Eigth and State

I was going to say, "Can we get those lines extended to Cincinnati?" At least Cleveland has something to extend. Cincinnati can't seem to get anything at all started, much less extended. Oh well, at least we have the zoo train.

"Then I would say our politicians are at least trying to meet the basic necessities of our citizens." Since when is this the responsibilty of our politicians? "I can not find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States" - Franklin Pierce

The United States has about 300 million people and about 150 million cars, so in round numbers about half of the population drives. Granted, children are non-drivers and they don't get to vote, but it's a little closer than you expected, aye? I think the non-drivers are concentrated in the big cities of New York, Philidelphia, L.A., Phoenix, Houston, and Chicago, so it make sense that in Ohio, the drivers outnumber the non-drivers. Still, the original point is that we have a system where the politicians represent the drivers because for the most part they were elected by the drivers. Can you blame the politicians?

Campaign money is used to drum up support, and can be done in two basic ways: 1. Convince a voter to change his mind and vote for your cause, and 2. Convince a non-voter to become a voter and vote for your cause. Campaign money can influence the outcome, but the outcome of an election is still under the control of the voters! If the poor man with no money votes for his cause and loses - well, at least he made the winning side work for it. But if the poor man with no money doesn't vote at all, then he just gave up without trying. Most elections are pretty close - 60% to 40% is considered a landslide - so getting an additional 10% of eligible voters to participate would change the outcome of most elections in Ohio. "Politics make me sick" - William Howard Taft. It makes me sick, too, but what is there to do about it? A couple of activists at a public meeting are a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands who never go to a public meeting and never write a letter to the editor, but show up at the polls. KJP, why don't you run for something yourself? (I might even vote for you.) :-)

Traditionally, the rule of utilities occupying street right-of-way is first come, first served. In the case of the streetcar, the streetcar project cannot force other utilities to move at their own expense. John, you ask why is the streetcar different from road widening projects. The answer is that under Ohio law, utilities are required to relocate for road projects, but streetcars have the same legal status as any other utility. John - you say that Duke will win when OTR gets redeveloped. The assumption that OTR actually will get redeveloped is not held by everyone, and apparently not by Duke. John - you ask why Duke doesn't take the opportunity to replace gas mains anyway, since they are doing it in other neighborhoods. I don't know what condition the gas mains in the streetcar area are in - chances are that they may have been replaced recently. I can only assume that Duke has established priorities and is replacing mains in other neighborhoods for a reason. Jake, the nature of utilities in downtown and OTR really is that exotic. Here's what utilities I know about off the top of my head: TWO water systems - normal pressure and high pressure to serve skyscrapers. Chilled water for A/C MSD sewers, most of them large combined sewers up to 6 feet diameter. Duke gas mains - many of them probably old steel mains that are more prone to rupturing than more modern plastic ones Duke underground electric City of Cincinnati underground traffic - signal loops embedded in the street and connecting lines Cincinnati Bell underground telephone At least 5 different regional fiber optic lines that converge downtown A number of local fiber optic and communication utilities that serve downtown and the local market. A hodgepodge of underground tunnels including utility tunnels, old brewery tunnels, the subway, etc., which may not be in the direct line of the streetcar but still add congestion to the mix and make utility relocation difficult. Finally, there are historic streetcar lines still in the street that need to be removed. This costs money, too. I don't know what Portland or any other place has to deal with, but downtown Cincinnati and OTR really is one of the toughest places to deal with utilities in the whole country. Everyone who works in the industry could see this coming. The city's original estimate was simply too low - and then when they were under pressure to keep the cost down, they cut the utility budget even farther. Jjakucyk - Cities do NOT have the power to deny utilities access to the public right of way. They are there with permission from the State of Ohio, not the City of Cincinnati. The law reads as follows. Ohio Revised Code 4939.04 (A)(1) "A municipal corporation shall provide public utilities or cable operators with open, comparable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral access to its public ways." Ram - This utility work can EASILY get to $30 million. That's no joke.

So what if OTR residents paid for extensions of utilities into the suburbs over the last several decades? That's a sunk cost: the result of a historical decision that cannot be changed. Today, the utilities are being asked to contribute toward the streetcar project, and they are resisting. Can you blame them?

Please don't get sidetracked by the way that political campaigns are funded. The point is that the groups who do not drive are under-represented in the political system, and thus have less political power than drivers. This situation leads to our leaders spending more on highways and less on transit. Trying to convince the political leaders that we should spend more on transit and less on highways is not productive as long as the underlying electorate favors highways. I think we all agree that our population would be better served if some of the funding were shifted from highways to rail transit. The problem is not with our political leaders, nor with the highway planners at ODOT, nor the construction industry. The problem is that non-drivers are not represented in the political process because they do not participate, and therefore political decisions are skewed to favor drivers.

^Naw, you do have the right to complain if you voted and lost. KJP, using your store analogy, if the store doesn't have what you want, you should ask for it, and offer to pay for it. A smart business owner will accomodate his customers. If you want something from your government, you have to vote for it! The NRA, Sierra Club, Trade Unions, etc., have a lot of political power because their members vote. Other groups that do not vote or have low turnouts do not have much political power.

Quite simply, the streetcar proponents did not allow enough money in the streetcar budget to do the required utility work. In my opionion, this was a major mistake for the streetcar project.

Jake, I agree that most people talk about their kids, and not about government, infrastructure, or technical things. A fairly small segment of the population is interested in the streetcar. I have had a few - maybe 10 - people outside of UO ask me what I thought of the streetcar.

The Enquirer must think it's a popular story, since they have written so much about it. Do you think that the Enquirer is doing it for laughs, kind of like the way Sarah Palin gets so much coverage for saying dumb things?

"They do not believe they will succeed in advocating for better transit so they don't even try." So is that a good reason to blame the "leaders?" The leaders represent the VOTERS, or more specifically, a majority of voters, with some political campaign contributors unproportionally thrown in. The leaders do not represent the non-voters. As they say, "If you don't vote, you have no right to complain." It's not a perfect system, and it's not a perfect world. The only way to make a difference is either 1. Get more people to vote, particularly the poor, disabled, non-drivers, etc., or 2. Change the system to select the leaders some other way.

The streetcar is obviosly a very popular subject, as shown by the letters to the editor and comments. I think that the Enquirer is rooting for the underdog, so to say, so that they can drag this story out as long as possible.

^Hope you stay connected to UO.

^If gas gets to $10 a gallon I don't ODOT will be able to afford to rip out a lane to build light rail.

The Hamilton bike trail has one terminus downtown on High Street, but there is nothing else along the route other than the treatment plant and Joyce park. So, if you live in downtown Hamilton and work at the treatment plant or if you live in Hamilton and want to go to Joyce Park, then it is useful as a transportation corridor. Any other use will likely be recreation only. Which brings me back to the I-75 corridor: if a bike trail is going to be useful for transportation and not just recreation, it has to connect with activity centers. Many, many bike trails do not connect with anything other than parks, and while they are beneficial for recreation, they are not useful for any actual commuting. I would say that in most places, anyone who commutes by bicycle will more likely ride on the street instead of on a bike trail, particularly if the bike trail follows a more circuitous route. The I-75 corridor is different. I-75 follows the only reasonably level route in the region, which is obviously why it is so developed, so it would be a natural corridor for bicycling. However, most of the local streets are terrible for bicycling, and the Mitchell crossing is one of the worst. Bicycles obviously aren't allowed on I-75 itself, and with few crossings at all and even fewer good ones, I-75 becomes a serious barrier to bicycling. A separate bike trail in the I-75 corridor that also connected the communities of Northside, St. Bernard, Hartwell, Wyoming, etc, would likely be very popular both as a recreational trail and a commutor corridor. So, is there any route available? I worked one out once, and it doesn't look too bad, but there are some serious challenges. The former Miami and Erie Canal is available in some places, and passes right through the St. Bernard business area through a chain of parks, and continues north on the other side of I-75. There is also land available along the Mill Creek and Spring Grove Avenue. Central Parkway is a fairly bicycle-friendly street that connects to downtown, and there are lots of connecting streets in Hartwell, Elmwood Place, Wyoming, etc., that could be joined together to make a nice bike route with a minimum of construction work. However, the crossings of I-75 and the railroads are going to be very difficult. If ODOT could see beyond strictly highways, they could build some crossings, both over and under I-75, to link these pieces together and form a reasonably coherent bicycle system that would be really popular. It might even reduce some of the short-distance automobile traffic and improve congestion on I-75!

^Naw, the central purpose of the news media, like any business, is to make money. Now some media institutions place a high priority on maintaining credibility, while some others specialize in entertainment. The mainstream media does some of each, trying to balance information and entertainment content that is most interesting to the most people. Most people aren't interested in rail or urban development. Sorry! Human interest stories, for example, a shooting on Fountain Square, get a lot more attention.

^Since when has the mainstream media been focused on the never-ending pursuit of truth? I think that they are pretty good at what they do, which is reporting the news that interests the most people.

"Leaders must recognize these households' unique mobility needs..." Why place the burden on the leaders, whoever they are? Ultimately, the elected leaders are accountable to the voters, and the voters don't seem to be placing a priority on transportation issues. I have a feeling that the majority of voters are drivers. Thus, there isn't much campaigning for other forms of transit. Until this changes, don't expect too much in the way of public transit from the leaders. :-(

Beautiful! Thanks for posting. :-)

^In a downtown setting, the biggest cost of a playground is the land, not the equipment. That said, a well-deisgned playground will fit in a small space.

Found on the internet: gritty details of New York City from about 1970. The letter V: Color TV! Woo hoo!

Rockandroller, thanks for posting. Those responses were interesting. The common theme of the responses was "I go downtown less than I used to before I had kids." I bet that most mothers with small children do less of EVERYTHING then they used to before they had kids. It takes a lot of time to raise a child, and the first two years are probably the most work. Every hour spent feeding the child, bathing the child,, dressing the child, washing clothes, preparing food, shopping for groceries, changing diapers, etc., is one less hour available for other things. Of course the woman is going to spend less time downtown than she used to. As far as parks and things for kids to do, chances are that the suburban family is going to go to a suburban park for the simple reason that it is closer. This is the same reason why suburban families usually shop at suburban grocery stores, go to suburban restaurants, etc. Plus, suburban facilities have free parking. Get more families to LIVE downtown and there will be more 2-year olds downtown.

Per-capita has population in the denominator. The Great Depression years were the only years in United States history where the nation experienced a net emmigration. So, the rate of population growth might be throwing off the numbers for the depression years.

I was just looking at a map of Ohio pipelines the other day. There are a lot of them allright. Hey KJP, do you ever fret about pipelines taking traffic away from railroads?