Eigth and State

"That door is how they used to get into the tops of the towers. They climbed a rope ladder into that space, which is hollow. " I've been there. :-)

I liked the old one better but only because the background color made the text easier to read.

What did we vote for?

"By law, Capital Budget cannot be used to pay Operating expenses." I know that and you know that, but many city workers do not know that, and they vote! And so do their families!

Build a new airport when the existing airlines are cutting flights? Why? We just got a new runway at CVG, which was 10 years in the making, and there aren't enough flights to use it.

"The Obama administration wisely wants to end this disjunction by proposing that Congress extend federal standards to subway and light-rail lines now haphazardly regulated in more than two dozen city and regional systems." Where does Congress derive the power to do this? Can you find it in the Constitution? Traditionally, Congress has made laws regulating the railroads, including laws related to safety, under the interstate commerce clause of the constitution. However, the federal laws were limited to railroads that crossed state lines, or to railroads that interchanged with railroads that crossed state lines. Railroads that did not cross state lines were not regulated, and if the feds tried to impose laws on them, the lawyers of the railroad would show up in court and win based on the limited powers of congress. Most subways and regional systems do not cross state lines. Just sayin' :-)

I can think of two sites that have been mostly vacant for the last 10 years, and each one has had at least 3 business startups that occupied the space. One is a particularly small site in a sprawl area. There is no pedestrian traffic to speak of. It is on a very busy street, but the site does not have enough space for parking. Clearly there is something wrong with the real estate here. Just this week the building was finally torn down. I wonder what will be next? The other is on a very busy corner in a traditional core area. One of the two streets is one-way, and the other has no parking. It is a very busy bus stop. I think that the massive number of drivers have no use for the site because there is no convenient parking. I also think that potential customers are intimidated by the people waiting for the bus. In any case, it has had at least 3 start ups over the last decade, and all of them have failed within a year. So, I think that there are, in fact, bad locations.

Voters tend to select the party currently in power if the local economy has improved in the last 2 years. Voters tend to select the other party if the local economy has declined in the last 2 years. Anything that happened more than 2 years before the election has a minimal effect. This is the single most accurate predictor of election results. If the economy is improving, incumbants don't have too much to worry about, but if the economy is declining, look out!

In round numbers, The City of Detroit had a population of 2 million in 1950. Today, metro Detroit has 5 million, but the population of the City of Detroit has declined to 1 million. That's right! Detroit has lost a million people. This is the same trend that has happened in most American cities, but Detroit is the most extreme. A few cities such as LA didn't lose the density in the core. Detroit tears down about 5000 buildings per year. Even at that, they have not torn down buildings fast enough to make up for the lost population. This is what it looks like to have a lot of empty buildings.

Photo No. 8 includes the stacks and plumes from the Miami Fort power station, about 20 miles away. It must have been very clear that day.

Jerry Springer went all out and played the part of a homeless man for about a week, even living on the streets in filthy clothes. He had a photographer with a hidden camera follow him around and take grainy pictures of Jerry trying to engage in conversations with homeless people, which were broadcast on the evening news.

The City of Cincinnati just announced their plan for dealing with next year's projected $50 million dollar gap. Among other things, the city wants to start charging for garbage collection and lay off some city workers. I know that funds come from different budgets and all that, but the news does not look promising. Politically, it is going to be tough to spend money on a streetcar while laying off city workers at the same time. :-(

Even if they were brand new they are still a long walk from U.C.

^---- I was very surprised to learn how frequently Cincinnati's historic streetcars changed. See the Wagner and Wright series for 8 decades of changes.

There are good things happening in OTR but I doubt if the new construction is keeping pace with the hundreds of vacant buildings that are gradually deteriorating. There may not have been many demolitions lately but if those buildings don't receive any attention soon, we are going to lose hundreds of them in the coming decade or two.

The U.C. area is the only area in the City of Cincinnati that is getting substantially denser. If they tear down some houses to widen MLK, all of the other new construction will more than make up for it.

"As truck traffic increase by 2.5 times on I-75 over the next 25 years..." I doubt it. Projections say that petroleum production is going to decrease from here on out.

All this gloating over stars reminds me of this: <img src="http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/sparkytvshow/star-bellysneetch.gif>

^---- That's a well-written letter.

^-----"just about any manufacturer's railcars can usually operate on anybody's tracks." This could be a disadvantage, depending on who you are. In the old days, streetcars as well as steam railroads were intentionally made with different gauges in order to PREVENT the competition from using the rails. No one can connect to Disney's monorail. Disney has complete control over it's own system. Just sayin'. :-D

^---- This is typical of any kind of public meeting.

In the long term, say the next 100 years, the airlines are doomed, unless an alternate fuel can be found. In the short term, the airlines are on their way to their long term demise. There is no way around it.

Cincinnati's inclines took up to two minutes to make the climb. I don't know if any additional time was needed to load and unload. The Mt. Adams incline lasted long enough to carry PCC cars. The longer the streetcar, the bigger the incline vehicle would have to be. It's hard to imagine an incline big enough to carry a 90' rail vehicle. The capacity of the entire line would probably be limited by the incline. On the other hand, the incline would carry the toughest part of the load, and motor size on the streetcar could probably be reduced. Modern streetcars can go to about 8%. Cincinnati's Vine Street, Elberon, and Warsaw were modified specifically to carry streetcars. Auburn Avenue, Straight Street, Grand Ave, etc., are too steep.

^---- I remember during the Metro Moves campaign that the Houston line was brought up a lot by opponents. Personally, I think Houston designers made a mistake in allowing those traffic patterns. Automobile drivers are not used to looking for passing traffic on the left before making a left turn. When I am talking about light rail accidents, I was thinking more of a head-on collision with a freight train where a lot of people die. That's the kind of accident that will suppress ridership due to the bad press.

There are rules having to do with international boundaries. I don't know if that plays into the Cleveland situation or not.