Bill Cunningham, the great American of course, Reds bos talk books off about five forty tonight. I'm sorry, six forty tonight. Fort'cock begins about six oh five with Lance's first pitch about seven forty in Kansas City, the Reds won yesterday. Who knows what happens tonight? Better listen to find out. But yours truly for the first time, and I don't know, twenty twenty five years found myself at the Taste of Cincinnati. Got down there about twelve fifteen, twelve thirty yesterday, Memorial
Day itself, walked around good crowds. A little bit of yelling and screaming happening with some of the protesters. Their life's miserable. They want you to be miserable, But I was not miserable. I was happy, Jon of you, and I now is Brendan call Cull, Brendan call the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, in charge of October Fest, in charge of the tasting so much more, and Brendan call former chief of staff to Chas Lucan, Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Brendan give the American
people first of all. The day after give you overview what happened the last three or four days with the taste it.
It was a beautiful day. You know. My favorite part is being down there with these restaurant owners. And I know I saw you walking around.
With your crew.
It was really nice to just bump into you on Fifth on Fifth Street there in the shadow of Procter and Gambles World headquarters.
Yeah.
You know, my favorite part of three days is talking to these restaurant owners who are down there themselves working these booths and they're meeting customers and talking to people. It was awesome and people were in such good spirit all weekend. People were chill. We had no incidents of any sort. We had more than eighty vendors all weekend long, which is the most that we've we've ever had a bunch of new vendors. You know, hundreds of thousands of
people came through all week and long. And it was dry, which you know, from a Chamber of Commerce perspective, we like it when it doesn't rain on these events. And it was great.
How many restaurant tours, how many people showed up Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Give me a full.
Report, you know, I don't We don't really do the exact estimate of number of people who came through, but it was certainly consistent with previous years. Hundreds of thousands of people we know come and visit the event. We had more than eighty food vendors, particularly Findley Market. The team at Finley Market, which is just this gem in our city food culture. You know, they had more than two dozen different food vendors down there, from ice cream
to oysters. I mean, somebody who's this restaurant Send which is opening a new restaurant in Findley Market, was serving oysters on the halfshell. And you know, that's a level up from Taste to Cincinnati. And I love seeing that. I love that you can come down there and explore all this different kind of food that you can get here in our community.
Now I'm reading a letter to the You may have seen it. Protesters were louder than the music at the taste. Some people find reason to complain, but I think that's part of the culture, part of the beauty. I don't engage with protesters as simply watch and move on, let them have their day. But Deborah Busey. B Usse identified herself from Liberty Township the home of Richard K. Jones. Citizens should not have to put up with this city council. Should they do something about this, or where they all
stay out in the suburbs, I don't know. Give me your analysis. I saw some loud screaming.
You know, I worked at I worked at city Hall for just a few days if you remember, about five years. And I'm fairly certain that is even with all of their infinite powers at eight oh one Plumb Street, the First Amendment does not enter into their purview. And so yeah, I mean I I saw some of those folks who carry signs. They're usually there every year. They're not inside the event, but you know, that's that's part of America, part.
Of the deal. And somebody wanted me to sign a petition to take away qualified immunity for police officers. I said, I respectfully declined. You should know more about that issue before you pass around such a stupid idea. Also, there was an incident with Brian helped.
If you had a judge there, If you had a judge there, they could have helped explain some of that too.
Well, I did have one with me and we simply move on.
I know. Well, yeah, he moved right on exactly.
But another one I'm down there. It was outside of the Taste itself. It was on Fountain Square where there was some kid who had broke into some cars and they police think they identified him, and he left the Taste about one am on Sunday morning. The Taste I then closed about eleven and he was identified. And then he had a gun with him and he got to Fountain Square, turned around and pointed the gun at the cop. Fortunately the cop had out of taser and tasted him
and down he went. That was dangerous. You're like a city dweller. I go in now and then to monitor events. Do you Censor's more crime? Car break ins, burglaries happening now than there's been during the reign of you and Charlie O.
No. I Actually I look at these numbers pretty carefully, and look, the perception matters. I mean, you want everybody should feel safe in their city. Everybody should feel safe in their community. So I put a lot of stock into how people feel and what people say. The numbers are in. The numbers have been coming down, you know, I think certainly what I would tell you is that the Cincinnati Police Department Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. They were
out in force with us this weekend. And you know, we talk a lot about the food vendors and the beer volunteers and our team who works on this event. You can't put on an event like Taste of Cincinnati, which are whole communities proud of without the good people of public safety and Hamilton County in Cincinnati. And you know they had We have them all on scene. Sometimes you see them and sometimes you don't. That's the way
we want it. But their job is to keep people safe and we had We had zero incidents within the Taste footprints this year. It was tremendously safe weekend in downtown Cincinnati. And frankly, the most safe experiences are when there's a lot of people around, and so when we do events like this, you know, it's a great way to get people down and explore the city and do
it in a safe way. So again that partnership we have with the good men and women of since I Police, Hamlon County Sheriff's Fire Department, all those public safety folks who helped make sure the city runs well. They just did a great job this weekend.
Brendon call. I noticed that booth there you could sign up to be a police officer. I'm sure it's a long grigamo row sign up to be a firefighter. My good friend Tim Dickey, who's a firefighter, who's hanging around registering people. Isn't it a problem in today's world to get men and women to become cops and firefighters? Difficult?
It is difficult. I mean, they are working very hard to recruit classes. And I think this is a national this is a national issue. It's not it's certainly not unique to Cincinnati, you know. I do know that getting the pay right, getting a pension right has been an important piece of the puzzle, and that the City of Cincinnati police and fire recruits. They're working really hard to
fill those classes right now. But these are the most honorable jobs, you know, in a community, and so I hope more and more young people consider that as a career. And when, frankly, when they ask us every year to help recruit in an event like this, we always say yes because it's a it's a great way to get in touch with people who might see this is a career option. You know.
Brendan Call of the Chamber have put me in charge. Every cop in firefighters starts off at one hundred thousand dollars a year plus benefits. A way to attract more talent, which is always in competition, is to pay more money. I'm led to believe that if you're a CEO in the jail or a cop, you make about sixty two thousand dollars by the time you pay taxes. That means
you make forty thousand dollars a year. Start off at one hundred, go up from that and you get a much many more applicants and better quality because you want to have a career. The pensions are pretty nice, but you can't attract great talent to stand uh to do what they have to do. Ninety nine percent of the time. It's just boredom perpetuating a one percent of sheer terror they have to go through. Would you agree with me that cops should be paid one hundred thousand a year to start.
Well, I don't know if that's exact right now. What I do know is that you know these are all
negotiated contracts. And I remember my days of the city, and I remember some of the work that we did with the Futures Commission and what I can tell you if you're if you're a young person or a youngish person and you're considering this as a career, being a police officer or a firefighter, or a sheriff deputy or any of number of those things can be very lucrative and you you work hard, and yes, it's the most
you know, you're you're on an edge. How would you describe it as that one percent of the time terror? These are critically important roles in a community, and you save lives, You impact lives by the way most of the time in an incredibly positive way. You know, it's not always that it's an arrest. Sometimes it's just helping out a neighbor or helping out somebody who's in a moment where they need. You know, we call them when we have a lost kid. Some kids get you know,
separated from their parents at an event. You know what that sheered terror feels like you can't find your kid for fifteen minutes, that's it, And it's a simple a police department. They help us with that, and so you think about the impact that that officer has on the lives of the people.
These are just.
Hugely important jobs. And so I tell anybody if you're considering that as a career, your pension is great. You know, you get to a point where you can retire and live a great life. And so these are these are great jobs. You can sign up really easily to take those tests.
Brend and call I have a question here from a banks type person. How come it wasn't on the Banks You've moved it a around a little bit. Why'd you move to Fifth Street?
Well, so I've been at the Chamber of ten years and it has been on Fifth Street, I think at least twenty and prior to that, if you remember, it was up on Central Parkway and that was fun and and the and the reason that it is not further west on Fifth Street, I will tell you, is because the streetcar tracks are in some of the roads in that past, and we find a lot of people use the street part to get in and out of tasas Cincinnati from a parking perspective, and it helps them get
to other parts of town. So we used that west west or east side of Fifth Street.
Same thing with Octoberfest.
Octoberfest is now down at that was always on Fifth Street too, and then we moved it last year. What was on Fifth Street, and then it moved to second and third, and that that poses some logistical challenge when the Reds are in town or if the Bengals are in town. And so h october Fest is now at Sawyer Point and we will be back at Sawyer Point
this year. And that's a phenomenal location. I feel like when I saw that for the first time, my colleague Chelsea Yorke envisioned that and that that's where it's meant to be. It feels like German beer gardens. It feels like what it's like in Munich. It's a you know, it's an awesome space.
Lastly, do you and Charlie Lucan thought about seizing power once again taking over eight to one Plum Street. He could be the mayor. You could be the chief of staff, kind of like Halderman and Erlickman. You could be in charge, and when he's getting older, you can control the mayorship like those around Biden controlled the presidency. Have you thought about maybe you and Luken seizing power once again?
You know, I've never thought of that.
What about Charlie's getting older now, doesn't know what he's doing a lot of times you could control.
Everything we had, we had, we've had, we have secret meetings to plot the future. Sure still to this day. And Charlie's a very good friend. He's doing extraordinarily well. I saw him out at takes the Cincinnati this weekend too, and so he was, what was your favorite food down there?
I had a Bahama Mama with some sour kraut. Then I had a vanilla cream puff got it all over me. I looked like a fool.
I had the Buffalo Wings from Buffalo's Best Food Truck, which is a food truck out of Florence, Kentucky. And those wings are I got tell you. Every year I look forward to him. They were so good.
Well, maybe Brendan call this year the People's Judge, and I may come down to October Fest. I've not been there in twenty years either, so I may check it out.
Oh you'd love it down the river. Maybe you want to do the chicken dance.
Oh, I'm not much of a dancer. I'd have to think about it.
Cricket, you could lead that. You could lead the chicken dance.
Well, I know Jim Scott did it one year and Joe Nuxtell did it. If well, make sure it's okay. Some people are unhappy with me in general, so I don't know. I don't know how how popular I would be, but if if it has to do so, yes, I would. But check it out first.
We had We had a great it's you know, you got to be down there for story point. It is beautiful in the river. We're pretty pumped about it. So, uh, it's great and it was great to see you guys down here this weekend.
You were with Sean Donovan, Chief's deputy.
I'm I allowed to saying who you're with. I didn't know if that's too personal. Ye with your beautiful bride and don Donovan, who you know, talking about a great Cincinnati and he's done so much for this community.
He's wonderful. And side Lease is still kicking it. Not in the best of health, but he's had some uh had some emergencies recently, but he's still at home and still doing what he's doing in his nineties. Not bad. But uh, Brendan call, thank you. Get in touch with me about the Chicken dance, and uh make sure it's okay with the powers that be. You know, there are a lot of liberal Democrats in Cincinnati. The man I like me headquartering anything, so check that out first.
Well, you are a great American billy God bless America.
Thank you, Brandon call. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's continue with more if the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. News is next and so much more at Trump of the Reds and maybe the Leader of the Chicken dance? Can I dance? How popular would that be? I'm not sure. On news radio seven hundred WULW