CincyCapell

Biased Barry Horstman and his magical hair piece strikes again. He is the Cincinnati's version of Tokyo Rose, Lord Haw Haw and Axis Sally all rolled into one. Cranley might as well put Horstman and the rest of the Enquirer's so-called "journalists" on his campaign payroll or employ them as his PR agents, because that's what they essentially are. Cranley gets nothing but positive PR from the Enquirer and has never once been asked a tough question by the Enquirer, such as how he plans to serve as Mayor when he was forced to resign from City Council after the Ohio Ethics Commission ruled that his conflicts of interests as a developer would prevent him from working in City Government. Cranley is still a developer and still has those same conflicts of interest: http://www.naacpcincinnati.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=421&Itemid=42 Cranley's constant criticism of spending on the streetcar makes him the biggest hypocrite in Cincinnati. John Cranley's Incline Village has been the recipient of millions of City Taxpayer funds, including $3.3 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2, $1.8 million from the Cincinnati Community Reinvestment Area LEED tax exception, as well as $1.7 million City HOME loan, among other City funds. Cranley's development is also directly benefiting from the $60+ Million rebuilding of the Waldvogel Viaduct, which City Taxpayers are funding. At his law firm, attorney/lobbyist John Cranley orchestrated the $35 Million renovation of the Vernon Manor in a project that used TIF and City bond financing at the People of Cincinnati's expense. John Cranley's pet projects dwarf the amount that will be spent on the streetcar, and now he wants to cry about the City spending on a project that was approved by the voters TWICE, when none of the projects that he's benefiting from ever got put to a vote? John Cranley is a rank hypocrite.

City seeks change in SORTA agreement Tax dollars that now pay for Cincinnati’s Metro bus system could be diverted to the city’s streetcar project under a new proposal from the city. City officials this week asked the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which runs Metro, to change an agreement with the city that currently prohibits using money from Metro’s “transit fund” for the $110 million streetcar project. The transit fund, which consists of about $42 million collected from city wage taxes, pays for the day-to-day operation of Metro buses throughout Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The city’s current agreement with SORTA explicitly forbids using transit-fund money to help provide the local share of the streetcar project, which also will receive tens of millions of dollars in federal grants. The proposed change would remove that ban from the agreement. City officials say they made the request for legal reasons that have nothing to do with the streetcar and they have no intention or desire to use transit-fund money for the controversial project. Streetcar opponents, though, and even some advocates say the move is troubling because it could shift resources from existing public transportation to the streetcar http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121215/NEWS/312150023/City-seeks-change-SORTA-agreement And right on queue, good old PG Sittenfeld chimes in with more anti-streetcar bullshit. Smitherman's also quoted, the only thing missing is a gratuitous quote from frivolous shyster Christopher P Finney.

Anyone know any news about the COAST lawsuit against the airport sale? Pretty much just routine case maintenance. Blue Ash & Cincinnati have moved for dismissal based on the facts of the case, and Finney has filed an objection. Finney has filed a request to bring another attorney in as his co-chair, Deborah L Meyer who lives in Maineville, Ohio but is only licensed to practice law in Kentucky. Maybe Frivolous Finney thinks that he can't hack this case all by himself.

Dr McFooty Wenstrup had all of those going for him and lost to Mallory, who hardly even campaigned.

I get the feeling that Eighth is still telling people that The Banks will never be built.

Cox is a political hack. Someone like you, unfamiliar with using true and large public transit systems in larger cities would think that public transit is too slow. In Cincinnati, it often is. Mainly because our buses use the same right-of-way as motor vehicles on already congested highways and roads. Go to a city like Chicago and try driving from Comiskey to Northside when the Cubs or Sox are playing. Then do the trip again via the Red Line and see how much quicker it is. Just because the speed limit on a highway is 65 mph and a light rail vehicle may only consistently travel at 45 mph doesn't mean the car is necessarily always faster. However, to the unaware onlooker it seems that way. By the time you sit in traffic, navigate side roads and find a place to park - you could've ridden a train or bus and simply gotten off at your stop. Underutilized in terms of being a Transit Center, yes, but not for lack of trying *cough* Metro Moves *cough.* However, it would've cost nearly as much to fill the area in with dirt and at present the approach areas are rented out to System Parking who pays rent to the city, generating revenue. As already stated by someone else, this isn't due to a lack of locals not wishing to use it, they simply go elsewhere. It's underutilized because of political mis management and the assumption that Delta would always be awesome (spoiler alert: they're not). See this: http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-downsizing-and-dying-of-cvg.html Yes and they've poo-pood your flawed, watered down COAST logic again and again (how many times did we have that diesel generator streetcar at Sawyer Point argument?). A trolleybus is not comparable, not similar or anything like a modern streetcar. Why do you continually live in denial of the fact that the streetcar is CURRENTLY under construction? You say "a living dog is better than a dead lion." I say: "You're wrong, again." Edit: Didn't mean for this to come off as so rude, but 8th&St you bring up the same flawed logic all the time as if you have little regard for any other arguments for/against the project. I'm all for hearing other voices and opinions, in fact I welcome it. Especially when this board is mainly pro-streetcar. However, repeating the same things ad-nausem isn't bringing anyone to your side especially when your support examples aren't even comparable to the topic at hand. I.E. CVG's low numbers have nothing to do with public transit. Hear hear! Amen to what Gordon wrote.

This has more to do with letting a certain airline have the run of the place over anything else. Just sayin'. Bingo Matt. Plus after the Delta/Northwest merger the airline no longer needed a large hub at CVG. Delta's large hubs in Detroit and Atlanta made CVG largely redundant. The Kenton County Airport Board put all its proverbial eggs in one basket vis–à–vis Delta, and most of those eggs are now broken.

^Obviously we need to review this again: Trolley Buses are *not* infrastructure and do *not* promote economic development. The TANK/NKY trolley bus has been running for a decade now and yet Covington's riverfront is completely devoid of any development, and the Newport Levee is still half vacant.

http://courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2012/SCO/1115/111274.asp This decision is not applicable to the Cincinnati/Duke case as it involves a prior rate tariff (rate and service agreement) by Columbus Southern Power that had been approved by PUCO in 1992. The Supreme Court held that the 1992 CSP tariff at issue is both lawful and reasonable. To my knowledge there is no similar Duke tariff in place, so the decision is moot in regard to Cincinnati's situation.

What? Details please!!

^So it goes into efect after the next election? Still, as Blue as Cincinnati has been at the ballot box over recent years it should be OK.

COAST got clobbered. Spanked. Chabot & Wenstrup won, but since they were running essentially unopposed and in heavily gerrymandered districts that's not really much of an accomplishment. COAST was adamantly opposed to Issue 4, and since it passed it's likely that we are going to have a pro-streetcar super-majority on Council for the foreseeable future. COAST and their Council puppet will remain marginalized and powerless in Cincinnati. Yay for the good guys!!

The booze soaked nut doesn't fall from the tree.

Frivolous Finney has basically painted himself into a corner here. Since COAST chickened out of the ballot petition drive that Finney GUARANTEED!! would happen if the sale moved forward, he looked like a (even bigger) fool and had to file suit after running his mouth that he would do so on talk radio. Finney is trying to save face (and his massive ego as well). Since the Blue Ash City Solicitor seems very confident about the City's legal position, it becomes clear what the shyster is really after; Finney is hoping that Blue Ash will pay him off to go away, as other municipalities have done so often. Finney must need money. Go to the Clerk of Court's website and search for all of the cases that Finney has filed over the past year. Look past the cases he's filed for COAST, and the cases that he has filed for his own company, which are mainly evictions for Three Centurions, the property company that Finney co-owns with Phil Heimlich (read the excellent work that Jason Haap did revealing Three Centurions here: http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/magaddiction/comments/heimlich_finney_and_three_centurions_an_open_letter_to_enquirer_editor_tom/ ). Chris Finney has filed relatively few cases for actual paying clients over the past year. It's pretty clear that Finney is simply hoping to make a quick stack of the Taxpayer's money by extorting Blue Ash, and maybe Cincinnati as well. Chris Finney is nothing short of a judicial terrorist; he knows that city and county governments will weight the cost of litigating his frivolous lawsuits against simply paying him to go away. Being cash strapped thanks to the recession and Kasich's cuts, local governments all too often choose the latter action. Finney's behavior has been enabled by both the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, who have paid Finney to go away time and time again. Hopefully Blue Ash will have the balls to stand up to Chris Finney and make him fight it out in court, because paying Finney off to go away simply invites further extortion from that shyster. It's just like paying off any other terrorist; once they know you'll pay up to avoid a fight they'll keep coming back for more. That's why you never pay off terrorists, you just invite more terrorism upon yourself in the end. Here's hoping that no government will ever pay Chris Finney another dime without making him go to the time and expense of fighting through the court system for his (Taxpayer funded) paycheck.

^Amen.

Oops, forgot the link: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121002/EDIT02/310020014/Streetcar-isn-t-an-either-proposition

^and, as of right now at least, it's not to be found anywhere on the front page of Cincinnati.com.

The Enquirer published an editorial by Mayor Mallory tonight, and the Mayor really spanks that tired rag's ass: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121002/EDIT02/310020014/Streetcar-isn-t-an-either-proposition Streetcar isn't an either/or proposition "I appreciate The Cincinnati Enquirer once again expressing its opposition to the streetcar (“Streetcar: Stop,” Sept. 30). I had hoped The Enquirer was serious last year when it said it was time to move on and instead focus on making sure the streetcar was done right. Wishful thinking. The good news is The Enquirer doesn’t decide what happens in Cincinnati. Voters do that. Voters have elected me mayor twice now. I have been very clear about my vision to grow and revitalize our city. Part of that vision is the proven strategy of investing in public transportation to fuel job creation and repopulate our core. The streetcar is an important part of that strategy. Voters also elected a supermajority of City Council who shared a similar vision and who were clear about their support for the streetcar. Voters have twice been given the option to stop building the streetcar, and twice they have instead said “move forward. And therefore, with the support of citizens, we are going to build a streetcar in Cincinnati" {snip} "Great cities take strides to make themselves even greater. We have made tremendous strides in Cincinnati and we have gotten where we are because visionary citizens have joined me in making this city great. I am asking the citizens of Cincinnati to continue to stand with me and City Council, and we will continue to revitalize our neighborhoods, and we will keep transforming the riverfront, the Banks, Over-the-Rhine and Downtown. And we will build the streetcar." Comments sh*tstorm in 3,2,1....{Miller, Finney Capell & Co. put their fake facebook accounts into overdrive}....

Too bad she's not taking Jane Prendergast with her. Prendergast is COAST & Finney's biggest shill & sycophant at the Enquirer.

FTW!

As of Monday the Enquirer gets locked behind its new paywall, the print subscription rates go through the roof, and the entire boondoggle will hopefully die a speedy death. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

According to the update from the City posted a couple pages ago in this thread, all of the other utilities involved (Cincinnati Bell, Level 3 Communications, Greater Cincinnati Water Works) are all working on moving their lines/equipment.

Again, back up your claim that Churchill "let" London get attacked. War weariness had everything to do with Churchill's defeat. The British people thought that Churchill had Been an exemplary wartime leader, but thought Labour better able to lead the rebuilding in peacetime. Your accusation that the British people blamed Churchill for The Blitz, etc is unfounded.

^How exactly did Churchill "let" the Luftwaffe bomb London (and other British cities)? Churchill's defeat had nothing to do with the Blitz: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/election_01.shtml

I think that you're spot on in your analysis John. We are entering the penultimate chapter of this saga. Or, as a great man once said: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." -Winston Churchill