Eigth and State

^---"Freight railroads in this country are winning and will continue to win." Freight railroads carry a lot of: Car Parts Finished Cars Scrap Metal from old cars Road Building Materials In the short term, some business may switch from highways to railroads. What if business in general declines? How long will it be until we are talking about freight railroads going out of business? By the way, Congratulations Neville for winning #2.

^--- Tip of the iceberg, my friend. You just see the tip of the iceberg. :evil:

Don't let the curved streets fool you. The typical subdivision still follows the lot and block pattern, considering lot width, setbacks, block sizes, and so on.

I thought I had read that Fes is the largest continous car-free city in the world. There are some parking lots on the periphery but the city center has only narrow streets, many less than 6 feet wide! Is this correct? Is it safe to travel there? It looks fascinating!

Boreal - agreed.

For Kingfish: "Old Woman!" "Man!" "Man, sorry. What Knight lives in that castle over there?" "I'm 37." "What?" "I'm 37. I'm not old!" - Monty Python

^---- "In fact there's a guilt lumped on a lot of people who get married young (and by that I mean age 25 or so)" Ha! In 1950, the average age for first marriages was 19 for women and 21 for men. In 1970, 23 and 25. In 2000, 26 and 27. Right now the fastest growing demographic group as far as birth rates are concerned are new mothers over 35, in part thanks to fertility treatment. Did you know that more children were born in the United States in 1955 than in any other year?

Russia is the odd one in the group, in that she has two peaks. Apparently she peaked in 1987, not due to geology or economics but due to politics. She is due for a second peak soon.

^---- On the Brazil discovery: "That's a great discovery. When that field comes online in the next 5-10 years, hopefully it will be able to keep the global slide more gradual." 8 billion barrels is a big number, but divide that by another big number, the amount that the world burns every day. 8 billion barrels / 80 million barrels per day = 100 days. Granted, the extraction rate is not constant, and in reality would be spread over many years, but this math shows that this discovery really isn't all that great in the big picture. Finally, if you think that the peak oil curve as presented by Hubbert is accurate, all new discoveries have already been taken into account. The global slide is not affected.

No one has mentioned I-71. Everything along I-71 is booming, all the way across the state. Statewide, the diagonal 3-C corridor counties are all gaining population except the 3 urban counties of Hamilton, Franklin, and Cuyahoga. Meanwhile, most of the counties not along I-71 are either stable or declining in population. On a smaller scale, the northeast sector of the Cincinnat metro consisting of Evendale / Sharonville / Blue Ash / Tri-County / West Chester has sort of morphed into it's own city which is competitive with the original City of Cincinnati. Oakley is a sort of suburb of the northeast metro. That is, people who have jobs in West Chester may commute from Oakley.

Something sounds familiar.... Broadway commons, or more specifically, Deer Creek Commons just north of it, used to be a major baseball destination, before I-71 destroyed it.

From downtown, walk on the sidewalk on the north side of Sixth street. It looks like you are going to Columbia Parkway, but there's a sidewalk connection to Monastery Street in Mount Adams. It's the most direct walking route that I know of, and few use it. Of course, you have a very steep hill to climb once you cross I-71.

California gets flooded by the Ohio River regularly. Some of the residents actually move their trailers to higher ground during floods.

One time a bum asked me for money to buy a sandwich. I happened to pack my lunch that day, so I actually gave him a sandwich. It happened again, so I started bringing extra food. I gave away food to perhaps 10 people on different occasions. Here's a lesson for you. Not a single one ever ate the food, as far as I am aware.

Thanks for clearing that up. You said it better than I could. Still, I wonder if the development will come. While we talk about a $102 million streetcar line, we just spent 100 times that much on highways and associated auto-oriented infrastructure in other places. No wonder there is so much development around highway interchanges.

I don't think anyone is opposing the actual streetcar. There are some that claim that the benefits may not be worth the cost. The study projects a 15:1 benefit/cost ratio. If their assumptions are correct, then the streetcar is a no-brainer. If their assumptions are incorrect, then so are their conclusions. It all comes down to the question, "If this streetcar is built, will development follow?" No one knows for sure. The only way to know is to build it, and see if they come. It's going to be a $102 million gamble, which, I guess is better than a $2 billion gamble. :wink:

"We will grow the population of our core..." This is the key to the whole thing. I admire the rest of you for your positve attitude, but I just don't see it. The good news is that there is renewed interest in city living. The other news is that Cincinnati is already losing population. Does anyone really think that the streetcar, even in combination with other things, will really turn this trend around? I think it's too little too late. By the way, I rode a streetcar for the first time in another city this summer and it was wonderful. The technical arguments of overhead wires, traffic, etc., did not seem to hold up. This streetcar thing is more of a social and economic issue than a technical one.

Depressing, but true. Thanks for posting.

Which would you rather have, a new energy efficient furnace, or a granite countertop? Most new homeowners are choosing the granite countertop. What good is wealth if you can't show it off? Economic decisions are not necessarily rational. I suspect that Wal-mart has been growing so fast that they didn't have time to worry about fuel efficiency in their truck fleet. They were occupied with making sure that their trucks showed up on time. Now that they are no longer growing so fast, they are looking at ways to cut costs.

The parkway concept goes back to the beginning of the automobile era. The 1907 Kessler Plan proposed the construction of Central Parkway, Victory Parkway, and Columbia Parkway, as well as some others that didn't get built. The idea was to separate traffic, and keep all commercial traffic and streetcars off of the parkways. In the case of Central Parkway, the concept extended to Western Hills Viaduct, where the commercial traffic and streetcars used the lower level, and the top level connected to Central Parkway. The concept somehow carries on today, with signs saying "No trucks allowed; local shipments must enter at nearest side street" or something like that. For Columbia Parkway especially, the grades and curves are probably not very good for trucks.

Excellent photos. Thanks for posting.

San Francisco has Cable Cars. Cable Cars predate electric streetcars by a decade or two. Cable Cars are propelled by moving wire ropes or cables laid in a conduit under the street. The cables somewhat resemble ski lift cables. The technology was simple in concept but very complicated in practise, with pulleys under the street, mechanisms for keeping the cables tight, etc. Most of the energy was used to move the cable, so this technology was not energy efficient. It did have the advantage of being able to climb steep hills where electric streetcars could not. Cincinnati had 3 cable car lines in addition to 5 inclines. The train at the Cincinnati airport is actually pulled by cables. Jake - the line next to Rookwood Commons could probably be tunneled under the intersection. The Elsinore Crossing might have to remain at grade, in order to use the existing bridge, but I don't think it would be too much of a problem. Your Broadway Commons track lines up well with the subway, too.

I got to spend a few hours in Bangkok on my way to northern Thailand. Bangkok is a large city, to say the least. Here's a shot taken from a cab on the elevated freeway. Here's one in front of the train station. I didn't see any markets on railroad tracks, but there are thousands of little markets everywhere. The track shot is fascinating. Can you imagine the driver's view? He must be aiming straight for a mass of people and awnings that miraculously clear away before him.

2,3,8 are my favorites.

"City of Tomorrow" by LeCorbusier