jacksparrow82

I apologize if this question has already been asked/answered, but I'm curious about something....The tracks currently being laid on Central Parkway are being placed on the far left hand lane (closest to the center of the road). Why not install them on the right hand side of the road (closest to the sidewalk)? When the streetcar turns right (south) on Walnut it will have to cut across several lanes of traffic. I'm assuming they will have to install a special turn signal for the streetcar to go right before the rest of the traffic is allowed to proceed forward? Seems

Sounds like we're going to be hearing about a special tax district proposal soon! Which, honestly, I've always been a big fan of anyway. I think it would make a lot more people in the suburbs happy to see that the people who live downtown are actually paying for a lot of the project themselves. It may make gaining support for expansions easier.

As a resident of the northeast quadrant of OTR (near Main and 14th), the streetcar will be most useful for me going to the CBD. Currently, if I'm heading to Fountain Square or The Banks, I walk. But that's a long walk (22 minutes according to Google Maps), and is not ideal in bad weather. I will definitely take the streetcar for that type of trip. However, I would probably not take it if I'm heading from my home to somewhere else in OTR. If I'm heading to Findlay Market, I'd essentially have to backtrack (go two blocks south south) to 12th & Main to catch the last northbound stop before it turns left on 12th. Or, I could walk west on Liberty and catch the stop at Liberty and Elm, but it would actually be less walking for me to go directly to Findlay Market. Where the streetcar will be most useful for me for point-to-point stops. I would absolutely take the streetcar from Washington Park to Fountain Square. Or Washington Park to Findlay Market. I would walk if I was only going "one stop" (like Findlay Market to Rhinegeist). And as Jake pointed out, when you're with "normal people", they don't want to walk more than 2-3 city blocks. I think you brought up a lot of good points on the usefulness of this system. I live in Pendleton and I could see myself walking down to Main St. to hop on the system and take it the rest of the way to Findley Market or down to the Banks. Once downtown it will be very useful to take from anywhere in the CBD back to OTR or vice versa. And you're definitely right about most "normal" people will refuse to walk more than a couple of blocks when in a group.

I was thinking the same thing about the bends in the tracks. They don't appear to deviate more than maybe 12" at most? It does seem kind of pointless, but I'm assuming the engineers had good reason for it. My question is when are they going to be installing the curved tracks to start down Henry St.? Its fun to drive a car following the streetcar tracks down that street. It makes for a very smooth ride.

Quaker Parrots. I used to have one of those as a pet. It was extremely obnoxious. I can't imagine how annoying a whole flock of them would be.

Yeah, but Cranley is only in office for four years (eight if we don't do our job getting someone else elected) and by then our downtown/otr loop will be running and doing well. So, we vote him out of office and elect another pro-streetcar majority and it will be just in time to get the next project going.

Nice post John. What do you think about getting the streetcar to the Zoo? Their parking/traffic situation is horrendous (my wife works there and can tell you all about it). Not sure how people from the suburbs could utilize it, but for anyone coming in from out of town or living downtown it would be a very welcome addition. Just imagine you could tell tourists to stay in a hotel downtown and visit the zoo via the streetcar and use it to get to all the other downtown attractions as well.

Anyone know if this current crazy cold weather is affecting the construction of the streetcar? Surely they can't pour concrete when its this cold, can they?

Yes, I forgot to mention Haile, but I did already write them to say thank you. This is the email they have listed on their website for contact [email protected]

The feds are watching us very closely. I'm sure they knew the minute we did. (Kind of like Santa Claus!)

I really think its important that as many people as possible thank our leaders for choosing to move forward. Today could have turned out a lot different if they wanted it to. They used their power to make a wise decision and for that they deserve to be thanked! Copy and paste and send a quick email! [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

We need to all immediately write to, call, and THANK all over our council members (and even Cranley). We're very lucky to have avoided the embarrassment of cancelling this project. It was a close call! Drinks Tonight!!!!!! BTW Cranley just had a funny Freudian slip!

I've never hit the refresh button on my browser so many times in one day

^Ha Ha Ha! You need to tweet that! Hilarious:)

The anticipation is killing me! This is worse than waiting for the results on the night of the No on 9 campaign!

Are they actually expected to vote on the streetcar today?

I saw those two people speak. Ridiculous I also can't believe what Cranley just said to the gentleman who spoke on behalf of the construction jobs being lost from the streetcar pause/cancellation. Cranley actually said, "Sorry, but that's the way it goes."

All of the people speaking out against the streetcar sound like morons.

That's encouraging news. The next 2 days are going to be crazy!

As mentioned above, I don't think these idiots care about the cost of cancellation. The cost analysis they paid for isn't going to mean anything in the end. Its clear they are just looking for any excuse possible to cancel. They're worried about 3-5 million/year in operating costs on a project expected to bring BILLIONS in economic development. Yet at the same time they don't even question how much it costs to operate our city's roads every year when a new highway interchange is desired (a project that likely won't bring any sort of new economic benefits to the city. They want to keep the status quo. They just want their taxes low and their highways huge.

Would love to hear John Schneider's 2 cents on all this. He's always a voice of reason in these dark times. I'm not looking forward to thursday. I have no faith in Cranley. I'm still hanging on to a thread of hope that 6 council members will wake up between now and then and see the stupidity in letting this project be killed. But, based on today's reaction to the whole SORTA thing, I'm quite worried. I think the charter amendment is our only hope.

Building it without Federal money at all sounds like a complete nightmare. Plus, if a ballot initiative is passed, the construction companies would have been stopped for so long that I would imagine resuming construction would have to be treated as a new contract, which would almost assuredly be higher. I think even a lot of streetcar supporters would be hesitant to move forward without Federal funds. I would do it just to spite Cranley. If he wants to come into our city and screw things up for us this bad, we need to make sure he accomplishes nothing during his 4 years here and that we make sure he's voted out next election. We need to make sure he never hears the end of the streetcar one way or another.

I can't even stand to listen to all this anymore. I've signed the petition and helped get signatures for it. Thats all I can do. This is going to have to go on the ballot. Regardless of if the feds pull our money we need to make sure this phase is built. If Cranley wants to make it cost more by helping us lose our federal support, fine. That will be on his hands, but the streetcar will be finished.

I agree. I would certainly vote for P.G. for mayor after seeing how he's handled the last 2 weeks. Even though he may not share my views on everything, I feel like he can be trusted to make intelligent decisions.

Also, talk about gaining national attention: Anchorage, Alaska is talking about us! http://www.adn.com/2013/12/09/3221929/group-trying-to-save-cincinnati.html