course.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Ohio State baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
There was a time when you went to a Bengals game, then had dinner at Jeff Ruby’s, the Montgomery Inn, or Ruth Chris, and it might be dark by the time you left downtown. I wouldn’t risk that now…even if I had lives to spare, like the average Cincinnati alley cat.
No one in the Reds office, or the Bengals’, saw this coming, I’m sure. Wally Post wouldn’t believe it.
No one has any plan to deal with it – not with teeth – now that it’s here. It’s not going to go away, not as long as Holly (the woman that got sucker-punched) is still living and making the rounds.
No, the Reds and the Bengals are stuck…in a city that’s so soft that they can’t stand reruns of Gunsmoke.
And I’ll leave you with this.
As bad as it looks on video…why in the world would you be on the street at 3 am in the morning, anyway? Seriously…who’s that dumb? My dad always told me that nothing good ever happens after midnight.
Except in bed.
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