August 5, 2025 • 18 mins
Willie talks with local business owner Victor Louis about why he is moving his business out of downtown Cincinnati and up to Blue Ash.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Bill Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The Great America News broke a few days ago that
a great local business in the city of Cincinnati has
decided to pull up its roots and I think moved
to Blue Ash the little tree that grew and that
is One Logistics Network and the CEO is Victor Lewis,
a native Cincinnati, and Victor Lewis welcome, I think for
the first time to the Bill Cunningham Show. First of all,
(00:26):
to give the American people a little bit of your history.
Where did you grow up, What are your feelings about
Cincinnati and why you look at at your business and
on the main streets of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Give us an update.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
So I grew up in Greater Cincinnati, lived here pretty
much my whole life. Started my business in twenty sixteen,
and at the time, Cincinnati was the place to be.
I was in my late twenties early thirties when I
started my business, and that's where the talent wanted to go. There.
It was vibrant, I mean, plenty of things to do
(00:59):
after work, eight networking. There was just a ton of opportunities.
We moved our business downtown in twenty sixteen, and I
enjoyed it so much and loved it so much that
I put my residence there on Fourth Street shortly thereafter.
And it wasn't long before or wasn't long after. In
(01:22):
the you know, the early stage of the pandemic, when
just the lawlessness started started becoming evident. You had people
riding dirt bikes down the streets. You had like just
disorder every night, loud people yelling and screaming in the streets.
And I think most people, or most downtown residents especially,
(01:43):
thought that that would subside once the pandemic was over,
and it did not, and it's continually gotten worse, continually
gotten worse. So a couple of weeks ago or you know,
as time going on, I made my decision to move
out of the city. And there's just been like I
(02:04):
can't go. I can't express enough how many different instances
like in aptitude the city has shown me. We had
leaders from the city come and meet me to try
to you know, retain business and offer some economic incentives.
The guy showed up in jeans and a jean jacket
to a business, and I mean that just goes. It's
(02:25):
the little things, and it's like like, I know, we're
focused in on violent crime. I mean, there are two
shootings last night, and knows he are right. But it's
the little things that can be done. Like yesterday I
go downtown. An individual from a national publication called me
and walk with him downtown and we walk from Fountain
Square to City Hall and I'm explaining to him this
(02:49):
is where a lot of this activity is going on.
We're walking through Piot Park in the shadow of City Hall. Yes,
and there are two individuals actively using intravenous drug right
in Coronavus. Like it was shocking to see. I could
not believe it. And it's like that's on the city's
front doorstep. Like these are things that can be done.
(03:10):
Potholes can be fixed. Drive on the inside of town
on Columbia Parkway and look how overgrown all the grass is.
You can barely see street sign. Like this is stuff
that can be managed today. It's that simple. But it's
not being done.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And Victor Lewis, I feel in your voice the projection
that you want this to be different. You want to
go back nine or ten years from the city was functional,
and at that point, the Democratic Party controlled everything in
the city of Cincinnati, as it does now. The Republican
parties had no control in the city of Cincinnati for
more than a half a century, so this is not political.
I'm thinking about the administration of Charlie Luken and Roxane
(03:48):
Qualls and to a lecture extent, Mark Mallory and John Cranley,
all Democrats. But it was functional. So something has changed.
It's not politics, it's the behavior of the politicians.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Scotti.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
John Hnsen, who has a few lucid moments, said today
got angry with the idea that the city is not
safe because Sarah Herlinger, whose husband was butchered in his
own home by Mordecai Black, he kind of indirectly went
after her and Holly for saying the city is not safe.
I think someone shooting up in pay At Park, which
is right there, half a block from city Hall. If
(04:22):
police would have driven by, they would not have arrested them.
In fact, I had on Ken Kobra a little bit ago,
who said they don't deal with those kind of issues
because city council and the chief of police doesn't want
people to be arrested. Goes, what do you do with
a drugger user? We charge him, get him and rehabit.
But that doesn't happen and so let's talk about your business,
which is one logistics network, and you cared enough about
(04:45):
your city and you were raised, heir born here that
you wanted to locate it here because it was a
great ten years ago functional environment. The politics have not changed.
They're still a whole democratic, but the enforcement the policies
have changed significantly because of lifestyle issues. And what about
in general? What about the you say quote is not
a business friendly environment. It's no longer a business friendly environment.
(05:07):
If someone doesn't fix this, more businesses are going to leave.
If you spoke to other business owners in the city
of Cincinnati as to why they want to leave or have.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Left, yes, I've spoke to individuals. I've spoke to the
individuals as recently as yesterday, and there is more to come.
And a lot of these businesses don't want because I
said to some of them, like you should let it
be known why you're leaving, and many of them won't
do it. They don't want to ruffle feathers, and I
get it, but I am not the only person that's
doing this. Cincinnati already has a significant shortfall in their
(05:38):
budget when citizens start leaving, and I'm telling you there
are downtown residents that are leaving and that are moving
to Covington. I know. I've spoken to them and they
all express the same issues that I that I did.
They're leaving, We're losing a tax payer base. This problem
is we are like a deaf Com five right now,
like for deaf Com one. Right now. We have a huge,
(06:00):
huge problem that is brewing, and it's like being ignored.
It's just like it's not going to fix itself, and
it's going to get a lot better, and it's going
to get to a point where the city is going
to revert back into the early two thousands very very rapidly.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Victor Lewis, I saw videos.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
There's a woman who lives on Fourth Street that must
go nameless, who has sent me about ten to fifteen
videos of regular behavior on Fourth Street, which is ought
to be the business center of our town, and which
individuals seemingly are doing wheelies on Fourth and Maine. I've
seen the wheelies going back and forth. I've seen what
appears to be drug use on the sidewalks of Fourth Street.
(06:41):
I've seen a video that seems to indicate through some
sort of fornication happening in a car on fourth Street,
and it's like a party atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And that's Fourth Street.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
We're not talking about OTR, which you had more shootings
last night this morning. We're talking about Fourth Street.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And you lived there.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Did you watch the disintegration of Fourth Street during the
time you were there?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It was awful. Like my parking was in, you know,
in the public parking garage in near Fountain Square, and
you it was it was scary to walk through some
of those you know, to come home at you know,
at a later hour and walk through the stairwells. There
(07:22):
were people. It all reeked of urine. There were individuals
sleeping there using drugs. And here you got to come
across in you know, a five foot wide alley or
a five foot wide hallway. It was. It was bad.
And when we reached out to the city to get
things done in and around our building, nothing was done.
I put up security cameras and watched. I watched these
(07:43):
individuals and they were the same individuals I would see
panhandling on Fountain Square in the afternoon. They would come
in like they were our neighbors, and they would go
behind our building. They would sleep there, they would use drugs.
I watched them on camera, and it's like we would
report these things. Nothing's done, things done, nothing's done. It's
just it's become untenable to these people. And I don't
(08:04):
think anybody gets it. Like they're moving out, they're not
going to move They're not coming back tomorrow. Like this
situation I think is already beyond the point of their
return and it's people need to realize that. Like now, well,
I have.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A report from Signal ninety nine, which is a police
operated unofficial channel. There was like over one hundred car
break ins in the Hyde Park area. The breaking into
windows is something that they police don't it don't even
respond to anymore. And cars that are stolen, We're gonna
have over two thousand vehicles stolen in the city of Cincinnati.
(08:41):
Imagine over two thousand vehicles stolen, about ten thousand vehicles
broken in. Massive drug use, homelessness is running rampant. Try
to go to Saint Francis Sarah, which is up on
Liberty Street and watch what happens in the in the alleyways,
open urination, fornication, defecation, the use of drugs. And I
watch police cars drive by and do nothing. And you're
(09:02):
saying you're You're like a normal person who loves Cincinnati,
who's watching this in real time on Fourth Street and
you call the police and nothing happens.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
How frustrating is that for you?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It's extremely frustrating. Do you know when I sent When
I sent that letter, not a single person from the
city Cincinnati reached out to me. Corey Bowman was the
first person to call me at nine am in the
morning after I sent out it. So there are people
that want to engage with this situation. There are people
that want to take this head on, but the current
(09:35):
leadership does not. They look at this, They look at cities,
either city Council or being the mayor of Cincinnati is
a stepping stone to the next thing, And it's like,
how quickly can I get in, make a name for
myself and get out of here. And unfortunately, we as
the citizens, are the ones that are going to bear
the repercussions of it all. It's disgusting, It's absolutely disgusting,
(09:57):
and no one's doing anything about it. It needs to
be fixed, to be fixed up immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You're taking your jobs and income to Blue Ash.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Why Blue Ash, which is a little tree that grew
under the leadership of Mayor Joe Cole.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Why Blue Ash instead of the city.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Blue Ash treated me like I was a customer and
that they were the business trying to win, or they
were the company trying to win my business. They called me,
they bugged me. It was literally one phone call said hey,
here's kind of an outline of what we can do
for you bringing you in here, resources, here, buildings that
are for lease. Here, a real estate agents you can call.
You want to talk to the mayor, here you go,
(10:33):
here's the mayor's phone number. People return to my calls
and they engage with me. And I'm not some massive
business by any means, but if a small business like
mine can get that attention, it says something, whereas the city,
we'll send somebody out who may as well be a
glorified social worker that is that's looking at this stuff
(10:53):
and has zero background and zero decision making ability, shows
up to my office wearing jeans and a jean jacket. Embarrassing.
Look at the look at last week. I mean, this
is how like little things are and how dumb our
current leadership is. When Aftab was giving his press conference,
he has his whole posse behind him there's an individual
wearing a baseball cap, Like, why don't you turn around
(11:15):
and say, hey, take your baseball cap off before I
go on uh on local news here in my press conference, Like,
it's simple things. If you had a business, would you
let somebody show up to jeans in a meeting?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Now?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
But guess what that person's supervisor probably isn't any office.
That person works from home. There's no oversight over any
of this. Simply go on the city's website and look
at the pictures they have of the people who work
for the City of Cincinnati. None of them are in
business at higher It's like they're all out in the
T shirt. It's like if this what is this? This
is the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And this is our government speaking of that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I've never met Victoria Parks, who's been around democratic politics
all of her life. She worked for how decades for
Todd up or tune and he and I assume she's
a nice lady. I've never met her. But when when
the president pro tema city council says that Holly and
others that were beaten down on Fourth Street, quote they
beg for that beatdown, I'm grateful for the whole story
(12:16):
quote unquote when city leadership said we are grateful that
Holly was beaten to within an inch of her life,
what does that say about city council?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It just shows it's not change like. It shows how
inept people are. It shows how like, even if you
thought that, why would you say that? There are things
that I think all the time that I don't say.
It's a very it's something you learned very earthly on
in life that you don't always say what's on your mind.
Why would you say that?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well, upon somber reflection, she was given two or three
days to think about it, and then she gave an
interview to Curtis Fuller a Channel five.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
She's that's exactly how I think.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Two days later, the President pro tema city council said,
they beg for the beatdown.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
What makes no sense, Like, why would you do that?
Why would it makes zero? Like? What does she have
to gain by saying that it makes no sense?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well, that's the leadership of the city.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And now the mayor is walking around with an entourage
and the OTR and talking to people along with Iris Rowlie,
who's paid one hundred and nine thousand dollars a year
to interfere with the rest and OTR acting like things
are okay. Scotty Johnson this morning at nine o'clock said
that he got angry with the idea that someone would
question whether or not Cincinnati is safe. Scotti Johnson, he's
(13:32):
I dare you to even and here here you are
a native Cincinnati want of your business to succeed. Victor
Lewis have won Logistics Network and you're you're giving him
the on the ground, the actual result.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
He's essentially calling you a liar. You don't know what
you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, and how can they determine how people in my
offices feel like I'm the one who is. I'm sitting
there with him every day. And here's the thing. It's
an owner of a company. My first and foremost duty
to my employees is to make sure they're safe. Any
business owner will tell you that you're in an environment
where they're safe. Guess what, you can't remain there, Like
(14:10):
I would love to be in the city of Cincinnati.
I would absolutely love it to be in the city,
but I can I wouldn't put my I can't have
my family down there. I can't live down there and
I can't work down there. So guess what when I
pull my jobs out, there's a tax part of the
tax base that is poof gone and it goes to
another area, and it makes it that much harder to
(14:31):
resolve the issues that are in downtown. There's go around
down go walk on Fourth Street. It's dead. There's no
one down there. Go to the restaurants in and around
Poor Street that used to be crowded as can be
for a Tuesday afternoon launch, there's no one there. Like
this is a total disaster, and unfortunately, I'm worried that
(14:56):
it's beyond repair because all time goes on, they don't
move quickly. They don't just make a decision like this overnight.
It might take them two or three years before they
can make this decision. Where's twenty of people who are
making this decision now and saying, you know what, let's
go to a more fresh the area brou you know, well,
they're going to move. It's like you can't the wheels,
(15:18):
the trains aready left the station. In a lot of
regard on that. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Lastly, Victor Lewis, I woulds say the restaurant owners I
talked to several of them, but none of them want
to come forward and actually talk on the air. And
I get that because you don't want to get sideways
with the mayor and city council and the police. But
they have their own police departments now, the big city restaurants,
and they have individuals their employees are frightened at one
o'clock in the morning to walk to the to the
(15:41):
parking lot, so they have police units ready on their dime.
Large companies in Cincinnati have their own police department. Whether
it's Fifth Third Bank or Western Southern or Kroger, they
have their own police department. And when employees of restaurants
cannot walk to their car at the end of a
shift because they're scared and then time to move, and
how many restaurants, twenty or thirty issued a missive. They
(16:04):
pounded the thesis on the doors of the cathedral in Wittenberg saying,
you know what, we can't live like this anymore. And
the Mayor's out there walking around and saying everything's great,
everything's okay. Scott to Johnson this morning, got angry at
this suggestion that the city's unsafe. And these are individuals
that have whose policies have caused the problem. This isn't
democratic republican. We've had democratic mayors now for half a
(16:26):
century and this wasn't the case until recently. Well, Victor
Lewis One Logistics Network, thanks for coming on the Bill
Cunningham Show.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
And Mellian I can say one thing, sure, I would
encourage business owners to speak out, speak out on this
and start rattling the cages and let people know you're
going to leave. It's the only way that things like
this are going to get resolved.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Well, you got the guts to come forward. Most do
not because they have to deal with the city. They
want to do it quietly. But when Kroger, they have
to have to come out.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You have to.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
It's people's responsibility to speak out against this. Business owners
need to do it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And I was told Kroger told its employees it's unsafe
stay home and that what does that do to businesses
in and around Kroger?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yes, exactly. And guess what when those individuals work from
home in the suburbs, the jobs and taxpace has already lost.
They're not paying taxes in the city of Cincinnety when
they go work from home. That's a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Victor Lewis One Logistics Network. Thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. You have cast a blazing arrow against
City Hall and hopefully they'll observe what's going on and
quit patting themselves on the back by what a great
job they've done. All right, Victor, thank you. Never mention it,
but you're a great American. Thank you, Victor. Let's continue
news coming up next to there it is. I know
(17:44):
Scotti Johnson thinks, man, things are great, things are really good.
That is not reality. Don't dislocate your shoulder patting yourself
on the back when the city is disabling itself right
before your very eyes. Bill Cunningham, seven hundred Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
A lot of big sweaty men hitting other, big sweaty
men flocking, big sweaty man tackling big sweaty man thin
heading in for a big sweaty man group shower. Bengals
training camp. Listen for the latest on seven hundred wl W,
home of the best Bengals coverage.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
How are you maxed out with high interest that you
could pay it off in dason o with loan Proto's
rapid equity loan.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
He It's Eddie get cash out now without touching,
Bill Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The Great America News broke a few days ago that
a great local business in the city of Cincinnati has
decided to pull up its roots and I think moved
to Blue Ash the little tree that grew and that
is One Logistics Network and the CEO is Victor Lewis,
a native Cincinnati, and Victor Lewis welcome, I think for
the first time to the Bill Cunningham Show. First of all,
(00:26):
to give the American people a little bit of your history.
Where did you grow up, What are your feelings about
Cincinnati and why you look at at your business and
on the main streets of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Give us an update.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
So I grew up in Greater Cincinnati, lived here pretty
much my whole life. Started my business in twenty sixteen,
and at the time, Cincinnati was the place to be.
I was in my late twenties early thirties when I
started my business, and that's where the talent wanted to go. There.
It was vibrant, I mean, plenty of things to do
(00:59):
after work, eight networking. There was just a ton of opportunities.
We moved our business downtown in twenty sixteen, and I
enjoyed it so much and loved it so much that
I put my residence there on Fourth Street shortly thereafter.
And it wasn't long before or wasn't long after. In
(01:22):
the you know, the early stage of the pandemic, when
just the lawlessness started started becoming evident. You had people
riding dirt bikes down the streets. You had like just
disorder every night, loud people yelling and screaming in the streets.
And I think most people, or most downtown residents especially,
(01:43):
thought that that would subside once the pandemic was over,
and it did not, and it's continually gotten worse, continually
gotten worse. So a couple of weeks ago or you know,
as time going on, I made my decision to move
out of the city. And there's just been like I
(02:04):
can't go. I can't express enough how many different instances
like in aptitude the city has shown me. We had
leaders from the city come and meet me to try
to you know, retain business and offer some economic incentives.
The guy showed up in jeans and a jean jacket
to a business, and I mean that just goes. It's
(02:25):
the little things, and it's like like, I know, we're
focused in on violent crime. I mean, there are two
shootings last night, and knows he are right. But it's
the little things that can be done. Like yesterday I
go downtown. An individual from a national publication called me
and walk with him downtown and we walk from Fountain
Square to City Hall and I'm explaining to him this
(02:49):
is where a lot of this activity is going on.
We're walking through Piot Park in the shadow of City Hall. Yes,
and there are two individuals actively using intravenous drug right
in Coronavus. Like it was shocking to see. I could
not believe it. And it's like that's on the city's
front doorstep. Like these are things that can be done.
(03:10):
Potholes can be fixed. Drive on the inside of town
on Columbia Parkway and look how overgrown all the grass is.
You can barely see street sign. Like this is stuff
that can be managed today. It's that simple. But it's
not being done.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And Victor Lewis, I feel in your voice the projection
that you want this to be different. You want to
go back nine or ten years from the city was functional,
and at that point, the Democratic Party controlled everything in
the city of Cincinnati, as it does now. The Republican
parties had no control in the city of Cincinnati for
more than a half a century, so this is not political.
I'm thinking about the administration of Charlie Luken and Roxane
(03:48):
Qualls and to a lecture extent, Mark Mallory and John Cranley,
all Democrats. But it was functional. So something has changed.
It's not politics, it's the behavior of the politicians.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Scotti.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
John Hnsen, who has a few lucid moments, said today
got angry with the idea that the city is not
safe because Sarah Herlinger, whose husband was butchered in his
own home by Mordecai Black, he kind of indirectly went
after her and Holly for saying the city is not safe.
I think someone shooting up in pay At Park, which
is right there, half a block from city Hall. If
(04:22):
police would have driven by, they would not have arrested them.
In fact, I had on Ken Kobra a little bit ago,
who said they don't deal with those kind of issues
because city council and the chief of police doesn't want
people to be arrested. Goes, what do you do with
a drugger user? We charge him, get him and rehabit.
But that doesn't happen and so let's talk about your business,
which is one logistics network, and you cared enough about
(04:45):
your city and you were raised, heir born here that
you wanted to locate it here because it was a
great ten years ago functional environment. The politics have not changed.
They're still a whole democratic, but the enforcement the policies
have changed significantly because of lifestyle issues. And what about
in general? What about the you say quote is not
a business friendly environment. It's no longer a business friendly environment.
(05:07):
If someone doesn't fix this, more businesses are going to leave.
If you spoke to other business owners in the city
of Cincinnati as to why they want to leave or have.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Left, yes, I've spoke to individuals. I've spoke to the
individuals as recently as yesterday, and there is more to come.
And a lot of these businesses don't want because I
said to some of them, like you should let it
be known why you're leaving, and many of them won't
do it. They don't want to ruffle feathers, and I
get it, but I am not the only person that's
doing this. Cincinnati already has a significant shortfall in their
(05:38):
budget when citizens start leaving, and I'm telling you there
are downtown residents that are leaving and that are moving
to Covington. I know. I've spoken to them and they
all express the same issues that I that I did.
They're leaving, We're losing a tax payer base. This problem
is we are like a deaf Com five right now,
like for deaf Com one. Right now. We have a huge,
(06:00):
huge problem that is brewing, and it's like being ignored.
It's just like it's not going to fix itself, and
it's going to get a lot better, and it's going
to get to a point where the city is going
to revert back into the early two thousands very very rapidly.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Victor Lewis, I saw videos.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
There's a woman who lives on Fourth Street that must
go nameless, who has sent me about ten to fifteen
videos of regular behavior on Fourth Street, which is ought
to be the business center of our town, and which
individuals seemingly are doing wheelies on Fourth and Maine. I've
seen the wheelies going back and forth. I've seen what
appears to be drug use on the sidewalks of Fourth Street.
(06:41):
I've seen a video that seems to indicate through some
sort of fornication happening in a car on fourth Street,
and it's like a party atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And that's Fourth Street.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
We're not talking about OTR, which you had more shootings
last night this morning. We're talking about Fourth Street.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And you lived there.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Did you watch the disintegration of Fourth Street during the
time you were there?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
It was awful. Like my parking was in, you know,
in the public parking garage in near Fountain Square, and
you it was it was scary to walk through some
of those you know, to come home at you know,
at a later hour and walk through the stairwells. There
(07:22):
were people. It all reeked of urine. There were individuals
sleeping there using drugs. And here you got to come
across in you know, a five foot wide alley or
a five foot wide hallway. It was. It was bad.
And when we reached out to the city to get
things done in and around our building, nothing was done.
I put up security cameras and watched. I watched these
(07:43):
individuals and they were the same individuals I would see
panhandling on Fountain Square in the afternoon. They would come
in like they were our neighbors, and they would go
behind our building. They would sleep there, they would use drugs.
I watched them on camera, and it's like we would
report these things. Nothing's done, things done, nothing's done. It's
just it's become untenable to these people. And I don't
(08:04):
think anybody gets it. Like they're moving out, they're not
going to move They're not coming back tomorrow. Like this
situation I think is already beyond the point of their
return and it's people need to realize that. Like now, well,
I have.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A report from Signal ninety nine, which is a police
operated unofficial channel. There was like over one hundred car
break ins in the Hyde Park area. The breaking into
windows is something that they police don't it don't even
respond to anymore. And cars that are stolen, We're gonna
have over two thousand vehicles stolen in the city of Cincinnati.
(08:41):
Imagine over two thousand vehicles stolen, about ten thousand vehicles
broken in. Massive drug use, homelessness is running rampant. Try
to go to Saint Francis Sarah, which is up on
Liberty Street and watch what happens in the in the alleyways,
open urination, fornication, defecation, the use of drugs. And I
watch police cars drive by and do nothing. And you're
(09:02):
saying you're You're like a normal person who loves Cincinnati,
who's watching this in real time on Fourth Street and
you call the police and nothing happens.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
How frustrating is that for you?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It's extremely frustrating. Do you know when I sent When
I sent that letter, not a single person from the
city Cincinnati reached out to me. Corey Bowman was the
first person to call me at nine am in the
morning after I sent out it. So there are people
that want to engage with this situation. There are people
that want to take this head on, but the current
(09:35):
leadership does not. They look at this, They look at cities,
either city Council or being the mayor of Cincinnati is
a stepping stone to the next thing, And it's like,
how quickly can I get in, make a name for
myself and get out of here. And unfortunately, we as
the citizens, are the ones that are going to bear
the repercussions of it all. It's disgusting, It's absolutely disgusting,
(09:57):
and no one's doing anything about it. It needs to
be fixed, to be fixed up immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You're taking your jobs and income to Blue Ash.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Why Blue Ash, which is a little tree that grew
under the leadership of Mayor Joe Cole.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Why Blue Ash instead of the city.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Blue Ash treated me like I was a customer and
that they were the business trying to win, or they
were the company trying to win my business. They called me,
they bugged me. It was literally one phone call said hey,
here's kind of an outline of what we can do
for you bringing you in here, resources, here, buildings that
are for lease. Here, a real estate agents you can call.
You want to talk to the mayor, here you go,
(10:33):
here's the mayor's phone number. People return to my calls
and they engage with me. And I'm not some massive
business by any means, but if a small business like
mine can get that attention, it says something, whereas the city,
we'll send somebody out who may as well be a
glorified social worker that is that's looking at this stuff
(10:53):
and has zero background and zero decision making ability, shows
up to my office wearing jeans and a jean jacket. Embarrassing.
Look at the look at last week. I mean, this
is how like little things are and how dumb our
current leadership is. When Aftab was giving his press conference,
he has his whole posse behind him there's an individual
wearing a baseball cap, Like, why don't you turn around
(11:15):
and say, hey, take your baseball cap off before I
go on uh on local news here in my press conference, Like,
it's simple things. If you had a business, would you
let somebody show up to jeans in a meeting?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Now?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
But guess what that person's supervisor probably isn't any office.
That person works from home. There's no oversight over any
of this. Simply go on the city's website and look
at the pictures they have of the people who work
for the City of Cincinnati. None of them are in
business at higher It's like they're all out in the
T shirt. It's like if this what is this? This
is the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And this is our government speaking of that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I've never met Victoria Parks, who's been around democratic politics
all of her life. She worked for how decades for
Todd up or tune and he and I assume she's
a nice lady. I've never met her. But when when
the president pro tema city council says that Holly and
others that were beaten down on Fourth Street, quote they
beg for that beatdown, I'm grateful for the whole story
(12:16):
quote unquote when city leadership said we are grateful that
Holly was beaten to within an inch of her life,
what does that say about city council?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It just shows it's not change like. It shows how
inept people are. It shows how like, even if you
thought that, why would you say that? There are things
that I think all the time that I don't say.
It's a very it's something you learned very earthly on
in life that you don't always say what's on your mind.
Why would you say that?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well, upon somber reflection, she was given two or three
days to think about it, and then she gave an
interview to Curtis Fuller a Channel five.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
She's that's exactly how I think.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Two days later, the President pro tema city council said,
they beg for the beatdown.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
What makes no sense, Like, why would you do that?
Why would it makes zero? Like? What does she have
to gain by saying that it makes no sense?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well, that's the leadership of the city.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And now the mayor is walking around with an entourage
and the OTR and talking to people along with Iris Rowlie,
who's paid one hundred and nine thousand dollars a year
to interfere with the rest and OTR acting like things
are okay. Scotty Johnson this morning at nine o'clock said
that he got angry with the idea that someone would
question whether or not Cincinnati is safe. Scotti Johnson, he's
(13:32):
I dare you to even and here here you are
a native Cincinnati want of your business to succeed. Victor
Lewis have won Logistics Network and you're you're giving him
the on the ground, the actual result.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
He's essentially calling you a liar. You don't know what
you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, and how can they determine how people in my
offices feel like I'm the one who is. I'm sitting
there with him every day. And here's the thing. It's
an owner of a company. My first and foremost duty
to my employees is to make sure they're safe. Any
business owner will tell you that you're in an environment
where they're safe. Guess what, you can't remain there, Like
(14:10):
I would love to be in the city of Cincinnati.
I would absolutely love it to be in the city,
but I can I wouldn't put my I can't have
my family down there. I can't live down there and
I can't work down there. So guess what when I
pull my jobs out, there's a tax part of the
tax base that is poof gone and it goes to
another area, and it makes it that much harder to
(14:31):
resolve the issues that are in downtown. There's go around
down go walk on Fourth Street. It's dead. There's no
one down there. Go to the restaurants in and around
Poor Street that used to be crowded as can be
for a Tuesday afternoon launch, there's no one there. Like
this is a total disaster, and unfortunately, I'm worried that
(14:56):
it's beyond repair because all time goes on, they don't
move quickly. They don't just make a decision like this overnight.
It might take them two or three years before they
can make this decision. Where's twenty of people who are
making this decision now and saying, you know what, let's
go to a more fresh the area brou you know, well,
they're going to move. It's like you can't the wheels,
(15:18):
the trains aready left the station. In a lot of
regard on that. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Lastly, Victor Lewis, I woulds say the restaurant owners I
talked to several of them, but none of them want
to come forward and actually talk on the air. And
I get that because you don't want to get sideways
with the mayor and city council and the police. But
they have their own police departments now, the big city restaurants,
and they have individuals their employees are frightened at one
o'clock in the morning to walk to the to the
(15:41):
parking lot, so they have police units ready on their dime.
Large companies in Cincinnati have their own police department. Whether
it's Fifth Third Bank or Western Southern or Kroger, they
have their own police department. And when employees of restaurants
cannot walk to their car at the end of a
shift because they're scared and then time to move, and
how many restaurants, twenty or thirty issued a missive. They
(16:04):
pounded the thesis on the doors of the cathedral in Wittenberg saying,
you know what, we can't live like this anymore. And
the Mayor's out there walking around and saying everything's great,
everything's okay. Scott to Johnson this morning, got angry at
this suggestion that the city's unsafe. And these are individuals
that have whose policies have caused the problem. This isn't
democratic republican. We've had democratic mayors now for half a
(16:26):
century and this wasn't the case until recently. Well, Victor
Lewis One Logistics Network, thanks for coming on the Bill
Cunningham Show.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
And Mellian I can say one thing, sure, I would
encourage business owners to speak out, speak out on this
and start rattling the cages and let people know you're
going to leave. It's the only way that things like
this are going to get resolved.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Well, you got the guts to come forward. Most do
not because they have to deal with the city. They
want to do it quietly. But when Kroger, they have
to have to come out.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You have to.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
It's people's responsibility to speak out against this. Business owners
need to do it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And I was told Kroger told its employees it's unsafe
stay home and that what does that do to businesses
in and around Kroger?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yes, exactly. And guess what when those individuals work from
home in the suburbs, the jobs and taxpace has already lost.
They're not paying taxes in the city of Cincinnety when
they go work from home. That's a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Victor Lewis One Logistics Network. Thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. You have cast a blazing arrow against
City Hall and hopefully they'll observe what's going on and
quit patting themselves on the back by what a great
job they've done. All right, Victor, thank you. Never mention it,
but you're a great American. Thank you, Victor. Let's continue
news coming up next to there it is. I know
(17:44):
Scotti Johnson thinks, man, things are great, things are really good.
That is not reality. Don't dislocate your shoulder patting yourself
on the back when the city is disabling itself right
before your very eyes. Bill Cunningham, seven hundred Wow.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
A lot of big sweaty men hitting other, big sweaty
men flocking, big sweaty man tackling big sweaty man thin
heading in for a big sweaty man group shower. Bengals
training camp. Listen for the latest on seven hundred wl W,
home of the best Bengals coverage.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
How are you maxed out with high interest that you
could pay it off in dason o with loan Proto's
rapid equity loan.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
He It's Eddie get cash out now without touching,
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