Eigth and State

When a politician is offered "free" money from the federal government to build a highway, but he has to raise taxes to build rail transit, which one do you think he is going to build? Every once in a while on this board I hear something like "Traffic engineers just don't get it." Traffic engineers are smart people, and they get it. But there are few opportunities to build anything but highways. It's not about urban principles at all; it's all about money.

You guys crack me up sometimes. I think there really is a rail transit cult out there. "If only we could build a system like New York or Seattle, we would be as big they are, and join the cool kids." While it is my opinion that Cincinnati has too many motorways and would benefit from better transit, I don't think it's fair at all to compare Cincinnati to Seattle. The surface transportation system is only one aspect of a city, and it's not necessarily the most important one. A city needs an internal transportation system as well as a connection to the rest of the world. It needs a proper water supply and sanitation. It needs a functioning government that respects property rights. It needs a stable, healthy population. A city doesn't necessarily have to be the biggest city to be successful, but it needs to have infrastructure that is sized appropriately. Someone pointed out that New York City has a subway ridership of 6 million per day. In turn, New York City has an economy that will support that kind of infrastructure. Globally, Seattle is well connected to Southeast Asia, which holds about half of the world's population. Did you know that Seattle is the closest large American city to Tokyo? (It's closer to Tokyo than LA is. Measure it on a globe if you don't believe it.) Seattle has access to deep sea shipping, and thrives on global trade. Cincinnati simply can't compete globally with Seattle. I love Cincinnati, and I wish the best for it. Like I said, I think Cincinnati has too many motorways and could benefit from more transit. But Cincinnati is far from the coast, and will never have access to deep sea shipping. Our population is limited by the economy, which is barely growing. That doesn't mean we can't dream, but gee, our infrastructure has to be sized appropriately. What I like about the Cincinnati Streetcar is that is was a project that was small enough to be buildable - and yet it was so controversial that it barely got built.

^Modest and straightforward? Metro Moves was ~$2 billion and there were lines and stations all over the map.

On Mickey Mouse, class of 1928: Disney's copyright for Mickey expires in 2023, unless the copyright law is changed by Congress. http://artlawjournal.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-law/

I'm not sure what you're getting at, but peak oil is a hypothesis that the long-term shape of the oil extraction curve is more or less bell-shaped, with the first half in growth and the second half in decline. The implication is that at some point in the future, the rate of oil extraction is going to be in irreversible decline when we realize that we are on the back half of the bell curve.

^St Michaels Street

The Whaling industry in the United States lasted about 100 years and peaked about 1850, with 640 whaling ships in service. Whaling was the fifth largest economic sector at the time. The following graph shows the rise and fall of the whaling industry in the United States. As you can see, whaling followed an exponential growth pattern until 1840. Who could have predicted at that time that the industry would suffer exponential decay just 30 years later? https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/the-spectacular-rise-and-fall-of-us-whaling-an-innovation-story/253355/

^I don't think there's a thread about the U.C. shuttle buses, but since it was mentioned, the system carries 500,000 rides per year.

Here's an interesting graph: This is a familiar shape that seems to show up in lots of places. Note that: From 1900 to 1970, growth follows an exponential shape, with a major anomaly at WWII. The highest sustained rate of growth occurred between 1948 and 1970. Starting about 1970, the graph still shows growth, but at a slower rate of growth. There are some periods of decline, one of which lasted a decade from 1998 to 2008. The entire graph could be the front half of a bell curve, but it is too early to tell if it will continue to increase, level off, or decline. So, what is this graph? It's not about oil, specifically, but its related, because it includes travel patterns. This graph is the number of visitors to the United States National Parks. By the way, the most popular National Park is the Great Smokey Mountains. The second most popular is the Grand Canyon.

^One of the business owners told me that his sales dropped 30% the day that Keller's closed.

For historical perspective, I think the original concept was separation of traffic. Passenger automobiles could use the top deck, which intersected with Central Parkway. Central Parkway, Victory Parkway, and Columbia Parkway were pre-interstate motorways that were meant to exclude heavy trucks and streetcars. The lower deck of the Western Hills Viaduct was to accommodate heavy trucks and streetcars. Of course, this changed when I-75 was constructed with ramps connecting to both the upper and lower decks. If I remember correctly, there was also a period when the lower deck had a reversible lane, with illuminated red x's and green arrows showing which lanes to drive in. The present merging movement where the ramp comes into the lower deck going westbound is scary.

^I have gotten into the habit of checking for the anchor logo on the bottom of glass drinking glasses whenever I eat out. :-)

That's true, but the Brent Spence Bridge is not going to last forever. The Delaware bridge event was a surprise, and the same thing could happen here, too.

Delaware River Turnpike Bridge, which carries I-95 over the Delaware River, is closed indefinitely due to a cracked truss member: http://www.phillyvoice.com/delaware-river-turnpike-bridge-remain-closed-least-two-weeks-after-repair/ This bridge is just a few years older than the Brent Spence Bridge, and is of comparable size and construction.

Airlines would probably build their own airports if the government didn't build them. Then, the users would pay through higher ticket prices instead of taxes. Obviously, there is a lot of debate about the proper role of government in the economy, and our government today constructs a lot of infrastructure. I don't think it's fair to say that the airlines and other transportation companies wouldn't exist at all without government subsidies, though.

^There is all kinds of profit in the transportation industry.

Photo 2 was formerly the United States Mint in Carson City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_City_Mint

So THAT's why 700 WLW is so opposed to the streetcar! :-D

Wonderful! Thanks for posting. :-)

^They did a very good job. They even used curved brick on the column to match what was there before.

It's probably not a good idea to share that kind of information on this site.

Not only the balcony which collapsed but all of the balconies on the Middleton Avenue have been replaced, in a project that took most of a year and finished last week.

I nominate Jim Uber.

Nice! Thanks for posting! :-)

^I've heard that Kroger tends to intentionally make it difficult for competing groceries to occupy old Kroger stores. At least that's the story for the old College Hill Kroger, which was vacant for 20 years or more despite being a marketable property. The last thing you want to do is aid your competition.