Eden McKissick-Hawley runs Tall Poppy, a Democratic consulting firm that works with progressive candidates and organizations. Last year, she managed Jesse Vogel’s campaign for City Council.
This guest column has been updated to correct factual errors.
Two years ago, tenants at Sandridge Apartments received a letter in the mail telling them that they had 30 days to find a new home.
An LLC based out of New Jersey bought the building where many of them lived for decades, flipped it and overnight, their rent doubled.
Over the weekend, I visited one of those tenants, John, a man in his late 70s who was displaced to Canal Winchester.
He told me he was, once again, at risk of losing his apartment. He was sent a high bill for meals that used to be delivered for free. The cost of skyrocketing food and gas has left him and his disabled wife in a dire position.
Our local government has done nothing to help him.
Like John, many residents of Columbus have come to expect nothing of our Democratic elected officials.
Help for billionaires
So when the mayor and Columbus City Council announced the plan to secure a professional women’s soccer team, residents immediately knew it would come at an extreme cost: a $25 million handout to Republican billionaires from the City Council, and $25 million from the County commissioners.
The city’s contribution will come from a new 2.5% fee tacked onto existing fees for attendees of events at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, home of the Crew. Unsurprisingly, the city has provided no projection of how long it will take to pay off.
On the county side, we have no clue where the money is coming from. We know the Haslam Family is cutting the county a $12 million check for Democratic commissioners John O’Grady and Erica Crawley’sdiscretionary slush funds – reportedly for early childhood initiatives and combating food insecurities.
That leaves our community bracing for cuts to existing services without any clue as to where the incoming $13 million is intended to be spent.
So where does the $13 million loss – and overall $25 million reallocation – come from?
We need answers.
People are crying out
At a time when the city is acting like we don’t have revenue secured to cover our basic needs for people like John, they’ve chosen to give a handout to the wealthiest Republican family in Ohio – the same family funding Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for governor.
To make it worse, the deal includes building a training facility in McCoy Park, the only green space in one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the city, whose residents also happen to have the lowest life expectancy in the entire state.
Rightfully so, people have cried out. Shamefully, our mayor has the audacity to say that people who oppose this highway robbery of taxpayers and residents are – wait for it– sexist and against women’s sports.
Three of nine council members voted against displacing the most vulnerable people in our city for $25 million and a community park.
In the most dire situation for our most vulnerable residents, when the bottom has fallen out, the best we can get is three no votes.
‘Come on, Democrats. Come on.’
This is why residents expect nothing from the city. We are past politics. It’s about mutual aid now. It’s about showing up for one another in radical ways because our government is not up to the task.
When I left John and his wife on Saturday after talking through a plan to try to keep them housed through June, he walked me down the hall towards the exit. He told me he hopes an administration change can get us back on track, so his Meals on Wheels can be delivered for free.
And then he looked at me and said, “Come on, Democrats. Come on.”
I thought about going to City Hall and giving an impassioned speech about McCoy Park on Monday night. I thought about empowering someone facing displacement to speak.
And then I remembered how people in city hall don’t listen to residents, how they sell out to Republican billionaires, and I decided: I’m not going to waste my time, nor anyone else’s.
These elected officials are not worth my time, energy or vote.
We are better off banding together to find ways to keep people housed, doing it out of the purview of the local government that has failed over and over.
Come on, Democrats. Come on.
Eden McKissick-Hawley runs Tall Poppy, a Democratic consulting firm that works with progressive candidates and organizations. Last year, she managed Jesse Vogel’s campaign for city council.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Come on, Democrats! McCoy Park grift exactly why Columbus can’t trust you | Opinion
Reporting by Eden McKissick-Hawley, Guest Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
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