Latest / Brian Thomas / Don Driehaus for City Council

Transcript

Don Driehaus for City Council · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Don Dreehouse, who's running as a charter candidate for CINCINNTI
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: City Council. Don, welcome to the Morning Show. It's great
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to have you on today, Brian.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me and I appreciate the opportunity.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I like your message. I've got just some of my
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: listeners know if they want to check out your website,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Don Dreehouse, do you r I E H A U
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: S for Cincinnati dot org. You're running on a well,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: keep it simple, back to the basis kind of campaign.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We can't. We should fix what's both broken and build
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: some trust and UH and bring about some real results
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for residents. I appreciate all that. Do you feel as
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: though the sin City, this city has bitten off more
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: than it should be chewing on in terms of what
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: it thinks that it can accomplish and what it's trying
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Don, Yes, And in fact, I think we, the city
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: government itself, needs to get refocused, just like you know
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: we're saying we think that you know, paving the streets
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: has become a big issue here, and in cleaning up
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the litter and dealing with public safety. Those are three
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: key issues and they need to be focused on first.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: And I think the word first is where I was
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: in College Shill the other night and somebody said, you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: talking about this and that, but they said, you know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: first is what the city needs to do. It needs
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to do the basic first. Then you can kind of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: expand your presence. But there's all kind of opportunities to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: deal with deeper issues. But right now the city seems
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to be lost and heading in multiple directions. We need
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to get refocused on our core, you know, the core
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  Speaker 2: issues with the city and what the city should be
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  Speaker 2: bringing to the table.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Well, every time there's a ribbon cutting ceremony where I
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: have to have Purvall shows up, I just look at
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: it like it's a new skate park or it's a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: new fill in the blank that the taxpayers paid for.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: My immediate reaction, I think is along the lines of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the way you're thinking, Wait a second, these roads behind
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: me haven't been paved or touched for years. The city
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: looks terrible. There's garbage everywhere, or lots of places that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: whole broken windows philosophy is being ignored. We let the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: neighborhood deteriorate, crime increases, but look, we got a new
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: skate park that we have to take and maintain on
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a going forward basis. They've forgotten the maintenance and upkeep
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: component of seemingly everything that they've already took, they've already built, Don.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more. I live in Prace Hill.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I've been actively engaged with the Prey Seal Safety Committee
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Action Team for sixteen years. And when you pick up trash,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: we get out with kids and we work on the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: weekends and we do the work. And yet we're constantly
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: cleaning the same sites that were good intentions. For example,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: there's a top lot upon Warsaw which is a great
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: little spot and you know, twenty years ago was out
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: there with great fanfare and now it's just turned into
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  Speaker 2: a unfortunately haven for you know, in essence, people that
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: are addicted to drugs and you know, low level crime,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and it's not well maintained, and we maintain it. So
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it's you know, when you got volunteers in the street
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: who end up taking care of good intentions, that's a
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: lot of pressure and burden on a community.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I have to give you props for caring, Don,
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  Speaker 1: And I suppose if there were residents when each of
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  Speaker 1: the neglected communities that actually stepped up to the plate
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and demonstrated their care and concern for their own communities,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: maybe the city would look a lot better than it
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: currently does. But not an approval to your perceptions about
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: city council. And it's just ignoring these growing problems. I mean,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: who among us can say the roads in the City
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of Cincinnati are well maintained or taken care of even remotely.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I got to say, actually ask this out loud on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the heels of my conversation earlier in the program about
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: nuclear power being the answer to all of our energy
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: demand needs. Have to have parvoll I believe was quoted
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: as saying something along the lines of he views everything
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that lands on his desk as mayor of the City
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of Cincinnati initially through the green lens. In other words,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: as if the City of Cincinnati could take some sort
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  Speaker 1: of decarbonization efforts and apply it to whatever project is
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: being done and have some impact globally on climate I, personally,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: you don't need to agree with me, Dondree House. I
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  Speaker 1: personally find that to be almost comical, if not actually comical,
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  Speaker 1: given the insignificant amount of carbon we might put out
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  Speaker 1: in the city relative to entire countries whose carbon negation
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  Speaker 1: efforts have been blown away by China's output of carbon.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot we cannot do a thing about it. Why
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  Speaker 1: are we even trying?
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  Speaker 2: Don your reaction, you know, I again, it seems all
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  Speaker 2: inflated to be worrying about global warming and global issues
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  Speaker 2: if we're not even paving our streets. And as far
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  Speaker 2: as I'm concerned, you know, it's it's a noble thought.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: But.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: I kind of listen to people talking about, you know,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: growing gardens in the city and doing all these nice things.
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  Speaker 2: I'm more concerned about keeping the krogrow open in Price Hell.
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  Speaker 2: All right, that's what's important. We need to keep our
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: businesses open, and that involves public safety and cleanliness and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: an essence curb appeal in all of our neighborhoods. If
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: our businesses are struggling, if we're having if we're struggling
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: with low level criminal activity, if we're struggling with base again,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the basic services that the city should be providing, then
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: guess what these global thoughts that are way out there,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: they don't make any sense because they're not real. It's
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like Maslov's you know, pyramid of needs.
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  Speaker 2: If you can't, if you can't pave the streets, and
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  Speaker 2: you can't do the basics first, I don't care about
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  Speaker 2: the philosophy at the top. If the reality at the
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: bottom is bad, that's not the way it should work.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Amen, brother, Can I get a campaign pledge from your
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: doundry house that you'll see that Sunset gets paved. I'm
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: not sure. Since you're a west Side you may experience
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  Speaker 1: the war torn reality of that road on a more
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: regular basis than I do. But it's become a poster
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  Speaker 1: child for me in dealing with neglect. That road's been
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in that shape for years and years now.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: We play at the planners, we go down there and
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  Speaker 2: work on Sunset. I'm very familiar, and I read I
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: have to say something. I was the other evening, I
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: was out in Kennedy Heights and I was lost in
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Kennedy Heights. It was dark, and so I'm going down
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Kennedy Avenue to their community meeting, and even Kennedy Avenue
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  Speaker 2: is just it looks like a bombshell. I mean, you're
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: rattling along, You're it's all over the place. And I
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: walked in and I was building one there, you know,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: running for council and we talked for a minute with
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  Speaker 2: the group and all I had to do is say,
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy Avenue is a mess, and they were nodding their head,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: going yeah, sure is. And it's like okay, so all
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the things we can talk about, but we can't get
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy Avenue paid in Kennedy Heights just like Sunset on
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  Speaker 2: the west side those and that's that can be across
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the city. I mean, you see that example across the
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  Speaker 2: city and that's the first one of the first items
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  Speaker 2: that need to be addressed. Well.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Being a longtime resident of the Price Hill area, I
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: guess you've noticed the neighborhood has changed quite a bit
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: over the past maybe ten in fifteen years. What are
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the residents in Price Will say about the nature of
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  Speaker 1: the changes there and are they happy with the leadership
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: that we've had, which has been under Democrat control I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: believe for the last forty years.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Well, you know the old line, there's not a political
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: way to pick up the gardage. I think the problem
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  Speaker 2: in Price Hill, and I've been active on the Traunity
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  Speaker 2: councilor and the Safety group for years, we just feel neglected.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I mean it's you know, the West Side just kind
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: of feels like we've taken on the brunt of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of social issues and a lot of issues over
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  Speaker 2: the last twenty years, and I've been actively engaged with it.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a real feeling of ambivalence that city Hall
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: has not been paying attention, and when they do pay attention,
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  Speaker 2: they don't really give us any real answers. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I look at it as if hey, guys,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you know, like you said, recent example, right here, we
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  Speaker 2: have all these issues going on up here in the streets,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: and their idea of pandering at this point in time
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: is to dumple out of money into Dunham. Now Dunham's great,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong. It's a wonderful complex. We meet
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: down there, but it's down at the bottom of Sunset.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's not a walking distance of anywhere in the neighborhood.
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  Speaker 2: But if you start walking west a street land away,
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  Speaker 2: you start walking Harrison Avenue, all of a sudden you're going,
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  Speaker 2: wait a minute, why do we need all that we
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  Speaker 2: went a pop shot down at Dunham when we should
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  Speaker 2: be dealing with the in essence to yourpoint, the broken windows,
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  Speaker 2: they're all over the neighborhood which you see every day.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good point about the walking nature of Dunham.
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  Speaker 1: I'm very familiar with that, and yeah, there isn't an
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  Speaker 1: easy way to get there in terms of walking.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I run, and they've talked about putting a pathway
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  Speaker 2: through the cemetery to get to Dunham. I'm looking at
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  Speaker 2: that going it is not really a priority. I mean,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: it's it's interesting, but it's you know, and I run.
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  Speaker 2: I'll run down there. And I'm like, but I don't
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  Speaker 2: know how many other people are going to run from
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  Speaker 2: the top of the hill to the bottom of hill.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, only crazy old people like me do that.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm like, you know, I just don't know if
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  Speaker 2: that's really something that's important or at this point.
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  Speaker 1: Well, see, you're you're talking logical and reasonable along the
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  Speaker 1: lines that I've always said. Everybody has a list of
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  Speaker 1: things they want from government, everybody, and it's always different.
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  Speaker 1: But some responsible person has to be the adult in
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  Speaker 1: the room to prioritize the most important things. And I'm
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: with you all day long. Roads infrastructure should be a
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: top priority. The skateboard park can wait. When we get
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the roads fixed, then we'll start talking about that. But
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: we've got to do what the work. You've got to
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: do the work that needs to be done to make
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: people satisfied so they can live, drive, thrive, and and
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and and better their communities in other ways. I'm going
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to stop and bring it back. It's Dondree House for
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati dot orgs his website going to go, but a
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: little bit of his background because in really great background
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: in terms of skill sets that I think are.
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  Speaker 2: Talk stations.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Seven fifty five cares CD talk station. Happy Tuesday, Election,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Tuesday's next Tuesday. You have a choice. I don't have
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to run on the same path. The definition of stupidity
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: is doing the same thing over and over again expecting
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a different result. And if you're not happy with the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: way the city is currently run, and Dondrey House seems
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: to be a man who is not happy way the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: city has run, maybe go a different path. Dondrey House
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: for Cincinnati dot orgers where you'll find his campaign website.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Don you have a background I think is really beneficial
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to the City of Cincinnati if you're elected. A financial background.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, I worked thirty years in the financial industry. I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: started out with Gradison, which was when the original brokerage
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Burns in Cincinnati. Oh yeah, yeah, I started there in
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety. I literally, I have to say, prior to that,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I kind of ran a bloomin saloon, So you know
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: that was back in the day, and you're old enough
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to remember the two at Hyde Park and over on
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: the West Side. Ye, I started. So I have a
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: long and very career starting at the age of twelve,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: and I had you know, worked on the river everything else.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: But yes, when I was steady, I went to work
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: with Gradison and pretty much spent the next twenty nine
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: thirty years working in finance. And it was a, you know,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: a very profitable career and also you learn a lot.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: You're constantly learning. You constantly have to stay up on
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the trends of what's going on, you know, in the world, economy,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: in the market. And by the time I was finished,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I was doing institutional investing for Cincinnati Financial and I
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: managed to I don't know, I mean it's a number
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: of about a four or five billion dollars on portfolio.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: We had sixteen billion dollar portfolio at the time. I
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: was handling a lot of corporate space. And if you're
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: looking at interest rates today, you're looking at corporate spreads
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: or what's going on in the economy. It's a good
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: way to gauge, you know, a much bigger number of
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: what's happening, you know, in the economy. But it's been
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: a couple of years since I used to track the
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: breads and I used to work in the you were
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: talking about energy, was in the energy sector, so we
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: used to follow call and gas and nuclear and you
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: saw the rags and the like where it would impact
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the credit rating or the credit And you also had
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: to be very careful about, you know, how you were investing,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: because there would be situations where, for example, there was
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: there was a utility out of Illinois that in essence,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: came in and broke up their holding company and left
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: the bondholders with the with the debt, and they split
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: off equity to the investors, and we were stuck with
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a bad investment. At that point. They were shuttering coal
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: plants and you know, and they used they used a
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: parliamentary trick or a legal trick to stick it to
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: the bondholders. So you know, you're familiar with some of these,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I am kind of familiar with how things
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: work behind the scenes. When it comes to the rags
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: and you just have to keep an eye on it.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: That's all there is.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Andreas Comedy. I need a word or two on the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: situation crime, ignoring the issues regarding the police chief and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: where that takes us. What is your perception of crime
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in the city of Cincinnati and what would Councilman Dundry
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: House to do about it? If anything?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first off, let's talk about the chief. I think
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: she's a scapegoat at this point. I think, you know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: running the chief up the flagpole is bad, look and
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: it's bad. You know, the policies that were laid out
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: there about three or four years ago was more of
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: a hands off approach to what's going on at the
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: street level, and I don't think that works. We need
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to do the basics, you know. Again, they need to
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: write traffic tickets, we need to deal with litter, we
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: need we need to deal with, you know, the day
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: to day issues. Now, the problem we have with a
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: book the Cincinnati Police Force and the Fire Department are
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the calls for service are out of control, okay, and
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: right now as we know, the police compliment is down
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: about twenty percent and it's going to take three to
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: four years to rebuild the ranks if they do it,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: because you have retirements that are going to supersede or
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: exceed you know, the ability to train new officers. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go back to the fireside of this.
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  Speaker 2: I went up to Station twenty four here in Price
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Hill and spoke with the gang affair, and over fifty
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  Speaker 2: eight period they had one hundred and seventy eight calls
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: for service for manned down slash overdoses. Okay, that's one
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: firehouse fifty days. Every one of those calls for service
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: costs approximately eighteen hundred dollars a pop. So I'm going
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: do the map there, take it across the city, and
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: you have a huge amount of money we're spending on
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: calls for service. With fire and police compliments going out
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: every time, you're draining the ability for the responders to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: do their job, and it's breaking them around. And what
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: you need to do is say, hey, I do believe
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: in place based type focus. We have AI, we have technology,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: we have heat maps, so you can go in and say, okay,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: we've got four sights right here, one around me, right
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: around the corner on Greenwell, active drug dealing for problems
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: for months, if not years. We know who it is,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: we know the property is a problem. We've had a
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: landlord on the grill that nobody seems to be able
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: to get the results we want. And I'm saying, who's
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the landlord there? You are paying into this property, who's
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: dealing with it? And let's charge them? Forget the criminal
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: side of this. Yeah, we should be charging owners and
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: providers that are free riding on city services. That's my
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: take on it. It's like once you start putting a
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: search charge on calls for service for people that are
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: abusing the system, they'll start cleaning up the problems on
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: their own.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Don Dreehouse four Cincinnati dot orgs where you find Don's
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: campaign web page. Got one week to make your decisions.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I strongly encourage my listeners to take a look what
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Don is saying on his website, but also what he
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: had to say here on the fifty five KC Morning Show.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Don sounds good to me, my friend. I wish you
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: all the best, and if you are elected, I pray
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: that you help can help steer the Cincinnati, a city
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of Cincinnati that we all love, in a better direction.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Best luck as we fit. Quickly move forward to next Tuesday,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: my friend, good to have you on the show today,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Don