Latest / Brian Thomas / Special "Smither-vent" - Mayor Pureval can't pay his own car yet he wants more of your money
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: It's six o five fifty five KERCD Talks station, and
- 0:04Speaker 1: I'll probably mention it a lot this morning because let's
- 0:06Speaker 1: see folks at Matt Treebrew today Summit Park location for
- 0:09Speaker 1: listener lunch and always enjoy the fellowship. They're kicking off
- 0:12Speaker 1: twenty twenty six on the right foot. Hopefully that all
- 0:15Speaker 1: these swirling bad news and the craziness going on months,
- 0:18Speaker 1: notably the swear again of FTV provol and his claim
- 0:22Speaker 1: that we need to raise the income tax. At least
- 0:25Speaker 1: he mentioned public safety, but also I guess money for
- 0:29Speaker 1: affordable housing. Welcome back to get it out of your system, Christopher.
- 0:33Speaker 1: I love being a therapy guide for you to help
- 0:36Speaker 1: deal with your mental health challenges, to deal with all
- 0:39Speaker 1: this news. Smither Event Volume two for this week, Christopher Smithman,
- 0:43Speaker 1: Welcome back to this show, my friend.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much for having me on. Brian,
- 0:48Speaker 2: you know, for your listening audience. You know, the city
- 0:52Speaker 2: budget is no different than your household, all right, and
- 0:55Speaker 2: every day you've got to wake up and pay for
- 0:57Speaker 2: the operation of your home capital improvements like fixing your
- 1:02Speaker 2: roof or putting in a new HVC unit, whatever it is.
- 1:08Speaker 2: Ling saying your Duke Energy billing radar, and you don't
- 1:17Speaker 2: walk in around the dinner table and look at your
- 1:21Speaker 2: your spouse or your significant other and say, listen, man,
- 1:26Speaker 2: you know we've got to make some tough choices here.
- 1:30Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out and buy
- 1:33Speaker 2: a really nice car, and at the same time, I'm
- 1:36Speaker 2: gonna I'm not gonna cut Netflix, or I'm not going
- 1:39Speaker 2: to cut my spectrum bill, or you know, I'm not
- 1:42Speaker 2: going to reduce something else. I'm not gonna take that
- 1:45Speaker 2: big trip. I'm gonna do all those things. The problem
- 1:48Speaker 2: with city Hall, it's a spending issue. Let's start with
- 1:52Speaker 2: the operation of the streetcar, not the capitol building of it.
- 1:58Speaker 2: This is what we talked about, Brian to. Oh yeah,
- 2:00Speaker 2: the chickens are coming home to roost, right, So I
- 2:04Speaker 2: estimate it's five million dollars a year just to operate
- 2:09Speaker 2: the street car. This council wants to take the second
- 2:13Speaker 2: leg up to UC. Here's what's really happening. They don't
- 2:18Speaker 2: care about police officers's there's nothing that shows you that
- 2:23Speaker 2: they care about law enforcement. This is about generating more
- 2:27Speaker 2: money because the COVID dollars that they've been patting the
- 2:30Speaker 2: budget with are now gone and so now they have
- 2:34Speaker 2: to sit back and really balance the budget. And instead
- 2:37Speaker 2: of balancing the budget, they're going back to the will
- 2:40Speaker 2: and they're saying, let's raise the income tax on the
- 2:44Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty thousand or three hundred and thirty
- 2:46Speaker 2: thousand citizens that live in the city of since that
- 2:49Speaker 2: knowing that our property taxes are already going through the roof.
- 2:53Speaker 2: This is just an irresponsible mayor and council that cannot
- 2:57Speaker 2: balance the budget. They keep putting out these off the
- 3:00Speaker 2: contracts like to an Irish rolely as an example, and
- 3:04Speaker 2: you say, well, what is she doing. She's hiring her son,
- 3:07Speaker 2: what's happening with that money? See, this is the kind
- 3:10Speaker 2: of stuff where if you're in the city and you're
- 3:14Speaker 2: watching how they manage their budget, and then you're watching
- 3:16Speaker 2: the mayor's personal cars be repolled, you don't trust that
- 3:21Speaker 2: they know what they're doing, And the fact is they don't,
- 3:24Speaker 2: Meaning why don't they make the hard decisions in front
- 3:28Speaker 2: of them, meaning show us that you're willing to reduce
- 3:31Speaker 2: your own spending prior to coming to the taxpayer and
- 3:36Speaker 2: saying will you bail us out for all the irresponsible decisions.
- 3:40Speaker 2: But no, they'll come right back and say, you know,
- 3:43Speaker 2: we've got to do the mural, the Black Lives Matter mural.
- 3:46Speaker 2: We're going to spend another million on that. We're going
- 3:49Speaker 2: to do a contract for IRIS. We're going to fire
- 3:52Speaker 2: people irresponsibly and just keep putting money out. We're not
- 3:56Speaker 2: going to reduce any hours on the street car. We're
- 3:58Speaker 2: going to continue to operate at the same level, meaning
- 4:01Speaker 2: at the same time we're going to talk about building
- 4:03Speaker 2: the second thing of the street car. And guess what,
- 4:06Speaker 2: we're going to tax all of you even more money
- 4:10Speaker 2: and tell you it's about cops. Well, it has nothing
- 4:12Speaker 2: to do with cops, nothing to do with it.
- 4:14Speaker 1: Well, don't overlook the very large checks they're going to
- 4:16Speaker 1: be writing to the former fire chief and probably police
- 4:19Speaker 1: former chief Fiji when they settle out their employment dispute
- 4:23Speaker 1: discrimination cases. That's millions of dollars right there. I suspect
- 4:26Speaker 1: that will be.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Absolutely What they're really trying to do, what this mayor
- 4:31Speaker 2: pure val is really doing, is he's trying to pit
- 4:35Speaker 2: police officers against conservative voters. So what they're setting us
- 4:40Speaker 2: up to say is this is a narrative if you
- 4:43Speaker 2: vote against us raising the income tax. You're voting against
- 4:47Speaker 2: cops as if he's for cops. Right. So, there are
- 4:51Speaker 2: lots of things that are funded in the operating budget
- 4:53Speaker 2: outside of police officers. But what he's trying to do
- 4:56Speaker 2: is pit the profession against all of the citizens of
- 5:00Speaker 2: Cincinnati who say, we want to be safe and you
- 5:03Speaker 2: haven't been able to deliver safety to us. It's not
- 5:06Speaker 2: about raising taxes to the public. This is a council
- 5:10Speaker 2: with the mayor that you voted for. Elections have consequences,
- 5:16Speaker 2: and so whether it's the eight million dollar settlement for
- 5:19Speaker 2: those who were downtown who are acting crazy and we're
- 5:23Speaker 2: arrested and we're now paying them off on that settlement,
- 5:26Speaker 2: whether it's an Irish rolely contract, whether it's the operation
- 5:29Speaker 2: of the street car, you name it, I guarantee you
- 5:33Speaker 2: you and I could put a fine too to this
- 5:36Speaker 2: budget and cut things that they are going to be
- 5:38Speaker 2: uncomfortable with. But we can find ten or fifteen million
- 5:41Speaker 2: dollars a year in operating that we shouldn't spend before
- 5:45Speaker 2: we raise any taxes on the public. They'll never do it.
- 5:48Speaker 2: This is about this is a spending issue. This is
- 5:51Speaker 2: about raising our taxes Brian Thomas, and they just don't
- 5:55Speaker 2: ultimately care. The last thing I'll say is, remember this
- 5:58Speaker 2: is a Democratic council that said as they care about
- 6:00Speaker 2: the poor. This is it that Democratic council, we care
- 6:03Speaker 2: about affordable housing. How do they think that everyday people
- 6:08Speaker 2: can pay for increases in property taxes? The widow or
- 6:12Speaker 2: widower out there who's our fixed income, how do they
- 6:15Speaker 2: think on a Social Security check that they're going to
- 6:17Speaker 2: pay for these increases in property and income tax and
- 6:21Speaker 2: thieves that they keep slamming us with, which makes Cincinnati
- 6:25Speaker 2: one of the most expensive places in our state to live.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Well, you got a lot of unpackage on that there.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Christopher Smithman, I guess when you going back to your
- 6:34Speaker 1: comment about this as an effort to pitt conservative voters
- 6:37Speaker 1: against Democrat voters, you presume, and I think it's fairly accurate.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Conservatives tend to be pro law enforcement, and we certainly
- 6:43Speaker 1: agree that there should be more law enforcement officers in
- 6:46Speaker 1: downtown Cincinnati in order to improve the crime situation. That's
- 6:49Speaker 1: a logical response to crime. But this is so much
- 6:52Speaker 1: more than that. So first off, let me just say
- 6:54Speaker 1: there don't appear to be a whole lot of conservative
- 6:56Speaker 1: voters in the city of Cincinnati. As I stare at
- 6:59Speaker 1: my the chart in the aftermath the last election, where
- 7:03Speaker 1: it's basically solid blue with the exception of Californian Riverside
- 7:07Speaker 1: and saleor Park. So I'm not sure there are that
- 7:11Speaker 1: many conservatives out there to even vote one way or
- 7:13Speaker 1: the other. But when you start saying further prioritize public
- 7:17Speaker 1: safety investments, support police and fire, also empower us to
- 7:21Speaker 1: invest in affordable housing. I don't know what these words mean,
- 7:24Speaker 1: but he said them. Provol catalyze neighborhoods that have not
- 7:28Speaker 1: shared in our growth, and support programs that will help
- 7:30Speaker 1: build our minority owned businesses. All of that is going
- 7:34Speaker 1: to be accomplished with some percent increase in the income tax.
- 7:37Speaker 1: If it was just law enforcement, if they presented us
- 7:40Speaker 1: a budgetary scenario, going back to your budget comment, Look,
- 7:43Speaker 1: we're in trouble. We need to hire more police officers,
- 7:45Speaker 1: and in order to do that, we're gonna have to pay
- 7:46Speaker 1: them more because nobody wants to work in the city
- 7:48Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, where everyone thinks the police suck. It's only
- 7:52Speaker 1: for police. No other programs are going to benefit from
- 7:54Speaker 1: the money. It's going to bring in x millions of dollars.
- 7:56Speaker 1: We're going to use it all to hire police and
- 7:58Speaker 1: improve public safety, period end of story. That might sell
- 8:02Speaker 1: as a proposition, but this is have to have purvol
- 8:05Speaker 1: so it's not about public safety. In fact, check out
- 8:08Speaker 1: Todd Zenzer's post. Here's what he said just nine hours ago.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Apparently city Hall was wasting no time to try to
- 8:14Speaker 1: raise the earnings tax. The mayor and council would like
- 8:17Speaker 1: to keep spending more and more tax payer money to
- 8:20Speaker 1: quote disrupt poverty close quote until they get it right
- 8:24Speaker 1: or the city, its businesses, and its taxpayers go broke
- 8:26Speaker 1: trying I put my money on the ladder, Todd says,
- 8:30Speaker 1: to my point, disrupting poverty was basically the same purpose
- 8:34Speaker 1: the Mayor's cited for his twenty twenty two tax increase,
- 8:37Speaker 1: except then they raised property taxes in the city, and
- 8:40Speaker 1: there was no mention about public city in the mayor's
- 8:43Speaker 1: motion whatsoever. His motion post to bluss. We can even
- 8:46Speaker 1: read what he wrote back then. So instead of increasing
- 8:49Speaker 1: the earning tax, Todd says the city should increase fraud
- 8:52Speaker 1: prevention and detection. He says, there are quite a few
- 8:55Speaker 1: of us out here who would be willing to help
- 8:57Speaker 1: the city to do that, I e. Todd Zenzer. Same time,
- 9:00Speaker 1: it would help the mayor keep this twenty twenty three
- 9:02Speaker 1: promise of no new taxes, which is another reference going
- 9:06Speaker 1: back to what the mayor previously said, no new taxes.
- 9:08Speaker 1: Remember George Bush said that and he ended up losing
- 9:11Speaker 1: an election over raising taxes. Hey, I have to have
- 9:13Speaker 1: provall what about your twenty twenty three promise.
- 9:18Speaker 2: Corey Bowman was on the ballot and we had an
- 9:21Speaker 2: opportunity to elect a new mayor, and that was in November.
- 9:26Speaker 2: We're talking about this in January. The mayor knew all
- 9:28Speaker 2: of this prior to the election. This is absolutely a
- 9:33Speaker 2: bait and switch. And the other thing that I want
- 9:36Speaker 2: to want to highlight about this, and I agree with
- 9:39Speaker 2: what Todd is saying, but if this mayor really wanted
- 9:43Speaker 2: this to be about public safety. And I hope the
- 9:45Speaker 2: president of the FOP is listening our signal ninety nine,
- 9:49Speaker 2: who I know will be on on Friday. I'll be
- 9:50Speaker 2: listening at eight am.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Yeah. Den Cooper is on at the bottom of this hour,
- 9:56Speaker 1: so we're going to be hearing from him shortly.
- 9:57Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll to your entire show. What I'm saying is
- 10:03Speaker 2: why not then do a dedicated income taxes is what
- 10:07Speaker 2: you're leading to, or say just for cops, meaning if
- 10:11Speaker 2: this is about cops, why not say, Okay, we're going
- 10:13Speaker 2: to raise the income tax for this amount of money,
- 10:16Speaker 2: and it is just for police officers. It cannot be used.
- 10:20Speaker 2: It is restricted just for cops. That's not what they're
- 10:23Speaker 2: trying to do. And that's what you're talking about, Brian Thomas,
- 10:26Speaker 2: and to the public. It's something they can do. There
- 10:29Speaker 2: are other cities that have done it because it's not
- 10:32Speaker 2: what they're trying to do. They're worried about the operating
- 10:35Speaker 2: budget and this is fungible and they're trying to operate
- 10:39Speaker 2: the street car and do all these other little special
- 10:42Speaker 2: programs and pay all these people all this money. They're
- 10:46Speaker 2: not interested in cops. They're trying to pit mean, you
- 10:49Speaker 2: are people like myself who support law enforcement. When we
- 10:53Speaker 2: come out and we say vote no on this, or
- 10:56Speaker 2: we decide to pick up a petition and collect signatures.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Oh I like that. Let's hold on, Christopher, Let's elaborate
- 11:03Speaker 1: on a little bit. Let's paust I'll bring it right
- 11:05Speaker 1: back to this. I sort to ask you an out
- 11:07Speaker 1: loud question about where's the railroad money? One more with
- 11:11Speaker 1: Christopher Smith before we get to Ken Cober at the
- 11:13Speaker 1: bottom of this hour. First plumb type plumbing. It's always
- 11:15Speaker 1: viactation A very happy Wednesday to You're gonna be an
- 11:17Speaker 1: especially happy Friday. I was just talking with Joe Strecker
- 11:19Speaker 1: about this and Christopher mentioned it out loud. I was
- 11:22Speaker 1: going to bring it up this morning before we get
- 11:24Speaker 1: back to Christopher Smith and with volume two of the
- 11:25Speaker 1: Smith Event this week, Signal ninety nine will be on
- 11:29Speaker 1: the program eight A I'm on Friday. If you're not
- 11:31Speaker 1: familiar with Signal ninety nine, you need to be go
- 11:33Speaker 1: over to Facebook and just follow her. Former police officer
- 11:36Speaker 1: Carolyn will be joining the program. Outspoken and well connected
- 11:40Speaker 1: she is in terms of the information that she shares
- 11:43Speaker 1: to her followers. It's just it's hilarious stuff and quite
- 11:47Speaker 1: often it's a little painful to see the reality of
- 11:49Speaker 1: what's going on in the city. Back to Christopher, Hey,
- 11:53Speaker 1: where's the railroad money? Christopher, I thought we were going
- 11:55Speaker 1: to get a big wind fall from that billion dollar investment,
- 11:58Speaker 1: and what wouldn't that solve some of the finances pro
- 12:00Speaker 1: and why do we need a tax increase. Have we
- 12:02Speaker 1: got all this new revenue coming in, Christopher.
- 12:05Speaker 2: Well, those are capital dollars, but it's a big pot
- 12:08Speaker 2: and I agree with you. There's no transparency around those dollars,
- 12:14Speaker 2: how they're being invested, how much money is coming in.
- 12:17Speaker 2: And this was my big issue too, was the land,
- 12:21Speaker 2: the three hundred miles all the way to Tennessee that
- 12:23Speaker 2: our forefathers had for us. There was no other city
- 12:27Speaker 2: that I know of in the United States of America,
- 12:29Speaker 2: but definitely in the state of Ohio who had three
- 12:31Speaker 2: hundred miles of rail that we own. And we were
- 12:35Speaker 2: bringing in about thirty six million dollars and it would
- 12:37Speaker 2: have been forty six million before we clicked our heills
- 12:40Speaker 2: three times. It was a terrible transaction by this mayor
- 12:44Speaker 2: to sell our railroad. But here's going to be the
- 12:47Speaker 2: result of this, Brian Thomas. People are leaving Cincinnati. Those
- 12:52Speaker 2: who can get out are leaving. They're selling their businesses
- 12:56Speaker 2: that they don't want to pay the income tax, and
- 12:58Speaker 2: they are taking their residents outside of the city of Cincinnati.
- 13:03Speaker 2: So the reality of it is they're going to be
- 13:05Speaker 2: more and more people. Now, how do I know this?
- 13:07Speaker 2: How do I say that with certainty because of the profession.
- 13:11Speaker 2: I'm a financial planner. I'm telling you what my clients
- 13:14Speaker 2: are telling me. They're saying, I'm out of here. I
- 13:18Speaker 2: cannot afford the property taxes, or I don't want to
- 13:21Speaker 2: pay the property taxes.
- 13:22Speaker 1: Or maybe the crime or maybe it's crime too, or.
- 13:25Speaker 2: It's crime too. But they're saying, listen, I would be
- 13:28Speaker 2: willing to pay. I just did it. I'm looking. I'm
- 13:31Speaker 2: thinking about a clinic. I just did a financial review
- 13:34Speaker 2: of crimes, and the client said to me, I would
- 13:36Speaker 2: be willing to pay the taxes if I got the service.
- 13:39Speaker 2: But the problem is the city is so dog gone dirty.
- 13:43Speaker 2: When they miss my trash or they don't pick up
- 13:45Speaker 2: my trash, they won't come back and get it. I've
- 13:48Speaker 2: got potholes all around me, tearing up my nice car,
- 13:52Speaker 2: my nice vehicle. Right, Or if I call the police,
- 13:56Speaker 2: I don't get the response I want. Not because it's
- 13:59Speaker 2: the police is because they will not invest in officers.
- 14:03Speaker 2: If I just moved out into the county, I'm gonna
- 14:06Speaker 2: get better services. I'm even gonna pay lower taxes, right,
- 14:10Speaker 2: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be safer, and so
- 14:13Speaker 2: what's happening is people are leaving those who can leave
- 14:16Speaker 2: relief this move that the mayorage making. Watch what I'm
- 14:20Speaker 2: telling you, population is gonna drop, It's not gonna go higher.
- 14:24Speaker 2: People are gonna say I can't afford it, and I'm
- 14:26Speaker 2: just gonna move somewhere else. People who are earning, they're
- 14:29Speaker 2: gonna take their businesses right.
- 14:31Speaker 1: People who are earning a living and paying income tax.
- 14:36Speaker 1: You can't lose those people. Wasn't that the point of
- 14:39Speaker 1: gentrifying over the Rhine and building all the urban hipster
- 14:42Speaker 1: paradise places to live so they would bring in people
- 14:44Speaker 1: who actually worked and paid taxes in the city. Christopher,
- 14:49Speaker 1: That's exactly that. That's the sweet spot those that you
- 14:51Speaker 1: need to make it a more welcome environment for people
- 14:53Speaker 1: who are paying into the system. It's a great point
- 14:56Speaker 1: your client made. You know what, I'm not getting a
- 14:58Speaker 1: return on my taxpayer investment. I mean, you'd be willing
- 15:02Speaker 1: to pay taxes if it resulted in something positive in
- 15:04Speaker 1: your world. It's like going out and buying something. You
- 15:06Speaker 1: choose to purchase something because it's going to benefit you
- 15:08Speaker 1: in some way. You get value for the money. You're
- 15:11Speaker 1: not getting value for your taxpayer dollars in the city.
- 15:14Speaker 2: Correct, And then they'll say to me, well, Christopher, I'm
- 15:17Speaker 2: already sending my kid to say that I'm already sending
- 15:20Speaker 2: my kids deceit. And so my kid is not in
- 15:24Speaker 2: the Cincinnati public school system, but sixty five percent of
- 15:27Speaker 2: my property taxes are the public school system. Why am
- 15:30Speaker 2: I paying all these taxes? And then if I then
- 15:32Speaker 2: those who are living in the county are frustrated because
- 15:35Speaker 2: they say, I work in the city and I'm paying
- 15:38Speaker 2: for ear tacks. I work for proper example, But I
- 15:40Speaker 2: can't vote for any of these people. I can't vote
- 15:43Speaker 2: any of them out. I have no control over it.
- 15:45Speaker 2: So what you're seeing is businesses are saying and my
- 15:48Speaker 2: heart goes out to Taste of Belgium who's filing for
- 15:50Speaker 2: bank Trusty at what their situation too was. But all
- 15:53Speaker 2: I can tell you is the lack of foot traffic
- 15:56Speaker 2: certainly didn't help their situation. The crime levels in the
- 15:59Speaker 2: downtown area on the banks and then over the Rhine
- 16:02Speaker 2: didn't help them. And to your point, Brian Thomas, all
- 16:05Speaker 2: of those people that have invested not one hundred thousand
- 16:09Speaker 2: millions of dollars in their housing. They have reached in OTR.
- 16:13Speaker 2: There are beautiful spaces that people have retired, their children
- 16:18Speaker 2: have moved. They said, I'm going to move into the OTR.
- 16:21Speaker 2: I'm going to create this really cool space. But guess what.
- 16:24Speaker 2: The crime is out of control, and their investments that
- 16:28Speaker 2: they've made are at risk, and you're going to see
- 16:30Speaker 2: those people say what you're talking about, I'm getting the
- 16:34Speaker 2: heck out of downtown. I thought this was going to
- 16:37Speaker 2: be cool. The city sold me a bill of goods.
- 16:39Speaker 2: They're raising my coxtus, my property taxes, but they also
- 16:43Speaker 2: can't keep me safe. This increase, this increase, Brian Thomas,
- 16:47Speaker 2: isn't going to make anybody safer. And there are people
- 16:50Speaker 2: out there, because my phone is already ringing, who are considering,
- 16:54Speaker 2: why don't we just drop a petition on them, stop
- 16:57Speaker 2: them at the gates, at the barbarian at the gates.
- 17:00Speaker 2: I'll tell them, no more, no more, no more. But
- 17:04Speaker 2: what we don't want are cops pitting cops against the issue,
- 17:08Speaker 2: and that's what the mayor is trying to do. This
- 17:10Speaker 2: is not about cops for him. This is about all
- 17:14Speaker 2: of that other stuff that you're talking about, and cops
- 17:17Speaker 2: are the lowest in his mind that on the total
- 17:20Speaker 2: poll as car as what he's interested to.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Take for And in terms of the businesses you're referring to,
- 17:24Speaker 1: and I think it's implicit in your comments, but I
- 17:26Speaker 1: want to say it straightforward and out loud. Those businesses
- 17:29Speaker 1: relied not just on residents that live within the city.
- 17:32Speaker 1: They rely on people who want to come into the
- 17:35Speaker 1: city to spend money, who want to come into the
- 17:38Speaker 1: city and go to Ruby's or some of the other
- 17:40Speaker 1: restaurants that are down there that are great. But you
- 17:42Speaker 1: know what, who among us has not talked to a
- 17:45Speaker 1: person who said, I am not going to the city
- 17:47Speaker 1: anymore because I'm afraid of the crime. I have heard
- 17:50Speaker 1: that from so many people. It's almost like the norm.
- 17:53Speaker 1: Whether or not it's an appropriate conclusion, because I like
- 17:56Speaker 1: downtown and I think there's some great stuff down there
- 17:59Speaker 1: that it is definitely either that is attractive to me.
- 18:02Speaker 1: But you know what, lingering in the back of my
- 18:03Speaker 1: mind is the same thing. You know, I saw the
- 18:05Speaker 1: beat down on film, you know from last year. I've
- 18:08Speaker 1: seen the crime statistics. Eleven year old gets a randomly
- 18:11Speaker 1: shot that could be anybody, doesn't have to be eleven
- 18:14Speaker 1: year old girl in a park. It could be literally
- 18:15Speaker 1: anyone who's the victim of random gunfire. Do you want
- 18:18Speaker 1: to be that person?
- 18:19Speaker 2: No?
- 18:19Speaker 1: Are you going to be subjected to that in Oh,
- 18:21Speaker 1: I don't know, Westchester or Anderson or Hyde Park. Probably not,
- 18:26Speaker 1: but it may very well happen in the high crime
- 18:28Speaker 1: areas of the city where a lot of businesses have
- 18:30Speaker 1: invested a lot of money hoping people will come in
- 18:32Speaker 1: and spend it. It's a downward spiral.
- 18:35Speaker 2: It's so frustrating. Brian Thomas is, then how do they
- 18:38Speaker 2: respond to those things? Meaning when the eleven year old
- 18:41Speaker 2: girl is shot, how do they respond to it? Right?
- 18:44Speaker 2: When when when the citizens were beat up in the downtown,
- 18:47Speaker 2: how did they respond? They deserved it, they got what
- 18:50Speaker 2: they was coming to them. That is how city council
- 18:53Speaker 2: and this mayor responded to it. So the reality of
- 18:56Speaker 2: it is I feel bad for those businesses that are
- 18:58Speaker 2: a down town. I absolutely we do. My heart goes
- 19:01Speaker 2: out to this. But I'm also not going to get
- 19:03Speaker 2: on this radio station in lie and say that Cincinnati
- 19:06Speaker 2: is safe until it is safe, until the reality of
- 19:08Speaker 2: it is of many of these neighborhoods have voted for this.
- 19:11Speaker 2: They voted for this mayor, they voted for this council.
- 19:14Speaker 2: Elections have consequences.
- 19:17Speaker 1: Christopher Smithman, you have consequences too. That's why I love you.
- 19:19Speaker 1: Have it on the program smith Event Volume two. Find
- 19:22Speaker 1: the podcast for Fivecarresey dot com. You are my brother, indeed,
- 19:25Speaker 1: and you're more than welcome, and I thank you for
- 19:27Speaker 1: helping out. We're going to continue this conversation.