jacksparrow82

Saw that this morning. Its more balanced than they typically write, but still comes across as biased towards the opposition in my opinion. Oh well, at this point its all up to city hall to get their act together and get something started asap.

Can anyone with more political knowledge than I answer this question above? Can the streetcar project move forward without support from Lippert?

Any announcements made in regards to the streetcar?

+1 on that suggestion. Just cut and paste what you wrote. A lot of people read those opinion sections. It always helps to see more support there!

There are executives on 3CDC who are very much opposed to the Streetcar. One of them is an editor at the enquirer if I'm not mistaken. Also, 3CDC is worried the Streetcar would take up TIF funds that 3CDC depends on for what it does. I know it makes absolutely know sense to me either why 3CDC doesn't help us out a little with this project. It would strengthen everything they are doing downtown.

Perhaps, and I agree that there will be plenty of times where I would rather walk and enjoy the weather or whatever. But, I also have thought on many occaisions how nice a streetcar would be for this or that. For example, for getting downtown from my condo in OTR this winter during the cincy beerfest, it was freezing out, really miserable weather for walking. Obviously we didn't want to drive because a. there'd be nowhere to park and b. I'd get arrested after stumbling out of the convention center. A streetcar ride would have been a god send. It could have gotten us down to fountain square quickly and would have cut a large portion of unpleasant walking out of our night. Afterwards, again, would have been great for getting us home safely and keeping us relatively warm. There's been many times that we head out to findlay market on our bikes and have to limit what we buy because we know we can only carry so much with our bikes. The streetcar would help that obviously. Additionally, going out to a fund raising event for work in the Carew Tower, my wife and I were dressed up in formal clothes, didn't want to walk because she was wearing heels and because it was 10 degrees out. Streetcar would have been awesome that night too. Also, there have been many times where its simply raining, we want to head downtown for dinner or a show at the CAC and guess what, the streetcar would have helped immensely. The point being that streetcars compliment the whole pedestrian experience. If its more convienent to walk, we'll walk, but if its not convienent to walk, we can still walk to the streetcar stop and take it where we need to go. I think it would be a lot more useful than most of us realize. I would have never understood any of this had I not been living in OTR for the past 3.5 years. In fact, I'd probably think it was a waste too.

In reply to the discussion about the route above: Keep in mind that in other cities where streetcar systems were built, the second and third and subsequent phases came quickly and easily once the initial system was complete. I truly believe this would happen here. We absolutely must get the downtown loop built immediately for this reason. I see no problem getting future expansions to Uptown once people see the usefulness of the downtown loop. And I agree that a connection to Uptown (and hopefully an additional "Uptown Circulator" too) would be hugely beneficial to the overall success of the project. But, I think a lot of Cincinnatians, even those who live downtown already, have a hard time believing/understanding that a downtown/OTR circulator really could have a huge impact on the city now. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic here, but I really think it would work well and an uptown connection at a later time would be easy (relatively speaking) to get done.

I have to disagree with you on the downtown to OTR loop being "completely useless." In fact, I think its the most important part of the whole project. There are countless examples I can think of where having a rail system in place for getting to and from downtown and OTRs major attractions would be hugely beneficial to the city. Just think how much easier it would be for people to come downtown for a night out, park once, and be able to go to a ball game, dinner afterwards, possibly the casino after that, and maybe even a stop at a bar in OTR after that before finally taking the streetcar back to where you parked at the end of the night? That's just one of about a million scenarios where I could see the downtown circulator being awesome to have. I know I would use it alot. In contrast, I doubt I would have ever used the uptown connector as it was planned. Why would I ever want to go to uptown only to be dropped off next to Krogers? For the immediate future I see the uptown connector as unneccessary. It will be great in the future once uptown starts to grow and improve and the benefits of the downtown loop become more apparent to people. That's just my opinion, but I'm sure alot of other OTR residents agree with me that the downtown circulator is incredibly important.

No, its because they knew it was already a done deal. TRAC was never planning on listening to reason with this because the decision had already been made from the top.

Well, yes its not positive in the sense of what a normal positive sounding article would entail, but compared to the typical neo-nazi sounding propaganda he usually writes its a refreshing change.

Can this really be true? Barry Hortsman just wrote an article on the streetcar thats actually positive!?! http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/07/new-study-old-streetcar-conclusions/

I'm glad to hear that Council is already discussing the possibility of building a scaled down phase 1. I think the OTR/Downtown Loop will be hugely successful, especially with the banks opening and the casino coming. If they can just scrap the requirement for the uptown connection now and start work on the downtown loop, I think we have a strong chance of actually getting a system in place. In my opinion time is not on our side right now. The longer they take to get this started, the more likely we'll run in to further hurdles and may never see it start. John, how likely do you think it is that council will start working on this now?

Again, the city won't be able to build anything unless they go back to the drawing board and redefine what phase 1 is. Thanks to suggestions from Roxanne Qualls a few years ago, the current phase 1 must include the uptown connector. If they wanted to build just a downtown circulator they would have to change the plans completely. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is my current understanding of phase 1.

Exactly, if cuts need to be made why in the H#$% would they cut 100% of the highest ranking project. That makes absolutely no sense!! I suppose it doesn't really matter what TRAC says at this point though since the amendment to the Transportation Budget banning all funding to Cincinnati's Streetcar is passed.

I disagree that Ohio has no urban residents other than those who are poor. And since when did that determine the value of a vote or of human life? And, yes, many poor people do vote. BTW, you just hit on why there is anti-urban bias in GOP politics. The cities have been Democratic strongholds for decades, so why send public infrastructure dollars to them? I never said anything about their "value" as human beings, so I don't know where you got that. I didn't mean to make anyone think that I thought any less of them either. All I was stating was that compared to other large cities across the country, Ohio's cities are full of more poor, uneducated type citizens than they are of middle or upper income types. That's just demographic fact. I live in OTR and I can tell you that the large majority of the people who live here are poor, living on at least some form of government help and do not vote. That's not to say that EVERYONE is that way, but the majority still are. If you don't believe me come down to OTR some time and campaign door to door with me as I did during Issue 9. Most of the people we talked to laughed when we asked them if they were registered to vote (no kidding, they thought we were crazy). Cincinnati has a great chance to change that demographic to include more higher income, tax paying citizents which will help the financial situation here greatly. There's no anti-urban bias with me whatsoever. I am 100% anti-suburban though. But, that doesn't change the fact that our central cities are still full of mostly poor, needy people. There's nothing wrong with these people, they just make the the majority of the population downtown. (in Cincinnati at least)

I don't see how anyone can seriously lift the blame off of apathetic urban residents who never vote and attribute their deliberate inaction to a plot at a national or state level. The urban residents of Ohio have spoken loud and clear: 'We don't care about our city, let alone our state. We don't care to learn about what has been proven to work to improve our cities, so we'll just go with our uninformed gut reaction and say that rail wouldn't do anything, if we have an opinion at all'. The exurban/suburban Ohio residents, unfortunately, do care and do vote as a result. That's why we have Kasich as governor and that's who we let dictate Ohio's urban agenda. What Urban Residents? The problem is that Ohio doesn't have any Urban residents. Are you talking about the indigent, homeless, poverty stricken urban residents? Because obviously they don't vote. The whole issue here is that the majority of the people living in Ohio's cities who are capable of voting are living in suburban communities. As you pointed out, they are calling all the shots. Until we can somehow get a sigificant number of people to repopulate our urban cores this trend will continue. That's what is so frustrating about Cincinnati's streetcar project. It would have done wonders for repopulating our core and would have really helped reverse that trend towards suburban dominance in this part of Ohio at least.

I agree that this makes a ton of sense to do it how you described. The problem is that back when the route was being planned 2 or 3 years ago, Roxanne Qualls introduced a motion that would require phase 1 of the streetcar to include the uptown connector. This was passed and as it stands now phase 1 MUST include the uptown connector. This was something I was not pleased about when Qualls introduced it because I knew it would increase total costs and likely slow things down sigificantly. I believe that in order to build only the downtown loop, council would have to essentially go back to re-defining phase 1 and agree that its OK to not include the uptown connector. Given the current state of Council with Berding gone and a republican in his place, I have doubts this sort of work will get done. But, maybe someone who knows more about this stuff can give their input? (John?)

Contact these people: ODOT Director Jerry Wray: Jerry Wray, Director Ohio Department of Transportation 1980 West Broad Street Columbus Ohio, 43223 Phone: (614) 466-2336 Gov. John Kasich: (614) 466-3555 or http://governor.ohio.gov/ShareYourIdeas.aspx Governor John Kasich Riffe Center, 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, Oh 43215-6117 TRAC: [email protected]

You've got to be kidding me!?! They can just write a bill to block Cincinnati from having funds for a project with absolutely no input from the public? This is unbelievable! This can't possibly be true.

KJP and John, You should both write letters to the editor explaining exactly what you did above. Who knows, maybe one or two people will read and listen to what you have to say. We need to keep trying to battle all the moronic commentary in the enquirer. Did you see the letter from Dusty Rhodes today?

Man, this project just keeps getting more and more bad news every week! I mean several months ago we were told we had the money and we were just sitting around waiting for construction to start and now its like we're back to the drawing board with absolutely no hope of anything ever happening! When will this just end? I guess April 12 will be the deciding date. It appears as if with out state funding the project is going to lose support and probably never happen?

We've known the gameplan of the opponents for years now. They use the traditional monopolistic media in this town as their mouthpiece. The new editor of the Enquirer HATES the streetcar project and of course we've known 700 is encouraging their personalities to speak out against it. The gameplan is exactly identical to the last ballot initiative and the supporters won overwhelmingly. The ballot initiative is very similar but I still hate reading and hearing the clear bias. I don't mind someone disagreeing and making a counter argument, in fact I encourage it because it addresses all aspects constructively, but withholding information, lying, and misrepresenting the project is simply propaganda. We need this Kasich funds situation resolved ASAP so Cincinnati can move forward on the project with or without the funds. If he indeed strongarms TRAC into voting how he wants them to vote, I think the city should make a big public PR tour and sue. The longer construction is delayed gives more opportunity to the opponents to derail it permanently. I agree. Does anyone know when we'll find out final word from Trac?

Scav: There are tons of numbers that justify this project, but the enquirer and the opposition ignore these facts and tell their own lies about it to get more people behind them. Its incredibly frustrating.

It wouldn't hurt for everyone to put in a call to Gov. Kasich's office at the number listed above. It appears they are keeping a tally

I'm pretty sure they would need to go back to the drawing board and get approval for a whole different project if they wanted to change the current plans to leave out the uptown connector. That was the big controversy with the project back when Roxanne Qualls pushed hard to get the uptown connector included on the first phase. I could be wrong though..John any thoughts on whether thats a feasible option or if there'd be any problems getting that approved?