CincyGuy45202

They aren't very popular. Even in NYC they were seen as beastly, expensive to buy and maintain, and didnt work very well and usage dropped like crazy. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/nyregion/11toilet.html?_r=0

I've used the Portland Loo, was there last summer to visit an old college buddy. They are very nice and are used by way more than just the homeless.

I've heard the developer is planning 1.5 parking spaces per apartment. Also, a friend who lives in Pendleton said every residential unit gets 2 neighborhood parking spaces each. So that's 380 permits for street parking plus 240 parking spaces. I think it should be one space each or something.

What I read is that they literally are the portland ones. And that's the price portland charges/the price portland pays to operate them.

I've been to Kaze the last two sundays... I'm confused....

Just read the first 4 of Nate Wessels 8 part character assassination of the streetcar. It's chalk full of opinion and misinformation. First off, I can't actually tell if Nate is advocating to change the current plan (which would show an incredible lack of understanding on how the FTA, construction schedules, grants, etc. work) or if he's just pining about what he would do differently and attempting to build greater opposition to the streetcar in the mean time. COAST would have a field day with bizarre comparisons like a "streetcar is high heels". My first issue is he's viewing the streetcar as a bus that needs to go from point A to Point B. if you take out his insistence that the streetcars sole and primary purpose should be to move people as fast as possible from UC to the center of downtown, nearly all of his argument falls apart. Additionally, no one seems to realize that only the Main & Walnut FWW bridges have sacrificial slabs. The city estimated something like an extra $10 million per bridge to add tracking there. Another key point he makes is Something to the effect of, it's too confusing to tell newcomers to take the streetcar To UC if it makes turns. That doesn't make any sense, as once you're on the streetcar you don't care how many turns it makes, you would just get off at the exit titled UC. Again though, his whole argument is that the main purpose of the streetcar is going as fast as possible up to UC. Then he has a bizarre attack on a non city created streetcar map that I think a poster on this forum made himself (the one that shows possible future extensions & made up ligjt rail and high speed rail etc) and follows it up with one of the most annoying opinion article tactics of asking a bunch of random questions that clearly a simple map politely made to show made up possible routes doesn't explain. He takes a map from 2009 and attacks it for not including a casino extension, which certainly he would have attacked for being a deviation from the downtown to UC plan. Each post seems to end with, this is a stupid project and 6 years after the map was released I'm going to suddenly point this out that we are wasting money. Comments like "watch out Portland we're going to start flirting with your girlfriends" really give COAST some new ammunition. Great job! Overall, the entire argument seems to be living in some magical fantasy world that ignores political realities, doesn't understand how FTA approval works (if he is genuinely advocating for changes), adds in tons of opinion but implies its fact, ignores that Portlands streetcar fails almost all of his tests, and adds silly catch phrases and winky faces to "soften" attacks on building a streetcar. Somehow the Portland streetcar is a holistic approach to economic development but Cincinnati's is not? Again, just random inferences in no way based in fact. He then even admits that there's almost no likelihood we would make Vine 2-way in Downtown. So it would have to be split there. Knowing that the estimated cost is $10 million per bridge to add Sac Slab to 400 feet of a bridge it would make more sense to do main & walnut. Or fine, even vine & walnut with a giant $10 mill 400 foot addition. So supposedly the whole plan is bad because only the OTR portion is split, since in reality CBD will always be split. That's pretty crazy. To say an entire project is bad because 8 blocks of it I don't like. My biggest frustration is that nearly all his criticisms apply equally to Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, and Tucson streetcar lines but Nate is in denial on the real issue here. Nate just needs to admit it. The real issue is that he is not a fan of the concept of a modern streetcar! That's what this is really about. He either wants busses that go straight and as quick as possible between major destinations, or perhaps a large light rail line, but not an urban circulator that meanders people through key development and entertainment districts in a timely fashion. That's fine! There are plenty of people just like you Nate who don't believe in urban circulators anywhere. But don't try to hide it as, I don't like CINCINNATI's urban circulator plan. By your own words you would have huge issues with all of the others currently in existence.

Haha. I was going to post that but refrained. I'm constantly hearing people say why are they spending $100 million on a streetcar that goes only a few blocks they should spend that on light rail. The only problem with that is, a light rail line of any significance (Downtown to Kenwood) is going to Push a billion dollars. Then the Colerain Township guy who said "I'd rather just have light rail Then a streetcar" will strongly oppose it as it's a waste of money that doesn't help him. Sigh.

I don't think that decision actually solves the issue. I think they can still say we don't have to pay, the only difference is now the idea of Cincinnati residents paying MORE is gone. The actual issue was that they were asking PUCO to allow Duke to let the City of Cincinnati CHOOSE whether it wanted to pay for the costs itself, or make residents pay through a rider. The City may still have to pay themselves, but what is clear is that it is no longer possible for a Cincinnati only rider to be created. Can someone confirm or deny this?

Precisely which "fights" over which "subway" and in what "years" do you refer to? Is this a "joke" comment?

Got some more information: Basically the entire delay is due to Duke. After years of delay they finally have city a tentative Schedule in December. That schedule includes months of design work that they could have been doing this entire time but refused to do. If they had done the design work when the city wanted, the project would have been done in early 2015. BUT because they are finally making progress with Duke there are no plans to call them out for being the entire source of the delay. Also, with regards to timeline, it takes 18 months to build a streetcar. Having them for a year or so while the OTR track is ready will allow metro to train people & get the flow down.

This made my day.

Two steps forward, one step back. Delayed again: No streetcar until 2016 Enquirer Exclusive New records reveal timeline for construction, launch Highlights include: The Cincinnati streetcar, the $110 million-plus project that city leaders once hoped to have completed last year, will not be ready for riders until at least the spring of 2016, new city records show. Tracks for the Over-the-Rhine section of the route will be completed first, by a “substantial completion” date in June 2014. The remainder of the project, including the tracks extending to the system’s southernmost point on Second Street on Downtown’s central riverfront, is to be completed by October 2015. Construction details included in the hundreds of pages of documents make it clear that the city’s most recent target date for the streetcar’s opening – the summer of 2015 – will be postponed by at least three seasons to April 2016. Mayoral candidate John Cranley, a former Cincinnati city councilman who opposes the project, questioned why City Hall, under the documents’ timeline, plans to begin acquiring the streetcars about 21 months before the new estimated 2016 opening date. “This mayoral election in part is going to be a referendum on the streetcar, but this ties the city’s hands 21/2 years into the new mayor’s term,” Cranley said. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130103/NEWS0108/301030124/Delayed-again-No-streetcar-until-2016

The owners of christys building also own the big parking lot behind Clifton Natural Foods. They are pros at running a profitable lot and tow cars constantly if they don't pay. That doesn't bode well for the Christys....

Wow cool video. Didn't watch the whole thing, but I think I may eventually. Honestly it's kind of crazy how much progress we've made, and how detrimental to development ReStoc had been.

^I think jwmann2 is a former Cincinnatian who doesn't live here anymore and hasn't seen the progress we see every day. The photos in this thread above are 5 years old, and even in just those 5 years its amazing to see the changes! Jwmann, if you're free at all this winter or next spring or summer you should definitely swing by and see what's new! It's been a great 5 years for urban living and urban development in Cincinnati.

Should also be noted, there has never been a stop in Streetcar related construction. The Water main replacement that began in February is almost complete. Elm is done, Race is finishing and 12th still has a couple more weeks of work. Also, I've been told we should see construction starting in mid-late January by Cincinnati Bell and Level 3, followed by, if everything goes according to plan, duke/rail/car barn/everything else beginning in April.

Someone should open an "Everything Else" store at an empty storefront at Findlay. They could sell all the things a large grocer has that isn't sold by any other FM tenants. Problem solved :P

I've heard there is progress with Duke and we might have some good news soon!

They've only got 2 stores in the entire 2.2 million person 15 county region and one is at Rookwood Commons, 5.5 miles from downtown. Don't see them being our saving grace.

Australia's minimum wage is $15 an their unemplpyment is 5.3%.

If the federal minimum wage had held up with inflation from 1968 all the way to today it would be closer to $11. Cutting people's hourly pay to save a couple hundred bucks and completely ignoring the fact that due to inflation they are actually giving pay cuts every year due to the decline in purchasing power year over year sounds like a tough place to work! Hopefully no one stays very long so they can move on to jobs with a more livable wage. It should also be noted that in any company where people work for years in their adult life at or near minimum wage, the company is benefiting from a form of corporate welfare. We are all paying for the welfare programs that keep those minimum wage employees living stably through our taxes and debt. No one can live on $7.70 a year, and while some companies pay that to people like college students at a book store who are not I tending to stay or work full time, others pay that for full time careers expected to last years and years. For those jobs the individual often ends up on Medicaid, food stamps or welfare so we essentially subsidize the private companies workforce salary. Without those programs, these companies wouldn't be able to find a quality workforce willing to live in a shelter or in squalor then come to work everyday and be a successful worker.

I was at a bar last week and there was a Paycor function. I struck up conversation with a lady who is an executive at Paycor, she said something to the effect of, " our staff is primarily middle aged suburban women and they were very persuasive that they must have secured surface lot parking in our new office. They had a committee that told management they do not want garages and perceive them as unsafe. We don't offer a lot of perks so we felt this one we should follow through on"

I was referring to an employer whose employees don't want to be near tolls, similar to how Paycor's employees demanded secured surface lot Parking so the company moved to Norwood. Not trucks, just regular people.

The intergalatic importance thing is not for cars from other states, it's for semi's. There is a lot of freight that moves from MI to FL and everything in between along 75. The Chamber doesn't care about people driving to work faster, they want freight services to move faster. I totally support tolls on the bridge and parts of I75. BUT my biggest frustration is that Butler County just got an extra lane and there were no tolls added, and I guarantee when they add more lanes to I71 in Warren they won't add tolls. The tolls only get added to the urban developments making companies rethink their location. If your choice is, office park in the City near seymour but many of your employees might have to pay a toll, or exurban office park where people can live in mason and drive toll free, some companies actually would choose Warren Co. Look at Paycor for example, they left the City because they couldn't find a site that included secure surface parking for their employees. They considered that more important than anything else because that is what their workforce was demanding. They said no to Keystone because it was a garage, no to Oakley Station because they couldn't put gates up at the parking lots and had to share it with the movie theater, etc. They chose the Norwood site because they could control their surface lot themselves. If some other company says, our workforce says they don't want to be near an area that might require them to use tolls, the company might factor that in. All of that may be unlikely, but it shows my frustration of the fact that it looks like kasich is only going to apply tolls in urban areas and not suburban projects as well. EZ pass only lanes will ensure there are virtually no traffic backups for morning commuters.

I can't imagine how pissed his wife & kids must be he's spending the whole holiday break bashing the city instead of with family.