Mayor sees purple over bridge report

During Mayor Charlie Luken's radio appearance on WDBZ-AM last week, a caller asked about the WCPO I-team report surrounding the architecture on the city side of the so-called Purple People Bridge.

Luken hung up on the caller, one of those frequent protesters who yells profanities at him during City Council meetings. And he refused to talk about the $393,000 the city spent on bamboo plants, yellow poles and hanging lights.

"I don't talk to the I-team because of Laure Quinlivan," Luken said, referring to the reporter who applied for a job as head of the city's police watchdog agency in 2002. "Ever since that happened she has gone out of her way to make the city look bad. I refuse to comment on every story the I-team does because they are unfair."

WCPO News Director Bob Morford responded:

Laure is an excellent journalist. I believe that without her stories on this bridge two years ago there wouldn't be ANY improvements to Ohio's side. Mayor Luken also refused to be interviewed for our Purple People Bridge investigation in 2003. His tired story about our reporter wanting a city job is pure nonsense. As he well knows, she withdrew her application for the position before candidates were interviewed. I believe Mayor Luken wants to deflect attention from the lack of sensible progress on improvements for the Purple People Bridge.

Luken, a former WLWT anchor, did eventually comment on the bridge decorations. He told Kentucky Enquirer reporter Ryan Clark, "I kinda like it ... I think the only thing it's missing is more development in the area."

(File photo by Glenn Hartong/The Cincinnati Enquirer)