Brick by Brick

At the current rate of construction, estimates predict it will take seven years to close the housing gap. The U.S. is still short about 4 million units. The problem is hitting home. After more than a decade of inflated home prices, states, including Ohio, are realizing they can enact policies to accelerate the building process. State Representatives Dani Isaacsohn and Adam Mathews talk about it on Brick by Brick.

Interview guests: Ohio Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Over-the-Rhine and Rep. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, talk about the state’s new pro-housing legislation they got passed.

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Residents don’t want to have development done to them and instead want to be part of it. One example involves the conversion of an old chemical plant in West Louisville, Kentucky into affordable housing. Another is in Carmel, Indiana where neighborhood ambassadors are helping residents articulate a vision for the future. Cincinnati’s Yard & Co. is behind those efforts and more. The Neighborhood Playbook, by Yard & Co., is almost a decade old, but the concepts are still resonating nationwide with citizen developers. 

Interview guest: Urban planner Joe Nickol, principal and co-founder Yard & Co.

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 The World Health Organization has set a goal of decreasing pedestrian deaths and injuries by 50-percent in five years. At least in the U.S., there’s not a lot of progress. According to 2023 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics, every 72 minutes a pedestrian dies in a traffic crash. In 2023 the highest number of cyclists ever recorded were killed in crashes with motor vehicles in the U.S.: 1,155. Brick by Brick looks at the solutions of speed humps, redesigned roads and more. 

Interview guests: Cincinnati Senior City Planner Mel McVay; Dayton City Engineer David Escobar; Wayne Avenue Safety Coalition President Willie Morris IV; Western Hills HS Teacher Jeff Demaree; Madisonville Community Council Transportation Chair Kerry Devery; “Ohio’s Bike Lawyer” Steve Magas. 

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U.S. consumers spent on average $1,760 on electricity in 2023, second only to gasoline. And those residential electricity costs are expected to increase 13-18 percent by 2026. Why? Blame it on infrastructure changes needed for data centers. They supply computational power for AI and cryptocurrency and help drive up the cost as power companies pass them on to consumers. Some residents are hoping residential solar panels will save them money. 

Interview guests: Julien Dumoulin-Smith, managing director Jeffries; Andy Holzhauser, co-owner Donovan Energy; Zach McGuire, executive director Columbus Region Green Fund; Andrew Garth, executive vice president and general counsel The Port; Madeline Yozwiak, led study on the effect residential solar has on energy insecurity; Chris Heckman, Pleasant Cake, LLC; Lewis Connel, sales director Sustainergy

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Nearly 50 million people in the U.S. don’t have enough food to eat and what they do have probably isn’t the most nutritious, leading to possible health problems later in life. Food banks and food rescue organizations are helping (we’ll cover those in another podcast), but so are community markets and urban gardens. They’re working to fill the gap by providing healthy food and teaching people to grow their own food. 

Interview guests: Adie Tomer, senior fellow Brookings Institute; Laura Schmidt, principal investigator NOURISH at UC San Francisco; Amarnath Gupta, NOURISH research scientist UC San Diego; Domonique Peebles, founder of Brick Gardens; Michael Schulz, co-founder and executive director Mission of Mary Cooperative; Jasmine Taylor, site director Meiser’s Fresh Grocery and Deli; Amaha Sellassie, board president of Gem City Market Cooperative 

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Housing growth in Dayton has
 typically been divided by the river and real estate developer
 Tim Forbess wants to change that. One example is the historic Longfellow School which he’s transforming into a housing community with a theatre, gymnasium, doctor’s office, dog spa and more. It’s inclusive for LGTBQ+ individuals. He’s also working on another apartment building behind Longfellow which will add even more housing to the Grafton Hill neighborhood.
 

Interview guest: Tim Forbess, CEO of G.F. Bailey, a real estate development and construction firm in Dayton.

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Geoff Milz is the Director of Development for Pennrose in Cincinnati, Ohio. His organization specializes in developing and managing affordable, conventional, and mixed income residential properties. He stresse the importance of creating more income aligned housing. 

Interview guest: Geoff Milz, Director of Development at Pennrose

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Developer Kai Lewars specializes in the “missing middle” housing some say Cincinnati so badly needs. The city made it easier to develop duplexes, triplexes, rowhouses, and more under 2024 zoning changes. Lewars finds vacant lots and works with community organizations to build them. He also is committed to building low-income housing. 

Interview guest: Kai Lewars, principal and founder Kaiker Development + Construction. 

What challenges does your neighborhood face? What’s your housing story? Provide feedback. Help guide our coverage. 

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It was the spring of 2024 when Brick by Brick began reporting on solutions that could potentially increase the housing supply and make it more affordable. Thirty-two episodes later we look back at how well some of those ideas worked; focusing on eviction prevention, the construction of more apartment units and events that enabled a Cincinnati and Dayton woman to experience the joy of home ownership. We will also give you a preview of Season Two. 

Interview guests: Kevin Finn, CEO Strategies to End Homelessness; Nick Zingarelli, director and chief attorney at the Hamilton County Help Center; Ella Carre and Kaneika Lovett, homeowners; Jason Dorsey, executive vice president Windsor Companies; Zachary Graham, senior vice president Crawford Hoying; Phillip Denning, executive vice president The Port. 

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Contentious debates can arise in cities around adding housing or development in neighborhoods, but what power do everyday residents have? From Dayton’s Five Oaks to Cincinnati’s Hyde Park these issues have bubbled up recently, so we want to explore solutions we all have at our fingertips to influence the trajectory of our communities. To explore this topic, we sit down with a city councilmember and the executive director of a group that empowers community councils. 

Interview Guests: Cincinnati Councilmember Mark Jeffreys and Elizabeth Bartley, executive director of Invest in Neighborhoods. 

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