John Schneider

The mind reels.

Where to begin? I only have an hour.

Dear Friend of Cincinnati, On October 16th, Cincinnati City Council will begin deliberations on whether to build an electrically-powered rail streetcar over a diagonal route between the Great American Ball Park and Findlay Market. The plan has wide business, civic and political support. To gain understanding, I'd like you to join an intensive day-long tour of Portland's streetcar system on Friday, November 16th. Most people will arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday. We'll be staying in Portland's best hotel -- here: http://www.monaco-portland.com/ -- at a hugely reduced rate they have extended to hundreds of Cincinnatians who've made these trips over the past six years, generally in groups of 15-25 people. Ask around -- you undoubtedly know someone who has gone to Portland with us, probably several people. Delta's nonstop flights to Portland are the cheapest they've been in several years. You can even find roundtrip nonstop flights that cost only 25,000 SkyMiles these days. You'll probably need to secure air reservations no later than October 23rd to get the best fare. The reasons for building a streetcar in Cincinnati are explained in this article, which appeared early last year: http://citybeat.com/2006-02-15/cover.shtml. If you're interested in the streetcar, please take a few minutes to read it. The Cincinnati Streetcar seems likely to happen, so it's a good time to get your arms around it. If you'd like to go on the tour to Portland next month, please write back soon, and I'll send you more info. Thanks for your time, John Schneider

Jake, can you draw the Wasson Line going up Gilbert to Xavier to show how direct this would be? I'm thinking streetcars on MLK to Clifton Heights, say.

One of the reasons I take people to Portland all the time is to show them that the overhead wires are barely visible. Next trip is November 16th.

The wires thing ... not a big deal. They're really small these days.

And remember, it wouldn't be the worst outcome if people had to walk a couple of blocks. The value of a transit trip to the passenger is the passenger's ride. The value of a transit trip to the public realm is the passenger's walk. Think about it.

There were two principal reasons for the streetcar's using Walnut and Main running north and south through downtown, one of them compelling, the other judgmental. First, the compelling reason: only the Walnut and Main Street bridges over Fort Washington Way are designed to carry something as heavy as a streetcar or light rail. When the slabs were poured, they were designed to be sacrificial, meaning there were cold joints where concrete slabs could be easily removed from the current traffic lane to expose the 12" of depth need to install the re-bar and trackbed. You can just jackhammer these sections out without damaging adjacent areas because those were a separate concrete pour. Plus, the post-tensioning used in these bridges was set at a lower depth in order to allow the removal without affecting the structure. A good example of how our city (usually) plans ahead. Were you to use any bridge other than Walnut or Main, you'd have to close parts of the freeway to traffic and rebuild it at an estimated cost of $4 million for each structure. So that kind of forces you to use Walnut and Main. Now for the judgmental part. The cluster of office buildings between Third and Sixth within a block or two of Walnut or Main constitutes one of the main economic engines of our city, along with the University of Cincinnati. As much as 30-40% of Cincinnati's earning taxes comes from those nine or so blocks. The Streetcar Steering Committee felt that these office workers were the most likely suspects to repopulate downtown and OTR. They're here already. They're used to downtown with all its pluses and minuses, and a lot of the childless ones are probably sick of their commutes. Plus they pay a bunch to park every day. So, in a play to one of our strengths, the judgment was to tap into this buying power directly. What do you have to the west? Paul Brown Stadium -- a nice building that used maybe, in a good year, 1% of the hours of the year. And the Convention Center. But Dan Lincoln, the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau said, "Don't worry about the conventioneers. They'll find the streetcar. It doesn't have to come right by the Convention Center." And he's right. Life could be worse than having to walk from the Center or a hotel east of there across the new Fountain Square to Main or Walnut. Some other things: getting to 12th & Main contacts the Main Street entertainment area. And getting closer to Broadway Commons exposes the streetcar to downtown's next largest site after the riverfront. So that was the logic. So far, it's held up pretty well to scrutiny.

All these comments, and more, should be entered into the record tonight. I think they're most interested in comments on the route. I'm sure photos are OK. Take a camera and ask whoever seems to be in charge.

Remember, final Open House for the Cincinnati Streetcar is tonight (Thursday) from 4:00p to 7:00p. The place is Cincinnati City Hall, 801 Plum Street, in Council Chambers on the Third Floor. There's lots of cheap parking near City Hall, and the meters are free after 5:00p. You can show up anytime, ask questions of the consultants and leave whenever you want. You should fill our a Comment Card. Among the things you might want to weigh-in on are: * The end points of the first phase are the Great American Ball Park and Findlay Market. OK with you? * What should the fare be - free, $.050 or $1.00 or more? * Who should build and "own" the streetcar? * Do you like the modern vehicles, or would you want something more retro? * If it were something other than a fixed-rail system, would you be more or less likely to use it? * How would a downtown streetcar change your life? * Would you give up your car if the streetcar were in place? Well, you get the idea. See you there.

PREDICTION: This is setting the table for a "finding" that the new multi-modal, freeway-ready bridge over the Little Miami at Newtown must now also accomodate freight rail; and furthermore, that the the Norfolk Southern property (a part of which is the Wasson Line) must now be preserved for freight, thus closing off the only viable alignment for rapid transit in the Eastern Corridor. Watch.

If you need another reason not to go for Federal funds for Cincinnati's streetcar ... http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/119069070835770.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

I don't know where you'd find an accurate global list of all U.S. streetcar projects. Try Jeff Wood at Reconnecting America. We're hoping construction begins next year, and the streetcar is placed in service in 2010. Seeking Fed funds would delay that at least four years. I don't think the financing is a problem.

Want to wait until 2014 at the earliest? That the length of the Federal process in an increasingly long pipeline of forty-some streetcar projects now in planning across the U.S.

And here's another thing. If we don't use Federal monies for Phase One, then the local capital invested to build Phase One can be used as the local match for a Federal grant for extending the line to Northern Kentucky, a good case for the use of Fed funds if there ever was one.

Correction: the City Hall meeting is September 27th from 4:00p to 7:00p.

While it's still fresh in your mind, invite your friends to come to City Council Chambers next Thursday, September 20th from 4:00p to 7:00p. Turnout is really important at these things. By the way, I hear the streetcar is polling third among issues facing city council. So they're watching.

On the water main in the subway tunnels ... when we rebuilt Fort Washington Way, the water main we installed under Third Street was sized to be large enough to feed downtown is the one in the subway tunnel had to be abandoned. So it's not such a big problem. Without getting into all the details, people working on the downtown Cincinnati Streetcar have met with Northern Kentucky interests with good results. The feeling south of the river is that they're looking for Cincinnati to get its work going first and then leverage their plans off that.

Here's the map: http://www.pro-transit.com/

Anyone else think all of this has reached the tipping point?

I don't have any details, but several people have told me they're doing this. And remember, the straightest line to Tri-County goes through Xavier.

They are preserving ROW for LRT as part of the I-75 rebuilding.

ILet's face it, any light rail project which involves multiple counties will be a circus in terms of funding and political in- fighting. Light rail doesn't have to go to multiple counties to be successful. You could build light rail on a line from downtown to UC to Xavier and out through Hyde Park to the city limits and have 20,000 riders per day. Within a half-mile of so of that alignment, those neighborhoods, in the aggregate, voted in favor of light rail in 2002. So you could build it wholly within one jurisdiction, to start. The 2002 plan was wholly located within Hamilton County.

CRANLEY: I don’t see light rail on the horizon." SORTA plans in works...sorta Some ambitious plans are in the works to revamp the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA). But the changes aren't anywhere near to the point of rubber hitting road (pun intended). In fact, it may be still be quite awhile before the city and the county even agree on exactly far-reaching the overhaul should be, let alone getting the plan ready to present to surrounding counties, and the masses served by mass-transit. Here's the deal. Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune is on a small group of city, county and SORTA folk who are working on this re-organization. Last week Portune told the Enquirer about the plans in the works (read Enquirer story). Then, on Monday he outlined in a two-page memo to his colleagues, Commissioners David Pepper and Pat DeWine, exactly what the "SORTA Revision Process" would entail. Portune said he thinks its "time to test the water" and see if this is what the full city council, county commission and SORTA board were envisioning when they began the re-organization talks six months ago. But some of Todd's plans (like light rail and a high-speed rail line between Cincinnati and Dayton) may stretch a little beyond what others in the revision group are interested in tackling right now. Said Councilman John Cranley (he's part of the re-organization group) last week: "If it wasn’t for David and Todd’s approach, this change would never have happened. Hamilton County is willing to be partners with us and they are very progressive." But.... "My first goal is to make sure we have the highest level of service in the city. I don’t see light rail on the horizon." SORTA board member Melody Sawyer Richardson (not part of the re-organization group)came to the Monday meeting because she read about it in the paper. She said (speaking as a resident, not on behalf of the board) that the first goal should be to protect the existing system and the people who use it. That said, "regionalism is fabulous," she noted. And she thinks considering different modalities (like trains and trolleys) is important. So we'll see where how it boils down in a few weeks. City Council will take up the issue at some point. It meets again in two weeks. County Commissioners said they'll schedule a work session in three weeks on the issue. Read Portune's memo: sorta.pdf http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/

"Qualls focused on two huge and sometimes controversial projects that are aimed at addressing the region’s growing traffic woes – the I-75 Corridor Reconstruction and the Cincinnati Streetcar proposal." So far as I know, there is nothing controversial about Cincinnati's streetcar project, however postings like this one can easily help make it so.