Civvik

I sent an e-mail to Ghiz's council address letting her know that my family in Hyde Park won't be supporting her political career in the future. You never call your own constituents "crazies" no matter what you think of them.

"George Washington fought 2 wars to make sure there would never be a streetcar in Cincinnati." Golden.

What's with all the beige brick lately? This isn't Omaha.

Radical conservatives don't believe in law. Just collective security, which isn't "law" in the sense that most people here think about government.

The discussion that was erased when the forum software reverted implied that the funding will likely be found to get the line to the riverfront by the time construction is under way.

2 blocks north of Findlay Market

Here is the battery powered model that they saw in Dallas. At 2:45 the most massive LRT I have ever seen passes in the background:

Newest streetcar idea: Battery-powered trains? "City Manager Milton Dohoney and Mayor Mark Mallory are taking idea seriously enough to have traveled to Dallas recently to see a "wireless streetcar" in person. "We’re not at a point where we are ready to say a battery-powered car is what we ought to go with but the reason that it at least peaked our interest to investigate it (is) if you go with a battery powered car you do not need as much of a catenary network," said Dohoney, referring to the wires carrying electricity to trains. "That would save us money in terms of both capital and operating." http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2011/05/newest-streetcar-idea-battery-powered.html

10 stories is quite suitable for any downtown. The expectation of "downtown=skyscrapers" has left a dubious legacy in America.

First thing I thought. Couldn't be coincidental that they both had news stories on the same day.

I guess I am not making myself clear. The concepts you are talking about are fine, but they are only relevant when they aren't in a vacuum. You can create a public space inside of an isolated development, but without access to the rest of the community, how "public" is it really? Not very. The true value of good urban design is that public spaces are truly public, that connections are real and not "gestural." And again, you only have to look at the context of Americana on a map to see how infinitely better positioned it is for impactful urban design than the Oakley location.

As for Americana at Brand, it's a totally unrealistic project for Oakley to aspire to for several reasons, but more importantly, it's in the heart of Glendale, a city of 200,000 who put $77 million in public funds towards land acquisition costs alone. It had a total cost of half a billion. Those apartments command $3,000 a month for a one bedroom. As for the connectivity, well, google maps tells that story better than I can. It's really good practice to keep in mind the market and location context of a site and then go find comparisons that reflect that context. That kind of comparison exercise will reap a lot more usable knowledge and precedent that you can use to form good public policy.

Anderson and Smyjunas beating their drums on the same day in the Enquirer. The game's afoot.

Without the big connections, the design within the site is not relevant. You should channel your indignation toward pressuring the city and county to create more sophisticated ways of engaging developers and making big infrastructure moves that enable real urbanity, so the next Smyjunas can't pull this crap.

The design of this project is of little concern. It is isolated from the fabric of Oakley by forces that nobody can control. Smyjunas has already damned this corner of Cincinnati, but there are countless others where urbanists should focus their energies. The only real threat this project poses is siphoning off retail demand from established areas like Rookwood.

Don't forget the development side of the Streetcar argument. Even with the uptown extension chopped off, you still retain the vast majority of "activated blocks." To my knowledge, this project is more about development than mobility anyhow. My feeling is that Cincinnati has a healthy redevelopment market but too many places to redevelop. Once you get those tracks in the ground, those activated blocks are going to go absolutely apeshit.

There must be more going on here than we can see. If I had to speculate, I'd say that last November the city planned for a smaller route, but Qualls balked because Parsons found that initial ridership would be low. Now the city is faced with the distasteful choice of building a small route now and risk underperformance or hold out for the full route and risk the referendum in November. As for why no large partners have stepped up to help fund, it's not hard to guess. Until Kasich, the project looked overfunded. Why put your own money up when the jar is full? Which means that the next few months will be the most interesting time of all for the Streetcar, because now is the time where every player's true hand will be shown.

I thought the point of the streetcar was to grow the property tax base and increase city revenue, which has been predicted even under conservative scenarios. Ultimately, that funding structure is no less uncertain than taxing gas and hoping people buy enough of it to pay for the roads they drive on. Enshrining the streetcar operating budget in a line item is necessary but not ultimately important, not in the context of a declining city that is trying to reverse its trajectory. The skeptic then responds "betting on a growth idea is the realm of venture capital." But the city is the entity structurally poised to gain. So we go round and round and round on this issue. Cincinnati is in an impossible position from this perspective. Unlike a business, it is beholden to some operating costs that arguably do not pay for themselves, while finding it difficult to add costs that could. The electorate speaks to capitalist-style fiscal management, as long as it's selective to their tastes. The worst you could do is pity the city's position.

The highway trust fund is no longer self-replenishing. http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/proposed_fiscal_year_2012_budget_represents_increases_for_transportation_fu/

All of which must be much more extensive because of the lower density promoted by the roads. A benefit cannot exist unto itself.

Are people still arguing about the concept of public infrastructure...aka civilization...on THIS board?

This is one of the weakest commuter rail corridors in the Unites States, with a cliff on one side, a floodplain on the other, and a terminus that is not a job center and offers zero short-term development potential. For comparison, even a worst-case-scenario for the streetcar plan would have a better return-on-investment. Please show solidarity by supporting the right projects.

This is false.

Ah, the "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out" reaction. Considering the census results, I don't think any Ohioan can afford to have this attitude anymore. Clefan98's response is unacceptable.

Ohio is dying.