osogato

^ According to the Business Courier article, operating the streetcar under the management plan within the $4.2 million budget would require a 30% reduction in service. That is insane... "Cranley's plan is to appropriate only $4.2 million to do the job. That means service has to be cut by at least a 30 percent, SORTA officials said, a scenario CEO Dwight Ferrell said will lead to a “death spiral” of the project."

^ Here is the Business Courier's objective article: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/06/05/here-s-how-much-it-will-cost-to-operate.html. $4 million vs. $4.8 million

I, for one, would love it if Taste of Cincinnati and Oktoberfest would move to the Banks/Smale Park. It is way too crowded along the narrow Fifth Street corridor during the peak hours of those festivals. I liked Taste better when it was on Central Parkway because there was more room to move around. Add the benefit of parking cheaply in OTR and taking the streetcar to the festival, and it sounds like a win-win to me. Those would probably be some of the highest fare days of the year for the streetcar. Makes no sense to cancel service on those days.

Seelbach's motion to study Phase Ib costs passes 5-4. Winburn lets City Manager know that this is just a motion, not an ordinance, and he is not required to follow it. City Solicitor agrees with Winburn's assessment.

Some great quotes from David Mann at today's meeting (from Chris Wetterich @ChrisCinciBiz) : "Sometimes I think some of us will not be happy unless the streetcar fails." "Some capitalize on moments to drive home the idea with the public that the project is failing." "It is incumbent on all of us to find positive ways to engage the [streetcar] process."

At the City Council meeting today, Charlie Windbag is still proposing crancelling the entire streetcar project at this late stage. If memory serves me right, when he was running for State Senate, he seemed to change his tune and say it was viable project and if elected he would help find state funding for Phase Ib/II. Does anyone really take this guy seriously?

I wonder if Cranley reads the Business Courier: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/feature/5-things/2014/12/five-things-you-need-to-know-today-and-a-word-to.html?page=all Even though I'm typing this in the Courier's Loveland Bureau, in the back corner of the basement next to the sump pump, I can still hear the streetcar naysayers having a good laugh as the project hits yet another financial snag. Some of the naysayers live inside the city of Cincinnati. One is the mayor. But in my world, the loudest streetcar pooh-poohs are the folks out in the suburbs, in places like … Loveland. I hear anti-streetcar talk constantly. My neighbors call it a trolley. They say it's doomed. They question the sanity of anyone who thinks it might actually work. And they say all of this VERY LOUDLY. They also don't get downtown very often. They couldn't find Findlay Market without GPS. They wouldn't dare venture into Over-the-Rhine, despite the fact that it contains some of the Midwest's most exciting restaurants. So I'm using my soapbox this morning to ask you, if you're one of the folks talking down the streetcar, to cool it. Like the Reds and the Bengals, the success of the streetcar would help the entire city. It would move Cincinnati, in the eyes of the rest of the nation, into the club of cities that "get it." What does that mean? Simply that the city values a new way of living and a new way of getting around – one that doesn't make cars and commutes and lawnmowers mandatory for "the good life." We should all root for the streetcar to succeed because we've already paid for it. It's being built. It will become part of the fabric of the urban core. I'd love to keep ranting but I need to spend the next 40 minutes sitting on Interstate 71, wishing I was riding a train. Or a trolley. Or whatever you want to call it.

^ Interesting article. “We expect Cincinnati to provide the nature and quality of service that it proposed in both the TIGER and Urban Circulator grant applications, which were a consideration in the selection of the applications for the award of grant funding,” the agency said in a statement." ... "For example, while the city said in one of the grant applications that it will operate the streetcar 365 days a year, if it wanted to not have service on Christmas Day, when there are likely to be very few riders and operations costs will be higher because of employee overtime, the feds aren’t going to descend upon City Hall and order the city manager to fire it up. That would still fall within the “nature and quality of service” the city promised. But it’s not like the city can decide to operate the streetcar eight hours a day or only 180 days a year if it only finds half of the money it needs to fund operations. The quality of service in that scenario would be significantly less than what was proposed in the grant agreement."

This tweet from Gregg Hartman: "Not having a plan to pay for the street car cannot become the problem of Hamilton County property owners. #nodeal" Why exactly is he opposed to a proposal where residents would vote to tax themselves within these CINCINNATI neighborhoods?

This sounds like an interesting article, but I'm not a Business Courier subscriber. Can anyone who is post a quick summary of the article? Thanks! http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/print-edition/2014/08/29/is-the-icon-tax-plan-terminal.html

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Luken > Monzel.

Interesting. Thanks for the replies, everyone. Even if it is not a legal requirement, I still think they should bring the stand back out, as a nod to the Square's history.

You're right. I'm sure that satisfies the requirement. It would be nice to see that flower stand back, though...

I believe this is it.

Does anyone know what happened to the old Flower Stand that used to be on Fountain Square? As I recall, one of the conditions of the City originally taking control of the Square was that it had to remain a public market space. In order to keep this condition, the city installed the old Flower Stand on the square and sold flowers once in a while. Since the 3CDC renovation, the Flower Stand seems to have disappeared. It was a beautiful stand, and I'd love to have it come back.