John Schneider

^ A common tactic of rail opponents is to say, "I like rail. I just don't like this particular plan." It's used in rail campaigns across the country all the time.

^ Not anymore. The measure of Vehicle Miles Traveled has fallen since at least 2004. And other measures of mobility have been falling for many years. For example, the percentage of Americans relocating to another state in any given year peaked in 1951 and has steadily fallen since. We no longer go to the moon or fly supersonically from New York to Paris. Nor can you go by train many places anymore.

^ He appears to be quite young. I doubt that he's old enough to drink.

I have met The Provost. He defies description.

If you want to see what streetcar wires look like, go here: http://www.pro-transit.com/PICS/ Starting with the first slide and appearing several times through the slide show, you'll see many images of the wires against all colors of skies and foliage cover. One of my favorite things to do when I take skeptics to Portland is to ask them a couple hours into the tour, "Has anyone noticed the overhead wires yet?" Hardly anyone ever says they have. We're going again on May 29th if anyone's interested.

I think the cost overruns at PBS and the nonperformance of the teams following a huge investment by taxpayers has soured locals on public spending on anything that's not viewed as an essential service. Actually, I don't think it ... I know it based on polling I've seen. The Riverfront Advisors over-promised on The Banks, raising expectations way too high (it was all going to be done in 2006, remember)? Throw-in the so-called Riot of 2001, and the result is that many people have been in a disinvestment mode around here for a decade. With able leadership -- and I think we have that now -- this will change over time. We just need a few more successes to get people thinking about the long run here. The decision to invest a billion dollars to completely rebuilt or renovate all of our public schools was the first step, and CPS enrollment is now rising. Fountain Square was a great and visible move. When it's further along, 3CDC's work in OTR will be another, but it's not really been that noticeable to the region as a whole. I think The Banks coming up above street-level this summer will provide a major boost. And stupid as it sounds, the Reds' having a good year will make more people feel some of the riverfront investment was worth it. When the eastside Banks and the Central Riverfront Park are complete in a couple of years, most Cincinnatians will finally see where all this has been going. And then, when all that's done, some enterprising reporter -- if there are any left -- will show how all of this was paid for from multiple sources. And he or she will probably find that the local benefits far exceed the total local cost. There have been periods like this before. After being named by Life Magazine as "the best-governed city in America" in the Fifties, Cincinnati was adrift by the early-Sixties. Then a group of business leaders plotted out an entirely new downtown including Riverfront Stadium. President Kennedy laid the very first building block, speaking at the groundbreaking of a new Federal Building from the southeast corner of Fifth and Main. A friend of mine has a great saying: "We're running a marathon here, not a sprint." We'll get there.

I agree that there needs to be a new jail, but I can't see why the county can't build a new jail at the same time the city is building a new streetcar. Because Cincinnati has developed a scarcity mentality. It's pervasive, and it has held our city back for a decade.

Thank you, you are proving my point. All of this can happen before the streetcar. Not really. There's a limit on how many cars you can store in OTR. And there's a limit on how far people will walk from there to their jobs in the CBD. I'm guessing it's about 14th Street for most people. The best real estate in OTR is much farther north of there. Sooner or later, development in OTR will bump up against these limits, and the momentum will stall.

^ Would be a good LTE to The Enquirer.

Ought to retire and move back to Arizona. No, wait, Phoenix has light rail now, and Tucson is building a modern streetcar. Mississippi perhaps?

People would still walk the last couple of blocks. In fact, that would add value to those blocks. Jake, can you post photos of the weaving rails in the new Transit Mall and tell people what's going to happen there. On our next Portland tour, I've arranged for the designers of the renovated Transit Mall to be our lunch speakers. They're burning in trains on it now, with service scheduled to start in September. Basically, weaving of rail with buses and cars and trucks is not a problem if it's done correctly.

^ You mean drawings showing turning radii? I really wouldn't worry about it. Portland's street widths are almost identical to Cincinnati's and there are several 90-degree turns. Sure the streetcar swings out here and there to get around corners, but so do trucks and buses. Considering that each streetcar carries up to 130 people who might otherwise be in their own cars, there is little effect on traffic. If anything, there's probably a positive effect. I agree with CityKin that the streetcar should turn at Henry Street instead of McMicken. In fact, I'd rename Henry Street "20th Street" in order to give people a clue as to the range of the downtown - OTR leg of the streetcar for comprehensibilty, i.e. "it goes from 2nd Street to 20th Street". I wouldnt pay much attention to anything Michael Earl Patton says. Maybe he wants a job on the project. Seems like he has plenty of time these days.

^ How do you prevent someone with a pass generating multiple tickets througout the day and selling the tickets at a discount? I can see how you could ensure that it wasn't done more than once every couple of hours, but still there will be some abuse. Even if scanning a pass locked-out ticket generation for the next two hours, someone could simply go to another meter -- unless, of course, the ticket machines communicated with each other. But I bet that's really expensive and a maintenance nightmare.

I like the idea of dispensing stickers from new parking meters along the line. Say you paid $1.00 and that bought you two hours riding time or one hour at a parking meter. If you were at the machine at 3:37p, it would spit out a streetcar sticker that said 5:37p in really big type for all to see. I'm sure there are glues that do no damage to clothes. If you wanted a parking meter ticket, it would dispense a printed ticket that said 4:37p. You would stick this on the inside of the driver's window. So you could ride the streetcar until 5:37p or park until 4:37p. In the latter case, you could move your car to another location and not lose the time you had bought on the meter. A complicating factor is, how do you deal with people who have passes?

Just when things were getting boring: http://www.urbancincy.com/2009/04/local-black-community-turning-on.html

http://thephonyconey.blogspot.com/ Discuss.

Four phases, with construction starting in 1999. The first two phases opened together in 2001. The last phase probably opened in 2007. Now they are taking it across the Willamette - another 3.3 miles on top or the 7.9 miles on the ground now. They have plans for about fifty miles of streetcar lines throughout the city. Except in Southwest Portland -- too hilly.

^ I wouldn't separate them. They're similar discussions, similar issues, probably the same people interested in both.

^ I passed your suggestion along to the powers-that-be. It's interesting.

By adding 1.5% to the Cincinnati Streetcar's annual operating budget, the city can purchase all-green power off the grid to power the streetcar.

Yes, Ronny was well-informed. Some rebuttals of "facts" presented by the clown from Portland are in order. He said he was talking from the 30th-something floor of the US Bank Tower on Portland's Fifth Avenue and that the streetcar goes right by it. The problem is, the streetcar never gets within five blocks from the US Bank Tower -- it travels on 10th and 11th. It does turn east and cross Fifth Avenue maybe a mile south of the US Bank Tower. What he's looking at is the new light rail line to Clackamas County, which doesn't open until September. Show us, Jake. He said Portlanders have voted down the streetcar time after time, and they still keep building it. This is false. There has never been a vote on any of the four completed phases of the Portland Streetcar. And the city of Portland has never voted against a light rail project. Suburban jurisdictions have voted against light rail there, and a statewide initiative to fund light rail in Portland lost 2:1. But the city has always supported rail. They were one of the last American cities to dismantle their streetcar system. I think the streetcar line to Lake Oswego never went away. The guy said Portland voted against density in 2002. Actually, precisely the opposite is true. In 2002, there was a regional vote to expand the Portland's Urban Growth Boundary, and it lost 2:1. They seem to like compact, transit-oriented development there. He complained that few people pay to ride the Portland Streetcar, a not-totally-unexpected outcome since most of its ridership is in a free-fare zone. He also said no one rides the Portland Streetcar. In fact, they are up to 13,000 riders per day on Saturdays (the busiest day). They achieve this on a single route that measures four miles end-to-end. By contrast, our Metro bus system carries about 70,000 passengers per day on dozens of routes and hundreds of route miles. Which seems more productive? Jason Gloyd was weak, calling the Cincinnati Streetcar a "coal-burning locomotive." Even Cunningham choked on that one.

^ It's getting there. Be patient.

Petition story in the Enquirer again. See: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090410/NEWS01/304100018

This is untrue.

^ It could happen to you!