John Schneider

^ It would have been better to build a stop for the first phase on Race south of Elder, and if it ever goes to Uptown via Elder and Vine, which I doubt, build another stop on the south side of Elder east of Race.

You know it's why it's that way? Because of the stupid double-back alignment required to go up Vine Street, which I bet will never be used, we had to slim-down the stop -- one of the most important stops where many people will be burdened with groceries -- in order to make the broadway turn onto Elder. This was really bad planning.

^ It's essential that Columbus advocates gain consensus on a streetcar alignment, at least among themselves, early-on in the process. This is what Cincinnati did. Before our streetcar plans went public, we figured it was good to connect the busiest part of the CBD -- where the center of the office space is, where the Great American Ball Park is, where the cultural and entertainment assets are -- with Findlay Market and the less-occupied western half of Over-the-Rhine. The thinking was, connect the large employers -- there are six Fortunre 500 companies within two blocks of the Cincinnati Streetcar as it runs through the CBD -- with a lot of vacant housing and downtown's once and future grocery store, Findlay Market, as a means of repopulating OTR. Not only the Fortune 500's, but also their law firms, accounting firms and other companies that support them and are are clustered around them. The result was, the alignment never changed throughout six years of intense debate on our streetcar except that four blocks of the westbound direction shifted one block north from Central Parkway in order to penetrate OTR sooner. So opponents were never able to exploit disagreement on the route into general opposition to the project. No one ever produced any credible criiticism of the route, and this was a wind at our backs. Sure there was plenty of other opposition, but the route was never the center of it. The opposite happened in Fort Worth. The city set up a planning process to evaluate five or so routes radiating in several directions from the center of the CBD to the close-in, improving neighborhoods around it. Each route has its advocates and detractors, and there seemed to be great debate among the merits and shortfalls of each of them (it's been a few years, and I don't recall the specifics of each of them.) This fight-in-the-family gave opponents the ammunition and time to get their act together. And they eventually won over the Bass Family, which pretty much runs Fort Worth and owns a large mall in the CBD. What I gather is that they didn't want the competition from the emerging neighborhoods outside the core, neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine and Short North. It suffered a sudden and unexpected death. There's a lesson here. It may or may not be applicable to Columbus, but I'd at least think it through. This forum is probably a good building block for doing that.

^ We're definitely going to want to build a tunnel if we're serious about a Downtown - Uptown connection that's car-competitive.

I asked John Deatrick why the alignment of the tracks seems to shift a little here and there, such as at Liberty. His answer: "Drunk surveryors when our streets were first laid out in the 1800's."

Send me your email, and I'll send you the Guide we send along with eveyone who makes the trip.

Day of the tour is Monday, March 16th.

When I had a group in Portland last spring, I brought up this question to Chris Smith, who's on the board of Portland Streetcar Inc. and has a popular transportation blog. Before the streetcar was extended east across the Willamette River, where the stops are farther apart, I calculated that Portland's westside loop had 50% more stops per mile than Cincinnati's system. Chris asked me how many stops we had, and I told him 18 in 3.6 miles. He thought for a minute and then said, "Two-tenths of a mile between stops on average -- that's perfect." He went on to say that Portland now thinks the stops on the westside were built too close together. I agree will Bill that we could use a stop on the south side of Washington Park. I asked them to add the stop @ 12th and Main to serve Upper Main Street better -- it was kind of left out in the planning process. I think the stop at Ninth and Walnut was mainly meant to serve the Library. Stops can definitely be added. Tacoma added two stops on each side of Commerce Street a couple of years ago to facilitate new development there, eight or nine years after Tacoma's streetcar opened for business. I'm not crazy about how the trackway moves in to meet the stops. It's going to cause some unnecessary swaying and make the ride less pleasant. When the streetcar pulls up to dock at a stop and then depart a few seconds later, people de-boarding and boarding are going to get a bit of a jolt. By the way, I'm leading another trip out to Portland in March if anyone wants to go.

^ Got it from Eric Avner who got it from the city's streetcar team.

Time-lapse diamond track construction @ 12th and Race: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006774138073

Makes me nervous to have all that unenergized copper up there for that long.

^ Correct

Vice Mayor Mann stipulated the need for the audit right after the election. Because the audit would take some time, that's the reason for the pause.

Right.

^ There is no way. I doubt he'd even get one other vote on Council for that. Let him talk.

This is a newer charge, too. There used to be a minimal fee for a gas connection, and the usage based charge was higher. Sometime around 2008 or 2009, when I also lived in an apartment that only used gas to the stove, the fee was introduced and it was $25. I went from $10 a month gas bill to $35 overnight, a 350% increase in price despite using the same minimal amount of gas to cook a few nights a week. Even owning a home now that uses gas heat, during the summer months I only use gas for the stove and I’m in the same boat – paying $40 a month to be able to cook. When I had an apartment in OTR I had an electric stove and only used gas for heat. I would call up Duke every April and October to have them turn off/on the gas when the heating season rolled around because I was not about to pay $35 a month and not use any gas whatsoever. I actually had an operator try to tell me I wasn’t allowed to do that once, but they gave in when I started to complain and ask for a supervisor. I've had Duke inspectors tell me this is very common.

What's worse is that for much larger customers, who have bigger pipes and consume much more gas, the connection charge is not proportionately higher.

^ Maybe time to move your electric service to another provider if you haven't done so already.

Union and SORTA are negotiating with a City of Cincinnati observer.

Still in court.

^ This is why there should be drug-testing for people on talk radio.

I'm sure Cincinnatians would vote to cancel the $133MM streetcar because it is one penny over budget, don't you. Smitherman has dug himself into such a hole here that it will limit his success in governing forever. He has really overplayed his hand to the extent he ever had one to begin with.

Because we're using Federal fund to construct, it's almost certain that whoever runs the streetcar -- SORTA or a private firm -- the vehicles will be operator by union drivers and maintained by union mechanics. It's not a union v. non-union thing.

Next up: Council's deciding whether Metro drivers and mechanics will operate and maintain the vehicles.

Toured the MOF today. Pretty amazing place. A lot of thought has gone into it. City confirmed on tour that first vehicle will be here in September 2015, ready to go on the streets. Saw pictures of it.