hohum

Cheryl was not there from what I saw (unless she was upstairs) The referendum issue was referred to the administration, who will most likely in turn refer it to the council committee that decides on ballot issues. I am not sure which committee that is or which council members are on that committee. So no, its not a done deal yet. Hopefully that council committee votes it down. If not, perhaps its time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative to require that council put all spending decisions in excess of a fixed percentage of the budget to a ballot initiative :rolleyes: ^-- being thoroughly facetious, I know just how well such initiatives work in practice -- see MA proposition 2 1/2

Yeah, they would need 4500 or so signatures. My point is not to bad mouth democracy here, but rather that the reasons stated for supporting a ballot initiative are completely bogus when spoken out of the mouth of John Cranley. I don't believe for one nanosecond that Cranley or Monzel really want to get public input. How many members of council would support a ballot initiative requiring ballot intiatives for any spending over 25 million dollars (just to pull a number out of my nether regions)? My guess is zero.

John sums it up pretty well. Funding was approved for the study that would be required before we could get federal dollars for the uptown link. On the bad side was the motion to put it to a public vote in November. That got referred to the adminstration (presumably for referral to the committee which deals with ballot issues). Hopefully they shoot that right in the foot. Here's the information I really really want. How many multimillion dollar projects has Cranley OK'd without a public vote? How about Monzel? This would be very beneficial information to have. I really really want to shoot this false populism right in the foot.

The TANK 2X route is up now. The 47 will likely go up tonight, or sometime shortly thereafter. Then those last 3 that Brad suggested. Now I can just point people to my website when they gripe that there is no public transit to the airport from Cincy area. Its just two short bus trips from UC!

I will definitely be there, probably will have to leave early though, depending on how long it lasts. I have class at 3:30 (and can't miss another one :))

Great points John... Good to have the facts and figures since I am sure I will hear all of O'Tooles FUD recycled and rehashed "talking points" style in the upcoming daysm

Did anyone else catch the Randal "The Tool" O'Toole on WLW? I listened online (since I am still in VA) via the link on http://natilife.blogspot.com/. Cos you know, light rail and streetcars are the same thing doncha know. And the answer must be to spend billions on new highways... *cough* Serious props to Bortz for handling himself so well. Oh, and all you urban planners, did you know that you are "liberal fascists?"... <-- quote from O'Toole's blog. I found it especially humerous that he quotes "rising house prices" as a negative. Especially when home prices are falling in cities all over the country, with some high percentage of folks underwater on mortgages. Worst housing market since just post WWII, and Portland isn't seeing that effect. And thats a bad thing? I mean come on...

Heh, gov't in Cambridge is wack wack wack, but its MA politics as usual really. Different breed of politician out there :) (and thats not a complement) Its real tough terrain to learn on the ground. If you didn't grow up there, you will NEVER know all the back roads, alleys, etc. As far as the bike tickets go, I've got one of those here too (who knew you had to have lights?) Cambridge is a weird place. Lots of cool stuff there if you go explore it (bicycle is best). Still not as walkable as say a D.C., or Portland...

Ummm, I dunno about all that :) I lived there for quite a while and parked illegally all the time. While that may be the stated policy, Cambridge police and parking hardly have the time to enforce that draconian of a policy over the whole city. There are well known enforcement zones during different periods in different parts of the city, and its pretty easy to avoid. Yes there is subway line through the center area, it hardly serves all of Cambridge. Cambridge proper is actually better served by the buses in the area because there is only one line that really hits most of Cambridge (Red Line). Dunno about the aluminum sidign capital either. Plenty of old brick houses, etc. Yeah, its got more than its fair share of bland 3 unit buildings, it also has its fair share of giant 70s 10 - 15 story giant block apartment buildings, converted lofts, etc. I would hardly call cambridge monotonous in appearance. Has rail served Cambridge? Yeah, but not nearly as well as the core of Boston proper. (Green line being the most effective IMO). Buses actually serve ALL of Cambridge better than the Red Line. Although, that said, the Red Line serves the big commercial areas quite well (Mass Ave corridor). Have I got hundreds in tickets in Cambridge, well yeah, but thats just a fact of life with a car anywhere in Boston. For the most part, it was cheaper to get the ticket than go to the garages in the Downtown area. Just my 2c. I actually don't consider Cambridge the most walkable of cities really. If you are talking about any of the Squares, well yeah, thats walkable. But the rest of Cambridge is one way residential streets lined with the typical 3 unit buildings (for the most part, with the above architectural exceptions) Just my 2c on Cambridge anyhoo... Don't quite see how Cambridge fits on that list to be honest. Edit - Hardly any green space in Cambridge - totally agree, thats a big downside. Only places I can really think of are along the river, small parks near the Square...

Nice, those will come shortly thereafter then But at that point I'll have to tweak the map to display the stop markers better...

Southbank TANK routes are in... Probably do the TANK 2X to the airport next, then I will hit up the 47.

ha brad, you look so excited! :) Side note - riding the trains to and from my bar course here in Alexandria and all I can say is damn, can't wait until I can do this on a small scale downtown...

Eh, I'll pay for those. I'd rather not observe the suburban conformity ;) Those aren't for them, they are for the people on the highway ;) Sorry, snark off.

My response to the editor... As usual, doubt it will be published, but we shall see... ----------- Over the last several weeks I have seen several anti Cincinnati Streetcar letters show up on these pages, and I can no longer remain silent about the misconceptions and clear falsehoods contained in those letters. Recently, a writer commented that "Anything that can be done in Cincinnati with streetcars can be done better with buses." Nothing could be further from the truth. Private developers do not invest money as a consequence of bus routes for the very reason that the writer noted -- "Their routes are flexible and can be changed at no expense." It may be no expense to the city to change a bus route, but the change of route would be of great expense to a developer trying to invest in and build livable, walkable, urban areas. Bus routes do not spur development, never have, never will. Here in Cincinnati we have the opportunity to develop in ways that have the potential to attract new residents -- an opportunity that not many other cities have. There is already a great synergy downtown. New restaurants and arts venues are opening, the new fountain square, the banks project is moving forward, we are looking to build a new tallest building, and the efforts of community development groups in Over the Rhine is starting to show real tangible results with new businesses moving in. This is real momentum. The streetcar can encourage and supplement the existing development and build something truly wonderful in our fair city. With a clear vision of what we can accomplish given the vastly undertapped potential of the Central Business District and Over the Rhine, we can move forward. To coopt an oft quoted phrase, "Yes we can."

sure thing :)

Tank it is... I'll see if I can't route that this afternoon

41 is up now... so what next?

eh, opinions are like well, you know, everyone's got one I think we have her points well under control in the marketplace of ideas ;)

she's affiliated with building the kind of developments that depend on a car oriented culture, strip office space in the burbs. we'll see what she has to say to my response (however long the response takes to get posted)

Heh, I hadn't even seen that she had responded to my comment yet... I'll have to go check it out

Yes, I can certainly tell you what you would need to copy and paste (although, it will just show up as an image if I post it here) One thing you might want to consider is making the image a bit smaller so its easy to fit in the sidebar of the typical blog (think about an image the size of the "I support Obama" images that are out there) Go to this link http://www.cogitatio.net/streetcarsupport.html and copy the text in the box to whereever you want to post it. It will look like this wherever you post it: <img src="http://cincystreetcar.com/Images/BlogSupport_CincyStreetcar.jpg" alt="Support the Cincinnati Streetcar" /> You can go to my blog to see how it looks (www.cogitatio.net/blog) and then you can see that its a bit big for say the sidebar on the right which is the type of place people are likley to want to put a badge like that.

We are doing all of those things and more. The advantage of this forum is that we get sound out the best ways to present our issues. I find it invaluable to explore the reasons and motivations of the detractors to find better and more persuasive ways to counter their arguments. It may at times sound like preaching to the choir, but even the "preaching" has gone through several iterations, the arguments become more nuanced as we collectively come to an understanding of the most persuasive and effective approaches to advocacy.

Cool, I'll hit the 41 next. The destination radius allows you to add multiple destinations too (ie where i am coming from and where i am going to) Human thought is still required to figure out if there is an intersecting stop, but i will address that in the data once I get the all the routes in... The things that are really annoying are like the 17 route which has 4 different destinations with different routes...

Some new routes are up, the 69, the 24, the 31, and the 1 routes are now in the database. Does anyone who has read this thread have a favorite route that they ride regularly that they would like to have added? I think most of my personal favorites are in right now...

...it will be one of collectively loosing. Hmmm, sounds familiar...