Campy's Editorial Page 

 Isn't this a great picture?  Fitting too!

(Thanks to The Cincinnati Enquirer and Jim Borgman!)

 August 3, 2000

When will they just Leave Us Alone?!?

By: Matt McGowan and Bruce Campanello

   It seems that messing with our livelihoods all by themselves wasn't enough.  Now a few members of City Council want to get the United States Government  in on the act as well.

    Imagine our shock and dismay when we turned on our television sets this evening to find out that Cincinnati City Councilman Paul Booth is calling for a federal inquiry to determine if our restaurant, along with several other restaurants in downtown Cincinnati, broke any laws when we closed down during last months Jazzfest/Ujima festivals.  Perhaps if Mr. Booth would take the time himself to look at the many problems facing downtown businesses these days, he would not need to waste his or our time, not to mention the thousands upon thousands of tax dollars that things like this always seem to take.

    Now we are not going to get up on our soapboxes here about City Council.  Even the most simple person can see where their policies on parking and downtown development have gotten our city.  Council's track record speaks for itself, and there is no sense in beating a dead horse.  However, with a business that relies on the street parking as much as we do (not unlike the many other restaurants downtown that do as well), what does the city expect us to do when every single parking meter on the streets surrounding our restaurant was covered up by the City with "No Parking" signs for the entire weekend.  We have been saying this for years, "If our customers have no place to park (not to mention our employees), we have no reason to be in business."  It's as simple as that.

    Campanello's Italian Restaurant has been a part of downtown Cincinnati for many, many years.  On any given day you can walk into our restaurant and see people of every race, religion, color and creed sitting down together enjoying a good meal and having a good time.  For anyone, especially a member of our City Council, to insinuate that we would center our business policies around racism is down right insulting to us and to everything we were raised to believe in. In fact, we believe that the Campanello family, along with the other restaurant owners who also are being slandered, are owed an apology by certain members of the Cincinnati City Council.  I'm sure they know who they are.  

    We have been open in the past on Jazzfest weekend and every time we have lost a whole lot of money.  That is why we closed this year, because unlike City Council, we cannot afford to be careless with our money, or our business.  If we know that our customers do not come into the restaurant during certain events (yes, we close during RiverFest too!), we cannot afford to speculate as to why.  We can only do what we feel is best for the survival of our family business.  If Paul Booth, Minnette Cooper, or anyone else for that matter think that is racism, then perhaps they are the ones who are being racist.

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