Fisher gets birds-eye view of hole in the ground

Thursday afternoon, Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Berding took Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher up to the 26th corporate offices of Bob Castellini at 312 Elm Street so he could give Fisher - named by Gov. Ted Strickland to be his director of development - a briefing on the status of The Banks development project.

Democratic political operative Brewster Rhoads, said to be the governor's likely choice to run his Cincinnati office, tagged along.

Berding said he chose Castellini's office for the briefing because Castellini has big picture windows in his penthouse office suite so the lieutenant governor could get an overhead view of the less-than-attractive expanse of mud and asphalt that may someday be The Banks.

After the briefing, Fisher headed to City Hall to meet with Mayor Mark Mallory and, later, planned to join Berding at a kick-off fundraiser for his council re-election campaign.