OCtoCincy

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.

...Yet. If you look closely, in every new OTR work group posting, they acquire a few new properties somewhere in the gateway quarter.

^ I think it'll be a few more years till we hit that point... After Gateway 5 they will still have >60 buildings plus a dozen or so empty lots. I'd guess they will be completely done in the Gateway Quarter by 2014. I'm hoping they hop across liberty!

^ not everyone reads that thread... And this article applies to Amtrak...

Most recent pix of the 3 new City Home units behind built at Pleasant & 15th. Construction has resumed on the 4 units between 14th and 15th on Pleasant All of the sidewalk along 14 between race and elm has been torn up and repoured over the last 3 weeks. Rather than put all power lines under the roads, they moved everything under the side walk. Within the next month or so power lines from Vine to Elm on 14th should be completely down. Beginning of work on Parvis Lofts additional two buildings. Building 1 is getting most of the work right now- Extensive rebuilding of walls.

^ It's still strange! It de-localizes the issues. It means some big group could bring in a bunch of paid canvassers to come into your neighborhood from who knows where and sign people up. I think they will get it, but the fact that they are struggling so badly really shows that they do NOT have nearly as much momentum as they did last year. As I've said before, they were 100% certified today, August 3 2009 and had 5,000 (a little less than what they have today) on July 15, 2009. Hopefully CfP is still raising money and getting ready to beat this thing.

^ Nope. This year the started accepting any Ohio residents. Could potentially be challenged by a lawsuit since Charter still says Cincinnatian, but they've been allowing anyone to circulate all year for any kind of petitions. Basically, they were bringing City rules in line with county rules.

In the most recent 3CDC OTR Work Group PDF there is a one page Central Business District slide that shows all the properties 3CDC has partnered on. The 5th/Race site is listed as "Proposed".

While the small first segment no longer needs any approval of Council, any future additions, such as the $9 million extension to the banks, may require council votes. We still need a Pro-streetcar majority on council.

BTW- The confusion over the deadline has gotten nuts. Here is the Enquirer's explanation: Confusion over deadline: Even as the NAACP's Christopher Smitherman mounts a stepped-up ballot measure signature drive, there is widespread confusion over the petitions' deadline. Smitherman said county elections officials initially had told him he had until late August to submit petitions. Others argue the deadline is Aug. 10. And the truth, most now agree, seems to be somewhere in between. Under the Ohio Constitution, state law and city ordinances, if circulators gather a sufficient number of signatures, Cincinnati City Council must act by Sept. 9 - 60 days before the election - to place the streetcar issue and possibly others on the Nov. 8 ballot. Mod Edit: Added link as a precaution against media lawyers. Read full article above.

^ I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure there is one last vote before there is no way council could possibly stop this. John would know more. John, is there one last vote to release funds, authorize, etc. anything?? Or is the issue 100% out of council's hands now to where any change in the make up of council would have no effect on the streetcar?

^ not if it's a contract that hasn't yet been approved (as we are currently waiting on). That has nothing to do with the mayor.

The ones who have raised the most money are the ones that need it to have any chance. Most incumbents are basically shoe-ins, Roxanne Qualls for instance could raise $5.00 and still win. At most there are 2 seats that are going to change, but I wouldn’t worry too much about streetcar support changing. If anything, a democrat is the biggest threat. The party representation numbers probably aren’t going to change, but PG could take an incumbent Democrats seat and cause a support vote to be lost. It’d be trouble if he took Young’s or Quinlivan’s seat. Safe Seats: Qualls Thomas Ghiz Bortz Winburn Quinlivan Competitive Seats: Young Lippert Murray If Murray and Lippert win and Young is replaced with PG you can potentially say bye to the streetcar. And following fundraising numbers, those could be the winners. Seelbach is about $6,000 behind Murray and then it's about $30,000 until the next pro-streetcar candidate.

^ It's true- If we lose one pro-streetcar seat in the fall (possible when you look at fundraising numbers by anti-streetcar candidates) and the contract is not awarded before then it could be stopped.

^ I agree- Since it is in plain view, from that angle (think outside of Venice on Vine) it has the potential to be hideous.

By the way, on another page it was pointed out I somehow left off Charlie Winburns ~$150,000. Meaning 4 out of 5 of the highest fundraisers oppose the streetcar and the remaining one can't vote for it. It's INCREDIBLY rare for someone who raises a lot of money to lose in Cincinnati. If everyone who reads and comments on this page gave $15 or $25 to a pro-streetcar candidate We could easily raise $1000 for candidates who support the streetcar. Remember, Council is 4 for, 4 against, 1 who must abstain. This means if one pro-streetcar candidate loses a seat (Most likely to be Wendell Young [has lost 2 previous times, was appointed]) The streetcar could potentially be stopped in November.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/29/sittenfeld-leads-the-pack-in-cincinnati-council-fundraising/ REVISED: Totals include: PG Sittenfeld, a democratic challenger: $190,254 Charlie Winburn, a Republican incumbent: $158,090 Wayne Lippert, a recently-appointed Republican incumbent: $112,640 Chris Bortz, an incumbent endorsed by the Charter Committe: $55,769 Amy Murray, another appointed Republican incumbent: $56,586 Chris Seelbach, a Democratic challenger: $48,891 Laure Quinlivan, a Democrat running for a second term: $30,495 Catherine Smith Mills, a Republican challenger running for the first time: $23,354 Roxanne Qualls, an incumbent running with the endorsements of the Democrat Party and the Charter Committee: $23,323 Leslie Ghiz, a Republican incumbent: $20,274 Nicholas Hollan, Democratic challenger: $17,135 Wendell Young, Democratic incumbent: $13,457 Yvette Simpson, challenger with Democratic and Charter endorsements: $12,963 Jason Riveiro, a first-time candidate endorsed by the Democratic Party: $1,786. Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,18957.13950.html#ixzz1ThlUft4r

Back to the streetcar.... http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/29/sittenfeld-leads-the-pack-in-cincinnati-council-fundraising/ New Enquirer on council fundraising article shows that 3 of the top 5 candidates for council oppose the Streetcar and only 1 of the two supporters could potentially support the project with votes. 1. Sittenfeld (oppose) 2. Lippert (oppose) 3. Bortz (support, but can't vote) 4. Murray (oppose) 5. Seelbach (suppor, could vote) Please consider giving to a Streetcar supporter today. $25 donations go a long way. Totals include: PG Sittenfeld, a democratic challenger: $190,254 Wayne Lippert, a recently-appointed Republican incumbent: $112,640 Chris Bortz, an incumbent endorsed by the Charter Committe: $55,769 Amy Murray, another appointed Republican incumbent: $56,586 Chris Seelbach, a Democratic challenger: $48,891 Laure Quinlivan, a Democrat running for a second term: $30,495 Catherine Smith Mills, a Republican challenger running for the first time: $23,354 Roxanne Qualls, an incumbent running with the endorsements of the Democrat Party and the Charter Committee: $23,323 Leslie Ghiz, a Republican incumbent: $20,274 Nicholas Hollan, Democratic challenger: $17,135 Wendell Young, Democratic incumbent: $13,457 Yvette Simpson, challenger with Democratic and Charter endorsements: $12,963 Jason Riveiro, a first-time candidate endorsed by the Democratic Party: $1,786.

Yikes!!! This is the exact opposite of what ever major municipality, think tank, etc. is saying. We're looking to Louisville & Indy as UniGov models, having talks about the massive economic inefficiencies of dozens of smaller governments, hearing our Ohio Sec. of State saying we have to many small municipal governments and they are a huge part of problems statewide, and then we're being told Cincinnati should break up to become even less efficient and to actually increase the government waste? 20 or 30 small municipalities are WAY worse than 1 UniGov when it comes to efficiencies and use of your tax dollars. Even libertarians agree on that. I'm not sure if this could be less true. It's interesting you talk about budget deficits in Hamilton County but don't explain the real reasons. Our county tax is incredibly low. But, they can't raise it much higher without pissing off the voters because every little municipality that you love has its own massive tax fees. Golf Manor, Silverton, St. Bernard, Norwood, etc. all charge taxes to pay for individual services that could reach much greater efficiencies if shared. These small municipalities have survived for years through massive state subsidies that our new Governor is now repealing. The idea that just because they are only posting $1 million deficits means they aren't that bad is silly. Norwood had been battling a deficit that was almost equal percentage to Cincinnati's. And remember, all these local governments are shrinking anyway. St. Bernard and Silverton are no longer cities- They are now townships because of population loss. Would they each have their own police departments? Their own taxation departments? Their own fire departments and parks departments??? The wasteful bureaucracy is piling up!!!

^ I'm betting it will be exactly the same as Comer Alley.

Changing the parking situation alone would fix SO MUCH of the problem. The teams get all parking revenue on game days. INSANE! That alone might close the counties parking deficit.

^ I think you need to read the article again... They PROPOSED to buy the garage... Nothing has actually happened yet. A few key points: This area structure sells parking for $90 a month. VERY good for its location. It's incredibly cheap for night time parking. with good event prices when there are big events at either of the theaters. Once it's out of the cities hands, this could all change! I think the City should ask for no less than $5.5 million. Kroger has been paying $510,000 a year for the spaces since 2007. The total city investment was $12 million. The total sale prices including space rental for the last 4 years would then be about $7.5 million in a way. Obviously there is significant added benefit to the jobs that Kroger added through the 2.1% income tax, that would not have been possible without the garage...

^ I'm pretty certain the alley will be brick. Looking at the alley ways at Parvis & behind the City Home developments, 3CDC always seems to install new brick into the alleys.

^ It's so ridiculous. As more and more development happens at the banks it will make the sports teams richer. How the HELL does that make any sense.

^ Where did you get that number? Did they say that on the radio?