My Billy Cunningham, the Great America, and welcome to this door is great Friday afternoon in the Tries day, Reds Baseball kicks off about seven forty. Tonight they win the night they're back to five hundred, which is think goal. Get the five hundred and then may take care of itself. As you may know, this has been one season in the past ten on May the first, the Reds had a winning record. So let's drive toward May first and
see what happens. But more importantly, big news conference about an hour ago with Tracy Schwegman at the banks and many others. The police were there, the business owners were there. It was a big conclave, and Tracy Schwegman, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, Tracy, what is the deal? What was agreed upon to improve the security at the banks because of all the shootings that have been down there, it's been bad for business.
I talked to more and Jim Moorean quite often not a good situation. The Reds were not happy. So what do we do as in response to some of the violence that banks?
Well, you know, Bill, thanks for having me. You know. One of the things that we've always tried to do down here at the Banks is being a good partner and hopefully a partner with some solutions. And one of the things that we've been talking about for almost two years now, and really in the last year and a half, it's really been something we've been focused heavily on is how do we improve the environment for that twenty one
and up crowd. The reality is after ten pm down here, particularly in the pedestrian plaza, the offerings are only geared towards those that are twenty one enough, and so how do we make certain that is a fun, safe, vibrant area for those that are twenty one and up? And so we spend a lot of time looking at other entertainment districts around town and around the country, and how do you stands up something like a twenty one and up environment, what's the right time to do it, what
are the right days over week? And most importantly, you know, do we have stakeholder support and how do we fund it? So that took some time, quite frankly, to get us to this point, and we were grateful that we have the support of the city and with the Mayor's Office of City manager's office is a police department. So as our large stakeholders, like the Reds and all the businesses, to do something like this starting our talents to start at May first and ideally on a weekend when the
Reds were not in town. So that put us back to this weekend April twenty fifth.
So tell me what the plan is. When I see the most recent to armed robbery, it was bad for business. I can't imagine if you're one of the businesses down there that's publicized. It's a big deal. A lot of meetings being held. What is the plan? Tony Bender loves going down there at ten or eleven o'clock at night, loves going to the banks and prowling around. What is the plan starting? I guess I guess starting tonight.
Sure, starting receiving. What folks will encounter is on both ends of the pedestrian plaza you will see some bike racks. They have banners on them that talk about, you know, the new rules and measures for Friday and Saturday evenings from ten pm to two am. It'll be a collection point. If you want to enter that part that plaza area, you're going to have to doc comes through a central
check in point. There will be private security there that will be looking at your photo ID to make certain you are in fact twenty one years old, and if you meet the requirements, you can come on in. Of course, I'll still have to get checked at the individual establishment that you might be wanting to enter. But if you are twenty one and you don't want to enter an establishment, just want to be in the plaza, you can certainly
do that. But the hope is that it will continue to foster a positive fun environment for those that are of a certain age after a certain point in time in the evening.
So Tracy's swagman of the bank. So what is the problem with somebody would tap on your shoulder and say, okay, I'm unaware of all the violence happening at the banks. Tell me what is what? Why are you doing this? What is the underlying problem?
You know, we want to make it well. We want to encourage folks to still come down here. We want them to feel like they're coming to an environment that has some controls, that have some safety components associated with it. And this is something actually we've done as a private stakeholder. Canmunity not only this initiative, but other initiatives that we've done and put in place over the last couple of years.
We've added cameras, we've added enhanced lighting. We have worked at the police to look at a lot of our plantings in the planters and lower the profile though so there's some clear sight lines from one end to the other. There's a lot of different measures that we've put in place as a private community to try and help foster a safe environment. You know, we can't solve all the problems down here, and a lot of them are quite frankly beyond our scope and beyond anything that we can
quite frankly control. But we certainly want to do our part to provide the best customer environment we possibly can. And we think that this is a good and valuable step, and we're grateful to you know, the city and the CPD for granting us special permission to do these things in the public plaza on Friday and Saturday evenings.
You know, a little Bertie told me that it cost one hundred thousand dollars to do this on two nights a week with four hours. Is that number about correct? And who pays for it?
That's about right. This initiative will cost us about a quarter of a million dollars to do over the next six months. It's all yeah, it's all privately funded.
Uh.
It's it's funded by what we affectionately call down here are AHOA, our private stakeholders. You know, it's not just the retailers that are that are paying into it, but it's also you know, the apartments, it's it's the hotel, it's all of those private property earners in between the two stadiums that believe this is an important measure to put in place, uh and should add some value to the safety and security of the neighborhood.
For those who may not know what happens on a warm Friday or Saturday night without this door district being bicycle racked off, what is happening there? For those who don't.
Know, well, I think you know what we've found over the last handful of years is, you know, it's a fun place to be. It's an attractive fund environment and that needs it attracts folks that are not twenty one years old as well. We see a lot of youth down here, young kids, really young kids, uh, you know, teenagers, pre teenagers, and while you know, you know, we welcome
those folks during the daytime. The reality is at a certain point in the evening, the activities down here are geared towards twenty one and up, and it's just not It's not a place to play and hang out. And I think it's uh. I think that's part of the reason why you've even seen the city put in place some special measures to try and give those kids someplace positive to go spend their evenings rather than hanging out in a city environment that's really not geared for them.
I think last week I had on Ken Cove, or sergeant with the CPD, head of the union. He said, there's one hundreds some evenings, thousands of kids smoking pot looking for the next person to rob.
Is that a fair description, Well, Kim would probably know better than I am from a law enforcement standpoint, that's that's for sure. But it's certainly in you know, activity that we would discourage. You know, certainly of today's you you don't want to see kids engaging in that, and we certainly don't want to provide an environment that fosters
that behavior. You know, we want to make certain that you know, that's not happening in our neighborhood and hopefully, you know, with the other measures perhaps that the city has put in place with pools being open and rec at night and some other things, that those folks will find a more productive environment to have fun and engage in more age appropriate activities.
And the kids doing this are not exactly customers anyway, there are sixteen fourteen. It's not going to hurt business at all, is it.
It's not, and we actually hope it'll improve business. And we're grateful that, you know, our business owners are on page with that, our private property owners, you know, the apartments in the hotel, and frankly, our large venues you know, like the Reds and the Bengals are are in supportive of this initiative as well. They have been great vocal supporters and strategic partners and thinking about how to put something like this in place.
You're also involved with a heritage bank center. It's kind of a decrepit structure, been there about forty some years, and the powers that be have determined that that may may not be the best place for the indoor arena. Jeff Birding, your friend TQL and FC wants to move that arena over buy music hall across the street. Would that be a problem from your perspective?
One hundred percent. We think that the best place for a new modern arena is the banks. The existing footprint is the perfect place for it. A new modern arena with eighteen to twenty thousand seats and modern amenities does sit at the Banks. In fact, it's probably the most cost effective location, and studies have shown that cost studies have shown that it's actually the most cost effective location by simply the fact that you've got a lot of
the public infrastructure already in place. You've got the transit center, you've got the interstate exits. You've got the existing sewer systems and electrical grids and all those things that support large venues like that already in place, so you don't have to recreate that someplace else. The Bank's handles. It's not uncommon to have these three of these venues happen at the same time, and we managed to flow people
in and out of this environment without much trouble. So we've truly and firmly believed that on the merits, the existing location of the Heritage Bank Center is the best location for a new modern arena that I think everybody has now reached the point of believing that can be a valuable contributor to the city's economic future. You know, a new, new, new modern arena has great economic benefits, and I think that's an exciting place to be from
a conversation standpoint. That there's that acknowledgment, we just you know, we will continue to advocate that the Banks is the best location for it.
Tracy, why is it important for it to be there as opposed to maybe off the city core? And secondly, I wanted to address the issue of how unique the Banks are between the Bengals and the Black Music Hall of Fame, and throw on top of that all the Banks projects in the Heritage Bank, the Great American Ballpark. That's it's an incredible area and many cities don't have that. And we can't let that fall down because of a few hundred kids that don't know how to behave It's
got to be. How unique is the Banks in Toto.
It's incredibly unique. You know a lot of people don't get the folks from thirty years ago enough credit and actually envisioning this and putting it into place. I mean, they contemplated the floodplain. You know, we just encountered flooding and all of these businesses were open and just fine. You know, they built this thing out of the floodplane. They were quite they quite forced quite the foresight and building it the way they did. You know, they trenchport
Washington away. They put in the Transit Center. This was built as an entertainment district. It was designed to do exactly what it does. And I will tell you what I hear most frequently from folks that come in town supporting the out of town team, whether you know, if the Reds are playing the Pirates or the Bengals are playing the Bills. Out of town folks love the Banks. They are astounded at what we have down here, and
they can't wait to come back. Folks love to come here from out of town because of what the Banks offers them. It's like it's a walkable downtown that they can they can go from the stadium to a bar or a restaurant and it's all right here at their footsteps. It's a fun, walkable environment, and folks are are They love coming here, and sometimes we don't appreciate that, you know, being local and and just it's part of our daily lives.
But you really do gain some appreciation for it when you hear out of town ors sing the praises of the banks.
Tracy Schwegman of the Banks. Lastly, it's tonight ten o'clock. Someone's not paying attention to radio television. They're going to run into what tonight at ten o'clock.
They're going to run into bike racks with signs on them reminding folks that this is now twenty one and up environment from ten pm to two am. They're going to run into security, private security. They'll be checking their IDs, and we hope folks remember to bring their IDs. And we look forward to welcome you folks to a fun, fun environment down here at the Banks twenty one and up ten pm to two am.
Tracy Swegman of the Banks, thanks again for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. May God bless you and God bless America.
Thank you, Tracy, Thanks Bill, much appreciated.
All right, let's continue, and one might ask, I know that Thigi has talked about this. I spoke to the Chief of Police's to come on with me on Monday, and she said, where the parents are ware they how do you have numerous hundreds of kids running around Shmail Park and the banks on a summer's night without much going on, and I would note off the air. She told me, this is only Friday and Saturday and so
on Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's going to be, shall we say, no idea required in the door district, in front of in front of a great American ballpark, in front of the Holy Grail. It's going to be the way things have been recently. And there's a police station right there, right in the middle, and there's cops right there in uniform CPD and Hamley County Sheriffs are there,
and these crimes are taking place despite that fact. So that's put that in your computer and see what happens. But the billions of dollars in investments in that area cannot be fritted away because of the behavior of a few children. Let's continue with more if a line becomes available. Five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. Coming up later will be Leland vide of News Nation. I'm watching a couple of nights ago, and he spoke about the
fact that he has autism, that he's autistic. He could have knocked me over with a feather, and I said, he's got a book out of it to talk about it called Born Lucky. And I want to talk about Leland Viddert, who spent time on CNN and also Fox News. And he's only forty two years old and he was diagnosed when he was four or five years older with autism and his journey is unbelievable. So if you know a parent or a loved one that has this spectrum disorder,
pay attention. After one o'clock today, Leland Viddert will be here. That's rom of the Reds, by the way, teeing off tonight about seven forty in Denver. The Reds are one game below five hundred. They win two out of three or sweep Colorado when they should because that team stinks. They won a total of four games this year, which is not good. So let's continue with more. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WW