John Zinsser - Save Hyde Park Square

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Time forty Channel nine, first forty one of forecast. They're
saying around noontime we get some storms showing up, possible
thunderstorms and maybe some hail. They say it's going to
be scattered. I don't know, I just read it Thotty. Otherwise,
high have seventy forty five overnight with just a few clowns,
leaving us a sunny day on Friday with the highest
sixty seven, sparse clouds overnight dropp into forty four, and

(00:25):
a dry weekend with the highest seventy one on Saturday
and partly blody skies fifty nine now typer traffics from.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
The U Scout Traffic Center. When it comes to stroke,
every second counts. That's why you See Health is the
clear choice for a wrap up wife saving treatment. Learn
more at you sehealth dot com. Northbound seventy five and
an extra five out of Arrow Linger into downtown southbound
seventy five. You'll need a couple of extra minutes in
and out of Blackland. Still no accidents on the highways

(00:53):
through where we're at About southbound two seventy five. Continued
slow between the Lawrence Burg ramp and the bridge Kingbram
fifty five KRC the talk station.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's seven point thirty here pe five KRC Talk station,
pushing Ember one, a very happy Thursday, and welcoming to
the fifty five KRC Morning Show. A man who's interested
in what's going with Hyde Park Square. Hyde Park Square
organizer Todds ins or Todd's or John. Rather, John, it's
good have you on the program this morning. Thanks for
joining the show, glad to join it. To thank you, Brian,
And I think my listening audience is quite familiar with it,

(01:26):
because I've talked about it a lot. I found it
rather insulting that Sincinni City Council refused to give into
what the residents of Hyde Park One in terms of zoning. First,
they foisted connected communities on all of the Cincinnati neighborhoods
without input from the neighborhoods. And then they offered an
opportunity for a waiver two connected communities requirements to these

(01:46):
well connected developers to put in a hotel, which obviously
is going to dominate the landscape of Hyde Park Square
because of its height, as well as the fact that
maybe it's a hotel that people don't want because of
congestion and traffic and everything else that goes along with
that development. Now do you get the sense I saw
all the signs and I knew it was well organized
campaign in favor of Hyde Park residents determining their own destiny.

(02:09):
Do you get the sense in the community that everyone's
a little bit angry about what the council did.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I think anger might be a little bit strong of
a turn. There are definitely a lot of upset people,
And I want to be clear, this isn't a Hyde
Park issue. This is a city wide issue. You mentioned
connected communities fifty two neighborhoods across the city. Of those
fourteen other communities took votes to support Hyde Park and
asked council not to do this. For other civic organizations

(02:39):
also joined in with us and said don't do this.
This isn't what should be happening. The numbers that the
Sea Council saw were off the charts like nothing else previously.
This starts all the way back in January with the
Planning Commission staff event, which was a zoom call. They
had sixty some speak sixty three sixty four speakers. Four

(03:02):
of them are for the others were a posed. They
had over seven hundred pieces of email for that event
back in January. Then we you know, fast forward, go
through all the steps, the Planning Commission meeting, then you
have the committee, the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee, then
you have finally the council vote. At every one of

(03:23):
those steps, they saw overwhelming public turnout, email, phone calling,
et cetera, and effectively a deaf ear And to me,
that's what's important right now, Safe hyde Park Square is
launched a referendum. We are working to get the petitions
that we need in order to put this on the

(03:45):
ballot in November. We need about fifteen thousand signatures in
a little under a month, so we are working hard
at that, and we are doing it citywide because this
isn't an issue just for Hyde Park. City Council isn't
listening to you regardless of where you are. And I
think most important, I think this ties in very much

(04:05):
with what I understand. You focus on a lote that
city council has literally said we're uninterested in neighborhood councils,
communitys in particular.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, and that's maybe why I characterize it as anger,
because candidly I feel anger on behalf of each of
those neighborhoods because I find it insulting you. This turns
the concept of representative government on its head.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I completely agree with you on that, and I think
certainly there are people and there are neighborhoods where the hanger,
I would say is higher and lower. I think everybody
in the Hyde Park case frustrated and perturbed about the
lack of listening. I know there's some other neighborhoods who
have had huge issues and fuel. If you want to
say anger, I just want to be careful by the
word like that.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I get it. I mean again, I don't want to
put words in your mouth or anybody else's mouth. That's
my personal feeling because again, the concept of representative government,
we elect people to speak and provide and exercise the
will of the people as opposed to what they have
on their mind or whatever direction they want to go.
This is like, we have example.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
After example of this council, this administration saying we know
better than you do and we're going to do what
we think is right. You've been touching on connected communities.
I'm no expert on that, but I have some familiarity
with it. The council, the mayor, has consistently said we

(05:32):
know what the city needs more than you. The people
know what the city needs. That's a challenge. I want
smart people lending ideas, bringing thought forward. But I know
there is a famous Japanese proverb, none of us are
as smart as all of us. And if we do
not involve the neighborhood councils, if we do not involve

(05:54):
citizen voice, we are not going to do the best
things that we can do.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
John Zinzer, let's pause, we'll bring you back. We'll talk
about the website, we'll talk about how people can get involved.
And once you to contemplate this. You know this city,
you know writ large, it's made up of all those
different neighborhoods, of fifty two neighborhoods, each of which is
its own sort of environment within the broader scope of
the city, all with different needs once and different architectural structures.

(06:22):
We're going to talk about that concept as well as
what's the next phase in this with John Zinzer again,
Save Hyde Park Square dot org seven thirty five. Right now,
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(06:43):
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(07:04):
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(07:26):
up to schedule the appointment five one three, five two
one ninety eight ninety three five one three five two
one ninety eight ninety three fifty five KRC the Ford
Oval of Honors. Channel nine first warning weather forecast I
was saying scattered showers and storms may return. It should
happen around noontime. They mentioned hail being a possibility, as
well as some areas maybe getting an inch of rain.

(07:47):
Cloudy otherwise, I have seventy forty five overnight with some
clouds decreasing, sunny skies tomorrow with high sixty seven, but
a few clouds every night down to forty four, and
the weekend's going to be dry Saturday, partly cloudy end
seventy one fifty nine. Right now, traffic time.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
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slow down now south bend seventy one between Field, Turtle
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towards Union Center, then through Wachmann and bound seventy fours,

(08:25):
an extra five minutes coming down the hill from North Bend.
John Ingramont fifty five krs deep talk station.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
To shy seven forty fifty five krcy talk station Brian
Thomas talking with John Zinzer, concerned citizen behind at least
one of them behind Save Hyde Park Square, which you
can find on line at Save Hyde Parksquare dot org.
They're circulated. Petition for a referendum has to be filed
to nullify City Council's April twenty third decision to approve

(08:54):
this plan development zone change for Hyde Park Square in
spite of the fact the high Park residents didn't want it. Oh, John,
the website is quite revealing. I don't know that I
had seen. I'm certain I hadn't seen what it is
going to look like after this development is put in.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
It is really something, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh my god?

Speaker 3 (09:11):
It's like dropping a container ship into a historical neighborhood
right way.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's crazy, great way to put it. So, you know,
in case you were thinking, oh, what's the big deal,
you should see how huge this is. It's just inside
and I got Newsray. I mean, that's a piece of
paper and that's a drawing. You know, when you stand
in front of a building, of any mass of any size.
You go, my gosh, that's a building. It's huge.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
It's big, it's not a piece of paper. If they
build that thing, the feeling in the square will be
lost forever. And it just that's what the citizens on
one level are most concerned about. This is a neighborhood.
Cincinnati has made up of fifty two neighborhoods. You were
saying this before you headed out to the break. Every

(09:56):
neighborhood has its characteristics and its special and that deserves
That's one of the things that makes Cincinnati if I
make Cincinnati, and that's why the citizens here are taking
action right now. This is not the way we should
go about development. Let's say one more thing about Hyde
Park and then when I kick it back to the
city for a moment. We are not opposed to change,

(10:21):
to growth, to advancement. We are opposed to this project.
I heard you talk in the earlier segment you returned
about connected communities. I know you have an issue around
being told what to do. Again, I'm no expert on
connected communities. This neighborhood, and no neighborhood wants to have
something dropped on it that it doesn't have a say,

(10:42):
and what's it going to look like, what's it going
to do to the traffic, What's it going to do
to our day to day rhythm. That's something every neighborhood
deserves to have a voice and a comment on, rather
than having a developer alongside some city council people who
are worked together over and over again, the ease with

(11:04):
which development can happen in Cincinnati. There's a miss out
there that we're a hard place to build something. We're
actually of the forty seven communities that were rated, we
were the forty fourth, meaning we were the third easiest
place to build something. What needs to change now? We
need to get this on the referendum. We need volunteers.
I would love people listening to us right now. Went

(11:26):
to park safehyd parksquare dot org and signed up to
become someone who would move a petition around, get some
signatures different events. Really need to talk with people in
the different parts of the city. As I said earlier,
we have multiple neighborhood councilors who are supporting us, other
civic organizations who are supporting us. But we just need

(11:46):
a lot of people to help us put this to
a referendum. Get a vote in November, and I believe
that vote could begin the process of reversing the tide.
There's been this long, steady tide of city council not
thinking that the neighborhood council's community councils got example after
example of how they are trying to depower or actually

(12:08):
do away with that. And this is a place where
the people have the chance to stand up and say,
now we get to say in this what we say
also matters. You may be smart, but you're not the
only smart person. We know some things too about where
we live and how we'd like to live. And we're
going to put this on the ballot to get that started.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, and I suppose you'll get a lot of people
in Bondhill wanting to sign on to something like this
as well, because.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
I did the actual presentation to the Bondhill group to
say will you join us? And I was overwhelmed with
how they feel what happened to them. Perfect example, even Oakley,
who's a relatively friendly to the developer community, just had
a really nice housing project scrapped for car condos. I'm

(12:58):
not opposed to having nice places to stay, but if
city Council is all about housing. How dare you make
an adjustment from something that was going to be reasonably
priced housing to something to park my Ferrari.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
In that's a good point, and it seems like that's
kind of I'm a misunderstanding. It seems inconsistent with their
desire to get rid of cars in the city of Cincinnati,
you know, turning it into a fifteen minute walking or
public transportation community, which is the green agenda folks idea
about it.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
So, and I want to be careful that one of
the advantages of Hyde Park is its walk ability. Yeah,
and that's something we'd like to preserve. That's a feel
that we want. Other communities may want to be different
in how that feels, but they need to have their
voice in order to achieve that. And that's why we're
asking people to help us to move the petition around.

(13:49):
Please go to Save Hyde Park square dot org, sign
up to volunteer, find us. We're got lots of events.
Then we had the primary on Tuesday. We were at
lots of the polling places, a lot of people signed up.
Thank you for everybody who has signed. If you did
sign the change dot org petition, that's not the same
thing over five thousand people signed that for us. It

(14:11):
was a very helpful tool. It was another thing that
city council just chose to ignore. But we need different
signatures to get this on the refer to get this
on the.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Ballot, Save Hyde parksquare dot org. And this is something
that's going to resonate with all the communities, I think
more than just the ones that have been insulted by
the decision making of Cincinni City Council, like you and
Bonn Hill, but everybody who felt me. I mean I
talked about going back to connected communities real quick. That
was foisted on all of the neighborhoods as well without

(14:41):
any of their input, in spite of the fact that
a lot of them chimed in and said, wait, wait,
where did this come from? And we don't want that,
and you didn't consult us before you foisted it upon us.
So this is going to resonate among I would think
the vast majority of Cincinnati residents. So if you are
a resident of the city of Cincinnati, that's the signature
that you need to put down on paper and go
to save High ParkScore dot com to do that, or

(15:03):
dot Orger to do.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
That hopefully agree, thank you. I can go the connected
community to piece absolutely, but you don't have to go
anywhere near that far back to find a place where
neighborhoods are not being heard, not even being responded to
by the city. On ours just own, fourteen different neighborhoods

(15:25):
sent an official letter to the city saying we took
a vote and we agree, we're standing with hyde per square.
Not one of them received a letter back saying thank
you for your letter, nothing more, not even acknowledgment. And
I can go down a list of different neighborhoods, different
instances where they are writing to the city and thing

(15:46):
we need help with this. This has happened to us,
things ranging from the recent flooding, some police issues, some
staffing issues, things that happened to an adverse outcome because
of development product at all of these things, where the
neighborhood councils have written to the city, crickets coming back nothing.

(16:07):
And that's what has to change, and that's why we
need all the help we can get with this referendum.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
It sounds like we need a change of council members
and perhaps the mayor. My idea, John, you don't have
to buy into that or not. I don't care what
your political affiliation is, but no one seems to be
being served by the elected officials who are supposed to
serve the will of the people. And I love the idea.
This is a grassroots, community based effort. I was thinking

(16:33):
along the lines that maybe you guys might propose litigation,
but that has to be fund unless there's a lawyer
out there will be doing on a pro bono basis.
But you know, you get everybody an opportunity to help out.
Chime in, put a lawn sign in their yard. And
another element of this I wasn't even aware of, which
is posted on your website Save Hyde Park Square dot org,
is that it forces out over ten independent small businesses
out of the square.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
I mean the Business Association of Hedberg Square voted against it.
They wrote a letter say we don't want to. If
they thought it was good for business, they would be
at the front of the brace saying let's do this.
They don't. And I can tell you you can walk
around Hyde Park Square right now and it feels a
little depressed because there are all these empty storefronts. That's

(17:16):
primarily not due to business conditions. Or anything. That's due
to the developer carefully phasing people out, primarily in legal means.
Primarily there is at least one lawsuit running about that
that I know of. But that is why Hyde Park
Square right now feels a little dingy, a little empty,

(17:39):
and that's really unfortunate. You can thank the developer for
those empty storefronts because they're now having to wait. They're
now having to wonder can we move ahead with this.
That's one of the reasons that we need to keep
the momentum up and get to the referendum. You mentioned
a lawsuit. That's always an option, but we do want

(17:59):
to be the grassroots group who does this the right way.
And city Council I think about one of the few
things they said that was positive was there has to
be more communication between the development and developer and the community,
and that just didn't happen. It was as quiet from
the developer as it has been from city council. They

(18:21):
listened to us a lot. I don't think they heard us,
and I know that's a subtle distinction, but it's an
important one. Right now, we as a citizens group would
like to be heard as we were not heard. We're
going to put it on the ballot. We're going to
put in a referendum, but only with help from people
who listen to your show and others who see citizen

(18:41):
voice matters. I want to be heard. I want my
neighborhood council to be heard, and the neighborhoods that's signed
on for this stretch all the way east to west.
You've got Mount Washington out east all the way to
Sailor Park in the west. I would love to have
other of the neighborhood councils also to join on with us.
More letters from that because this right now has become

(19:02):
for me. Yes, I do not want that development. I
also want city council to have to listen, to pay
attention to community councils, to neighborhood councils, and again we
have example after example of them saying we're not going
to listen anymore.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
I love the message, John. It transcends just this issue
for me personally, and I appreciate what you're doing. You
can sign up to be a circulator or a captain.
You can help out circulate a position, show up at
farmers' markets and citywide events, and have these petitions ready
for folks to sign It's easy to do, John, and
the team has made it so easy. Save Hyde Park

(19:39):
Square dot org. I wish you all the luck and
the best in the world. John, on your efforts fifteen
thousand nine.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
I really appreciate this time.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Pleasure man. If you got an update or something down
the road, you want to announce the day that you
get the sufficient signatures. You got to welcome opportunity here
in the fifty five Cars Morning Show. Good job John,
keep it up seven to fifty one, fifty five care
se the talk station. Love that effort.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Love it.

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