This podcast is about you: The Cincinnatian. Let The Enquirer’s Beryl Love and guest hosts make the complicated local issues affecting your daily life easy to understand – and have some fun in the process. Our guest list is a who’s who of Greater Cincinnati, and we celebrate the quirky awesomeness that defines this place we call home. Why? Because that’s SO Cincinnati.
S2 Ep80: That's So Cincinnati: 'We will be drowning in high seas' if $50M affordable housing plan passes, fire union says
Apr 07, 2021
Show notes
The Cincinnati Fire Department is short staffed and working so much overtime firefighters are exhausted. This year has brought a high number of fire deaths for residents – six so far compared to two in 2020. Both things mean the Cincinnati Fire Department needs resources: additional firefighters to staff the city's 26 firehouses and more than the current six fire specialists, who conduct safety inspections on properties. In an interview on The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast, Cincinnati firefighters union President Matt Alter outlined these concerns when asked whether his organization supports the affordable housing charter amendment known as Issue 3. The charter amendment, which will be on the May 4 ballot, calls for at least $50 million out of the city budget each year to be diverted to funding affordable housing. It could result in "dire consequences" for basic public services, such as fire safety, Alter said. "We're basically treading water," Alter said. "We're basically wearing floaties, doing what we can to keep our head above water. This just raises the tide. We will be drowning in high seas."
S2 Ep79: That's So Cincinnati: Why Reds' new TV broadcaster compares MLB play-by-play job to 'Supreme Court justice'
Mar 31, 2021
Show notes
John Sadak was starting to make plans for this day to never come in his career. But it's here. Opening Day in Cincinnati, and Sadak will make his major league debut as the lead play-by-play announcer for Reds television broadcasts. What will the moment be like for Sadak when the New York City native calls his first pitch at 4:10 p.m. Thursday on Fox Sports Ohio? Sadak has been trying hard not to get caught up in the moment after 15 years of calling minor league baseball games. "For me personally, it's a realization of a dream," Sadak told The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast. "But my job is to be a steward and an entertainer and facilitate our analysts and storytelling. Reds baseball is way bigger than me. I'm just the guy who's doing it now, and hopefully for many years."
S2 Ep78: That’s So Cincinnati: Holy Grail owner Jim Moehring talks 10-year at The Banks, the benefits of the new outdoor drinking district at The Banks and paying it forward after a Crosstown tip-off challenge windfall.
Mar 24, 2021
Show notes
That’s So Cincinnati: Holy Grail owner Jim Moehring talks 10-year at The Banks, the benefits of the new outdoor drinking district at The Banks and paying it forward after a Crosstown tip-off challenge windfall.
S2 Ep77: That's So Cincinnati: CVG airport's Candace McGraw talks low-cost carriers, international flights and Amazon Air hub
Mar 17, 2021
Show notes
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is well positioned for "good things ahead" coming out of the pandemic, CEO Candace McGraw told The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast this week. The airport has already announced new low-cost flights flights coming this spring from Allegiant Air, Alaska Air and Sun Country Airlines, reflecting a renewed demand for leisure travel. As business travel gradually bounces back, McGraw said, CVG is planning to revisit the possibility of adding a new non-stop international flight to the airport's list of travel options. She also gives an update on Amazon Air's cargo hub.
S2 Ep76: That's So Cincinnati: Obergefell and Gerhardstein talk Will Smith's Netflix series on 14th amendment
Mar 10, 2021
Show notes
Nearly six years ago the historic Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges – the Obergefell being Cincinnati's own Jim Obergefell – made marriage equality the law in all 50 states. Obergefell and Cincinnati Civil Rights Attorney Al Gerhardstein, who represented Obergefell, are featured in an episode of the new Netflix documentary, Amend: The Fight for America.
Hosted by actor Will Smith, the series focuses on the 14th Amendment being the hallmark of democracy. On it, Obergefell and Gerhardstein tell the story of how Cincinnati went from being one of the most gay-hostilecities in America to one of the most inclusive. They also tell Obergefell's love story.
They told The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast this week, the fight for equality continues.
S2 Ep75: That's So Cincinnati: 'Our children are a year behind,' school board member Melanie Bates says
Mar 03, 2021
Show notes
Melanie Bates isn't backing off her crusade to try to get Cincinnati Public Schools fully reopened this spring, despite criticism from the teachers' union and some parents. In fact, the veteran school member is speaking out even more about the need for students to return to the classroom five days a week after the district recently received proficiency test results. In an interview with The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast, Bates said students' proficiency results dropped 17% year over year. In fall 2019, 38% of students were at or above state proficiency, Bates said. But last fall those results dropped to 21%, and Bates attributes the drop off to schools being closed or mostly closed since the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. "I have two grandchildren in Cincinnati Public Schools," said Bates, the longest-tenured member on the board. "I have a daughter who's a first-grade teacher in another public school district. In conversations, the difference between what that district is providing five days a week to their students and what we are, is just devastating." "Our children, in many, many cases, are a year behind," Bates added.
S2 Ep74: That's So Cincinnati: Wendell Young tells all after a decade on city council
Feb 24, 2021
Show notes
Cincinnati City Councilman Wendell Young has been in politics and public service his whole life, starting by walking his Avondale neighborhood with his dad, who was a Democratic Party precinct executive, when he was a child. On this week's That's So Cincinnati podcast Young talked about his childhood, his time on Cincinnati City Council, his rocky relationship with Mayor John Cranley and what he thinks about what's been called the a "culture of corruption" at City Hall. And, to the question, What's going on with the Gang of 5 investigation, Young said he knows only what everyone else does, just that "the investigating is ongoing."
S2 Ep73: That’s So Cincinnati: Local First Amendment attorney talks Trump Twitter ban, cameras in courtroom for Sittenfeld hearings
Feb 17, 2021
Show notes
First Amendment attorney Jack Greiner, who represents Cincinnati.com and The Enquirer, joins as special guest.
S2 Ep72: That's So Cincinnati: Fox 19 anchor Tricia Macke talks career persistence, coaching basketball and covering the O.J. Simpson trial
Feb 12, 2021
Show notes
You may know Tricia Macke as the dean of Cincinnati evening news anchors. But Fox 19's lead anchor leads a busy life off the air. Macke has five children, runs a youth basketball organization and has a strict exercise regimen. And she somehow finds time to share about all of it on social media. Macke, in her 22nd year as Fox 19's lead anchor, joined The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast to talk about being with the station since Day 1 of its newscast in 1993; her coaching experiences and sharing her life on social media.
S2 Ep71: That's So Cincinnati: Thom Brennaman talks making changes, forgiveness, his famous father and whether he'll ever call a big league game again
Feb 03, 2021
Show notes
Sports broadcaster Thom Brennaman calculates that he's spoken nearly 190 million words on live television while calling football and basketball games during a 33-year career. And it was one derogatory and insensitive three-letter word that derailed his promising career and changed his life forever. The latter, the former Reds broadcaster says, has been for the better. Six months after using a homophobic slur on air during a Reds broadcast, Brennaman shares what he's learned and how he's grown in an in-depth chat with The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast.
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