November 25, 2025 • 18 mins
Willie talks with Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus about the success of the St X v Elder game at Paycor Stadium on Friday.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, Billy cunning in the Great American Happy Thanksgiving to all.
In fact, tomorrow we've scheduled Western Southern CEO John Barrett
to talk about his race on Thanksgiving morning, and also
Governor Mike DeWine will be here, I think, expressing regret
about allowing gambling casino in the state of Ohio and
sports betting, and also what's happening with marijuana. But until then,
(00:30):
Denise tree House is head of the Hamley County Commissioners.
She runs the county with an iron grip. And Denise
tree House, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Denise,
how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm good? Did you just say the governor's coming down
to run the turkey trot?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Actually, John Barrett's going to invite him to run with him.
But if that happens, I want pictures of that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I do too. I'm coming down if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, let's talk about since first I want to
issue thanks to the Drea House family.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm with baited.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Breath because you know, things occur for a reason, I think,
and there were many years ago you may not recall
in the late nineteen seventies early nineteen eighties, when I
was coming into Cincinnati back from Toledo Law School. I
grew up here, but I got Toledo Law School. I
had a good time there. I wanted to come back home.
(01:27):
So I go and B Larson hires me in the
Hamlet County Public Defender's office to be an assistant public defender.
And from that I went to see Jerry Springer and
I said I wanted to get into politics. And at
that point, Jerry Springer was the mayor for the second Ideation,
and he said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll call Saco Weathy and let's see if we can
(01:50):
help you out. So I spoke to Jerry, I met
Sacho Weeathy, and from that I met Don Dreehouse, and
I met Carol Grow and I met PAMs and Dusty Rose.
In other words, those are the head Democrats in the county,
would you agree?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh yeah, the old Guard, the old Guard.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And they put me in the AG's office with Anthony J.
Celebreezy and then William Brown and I tried cases on
behalf of the age and from that I ran for
political office two times, lost each time as a Democrat.
But when I think about Thanksgiving coming up, I'm thinking
about your dad. I'm thinking about SOCCO, I'm thinking about Pam,
(02:28):
and I'm thinking about Carol. And now their daughter is
running Hamley County Commission. So I want to say thank
you to the Treehouse family. Without all that being involved,
I would not be here today.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That is a lovely sentiment. Two things, though, I do
not run the county on my own, just to be clear,
there are three of us. And the other thing I'm
treated about, what did you run for?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I ran for state representative in the House twenty six
House district and Saco says, look, if I put you
in the AG's office, we want you to run for something.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I said, Well, I live in Madeira.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm a Democrat in Madeira and at the time that
wasn't the most popular place to be and so I
ran against Helen Helen Fix. You recall a state rep
named Helen Fix. She was there for like fifteen or
twenty years. And I came up with this motto, and
the motto was the Fix is in, get the Fix out,
(03:20):
vote the man, vote Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And how did you lose that race?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I lost like seventy two to twenty eight, and.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So on that point.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Years decades go by, about five or six years ago,
you know, I had a hard Voul replaced by Carriacus
at Christ and so he changed offices on the second
floor the building there, and so I go up there
and I'm looking for Dean Carriacus's new office on the
second floor of the Christ Hospital building. And I walk
(03:57):
up to the to the administration desk. This little woman
is sitting there. She had to be in the nineties.
And I said, ma'am, can you tell me where doctor
Dean carry Outs's new offices. She looked up and said,
the fix is in, get the fix out. Both the
man Voth Cunningham and I looked it and I said, amazing,
(04:19):
I said, are you Helen, Yes, I am, he said.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
She said that had that slogan.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Go oh my gosh, that's amazing like her that, I said.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I said, this is wonderful. What have you been doing well?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I retired and then I ran for the County Commission
and I didn't do well, and so I just went
into I voluntary. I said, can I get a picture
taken with you? She said, I would love it, So
I I got, I run around the desk, put my
my phone up, got a picture of me and Helen Fix,
and sadly she died about two years later. So then
(04:54):
I get a call from Bill Site. You know Bill
Sites stay represented.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
But this is what politics does, right, It's just I
got to tell you it brings people together.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So I get a call from him.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But two or three years ago, said did you run
against Helen Fix in like nineteen seventy eight? I said, wow,
I said, how I did? She said, well, he said, well,
she died and I have to do a remembrance on
the floor of the House in Columbus about Helen Fix.
And I gave him some you know some things I did.
And and you talk about how secute his life is
(05:26):
that there's Helen Fix, the fixes in, get the Fix out,
vote the man, vote Countingham.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Think that's a pretty clever slogan. I think that's very clever.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I'm not sure it would work today, but you know,
I thought, you know, I'll play the gender card a
little bit. You know, women in seventy eight weren't exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Like today. You ladies control everything, the county cap I.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Can't condone that I mean, Lily, if you were sexispect,
then you know I can't. But here we are, here,
we are in a new day.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You're telling me. I mean, men, we had our time,
but it's over. And whenever I think about you, I
think about don I think about Socco and Pam, I
think about Dusty and anyway, let's go on to current events,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oh but listen, they were such a tight knit group
and they loved what they did. They just they were
at the Board of Elections making sure everybody got to vote,
and they just were so committed to what they were doing.
That was really those were good days for the Democrats,
and now they're better.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But you were just a little girl then, weren't you,
Like you were like five or ten years old.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, you know, when my dad ran in sixty eight,
I was five and so but I remember that campaign.
I mean, we drove around the neighborhood with a bullhorn
on the top of the station wagon and we sang
songs treehouse songs to German music. I mean, it was crazy,
and we all dressed up in red, white and blue
and took photos with styrochrome you know, hats on and
(06:54):
with the bumper stickers on the front. I mean, you know,
we love that stuff and we still love it. I
mean it's it's in our blood. And we do really
enjoy getting out and meeting people and campaigning. I mean
it's it's fun.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I like to think you're the old guard, but not really,
but not compared to getting there.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You're getting there.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I'm getting there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The Democratic Party used to be in the Veneyards, You're
now you're in the mansion House. And and now now
the Republicans. The Republicans are on your lips. Yeah, let's
talk about issues number one. What happened Friday night was
just unbelievable between you were there and I think, what
(07:37):
can we do that more often? And you know, my
running mate Rocky Boyman controls high school sports with an
iron grip. We do the games here at thirteen sixty.
If there could be some union or some understanding that
contact high school sports with as Rocky been in touch
with you about it, making this an annual event.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, I've talked to Rocky and that's the expectation is
that Friday will serve as a model for what we
can do next year in years beyond. Katie Blackburn was
down there as well, and so I've touch based with
her also and said, you know, that was just such
a great night for this community. The kids were fired up,
the adults were fired up. I mean, it was just
(08:16):
a great night. And it was terrible weather by the way,
but but boy did they put a show on with
the jumbo tron and the ticker tape with Saint X
and Elder on it. So I'm super excited that we
could get that done. And a lot of credit goes
to the Bengals for reaching out the OHSAA and making
sure that they were on board and then getting everybody
down there. Willie. It's a huge operation when you think
(08:37):
about the concessions and the parking and the security and
all the things, and all those people down there working
on that Friday night. It was just amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Why did come together so quickly? Because and I guess
why why didn't OHSA think about it ahead of time?
And why because when I spoke to you on Monday,
you and Katie got it done like Tuesday morning, right,
it was done.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It was quick, and I and credit where credits do?
You're the one that brought it to my attention, So
I'm grateful for that. And then I brought it to
Katie's attention and then we all work together to get
it done.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Well, well, I'm making a nanda.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I'm not sure Elder's ever going to be undefeated, untied,
unscored on ever again at that point, and say next
is always going to be there. But I bet there's
always going to be a GCL school. I almost bet
you that, or maybe Lakota West, Lakota East something, maybe
Cole Raine will arrive again. Unlikely, but nonetheless, thank you.
And you have more control over the stadium now than
(09:31):
you had before. Correct, after the new lease was signed.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, that's right, yeah, and it's all part of the
new lease where we said we want to use the
county asset, which belongs to the taxpayers, for more than
just football games for the Bengals, and so these high
school football games are part of it. Concerts are part
of it. You know, there's a lot that we've been
thinking through, but one other thing related to football. So
you know, I was contacted then after we got this
(09:55):
all worked out, then the folks from Anderson were contacting
my office. Let me take like a hundred an eighty
email because they wanted their game to be played at
pay Corps, and it was too late to get that done.
But we need to think next year about teams that
you know, are from all over the county, from every community,
having an opportunity to play there. And so maybe you know,
(10:16):
it's a Saturday with more than one game, the logistics
would be a little bit easier in that case. Or
you know, we got to we got to think more
broadly than just you know, I was thrilled that Division
one was there, uh and the champion, you know, the
regional championships were played there. But we're going to have
to make sure that others have an opportunity to So
I'm super excited about next year and years beyond.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Could you imagine starting like at one o'clock and having
having four games. I got a hold of Beechwood and Covcat.
They would love to play at pay Course Stadium. Let's
not forget one third of the market. I would think
one third of the business to the Bengals come from
northern Kentucky. And why not have a Kentucky game, an
Indiana game, and two Ohio games or three Ohio games
(10:59):
in one Kentucky game. Rob Sanders and that group would
love to play at pay court. And let's face the
sales tax revenues generated from Northern Kentuckians as millions of
dollars every year. They want to be invested. And that's
even though it's not direct. Would you be open to
the idea of love allowing one game to be played
by maybe Cuvkath against speech Wood something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, at this point, I'm open to all ideas, but
I to be clear, my focus, of course is going
to be a Hamilton County and making sure Hamilton County
teams get I mean, yeah it is. It is their
stadium after all. But you know, open to anything. I mean,
it could be more than one weekend. I mean, we
need to think through this and figure out what we
can do by way of Bengal schedule, concert schedules and
(11:42):
high school football games because when people think about that stadium,
they want high school football games played in that stadium
and so and we wrote it into the least for
a reason, right, and so now we're this is our
response so far, but we need to use this as
a model moving forward, and the Bengals are obviously open
to it. So it's a new day when it comes
to some of these different kind of events down the stadium.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Now, there's several big plots between pay Corps and the
Great American Ballpark that are vacant and open. I've seen
the inchoir, the city in the county go back and forth.
Can you tell us the status of those large plots
between the two stadiums that are at this point vacant
and what is your plan?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, So the Urban Design Review Committee presented to both
the county and the city last week to give us
their best ideas. And this is a group that's city,
the county or at the table the Bengals, the Red
but we have the other retailers down there weighing in
music venues, some of the retailers the Freedom Center, and
so we need to take a look at this. It
(12:46):
was our first time seeing it. So it's got a
lot of residential in it. It's got some retail, commercial,
it's got a hotel which I thought was interesting on it.
It's got a little bit of office which I'm not
sure that comes to fruition. But anyway, we've got a
plan in front of us now, and so it's exciting.
I mean, I'm anxious to get this done right, to
finish out the banks. So Lot twenty four, the biggest,
(13:09):
has the infrastructure already built. So this is the infrastructure
that lifts it out of the floodplain and creates that
parking underneath. And then we need to do similar to
the other lots that are still vacant, do that under
build and then make sure that we've got some appropriate
development on top.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What is a brand new twenty thousand seat arena fit
in that plan? Does it fit more at TQL or
does it fit more on the riverfront which already has
the infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, I have said all along that if we're going
to build a new arena, we should take advantage of
our built infrastructure, and so that is parking, and that
is other assets that belong to the taxpayers, to the public.
And so obviously the location down on the riverfront allows
for us to use all the parking that's already built
(13:58):
down there. I mean it's being used now by the arena,
so we know it can accommodate that. And I've seen
some renderings where they have taken down the old arena
and then built new on that same footprint. It moves
a little bit and expands a little bit, but it's
down in that area. And then, of course the other
two options are the space up by the Convention Center
(14:20):
that will be made available through the reconfiguration of the
Brent Spence Bridge. There's about eight acres to the west
of the Convention Center that's going to be freed up,
so that's something to think about. And then the other
location is up by FC in the west end.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And who's going to make that decision at the arena?
Because I call them the masters of the universe. On
one hand, you got John Barrett, You've got Casteline, you
got the Brown Family, you have the banks. On the
other hand, you have Carl Linder, you have the farmers,
you have Jeff Birding, you have TQL the masters of
the universe.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Are those two going to fight with each other?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, I hope not. I mean I hope that we
can come together. And then the other you know, you
left out the taxpayers. I mean, I know what you're saying,
but the public, you know, should have a say in
this too as to what they think. And then the
other piece of this, by the way, is that we
have not figured out a financial stack for this. I mean,
you know, in the end we need to have the
(15:17):
financing together. We are nowhere near having that completed. And so,
you know, while I think it's important to talk about
the sighting of a new arena, I think it's secondary
to who's going to pay for it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So if somebody with deep pockets walks up and says,
if it's seven eight hundred million, I'll put in five
hundred million. Whoever pays for the band calls the music.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Oh well, that would that would be something to think about.
That has not happened. But but you know, we we
need to bring all the partners together for sure, and
I've talked to both you know, Phil Castellini and Jeff
Birding about these locations, and so there is a desire
to do this together. And so I don't know that
(16:02):
people will be antagonistic about it. I think we need
to sort it out. But there are real positives and
negatives to all of these sites, and we need to
think it through as a community.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You know, Charlie Lucan told me at the time that
we ought to cover the Fort Washington way, we should
cover that in seventy one that would gather ten to
twenty acres.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Is that in your plan too, to put.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
A cover on the top of that, which would recover
a bunch of acreage.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah. So those are called the Fort Washington Waite Caps.
That's been on the drawing board for a while. I
remember coming here when I did in twenty seventeen, and
Fortune was talking about it back then. It's expensive, but
it has been built to do it, so all the
infrastructure is there. We just need the money to do
the caps themselves. And so in the last couple of years,
(16:50):
the Chamber of Commerce, the city, and the county have
all advocated to the federal government to say, hey, this
would be a real benefit to the businesses that are
already there, and we eate more energy down there, and
we asked them to help pay for that that I
can't remember. I think it was a Tiger Fund. I
can't remember exactly, but we did not win that bid.
(17:11):
But we continue to advocate to the Fed to help
us pay for those caps.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oh and I got JD. Vance and we have Bernie
Marina who we got John Houston. How about how about that?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, No, you know, we've we've reached out and we've
we've advocated for this. You know, it's hard, Willie, because
there's so many things going on right now that are
really exciting by way of economic development. But you know,
the one we just completed is the Convention Center, and
that was the city county collaboration. And now we've got
a headquarter hotel going in across the street to the south.
(17:42):
And I don't know if you've seen the site to
the east where the Millennium used to stand, but man,
oh man, it is amazing. The landscaping is beautiful. They've
got an ice rink down there right now, there's a
dog park, so it's going to be active year round.
But it is just amazing some of the investments that
have been made very recently by the city in the
(18:04):
county to bring economic development to this region. So you know,
we can't do it all at once because we don't
have the revenue to do that. But I do think
we're forging forward in a way that we haven't, you know,
in the last maybe decade or so, with the city
and the county in lockstep.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Anise tree house. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Maybe one day I'll be a Democrat again. With Soacco
and Pam and Carroll and Don and Jerry and Dusty Rhodes,
wouldn't that be something?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It was fun with their love for what they were
doing really translated out right, and you knew they loved
what they were doing, and we all love that they
loved doing it right. They were great for this.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Community, wonderful people.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
All right, Denise tree House, thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. We'll do it again and thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Thanks Willy, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's continue with more memories like the Corners of My mind.
A News Radio seven hundred WLW
Hi, Billy cunning in the Great American Happy Thanksgiving to all.
In fact, tomorrow we've scheduled Western Southern CEO John Barrett
to talk about his race on Thanksgiving morning, and also
Governor Mike DeWine will be here, I think, expressing regret
about allowing gambling casino in the state of Ohio and
sports betting, and also what's happening with marijuana. But until then,
(00:30):
Denise tree House is head of the Hamley County Commissioners.
She runs the county with an iron grip. And Denise
tree House, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Denise,
how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm good? Did you just say the governor's coming down
to run the turkey trot?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Actually, John Barrett's going to invite him to run with him.
But if that happens, I want pictures of that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I do too. I'm coming down if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, let's talk about since first I want to
issue thanks to the Drea House family.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm with baited.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Breath because you know, things occur for a reason, I think,
and there were many years ago you may not recall
in the late nineteen seventies early nineteen eighties, when I
was coming into Cincinnati back from Toledo Law School. I
grew up here, but I got Toledo Law School. I
had a good time there. I wanted to come back home.
(01:27):
So I go and B Larson hires me in the
Hamlet County Public Defender's office to be an assistant public defender.
And from that I went to see Jerry Springer and
I said I wanted to get into politics. And at
that point, Jerry Springer was the mayor for the second Ideation,
and he said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll call Saco Weathy and let's see if we can
(01:50):
help you out. So I spoke to Jerry, I met
Sacho Weeathy, and from that I met Don Dreehouse, and
I met Carol Grow and I met PAMs and Dusty Rose.
In other words, those are the head Democrats in the county,
would you agree?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh yeah, the old Guard, the old Guard.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And they put me in the AG's office with Anthony J.
Celebreezy and then William Brown and I tried cases on
behalf of the age and from that I ran for
political office two times, lost each time as a Democrat.
But when I think about Thanksgiving coming up, I'm thinking
about your dad. I'm thinking about SOCCO, I'm thinking about Pam,
(02:28):
and I'm thinking about Carol. And now their daughter is
running Hamley County Commission. So I want to say thank
you to the Treehouse family. Without all that being involved,
I would not be here today.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That is a lovely sentiment. Two things, though, I do
not run the county on my own, just to be clear,
there are three of us. And the other thing I'm
treated about, what did you run for?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I ran for state representative in the House twenty six
House district and Saco says, look, if I put you
in the AG's office, we want you to run for something.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I said, Well, I live in Madeira.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm a Democrat in Madeira and at the time that
wasn't the most popular place to be and so I
ran against Helen Helen Fix. You recall a state rep
named Helen Fix. She was there for like fifteen or
twenty years. And I came up with this motto, and
the motto was the Fix is in, get the Fix out,
(03:20):
vote the man, vote Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And how did you lose that race?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I lost like seventy two to twenty eight, and.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So on that point.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Years decades go by, about five or six years ago,
you know, I had a hard Voul replaced by Carriacus
at Christ and so he changed offices on the second
floor the building there, and so I go up there
and I'm looking for Dean Carriacus's new office on the
second floor of the Christ Hospital building. And I walk
(03:57):
up to the to the administration desk. This little woman
is sitting there. She had to be in the nineties.
And I said, ma'am, can you tell me where doctor
Dean carry Outs's new offices. She looked up and said,
the fix is in, get the fix out. Both the
man Voth Cunningham and I looked it and I said, amazing,
(04:19):
I said, are you Helen, Yes, I am, he said.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
She said that had that slogan.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Go oh my gosh, that's amazing like her that, I said.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I said, this is wonderful. What have you been doing well?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I retired and then I ran for the County Commission
and I didn't do well, and so I just went
into I voluntary. I said, can I get a picture
taken with you? She said, I would love it, So
I I got, I run around the desk, put my
my phone up, got a picture of me and Helen Fix,
and sadly she died about two years later. So then
(04:54):
I get a call from Bill Site. You know Bill
Sites stay represented.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
But this is what politics does, right, It's just I
got to tell you it brings people together.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So I get a call from him.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But two or three years ago, said did you run
against Helen Fix in like nineteen seventy eight? I said, wow,
I said, how I did? She said, well, he said, well,
she died and I have to do a remembrance on
the floor of the House in Columbus about Helen Fix.
And I gave him some you know some things I did.
And and you talk about how secute his life is
(05:26):
that there's Helen Fix, the fixes in, get the Fix out,
vote the man, vote Countingham.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Think that's a pretty clever slogan. I think that's very clever.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I'm not sure it would work today, but you know,
I thought, you know, I'll play the gender card a
little bit. You know, women in seventy eight weren't exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Like today. You ladies control everything, the county cap I.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Can't condone that I mean, Lily, if you were sexispect,
then you know I can't. But here we are, here,
we are in a new day.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You're telling me. I mean, men, we had our time,
but it's over. And whenever I think about you, I
think about don I think about Socco and Pam, I
think about Dusty and anyway, let's go on to current events,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oh but listen, they were such a tight knit group
and they loved what they did. They just they were
at the Board of Elections making sure everybody got to vote,
and they just were so committed to what they were doing.
That was really those were good days for the Democrats,
and now they're better.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But you were just a little girl then, weren't you,
Like you were like five or ten years old.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, you know, when my dad ran in sixty eight,
I was five and so but I remember that campaign.
I mean, we drove around the neighborhood with a bullhorn
on the top of the station wagon and we sang
songs treehouse songs to German music. I mean, it was crazy,
and we all dressed up in red, white and blue
and took photos with styrochrome you know, hats on and
(06:54):
with the bumper stickers on the front. I mean, you know,
we love that stuff and we still love it. I
mean it's it's in our blood. And we do really
enjoy getting out and meeting people and campaigning. I mean
it's it's fun.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I like to think you're the old guard, but not really,
but not compared to getting there.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You're getting there.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I'm getting there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The Democratic Party used to be in the Veneyards, You're
now you're in the mansion House. And and now now
the Republicans. The Republicans are on your lips. Yeah, let's
talk about issues number one. What happened Friday night was
just unbelievable between you were there and I think, what
(07:37):
can we do that more often? And you know, my
running mate Rocky Boyman controls high school sports with an
iron grip. We do the games here at thirteen sixty.
If there could be some union or some understanding that
contact high school sports with as Rocky been in touch
with you about it, making this an annual event.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, I've talked to Rocky and that's the expectation is
that Friday will serve as a model for what we
can do next year in years beyond. Katie Blackburn was
down there as well, and so I've touch based with
her also and said, you know, that was just such
a great night for this community. The kids were fired up,
the adults were fired up. I mean, it was just
(08:16):
a great night. And it was terrible weather by the way,
but but boy did they put a show on with
the jumbo tron and the ticker tape with Saint X
and Elder on it. So I'm super excited that we
could get that done. And a lot of credit goes
to the Bengals for reaching out the OHSAA and making
sure that they were on board and then getting everybody
down there. Willie. It's a huge operation when you think
(08:37):
about the concessions and the parking and the security and
all the things, and all those people down there working
on that Friday night. It was just amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Why did come together so quickly? Because and I guess
why why didn't OHSA think about it ahead of time?
And why because when I spoke to you on Monday,
you and Katie got it done like Tuesday morning, right,
it was done.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It was quick, and I and credit where credits do?
You're the one that brought it to my attention, So
I'm grateful for that. And then I brought it to
Katie's attention and then we all work together to get
it done.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Well, well, I'm making a nanda.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I'm not sure Elder's ever going to be undefeated, untied,
unscored on ever again at that point, and say next
is always going to be there. But I bet there's
always going to be a GCL school. I almost bet
you that, or maybe Lakota West, Lakota East something, maybe
Cole Raine will arrive again. Unlikely, but nonetheless, thank you.
And you have more control over the stadium now than
(09:31):
you had before. Correct, after the new lease was signed.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, that's right, yeah, and it's all part of the
new lease where we said we want to use the
county asset, which belongs to the taxpayers, for more than
just football games for the Bengals, and so these high
school football games are part of it. Concerts are part
of it. You know, there's a lot that we've been
thinking through, but one other thing related to football. So
you know, I was contacted then after we got this
(09:55):
all worked out, then the folks from Anderson were contacting
my office. Let me take like a hundred an eighty
email because they wanted their game to be played at
pay Corps, and it was too late to get that done.
But we need to think next year about teams that
you know, are from all over the county, from every community,
having an opportunity to play there. And so maybe you know,
(10:16):
it's a Saturday with more than one game, the logistics
would be a little bit easier in that case. Or
you know, we got to we got to think more
broadly than just you know, I was thrilled that Division
one was there, uh and the champion, you know, the
regional championships were played there. But we're going to have
to make sure that others have an opportunity to So
I'm super excited about next year and years beyond.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Could you imagine starting like at one o'clock and having
having four games. I got a hold of Beechwood and Covcat.
They would love to play at pay Course Stadium. Let's
not forget one third of the market. I would think
one third of the business to the Bengals come from
northern Kentucky. And why not have a Kentucky game, an
Indiana game, and two Ohio games or three Ohio games
(10:59):
in one Kentucky game. Rob Sanders and that group would
love to play at pay court. And let's face the
sales tax revenues generated from Northern Kentuckians as millions of
dollars every year. They want to be invested. And that's
even though it's not direct. Would you be open to
the idea of love allowing one game to be played
by maybe Cuvkath against speech Wood something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, at this point, I'm open to all ideas, but
I to be clear, my focus, of course is going
to be a Hamilton County and making sure Hamilton County
teams get I mean, yeah it is. It is their
stadium after all. But you know, open to anything. I mean,
it could be more than one weekend. I mean, we
need to think through this and figure out what we
can do by way of Bengal schedule, concert schedules and
(11:42):
high school football games because when people think about that stadium,
they want high school football games played in that stadium
and so and we wrote it into the least for
a reason, right, and so now we're this is our
response so far, but we need to use this as
a model moving forward, and the Bengals are obviously open
to it. So it's a new day when it comes
to some of these different kind of events down the stadium.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Now, there's several big plots between pay Corps and the
Great American Ballpark that are vacant and open. I've seen
the inchoir, the city in the county go back and forth.
Can you tell us the status of those large plots
between the two stadiums that are at this point vacant
and what is your plan?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, So the Urban Design Review Committee presented to both
the county and the city last week to give us
their best ideas. And this is a group that's city,
the county or at the table the Bengals, the Red
but we have the other retailers down there weighing in
music venues, some of the retailers the Freedom Center, and
so we need to take a look at this. It
(12:46):
was our first time seeing it. So it's got a
lot of residential in it. It's got some retail, commercial,
it's got a hotel which I thought was interesting on it.
It's got a little bit of office which I'm not
sure that comes to fruition. But anyway, we've got a
plan in front of us now, and so it's exciting.
I mean, I'm anxious to get this done right, to
finish out the banks. So Lot twenty four, the biggest,
(13:09):
has the infrastructure already built. So this is the infrastructure
that lifts it out of the floodplain and creates that
parking underneath. And then we need to do similar to
the other lots that are still vacant, do that under
build and then make sure that we've got some appropriate
development on top.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What is a brand new twenty thousand seat arena fit
in that plan? Does it fit more at TQL or
does it fit more on the riverfront which already has
the infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well, I have said all along that if we're going
to build a new arena, we should take advantage of
our built infrastructure, and so that is parking, and that
is other assets that belong to the taxpayers, to the public.
And so obviously the location down on the riverfront allows
for us to use all the parking that's already built
(13:58):
down there. I mean it's being used now by the arena,
so we know it can accommodate that. And I've seen
some renderings where they have taken down the old arena
and then built new on that same footprint. It moves
a little bit and expands a little bit, but it's
down in that area. And then, of course the other
two options are the space up by the Convention Center
(14:20):
that will be made available through the reconfiguration of the
Brent Spence Bridge. There's about eight acres to the west
of the Convention Center that's going to be freed up,
so that's something to think about. And then the other
location is up by FC in the west end.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And who's going to make that decision at the arena?
Because I call them the masters of the universe. On
one hand, you got John Barrett, You've got Casteline, you
got the Brown Family, you have the banks. On the
other hand, you have Carl Linder, you have the farmers,
you have Jeff Birding, you have TQL the masters of
the universe.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Are those two going to fight with each other?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, I hope not. I mean I hope that we
can come together. And then the other you know, you
left out the taxpayers. I mean, I know what you're saying,
but the public, you know, should have a say in
this too as to what they think. And then the
other piece of this, by the way, is that we
have not figured out a financial stack for this. I mean,
you know, in the end we need to have the
(15:17):
financing together. We are nowhere near having that completed. And so,
you know, while I think it's important to talk about
the sighting of a new arena, I think it's secondary
to who's going to pay for it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
So if somebody with deep pockets walks up and says,
if it's seven eight hundred million, I'll put in five
hundred million. Whoever pays for the band calls the music.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Oh well, that would that would be something to think about.
That has not happened. But but you know, we we
need to bring all the partners together for sure, and
I've talked to both you know, Phil Castellini and Jeff
Birding about these locations, and so there is a desire
to do this together. And so I don't know that
(16:02):
people will be antagonistic about it. I think we need
to sort it out. But there are real positives and
negatives to all of these sites, and we need to
think it through as a community.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You know, Charlie Lucan told me at the time that
we ought to cover the Fort Washington way, we should
cover that in seventy one that would gather ten to
twenty acres.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Is that in your plan too, to put.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
A cover on the top of that, which would recover
a bunch of acreage.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah. So those are called the Fort Washington Waite Caps.
That's been on the drawing board for a while. I
remember coming here when I did in twenty seventeen, and
Fortune was talking about it back then. It's expensive, but
it has been built to do it, so all the
infrastructure is there. We just need the money to do
the caps themselves. And so in the last couple of years,
(16:50):
the Chamber of Commerce, the city, and the county have
all advocated to the federal government to say, hey, this
would be a real benefit to the businesses that are
already there, and we eate more energy down there, and
we asked them to help pay for that that I
can't remember. I think it was a Tiger Fund. I
can't remember exactly, but we did not win that bid.
(17:11):
But we continue to advocate to the Fed to help
us pay for those caps.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oh and I got JD. Vance and we have Bernie
Marina who we got John Houston. How about how about that?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, No, you know, we've we've reached out and we've
we've advocated for this. You know, it's hard, Willie, because
there's so many things going on right now that are
really exciting by way of economic development. But you know,
the one we just completed is the Convention Center, and
that was the city county collaboration. And now we've got
a headquarter hotel going in across the street to the south.
(17:42):
And I don't know if you've seen the site to
the east where the Millennium used to stand, but man,
oh man, it is amazing. The landscaping is beautiful. They've
got an ice rink down there right now, there's a
dog park, so it's going to be active year round.
But it is just amazing some of the investments that
have been made very recently by the city in the
(18:04):
county to bring economic development to this region. So you know,
we can't do it all at once because we don't
have the revenue to do that. But I do think
we're forging forward in a way that we haven't, you know,
in the last maybe decade or so, with the city
and the county in lockstep.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Anise tree house. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Maybe one day I'll be a Democrat again. With Soacco
and Pam and Carroll and Don and Jerry and Dusty Rhodes,
wouldn't that be something?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It was fun with their love for what they were
doing really translated out right, and you knew they loved
what they were doing, and we all love that they
loved doing it right. They were great for this.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Community, wonderful people.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
All right, Denise tree House, thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. We'll do it again and thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Thanks Willy, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's continue with more memories like the Corners of My mind.
A News Radio seven hundred WLW
Bill Cunningham News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.