Aaron Weiner - For City Council

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ice chest of information. It's essential to know what's going

(00:04):
on inside KARC the talkstation.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, oh five fifty five GARCD talk station, Happy Friday Eve.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
You know what that means?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Jay Rodland at the bottomy R I heard Needy Aviation
Exist always closed the show out on a positive note
with Jay on Thursday, and I'm pleased to welcome. Timing
couldn't be better considered. We've been talking a lot about
violence in the Cincinnati. In Greater Cincinnati, Aaron Winer's joining
the program. Aaron is a member of the Clifton Community Council,
but he's also running for Cincinnati City Council as a

(00:37):
charter right erin It's great to have you on the program.
Thanks for joining the show.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Hey, thanks for having me. Good morning and morning Cincinnati, and.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I will let folks know it's a winer for Cincinnati.
W E I N E R four f O R
Cincinnati dot com. That's where you find his campaign website.
He's also on Facebook. Before we get to what you're
running on as council and what your vision, excuse me,
your vision and your priorities are for the for the
city in your role as a Clifton Community council member,
you had a bit of a problem on your hands.

(01:05):
I guess it was this past Sunday, a late night
with their calling street takeover on Ludlow Avenue. Apparently more
than eighty people crowd the street, blocking traffic, intimidating people,
and it got kind of unruly, and so much so
that my understanding is the there was a fire truck
that was trying to get out. They couldn't get the

(01:27):
fire truck out to go on a run. That's kind
of scary. This came up in your council meeting on Monday,
did it not?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Correct? So, first of all, just for the record, I'm
not on Clifton Town Meeting. I'm a member of the
Clifton Town Meeting. I'm a Clifton resident, and along Withst. Ty,
I'm not one of the officers, but i can certainly
speak to help the issue because I'm very I'm very
well informed.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Of course, you are an actively involved, concerned citizen.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
That qualifies you because concern.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
And I'm a member and I'm a member of Clifton
Town Meeting. So so essentially, let me start with some history.
So this particular business has been sort of a score
to the community for quite some time. It started in
fall of twenty three when Facebook posts have been posted

(02:17):
for after parties at this business hookah bar.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So you're talking about the Bohemian hookah cafe, correct, correct.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So it started in the fall of twenty three. They
were posting on the Facebook page after parties and they
first started indoor sort of non nondescript things, which slowly
turned into pouring into the outdoors and loud dancing and disruption,
which turned into selling alcohol and other things out of

(02:50):
the cars and just disruption. So you know, over multiple occasions,
CTM had reached out and also our business to strict
we have a Business District Association as well, has engaged
the police, has engaged city city law apartments, they have
cameras of it, they have video of it. And each

(03:14):
time that we've brought this to the attention, you know,
we can't prove anything. We can't we can't identify people,
so it's an ongoing thing. Which basically the culmination of
this was what happened over the fourth of July weekend,
which was one of these events, which was probably extra

(03:38):
escalated because it was a holiday. Eighty plus people about
three forty three thirty in the morning to four o'clock
in the morning, so July, you know, July fifth into
the sixth, and on Sunday, just the crowd in the street.
It is true. You know, we have our firehouse right

(03:58):
there on the street corner of Ludlow and Clifton, and
that was blocked that they couldn't get out. Police showed up.
They quickly realized that this is out of hand, certainly,
I know I not. Tatoes were used and pepper balls
were used, and they realized that they didn't have enough
people to actually handle it, called for backup, which was
not readily available. Imagine that. So it escalated. There were arrests,

(04:26):
there were guns, and obviously could have been a lot worse.
There was a felony assault on an officer, and this
could have been a lot worse. There could have been
a shooting. There could have who knows where that fire
truck was going. Where they going to someone's house that
was having an emergency. You know, we don't really know
that part of the story yet. So I mean, basically

(04:49):
this is just sort of a culmination and sort of
the pinnacle of what was what's been going on in
the neighborhood. For a good part of almost two years,
and I think what really sort of the is I
keep up on the news, and certainly I was out
of talent actually when this was going on. But it
was shocked that this happened Sunday and I didn't hear

(05:12):
about this. No one heard about this until Tuesday when
the news broke through through our business association CTM. You know,
why was this not brought out in the news. I mean,
this just happened in Blue Ash, which was all over
the news. Yeah, you're right, you know happened. This was
sort of swept under the rug, and you know, I
didn't even hear about it as an involved neighbor until
Tuesday when the news broke Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, we've had a real problem, at least collectively, observing
the reactions of the sincinn City Council and the mayor
to the lot of the violence that's going on. I mean,
this isn't the first gang of unruly people who've gathered
together in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the police. Silence seems
to be deafening for at least from the Mayor's office
and from the council members. So maybe this is just
a concerted effort. It's bad for business, it's bad for marketing.

(05:58):
It makes the city look bad. It makes Clifton look bad.
If we find out we got gangs of kids that
are showing up at three o'clock in the morning outside
of this hookah bar, partying in the street and waving
guns around, and maybe they just want to sleep it
under the rug. I'm left to speculate on that aerin.
But this Bohemian hookah cafe, according to Channel nine, they're
open between four pm and four am every day, that

(06:20):
is past bar closure time. They're not a they don't
have a liquor license. But don't the bars in the
in the Clifton area and your community close at two
o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
That's correct, that's correct. I mean I think some action
might even close earlier, depending on the traffic that that
they received that night.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Sure, so the Bohemian Huko cafe not having a liquor license,
but apparently drawing the attention of a bunch of people
that want to hang out there, that's how you end
up having alcohol being sold out of cars because it's
past bar open time. But if there's an opportunity to
make a little money and people are going to continue
to want to drink. That's obviously that's going to happen,
or at least seems logical that it's happening.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
It's correct, it's an attractive nuisance. Realized what it is.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
So are they going to close down? I saw that the.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Reporting indicated that the owner of the establishment's building is
trying to evict the Bohemian hooka cafe as the city
helped along those lines. Have they been identified as a
nuisance business yet?

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Is? Are we moving in that direction?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
As far as far as I know, that has not
been identified and that's not been part of that equation.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
No.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
I mean, I think certainly the landlord has has recourse
with their own process, But as far as we're the stars,
I'm concerned there really has not been much of an
effort yet through the city.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
All Right, Well, now that it's made the news eron
and it's and you obviously have been aware of it
living in the neighborhood. You've talked about the videos that
have been shown to the police in the past and all,
we can't identify who that is, but that doesn't suggest
that it isn't happening. Look, there's the crowd of people.
I know, we can't figure out who's in that crowd,
but look what's going on all the time. It seems

(08:08):
to me the natural reaction will be to post to
have a broader, larger police presence right there outside of
the hookah bar uh to keep people from congregating and
engaging in this kind of activity.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
I mean, I think that would that would probably be helpful.
I mean, and certainly in the past we have you know,
they've certainly gone, but they just say they can't they
can't prove it, they can't find, you know, what they're
doing driven by before. But again, I mean, I think
certainly if the presence would there's no substitute for an
after deterrence, and that's that's having the police presence, you know,

(08:42):
during during the situation.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
All right.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
And what is concerning about this is that maybe the
most logical and simplest solution just get a whole bunch
more officers up there to keep them from engaging in
criminal activity otherwise blocking the street to the fire department.
But as you pointed out, the police that were there
appreciated that they were overwhelmed by the numbers, were probably
afraid given the number of people there called for backup,

(09:08):
which wasn't immediately available, So we run into that problem
all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Aaron.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
The police are already working multiple overtime hours. They're short staff.
I think they're down one hundred and fifty plus. They've
got more people every day who are announcing early retirement.
I talked to the FLP president about on the program
earlier this week, and that's a frightening thing. And I
know part of your campaign plan for running for Cincny
City Council is expanding the number of officers and increasing

(09:35):
the classes, but that takes a while to accomplish. So
we're dealing with the real police shortage here is really
what this comes down to.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Correct, Correct, My understanding is we're about nine hundred and
chains and we should be about twelve hundred and chains
to sort of meet the requirements for pody of our size.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, Aaron, you want to talk about your campaign, we'll
bring you back and dive on into some of the
platform you're running on.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Aaron Winer, that's correct, Let's thank you. So let's do that. So, Pa,
let's pause.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I mean, I'm at break time, so I'll bring you
back and we'll dive on maybe a little bit more
of this, but also your platform for since a city
council lord knows we could use a refreshing change, and
Eron may very well be that guy age fifteen right now.
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(12:00):
There's a form online you can fill out. They won't
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Cover sincy dot com fifty five KRC for more information
about contests on this date eight nineteen fifty five KR
CD Talk Station Ryan Thomas with Aaron Weiner running for
Cincinna City Council. You have a choice out there. You
don't have to go with the same old, same old.

(12:21):
Doing the same thing over and over again is the
definition of stupidity if you're expecting a different result. Winer
for Cincinnati we I an E R F O R
Cincinnati dot COM's his website for his campaign, or he
can find him on Facebook at Aaron with two A's
winer for Cincinnati City Council. Aaron, what of your priorities
and I appreciate your priorities public safety and law enforcement
along the lines of what we've been talking about youth

(12:43):
violence and crime prevention. Quite often these roving gangs include
a bunch of underage young people. How they are out
in how they get away with being out at three
o'clock in the morning, That to me seems a family issue.
But we do have a curfew. And one thing I
learned from the FOP president other's on Lawenform. They don't
even bother picking them up for truancy violations because nothing

(13:04):
is ever done. There's no room at the end in
terms of locking them up overnight, and the judicial system
usually just dismisses the case outright, just no, done, We're
gonna let them go. So how do we solve that problem?
Because that's a critical leg of the criminal justice system
is punishment. It acts as a deterrence to others. They're
know they're going to get in trouble if they do something,

(13:24):
and it also punishes the person who broke the law.
If you take that out, I say, you basically destroyed
the concept of law enforcement.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
Correct, correct, So I mean I think first of all,
it starts by by saying that unfortunately, we can't parent
everyone's child. And I think it does. It does start
it in the home, and there's certainly there's certainly lots
of nuances to that that I.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Do agree with you.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I think we need we can't have law as if
we don't enforce them. I mean, truancy is an important
part of that, and I think that should be followed
up on. And it starts and it's it's there. I mean,
it's it's if you start catching things early, it prevents
things that happen later. And I think it does. It

(14:09):
does boil down to consequences. I think you know, growing up,
we learned that if if if you did act, then
why could happen? Absolutely and why why could could be
the worst case possible. So we learned that we just
didn't do that, or you know, if we got away
with it once, great, but it probably won't happen again.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
I know, just thinking of my day my late father
and mother or my mom is still with us. But yeah,
they did not abide this kind of behavior.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Period.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
If they found me that I was at at three
o'clock in the morning hanging out with a gang, uh
and maybe getting perhaps of being a victim of a
drive by shooting, trust me, there would be hell to
pay in my house.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Right absolutely. And again it's not it's not that I'm
not for I mean, I know that some of the
things that we're doing in the city or are providing
programs and so forth, and and it's not that I'm
against that. I do think, you know, certain certain programs
that are doing are good. But that's really not. That's
a social problem. That's not that's that's that's a social fix,
that's not a law enforcement fix. So while I'm for

(15:15):
some of that, it's not it's not it's not the solution.
It's certainly and certainly kids do need things to do.
We can't go to King's Island anymore under a certainty.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
So I get it.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
There's you know, there's there's things that I could have
done as a kid that maybe people can't do now.
So I totally get that. But still it does it
does boil down to if X happens, then why will
happen as well? And I do think we do need
to take take this seriously and actually have consequences. And
you know, you know, the magistrates can't just release someone

(15:48):
back if they've gone to trouble. Let's let's let's have
a plan that that does have some consequences, does take
away you know, some freedoms for a while. Yeah, and
hopefully that curbs the problem.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Another thing I see on your list of priorities, and
this is going to put a small lot of my
listeners faces. Repealing connected communities ran into this. It's as
if the city council does not care about the local
nature of the different neighborhoods that are in the city
of Cincinnati. We saw this unfold with bond Hill Hyde Park.
They first shove connected communities as a zoning concept on

(16:21):
all of the neighborhoods without consulting them and regardless of
whether or not they were interested in it, and then
offer waivers to connected developers like in Hyde Park to
go outside of connected communities and build whatever it is
these developers won. Now that's going to be at least
on the ballot this fall, and I think there's going
to be a lot of people voting in favor of that.
But you just like to repeal the whole connecting communities concept.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Correct, Well, let me start with the genesis of my campaign,
which is very much in line with what you've just said,
is that I'm sitting here right now in my office
on Hyde Park Square, and I've been my business has
been here for over twenty years, and my particular office
is part of that at the center of the controversial development.

(17:06):
And that's sort of what is what has to think
about Rene for cons Council for a long time. But
that's sort of what catapulted me into jumping into the race,
because all of a sudden, I became a stakeholder in this,
in this in this this large issue, so to get
to get back to connected communities, and obviously I'm in

(17:27):
real estate, so I'm sitting in my real estate office
I'm for development. I've been around for all the genres
of development in Cincinnati, from when they were building the
comments of the in the Central Business District to Gate
Recorder to OTR to Main Street to Walna Hill. I've
been involved in all of them. I'm for development right.

(17:48):
What I'm against are a couple things. The first thing is,
you know, we have we are a unique city of
Hill of Hills and the River. To have a one
size fits all brushstroke across the city does not make
sense to me. If you get in your car and
you drive from College Hill down the Lower Side and

(18:10):
in the Clifton and each neighborhood has different needs, So
why would we have a brushstroke across the whole city?
Is a one size fits all? You know, getting getting
back to Clifton where this where this whole incident happened,
we were talking about. You know, one of the things
we didn't talk about is there's apartment buildings all around

(18:32):
there that are getting that we're involved. There's density in Clifton.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
But my point is, My point is is that each
neighborhood has their own needs. So to just put a
brushstroke across the entire city, to me, without consideration of
the individual needs of the community, with bad legislation, which
is another reason why I wanted to use my experience
as a real tour to have these discussions bout development

(19:01):
and these touch issues and be the adult in the
room that's we're discussing them. I believe in the city
and I want to make sure that we preserve the architecture.
There's a reason why fifty movies have been filmed and
since and now you're over the last several years, over
the last many years. It's our architecture, it's our character.
You know, that's an asset we.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Need to pigs.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Aaron Wyner, speaking my language, I appreciate what you have
to say. I really strongly encourage my Cincinnati listeners to
get over to your website and learn more about what
you stand for some really good priorities here. Aaron, it's
Weiner for Cincinnati dot com erin. You're welcome on the
show and we'll talk again, hopefully between now and this
fall and the election. I wish you all the best
of luck, sir.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
My pleasure A twenty seven right now, if you I
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