John Schneider

A considerable length of it is used for water main pipes I believe which adds a huge price to a transition Not really. When we rebuilt FWW, we put in a new line to serve downtown. So when the 36" main in the subway tunnels has to go away, it can.

Contact CFP thorugh its site. They've been in town for several days.

Xavier's mostly in Evanston, growing into Norwood.

Posted without comment: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/28/smitherman-camping-out-at-elections-board/

To be able to vote, you need to be a U.S. citizen over 18 years of age. You can register and vote instantaneously anytime this week starting on Tuesday, September 29th at the Board of Elections, 824 Broadway. You need to bring a driver's license and some proof that you live in Cincinnati/Hamiton County -- a utility bill in your name, a pay stub with your local address on it, a current lease or deed showing you live at a local address. You can definitely vote here if you are a student, but then that means you can't vote anywhere else. If you can't get to the Board of Elections, you can also register at any library. You must register no later than October 5th. Vote No on Nine! The only candidates who favor Issue 9 are Brad Wenstrup -- running for mayor -- and City Council candidates Chris Monzel and Charlie Winburn. All of the others are pro-rail.

Who you need to know about rail fanatics. Don't let this happen in our city!

Terrific report. Next Portland trip is October 9th. We'll be spending less time with the streecar and more on Portland's new light rail line that opened a couple of weeks ago. Also, a trip to Portland's Union Station, where there's a terrific inter-city rail operation. Write if you want to go.

This is the best sentence ever written: "Never send a bus to do a train's job."

^ I kinda think Wenstrup had an event there -- maybe even his campaign kickoff.

Total wild-ass guess. These cities will get Federal streetcar funds: Milwaukee, San Antonio, New Orleans, West Sacramento, and Cincinnati. Tucson, Boise or Fort Worth could break through and knock any of these cities out.

^ Anyone else having this problem? Starting with Slide 6 the images and text fall into the lower right corner. I love what I can see, though.

^ Brad, terrific work. I can see it, literally.

Major events are headed to the Riverfront, but if the streetcar would have been running today, cars would be turned back at Central Parkway and would only operate from there north.

^ Who made it?

^ Good point.

The truth is, modern streetcar wires are seldom very visible. Check out the pics here, taken under all colors of skies, and see for yourself: http://www.pro-transit.com/PICS/

^ 5300 Hamilton Avenue. I bet when he was on the SORTA board, he never rode the bus.

^ Under intense questioning by Roxanne Qualls today, the attorney for the "We Demand a Vote" group admitted that the language would be operative no matter what the source of funds for the rail investment. She asked, "Does this mean that if Cincinnati receives Federal, State or private funds for a rail investment, that we would have to vote on that too?" His answer: "Any means any." Meaning: any funds, no matter the source, that flow through the City's checkbook, must be first approved by the votes before they can be spent by the City. So much for the idea of protecting the taxpayers.

^ Council's Rules Committee left the ballot language unchanged. Goes to City Council on Wednesday and to the Board of Elections on Friday. Then to the Secretary of State, who is the final authority.

And don't forget, this is also about economic redevelopment and repopulating Cincinnati, allowing people to live with fewer cars and drive less, relieving highway congestion and Cincinnati's taxpayers of the need to build and subsidize all these parking structures everywhere.

^ One thing we've learned about transportation over the last few decades is that even small mode switches can have huge impacts. People who plan highways know that even shedding 5% of traffic can improve speeds by 20-30%. So I wouldn't discount the benefit of 2,000 or so Reds or Bengals fans using the streetcar.

^ The environmental assessment for the Cincinnati Streetcar is definitely underway.

^ Henry Street is a block-long with no operating businesses or residences so far as I can tell, so no one would notice its being renamed. It's a wider-than normal street, so it could have a siding for storing vehicles too. I think the advantage is in passengers' being able to mentally calibrate distances between numbered streets. This will promote walking. If I'm at 14th and Elm wanting to go north and no streetcar is coming, I know it's a six-block walk to the end of the line. So, depending on weather or time of day, I might decide to walk. Portland has a rigorous numerical ordering of its streets over most of the streetcar route as it travels from east to west, from 1st Avenue to 23rd. I use it all the time to figure whether it's better to walk or wait. Findlay is way too busy for streetcar traffic, I think. There's a lot of congestion around the entrance to Findlay Market's parking lot. I doubt it would work. I'm sure the engineer and planner types will sort all this out.

^ Henry Street should be renamed 20th Street. It would fix the northern limit of the OTR loop in the public's mind. Knowing that the streetcar goes from 2nd & Main to 20th & Elm willl provide a sense of reference that the Downtown/OTR route pretty much covers the entire CBD basin.

^ I'm sure you wouldn't have to look back many years to find stories about how Portland wasn't growing. It's not just Californians. There are a bunch of Ohioans in general and Cincinnatians in particular living there now. We run into them all the time. On the trip Mayor Mallory led out there, three ex-Cincinnatians, all under 25, joined us. They're not coming back.