Speaker 1: Billy Cunning into Great America. Of course, the last four
Speaker 1: days blink, I call it bling, but now it's blink.
Speaker 1: Happened in the tri State, mainly from Finley Market, all
Speaker 1: the ways down Vine Street, down Ray Street, over the bridges,
Speaker 1: all the way to Newport Covington thirty blocks long, and
Speaker 1: the People's Judge and I, along with Sean Donovan and
Speaker 1: a hotty he's dating, found ourselves. We decided to have
Speaker 1: a little dinner quickly at OTR, which we did at
Speaker 1: Itchy Bin. Then we walked up to a music hall,
Speaker 1: walked over to Greaters, then try to walk from Greaters
Speaker 1: back to like Fifth Street. That was impossible. I was
Speaker 1: shocked and amazed at what I saw. Brendan call, You're
Speaker 1: the David Axelrod to Barack Husain Obama. You're the axel
Speaker 1: Rod to Charlie Lucan, You're head of the Chamber. You're
Speaker 1: in charge of this event. May I tell you why
Speaker 1: I was shocked?
Speaker 2: Tell me.
Speaker 1: So we go to Itchybin, which is the old Washington Platform,
Speaker 1: have a nice dinner there with the Itchi Bin Japanese steakhouse,
Speaker 1: and we walked we tried to walk from there to
Speaker 1: music hall It was so crowded you could had to
Speaker 1: wait for the walk lights across Central Parkway to go north.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what in the hell is going on? This
Speaker 1: is like seven pm on Saturday night. We finally make
Speaker 1: our way to Music Hall and they had this fantastic
Speaker 1: light show up against the facade and Washington Park. By
Speaker 1: the way, when you get time, google William Cunningham resurrectionist.
Speaker 1: William Cunningham and resurrectionist. He made lots of money out
Speaker 1: of Washington Park when it was a cemetery, you might recall,
Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies, before even Charlie Lucan was born.
Speaker 1: But nonetheless I regress. So we're standing there to Washington Park.
Speaker 1: Was it was cheek to cheek, it was, but the
Speaker 1: butt it must have been tent. You couldn't move in
Speaker 1: Washington Park. I felt like a pin in a bowling alley.
Speaker 1: I was and walking around left and right with my
Speaker 1: shoulders up against my thighs. And this went off for
Speaker 1: like twenty twenty five minutes. People are going nuts, jumping
Speaker 1: in and out of the fountain, hanging on the trees.
Speaker 1: The look at this light show Music Hall. We then
Speaker 1: make our way slowly because you can't walk in the
Speaker 1: crowds over the Greaters. We try to go left to
Speaker 1: go up to Finley Market. We couldn't, couldn't go. We couldn't, couldn't,
Speaker 1: couldn't walk there. And we then walked back down Vine
Speaker 1: Street and we got about a block and it was gridlock.
Speaker 1: The cars are every whitch direction. Charmaine McGuffey had a
Speaker 1: couple of sheriffs deep and he's there. Good luck with that.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And then we get down to Court Street. We get
Speaker 1: down to Court Street, look left and right. Had to
Speaker 1: wait two or three times to get to the walk
Speaker 1: light now to cross the street.
Speaker 4: We finally said a hell with it.
Speaker 1: About an hour and a half, we walked back to
Speaker 1: Court Street to Shaan Donovan's pallatial estate and then drove
Speaker 1: home and I said, look, we can't go that way.
Speaker 1: We got to go that way to City Hall to
Speaker 1: get on seventy five. To get out, what in the
Speaker 1: hell's going on in this town? I want to know
Speaker 1: from you, Brendan, call what in the hell is going on?
Speaker 2: It sounds to me like you found Blink.
Speaker 4: Finally, I kept looking around, where's Blake? Where in the
Speaker 4: hell's Blake? And Blake was everywhere.
Speaker 2: You told me you had an incredible show at Music Hall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you probably saw the Kroger Building, which, Ye, the
Speaker 3: Kroger Building looked like it was on It looked like
Speaker 3: it was on acid.
Speaker 4: Yes, it was.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: The whole building.
Speaker 3: Looked like it was wobbling thanks to the lasers that
Speaker 3: we had there.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: The Neil Armstrong Mural, which I don't know if you saw,
Speaker 3: was my favorite over the weekend, As I told you
Speaker 3: it would be. It was amazing. But then there were
Speaker 3: like all these other little spots throughout town that people
Speaker 3: were just uh, it was magic. And and I know
Speaker 3: you're talking about being crowded and watching park and crowded
Speaker 3: at the banks, but this is the happiest crowd I've seen.
Speaker 3: No one was complaining. People were talking to each other
Speaker 3: and have it. I think there were some people maybe
Speaker 3: having some drinks maybe and it maybe a little and
Speaker 3: you know what, people were just exuberant. It was. It
Speaker 3: was so great to see our city this way. I
Speaker 3: know of folks who were riding around and walking around
Speaker 3: and just were so happy to see how full the
Speaker 3: city wasn't how beautiful it looked.
Speaker 1: Now, let's deal with some facts you deal with hyperbole,
Speaker 1: I deal with facts. Is it coming back anytime soon?
Speaker 3: You know, this was so wildly successful it is bad
Speaker 3: etiquette to ask the team who produced the event about
Speaker 3: the next event the morning after they're still taking stuff down.
Speaker 3: But this is a huge, huge success. We love this event.
Speaker 3: I think this city loves this event. And to be
Speaker 3: completely honest, non exaggeration, this event is on the world stage.
Speaker 3: We had artists from nine hundred artists applied to be
Speaker 3: a part of Blank. Two hundred came. Many of them
Speaker 3: it was their first time in the United States, and
Speaker 3: they are not talking about coming to the United States.
Speaker 3: They're talking about coming to Cincinnati because they know what
Speaker 3: happens here and so it'll be you know, we're excited
Speaker 3: to talk about what's next. We're just not going to
Speaker 3: do it today.
Speaker 4: Who pays for it?
Speaker 3: We are very fortunate that the city Cincinnati, Hamilton County,
Speaker 3: Meet NKY, which is the tourism work in Northern Kentucky,
Speaker 3: the Hale Foundation, Arts, Wave, Proctor Kroger, Western Southern American Financial, ALTA, Fiber.
Speaker 3: We start down the list and I got to go
Speaker 3: on and on and on because so many companies, whether
Speaker 3: it was you know HGC groups sponsoring the Neil Armstrong
Speaker 3: mural companies having their logos in the sky as part
Speaker 3: of a drone exhibits that we did. Everybody wanted to
Speaker 3: be a part of this and we are very uh
Speaker 3: fortunate for that.
Speaker 1: Well as far as the crowds, can you give an
Speaker 1: estimate how many human beings were there at some point
Speaker 1: Thursday through Sunday. I think all the humanity was there.
Speaker 1: There were six billion.
Speaker 4: People and I didn't feel that way, any.
Speaker 1: Idea any and you said, and make make your card
Speaker 1: available for me. Hell, I couldn't get in the cart.
Speaker 1: There was no room on the streets, no room on
Speaker 1: the sideways. You walked, you couldn't move.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: It's how many people showed up.
Speaker 3: I had my parents, my parents and my wife and
Speaker 3: kids with me on Saturday night for a while, and
Speaker 3: I did have a cart to be able to move
Speaker 3: move around from a work perspective, and uh, at one
Speaker 3: point I just said we just set to walk there
Speaker 3: there was no moving Uh. Uh you couldn't move a
Speaker 3: vehicle through here. I will say Synceday police since the
Speaker 3: fire coming to Newport, the Post service officials, they were awesome.
Speaker 3: Uh and for making sure people were safe. It was.
Speaker 3: It was a one wonderful night with no problems in
Speaker 3: that regard to street car was full and escorted. So
Speaker 3: we were lucky in that regard that we've got, you know,
Speaker 3: police officers and sheriffs who just did such an awesome job.
Speaker 2: From a crowd perspective.
Speaker 4: Give me a number, I need a number.
Speaker 3: Well, I know you don't believe that, but we actually
Speaker 3: do some calculations to try and figure out. We take
Speaker 3: pictures and we try and look at turns and how
Speaker 3: many times people are down here. Last year we said
Speaker 3: we you know, we estimated about two million people experienced
Speaker 3: blink over the course of the four days. I can
Speaker 3: tell you that, you know, having been a part of
Speaker 3: the product production team, it felt like more in a
Speaker 3: lot of the things that we look at. But we're
Speaker 3: not going to do a number until we spend some
Speaker 3: time looking at it. But it definitely felt like more
Speaker 3: than two years ago.
Speaker 1: Well, in the metro there's about two million people that
Speaker 1: live within about fifty miles of Fountain Square. I would
Speaker 1: assume everyone was there. It looked like some scene of
Speaker 1: Star Trek in which everybody says, yeah, of.
Speaker 2: Course, of course, you know, we don't care like if
Speaker 2: somebody comes.
Speaker 3: Four times that that that's four generally is how that works.
Speaker 3: But you know, look, it was it was awesome. It
Speaker 3: was awesome, and you know the fact that we have
Speaker 3: a free public art. We had music experiences. And you
Speaker 3: said the restaurants, I mean the folks that the bars
Speaker 3: and restaurants were jamming and a lot of them used
Speaker 3: it as an opportunity to douce themselves to customers, which
Speaker 3: was really cool.
Speaker 1: What did I miss on Fountain Square? We intended to
Speaker 1: go to Finley Market. Couldn't get there. We intended to
Speaker 1: walk down to Fountain Square. Couldn't get there. We intended
Speaker 1: to take the suspension bridge, couldn't get there. We intended
Speaker 1: to go to Covington, where I was born. Couldn't get there.
Speaker 1: We intended to walk across.
Speaker 2: Were you stopping it?
Speaker 3: Were you stopping at the bars because they wasn't that
Speaker 3: hard to move around.
Speaker 4: I mean, were you doing like.
Speaker 2: A blink a blank pub crawl?
Speaker 4: You don't understand what it was like on Vine Street?
Speaker 4: I mean I do.
Speaker 2: Did you get stuck at the Bay Horse for a
Speaker 2: few I.
Speaker 1: Never got that far. We couldn't get past Court Street
Speaker 1: from from UH Square.
Speaker 3: Look, what did I miss? Fountain Career was super cool?
Speaker 3: They Fifth Third Bank, Uh they are They're so awesome.
Speaker 3: They have a whole creative team at the bank, and
Speaker 3: you know it, people think of bankers as bankers, but
Speaker 3: this this this organization has a bunch of creatives and
Speaker 3: they they got together and they made They partnered with
Speaker 3: a group called Big Art and they made this huge
Speaker 3: installation on the middle of Fountain Square. It was a
Speaker 3: giant cube that you could walk through. They had images
Speaker 3: projected of Cincinnati. They had all of these doors that
Speaker 3: looked like your you know, doors and windows that you
Speaker 3: could walk up to. Every time you opened the door,
Speaker 3: there was a screen on the inside and there was
Speaker 3: different art there to experience.
Speaker 2: So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: I was. I was really impressed with what Fifth Third did.
Speaker 1: You could spend four hours on Fountain Square and never
Speaker 1: leave Fountain Square, right.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of people who hung out in
Speaker 3: one particular area, like within a block of Fountain Square.
Speaker 3: There was stuff to do. The Covington meet NK. I
Speaker 3: helped us with the Covington project, and you know, there
Speaker 3: was a huge projection on a building just past the event,
Speaker 3: and then there was this thing called Flux that was
Speaker 3: all of this lighted. I don't even know what it
Speaker 3: looked like, beads that were lit, but they were. We
Speaker 3: were projecting on it and there were four cameras, so
Speaker 3: kids were putting their faces on it and dancing. And
Speaker 3: that's the other thing. There are so many kids it was.
Speaker 3: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: Well all I can say my sources tell me it's
Speaker 1: going to be two years from now. But the cost
Speaker 1: was multi millions of dollars and of Corporate America and
Speaker 1: Cincinnati steps forward. And to phrase some of these expenses,
Speaker 1: that's pocket change to all the rich guys in town.
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, if you can do this every two years,
Speaker 1: this it can't grow anymore. I mean, it's maxed out.
Speaker 1: You can't put any more people in between Finley Market
Speaker 1: and coming to Newport, Licking River, Fountain Square, Washington Park.
Speaker 4: There's no more. You can't grow it all.
Speaker 3: I know you're used to those, you know, exclusive environments
Speaker 3: where it's not you know, you're not down with the
Speaker 3: massive I will tell.
Speaker 2: You it was not.
Speaker 3: It was not as.
Speaker 2: Dramatic as you say.
Speaker 3: I mean I I walked into Washington Park and had
Speaker 3: no problem getting you know, food and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: It was it was not that you're you're being maybe
Speaker 3: a tiny bit dramatic. I can't I can't imagine that.
Speaker 3: We don't find it true.
Speaker 1: Have you thought about getting rid of the Chamber of Commerce,
Speaker 1: going back into the into the grind of regular politics.
Speaker 1: I can see you and Luke and Season Control once
Speaker 1: again as Axelrod and Obama and ruined for a thousand
Speaker 1: year old.
Speaker 4: You don't have any fun. You have no fun doing now.
Speaker 2: I have the greatest gig.
Speaker 3: We were We are working on so much right now
Speaker 3: here at the Chamber, supporting our small businesses in this community.
Speaker 3: And uh, we were working on an arena study which
Speaker 3: has been in the news, looking to see whether or
Speaker 3: not we need arena in this community. So we'll release
Speaker 3: that here in a few weeks. And uh, this is
Speaker 3: this is an awesome job. We've got great partners at
Speaker 3: the city. The look there were people in town. You've
Speaker 3: probably heard rumors, but you know Cincinnati. This was a
Speaker 3: weekend where we got to show Cincinnati off to businesses
Speaker 3: and organizations that are thinking of moving here, businesses here,
Speaker 3: people here. We couldn't have looked better.
Speaker 1: Weather was perfect, no criminal activity, happy families walking around
Speaker 1: pub crawls Corporate Cincinnati stood up. It could not be
Speaker 1: more perfect. I kind of worry about the future because
Speaker 1: we've reached nirvana and we can't go any better than this.
Speaker 2: Where we can where else in the world.
Speaker 3: Where do you want to live other than this place?
Speaker 1: Well, you're almost half convinced to buy a condo on
Speaker 1: Republic Street, but I kind of doubt.
Speaker 3: I saw you were taking down notes, hitting up the
Speaker 3: fifty cline website.
Speaker 4: Lastly, will you spend a moment or two you need a.
Speaker 3: Little peditaire on Street.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that one, but it's a great
Speaker 1: place to visit before you cut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's where's Billy these days?
Speaker 3: Oh he's at seventeenth and Vine in a little condo,
Speaker 3: hanging out, having a great time.
Speaker 1: I don't see that happening, but I guess anything's possible.
Speaker 1: Before the day ends, google William Cunningham Resurrectionists and see
Speaker 1: what you find. Because my roots go deep into Washington Park,
Speaker 1: I mean really deep into the ground of Washington Park.
Speaker 1: William Cunningham Resurrectionist. Look that up.
Speaker 2: I'll do it all right.
Speaker 1: Brendan call good luck. It can't get no better. Makes
Speaker 1: me feel sad for the rest. We got the best,
Speaker 1: and that's it. We're done.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you found Blink blink.
Speaker 1: It's out there somewhere. I saw a lot of it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see anymore. No one's gonna come
Speaker 1: next year because it's too crowded. There's just people everywhere.
Speaker 1: All right, Brendan, all right, Brendan call, give my best
Speaker 1: to Charlie Luke and the man who would be mayor,
Speaker 1: give my best. Brendan call, all right, Let's continue with more.
Speaker 1: He controls the taste of Cincinnati october Fest and blink
Speaker 1: or blink, it's unbelievable. Let's continue. Bill Cunningham, News Radio,
Speaker 1: seven hundred WULW