Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's seven oh six here at about gar City Talk Station, right.
Ain't even a happy one till you. Brian Thomas always
happy to talk to Todd's Zenzer, and we're gonna be
doing that. You also gonna be hearing him tonight if
you can log into empower Youoamerica dot org from the
comfort of your own home or show up at two
twenty five North on Boulevard. We spoke earlier in the
week already with on early Cincinnati history, the topic of
(00:34):
Jeff Cease's discussion tonight that's at seven o'clock, but also
on the plate for the Empower Youth Seminar Todd Zenzer.
He is a brilliant guy, retired Inspector General of the US
Department of Commerce and spent thirty one years conducting audits
and investigation of federal officials programs and operations. So he's
got some really special skills and talents in terms of
(00:56):
legislation and think and issues that affect the city and
the county General or tonight as well as right now,
he's going to give us a little information about the
Connected Community Cincinnati Connected Communities Plan. Todd, Welcome back to
the morning show. My friend always good having you on
the show.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Good morning, Brian, How are you.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm doing fine, doing fine. Good CINCINNTI Connected Communities, the
City Council. Where are we on this before we get
to details, because some of my listeners are being like,
what Cincinnati Connected Community is all about? Did they vote
on it yet? Is it a foregone conclusion? Is it
done for the city of Cincinnati, or is there still
more chatter and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, there's still chattering talk about it, but yeah, back
in June, the city Council enacted an ordinance that rezoned
the significant part of the city as part of this
plan to increase density in the city. So what they
did is they've identified a number of corridors transit corridors
(01:55):
in the city, seven of them, and along those corridors,
they've identified fifth neighborhood business districts, and so they've eliminated
single family housing zones either a quarter mile or a
half mile around those neighborhood business districts. So, if you
live within a quarter mile or a half mile of
(02:17):
these corridors and business districts, and you used to have
single family zoning, now it's middle housing. So, for example,
if you have a if you're in a single family
home and a neighborhood that was zoned single family and
you're near one of these business districts, you have a
vacant lot next door. Under this new ordinance, a developer
(02:41):
can come in build an apartment building up to a
four unit or larger, sometimes right next door. They've eliminated
the minimum parking requirement, so whoever moves into those apartments
park on the street. And it's really this takeover of
single family homes in the city. And they're certainly chatter
(03:07):
on our part trying to challenge this, and we've got
some actions going on, and then what a pass ordinance.
There were three members of city Council who voted against it,
including the Vice mayor. And what she has done is
(03:28):
she's basically acknowledged that there are problems with this ordinance
and now she has a big task force engaging the
community and a number of different subcommittees that she's formed.
And it's really taken on the form of the type
of community engagement that should have been done with connected
communities in the first place. Oh so we'll see if
(03:51):
anything happens with that, but there is still a lot
going on.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, okay, Now, let me just paint a worst case
scenario type a situation. Now, you know, look over to
New York and yes, the mayor is under indictment there
under and we don't know if it has anything to
do with the illegal immigrant situation. We're going to find
out today. But hotels, really beautiful four star hotels that
were once profitable, enter COVID nineteen. They're empty. Enter an
(04:17):
influx of tens of thousands of new illegal immigrants, and
a city willing to pay the full room rate to
the hotel owner to house illegal immigrants on the taxpayer dollars.
Of course, the owner of the hotel's like, fine, I'm
getting one hundred percent of the room rental rate. I'm happy,
I'm making. I have profit now where I had none before.
Is it possible that for that scenario to unfold any
(04:39):
new let's say, six unit dwelling in an otherwise single
family residential neighborhood. They build it, and then all we've
got an illegal immigrant problem. Let's just pay the owners
of that building the house illegal immigrants. He gets his
profit or she gets our profit, and we found a
place for them to stay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, that's the thing Brian. Under this ordinance, again, in
these areas, it's kind of like the wild West. You
really don't know what's going to happen, who's going to
come in, who's going to build, what, what type of
tenants these rental units are going to have. It. It's
really a lot of uncertainty on the part of the
citizens that have purchased these homes or have that own
(05:19):
these properties, and that's one of the big problems with it.
They've experimented citywide, painted the whole city with a broad
brush rather than going neighborhood by neighborhood, and we just
don't really know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, that's something you brought up previously on this issue
that some communities wanted to adopt this, but the city
is divided up into multiple different communities and some wanted
to reject it. The city is just imposing this on
everyone without their saying it, and that of course can
rub people the wrong way. Most notably in a situation
where these hypotheticals come up and we don't have any
(05:54):
answers to how it would ultimately play out, I think
I'd be a little perturbed with my life. Officials many
answers the question todd z Ins are on why they
won't have more open discussion on this. They don't want
to face these questions.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No, they don't want to face these questions. And the
way it looks, Brian, is that more and more as
we look into this, there is definitely a straight line
between the National Democrat Party and what's going on here
and the whole issue of Agenda twenty thirty that the
(06:27):
UN put out. And people don't really have time to
look into all all of these things. But you've got
this Agenda twenty thirty that the UN has put out,
You've got the Great Reset by the World Economic Forum,
and within those different global plans they talk about sustainable
(06:51):
cities and communities, and this is the type of things
that are promoted or provided for in connected communities. It
has an element of the Green New Deal in there.
They have the whole idea of equity and all of
these things that are promulgated in these UN and World
(07:12):
Economic Forum programs or agendas. And you know it's right here,
It's right here in Cincinnati. This is the way it happens.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
This connected communities concept has been rolled out in other
areas in the country.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh absolutely, this is going on all over the country.
What we've done is we've traced it back to a
group called the Urban Land Institute, which one of these
global nonprofits that goes in and influences local communities on
various issues, including housing. And they came in with a
(07:51):
technical advisory panel back in twenty twenty one, maybe even
earlier than that, and in June of twenty one, they
issued a report to the city and if you look
at this, and it had to deal with developmental transportation corridors.
If you look at that report, it's recked. The things
that it recommends in that report you will find in
(08:15):
connected communities. It's like a blueprint for connected communities. But
yet they want to tell the citizens of Cincinnati that
this is all bottoms up. We went to the community
and asked, you know, for their input and things like that.
That was all a charade. They had this plan, you know,
hatched in June of twenty twenty one, and then they
(08:36):
just brought it forward, including rejecting the density ordinance that
Liz Keating put forward that they voted down in twenty
twenty two to make room for this new plan.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, well, constituents be damned. I guess is what this
boils down to. I'm going to do whatever the hell
they want. And now, in rolling this out in other cities,
has it had any effect? I mean, did it bring
about the intended result, which is a higher concentration and
higher density population.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
No, this is like I said, this is going on
over all over the country, and the city that they
hold up as a model is Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, this
is I don't know, probably four or five years ago,
they eliminated all single family housing across the city. And yes,
(09:29):
they're housing availability has increased, but when you look at
how that's happened, it's increased because they've had a substantial
increase in twenty unit developments, apartment buildings with twenty units,
not the four unit issue, not the four unit apartment
(09:49):
buildings that connected communities is talking about. And that's the
only way, and it's the only city that has any
result like that, And you can find cities like Chicago,
for example, where it is they've tried it for ten years.
It has very limited benefits. So it's it's unproven, and
(10:12):
we kept trying to say that to the city council,
but obviously sell on deaf ears.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Well, you don't fall on deaf ears. Todd Zen's are
you going to be speaking tonight? Empower you America dot org?
Are you going to speak after Jeff? Orre you going
to be speaking in front of Jeff? What time is
your appointed slot?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think I'm the opening act at seven.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Seven pm, So log in and from the comfort of
your own home or head on up to two twenty
five North and Boulevard if it's convenient for you to
do so and see it live. Jeff sees the historian,
calmness and author who's going to talk about the city
of Cincinnati and it's history, and then of course beginning
with Todd zens or breaking down SINCINNTI connected communities. Todd,
I cannot thank you for your tireless enough, for your
(10:52):
tireless efforts on this one and spreading the information to
people who otherwise wouldn't even know about it, because well,
our elected officials don't want them to know about it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That's right, that's right, and it's part of this one
party government here we have here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
We have an opportunity to reject that in a couple
of weeks here, folks, in November is election day. Thanks Todd.
We'll look forward to the presentation tonight. Put it down
your calendar, folks. Empower Youamerica dot org. We'll talk against soon.
Todd seven to seventeen fifty five KC detalk station. Plum
type plumbing, it's always plumbing done right. To live by
the model plumbing done right, and it will be I've
seen it happen in my very own home and a
(11:29):
lot of different projects and you know, emergency services. I
like to cite my most recent example of experience with
plum type plumbing. My wife let me know that the
backflow valve on our irrigation system was spraying out water.
Turns out it was the PBC pipe. But found that
out on a Sunday. I went out and took a
look at it, and that note, I'm not touching this.
Even though I can manage some small plumbing projects, this
(11:51):
is second going to have to be a replacement of
some parts, and I didn't want to get into that.
I wanted a licensed plumber to deal with it. So
I got online plumtight dot com, set up my appointment
and within five minutes they call me up. It's like,
you know, want to know if it was an emergency
and then you get somebody right out there. It's like, no, no,
just a regular appointment. I've got the water shut off,
so that's easy to schedule your appointment. Twenty four hour
(12:11):
day is seven day a week, four emergencies, but scheduling
is no problem. They're gonna let you know when they're
on their way, like they do every single time, giving
you a phone call like I'm twenty minutes out based
on the GPS, I'll be there shortly. They are an
A plus with a better business fere and they do
any type of residential plumbing need whatever happens to be
drain cleaning your backflow valves, spewing out water, pressure issues
(12:36):
in your home. They are masters of their trade. The
plumbers are proudly serving everywhere from northern Kentucky all the
way up to Dayton the surrounding area. Plum Tight, ti
TE plum Tight dot com five one three seven two
seven eighty four eighty three. That's five one three seven
two seven tight.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
This is fifty five KRC an iHeartRadio station. If you
It's seven oh six here at about gar City Talk Station, right.
Ain't even a happy one till you. Brian Thomas always
happy to talk to Todd's Zenzer, and we're gonna be
doing that. You also gonna be hearing him tonight if
you can log into empower Youoamerica dot org from the
comfort of your own home or show up at two
twenty five North on Boulevard. We spoke earlier in the
week already with on early Cincinnati history, the topic of
(00:34):
Jeff Cease's discussion tonight that's at seven o'clock, but also
on the plate for the Empower Youth Seminar Todd Zenzer.
He is a brilliant guy, retired Inspector General of the US
Department of Commerce and spent thirty one years conducting audits
and investigation of federal officials programs and operations. So he's
got some really special skills and talents in terms of
(00:56):
legislation and think and issues that affect the city and
the county General or tonight as well as right now,
he's going to give us a little information about the
Connected Community Cincinnati Connected Communities Plan. Todd, Welcome back to
the morning show. My friend always good having you on
the show.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Good morning, Brian, How are you.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm doing fine, doing fine. Good CINCINNTI Connected Communities, the
City Council. Where are we on this before we get
to details, because some of my listeners are being like,
what Cincinnati Connected Community is all about? Did they vote
on it yet? Is it a foregone conclusion? Is it
done for the city of Cincinnati, or is there still
more chatter and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, there's still chattering talk about it, but yeah, back
in June, the city Council enacted an ordinance that rezoned
the significant part of the city as part of this
plan to increase density in the city. So what they
did is they've identified a number of corridors transit corridors
(01:55):
in the city, seven of them, and along those corridors,
they've identified fifth neighborhood business districts, and so they've eliminated
single family housing zones either a quarter mile or a
half mile around those neighborhood business districts. So, if you
live within a quarter mile or a half mile of
(02:17):
these corridors and business districts, and you used to have
single family zoning, now it's middle housing. So, for example,
if you have a if you're in a single family
home and a neighborhood that was zoned single family and
you're near one of these business districts, you have a
vacant lot next door. Under this new ordinance, a developer
(02:41):
can come in build an apartment building up to a
four unit or larger, sometimes right next door. They've eliminated
the minimum parking requirement, so whoever moves into those apartments
park on the street. And it's really this takeover of
single family homes in the city. And they're certainly chatter
(03:07):
on our part trying to challenge this, and we've got
some actions going on, and then what a pass ordinance.
There were three members of city Council who voted against it,
including the Vice mayor. And what she has done is
(03:28):
she's basically acknowledged that there are problems with this ordinance
and now she has a big task force engaging the
community and a number of different subcommittees that she's formed.
And it's really taken on the form of the type
of community engagement that should have been done with connected
communities in the first place. Oh so we'll see if
(03:51):
anything happens with that, but there is still a lot
going on.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, okay, Now, let me just paint a worst case
scenario type a situation. Now, you know, look over to
New York and yes, the mayor is under indictment there
under and we don't know if it has anything to
do with the illegal immigrant situation. We're going to find
out today. But hotels, really beautiful four star hotels that
were once profitable, enter COVID nineteen. They're empty. Enter an
(04:17):
influx of tens of thousands of new illegal immigrants, and
a city willing to pay the full room rate to
the hotel owner to house illegal immigrants on the taxpayer dollars.
Of course, the owner of the hotel's like, fine, I'm
getting one hundred percent of the room rental rate. I'm happy,
I'm making. I have profit now where I had none before.
Is it possible that for that scenario to unfold any
(04:39):
new let's say, six unit dwelling in an otherwise single
family residential neighborhood. They build it, and then all we've
got an illegal immigrant problem. Let's just pay the owners
of that building the house illegal immigrants. He gets his
profit or she gets our profit, and we found a
place for them to stay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, that's the thing Brian. Under this ordinance, again, in
these areas, it's kind of like the wild West. You
really don't know what's going to happen, who's going to
come in, who's going to build, what, what type of
tenants these rental units are going to have. It. It's
really a lot of uncertainty on the part of the
citizens that have purchased these homes or have that own
(05:19):
these properties, and that's one of the big problems with it.
They've experimented citywide, painted the whole city with a broad
brush rather than going neighborhood by neighborhood, and we just
don't really know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, that's something you brought up previously on this issue
that some communities wanted to adopt this, but the city
is divided up into multiple different communities and some wanted
to reject it. The city is just imposing this on
everyone without their saying it, and that of course can
rub people the wrong way. Most notably in a situation
where these hypotheticals come up and we don't have any
(05:54):
answers to how it would ultimately play out, I think
I'd be a little perturbed with my life. Officials many
answers the question todd z Ins are on why they
won't have more open discussion on this. They don't want
to face these questions.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No, they don't want to face these questions. And the
way it looks, Brian, is that more and more as
we look into this, there is definitely a straight line
between the National Democrat Party and what's going on here
and the whole issue of Agenda twenty thirty that the
(06:27):
UN put out. And people don't really have time to
look into all all of these things. But you've got
this Agenda twenty thirty that the UN has put out,
You've got the Great Reset by the World Economic Forum,
and within those different global plans they talk about sustainable
(06:51):
cities and communities, and this is the type of things
that are promoted or provided for in connected communities. It
has an element of the Green New Deal in there.
They have the whole idea of equity and all of
these things that are promulgated in these UN and World
(07:12):
Economic Forum programs or agendas. And you know it's right here,
It's right here in Cincinnati. This is the way it happens.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
This connected communities concept has been rolled out in other
areas in the country.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh absolutely, this is going on all over the country.
What we've done is we've traced it back to a
group called the Urban Land Institute, which one of these
global nonprofits that goes in and influences local communities on
various issues, including housing. And they came in with a
(07:51):
technical advisory panel back in twenty twenty one, maybe even
earlier than that, and in June of twenty one, they
issued a report to the city and if you look
at this, and it had to deal with developmental transportation corridors.
If you look at that report, it's recked. The things
that it recommends in that report you will find in
(08:15):
connected communities. It's like a blueprint for connected communities. But
yet they want to tell the citizens of Cincinnati that
this is all bottoms up. We went to the community
and asked, you know, for their input and things like that.
That was all a charade. They had this plan, you know,
hatched in June of twenty twenty one, and then they
(08:36):
just brought it forward, including rejecting the density ordinance that
Liz Keating put forward that they voted down in twenty
twenty two to make room for this new plan.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, well, constituents be damned. I guess is what this
boils down to. I'm going to do whatever the hell
they want. And now, in rolling this out in other cities,
has it had any effect? I mean, did it bring
about the intended result, which is a higher concentration and
higher density population.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
No, this is like I said, this is going on
over all over the country, and the city that they
hold up as a model is Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, this
is I don't know, probably four or five years ago,
they eliminated all single family housing across the city. And yes,
(09:29):
they're housing availability has increased, but when you look at
how that's happened, it's increased because they've had a substantial
increase in twenty unit developments, apartment buildings with twenty units,
not the four unit issue, not the four unit apartment
(09:49):
buildings that connected communities is talking about. And that's the
only way, and it's the only city that has any
result like that, And you can find cities like Chicago,
for example, where it is they've tried it for ten years.
It has very limited benefits. So it's it's unproven, and
(10:12):
we kept trying to say that to the city council,
but obviously sell on deaf ears.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Well, you don't fall on deaf ears. Todd Zen's are
you going to be speaking tonight? Empower you America dot org?
Are you going to speak after Jeff? Orre you going
to be speaking in front of Jeff? What time is
your appointed slot?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think I'm the opening act at seven.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Seven pm, So log in and from the comfort of
your own home or head on up to two twenty
five North and Boulevard if it's convenient for you to
do so and see it live. Jeff sees the historian,
calmness and author who's going to talk about the city
of Cincinnati and it's history, and then of course beginning
with Todd zens or breaking down SINCINNTI connected communities. Todd,
I cannot thank you for your tireless enough, for your
(10:52):
tireless efforts on this one and spreading the information to
people who otherwise wouldn't even know about it, because well,
our elected officials don't want them to know about it.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That's right, that's right, and it's part of this one
party government here we have here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
We have an opportunity to reject that in a couple
of weeks here, folks, in November is election day. Thanks Todd.
We'll look forward to the presentation tonight. Put it down
your calendar, folks. Empower Youamerica dot org. We'll talk against soon.
Todd seven to seventeen fifty five KC detalk station. Plum
type plumbing, it's always plumbing done right. To live by
the model plumbing done right, and it will be I've
seen it happen in my very own home and a
(11:29):
lot of different projects and you know, emergency services. I
like to cite my most recent example of experience with
plum type plumbing. My wife let me know that the
backflow valve on our irrigation system was spraying out water.
Turns out it was the PBC pipe. But found that
out on a Sunday. I went out and took a
look at it, and that note, I'm not touching this.
Even though I can manage some small plumbing projects, this
(11:51):
is second going to have to be a replacement of
some parts, and I didn't want to get into that.
I wanted a licensed plumber to deal with it. So
I got online plumtight dot com, set up my appointment
and within five minutes they call me up. It's like,
you know, want to know if it was an emergency
and then you get somebody right out there. It's like, no, no,
just a regular appointment. I've got the water shut off,
so that's easy to schedule your appointment. Twenty four hour
(12:11):
day is seven day a week, four emergencies, but scheduling
is no problem. They're gonna let you know when they're
on their way, like they do every single time, giving
you a phone call like I'm twenty minutes out based
on the GPS, I'll be there shortly. They are an
A plus with a better business fere and they do
any type of residential plumbing need whatever happens to be
drain cleaning your backflow valves, spewing out water, pressure issues
(12:36):
in your home. They are masters of their trade. The
plumbers are proudly serving everywhere from northern Kentucky all the
way up to Dayton the surrounding area. Plum Tight, ti
TE plum Tight dot com five one three seven two
seven eighty four eighty three. That's five one three seven
two seven tight.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
This is fifty five KRC an iHeartRadio station. If you
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