Civvik

Oh, and it's also readily available at Giant Eagle. I'm not sure if they have that grocery chain up in Cleveland?

Three words: Troeg's Mad Elf That is all.

You can imagine then what it felt like for a Cincinnatian to live in Columbus in 2000, move back in 2012, and the same guy is still mayor. It was VERY confusing lol.

Chris Finney of COAST was the architect of Article XII, the anti-gay charter amendment that passed back around 1994. It wasn't until 2004 that it was overturned. Chris Seelbach entrance into politics was his involvement in that campaign. That's why COAST has been so nasty to him, since Article XII was an endless source of press and litigation. Mallory was a very deep threat to the insecure suburban sports-obsessed family man. Such a man fears being humiliated in front of his wife for any reason, but especially by someone like Mallory. The relationship between a woman and her husband can change forever at the instant when a Mallory or Obama reveals an insecurity previously unknown. The woman then gains power in the relationship and can revisit that weakness anytime she wishes. The Cincinnati family man wants a Joe Deters -- sure, a Deters might steal your woman when you're not looking, but a Mallory -- who doesn't even want your woman -- kills your relationship slowly. With just one remark or facial expression. That's a much more nightmarish scenario for the family man. I'm going to take this on a bit of a tangent and say this: It's no coincidence that COAST would be both anti-gay and anti-transit. It's also a forgone conclusion that their ideas of what a city should be will ultimately fail. Why? Cities exist to maximize exchange. Exchange of goods, people, and ideas. They are fundamentally antithetical to the monoculture that people like Finney idealize. I think that these people somehow believe that successful cities from New York to Portland are just populated with bespectacled yuppie bisexuals who burn away tax money. In reality, these cities, including others like Charlotte, Denver, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, have simply made a little room for a diversity of lifestyles, including Finney's, and Mallory's.

As could I. But I'm just looking in from the outside, and out of town. Something doesn't add up about all of this. What is motivating them? To be honest, Jake's assessment of Mallory sounds as rational as anything I can put together. If you watched the council session today, you could feel the contempt that these new politicians have towards the entire audience and previous administration. They were practically giddy in telling the packed house that they were voting against them. Except for Flynn, who seemed somewhat irritated and apologetic.

Oh my god. Yvette Simpson just picked up a fucking sledgehammer. This is brilliant. Where did SHE come from?

What what WHAT? Hofbrau? I CAN HAVE SAURKRAUT BALLS IN COLUMBUS! (And not the ones from Barleys, they aren't nearly as delicious as they used to be.)

Perhaps a charter amendment that requires 6 votes from council to break signed contracts would be more important. That should stop anything like this happening again. I'm just worried a mayoral recall would be on the ballot after every election. I definitely don't want more uncertainty in city politics. I also hate specific charter amendments like banning rail, making trash fees illegal, forcing the city to build a streetcar, etc. It binds the councilmemebers to do things that they don't like (one trash can policy/dropping apartment buildings from automatic trash pick up, etc). A city shouldn't be able to cancel a contract, period, except when the terms have been broken or under extreme circumstances. This new administration represents people who are trying to win a battle they already lost.

Unfortunately for you supporters in Cincy I can't think of anything to do at this point but hope that certain council members are trying to use the "pause" as a cover to say they did their own due diligence and couldn't responsibly cancel. That would be cover for them with their voters, and with Cranley, who I now believe may actually be insane and could make their lives uncomfortable for the next four years.

This is a web community about cities. Rail is good for cities. Coming here and calling people rail cultists or "OTR hipsters" is like going to the discussion boards on ESPN and calling all the users stupid jocks.

Yep, you're a troll. Thanks for playing!

I can't help notice that about Florida every time I go there. Everyone moves there for the weather, and then never goes outside. It's a very weird place. Having lived there for three years, that's entirely accurate. I argue that it's mostly a function of urban design. Florida just isn't very walkable and has little civic infrastructure that lends itself to just being outside recreationally, unless you're right on the beach. When you go to the small areas of walkable neighborhood like south beach, downtown Orlando, or Riverside in Jacksonville, you see people outside in abundance, unless it's very hot.

Your sentiment just implies that you don't understand, or refuse to accept, how cities work. You can't have nice things in Westwood without an economically viable downtown. You just can't. It's not a debatable topic, like what flavor of ice cream we all like.

I'll bite: Your city is a racist, washed-up rust belt dump that's literally a stone's throw from Kentucky, and might as well be there. I'm sorry, that was really harsh. But it's what a lot of the rest of the country thinks about you. I should know, I grew up there and then left, and even in Columbus I am regularly confronted with this attitude. Cincinnati's face to the world and its only hope - it's only shot - to fulfill its potential and compete with the rest of the cities in the country is it's scenic, historic riverfront and central neighborhoods. Like it or not, for Cincinnati to remain relevant it needs to throw all the love and money it can at the core. Nobody in the national economy gives a shit about Westwood or Hyde Park; $100 million investments in those neighborhoods aren't going to make Cincinnati more competitive while the core is still performing vastly below its potential. Downtown and Over the Rhine ARE your neighborhoods. That is your city, and last time anyone checked it's still dying. People in the residential parts of the city need to stop squabbling over these issues like rats on a sinking ship and get in line behind the downtown - YOUR downtown. Your economic success is linked to the competitiveness and success of your city, you don't just go to work and pay your taxes in a vacuum. I say all this as an outsider. It's tough love. But it's the truth. The average person in Charlotte or Minneapolis don't even know you exist anymore, so you'd better start taking some serious risks. The outgoing mayor understood this.

My significant other and I were just talking a few hours ago about Cincinnati, and he asked me "what have the corporations had to say about this debacle?" I politely explained to him that the corporations in Cincinnati are powerful, but it's not a city where they become involved in the local drama on a regular basis. But I think maybe they have spoken.

I agree. It would even be a face-saving measure to just finish the project but not commit to starting service unless and until a revenue source could be identified to fund the operating costs. And if the new administration doesn't (won't) find one, at least nobody sunk yet another transit project and wasted millions of dollars. I would almost even respect a decision to defund operating costs, because at least it would show a true difference of priorities between this new administration and the outgoing one. Canceling the project mid-construction is just wasteful and, frankly, insane.

I agree with much of what you said, but this point doesn't make sense to me. The ROI is still conservatively estimated at 2.7-to-1. The cost of this project has only went up by around 15%, mostly due to 2 years of delays caused by the opponents. If the cost were to skyrocket up to $200 million, I would not be in favor of it. I disagree with your assessment that streetcar supporters would support the project no matter the cost. Real quick - 1) Right now, you need to build it because the money has been spent already. 2) at the 133 million for phase 1, I did not necessarily feel the cost was worth it, but again that was my opinion and the cost had reached my personal threshold. 3) While $200 million may have been your max, in all fairness there are a few people here that are build at any cost. Plus part of the point was to reduce both sides positions to the absurd. This is why I got out of planning. What the f*ck is a "personal threshold?" You're not shopping for a new shirt.

Wow that's totally going to change that intersection.

Lord! Streetcar up in the air, OTR landowners gathering on street corners, parking deal suspended, port authority in doubt, business leaders shifting in their boots, MLK interchange funding now a question mark...and this guy isn't even mayor yet. You guys are going to have your work cut out for you. What a f*cking mess.

I especially liked this tidbit from that Enquirer article: "There are some practical reasons that prohibit black people from voting too. In Avondale, for example, an estimated 49 percent of people 20-24 are unemployed, and throughout the neighborhood 40 percent of the people do not have access to a vehicle, compared to a citywide rate of 22 percent." So far down the rabbit hole they can't even recognize their own problems when they say them out loud.

You live in a city with a deep, painful divide. It's no Detroit, but it's only a step better, even with all the exciting things happening in the basin. Cincinnati is almost half black, and most of them are very poor or lower-middle class. If all the black leaders in your city were like Mallory and Young, progressive policies would crush the white, do-nothing Republicans in the far east and west sides. But for every Young, you have a Smitherman, who uses ignorance and anger to promote themselves.

I guess you could expose Cranley at the national level for the hack that he is, but I think it would accomplish the same thing as any national media attention on the streetcar issue: Nothing. Cincinnati has a lot of potential, but I think it's played at the bottom of its game for so many decades that the rest of the universe expects nothing from it, and therefore negative press doesn't catch anyone's interest. The burst of activity in OTR, now that's something that got national media attention. Cincinnati has to climb up the glory ladder one painful rung at a time.

Whoops! I meant to quote another post. But my point is still painfully obvious. :(

Consider telling them you are considering legal action, should the project be canceled. (If in fact you will consider that.) It definitely could be a consideration, although I don't know what legal grounds it would be on. They did not enter into a contract directly with me. I imagine a city would get a benefit in a legal proceeding that it has the right to start and stop its own projects, whether good or bad. I don't know man. In most of the rest of the world trains are just infrastructure and not hot-button issues. Can you imagine how it must feel to be a European train manufacturer and think you have a contract for an order from the US and then some wackadoodle politician pulls the project for no f*cking reason? EDITED foul language to keep site from getting blocked in workplace servers-- KJP

This sounds like MAYBE Jarret will say "finish the streetcar construction, and we can repurpose some grant money that kasich gave back to us for your other projects."