Speaker 1: Well, let's continue how Bill cunning had the Great America.
Speaker 1: And this Tuesday afternoon, the tri State getting ready for
Speaker 1: Pete Rose celebration tomorrow night. The game has sold out
Speaker 1: forty thousand strong. There made me some SRO tickets available,
Speaker 1: but I put on my ex account a photo or
Speaker 1: two of me and Pete back in the glory days
Speaker 1: for the Corps all Stars, and rest in Pete, Rest
Speaker 1: in peace. Pete Rose is all I can say about that.
Speaker 1: And I think he's in the arms of God Almighty.
Speaker 1: I pray he is. And he made many more positive
Speaker 1: contributions to our great country, in our great city the
Speaker 1: negative ones, and he belongs at least in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, maybe more, but until then you may recall.
Speaker 1: April the twenty third, there was effort by city council
Speaker 1: to continue the plan development to come fundamentally change Hyde
Speaker 1: Park Square and it's something the residents don't want.
Speaker 2: And the vote was seven to two.
Speaker 1: There were two council members, Jan Michelle Kearney and Scottie
Speaker 1: Johnson who said no, it's too big, but the other
Speaker 1: seven fell in line with what the mayor wanted and
Speaker 1: they voted yes to allow these developments. To go forward
Speaker 1: north of one hundred million dollars, and at that time
Speaker 1: I had on John Zinzer part of the group saved
Speaker 1: the Hyde Park Square a little bit, a little bit
Speaker 1: unhappy with the vote, shall we say? The council sessions
Speaker 1: went on for hours and hours and they kind of
Speaker 1: ignored what the people wanted. And of course I would
Speaker 1: say this and John Zinzer, welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 1: But I want to relate to you a little story
Speaker 1: that happened a week or two later about the vote
Speaker 1: and what it is, John, is that I was told
Speaker 1: by a knowledgeable political type and city council that, well,
Speaker 1: look what happened when f to have peerival ran in
Speaker 1: the primary to stay as the mayor. He got eighty
Speaker 1: two percent of the vote, and so he said, I
Speaker 1: guess Hyde Park Square is not that too important. So
Speaker 1: first of all, respond to that, and then we'll go
Speaker 1: back in time a little bit. But is there a
Speaker 1: sense the citizens are outraged but it has no pack
Speaker 1: politically because this political guide told me, look, aftav just
Speaker 1: got eighty two percent of the vote.
Speaker 2: How do you respond to that? Before we talk about
Speaker 2: what you're doing?
Speaker 3: Now? Thanks Bo, I'm glad to be here with you again,
Speaker 3: and I'm happy to go straight to that. We chose
Speaker 3: not to try to make an expression via the primary.
Speaker 3: We decided we were not going to try to make
Speaker 3: a political noise in the primary, especially in the mayoral race.
Speaker 3: This isn't just a mayoral problem, although I don't happen
Speaker 3: to agree with how he's handled this. This is both
Speaker 3: a city council problem, and this is actually a systems
Speaker 3: problem as well. Our planning process, our development process. All
Speaker 3: of these need attention. But on top of all of that,
Speaker 3: what you and I have talked about most and what
Speaker 3: I'm really glad to be back here to talk about
Speaker 3: again today, is the role of citizen voice. I'm sitting
Speaker 3: where I am, I'm looking at City Hall, and I
Speaker 3: can tell you very simply, City Hall has stopped listening
Speaker 3: to the voice of citizens and especially neighborhood council and
Speaker 3: community councils. A lot of people, a lot of council
Speaker 3: members gave us some time and did some listening, but
Speaker 3: they absolutely didn't do any hearing. And that's what this
Speaker 3: PD issue has really become about. It is about do
Speaker 3: citizens do neighborhood councils do community councils get a say
Speaker 3: in what happens in their neighborhoods around development. Hyde Park
Speaker 3: Squares stood up and said, we want voice in this.
Speaker 3: You didn't hear us in the whole process. And it
Speaker 3: wasn't just on the twenty third of April, goes all
Speaker 3: the way back to January. More than seven hundred emails
Speaker 3: were sent to Planning Committee staff. More than sixty people
Speaker 3: spoke against it, about four spoke to it. Then again
Speaker 3: in March it happens in the Planning Commission meeting itself,
Speaker 3: then again the day before the twenty third, on the
Speaker 3: twenty second, in the Equitable Growth and Housing Commission Committee meeting.
Speaker 3: Then in front of City Council, the voice was overwhelming,
Speaker 3: the hearing was underwhelming. We're putting it on the ballot
Speaker 3: now to show that citizen's voice and citizen issue still matters,
Speaker 3: and we need the help of people who listen to you,
Speaker 3: Bill to make sure we get that ballot measure on
Speaker 3: the ballot.
Speaker 2: Jun Zenzer.
Speaker 1: Of course, their attitude is know your role, John and
Speaker 1: shut your mouth. But on this issue, just explain in
Speaker 1: general what the general plan is. I've been to Hyde
Speaker 1: Park Square. I was there a few days ago, went
Speaker 1: to Zip's, got a cheeseburger, went at Graters and I
Speaker 1: got me a ice cream, sat on a bench with
Speaker 1: the family.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: Just explain in general, what did the city approve.
Speaker 3: What the city approved, effectively, was a container ship dropped
Speaker 3: in on the south side of Hyde Park Square. They
Speaker 3: are talking about something about four hundred feet long upwards
Speaker 3: of potentially eighty five even ninety three feet high at
Speaker 3: certain dimensions, stretching from edwards to Michigan Avenue below Eree.
Speaker 3: It will be the biggest thing by far in that
Speaker 3: entire area, and it will absolutely change the character and
Speaker 3: the tenor of Hyde Park Square. I hear you, I'm
Speaker 3: really glad you were there for your ice cream cone,
Speaker 3: and that is something you hear over and over again.
Speaker 3: People have memories, people have feeling about the square and
Speaker 3: the fact Sunday such a beautiful day hyde Park Farmers Market,
Speaker 3: thousands of people. I'm not kidding, incredible positive energy and feeling.
Speaker 3: I tell you that won't be the same if this
Speaker 3: gets built. And the fact of the matter is, if
Speaker 3: we can get the help of the people we need
Speaker 3: signing to get this on the ballot. I have every faith.
Speaker 3: Once this is on the ballot, we win and this
Speaker 3: doesn't get built. But this again isn't about just Hyde
Speaker 3: Park Square. This is a city wide issue about citizen
Speaker 3: voice mattering. All.
Speaker 2: Let let's talk about what's in the containership.
Speaker 1: Explain the parking garage, underground parking garage, this huge building.
Speaker 1: Explained what's in the containership, and tell the American people
Speaker 1: about this underground parking.
Speaker 3: I love this image. I'm so glad you grabbed onto that.
Speaker 3: What they said they want to put on board this
Speaker 3: container ship one hundred and twenty approximately apartments ranging from
Speaker 3: studios to up two or three bedrooms. They also want
Speaker 3: to put in a ninety room hotel. They keep using
Speaker 3: a word to define it. They keep saying boutique. I
Speaker 3: don't think of ninety as boutique. That's a little bit big.
Speaker 3: They also, therefore, to manage this, they want to put
Speaker 3: in three stories underground in a place that used to
Speaker 3: be a lake parking. This to me doesn't sound like
Speaker 3: a great idea. All of this city council kept saying, well,
Speaker 3: it's about the housing. It's about the housing. It's about
Speaker 3: the housing. Then why are you approving a hotel? The
Speaker 3: thing that the city council could have done was that
Speaker 3: they could have said, no, you don't get the PD.
Speaker 3: That's what they actually passed. The PD is a development
Speaker 3: to rule. It's called plan development. It removes many of
Speaker 3: the obstacles that the developers normally have to pass through,
Speaker 3: so citizens get to say it makes it easier for
Speaker 3: a developer to do some And here's our quick little
Speaker 3: piece that I hope other people will pick up on.
Speaker 3: A year ago, the rule required two acres. When they
Speaker 3: passed connected communities, they shrink the size from two acres
Speaker 3: to one point five acres to do a plan development.
Speaker 3: Guess what this project is on one point seven to
Speaker 3: eight acres. It's almost as if they custom changed the
Speaker 3: rule for this development. I understand other places are now
Speaker 3: that's being used for, but the timing on that is
Speaker 3: really exceptional.
Speaker 1: You talk about affordable housing. Affordable housing to me is
Speaker 1: a rent of between eight hundred and maybe fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: a month. The rule of thumb is you spent about
Speaker 1: one third of your disposable income for housing. That's the
Speaker 1: general rule. I can't imagine these apartments in Hyde Park
Speaker 1: at a cost overall of over one hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: will have quote affordable rents, and so you don't have
Speaker 1: the rent structure, but I imagine they're going to be
Speaker 1: quite high.
Speaker 3: They have given the city and the public no real
Speaker 3: hard numbers about their business plan about where the rents
Speaker 3: will come out. They said, we have to wait for
Speaker 3: the PD. If we get the PD, we'll know more.
Speaker 3: They got the PD, they still haven't released that information.
Speaker 3: That's another one of my problems that city council is
Speaker 3: voting on something that's a concept, and then when they
Speaker 3: vote on the concept, they actually free the developer to
Speaker 3: do whatever they want. Beyond the concept. We have no
Speaker 3: idea what the rents will be. They're building that's closest
Speaker 3: to this on Watson Way. Those rents start at three thousand,
Speaker 3: eight hundred dollars. Now, I don't know if that's going
Speaker 3: to be the same, but three thousand, eight hundred dollars
Speaker 3: a month is not affordable housing. I don't belie leave.
Speaker 3: Other than the studios, any of these apartments might come
Speaker 3: in anywhere near the kind of number you just shared.
Speaker 3: Eight hundred to fifteen hundred my guess, and it's just
Speaker 3: a guest because they haven't shared anything with us. They'll
Speaker 3: have to start in the mid twos at the lowest.
Speaker 3: More likely they'll be starting, especially for something with a
Speaker 3: bedroom or two even higher than that. But again, the
Speaker 3: building that they've built closest, called the Ilia, starts at
Speaker 3: thirty eight hundred and there used to be buildings. There
Speaker 3: are buildings still on Hyde Park Square with vacant apartments
Speaker 3: for a fraction of that. Yet city council is saying
Speaker 3: we need housing, we need housing, we need housing. Scotty
Speaker 3: Johnson was amazing, he said. Jim Selivan Kearney and he
Speaker 3: were the two champions here. Scotty said, I'm tired of
Speaker 3: city council hiding behind we need housing and then doing
Speaker 3: projects like this, doing things that don't bring us any
Speaker 3: kind of affordable housing.
Speaker 1: Well, my simple Deer Park, matthe if you spend about
Speaker 1: four one thousand dollars a month for a one bedroom
Speaker 1: or a two bedroom might be five thousand a month,
Speaker 1: you'd have to have about sixteen thousand dollars net a
Speaker 1: month in disposable income. Now sixteen thousand dollars a month,
Speaker 1: that's about two hundred thousand dollars a year net and
Speaker 1: disposable income to most Americans the's two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year after taxes. Is that affordable housing for average
Speaker 1: middle class Americans?
Speaker 3: No? No, that's really true than that. This is a
Speaker 3: subsidy effectively to a developer to make more money and
Speaker 3: to put housing in a very expensive place and make
Speaker 3: it possible for them to do it the way they
Speaker 3: want to do It has nothing to do with affordability
Speaker 3: of housing. The average income in Hyde Park it's one
Speaker 3: of the highest in the cities. Yeah, but it's still
Speaker 3: nowhere near what you're talking about, and that's not affordable housing.
Speaker 3: And I do agree with Scottie Johnson. I think that's
Speaker 3: been a smoke screen that has been used a lot.
Speaker 3: There's a project in Oakley which was shovel ready for
Speaker 3: housing units. City council turns it over and gives permission
Speaker 3: for them to build car condos. That's not housing. We
Speaker 3: just had another event just this week condo. Yeah, because
Speaker 3: everybody has disposable income for a ferrari that needs a
Speaker 3: conduct correct affordable Yeah, exactly, very affordable.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Hyde Park compared to the other I
Speaker 1: guess fifty one communities neighborhood councils.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: You mentioned off the air that you've hooked up with
Speaker 1: Reverend Damon Lynch, and every now and then he has
Speaker 1: a lucid thought, and I'm thinking to myself the way,
Speaker 1: by the way, I like to think we're friends. But
Speaker 1: nonetheless describe how this is not necessarily only about Hyde Park,
Speaker 1: but it's about all fifty one communities, and how this council,
Speaker 1: like many others, don't pay attention to you because it's
Speaker 1: Hyde Park and therefore you people can afford it.
Speaker 2: Know you're shut your mouth. How have you broadened out
Speaker 2: this movement?
Speaker 3: So this movement is actually supported by currently fourteen other
Speaker 3: neighborhood councils and community councils from all over the city,
Speaker 3: all the way from Washington Mount Washington in the east
Speaker 3: to Sailor Park in the west. We have fourteen different
Speaker 3: committees that took votes wrote letters saying don't do this,
Speaker 3: to which the city council responded with crickets. Absolutely no
Speaker 3: response to the letters. They did not write anybody and
Speaker 3: said thank you for your letter. Nothing. We also have
Speaker 3: four different civic organizations that have teamed with us. This
Speaker 3: is not a Hyde Park issue, but I will say this,
Speaker 3: if this can happen in Hyde Park. It can will,
Speaker 3: and in fact already has happened in neighborhood after neighborhood
Speaker 3: after neighborhood, Bondhill, Clifton Cuff, I could go. These are
Speaker 3: all people who have joined us, and I could keep going.
Speaker 3: Neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood is getting railroaded by development
Speaker 3: that City Hall is getting a speed pass to rather
Speaker 3: than letting the voice of the people be heard. I'll
Speaker 3: be clear, Hyde Park wants development. We want to improve
Speaker 3: the square, we want to grow it, we want development.
Speaker 3: We just don't want that development. The way it's sized,
Speaker 3: the way it will cost, the hotel. All of that
Speaker 3: is against zoning, which was just established a year ago
Speaker 3: in order to keep Hyde Park Hyde Park. And right
Speaker 3: now City Council is basically crumpling up that piece of paper,
Speaker 3: throwing it over their shoulder and saying, do what you
Speaker 3: want to do. Pee, okay, all.
Speaker 1: Right, John Zinzer, say Hyde Park Square. You need thousands
Speaker 1: of signatures. You have until May twenty third. Now we're
Speaker 1: about halfway through it. This is May thirteenth. You have
Speaker 1: only ten days to get believe it or not, it's
Speaker 1: May thirteenth and pete rose tomorrow night's May fourteenth, But nonetheless,
Speaker 1: where can people go to sign because your fight today
Speaker 1: we'll be the fight of other citizens tomorrow and the
Speaker 1: week after the month after. If you don't get the signatures,
Speaker 1: it doesn't get on the ballot. And the way you go,
Speaker 1: and you're about halfway through the process, how you coming
Speaker 1: with signatures?
Speaker 3: At this point, we are very excited by how we're doing.
Speaker 3: We have hundreds of volunteers in the field with thousands
Speaker 3: of petitions. We are really pleased with where we are.
Speaker 3: But we are absolutely keep on our foot, flat down
Speaker 3: on the accelerator. We are not letting up. We are
Speaker 3: going to get this number, and I would like to
Speaker 3: see us get double the number that we need. We
Speaker 3: are looking for fifteen thousand signatures. We're absolutely not there yet,
Speaker 3: so we need everybody to come and help us get
Speaker 3: those signatures. I'd be happy to tell you about a
Speaker 3: couple of different places.
Speaker 2: Tell me.
Speaker 3: We want to set up a few things right now
Speaker 3: to make it so easy for people. We want to
Speaker 3: do a couple of different drive buys where you can
Speaker 3: just stay in your car. We'll come to your window,
Speaker 3: hand you the petition, talk you through whatever you need
Speaker 3: to answer, get your voting signature, your street address. You
Speaker 3: have to write out the word Cincinnati. You have to
Speaker 3: write out the word Hamilton, and then you have to
Speaker 3: date it and that's it. We can do this in
Speaker 3: a minute or two. One of the drive by locations
Speaker 3: which will be functioning on Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday is
Speaker 3: three four three five Michigan Avenue in Cincinnati is just
Speaker 3: off of Hyde Park. If you come on Eerie and
Speaker 3: turn right onto Michigan. This is right in front of
Speaker 3: the Unwind Wine Bar. We'll have volunteers there. You'll be
Speaker 3: able to just drive up between ten am and four
Speaker 3: pm the next three days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Also on
Speaker 3: Wednesday at seven West Observatory Hill in Cincinnati, we will
Speaker 3: have a drive by there. That's just up by Allt Park.
Speaker 3: You're more than welcome to come by. There will be
Speaker 3: volunteers there. Also, really great place. There will be volunteers
Speaker 3: at the Farmers Market on four to two for two
Speaker 3: to two two Hamilton Avenue from five to seven tomorrow
Speaker 3: another great place to go. I want to mention just
Speaker 3: three other quick events. On the fifteenth after Pete Rose Day,
Speaker 3: the day after at one one one West McMicken the
Speaker 3: Northern Road Brewing. There will be an event inside. This
Speaker 3: is being run by our friends at Charter who are
Speaker 3: one of the civic groups who've teamed with us. They
Speaker 3: will be glad to do your petition right there. Please
Speaker 3: stop by there. Jim Tarbo will be a guest same night.
Speaker 3: A little further down the road, Price Hill Chili another
Speaker 3: place where we're getting collection of from five to eight pm.
Speaker 3: Pryce Hill Chilly.
Speaker 2: I've been there pretty good. I've been there.
Speaker 3: There we go, so you stop by, have a little
Speaker 3: something to eat, sign the petition. We would love to
Speaker 3: have that. This will also bring brought to us by
Speaker 3: the good folks at Charter. And then the last one
Speaker 3: of those is Saturday the seventeenth at six zero nine
Speaker 3: to five Montgomery Road nine and Brewing. That's another place
Speaker 3: that you can go all right, of course, one of
Speaker 3: the one of the great places also as well Sunday
Speaker 3: at Hyde Park Square there's the Hyde Park Farmers Market.
Speaker 3: We'd love to have your signatures there. All of these
Speaker 3: are available. Easiest place to go get information rather than
Speaker 3: listening to me is save Hyde Parksquare dot org. All
Speaker 3: of these things are listed there. We love to have
Speaker 3: more people volunteer to help us get these signatures. We'd
Speaker 3: love everybody to keep showing up signing for us so
Speaker 3: we can get the voice of the citizens heard on
Speaker 3: this issue and every issue.
Speaker 2: Well, you're making too much sense to be in politics.
Speaker 1: Once again, Save Hyde Parksquare dot org and this Sunday,
Speaker 1: Hyde Park Square. I may stop by. I'll call you
Speaker 1: if I'm coming by and say a lot of that.
Speaker 1: I love coming there. Save Hyde Parksquare dot org. You know, John,
Speaker 1: they're counting on you and other citizens like Damon Lynch.
Speaker 1: Know your role and shut your mouth and hopefully that.
Speaker 2: Won't be the case.
Speaker 1: Not gonna do it, I said to that, But let's
Speaker 1: do it again as we to the twenty third. But
Speaker 1: John Zinzer, once again, thanks for coming on the Bill
Speaker 1: Cunningham Show. We'll do it again in John Zinzer, you're
Speaker 1: a great American. And give my best to Robert and
Speaker 1: Bobby Joseph. Bobby Joseph is the best. And once again,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 3: Thank you, John, Thank you, Bill appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Let's continue with more.
Speaker 1: Save Hardparksquare dot org is all the sights, know your role,
Speaker 1: and shut your mouth. I haven't done much of that.
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WULW