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Upper Arlington

MLK Day of Service Food Drive

Update: We delivered three stuffed SUVs of food to the CRC. We had petitions for three municipal judge candidates. Thanks to all the volunteers and donors for a successful event!

 

Upper Arlington Featured in AP Article

Did you see the July 18, 2020 Associated Press article by

Does Four Equal Four?

As you know, there are eight candidates running for four positions on the Upper Arlington City Council.

The ballot says to vote for no more than four. However, you are not required to vote for four. In fact, if you feel strongly about one or two of the candidates, it will increase their chances of being elected if you vote only for them. A vote for your fourth choice, a candidate you may be only lukewarm about, counts just as much as your vote for your first choice.

So remember to vote, but vote only for those you want to represent you on Council.

Hillary Clinton Carries Upper Arlington

Although we are all disappointed with the overall results, for the first time ever, a Democrat carried Upper Arlington in a presidential election. In UA, Hillary beat Donald Trump by almost 15 points and by over 3,300 votes. She also carried over 90% of the UA precincts. Certainly, your efforts, and those of other UA Progressives, contributed to this historic local election result.

John Lytle Just Misses Re-Election to Central Committee

UAPA President, John Lytle was two votes ahead when the votes were counted on election day, March 15, 2016. When absentee and provisional ballots were counted, Paula Brooks was the new Upper Arlington Ward 6 representative on the Central Committee for the Franklin County Democratic Party. Congratulations to Paula and to John for a hard-fought election.

Northam Park Redevelopment

The planned redevelopment of Northam Park has created quite a bit of controversy. Issues such as placement of the tennis courts and removal of large numbers of mature trees have many UA residents concerned. If you want to know more, read the following:

How Cuts in State Taxes Will Cost YOU Money

Robbing Peter to pay … Who?

Thanks to the Kasich administration policy of eliminating the estate tax and cutting funding for local government, Upper Arlington may never be the same.  The duty of supporting our city is falling directly on our shoulders. And it is a heavy burden as cuts threaten the reasons why we choose to live in our lovely town.

Urgent News: Poll Workers Are Needed for Upper Arlington, Grandview, Clintonville and Worthington for the March 6th Primary Election!

Please contact Pelectionsenny M. at 525-2476, or e-mail her directly at prmusick@vote.franklincountyohio.gov. Please include your full name, address and phone number when sending an email. For more information, visit the Board's Election FAQ page.

Signs Are Going Up Everywhere

We've been planting free candidate yard signs all over UA --- at over 125 locations so far. To the right is the map for just the signs that UAPA has placed over the last two weeks.

Now we need your help to cover this map completely with push pins.

There are two ways to get candidate yard signs:

Who deserves credit for Kingsdale?

City Council incumbent candidates Frank Ciotola's and Wade Steen's campaign flyers are proclaiming how they got Kingsdale done.

"With Linda Mauger and Don Leach both leaving Council, we need moderates to replace them --- members who will put the people's business first. We think Mike Schadek and Debbie Johnson are those two candidates."

--- UAPA Executive Cmte

But who really negotiated on behalf of Upper Arlington constituents for the best deal with developers? Who had the backbone to stand up and get the best deal for Upper Arlington?

As it turns out, Ciotola and Steen are two of the least deserving of all the praise they are heaping on themselves.

The market idealogues vs. the pragmatists

We heard it 100 times during the Kingsdale debate from Council's right-wing block --- "let the market dictate what goes in at Kingsdale". In this Columbus Dispatch story entitled 'Big-box approach OK'd for Kingsdale', Ciotola thought that UA was negotiating too aggressively on Regency's big box Target store proposal:

"I think municipalities are getting overzealous in dictating what the mix of development is instead of letting the market dictate," he said.

If UA had solely relied on market forces, as Ciotola suggests, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency would have "dictated" our future and we'd likely have a big box Target store or something like it at Kingsdale today.

A view of the Continental's proposed Kingsdale site from Tremont Road. Many of us breathed a sign of relief when Regency failed in their bid to build a big box Target store at Kingsdale. If Ciotola had been in charge of the negotiation, the market would have "dictated" the outcome and UA would likely have a Target store at Kingsdale!

And thanks to Council's moderate, pragmatic majority we will have something much better than Steen or Ciotola were willing to settle for.

The audacity of negotiation

Instead of the passive role of government that Ciotola recommended, the city staff and other Council members embraced their responsibility to the community to get the best deal for UA.

By effectively tempering market forces with the needs of the community as described in the Master Plan they brokered a Kingsdale compromise has been well received throughout our community.

The role of government

 

At the heart of the Kingsdale debate was how active and engaged City government should be in making economic development decisions.

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