April 1, 2026 • 9 mins
Jonathan Adee, Executive Director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful details their new facility and how KCB's quest to be the Cleanest City in America is doing it.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is iHeart Sinsey today. My guest is Jonathan eighty.
He is the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. And
your organization is expanding now, moving offices and making more
room to complete your mission.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Yeah. Keeps in Sane Beautiful is formed back in nineteen
seventy eight. Being that is opening day, I can tell
you that Pete Rose was on our very first board
of trustees during the middle of his forty four hour
game hitting Street back in seventy eight. And for low
these many years, Keepsincane Beautiful has basically lived in either
our parents' basement or attic, either one of city facilities
(00:43):
like the basement of City Hall. Currently we're in the
Department of Public Administration or Public Services admin Building, and
it has been our good fortune to begin to double
our impacts over the past few years, and to do
that we have outgoon our space and as such, we
looked around for a place that would fit the mission,
(01:05):
vision and vibe of KCB and we weren't really interested
in an industrial park or even a new build. But
we have found a historic building in Walnut Hills that
we are renovating and we are getting ready to move
in pretty quickly, and the name.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of the architect is pretty famous around Cincinnati parts for
people that have dug into Cincinnati architecture and history. This
is the Harry Hake Building in Walnut Hills. Now, I
actually tried to find the actual building to see what
it looks like, and I don't know which one it is,
but Harry Hake. It is three generations of architects and
they created Crosley Field, the Taft Theater, Provident Bank Building,
(01:44):
University of Cincinnati buildings, christ Hospital, Iconic Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company.
So this is going to be another great building that
is going to be used. Now, what is the address
of this new place and what's it look like, Jonathan.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
This is twenty four to ten Gilbert Avenue, and originally
there was two parcels. The downstairs part was the original
Willie's Night Auto Dealership, which was an automobile that was
built from nineteen nineteen to nineteen thirty four. It's a
very great Gatsby Ishue. It is a precursor to the
Jeep family. And upstairs were the offices of Harry Hake
(02:24):
and his team of architects, and so that particular facility
now is one parcel. Downstairs, we will have a community
room from which we can build community, host corporate, educational groups,
our adopted spot Folks, of which we now have more
than three hundred, and a variety of other community building
(02:44):
entities in order to make some semi cleaner, greener, more beautiful.
Then in the back where the service department was for
Willas Night, we have a garage from which all of
our community groups can come and get their tools. We
can host our Workforce to Element, our roots to Boots
participants to help create green jobs of the future in
(03:05):
accordance with the Green Cincinnati Plan and the Mayor's Pathways program.
And then the other side is going to be our
art studio. Our arts studio has been a separate building
for us over in the West End for a number
of years, and it's going to bring all of our
programs under one roof. And fortunately for us, art works
will be across the street, so we'll we'll have a
(03:26):
really great artistic community with which to work in Walmlet Hills.
Then upstairs will be all of the offices and some
interesting Easter eggs for people to come and check out.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You have that program that you ask people to come
and help paint these dilapidated buildings and things. You want
to talk about that that's why you need the art space.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Sure, we have two functions, two primary functions for our
arts program. The first is the future Ballooms program that
you hit referenced in areas of the city where there
are a lot of boarded up buildings which have fallen
into disrepair and become a haven for blight and criminal
activity and whatnot. Our team and our volunteers paint those
buildings with windows and doors which increase economic development about
(04:17):
fifty percent, decrease crime around those areas by about twenty percent.
And we have fifteen hundred of those around town currently
and we need to maintain those and do those paintings. Additionally,
we do community based murals, which are not necessarily designed
to go up big walls, but to be in spaces
(04:40):
that neighborhoods want toory claims are on the basis of
community engagement design and we use pretty simple kinds of
paint by numbers. Activities and associated with this new property
will also be a wall that we can bring in
community groups to help them learn how to do their
own public art installations to maybe even take us from
(05:04):
number two in public art and the nation to number one.
One of the things that we found in our rent
free situations is that we are primarily an outdoors organization
really could showcase being outdoors. So this space, in addition
to all the wonderful things I talked about inside, we'll
have outdoor classrooms and a pollinator garden, and a pocket
(05:26):
park and a mural and tree canopy and all those
other kinds of things to be able to showcase to
the community how we can move from where we are
now to being the cleanest city in the Midwest.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
What's the timetable for the building?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So we are expecting a certificate of occupancy honor before
April tenth, which will give us about another couple of
weeks before our public launch to kind of indicate where
we are. And we are already starting to move some
items in advance of that, not occupy, but starting to
move some things over. It'll probably take a couple of
(06:04):
months to finalize the actual move. Fortunately for us, the
city of Cincinnati has been more than gracious, and when
I told them that we were going to be vacating
our building, they weren't saying when you know, they weren't
starting to, you know, measure the drapes or anything like that.
So we have some time, and it's an association with
(06:27):
our busiest clean up season too, so we don't want
to drop the ball on any of our mission activities
in order to move but we do also think that
this will be another way for volunteer groups and people
really invested in CASEYB to help us out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You're trying to clean up the litter, of course, trying
to clean up the dump sites where people dumped all
sorts of construction waste and things like that. This year,
those seems to be a little bit more. It seems
to be even more emphasis on keeping our planet clean
and safe.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Do you feel the same way?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Absolutely. One the initiative you reference start don't dump the
natties over eight forty one West sixth Street used to
be the old hu to Pole lot. Last year we
diverted more than a million pounds of trash by just
having an opportunity for people to bring stuff that would
otherwise end up on a hillside or you know, some
(07:22):
of that stuff down in the city's water waste system
or whatever. So it's been a true waste diversion event
because we have a number of partners that have helped
us separate landscape debris and furniture and scrap metal and
e waste and cardboard and all this other kinds of things.
So that's been really helpful. And then also within the
last eighteen months, we have reimagined our adopted Spot program
(07:44):
and we have more than three hundred individuals, civic and
community groups, corporate groups, churches, whatnot who've adopted more than
three hundred spots throughout Cincinnati. Because it's our goal to
make Cincinnati cleanest city in the United States, and we
know that we can only do that one block out
of time.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I think most people want to do the right thing,
but they don't have the resources to dump all that stuff.
So now, if you're going to make that available, where
can they find that information?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's on our website, which is www dot Keepsincinnati Beautiful
dot org. And as I indicated, the Don't Dump the
Natty event is the last Friday of every month except
for when the last Friday kind of falls on a
holiday weekend, so not so much a Memorial Day weekend
or Thanksgiving Day weekend. Through the month of November and
(08:30):
that's from nine to twelve pm over at the forty
one plus sixth Street.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Jonathan Ady, the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Thanks
for all you do, Thanks for.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Being on the show today.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Thank you much.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That's iHeart Cincy for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
If you missed any of it, you want to hear
it again, just go to the iHeartRadio app. You can
download it from your device's store. It's absolutely free. Go
to the podcast section and search for my name, Sandy Collins.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It'll pop right up for iHeart Sense.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you've got a comment, suggestion, question, anything, let me
know about it.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Just send an email to Iheartsinsey with an I.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
At iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Until next week, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Iheartsinsey is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is iHeart Sinsey today. My guest is Jonathan eighty.
He is the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. And
your organization is expanding now, moving offices and making more
room to complete your mission.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Yeah. Keeps in Sane Beautiful is formed back in nineteen
seventy eight. Being that is opening day, I can tell
you that Pete Rose was on our very first board
of trustees during the middle of his forty four hour
game hitting Street back in seventy eight. And for low
these many years, Keepsincane Beautiful has basically lived in either
our parents' basement or attic, either one of city facilities
(00:43):
like the basement of City Hall. Currently we're in the
Department of Public Administration or Public Services admin Building, and
it has been our good fortune to begin to double
our impacts over the past few years, and to do
that we have outgoon our space and as such, we
looked around for a place that would fit the mission,
(01:05):
vision and vibe of KCB and we weren't really interested
in an industrial park or even a new build. But
we have found a historic building in Walnut Hills that
we are renovating and we are getting ready to move
in pretty quickly, and the name.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of the architect is pretty famous around Cincinnati parts for
people that have dug into Cincinnati architecture and history. This
is the Harry Hake Building in Walnut Hills. Now, I
actually tried to find the actual building to see what
it looks like, and I don't know which one it is,
but Harry Hake. It is three generations of architects and
they created Crosley Field, the Taft Theater, Provident Bank Building,
(01:44):
University of Cincinnati buildings, christ Hospital, Iconic Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company.
So this is going to be another great building that
is going to be used. Now, what is the address
of this new place and what's it look like, Jonathan.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
This is twenty four to ten Gilbert Avenue, and originally
there was two parcels. The downstairs part was the original
Willie's Night Auto Dealership, which was an automobile that was
built from nineteen nineteen to nineteen thirty four. It's a
very great Gatsby Ishue. It is a precursor to the
Jeep family. And upstairs were the offices of Harry Hake
(02:24):
and his team of architects, and so that particular facility
now is one parcel. Downstairs, we will have a community
room from which we can build community, host corporate, educational groups,
our adopted spot Folks, of which we now have more
than three hundred, and a variety of other community building
(02:44):
entities in order to make some semi cleaner, greener, more beautiful.
Then in the back where the service department was for
Willas Night, we have a garage from which all of
our community groups can come and get their tools. We
can host our Workforce to Element, our roots to Boots
participants to help create green jobs of the future in
(03:05):
accordance with the Green Cincinnati Plan and the Mayor's Pathways program.
And then the other side is going to be our
art studio. Our arts studio has been a separate building
for us over in the West End for a number
of years, and it's going to bring all of our
programs under one roof. And fortunately for us, art works
will be across the street, so we'll we'll have a
(03:26):
really great artistic community with which to work in Walmlet Hills.
Then upstairs will be all of the offices and some
interesting Easter eggs for people to come and check out.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You have that program that you ask people to come
and help paint these dilapidated buildings and things. You want
to talk about that that's why you need the art space.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Sure, we have two functions, two primary functions for our
arts program. The first is the future Ballooms program that
you hit referenced in areas of the city where there
are a lot of boarded up buildings which have fallen
into disrepair and become a haven for blight and criminal
activity and whatnot. Our team and our volunteers paint those
buildings with windows and doors which increase economic development about
(04:17):
fifty percent, decrease crime around those areas by about twenty percent.
And we have fifteen hundred of those around town currently
and we need to maintain those and do those paintings. Additionally,
we do community based murals, which are not necessarily designed
to go up big walls, but to be in spaces
(04:40):
that neighborhoods want toory claims are on the basis of
community engagement design and we use pretty simple kinds of
paint by numbers. Activities and associated with this new property
will also be a wall that we can bring in
community groups to help them learn how to do their
own public art installations to maybe even take us from
(05:04):
number two in public art and the nation to number one.
One of the things that we found in our rent
free situations is that we are primarily an outdoors organization
really could showcase being outdoors. So this space, in addition
to all the wonderful things I talked about inside, we'll
have outdoor classrooms and a pollinator garden, and a pocket
(05:26):
park and a mural and tree canopy and all those
other kinds of things to be able to showcase to
the community how we can move from where we are
now to being the cleanest city in the Midwest.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
What's the timetable for the building?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So we are expecting a certificate of occupancy honor before
April tenth, which will give us about another couple of
weeks before our public launch to kind of indicate where
we are. And we are already starting to move some
items in advance of that, not occupy, but starting to
move some things over. It'll probably take a couple of
(06:04):
months to finalize the actual move. Fortunately for us, the
city of Cincinnati has been more than gracious, and when
I told them that we were going to be vacating
our building, they weren't saying when you know, they weren't
starting to, you know, measure the drapes or anything like that.
So we have some time, and it's an association with
(06:27):
our busiest clean up season too, so we don't want
to drop the ball on any of our mission activities
in order to move but we do also think that
this will be another way for volunteer groups and people
really invested in CASEYB to help us out as well.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You're trying to clean up the litter, of course, trying
to clean up the dump sites where people dumped all
sorts of construction waste and things like that. This year,
those seems to be a little bit more. It seems
to be even more emphasis on keeping our planet clean
and safe.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Do you feel the same way?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Absolutely. One the initiative you reference start don't dump the
natties over eight forty one West sixth Street used to
be the old hu to Pole lot. Last year we
diverted more than a million pounds of trash by just
having an opportunity for people to bring stuff that would
otherwise end up on a hillside or you know, some
(07:22):
of that stuff down in the city's water waste system
or whatever. So it's been a true waste diversion event
because we have a number of partners that have helped
us separate landscape debris and furniture and scrap metal and
e waste and cardboard and all this other kinds of things.
So that's been really helpful. And then also within the
last eighteen months, we have reimagined our adopted Spot program
(07:44):
and we have more than three hundred individuals, civic and
community groups, corporate groups, churches, whatnot who've adopted more than
three hundred spots throughout Cincinnati. Because it's our goal to
make Cincinnati cleanest city in the United States, and we
know that we can only do that one block out
of time.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I think most people want to do the right thing,
but they don't have the resources to dump all that stuff.
So now, if you're going to make that available, where
can they find that information?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's on our website, which is www dot Keepsincinnati Beautiful
dot org. And as I indicated, the Don't Dump the
Natty event is the last Friday of every month except
for when the last Friday kind of falls on a
holiday weekend, so not so much a Memorial Day weekend
or Thanksgiving Day weekend. Through the month of November and
(08:30):
that's from nine to twelve pm over at the forty
one plus sixth Street.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Jonathan Ady, the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Thanks
for all you do, Thanks for.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Being on the show today.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Thank you much.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That's iHeart Cincy for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
If you missed any of it, you want to hear
it again, just go to the iHeartRadio app. You can
download it from your device's store. It's absolutely free. Go
to the podcast section and search for my name, Sandy Collins.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It'll pop right up for iHeart Sense.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you've got a comment, suggestion, question, anything, let me
know about it.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Just send an email to Iheartsinsey with an I.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
At iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Until next week, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Iheartsinsey is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
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