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Brian talks with Liz Keating this morning · Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: Krc the talk station A six here fifty five KRCV
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Speaker 1: talk station. The continuous theme here though, on this fifty
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Speaker 1: five KRSE morning show. What's going on in the city
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Speaker 1: of Cincinnati. And welcome back to the fifty five Carsite
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Speaker 1: Morning Show. Always a pleasure, Liz Keating, former counselman. She's
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Speaker 1: running again. We hope she gets elect at least I do,
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Speaker 1: Jus Dreker does. Andre Ewing's got your back, Liz Keating,
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the fifty five cars Morning Show. It's
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Speaker 1: a pleasure to have you back on the show.
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Speaker 2: Is thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure to
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Speaker 2: be on.
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Speaker 1: Well, and we're excited, and we hope that the voters
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Speaker 1: give you another shot. At very turbulent times and politics
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Speaker 1: in downtown Cincinnati, and surprising, I think me and everybody
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Speaker 1: else who fully is aware of how blue the city
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Speaker 1: is in terms of its democratic leanings. May I have
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Speaker 1: to have parvol seems to be scrambling to respond to
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Speaker 1: the crime problem at least that we've gotten downtown Cincinnati.
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Speaker 1: But a little late in the day, as we get
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Speaker 1: closer and closer, I'm only a few weeks away from voting.
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Speaker 1: But he's getting it seems to have. He's gone into
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Speaker 1: overdrive mode. And now we have this additional wrinkle that
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Speaker 1: maybe Police Chief Teresa Thiji might get fired. What's your
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Speaker 1: reactions as you see things unfold.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a little too late. You know, people,
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Speaker 2: the residents of Cincinnati have long been saying they don't
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Speaker 2: feel safe. We've seen violent crime continue to tick up,
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Speaker 2: and we've heard council members. I mean, we've had candidate forums.
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Speaker 2: There's been canet forums several weeks, for many weeks leading
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Speaker 2: up to the selection, and they're incumbent council members who
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Speaker 2: consistently say that these candet forums, everything is fine, we're
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Speaker 2: lying about crime. Crime is going down, nothing to see here,
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Speaker 2: And they didn't want to face the facts. They didn't
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Speaker 2: want to admit what was going on. They didn't want
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Speaker 2: to listen to residents who are saying, I just don't
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Speaker 2: feel safe. Let alone. We know news every morning there's
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Speaker 2: been shooting after shooting after shooting, and they don't do anything.
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Speaker 2: And now all of a sudden they're panicking and trying
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Speaker 2: to make changes right before an election. This is not
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Speaker 2: how we want our city to be run. We need
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Speaker 2: leaders who are willing to face the facts and take
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Speaker 2: action right away, not try to hide it until it's
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Speaker 2: too late leading up to an election. I just want
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Speaker 2: better leadership, and we need change in Cincinnati.
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Speaker 1: Well the way, and I guess looking just at the
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Speaker 1: issue of the police chief, I don't personally blame police
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Speaker 1: Chief three cy Thigi for the violence in downtown Cincinnati.
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Speaker 1: She is working with a contingent of police officers, which is,
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Speaker 1: at least, as we understand it, a couple of hundred
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Speaker 1: less than what we could fully use in downtown Cincinnati.
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Speaker 1: But given the way the police chiefs are appointed and fired,
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Speaker 1: that that power rests soling the hands of the mayor
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Speaker 1: and the city manager, neither of whom know anything about policing.
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Speaker 1: Generally speaking, I don't know how what their role in,
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Speaker 1: what their position and those roles is that gives them
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Speaker 1: the knowledge and the skills necessary to select a good
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Speaker 1: police chief. But the political reality of that is that
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Speaker 1: the police chiefs beholden to the political whims of those
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Speaker 1: two people, which are not in the interest of the
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Speaker 1: police department. I don't think in the interests of the
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Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati. Voters will decide that. But should we
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Speaker 1: go back to the way it was before Issue five
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Speaker 1: got passed.
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Speaker 2: Liz, I think yeah, I think that is a very
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Speaker 2: valid point. Ken Korber has been very loud about that
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Speaker 2: as well, to give that buffer. So for the listeners
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Speaker 2: who don't know what that means, that means we could
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Speaker 2: potentially have a situation right now. The city manager can
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Speaker 2: can fire the police chief or the fire chief, you know,
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Speaker 2: any time for any reason. The mayor can fire the
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Speaker 2: city manager. But to put a little buffer in place,
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Speaker 2: to require a vote of city council, say seven votes
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Speaker 2: of city council, to approve the firing of somebody. That
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Speaker 2: gives them a little buffer to actually do their job
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Speaker 2: and not to sit it on and and be beholden
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Speaker 2: to the political powers and and have to deal with
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Speaker 2: the politicization of their jobs. I really like that idea,
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Speaker 2: and it gives them just it's much more room to
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Speaker 2: actually act in the professional manner that they're supposed to
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Speaker 2: like actually police actually make tough decisions that may not
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Speaker 2: be politically expedient for those who are in office. I
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Speaker 2: think it's a very valid point, something that we should
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Speaker 2: continue to debate and look at doing, because otherwise you're
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Speaker 2: going to continuously see this, especially leading into an election season.
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Speaker 1: Well, I suppose on some level, given the nature of
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Speaker 1: how she was appointed as a police chief, that her
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Speaker 1: if she is fired, the question will be why are
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Speaker 1: you firing her? Is it because of these of the
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Speaker 1: violence in the city, since I and you have misallocated
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Speaker 1: the resources in the city, or is it an acknowledgment
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Speaker 1: that because she follows the policies of the city manager
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Speaker 1: and I have to have pro ball that it's a
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Speaker 1: reflection of their own failure by appointing her in the
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Speaker 1: first place, or by dictating how she runs the office.
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Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's like blaming yourself if you fire her.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you have to have elected officials that are
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Speaker 2: willing to stand up every single day and say I
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Speaker 2: support the police and I want the police to just
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Speaker 2: go do their jobs and not holding back and not
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Speaker 2: create a situation where they're nervous to want to go
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Speaker 2: out and do their jobs the way that they were trained.
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Speaker 2: The fact that we are waiting this long to start
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Speaker 2: going after people who are breaking the law, even minor infractions,
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Speaker 2: is absolutely mind boggling to me. I mean, people have
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Speaker 2: been complaining about this for a very very long time,
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Speaker 2: and then to just here this week saying Okay, we're
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Speaker 2: going to start going after you, and we're going to
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Speaker 2: come talk to you. We're going to approach you if
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Speaker 2: you are doing anything illegal. I mean the fact that
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Speaker 2: elected officials weren't supporting and encouraging the police to do
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Speaker 2: this so long ago. I mean, it's no wonder we're
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Speaker 2: in the situation that we are in. You've got to
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Speaker 2: be able to support the police, and you've got to
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Speaker 2: encourage in and allow the police to do their jobs
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Speaker 2: and not let politics get in the way of that.
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Speaker 1: Amen to that. And then if they are left to
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Speaker 1: do their job, to run the job independently, make the
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Speaker 1: choices on their own, free of political pressure, and they
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Speaker 1: do a poor job, you have a legitimate justification. Hey,
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Speaker 1: we let her run the show and she failed at that.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna find somebody that does a better job, that
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Speaker 1: would be more logical and reasonable. But right now her
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Speaker 1: hands are tied. And again, if they fire her, they're
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Speaker 1: firing her because she bent to their Will'd be my argument. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: what do you your reaction to the Jeff Ruby Entertainment
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Speaker 1: Center closing down. I know the spin in local media
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Speaker 1: was it with some sort of rent dispute, but it
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Speaker 1: actually was not. The CEO from Ruby's said out loud
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Speaker 1: that knows because of security the rental company the property
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Speaker 1: owner wasn't providing adequate security. I think that's suggesting we
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Speaker 1: need better security downtown. There are employees working here and
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Speaker 1: they have concerns walking in and out of the building,
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Speaker 1: or that maybe criminals and evil types might walk into
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Speaker 1: the building. So the controversy centers around safety, and they're
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Speaker 1: not there anymore. After that, Purvoal was on the TV
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Speaker 1: last night arguing with Corey Bowman claiming Heaps brought all
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Speaker 1: kinds of businesses in a downsound. But I don't remember
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Speaker 1: any of that. Liz keating, are we losing more than
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Speaker 1: we're gaining? Where are we in terms of drawing people
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Speaker 1: into downtown Cincinnati?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we have a problem across the board.
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Speaker 2: We have seen restaurants shut down, and those restaurant owners
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Speaker 2: consistently say that it's because crime and safety isn't been
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Speaker 2: a problem and impacting their businesses. Now, we know we
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Speaker 2: are in a tough economy. We know that we already
7:24
Speaker 2: have a lot of forces going against us. But when
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Speaker 2: you have this kind of economy, you know crime spikes,
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Speaker 2: you know mental health issues rise, and you know you
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Speaker 2: have safety issues. These are things that could have been
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Speaker 2: prevented and worked on two years ago, but it wasn't.
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Speaker 2: And now we're consistently hearing you're hearing restaurants in the banks,
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Speaker 2: you're hearing restaurants in Central Business District, you're hearing restaurants
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Speaker 2: do it in OTR. Consistently complained about that and need
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Speaker 2: for more police officers, more police officers walking the beat,
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Speaker 2: more security, more private detail to be able to manage
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Speaker 2: this not just from a secure standpoint and safety standpoint,
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Speaker 2: but a perception of safety so that people feel safe.
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Speaker 2: And if people don't feel safe, they are not going
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Speaker 2: to come support our businesses and those businesses are going
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Speaker 2: to hurt. And if we are a city that does
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Speaker 2: not support these small businesses that are the lifeblood of
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Speaker 2: our city in our community, we have a huge, huge
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Speaker 2: problem down the line. We got to be able to
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Speaker 2: do better, and we need city officials, particularly city council
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Speaker 2: step up and actually care about these businesses and make
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Speaker 2: sure they're getting the support they need from a safety standpoint.
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Speaker 1: Well, Pauls, bring Liz Keeping back. Obviously we know where
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Speaker 1: she is on crime in downtown since siat We're going
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Speaker 1: to get some other ideas she has for as she
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Speaker 1: wins the council race. Early voting is open, The Board
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Speaker 1: of Elections is open. Go cast your vote today. Make
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Speaker 1: sure Liz Keating is among the four or five you
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Speaker 1: actually vote for. Going back to Christopher Smithman's point, don't
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Speaker 1: vote for all nine. You don't need to do that,
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Speaker 1: Just vote for the ones you want. It's vote Liz
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Speaker 1: Keating eat, I G vote Liz Keeting dot com. We'll
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Speaker 1: bring her back right from station eight eighteen fifty five
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Speaker 1: kar ce De Talk station. So it's a very important
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Speaker 1: election in the city of Cincinnati coming up in November,
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Speaker 1: and Liz Keating is on the bottle for sincey City Council,
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Speaker 1: joining the program this morning to talk about that. So
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Speaker 1: as we move away from crime, I had one of
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Speaker 1: the other huge issues for the residents of the city,
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Speaker 1: and we saw this unfold and Bond Hill and Hyde
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Speaker 1: Park they collectively painted this connected communities zoning rule over
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Speaker 1: all of the neighborhoods without consulting with local communities about
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Speaker 1: whether they wanted it or not, and then start making
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Speaker 1: exceptions for well connected developers and in other areas without
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Speaker 1: consulting those local communities like the residents of Hyde Park.
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Speaker 1: We all know how that worked out for the mayor
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Speaker 1: and the city council. What is the Liz Keating approach
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Speaker 1: to let's say, affordable housing. I know Parvall said even
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Speaker 1: again last night, he wants forty thousand new affordable called
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Speaker 1: affordable homes. Maybe you can define that for me, because
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Speaker 1: I don't know what that means in the next ten years,
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Speaker 1: but that's four thousand a year. They haven't even come
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Speaker 1: close to that goal list keeping your reaction to property.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the number one reason why they haven't
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Speaker 2: come close to that goal is because they're not actually
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Speaker 2: having productive debate down there. I mean, if you look
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Speaker 2: at these situations, they're going all or nothing. So you've
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Speaker 2: got council members who are voting yes, just get down
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Speaker 2: there and give speeches as to why they're voting yes.
10:27
Speaker 2: And then you've got council members they're voting no, and
10:29
Speaker 2: they're giving speeches as to why they're voting no. So
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Speaker 2: they go all or nothing. A lot of these communities
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Speaker 2: are saying, yeah, we do want housing, we do want investment,
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Speaker 2: we do want something. Can you just work with us
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Speaker 2: into what fits within the design of our community. And
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Speaker 2: if it's all or nothing, everyone loses. You end up
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Speaker 2: with nothing, as you're seeing it in High Park, Whereas
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Speaker 2: a lot of the High Park neighborhood said, you know,
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Speaker 2: our squares old, it's been a while since we've gotten
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Speaker 2: some sort of investment. We'd be happy to have a
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Speaker 2: little bit of a facelift. You work within our current building,
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Speaker 2: can you can you work within the current design? Can
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Speaker 2: you respect the architectural history of our square? And if
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Speaker 2: you had done that, you would actually be moving forward
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Speaker 2: on a project right now that one fits with a
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Speaker 2: neighborhood that makes the neighborhood happy, and you'd actually have
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Speaker 2: more units than you have now. Guess how many we
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Speaker 2: have now because of the absolute failure of City Council zero.
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Speaker 2: And it's insane. If you look at the way the
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Speaker 2: city approaches development in our urban core, it is very proactive,
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Speaker 2: it's strategic, it's intentional, and it respects the historic architecture
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Speaker 2: of our downtown. And I've said this before. You wouldn't
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Speaker 2: build a big box apartment building on the empty parking
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Speaker 2: lot next to music Hall, you just want it. Nobody
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Speaker 2: would even fathom doing that. But when you go to
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Speaker 2: the neighborhoods that things like that are like, oh, well,
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Speaker 2: you're a nimby if you don't want this, and it's
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Speaker 2: absolutely absurd, Like you rarely see opposition of housing being
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Speaker 2: built in the urban core because of how careful and
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Speaker 2: how intentional they are on it. And if we can
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Speaker 2: take that same proactive approach in our neighborhoods, work with
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Speaker 2: our neighborhoods of what do you want and how do
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Speaker 2: we make this fit, you can actually be much more
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Speaker 2: proactive and figure out how to incentivize that kind of investment,
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Speaker 2: and particularly for disinvested neighborhoods, they can get that added investment,
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Speaker 2: more housing units the way that fits within the neighborhood,
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Speaker 2: and you'd be much further along. If you continue this
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Speaker 2: all or nothing approach and absolutely fail and having a
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Speaker 2: productive debate, you get where you are now, which is zero.
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Speaker 1: Well, it seems to me this kind oft communities and
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Speaker 1: it's all about affordable housing. I don't know what that
12:47
Speaker 1: word means. I know that if somebody built an apartment
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Speaker 1: complex in Hyde Park and maybe it was you know,
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Speaker 1: one hundred units and each one only had let's say
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Speaker 1: five hundred square feet. You're going to get a hell
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Speaker 1: of a lot more rent in that unit than you
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Speaker 1: are in pick one of the other fifty two neighborhoods
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Speaker 1: where maybe the crime is a lot higher, maybe the
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Speaker 1: amenities aren't is, maybe there's not as much shopping or
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Speaker 1: grocery store access, they're not going to command as much
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Speaker 1: rent just by virtue of location. You can't control that
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Speaker 1: unless you put in some kind of rent control, can you, Liz,
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Speaker 1: I think it's more.
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Speaker 2: The way I look at it is is figuring out
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Speaker 2: how we can get more two, three, four families built,
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Speaker 2: because if you look on public transit lines, you can
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Speaker 2: build within neighborhoods, these smaller what you know professionals call
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Speaker 2: the missing middle housing. You're building up those, and then
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Speaker 2: more people can can actually build those. You have more
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Speaker 2: mom and pops that can build a two family. It's
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Speaker 2: a pathway to home ownership because somebody can buy a
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Speaker 2: two family and rent out the other side and I'll
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Speaker 2: set their mortgage, which you know brings the cost down.
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Speaker 2: But when you're buying real estate, which we all know
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Speaker 2: builds that generational wealth. But then more people can partake
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Speaker 2: in that because there aren't very many people who can't
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Speaker 2: afford to big, big apartment buildings like you're seeing in
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Speaker 2: the urban core. And so if you can take that approach,
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Speaker 2: and I think High Park is a perfect example. If
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Speaker 2: you look at all these cross streets around high Park Square,
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Speaker 2: like Zumstein and Barry and Michigan and in Erie and Observatory,
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Speaker 2: you do have a lot of two three four families.
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Speaker 2: I grew up on a street two doors down with
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Speaker 2: a four family because I lived right off of a
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Speaker 2: major road on Linwood Road. And it it gives more
14:27
Speaker 2: people the opportunity easy. You allow more people to be
14:30
Speaker 2: able to build, and it offsets the cost to be
14:33
Speaker 2: able to create that pathway to home ownership and generational wealth.
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Speaker 2: And I think that's the best approach because those smaller
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Speaker 2: missing middle housing, the two three four family units that
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Speaker 2: fits into neighborhoods, it works. And if you're doing it
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Speaker 2: on public transit lines, if you're doing in these neighborhood
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Speaker 2: business districts, if you're doing it in near schools and
14:50
Speaker 2: house centers and daycares, you know it fits so perfectly
14:54
Speaker 2: and more people get to partake in it.
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Speaker 1: And I presume that's this entire conversation has to be
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Speaker 1: predicated on one of those smaller builders maybe or any
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Speaker 1: any builder actually realizing a profit by building that type
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Speaker 1: of unit as opposed to going for the full freight
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Speaker 1: really big apartments or really expensive housing.
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Speaker 2: There is true think about the number of people that
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Speaker 2: could move forward on doing that versus one massive project
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Speaker 2: that takes years and years to get all the approvals,
15:25
Speaker 2: to get all the financing and move forward. And I
15:28
Speaker 2: think the problem with this council is that they're, you know,
15:31
Speaker 2: they keep this all or nothing approach and then they
15:33
Speaker 2: panic because they haven't move forward on any numbers, and
15:36
Speaker 2: so they just want one big project so they can
15:39
Speaker 2: you know, tally up and say we got this many
15:41
Speaker 2: versus trying to figure out how to be much more
15:44
Speaker 2: proactive and strategic and working with the community to make
15:47
Speaker 2: it fit. There is a way to do this. We
15:49
Speaker 2: have seen other cities do this, and we just need
15:54
Speaker 2: council members who are willing to take the time and
15:57
Speaker 2: actually have that productive debate to figure it out.
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Speaker 1: Early voting is open. I recommend my listeners check out
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Speaker 1: their website vote Lizkeating dot com. In spite of the
16:05
Speaker 1: fact that we're running out of time in terms of
16:07
Speaker 1: now in the election just a few weeks away, it's
16:09
Speaker 1: not too late for folks to help out with your campaign,
16:11
Speaker 1: get involved and maybe even donate. Or are we past that,
16:14
Speaker 1: Liz Keating, Oh, we.
16:17
Speaker 2: Are absolutely not past that. All of the above. We
16:21
Speaker 2: definitely need help and we will take any and all help. Obviously,
16:25
Speaker 2: donations are extremely helpful, particularly at these last few weeks
16:30
Speaker 2: to help with ads and the mailers. We need people
16:34
Speaker 2: at the polling locations on election day talking to your neighbors,
16:38
Speaker 2: your friends as they come in to vote and in
16:42
Speaker 2: you know, getting yard signs up and just making sure
16:45
Speaker 2: people are aware because you know, voter turnout is extremely
16:48
Speaker 2: low on these off year elections and that's why we
16:51
Speaker 2: end up with what we have right now. And if
16:53
Speaker 2: you want to have a voice, if you want to
16:55
Speaker 2: have productive debate, if you want somebody who's going to
16:58
Speaker 2: fight crime and fight the causes of crime. If you
17:00
Speaker 2: want somebody who is going to make sure those potholes
17:02
Speaker 2: are filled and the roads are paved and we actually
17:04
Speaker 2: plow snow when it snows out. We need to have
17:09
Speaker 2: you show up. We need to have you talking about
17:11
Speaker 2: it and make sure you got your networks to show
17:13
Speaker 2: up to vote too.
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Speaker 1: If those sound like great ideas, then you need to vote.
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Speaker 1: Liz Keating, I recommend people do that again. Vote listen.
17:20
Speaker 3: Nny's ben't a great idea. Sorry I'm interrupting you here.
17:23
Speaker 3: That is not even a great idea. That is just
17:25
Speaker 3: common sense foundation of local government. This shouldn't be that hard.
17:31
Speaker 2: I'm glad I said it, Cincinnati.
17:32
Speaker 1: I'm glad I said that change down there, right. I'm
17:35
Speaker 1: glad I said that because you put the exclamation point
17:38
Speaker 1: on it. Amen, Liz Keaty, good luck. If we don't
17:42
Speaker 1: talk between now and then, and I hope we do.
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Speaker 1: I wish you all the best, and I really just
17:46
Speaker 1: for the benefit of the city that I love so much,
17:48
Speaker 1: we need a new administration who can focus on this
17:51
Speaker 1: logical and reasonable strategy. Thanks Liz Keating, keep up the
17:55
Speaker 1: great work, and I'll wish you all the best as
17:57
Speaker 1: we fast approach election day. Oh, come it up.