Speaker 1: It's seven oh six here at about gar City Talk Station, right.
Speaker 1: Ain't even a happy one till you. Brian Thomas always
Speaker 1: happy to talk to Todd's Zenzer, and we're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing that. You also gonna be hearing him tonight if
Speaker 1: you can log into empower Youoamerica dot org from the
Speaker 1: comfort of your own home or show up at two
Speaker 1: twenty five North on Boulevard. We spoke earlier in the
Speaker 1: week already with on early Cincinnati history, the topic of
Speaker 1: Jeff Cease's discussion tonight that's at seven o'clock, but also
Speaker 1: on the plate for the Empower Youth Seminar Todd Zenzer.
Speaker 1: He is a brilliant guy, retired Inspector General of the US
Speaker 1: Department of Commerce and spent thirty one years conducting audits
Speaker 1: and investigation of federal officials programs and operations. So he's
Speaker 1: got some really special skills and talents in terms of
Speaker 1: legislation and think and issues that affect the city and
Speaker 1: the county General or tonight as well as right now,
Speaker 1: he's going to give us a little information about the
Speaker 1: Connected Community Cincinnati Connected Communities Plan. Todd, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the morning show. My friend always good having you on
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Brian, How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm doing fine, doing fine. Good CINCINNTI Connected Communities, the
Speaker 1: City Council. Where are we on this before we get
Speaker 1: to details, because some of my listeners are being like,
Speaker 1: what Cincinnati Connected Community is all about? Did they vote
Speaker 1: on it yet? Is it a foregone conclusion? Is it
Speaker 1: done for the city of Cincinnati, or is there still
Speaker 1: more chatter and talk about it.
Speaker 2: Well, there's still chattering talk about it, but yeah, back
Speaker 2: in June, the city Council enacted an ordinance that rezoned
Speaker 2: the significant part of the city as part of this
Speaker 2: plan to increase density in the city. So what they
Speaker 2: did is they've identified a number of corridors transit corridors
Speaker 2: in the city, seven of them, and along those corridors,
Speaker 2: they've identified fifth neighborhood business districts, and so they've eliminated
Speaker 2: single family housing zones either a quarter mile or a
Speaker 2: half mile around those neighborhood business districts. So, if you
Speaker 2: live within a quarter mile or a half mile of
Speaker 2: these corridors and business districts, and you used to have
Speaker 2: single family zoning, now it's middle housing. So, for example,
Speaker 2: if you have a if you're in a single family
Speaker 2: home and a neighborhood that was zoned single family and
Speaker 2: you're near one of these business districts, you have a
Speaker 2: vacant lot next door. Under this new ordinance, a developer
Speaker 2: can come in build an apartment building up to a
Speaker 2: four unit or larger, sometimes right next door. They've eliminated
Speaker 2: the minimum parking requirement, so whoever moves into those apartments
Speaker 2: park on the street. And it's really this takeover of
Speaker 2: single family homes in the city. And they're certainly chatter
Speaker 2: on our part trying to challenge this, and we've got
Speaker 2: some actions going on, and then what a pass ordinance.
Speaker 2: There were three members of city Council who voted against it,
Speaker 2: including the Vice mayor. And what she has done is
Speaker 2: she's basically acknowledged that there are problems with this ordinance
Speaker 2: and now she has a big task force engaging the
Speaker 2: community and a number of different subcommittees that she's formed.
Speaker 2: And it's really taken on the form of the type
Speaker 2: of community engagement that should have been done with connected
Speaker 2: communities in the first place. Oh so we'll see if
Speaker 2: anything happens with that, but there is still a lot
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, Now, let me just paint a worst case
Speaker 1: scenario type a situation. Now, you know, look over to
Speaker 1: New York and yes, the mayor is under indictment there
Speaker 1: under and we don't know if it has anything to
Speaker 1: do with the illegal immigrant situation. We're going to find
Speaker 1: out today. But hotels, really beautiful four star hotels that
Speaker 1: were once profitable, enter COVID nineteen. They're empty. Enter an
Speaker 1: influx of tens of thousands of new illegal immigrants, and
Speaker 1: a city willing to pay the full room rate to
Speaker 1: the hotel owner to house illegal immigrants on the taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 1: Of course, the owner of the hotel's like, fine, I'm
Speaker 1: getting one hundred percent of the room rental rate. I'm happy,
Speaker 1: I'm making. I have profit now where I had none before.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that for that scenario to unfold any
Speaker 1: new let's say, six unit dwelling in an otherwise single
Speaker 1: family residential neighborhood. They build it, and then all we've
Speaker 1: got an illegal immigrant problem. Let's just pay the owners
Speaker 1: of that building the house illegal immigrants. He gets his
Speaker 1: profit or she gets our profit, and we found a
Speaker 1: place for them to stay.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing Brian. Under this ordinance, again, in
Speaker 2: these areas, it's kind of like the wild West. You
Speaker 2: really don't know what's going to happen, who's going to
Speaker 2: come in, who's going to build, what, what type of
Speaker 2: tenants these rental units are going to have. It. It's
Speaker 2: really a lot of uncertainty on the part of the
Speaker 2: citizens that have purchased these homes or have that own
Speaker 2: these properties, and that's one of the big problems with it.
Speaker 2: They've experimented citywide, painted the whole city with a broad
Speaker 2: brush rather than going neighborhood by neighborhood, and we just
Speaker 2: don't really know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Well, that's something you brought up previously on this issue
Speaker 1: that some communities wanted to adopt this, but the city
Speaker 1: is divided up into multiple different communities and some wanted
Speaker 1: to reject it. The city is just imposing this on
Speaker 1: everyone without their saying it, and that of course can
Speaker 1: rub people the wrong way. Most notably in a situation
Speaker 1: where these hypotheticals come up and we don't have any
Speaker 1: answers to how it would ultimately play out, I think
Speaker 1: I'd be a little perturbed with my life. Officials many
Speaker 1: answers the question todd z Ins are on why they
Speaker 1: won't have more open discussion on this. They don't want
Speaker 1: to face these questions.
Speaker 2: No, they don't want to face these questions. And the
Speaker 2: way it looks, Brian, is that more and more as
Speaker 2: we look into this, there is definitely a straight line
Speaker 2: between the National Democrat Party and what's going on here
Speaker 2: and the whole issue of Agenda twenty thirty that the
Speaker 2: UN put out. And people don't really have time to
Speaker 2: look into all all of these things. But you've got
Speaker 2: this Agenda twenty thirty that the UN has put out,
Speaker 2: You've got the Great Reset by the World Economic Forum,
Speaker 2: and within those different global plans they talk about sustainable
Speaker 2: cities and communities, and this is the type of things
Speaker 2: that are promoted or provided for in connected communities. It
Speaker 2: has an element of the Green New Deal in there.
Speaker 2: They have the whole idea of equity and all of
Speaker 2: these things that are promulgated in these UN and World
Speaker 2: Economic Forum programs or agendas. And you know it's right here,
Speaker 2: It's right here in Cincinnati. This is the way it happens.
Speaker 1: This connected communities concept has been rolled out in other
Speaker 1: areas in the country.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, this is going on all over the country.
Speaker 2: What we've done is we've traced it back to a
Speaker 2: group called the Urban Land Institute, which one of these
Speaker 2: global nonprofits that goes in and influences local communities on
Speaker 2: various issues, including housing. And they came in with a
Speaker 2: technical advisory panel back in twenty twenty one, maybe even
Speaker 2: earlier than that, and in June of twenty one, they
Speaker 2: issued a report to the city and if you look
Speaker 2: at this, and it had to deal with developmental transportation corridors.
Speaker 2: If you look at that report, it's recked. The things
Speaker 2: that it recommends in that report you will find in
Speaker 2: connected communities. It's like a blueprint for connected communities. But
Speaker 2: yet they want to tell the citizens of Cincinnati that
Speaker 2: this is all bottoms up. We went to the community
Speaker 2: and asked, you know, for their input and things like that.
Speaker 2: That was all a charade. They had this plan, you know,
Speaker 2: hatched in June of twenty twenty one, and then they
Speaker 2: just brought it forward, including rejecting the density ordinance that
Speaker 2: Liz Keating put forward that they voted down in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two to make room for this new plan.
Speaker 1: Well, well, constituents be damned. I guess is what this
Speaker 1: boils down to. I'm going to do whatever the hell
Speaker 1: they want. And now, in rolling this out in other cities,
Speaker 1: has it had any effect? I mean, did it bring
Speaker 1: about the intended result, which is a higher concentration and
Speaker 1: higher density population.
Speaker 2: No, this is like I said, this is going on
Speaker 2: over all over the country, and the city that they
Speaker 2: hold up as a model is Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, this
Speaker 2: is I don't know, probably four or five years ago,
Speaker 2: they eliminated all single family housing across the city. And yes,
Speaker 2: they're housing availability has increased, but when you look at
Speaker 2: how that's happened, it's increased because they've had a substantial
Speaker 2: increase in twenty unit developments, apartment buildings with twenty units,
Speaker 2: not the four unit issue, not the four unit apartment
Speaker 2: buildings that connected communities is talking about. And that's the
Speaker 2: only way, and it's the only city that has any
Speaker 2: result like that, And you can find cities like Chicago,
Speaker 2: for example, where it is they've tried it for ten years.
Speaker 2: It has very limited benefits. So it's it's unproven, and
Speaker 2: we kept trying to say that to the city council,
Speaker 2: but obviously sell on deaf ears.
Speaker 1: Well, you don't fall on deaf ears. Todd Zen's are
Speaker 1: you going to be speaking tonight? Empower you America dot org?
Speaker 1: Are you going to speak after Jeff? Orre you going
Speaker 1: to be speaking in front of Jeff? What time is
Speaker 1: your appointed slot?
Speaker 2: I think I'm the opening act at seven.
Speaker 1: Seven pm, So log in and from the comfort of
Speaker 1: your own home or head on up to two twenty
Speaker 1: five North and Boulevard if it's convenient for you to
Speaker 1: do so and see it live. Jeff sees the historian,
Speaker 1: calmness and author who's going to talk about the city
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati and it's history, and then of course beginning
Speaker 1: with Todd zens or breaking down SINCINNTI connected communities. Todd,
Speaker 1: I cannot thank you for your tireless enough, for your
Speaker 1: tireless efforts on this one and spreading the information to
Speaker 1: people who otherwise wouldn't even know about it, because well,
Speaker 1: our elected officials don't want them to know about it.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, and it's part of this one
Speaker 2: party government here we have here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: We have an opportunity to reject that in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks here, folks, in November is election day. Thanks Todd.
Speaker 1: We'll look forward to the presentation tonight. Put it down
Speaker 1: your calendar, folks. Empower Youamerica dot org. We'll talk against soon.
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