Jos Callinet

To urbanpioneer: There's something decidedly ominous in Cranley's character that goes beyond his simply behaving like a "brat." His complete unwillingness to compromise and serve as the Mayor of ALL Cincinnati (which he IS, and should act as, whether he likes it or not!) reveals an underlying toxic, even malignant, quality. There isn't a hint in this man of kindness, diplomacy, graciousness, generosity of spirit or willingness to listen to all sides in an argument. He does nothing to make all people feel he is THEIR mayor, first and foremost, putting that above all issues. His manner is beyond rude, arrogant and closed-minded. Dictatorial is more like it. We are witnessing a complex psychological drama unfolding in this man - the Streetcar per se means nothing to Cranley personally; he has no need for it - it simply served as a wedge issue he could use to get his way with the voters and get into office more or less beneath the radar. Unfortunately, a great many forward-thinking voters played into his hands during this election by not bothering to vote, because - my guess, anyway - is that they couldn't imagine how a man like Cranley could actually be elected. Now everyone is stuck with the very unfortunate consequence resulting from their overconfidence and inaction. Most people thought that the decency that Mayor Mallory brought to his office would naturally be continued in Qualls' administration. What an enormous contrast in quality between Mallory and Cranley; it's breathtaking to contemplate! Cranley strikes me as being a very deeply insecure man who has seized power and is now telling the world in no uncertain terms that HE's the one in charge. He may end up doing a lot of harm before all is said and done. The streetcar just happened to be his first major casualty. Those who voted for Cranley may well find their decision come back to haunt them.

KJP - There are three firm strikes against the streetcar's being restarted: 1, The federal government is going to take back their money on December 19 if the city doesn't reverse course. 2, Cranley WILL veto ANY and ALL ordinances restarting the project, REGARDLESS of the findings of the audit. 3, Not one - guaranteed, not one - of the five councilors who voted to kill this project on December 4 is about to change their mind. (Hoping that two of them might - who's kidding whom? Cranley has all five securely locked in his unrelenting grip.) Why waste money on a meaningless audit? The feds might as well take back their money now. It's pointless to hold off eleven or twelve more days - waiting the extra time isn't going to change the outcome. The Cincinnati streetcar project is over - finished - done with. Logic and common sense will have had little or nothing to do with its demise. It's by no means clear just what IS going on backstage. We may never get to find out.

It's time Cincinnatians hold a coronation ceremony for their civic leader Cranley and bestow upon him the great honor of naming him TOILET MAYOR! The ceremonial proclamation shall read, "Long will John Cranley be revered, honored and remembered as that distinguished and erudite mayor of Cincinnati who - ever so courageously and forthrightly and against all odds - eagerly flushed years of hard work, the results of two voter referenda, millions of dollars in federal and city funds, millions more spent on settling lawsuits over breaches of contract and payments to cover cancellation costs, not to mention singlehandedly ruining Cincinnati's reputation as a city and community businesses could invest in with confidence and whose leaders could be trusted to honor their word and previous administrations' commitments; and finally and hardly least, caused the workers the city hired to build the streetcar to lose their jobs and financial security - and sent every last bit of all this DOWN THE TOILET!" FOR WHAT PURPOSE? Bravo, Mr. TOILET MAYOR, for flushing us and our city's reputation and dollars and jobs - not to mention future - down your JOHN (as in Cranley!). (Interesting coincidence that there should happen to be a similarity in spelling and pronunciation between "Cranley," the mayor, and "Crane," a noted and long-standing manufacturer of toilets. Do a Google search on "CRANE" and "toilets." You'll see.)

jmecklenborg: What you have just said here is remarkable, and may very well shed some light on the actual reason(s) why what happened today in City Hall, happened. I was hoping our society had matured to the point where we could openly and honestly discuss such matters as you have raised here. It is a very sad commentary on how much growing up some people, including your new mayor, still have to do to become true adults, not grown children. To have a major public improvement project such as this one decided on the basis of anti-gay prejudice and fear-mongering is unsound business practice to say the least. The price we sometimes have to pay to underwrite the cost of maintaining other people's small-minded shallow thinking is stunning to contemplate. You're right - rationality, reasoned common sense and open debate did not prevail today, and all the arguments over the cost to operate the streetcar were obviously highly specious.

To Natininja and the other posters here on this forum: Like you, I just finished watching the Cincinnati City Council vote to put a stop to all construction work on the Streetcar. I don't see how that vote can be construed by anyone as meaning anything other than a vote to outright and permanently cancel any further work on the streetcar. It does not in my opinion mean that the council voted to put the streetcar on hold while a study is conducted. It was A VOTE TO CANCEL: FIVE in favor, FOUR opposed. Guaranteed, the Federal Government will take back its $40-million-dollar share, as promised. Lawsuits will be brought against the city for breach of contract. Cincinnati will be paying a high price for absolutely nothing for generations to come. Mayor Cranley doesn't care how much his city has to pay to close out all the expenses and legal fees involved with the cancellation. At this very moment, Mr. John Cranley, Cincinnati's newly-elected Mayor, must be thinking to himself, "What a wonderful day this is for my city!" All the motions to terminate carried and have become the legally-stated will and intention of Cincinnati's voters that work on the streetcar be halted immediately. Likewise, citizens who support completing this phase of the streetcar have been denied the opportunity to put the matter to an up-or-down, yes-or-no referendum. End of discussion: Cincinnati will not have a streetcar, not now, not ever. No one in their right mind will - five, ten, fifty, one hundred years from now - ever again dare propose a streetcar be built. Cincinnati had its one great chance to prove that a streetcar could add value to the community, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it has now squandered - forever, in my opinion. To those of us who stand for genuine progress, the demise of the streetcar today, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 will long be remembered as the day Cincinnati revived and reinforced its long-standing reputation as an irreconcilably backward-thinking town and laughing-stock of the nation. Ohio taken as a whole isn't far behind the Queen City, having done pretty much everything possible to defeat progressive rail-based initiatives. Governor Kasich and Mayor Cranley have MUCH in common, along with the voters who elected them. What should be of concern to us all now is A PRECEDENT HAS BEEN SET giving new incentive to anti-streetcar forces everywhere else in the country, like Kansas City or Minneapolis, to follow Cincinnati's lead and maneuver their citizens to cancel THEIR streetcar projects. Kansas City's new streetcar is, I understand, at about the same stage of construction as Cincinnati's. Another ramification of today's events is that the Federal Government may very well become reluctant to fund any further urban rail projects. Too many grants for rail have ALREADY been refused and sent back to the Feds. The message is getting out: voters don't want long-distance passenger or urban rail. What has happened in Cincinnati may well become the latest trend and fad for streetcar and light rail projects in our country: you can get away with starting construction then canceling it! Cincinnati has now shown that projects already approved and paid for can be terminated mid-course with relative impunity. Same thing has already happened in Canada, where Toronto's mayor put the kybosh to several already-approved and funded light rail projects (only difference - construction on them hadn't begun when they were halted). Mark my words, what has happened today in Cincinnati will set the tone for our future as a country for years to come; anti-rail forces everywhere have powerful new ammunition. Kansas City, are you next in line to cancel YOUR streetcar project in mid-course? Stay tuned.

KJP, All Aboard Ohio's letter to Cranley is very well written - and persuasive - but was totally wasted on him. Not even God could stop this egocentric man from carrying out his destructive impulses on his community. Cranley thinks he has a divine obligation to terminate the Streetcar. Never mind the financial cost to Cincinnati and the harm to its reputation that will inevitably result from canceling this project. It's impossible to reason with John Cranley. I shudder to think what Cincinnati will be like after it has suffered through four long years of his dogmatic "leadership." There is very little good that I see coming from this debacle.