Speaker 1: It's a Scott's flowing shell on seven hundred w old WD.
Speaker 1: You just shooting a little straight with you this morth
Speaker 1: So we have all the snow on the ground. We
Speaker 1: got like twelve inches of snow, not much of it
Speaker 1: if all has melted yet tonight. Since lash tomorrow, we're
Speaker 1: going to get to one to two to three maybe
Speaker 1: more depending where you are, depends. We shall see temperatures
Speaker 1: remain cold, so more snow on top of the snow.
Speaker 1: Snow's not going anywhere, and city Cruise does a great
Speaker 1: job clearing snow on the streets. There's still snow on
Speaker 1: the sidewalks that kids need to walk or wait for buses,
Speaker 1: and so a new ordnance would have force property on
Speaker 1: us to clear the snow. So what we're saying is
Speaker 1: that your neighbor, your neighbor, Betty Lorrain or Margaret, whatever
Speaker 1: name is, she's got to get eighty years old and
Speaker 1: the city's going to force her out there at gunpoint
Speaker 1: to go shovel over twelve inches of snow. Absolutely heartless, heartless,
Speaker 1: it's unreal. Council Member Seth Walsh is proposing this, Seth,
Speaker 1: are you going to tell me that you're going to
Speaker 1: force somebody's gramma to go out and shovel sidewalks in
Speaker 1: this weather.
Speaker 2: No no, no, Scott, I appreciate you leave it off
Speaker 2: with the drama there.
Speaker 3: Let's take it up to what's actually going on here.
Speaker 3: So the city.
Speaker 2: Actually already has on its books ordinances around shoveling the sidewalks,
Speaker 2: and one of the problems that we've discovered last year
Speaker 2: with the snow emergency is that we don't actually have
Speaker 2: any enforceable mechanisms to this. And so whether you're dealing
Speaker 2: with your sidewalks by your house, whether you're in a
Speaker 2: business district, whether you're downtown, if you run into sidewalks
Speaker 2: that are covered in snow a week after the snowstorm,
Speaker 2: there's no way for you to report it. There's nobody
Speaker 2: whose job it is to maintain it and check in
Speaker 2: on it, and there's nobody who's there to make sure
Speaker 2: that we're actually doing this job. So what this motion
Speaker 2: asks is what does the administration need, much like we
Speaker 2: asked last year around the snowpop what does it need
Speaker 2: to be able to take the next step and actually
Speaker 2: make sure we're enforcing this appropriately and helping your the
Speaker 2: city going this isn't about going after you know, residential neighbors.
Speaker 2: This is about making sure that we all as a
Speaker 2: community are coming together and actually being able to take
Speaker 2: care of our sidewalks too.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this this would apply then primarily to the
Speaker 1: residential I'm sorry, the business district areas or places of business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's all it's all Cincinnati, but I anticipate
Speaker 2: it's gonna be primarily the business district areas. You know,
Speaker 2: we've seen a lot of complaints coming in. Downtown has
Speaker 2: had a number of complaints about you can tell who
Speaker 2: the properties owners are to clear the sidewalks so.
Speaker 3: You can tell who have it.
Speaker 2: We've also seen, you know, a lot of complaints around
Speaker 2: the city of Cincinnati, like owning property that we haven't cleared,
Speaker 2: and then questionable property where you're like, is it the city,
Speaker 2: is it somebody else?
Speaker 3: And who needs to be responsible for it?
Speaker 2: One, for example, is the bridge going from Clifton to
Speaker 2: north Side. What we need to be able to do
Speaker 2: is have a system in place to be able to
Speaker 2: get peace concerns and then make sure that we get
Speaker 2: them cleared, whether that's through some city mechanism, whether that's
Speaker 2: to hire in private contractors and whatever it is, that's
Speaker 2: a pretty big important Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had our buddy on from ODOT last week and
Speaker 1: he said that, you know, sometimes you see a road
Speaker 1: plowed and then it'll not be plowed, and then it'll
Speaker 1: be plowed again. Is like that has to do with jurisdiction, right,
Speaker 1: Like odubts in chart generally have highways, but then you
Speaker 1: have the county. Then you have local municipalities cities like Cincinnati, villages,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And sometimes between all those enterprises, we're not
Speaker 1: quite sure who is responsible for that stretch. And normally,
Speaker 1: if it's an intro or typically we get interured to
Speaker 1: a snow it is not a big deal. But when
Speaker 1: you're talking feet, different story.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And what we currently do not have is a
Speaker 2: mechanism SCOT if you want to call and tell us
Speaker 2: that there's a sidewalk that need to get shoveled after
Speaker 2: a week, there's no mechanisms for that.
Speaker 3: And that's you know, I'll stop sort.
Speaker 2: Of saying it's a problem because I don't think it's
Speaker 2: the problem on the scale of the snow pot as you
Speaker 2: was last year, but it is the next step in
Speaker 2: this how do we proposely handle snow as we're looking
Speaker 2: at you know, I'm seeing three to five inches tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you're if you're trying to walk
Speaker 2: to a business and you're trying to walk to your car,
Speaker 2: you're trying to get to you know, take your dog
Speaker 2: for a walk, that's that is a big deal to
Speaker 2: be kind of going through these various grades and it
Speaker 2: becomes pretty unsafe for people. And so if we can't
Speaker 2: even get the reporting on it, how do we how
Speaker 2: do we take Diamex Stap actually solve this problem?
Speaker 3: Okay, so where do you extend this that stass?
Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned real estate owners is the target,
Speaker 1: but are we talking about absentee landlords just commercial property only?
Speaker 1: What about like something like an apartment complex. Can you
Speaker 1: define who isn't who's doing their job?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you can define it as pretty
Speaker 2: much a sidewalk. And this wouldn't yes anywhere that has
Speaker 2: a sidewalk that is not being shoveled, you know, several
Speaker 2: days to the week after the snowfall event. Whether that
Speaker 2: is a private property owner, whether that's the City of Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: whether that's oda. We need to be having these standards
Speaker 2: to make sure gets taken care of. I think there's
Speaker 2: a lot of people that are rightfully frustrated that city
Speaker 2: society hasn't shoveled our own sidewalks.
Speaker 3: And right now we haven't even we don't even allow
Speaker 3: you to be able to tell us that that's the problems.
Speaker 2: So let's get that salved like, let's hold everybody to
Speaker 2: the same standard, because again, it's a safety issue.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's about people.
Speaker 2: We're trying to have people walk more, have more pedestrian safety.
Speaker 2: You got to have the sidewalks. You see people walking
Speaker 2: in the streets because they can't access the sidewalks. That
Speaker 2: becomes dangerous for everybody, from the people who are walking
Speaker 2: to the motorists. It's just not a safe environment.
Speaker 1: Okay, I mentioned kind of tongue in cheek Seth Wall
Speaker 1: jokingly about senior sitting. You know, eighty year old Betty,
Speaker 1: you're next door neighbor. She's not going out and shovel.
Speaker 1: But if you can't physically shovel, and how do you
Speaker 1: differentiate when that in a proper dinner, who's neglecting their responsibility?
Speaker 3: How do you verify this well?
Speaker 2: And that's part of what we're asking in the emotion
Speaker 2: here is what does the city administration need to be
Speaker 2: able to run an effective program? And much like if
Speaker 2: your sidewalk gets destroyed by tree roots and is lifting up,
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of inches and you have to
Speaker 2: have it taken out, there are systems in place where
Speaker 2: you can get it replaced by yourself or the city
Speaker 2: brings in contractors seeing it taken care of, and then
Speaker 2: there are ways to get creative about it to solve
Speaker 2: it where you're not putting the burden on your eighty
Speaker 2: five year old neighbor, but we are solving the problem
Speaker 2: which off the sidewalks, make these passable straight you know,
Speaker 2: save sidewalks.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, in the case of the eight year old neighbor,
Speaker 1: so who paid? Does a taxpayer pay for that? Or
Speaker 1: do you have to build? Do you build? The property owner?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's something that the adminstration needs to
Speaker 2: come back to tell us, you know, what the costs
Speaker 2: would be on that, you know, if if it's in
Speaker 2: the obscene coss I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure there's a way we can work that out.
Speaker 2: And at the same time, you have contractors that are
Speaker 2: out there being able to do this because we have
Speaker 2: to take care of the safe property at the same time.
Speaker 2: You know, we can figure that out as well. Right now,
Speaker 2: we're at the information gathering stage. Last year we were
Speaker 2: so worried about the roads high getting cloud. This year
Speaker 2: we have had such a great success at the roads
Speaker 2: getting cloud. The system worked. Now you have the next problem,
Speaker 2: which do you want people to be able to walk
Speaker 2: in the sidewalks aren't getting there?
Speaker 3: How do we answer? How do we address that? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: And I'll pivot for just a second off this outBut
Speaker 1: you mentioned the success that the crews had. I've saw
Speaker 1: nothing but glowering reviews for the snow removal, but also
Speaker 1: that plow tracking app as well. It was down for
Speaker 1: a while. Weren't quite sure with the mechanics. There's always
Speaker 1: growing pains. I think we talked about this before Seth Walsh.
Speaker 1: But but you know, from what I could tell and
Speaker 1: looking at it during the snow event and probably on's
Speaker 1: happening tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Everything looks really good.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys really turned the corner on the
Speaker 1: snow removal thing, largely because of your efforts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is something that I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people deserve credit and kudos for you know,
Speaker 2: last year we failed as leaders in terms of making
Speaker 2: sure that we were set up for the team to
Speaker 2: be able to go out and succeed at it. We
Speaker 2: had six hundred streets, we just didn't know that.
Speaker 3: We didn't. Wow, that's not acceptable, and we said that,
Speaker 3: and we sent the.
Speaker 2: Last year working to make sure that we have the
Speaker 2: six hundred streets identified, that we had the systems in
Speaker 2: place and succeed that we knew days in advance we
Speaker 2: could prepare for and take care of it so that
Speaker 2: when we sent our workers out there, we worked twelve
Speaker 2: hour shifts. You know, they are they're doing the Lord's
Speaker 2: work in this and they needed to make sure they're supported,
Speaker 2: and we made sure they're actually supported this time. You
Speaker 2: see how remarkable the team is once they actually have
Speaker 2: their appropriate support from the snowplowd tracker working to being
Speaker 2: able to see what streets were being taken care of,
Speaker 2: to see that we had two days in advance we
Speaker 2: were salting and preparing for the storms, and then you know,
Speaker 2: literally getting these streets covered and taking care of. Within
Speaker 2: like thirty six hours, we had ninety five percent of
Speaker 2: the streets passable.
Speaker 3: I mean It was really incredible.
Speaker 2: But it took us being honest with ourselves, which I
Speaker 2: think is one of the hardest things in government, to
Speaker 2: admit that, hey, we came up short.
Speaker 1: We have to do better, right, right, and often there
Speaker 1: are enough people taking the hit for that, going hey,
Speaker 1: it's on my watch, it's going to happen. He's council
Speaker 1: Member Seth Walsh proposing a new ordin Cincinnati that's going
Speaker 1: to enforce with a little bit more teeth that you
Speaker 1: have to remove the snow from your sidewalks. That doesn't
Speaker 1: apply to a driveway though, right if you want to
Speaker 1: not shovel your own driveway, it's up to you, although
Speaker 1: I guess the sidewalk usually does cross a driveway. And
Speaker 1: you know I'm backing up on this thing too, is
Speaker 1: how long before how long do you give someone to
Speaker 1: shovel the snow? Is it within twenty four hours? Forty
Speaker 1: eight a week? How long to shovel the snow that fell?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So on the first point, now, this doesn't impact driveways.
Speaker 2: You know, the driveways your private property. The sidewalks are
Speaker 2: of the public property.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: The second part of this is, in my opinion, you know,
Speaker 2: if we're trying to get everyone's streets cleared within forty
Speaker 2: eight hours. After that forty eight hour mark is that
Speaker 2: we should expect the sidewalks are getting appropriately cleared as well.
Speaker 2: You know, we had some issues last last week where
Speaker 2: people cleared their sidewalks and then the snowplowd came through
Speaker 2: a bunch of snowgup dumped back on the sidewalk.
Speaker 3: That doesn't very feel very fair.
Speaker 2: That feels a little punitive for those who are trying
Speaker 2: to do the right thing. It's a situation where once
Speaker 2: a snow emergency has stopped, we've gotten the streets taken
Speaker 2: care of.
Speaker 3: Now we have to make sure the sidewalks become passable.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a priority order to this.
Speaker 2: So we're not saying, hey, the snowstorm is coming down, right,
Speaker 2: I'll be out there and make sure there's not a
Speaker 2: ounce of snow out there. We're saying, you know, we're
Speaker 2: all a team, you know, especially now you look we're
Speaker 2: a week out on the storm.
Speaker 3: We need to make sure that the sidewalks are passable.
Speaker 1: Okay, Seth Walsh on that, And I've brought up the
Speaker 1: older neighbors that may not be able to even plow
Speaker 1: their own driveway. That may pay for the drive to
Speaker 1: be plowed, to be a little extra, a little bit
Speaker 1: more money on them to get the sidewalks done as
Speaker 1: part of that. Businesses may be a little bit different
Speaker 1: in that regard to but you know, all it would
Speaker 1: take is someone to go, hey, they're going after this.
Speaker 1: You know this elderly widow or widow. We're they don't
Speaker 1: have the money, they're fixed income, they can't go out
Speaker 1: there and shovel their own thing. And now you're going
Speaker 1: to crack down. And that feels like it's like an
Speaker 1: IT team thing waiting to happen. But the same thing is, okay,
Speaker 1: my next door neighbor. Let's say, you know, it's an
Speaker 1: individual who works two or three jobs, doesn't have time
Speaker 1: to shovel their own driveway, let alone the snowplow or
Speaker 1: hiring someone to do that because they're trying to keep
Speaker 1: their head above water. In that regard, would the enforcement
Speaker 1: be punitive as you mentioned, because you look at them
Speaker 1: and go, oh, okay, it's an older person. They can't
Speaker 1: afford it, they cannot do themselves. But you've got a
Speaker 1: younger next door neighbor. Shouldn't they be out there doing
Speaker 1: it well. If you're working all the time, it's awfully
Speaker 1: tough to do that. How do you respond.
Speaker 2: We have a number of ordnances that are on the
Speaker 2: books currently that you may feel like are targeting are
Speaker 2: more vulnerable citizens, and the way that we handle it
Speaker 2: as a city is that we provide funds and resources
Speaker 2: to make sure that they're being taken care of as well.
Speaker 3: None of these are designed in a way.
Speaker 2: In which we are trying to punish, you know, our
Speaker 2: elderly citizens or those who will work see multiple jobs.
Speaker 2: We're just trying to make sure the sidewalks to become passable.
Speaker 2: And again, you know this isn't an ordinance. There already
Speaker 2: ordinances on the books that you know have this enforcement mechanism.
Speaker 3: There's no way to report it right now.
Speaker 2: And I think where the majority of these issues are happening, frankly,
Speaker 2: our city of society properties.
Speaker 3: Yea, And I think we have to do better as
Speaker 3: a city. That's something in a mantra keep saying out there.
Speaker 2: But if you don't even allow you to op change
Speaker 2: to tell us that these are problems and we can't
Speaker 2: solve the problems.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you feel like set there should be and
Speaker 1: again this is just the very primitive form of stage
Speaker 1: is there's nothing even close to becoming legislation at this point.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, how do we get the and it's
Speaker 1: a safety is how do we get the snow off
Speaker 1: the sidewalks because the reality is you've got kids trying
Speaker 1: to go to school or walk to the bus stop,
Speaker 1: or people waiting for metro, whatever it might be, and
Speaker 1: now they've got to stand in the road and that's
Speaker 1: just horribly unsafe that that's the whole point of this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen way too many people in the
Speaker 2: last weeks who couldn't pass through the sidewalks, so they're
Speaker 2: just walking down the middle of the street. And it's
Speaker 2: arguably safer for them because they because of the slippage
Speaker 2: and the ice.
Speaker 3: That has accumulated. It's not safer because you have these
Speaker 3: vehicles that are coming along. It's not safer for them,
Speaker 3: it's not safer for the vehicles. And so again, as
Speaker 3: a community, we have to step up and do better.
Speaker 3: And so how do we do that.
Speaker 2: Again, we're not trying to be punitive here, We're just
Speaker 2: trying to figure out ways and we can solve problems
Speaker 2: that have arisen, and frankly, of all the problems that
Speaker 2: we had last year, for this to be the next
Speaker 2: issue to tackle, I think it's a good side of
Speaker 2: where the city's setting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got the roads tackled. Now it's the sidewalks
Speaker 1: which is challenging in different ways. I suppose seth and
Speaker 1: we'll see what comes of this whole thing. I would
Speaker 1: also think too, that this is such an unusually heavy
Speaker 1: snowfall winter for us. We normally don't get this much
Speaker 1: so in a short period of time, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe a storm or we get four inches or something
Speaker 1: like that, and we treat it like it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: You know, a foot of snow and plus what we're
Speaker 1: getting tomorrow on sidewalks, yeah, that's impassable. You know, an
Speaker 1: inch or two you probably can walk over that. And
Speaker 1: so is this kind of preparing for the quote unquote
Speaker 1: hundred year flood as opposed to what we normally say.
Speaker 2: You know, last year, I got a lot of criticism
Speaker 2: when I was when I was saying that we need
Speaker 2: better on the snowplows because everyone said it was a
Speaker 2: once in a twenty year storm, and barely twelve months later,
Speaker 2: that once in a twenty year storm hit again.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You know, the reality is we do live in a
Speaker 2: city where snowhall events happen, and we don't know when
Speaker 2: the next big snowstorm is. We didn't think two weeks together,
Speaker 2: we're going to have two big storms within.
Speaker 3: A two week period.
Speaker 2: And yet that's what we're staring down the gun on. So, yes,
Speaker 2: this is an important issue to make sure that we
Speaker 2: continue to just improve on.
Speaker 3: And I hope that we don't have to experience it
Speaker 3: for the next hundred years.
Speaker 2: But if I've learned anything about my predictions, if you will,
Speaker 2: we'll try to have it again in the next three weeks.
Speaker 2: And so let's just be ready and let's start having
Speaker 2: these conversations and figure.
Speaker 3: Out again as a community, how do.
Speaker 2: We do better and how do we work with each
Speaker 2: other make sure we're supporting the administration for what they
Speaker 2: need and the resources they need to be successful.
Speaker 1: Well, the good news is much like diarrhea, it doesn't
Speaker 1: hang on too much longer.
Speaker 3: Here on.
Speaker 1: I got a few weeks of this nonsense, Seth Walsh,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be we'll be headed to spring. I
Speaker 1: think with Red's baseball, Aunu Suarez now we're in a
Speaker 1: red uniform, so we got hope down at a great
Speaker 1: American ballpark for our red legs. But of course with
Speaker 1: warmer temperature and all these cold and freezing and the snows,
Speaker 1: the the you know, the warming and freezing cycle, we
Speaker 1: got to worry about potholes.
Speaker 3: Now, are we here?
Speaker 1: I think this is going to focus from clearing sidewalks
Speaker 1: to pothole damage in a few short weeks, and are
Speaker 1: we prepared to deal with the probably immeasurable amount of
Speaker 1: potholes Last year it was a high pothole season. This
Speaker 1: year I would suspect the same. Are we better in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six than we were in twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: on us?
Speaker 2: You know, potholes didn't get as much attention last year
Speaker 2: in the media as the snowstorm did, but it did
Speaker 2: get a lot of attention on the inside of city Hall.
Speaker 3: House Member Nolan obviously did.
Speaker 2: A you know, quick blitz to try to come up with
Speaker 2: some solutions for the pothole how we can do better
Speaker 2: at podoles, and then House I believe today is actually
Speaker 2: going to be approving funding to buy new equipment from
Speaker 2: Pothole Feelings, So hopefully you're going to see improvement or
Speaker 2: remarkable improvement. Again, it's under the same new director who's
Speaker 2: solved our Sonowpo situation.
Speaker 3: Mark Riley.
Speaker 2: So I feel optimistic, but let's have that conversation of
Speaker 2: four weeks when we get to see it in action, right.
Speaker 1: Right, and hopefully we are better than we have been
Speaker 1: in the past when it comes to poddles. Right now,
Speaker 1: it's snow on sidewalks. What's the timeline for this proposal?
Speaker 2: So we were filing it today, which means we will
Speaker 2: officially vote on it next week and hopefully we'll see
Speaker 2: resolves quickly from there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, No, we think this is a priority
Speaker 3: for the city.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get what is you're trying to do because
Speaker 1: you can't have people, especially kids, walking in the street
Speaker 1: because the sidewalks aren't cleared for sure. So anyway, hey, Seth,
Speaker 1: appreciate you jump and I always love having you on
Speaker 1: the program. And thanks again, buddy, have a good.
Speaker 3: Day, Thanks Scott.
Speaker 1: All right, anytime there you go, Seth Walsh on The
Speaker 1: Scott's Loan Show. There may be some questions how are
Speaker 1: you enforced this namely, but I get the concept because
Speaker 1: you know, when sicy and cold out people walk in
Speaker 1: the street because at least the road is cleared, and
Speaker 1: in the past you couldn't walk anywhere because the roads
Speaker 1: weren't cleared.
Speaker 3: So I guess we're making progress.
Speaker 1: Julie Hatters, here is next. It's mental health money on
Speaker 1: the Scott Sloan Show on seven hundred WLW. Why do
Speaker 1: people hang on to relationships much longer than the life
Speaker 1: of the relationship be held onto, namely unfulfilling relationships. Why
Speaker 1: do we continue to do that when it's not getting
Speaker 1: us anywhere and making us worse. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: coming up after news on seven hundred WLW.