John Schneider

Thanks. This has been pretty amazing. The credit goes to two really hard-working event planners on the campaign committee who put this together in a very short time. But the best part is, in the process of rounding up hosts for the event, we now have offers from others who want to put on fund-raisers for us, and they will do a lot of the work. If you plan to pay at the door, I'd get there early.

I think Brad has arranged for one or more food trucks to be there. Might be a good time to patronize all the OTR restaurantsl

^ They are definitely getting signatures, and CFP has been meeting continuously to defeat a May ballot initiative. A good deal of money has been raised already, and the networks so carefully developed in 2009 have been re-activated. Actually, I think streetcar supporters are even more engaged now than they were then. Consider where we were in November 2009: the route was still undetermined, there was no engineering, and we didn't have the $80 million in Federal, state and private grants that we have today. Plus the ballot language this time is much, much more offensive. People just haven't focused on that yet, but they will. We've come a long way. And we'll beat them again.

^ I think they need another one on Main between The Banks and 5th Street, perhaps on the bridge over FWW.

^ Actually, it starts at 5:30p. Speakers will start at 6:45p. It's going to be a crowd.

CFP is notifying the media.

Event at Grammer's looks to be pretty much a blowout.

^ Good. Really well done. A couple of things maybe or maybe not worth changing. * The streetcar doesn't go as far north as McMicken in OTR; it turns east on Henry Street to Race. * It shows rail on Mehring Way; that would never happen -- because it floods too often. * Also shows rail running along the river in Covington. That probably won't ever happen. I think they want to pull it up more into the center of Covington, maybe even as far north as 11th/12th Street. That's where they need more investment -- kind of like what we're doing in OTR. Who made this?

^ Here's the problem: most people under 30 don't vote. If they're at UC or Xavier, chances are a lot of them who do vote don't vote here. We're really going to need streetcar supports to register to vote in Hamilton County within the next month and then vote on May 3rd. People can go to the Hamilton County Board of Elections site, put in their address to see if they're registered properly at their current address (not a previous one, this is very important) and then follow a link to see how to properly register if they're not.

I just hope a lot of Cincinnatians are watching Smitherman's TV show on Time Warner Channel #4 at nights. That ought to disabuse them of the notion that he ought to be our leader.

Cincinnati's streetcar will open in a few years, and people will travel from Columbus to Cincinnati. My guess is, the will see how effective it is for stimulating redevelopment, and the idea will come back. I'd continue to refine the corridor you want to serve and, when the time's right, go for it again.

^ All if have is a scanned copy.

^ If you'll email me at [email protected], I'll send you a scanned image.

^ I've served my time on WLW. I see no reason to debate them until they are on the ballot.

^ I'm looking at a spreadsheet with 150 names of people who are coming to Grammer's next week, the majority of whom are serving as Hosts and contributing $100 each. Lots of new names. Pretty good work for a few days. This kind of response will enable us to hire a really good campaign manager early in the game.

^ Actually this poll is good for us. Shows that the governance issue is still there: people don't want to mess with the Charter even if they're not convinced about the streetcar yet -- and, trust me, many more will be by Election Day. You're going to see most of the questions about the streetcar cleared-up between now and then. The opponents have been putting inaccurate information out there that's going to come back and bite them, make them look stupid, perhaps deceitful, when the facts are in. Mallory can be effective here, and he will be all-in on this campaign. Plus it's generally a county poll, and it's uncertain how the city itself breaks out. There will be a good news background during the campaign -- Banks apartments selling-out, Banks retail opening up, casino site being cleared, three hotels opening or starting consruction, rising earnings tax collectons, plus a groundbreaking for the streetcar. And remember, Chris Smitherman was the only City Council member to vote against the new Fountain Square. That's a hard vote to explain-away, and it contributes to the meme that his vision for our city is suspect. Our going-in numbers were much worse before the last campaign. Plus, we have an army of supporters, one that's much more motivated, much earlier, based on the cash and calls coming in. Will everyone be going to Grammer's next Wednesday after work? Campaigns live or die on money and volunteers, you know.

^ If I were them, I'd want streetcar supporters to believe they won't be ready for a May election. In any case, CFP continues to organize.

^ I think they will be on the ballot in May.

Learned yesterday they're adding a stop on 12th between Main and Clay to serve the Main Street Entertainment District better. Think they need to add another on the Main Street bridge over Fort Washington Way to serve GABP better. That's a little more difficult, however.

^ Original, thoughful, fact-filled letters are alway better. Anyone on this board has ample knowledge to write one.

^ Not a good thing to post.

^ Letters on letterhead are always best.

That's not the issue. If they do it again, we'll fight it again and they'll look like morons again. Right now, we need to focus like a laser on making sure no ballot initiative passes in May. (On a side note, I have some questions about registering to vote in Ohio. Anyone with a knowledge of residency definitions and absentee voting, please PM me.) Go to Ham. Co. Board of Elections site

My email is [email protected]. (I know. I'm sorry)

They will get the signatures, and we will have another vote in May. You should tell everyone in your network to be careful about what they're signing. Have them read the actual text, because it's as bad as the last one. A campaign to defeat this initiative is being organized. More news soon. We'll beat this.