jacksparrow82

This is an outrage. Someone needs to send these stories to the Enquirer and local news stations to show what slime balls the NAACP and COAST really are. What do they think this city is..Cuba?

Wait What!>? They're not gonna be at St. Xavier downtown or Immaculata in Mt. Adams this weekend!? I guess their putting their full stock in the west side- an area that would greatly benefit from increased revenues caused by the streetcar- The west side needs investment and more attention from the city- the city needs more revenue to invest in the west side- the streetcar brings that increased revenue. Yes, but the west side is full of people who they know they can count on to be ignorant on the subject of mass transit, they generally don't go downtown and are ultra conservative. So, its exactly who the NAACP and COAST love! Just look at Green Twnship. They're suing the state because they don't want public housing in their area. That should give you an idea of the types of people that live over there. I would know, I had the misfortune of growing up on that side of town:(

I'm not worried this time around at all. Even if this thing makes the ballot I think it will be easily crushed on election day. The momentum of positive things going on downtown and in OTR is growing it seems almost exponentially. Since I moved to OTR just over 3 years ago the neighborhood has exploded with growth and new residents. When we campaigned against Issue 9 there still wasn't as much going on around here as there is now. We have way more support this time around then we did then and people all over the city are starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of investing in downtown and otr. Additionally, I think the number of blogs and general support all over the internet (via twitter and facebook) is way bigger now then it was last time. I think it will be a lot easier to get A TON of people on board with us to defeat this with all the additional support online now. I kind of hope the issue does make it on the ballot just so we get a chance to laugh at smitherman and finney yet again when they get humiliated at the polls:)

The only way the streetcar can be stopped now is if COAST's ridiculous ballot measure passes or if the FTA/Feds pull funding or don't give us the go ahead with the rest of the project (which is unlikely given how highly regarded the project is in Washington). Its out of council's hands now for sure. I suppose the only way council could become a problem is if we had a majority anti-streetcar bunch elected and someone was to introduce a measure to cease all progress on the project. However, by that time (if Coast loses) the streetcar will be under construction most likely and that would be a very stupid move by any council member to do.

I don't see why there's anything wrong with displacing/relocating the poor in Cincinnati in an effort to improve our core neighborhoods. The shootings and robberies that make people so afraid of downtown and OTR are a direct result of an over population of poor who turn to drugs and gangs when they are confined to one neighborhood like they are now. If we spread them out equally throughout the city and county the problem will be drastically reduced, IMO. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think we need to decrease our population of non-tax paying, non-working poor and increase our population of educated, working, tax-paying citizens. The suburbs selectively keep the "undesirables" out of their neighborhoods, why can't we do the same? I know I'm going to get yelled at for this post...

I'm thinking Horstman must be on vacation or something? This is what the Enquirer put out today: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110621/NEWS0108/106220343/FTA-Streetcar-won-t-big-environmental-impact?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE If B.H. had written it there would have been a quote from Smitherman, some mention of the city's operation deficit, and likely a reminder about the petition being circulated.

Sure, anybody can start a petition and get it on the ballot with enough support. If its approved by voters a repeal of their amendment would be possible, but I don't know the specific rules regarding that. I'm sure its not easy though. It would be way better to defeat them (again) and make sure this amendment never becomes law:) I propose that we start circulating a petition that would ban COAST from placing anymore ballot initiatives on our ballots for the next 10 years. I really think it could be done. Wouldn't you just love to see their reaction if we managed to ban them from doing all these stupid ballot initiatives?

My guess is that we finally received the green light from the FTA to move on to the next step (whatever that might be) with the streetcar. There was some sort of environmental impact study being done on the streetcar project the last I heard and it was due to be completed in June. Its June, so I'm betting its done now. My question is...What's Next?

Wow, I've never thought of it that way, but I think you've hit the nail on the head. Whether people realize this is what they are doing or not, it sounds about right. For more practically minded people who like to save their pennies and always chose the most practical and cheapest solution to everything in their lives, the suburbs and the current highway dominated transportation system makes the most sense to them, even if it only truly benefits them.

Sounds like your friend probably lives somewhere close to my parents who just built a house in a similar neighborhood in that part of town...disgusting to me, but if that's what he likes oh well. To each his own, although I still think that when someone chooses to live 45 minutes away from where they work just so they can be in the newest, greatest suburb (which is what ends up happening a lot in this city for people who work downtown and live in West Chester or Mason or somewhere else super far away) its an irresponsible and foolish choice, but who am I to judge? This city seems to have a disproportionately large number of people like your friend. Why? I have no idea, but that's the only reason you see that trend. I do believe that the younger generations, especially in larger cities, are more inclined to look for a life outside the suburbs they grew up in, but I can't back that up with numbers. I just know that all of my friends and acquaintances are disgusted with the thought of living in a mcmansion suburb. It seems to me that the number of people who are disgusted with that sort of living situation is rising, but again that's just my observation. I think you bring up a good point though. This city currently attracts the type of person who's looking for a safe, quiet place to have kids and do safe (and what I perceive as boring) things. There's nothing wrong with being that way, its just a different type of person. People who want to live in a big city generally have different goals/interests in life. For instance, I would love to live in San Francisco because I love the weather, the urban environment and the proximity to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I don't really care if there are good school districts or neatly trimmed suburban neighborhoods. The biggest problem with this city, IMO, is that it currently only caters to the type of person like your friend. The city should try to cater to a wider diversity of people and one way it can do that is to enhance its urban environment through investing in things like the streetcar. That way its urban neighborhoods can be just as strong as its suburban ones and the city as a whole will be stronger and more competitive.

The enquirer posted this today in response to our criticism:http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/05/24/how-long-does-it-take-you-to-walk-the-streetcar-route/ I think we need to all somehow come together and get an article published in the Enquirer explaining why the walking times of the streetcar route are not important. The opposition frequently tries to argue that rail is somehow inferior to other modes of transportation because its slower than driving a car or using other modes of transit. That's one of the things that ended up hurting the 3C project. The Enquirer is either ignorantly missing the point or purposely mis-informing people to prevent them from seeing the actual benefits to a streetcar system. I personally feel like it doesn't matter how fast it gets me from point A to point B. Its about enhancing the overall urban environment, making transit simple and transparent, making a car unneccessary, being able to walk right on to the car with a bike or a bunch of groceries or whatever, being able to simply follow the tracks to figure out where the next stop is. I mean, we all get it. We understand why streetcars are better than buses, we understand why streetcars help cities grow, but we need to do a better job getting this info out there for everyone else to see. Unfortunately, the only news source that most people go to in this city is either the Enquirer, 700wlw, or local news (wlwt, etc). Blogs, twitter, and smaller papers just don't reach the masses well enough in Cincinnati. Is there anyway that supporters could band together and get some fair, informative articles written or produced on radio/tv? I don't know though, just thinking out loud...Perhaps it wouldn't matter if we informed people, they might ignore it anyway?

Exactly, in fact I would argue they are faster in and around downtown. I very typically beat cars from one end of downtown to another. I am so disgusted with the enquirer. I think they are in large part responsible for much of the ignorant comments I hear about this project as well as stupid comments about OTR. They are truly holding our city back.

Yep, unbelievable. They had to interview a known streetcar opponent on a totally unrelated issue just so they could get their daily negative press on the project.

We need to all write letters to the editor about this as well as write and/or call Lipperts office to call him out on his ignorant arguments. Good luck getting it published. I've written 2, I know others who have written as well. ZERO made it. Meanwhile later that week, a guy from Franklin calling the streetcar "Communist" and Tom Luken's ramblings get published Yeah, you're probably right. I've written one recently that never got published either. I really wish the Enquirer would just go away and we could have a fair paper in town.

We need to all write letters to the editor about this as well as write and/or call Lipperts office to call him out on his ignorant arguments.

No one can pin-point a date yet because its not up to the city at this point. The FTA is running the show and the city can't spend any money on building it until the FTA gives the OK. They are currently waiting on word from the FTA regarding the environmental impact study. That is expected to be approved sometime late may/early June I believe. After that there are more hoops to jump through. All that they can do is guess that they should be ready to go sometime towards the end of the year. Unless someone here works at the FTA, no one is going to be able to give you much more specific info than that unfortunately. Its incredibly frustrating that we have a plan, we have all the money we need for that plan, but still we have to wait another 6+? months to actually start that plan!

There is some unbelievable BS coming out of the mouths of the republicans at this meeting right now. Lippert is actually trying to compare the people mover in detroit to a modern day streetcar. Does he really think the people mover is even in the same category?? Please, if you're reading this and you're supposed to speak tonight...Tell them how stupid they are for comparing that joke of a system to a real streetcar system! watch meeting here if not able to attend: http://cincinnati-oh.gov/media/

Here's what COAST is saying to its members through email today. Referring to the special meeting being held tonight... "Other than the ballot issue this November, this may be our last best chance to stop this enormous waste of monies!" It sounds like they think this meeting is actually a chance to stop the project somehow? We all need to be there to show our support and overwhelm the opposition. If we have a weak showing at this meeting its not going to look good. "http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=eoxgoicab&v=001rUMZSB4OvtFXbb4a2-zukpVpP0D6lwNU-92Newc_WJKi99ujrQj8MSrNsRw6N09Ujeicwq_fm8zWybYikjOH0YZt92bcckq_oUrQGEg48Vx64urEnrI5GA%3D%3D"

Yeah, and what's so incredibly frustrating about the firefighters who are so opposed to the streetcar is that they are rallying against the one thing the city is trying to do that would actually help them keep their jobs in the future. People in this area are just not looking at this project rationally. They don't realize that the city is actually trying to help them by building the streetcar and thus increasing their tax base so they can afford to pay their bills better, etc, etc. Its incredibly frustrating.

I think we've all learned that the opposition to this project is never interested in reading facts or hearing legitimate information on the subject. This meeting was scheduled so they could sit there and yell at the Mayor and the Streetcar team in front of the media. They will be barking their same old tired arguments that "the city can't afford it because of this and that, blah, blah, blah" Now that the route is shorter I'm sure we'll be hearing arguments against the economic impacts it will have now compared to before. They'll probably try to pitch it as a fruitless effort since it doesn't reach the stadiums or uptown any longer. I'm sure we'll hear them say stupid things like we should be spending the money on "cleaning up crime" or "filling pot holes." All I know is that its going to be painful to read the Enquirer's coverage of this meeting because I'm sure they will take every absurd argument they hear against the project, no matter how little fact they contain, and post them up all over the front page of the website and newspapers for the next week. While at the same time only giving a few small lines to the proponents and all the facts surrounding the project. I'm also sure they'll go out of their way to quote all the clowns from COAST including Smitherman and Finney. How's that for a pessimistic out look on the meeting? Sorry, but that's generally the way these things go with the Enquirer and its campaign to destroy this project. Now that they have 4 morons on their side in City Council (I still can't believe Berding picked a republican to replace him!), its only going to make their campaign easier.

Whoa, there were like 2-3 pages of discussion about the new shortened streetcar route that came out the day the announcment was made and they are all gone..

"The downtown/OTR loop on its own connects enough dots to be useful and is small enough to serve as a prototype for a completed network. If we're right and the finished streetcar turns out to be successful, fanastic. Then we can start expanding and looking into light rail. If opponents are right and the finished streetcar fails to attract ridership and spark development, then at least we'll know. The kind of money we're talking about for the first loop isn't astronomical by public works project standards. It's time to start building." Couldn't agree more with Jimmy_James last post above. I think even many streetcar supporters underestimate the huge impact a downtown loop will have on our city(Roxanne Qualls is one of them). A downtown/OTR circulator will do wonders for our core, I'm convinced. They just need to get it done! We have plenty of money available for a complete system right now. There's no reason to delay this any longer. BTW, has anyone heard anything regarding what the city is currently doing now that we know the state funds are gone? Are they actually getting a plan together anytime soon? I know they have other important things to be doing right now, but if they don't get this thing started with rails in the ground by November we may be in big trouble (with the new ballot measure expected).

Yeah, its incredibly frustrating and almost embarrassing that the city hasn't started building anything yet when we've supposedly had all this money in line. I guess that's the draw back to using public dollars for anything. Too many hoops to jump through and it just gives the opposition more time to act.

I would say pretty balanced, but it's still full of loaded words. For example, why state that the modern streetcar on display was "trucked in"? I don't see the Enquirer talking about how things are brought in by train, plane or truck in other stories. So I guess I don't see the relevance of including that detail of information. Same thing with Track 3 which is called "Just kill the thing now". Also, they describe opponents description of the project as a "signature economic-development project" and opponents description as a "colossal money-wasting blunder". Maybe I'm nitpicking, but their use of language still seems loaded even in this otherwise relatively balanced series of articles. No you're not nit-picking at all, I thought the same thing when I saw the title "Just Kill the Thing Now." I wish the Enquirer would just stop pretending to be fair and start coming out and saying what it really thinks flat out. They absolutely want nothing more than to see the streetcar project fail. I think the only reason they keep publishing these articles is to read the idiot commentary and bask in their own ignorance. Its a complete joke that this is the kind of newspaper we have in this city.

If anyone has time the enquirer comments section is being taken over by anti-streetcar BS. I don't know if it matters, but its hard to look at.