Eigth and State

Here's some more U.S. Census data, "Components of population change, 2000 to 2006." State: Ohio Total population change: +124,861 Total natural increase: +263,004 Total births: 938,169 Total deaths 675,165 Total migration -145,718 Total international migration +92,101 Total internal migration -237,819 The migration component is larger than I thought, but still smaller than natural increase.

Extreme outmigration? Here we go again. In simple terms, Change in population = births - deaths + immigration - emigration. In Ohio, immigration and emigration are about equal and both small. We are growing in population mainly because we have more births than deaths. However, the death rate is rising and the birth rate is dropping. Projections show that the two will meet in abou 2018. Then, we will have more deaths than births, and will begin to lose population. Within Ohio, about 1/4 of counties are losing population, 1/4 are gaining, and 1/2 are stable. The diagonal I-71 corridor counties are the ones that are gaining. The northwest and southeast are losing. The urban counties of Hamilton, Franklin, and Cuyahoga are also losing. The population of the United States as a whole is growing at about 1% per year. The three states of California, Texas, and Florida contribute the most. Michigan and New York are losing population.

Geographic Area Population estimates Change, 2005 to 2006 July 1, 2006 July 1, 2005 Number Percent United States 299,398,484 296,507,061 2,891,423 1.0 Northeast 54,741,353 54,679,292 62,061 0.1 Midwest 66,217,736 65,936,397 281,339 0.4 South 109,083,752 107,552,100 1,531,652 1.4 West 69,355,643 68,339,272 1,016,371 1.5 Alabama 4,599,030 4,548,327 50,703 1.1 Alaska 670,053 663,253 6,800 1.0 Arizona 6,166,318 5,953,007 213,311 3.6 Arkansas 2,810,872 2,775,708 35,164 1.3 California 36,457,549 36,154,147 303,402 0.8 Colorado 4,753,377 4,663,295 90,082 1.9 Connecticut 3,504,809 3,500,701 4,108 0.1 Delaware 853,476 841,741 11,735 1.4 District of Columbia 581,530 582,049 -519 -0.1 Florida 18,089,888 17,768,191 321,697 1.8 Georgia 9,363,941 9,132,553 231,388 2.5 Hawaii 1,285,498 1,273,278 12,220 1.0 Idaho 1,466,465 1,429,367 37,098 2.6 Illinois 12,831,970 12,765,427 66,543 0.5 Indiana 6,313,520 6,266,019 47,501 0.8 Iowa 2,982,085 2,965,524 16,561 0.6 Kansas 2,764,075 2,748,172 15,903 0.6 Kentucky 4,206,074 4,172,608 33,466 0.8 Louisiana 4,287,768 4,507,331 -219,563 -4.9 Maine 1,321,574 1,318,220 3,354 0.3 Maryland 5,615,727 5,589,599 26,128 0.5 Massachusetts 6,437,193 6,433,367 3,826 0.1 Michigan 10,095,643 10,100,833 -5,190 -0.1 Minnesota 5,167,101 5,126,739 40,362 0.8 Mississippi 2,910,540 2,908,496 2,044 0.1 Missouri 5,842,713 5,797,703 45,010 0.8 Montana 944,632 934,737 9,895 1.1 Nebraska 1,768,331 1,758,163 10,168 0.6 Nevada 2,495,529 2,412,301 83,228 3.5 New Hampshire 1,314,895 1,306,819 8,076 0.6 New Jersey 8,724,560 8,703,150 21,410 0.2 New Mexico 1,954,599 1,925,985 28,614 1.5 New York 19,306,183 19,315,721 -9,538 0.0 North Carolina 8,856,505 8,672,459 184,046 2.1 North Dakota 635,867 634,605 1,262 0.2 Ohio 11,478,006 11,470,685 7,321 0.1 Oklahoma 3,579,212 3,543,442 35,770 1.0 Oregon 3,700,758 3,638,871 61,887 1.7 Pennsylvania 12,440,621 12,405,348 35,273 0.3 Rhode Island 1,067,610 1,073,579 -5,969 -0.6 South Carolina 4,321,249 4,246,933 74,316 1.7 South Dakota 781,919 774,883 7,036 0.9 Tennessee 6,038,803 5,955,745 83,058 1.4 Texas 23,507,783 22,928,508 579,275 2.5 Utah 2,550,063 2,490,334 59,729 2.4 Vermont 623,908 622,387 1,521 0.2 Virginia 7,642,884 7,564,327 78,557 1.0 Washington 6,395,798 6,291,899 103,899 1.7 West Virginia 1,818,470 1,814,083 4,387 0.2 Wisconsin 5,556,506 5,527,644 28,862 0.5 Wyoming 515,004 508,798 6,206 1.2 Puerto Rico 3,927,776 3,911,810 15,966 0.4 (X) Not Applicable.

The crushed car was removed after about a week. I don't know how long it has been abandoned. It has certainly been underused for many years. If I am not mistaken, it was owned by Queen City Barrel, and became city property just a few years ago. About three bays have been torn down now. Demolition is expected to take 6 weeks. It was known as the MyNeil building. As the building is surrounded by parking lots and a gas station, the view will really open up when this building is gone.

<img src="http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/oh/hamilton/postcards/eden.jpg">

Just out of curiousity, do you have any idea how many buildings are in similar condition in downtown Detroit or any other place for that matter? Maybe a better question is what percent of buildings. Detroit is the current whipping boy for examples of abandonment. Every major city in the U.S. has at least something in that condition. Sometimes buildings are closed or vacant but at least someone still has the money to keep the weather out. To see a 35 story skyscraper with open windows and vandalism is a bit shocking.

I would be interested in learning more about this highway trust fund and what the projections are.

I went skating again. It was a bit warmer, and more crowded, than last time. It's a great experience and I would recommend it.

The official explanation is that donut shops are the only thing open at 3:00 a.m.

The building is being demolished now.

Don't get me started on this one. It's too late already. Maybe another time. It's a good topic, though. Would love to discuss this when I have more time.

Just to clarify, I mean that in general whether a street has parking or not is somewhat independent of whether it is two way or not. I didn't look at your project specifically. If the curb lines or building lines are fixed, the yes, you only have so much space to work with and you must distribute that space between sidewalks, parking space, and driving lanes. There is no magic formula for distributing the space. The design should be balanced. There are lots of examples of streets that don't work well.

I have done digital photo work and could give it a try. Can you scan it at 300 dpi and e-mail it to me? Rather than restore it, I might be able to print a digitally retouched copy, if that works for you. PM me.

I did not know that the two were produced by the same architect. That's fascinating! I always marvelled at the resemblance. I read that the Carew was originally supposed to have some kind of stainless steel cladding but late in the design they changed to brick to save money. The setbacks are certainly similar. Here's another piece of trivia. Rank all of the cities in Unites States by tallest building, considering only buildings built before WWII. The first is New York's Empire State Building. The second is Cincinnati's Carew Tower. (Did I say that right? Before 911, Cincinnati's Carew was the tallest building in the U.S. that was both the tallest building in the city and built before WWII.) Someone please verify.

The thread is drifting a little, and that's ok. On street parking is definitely a big factor, but is somewhat independent of whether a street is one way or two way. Street widths and setbacks are also factors. It has been mentioned several times that one way streets encourage higher vehicle speeds. Maybe so, but I think street width, curves, and grades are bigger factors with regard to speed. You can have a narrow one way street and the speed will still be low. Sidewalk widths, street furniture, storefronts, and all of that are important also. Traditionally, the advantage of one way streets are lower congestion and fewer accidents. This applies to pedestrians as well as vehicles. The heart of it is that one way streets have fewer conflicting traffic movements at intersections. Calhoun and McMillan is a classic example of a pair of one way streets. However, those streets are not living to their full potential because the cross streets are two way.

"Since most of the people stopping at UC will be students, i think they will walk it no problem." Sure, and they will whine about how bad parking is the whole way. :-D $10,000 a foot is pretty expensive. I said it would be possible to build a tunnel without a deep elevator. I didn't say it would be cheap!

I just worked out some grades, taking elevations and scaling distances from the USGS quad sheets. This is approximate: Subway at Central Parkway and Ravine Street elevation 530 U.C main campus, center of campus elevation 750 Distance 5000 feet Grade (750-530)/5000 = 0.044 or 4.4% Conclusions: A tunnel from the subway at Ravine Street to a station just below the surface at the center of the U.C. main campus for LRV or PCC cars is possible without deep elevator stations. The elevation at the center of the medical campus is about 770. The elevation of the CL&N near Jewish Hospital is about 750. Jake's concept will work without deep elevators, except for the Deaconess Hospital stop.

Excerpts from Traffic Engineering, McSane and Roess, 1990: "At the beginning and end of every motorist's trip, he or she is a pedestrian. The driver and/or passenger walks to the vehicle, which is parked, drives to a destination, parks the vehicle again, and walks to the final destination. ...Parkers are willing to walk longer distances to their destination for trips of longer duration. ....Some interesting trends: 1. As urban area size increases, parkers will tolerate longer walking distances to their ultimate destinations. 2. As parking duration increases, parkers will tolerate longer walking distances to their ultimate destinations. 3. Work-trip parkers will accomodate the longest walking distances, as they park for the longest durations as a group. 4. Curb-parkers will not tolerate long walking distances. 5. Under any circumstances, drivers expect to park reasonably close to their destinations. At most, 900-ft walks are tolerable for long-term parkers in large cities. Most motorists expect to park within 300 to 400 ft of their desired destination." John, Will transit users walk all the way from Jefferson to the center of campus or the western end of campus? I don't know. Some people will be willing to walk farther than others. Still, the closer to the destination, the better. I think that people will choose driving over transit based on walking distance alone. In the case of U.C., why take the transit and walk past all of those garages?

Jake, that's phenominal! Back in 2002 I produced my own rail plan, having some fun drawing lines on a map, and went out and walked 90% of it. I had the same concept - a NE SW diagonal across the UC main campus and medical campus. My plan only had two stops, each in the center of campus, but it was essentially the same concept. Extend the line in each direction, and you hit the subway and the CL&N right of way. It is a fairly straightforward alignment. The difficulty of course would be the tunnel stations. Building an elevator to match the rail capacity would be a challenge. I was never excited about the proposed Mt. Auburn tunnel. At first glance, a tunnel seems really expensive. Normally, in a flatter city, this is true. A cut and cover tunnel in an existing street disturbs a lot of utilities. A deep tunnel, however, does not. The lack of existing things to work around partly offsets the cost of removing rock inside the tunnel. To finish the story, I worked out some density, headway, and speed calculations and estimated that the system wouldn't pay, so it put a damper on my rail enthusiasm. You would like my downtown plan, though, as well as my airport connection. There were different than any other I have seen. All in fun, of course. Also it should be noted that the University of Cincinnati has for years considered some kind of tunnel to connect the two campuses. They probably had a shorter, pedestrian tunnel under MLK in mind. It just happens that your alignment overlays theirs. Drawing lines on a map is fun!

KJP: Cincinnati had 3 cable railways. The cable cars were pulled by cables running under the street. These had friction brakes on the wheels, and also had an emergency brake by means of a wedge that was jammed into the cable slot. I am not aware of any catches on electric streetcars, nor of any runaway accidents. The Price Hill Incline had a famous accident involving a wagon load of sand and another of manure. The Cincinnati and Lebanon had a few trains get away on the steep CL&N route. John: Do you think that a stop at Vine and University is close enough to the U.C. campus? As expensive as it is, U.C. students pay big money for those parking passes, when they could park on the street for free and walk. Most of the garages would be closer than a stop on Jefferson. Ideally, the transit stop would be right in the center of campus, if a route could be found to get there. In Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University, I have noticed cars with parking passes parked on the street in front of student housing, just a few blocks from campus. Are these people driving a quarter mile and paying big money for parking? I'm not sure, but perhaps they are. People view cars as a door to door service. My point is that if there's a garage that's closer, and people are willing to pay for it, will they really walk all the way from Jefferson? Jake: The LRT vehicle manufactured by Siemens is designed for a maximum grade of 7%. For comparison, Straight Street is 18%, Sycamore Hill 10%, and the old CL&N 4%. I don't know what Vine or Clifton are, but they are probably close to the limit of 7%. Also, the idea of conflicts with fire fighting equipment can get even more complicated. What happens when the fire fighters have to take a hose across the railway? There's a photo in the Wagner and Wright series of a special track that formed a bridge over a fire hose. This special track was carried on an automobile to a fire scene and placed over the hose, and the electric streetcars crawed over it. The drawback of rail is that it does not have the flexibility to go around such things. You might not think it would happen that often, but emergencies like that could shut down an entire line. Maybe placing fire hydrants on both sides of the street could alleviate the problem. Neville: Both Vine Street and Auburn Avenue used to meet at Short Vine where University Plaza is now. Both streets had streetcars.

"A new Brent Spence is pretty much baked in the cake at this point." If I understand correctly, it is at least 15 years away if everything goes according to plan. That takes us to 2021. Neither Kentucky nor Ohio has a budget for a new bridge, although they are contributing to studies and design. We are counting on federal money, which is not guranteed. The Enquirer reported that traffic counts on the bridge peaked in 1995. I am not confident that a new bridge will ever be built. I always get a laugh when the Great Brent Spence Bridge thread and the Great Peak Oil thread are next to each other on the forum.

"Tolls in the new Brent Spence would be one way to secure the local match for a regional transit system..." Are you saying you want BOTH a new Brent Spence bridge AND a transit system? Our cost just doubled, and so did our capacity. How about tolls on the EXISTING Brent Spence to pay for transit?

Place the toll plaza way at the top of the hill by Kyle's Lane. If the toll were priced correctly, the traffic would not back up because some of the current users would stop using the bridge.

The Fountain Square ice rink is worth the trip. It's only $2.00 to skate! I dug up my old figure skates. First, the walk to the rink. Old door on a new house Antebellum Temple and globe street lights Government and Gargoyle Courtyard Prominade Pigeons Pyramid Skaters Skaters Skaters It was a bit of a shock to see the fountain moved north and rotated 90 degrees, but there it was! Also, I was expecting the plaza to be closer to street level. It is raised about 8 feet above the street. It doesn't look quite like the renderings. Then again, I never put much stock in renderings - that rendering had two way traffic on Fifth Street! Thanks for looking. PS - I skated for over two hours and only fell three times. The first fall was spectacular.

Give it a few years. Some analysts are forecasting an 8% decrease in consumption!