cailes

Those pictures were great Jake. Thanks for posting em.

She seemed to have good things to say about the streetcar at the dinner on Friday night. So did Mann.

Nice.

The fact that politicians made a decision based on facts is (sadly) refreshing out of this whole ordeal. In today's political climate, it seems as most on both sides of the aisle are planted in ideology instead of thinking critically and giving the other side some credit where it's due and making a decision based on that. What happened yesterday took courage and for that, my respect has been earned.

Congratulations Cincinnati!

You guys are fast. It was 42s ago on my Twitter feed and you both already posted. LOL

Indiana doesn't want him....

Just watching from afar, but a lot of the comments being relayed on Twitter paint opposition in very negative light. Mostly negative emotional pleas instead of fact based speeches.

Most of us are on the same side of this debate and look at how this data is diced down already? Let the stakeholders handle this. It will come out better that way

Construction projects in EVERY city across the country cause disruptions to business. This is nothing new.

Construction of rail projects can resemble chaos at times (like most road projects) but in the end, it comes together and makes sense. Just because there is 6 months between those completion dates doesn't mean much. There is a lot of safety and regulatory work that occurs between end of construction and actual operation. Cars need pulled along the track and tested (for instance, so they don't fall over on the 1st day of service), FTA has to sign off, etc. 6 months seems like a long time, but the presence of the line will be quiet impactful with testing and final finishing touches being made.

Just got press release from the City covering all the recent posts. Issuing of construction contract imminent. About damn time

I saw the bid request. There was some terminology in there about the final utility relocation. I am guessing this is the engineering/design side of things?

If you have been at this forum long enough to debate the merits of the streetcar and cannot answer your own question as to why the city didnt simply craft this line as BRT, then you shouldn't be discussing the merits of the streetcar...

If they are going to use that argument, we should be tearing down power lines everywhere. One can drive down any street anywhere in the country where power lines are too close to the road, and be affected by the same thing. Using this as an argument against rail is grasping at straws...

"We are pounding them!!!"

It seems like the "well organized opposition" was simply throwing out live grenades hoping the council would bite. How can you argue that "giving money to the neighborhoods" and "they promised us a new jail" and "economic development money" are well organized? Its like saying the NAACP, The Tea Party and Sierra Club are natural allies... #facepalm

Really fine piece John! Well played

Every time there is a release from the city, people find something to complain or nitpick about. Im jealous of how sleek looking a vehicle will be cruising the streets of OTR and downtown. Ive looked at the European trams for a few years thinking, why hasn't someone contracted to have them built here. They look sooooo nice. Kudos to Cincinnati for taking this leap and raising the bar for other cities. Nothing against the USC design, they are nice, but this kicks Portland's ass as far as cool looking vehicles go

I saw the tweets but was wondering that as well. Those are nice vehicles! I wondered when a US city would step out and choose one of the sleak European style trams for a streetcar

An old friend of mine lives on the NE side of Cincy. In my younger days, I used to drive over from Indy and hang out and hit the bars downtown. We used to drive through OTR and he would comment about how dangerous it was, talk about the riots, etc. When I was there for the streetcar ground breaking, I brought my wife and son. We brought our dogs. We parked, left the dogs and walked to Memorial Hall and ya know what? It didnt seem scary at all. Plus, I had plenty of friendly conversation with folks along the way that some suburbanites might label as hoodlums.

If that train swerves you might get hit!!

yes, but it is much further behind than the Cincinnati effort and sadly, not as ambitious.

It was a fantastic day to be in Cincinnati for the ground breaking. I brought my wife and son (he was one of them yelling outside, sorry about that) but we were able to attend. I gave the protestor with the sumbrero the respect of a decent conversation for a few minutes. Some suit was standing next to him who I did not know but appeared to be friendly with him. The protestor was talking about the utility issue and I pointed out how currently, utilities are worked on right next to traffic. He asked me if I got nervous with a huge machine rolling next to me and i said that at least it is on rails and I know it wont swerve like a car. He and the suit both stopped arguing at that point and I wished them well. It was nice to meet a few of you as well. I ran into at least a few people who's blogs I read on a regular basis. My wife took a lot of nice photos, but we do not have them off the camera yet. We walked around Findlay Market and admired all the old buildings still standing. Thanks for the hospitality Cincinnati! See you all again very soon. We had a great time. :)