Eigth and State

Consider the possibility that the county commissioners authorize the sewer work but the streetcar never gets built. Headline: MSD wastes $6 million on failed project.

What is striking to me is that the percentage of foriegn born in Cuyahoga and Hamilton coorespondes with the period of highest population increase. Hamilton County's foreign born population was highest in 1880, and was probably higher still before they kept records. Cuyahoga's was highest in 1920. This is yet another piece of evidence that shows that foreign immigration is practically required for substantial population growth. Columbus is sort of an anomoly, since it is the state capital and hosts one of the largest universities in the nation. Today, the West Coast cities of Portland, Seattle, and L.A., along with many cities in the border states of California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida are getting the biggest share of foreign immigration, most of it from Latin America. Ohio just isn't growing from natural increase alone.

They may purchase the same amount of gasoline as everyone else, but they use more infrastructure than everyone else.

Not to change the topic to libertarian government-bashing or anything, but the Golden Gate bridge in California comes to mind as one that has always been privately-owned, is tolled, and well-maintained. There are enough funds to maintain the bridge because they toll it. Also, appropriate tolling has the effect of congestion pricing. Finally, they use reversible lanes to optimize the rush hour capacity. Just about every weekday morning, the Brent Spence is crowded northbound. Every weekday afternoon, traffic is backed up to Union Terminal southbound. Yes, there are a lot of trucks, but passenger cars still outnumber trucks by a long way. Clearly, the biggest part of the traffic is commuters travelling to work. Commuters would think twice about living in Kentucky and taking a job in Ohio if they had to pay a buck or two to cross the bridge twice a day. Truckers would gladly pay a buck or two to keep moving - many truckers are paid by the mile, not by the hour. Tolling seems to be the best solution hands-down. The only drawback other than the need to pass legislation allowing tolling is finding a place to put the toll plaza and dealing with the ramps. I say put the toll plaza on the top of the hill near Kyles Lane in Kentucky, where traffic is a little slower anyway, and remove all ramps between the toll plaza and the river. Improve access to the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge on the Ohio side to make up for lost ramps in Covington. Adjust the tolls appropriately during the day, pricing them higher at rush hour. Most hours of the day the tolls could probably be free.

Why don't they build the platforms level with the cars? Do the cars have different levels or something? :?

"Disproportionally devasted by metro freeway systems." I thought the more prevalent pattern was that the interstates passed around the outskirts of the small cities. Granted, a lot of sprawly new businesses developed between the interchange and the city, taking some of the life away from the city, but if there was any wholesale demolition, it wasn't anything like the it was in the big cities.

My picks: Skyline and/or harbor shots, either modern or historical, of Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, and Buffalo, Cedar Point amusement park, Flagship Niagara (Erie, Pennsylvania,) Something about Fort Detroit, Niagara Falls, The Erie Canal, A freighter, A tall ship, A shipwreck. That makes 12. I'm sure the members of Urban Ohio will help you find photos.

Especially when they speak Cantonese. :-D

^How about some better access to the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge and remove the Covington ramps?

^When Cincinnati's historical streetcars were being discontinued, the idea was that motorcoaches would be used as a temporary public service until everyone eventually had a car and a house in the suburbs. Riders invariably preferred the streetcars over buses, though. The decline in public transit ridership in Cincinnati mimics the decline in population and jobs in addition to the switch to automobiles. Today, Queen City Metro carries about 10% of the ridership that the streetcars did in 1920.

Herds and herds of elephants under the living room rug - now there's some vivid imagery. :-o Civvik, weren't you in the urban planning field or something related before?

^This is big news. Music Hall has always been a puzzle - a long, beautiful facade that could only be photographed at an angle or through trees. Often, perspective views have been intentionally set up to showcase a building; compare to Union Terminal. Another view that comes to mind is McMicken Hall and TUC at the University of Cincinnati. The buildings were originally lined up on the same axis, but the view was blocked by an older building. When that older building was finally torn down and made into a lawn, TUC and McMicken Hall could be seen across the lawn from each other's front door. In my humble opinion, opening up that lawn was one of my favorited urban projects. But alas, it lasted only a short time, as they built that bus shelter thing in fron of McMicken, and wrapped TUC in that awful circular monstrosity. What are the plans for Washington Park? I assume they are going to build something, and maybe plant some trees. Maybe now is the time to get the photos? Where are all the UO photographers? And yes, this IS appropriate for the streetcar because the intended route is right in front of Music Hall. I personally didn't like that route, but a benefit of that route is that is allows a postcard view of Music Hall with a possible streetcar.

^I know there's work going on at Washington Park and all, but I didn't know the view of Music Hall was open. Could this possibly be the first time that the facade could be photographed properly? Wow.

A lot of people have two cars, so why not? :-D

Hey Jeffrey, Have you read "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander? There are a couple of patterns in that book that describe these little houses.

^Got a better way? Make license exams more strict, with higher fees - and have more unlicensed drivers? In this country, if you can get a license in one state, you can drive in any state. So, the state with the most lenient license laws controls. Note that this reciprosity does not apply to many other licenses.

^Good visualization of the difference between a street and a road. The one thing that I would add is that in the high growth years of the 1950's, it looked like the highways would be affordable indefinitely. The folks who planned the finances of our highways did not forsee economic conditions that we have today.

^Although transporation infrastructure is perhaps the most visible form of government spending, infrastructure is only a very small part of overall government spending. Social programs are huge.

^Links?

^Interesting that the project includes 3 vintage streetcars.

Nice work. :-)

Remember, the typical reader is interested in human interest stories, not boring technical facts about grades and projected ridership numbers. A photo of Tom Luken generates a lot more interest than a route map. While I personally am skeptical of the supposed benefits of the streetcar (redevelopment of OTR, etc.,) and I think the Enquirer is too, my opinion is that the Enquirer is giving the opposition more attention than they would normally deserve, simply because the Enquirer is rooting for the underdog to make the fight last longer. This streetcar issue has gone beyond the streetcar itself, and is becoming a grudge match between personalities. That's what makes a good story!

Nice to see Cincinnati's Roebling bridge on the wall murals. Thanks for the photos.

There's another comparison that we can get out of the GTO example. The GTO is an impractical automobile. It's got an oversize engine, and it squeals tires a lot. Any sensible person would never buy one - in fact, the GTO should be banned from the street for excessive noise and air pollution. Yet - the GTO is very popular. This is partly why rational arguments about the streetcar involving facts don't always work. One cannot assume that people are rational.