^you should e-mail Mr. Brancatelli and tell him that.

This letter is in response to the editorial in the Columbus Dispatch last Saturday, which has been posted earlier on this thread.

 

U.S. transportation system in need of an overhaul

Saturday,  December 8, 2007 3:21 AM

 

 

I commend The Dispatch for recognizing that Ohio and the nation need a "Transportation remix" (editorial, Nov. 24). Advocating for more and better transportation options is a position that we at 1,000 Friends of Central Ohio, along with a number of statewide and national organizations, loudly support.

 

Read more at:

 

http://dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2007/12/08/Ervin__SAT_ART_12-08-07_A15_H68N668.html?sid=101

^Three or four weeks ago, I sent a letter to Voinovich asking for an explanation for his vote (actually, I e-mailed his transportation staffer).  No response yet. 

That in itself might be worth a letter to the editor.  Even given the volume of e-mails, faxes etc that Sen. Voinovich may get, three weeks without even a return e-mail acknowledgement infers that he doesn't care about the issue: making it worth asking the question publically why he doesn't seem to care about increasing the mobility of Ohioans and all the benefits that could accrue.

^^gildone, may we see the email you sent to him?  Also, keep sending them.  One is easy to overlook, it's hard to say no to 10. 

 

I think the State of Ohio should just build its own rail and leave Amtrak out of it. 

I think the State of Ohio should just build its own rail and leave Amtrak out of it.

 

Who's going to run the trains? Where's the guarantee they're going to run them any better? If you haven't already, travel by train in Europe sometime. While the infrastructure and the trains are marvelous, the service isn't any better than Amtrak -- especially the German and Dutch state railways.

I think the State of Ohio should just build its own rail and leave Amtrak out of it. 

 

Who's going to run the trains? Where's the guarantee they're going to run them any better? If you haven't already, travel by train in Europe sometime. While the infrastructure and the trains are marvelous, the service isn't any better than Amtrak -- especially the German and Dutch state railways.

 

The Dutch rail system is funny- it has good coverage and decent schedules, but the trains are overcrowded rattletraps.  Imagine standing room only in a Red Line rapid car with the doors never fully closing, just leaking cold air into the cabin.  Now imagine taking that all the way to Columbus.  The Dutch complain relentlessly about how overcrowded their system is and that there isn't enough frequency to reduce that overcrowding.

Imagine how they'd complain if they didn't have trains at all.

Imagine how they'd complain if they didn't have trains at all.

 

does one know how to complain about something they never had?

Well, we've had almost two generations grow up in most of Central Ohio who haven't had passenger and I hear a lot of complainging about not have the choice of trains when:

 

a) the weather's bad

b) traffic is congtested on the highways

c) gas prices go up

d) all of the above.

 

But the point I was trying to make is that when people have rail service and it becomes part of the fabric of their community, they may still find fault with what they have, but woe be to anyone who tries to take what they have away.  From what I recall, that's what happened in Cleveland when someone proposed doing away with the Shaker "rapid".

does one know how to complain about something they never had?

 

Hi Pope. My name is KJP.

^^gildone, may we see the email you sent to him?  Also, keep sending them.  One is easy to overlook, it's hard to say no to 10. 

 

November 16, 2007

 

The Honorable George Voinovich

524 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

 

Honorable George Voinovich:

 

I am disappointed to learn that you voted against S. 294.  Far from being just another Amtrak re-authorization, this bill would have accomplished several important things, including:

 

1.    Making much needed structural reforms to Amtrak.  Although it is true that additional reforms than those in the bill are needed, you have to start somewhere, and unlike the Bush Administration’s bill, S. 294 got the first steps right.

 

2.    Authorizing money to assist states like Ohio with their own intercity passenger rail plans.

 

3.    Leveling  the federal transportation funding playing field for rail by providing an 80% federal match for capital investment in intercity passenger and freight rail projects as we do for highways and aviation.

 

Item #’s 2 and 3 are particularly important for the state of Ohio as it advances the Ohio Hub Plan which has a high level of support among Ohio’s citizens, local governments, and business community.

 

I understand your dislike for Amtrak.  However, this makes your vote all the more puzzling because a ‘no’ vote on S. 294 was, in effect, a vote for the status quo for Amtrak. Why would you not vote for significant and positive change?

 

As one of your constituents, I would like some clarification on your position.  Did you vote no because of Amtrak or did you vote no because you do not support passenger rail at all?  The reason I ask is because as I recall, when you were governor, you sent your chief of staff, Paul Mifsud, to admonish the Ohio Rail Development Commission for submitting a budget request to advance passenger rail service along the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati corridor.  Given that one of ORDC’s statutory obligations is to advance passenger rail service along the 3-C corridor, the request was not out of line.

 

If it is true that you do not support passenger rail as a legitimate mode of transportation, it is time to re-consider your position for the following reasons:

 

1.      Our transportation system, both in Ohio and nationally, is at the breaking point.  Highways and airports are congested and no amount of expansion of these systems over the past few decades has brought the type of relief that is truly needed.  The looming bankruptcy of the Highway Trust Fund will only make this problem worse.

 

2.      Oil prices continue to rise as supplies have tightened.  Global oil production stopped growing in 2005, yet demand is still rising.  Unless we make our transportation system more efficient by reducing our reliance on automobiles and airplanes, America is headed for a heap of trouble.  The most cost-effective way to do that is to modernize and expand intercity passenger rail.

 

3.    Consistently, national and regional polls show a super-majority of Ohioans and Americans (70-80%) wanting our government to invest in passenger rail.  Support is this high because people want alternatives to driving and flying.  Business travelers want passenger rail because of the productivity benefits.  Aging travelers want passenger rail as driving and flying become more difficult for them.  Discretionary travelers want passenger rail because of perpetually rising gas prices, overcrowded highways, delays and security hassles at airports, and the horrific levels to which airline customer service has fallen.  And yet they are left with no choice but to drive or fly.

 

4.    We need greater economic development (both in Ohio and nationally) and rail is a proven, effective tool for promoting economic development.  According to two conservative economic impact studies just completed this year, the proposed Ohio Hub passenger and freight rail plan will bring economic benefits to Ohio that total more than twice the cost to build it.

 

In other words, rail is a wise investment for relieving highway and airport congestion, for our energy security, for travelers who need more choices, and for taxpayers.

 

Thank you for considering my comments.  I hope you have a pleasant Thanksgiving.

 

ha, voinovich loves the airlines, airplanes and everything about them!

He's a highwayman

I hear he once sang backup for Willie Nelson on "On the Road Again."

E-Check not exhausted

 

Senate gives governor authority he requested to extend testing

 

By Dennis J. Willard

Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau

 

Published on Thursday, Dec 13, 2007

 

COLUMBUS: E-Check, scheduled to die Dec. 31, was brought back to life by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday at the urging of Gov. Ted Strickland....

 

http://www.ohio.com/news/12452276.html

 

One of the reasons E-check didn't die is because manufacturers in Ohio were concerned that if E-check were dropped, it would result in the state coming down even harder on industry to reduce emissions. 

 

This got me thinking.  E-check is, IMHO, a worthless program because it does not solve the problem, it only addresses a symptom.  The real problem is simply too many cars on the road because people don't have enough choices (not to mention bad land use policies).  Building the Ohio Hub and expanding urban transit would do far more to reduce auto emissions than E-check.  There is no better way to reduce auto emissions than by reducing the number of cars on the road. 

 

Perhaps the ORDC Commissioner and the director of Ohio EPA should be talking?  (And maybe Greater Ohio too?)

 

I hear he once sang backup for Willie Nelson on "On the Road Again."

 

I think you're confusing that with the band Paul Mifsud & The Misfits.

E-Check not exhausted

 

Senate gives governor authority he requested to extend testing

 

By Dennis J. Willard

Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau

 

Published on Thursday, Dec 13, 2007

 

COLUMBUS: E-Check, scheduled to die Dec. 31, was brought back to life by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday at the urging of Gov. Ted Strickland....

 

http://www.ohio.com/news/12452276.html

 

One of the reasons E-check didn't die is because manufacturers in Ohio were concerned that if E-check were dropped, it would result in the state coming down even harder on industry to reduce emissions. 

 

This got me thinking.  E-check is, IMHO, a worthless program because it does not solve the problem, it only addresses a symptom.  The real problem is simply too many cars on the road because people don't have enough choices (not to mention bad land use policies).  Building the Ohio Hub and expanding urban transit would do far more to reduce auto emissions than E-check.  There is no better way to reduce auto emissions than by reducing the number of cars on the road. 

 

Perhaps the ORDC Commissioner and the director of Ohio EPA should be talking?  (And maybe Greater Ohio too?)

 

 

 

Besides being inequitable and discriminatory.

He's a highwayman

 

I'm talking personally, not from an "in the pocket" kinda way.

My 12/16/07  letter to Strickland about the Ohio Hub, sprawl, and energy security:

 

                       

Governor Ted Strickland

Riffe Center, 30th Floor

77 South High Street

Columbus, OH 43215-6108

 

Dear Governor Strickland:

 

I am encouraged that during your campaign, and thus far in your term of office, you have embraced the Ohio Hub freight and passenger rail plan and the goals of Greater Ohio to reduce farmland loss and auto-centric sprawl.  This is exactly the kind of forward thinking the state of Ohio desperately needs if our economy is to remain viable.  Ohio's over-reliance on highways has made the state, its economy, and its residents vulnerable as oil prices have risen.

 

There is, however, another important reason the Ohio Hub and sprawl reduction is vital to Ohio's future:  our energy security.

 

While it has received little attention, it is well documented that global production of conventional crude oil stopped growing in the summer of 2005, and oil production in many of the world's key oil fields is declining.  New supplies are unable to both offset the declines and satisfy growing demand.  Furthermore, export capacity in several oil producing nations is declining as internal demand in those countries soars.

 

The problem of rising internal demand in producing nations combined with depletion is creating a very serious problem for importing nations—particularly the United States.  For example, production in Mexico's Cantarell oil field complex is declining at over 10% per year.  Rising internal demand combined with depletion will result in Mexico (America's #2 supplier), having no oil to export in 3 to 5 years.

 

It is also well documented that we cannot depend upon unconventional sources of oil (such as tar sands and oil shales) or biofuels to solve the problem alone.  Even taken together, they are only a partial solution.

 

In the case of auto-centric sprawl, we continue to lose farmland to very energy-intensive development patterns at a time when we need to increase biofuel production.  This makes farmland loss a matter of energy security.

 

While Ohio cannot be self-sufficient in supplying biofuels for all of the automobiles in the state, we may be able to produce enough to operate the Ohio Hub and our urban transit systems with excess for a portion of automobile usage.

 

 

By far, the largest source of energy we have at our disposal is efficiency.  Therefore, the most workable solution is to invest in more energy efficient forms of freight and passenger transportation and to discourage energy-intensive development patterns.  This is why the Ohio Hub and reducing farmland loss and auto-centric sprawl are so vitally important.

 

Furthermore, these goals are mutually supportive.  Intercity passenger rail encourages compact development in downtown areas while policies that encourage re-development of urban cores will make rail services more successful.  These goals will also have multiplier benefits in that they will help reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality. 

 

Please continue to vigorously pursue these goals.  Ohio's future depends on it. 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Strickland's Response (written by staff, of course):

 

12/21/07

 

Dear Mr.  ________:

 

thank you for your recent letter concerning a passenger rail transportation system.  I appreciate you taking the time to contact my office regarding this important issue.

 

I will be mindful of the views that you have expressed as I continue to develop Ohio's public transportation policy.

 

Once again, thank you for writing.  Please feel free to contact my office in the future if we can be of assistance.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ted Strickland

Governor

You wrote a fantastic letter...Stickland's response, on the other hand, left much to be desired.  Well done though.  I suppose I'll be writing a letter to Strickland in the near future as well...I've already hit up Congressman Chabot, Cole/Cranley/Ghiz/Monzel on Cincinnati City Council, and Senator Voinavich.  I've also spoken directly to Cincinnati's Mayor Mallory on these issues as well.

Don't despair at the Governor's response.  He is wholly in support of the Ohio Hub.  I'm hearing we could see some movement on all or part of the plan fairly soon.

Don't despair at the Governor's response.  He is wholly in support of the Ohio Hub.  I'm hearing we could see some movement on all or part of the plan fairly soon.

 

Oh I have complete faith that he is in support of the effort, I just hate it when someone (ie gildone in this case) writes a long/well thought out letter and then gets such a short/standardized response back.  I understand they have other stuff on their agenda and it's nice that he even took the time to respond, but I can still be perturbed.

I have to agree with UncleRando about Strickland's (actually his staffer) response. It's inadequate, even for a form letter from a subordinate. The Governor's office should do better than this.

 

Note to everyone: KEEP WRITING TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS!!! KEEP THE HEAT ON.

More importantly perhaps, I copied the ORDC Commissioner (Jolene Molitoris), ORDC's Executive Director Matt Dietrich, the Lieutenant governor and several people on the governor's staff who are involved with development and energy issues.  These are all folks who are very likely to personally read my letter and they all (except maybe Dietrich?) have the governor's ear.

 

I also e-mailed it to Eugene Krebs at Greater Ohio (I got a response thanking me for including Greater Ohio in my letter).  As a former legislator, he knows people in the legislature which can't hurt either. 

It's a great letter, but I've got the feeling that major pols like Strickland shoot off weak form letters to little guys (no insult meant, for most of us are) as opposed to people/groups like the Ohio Hub folks who’ve done such a great job of organizing, focusing and presenting their ideas.  I have no doubt that they have the Guv's ear, big-time...

Clvlndr, Are you referring to All Aboard Ohio? Gildone wrote his letter as a private citizen to see what kind of reaction he would get.

^Yes, All Aboard Ohio is who I meant.

Council seeks to bring back trains

Cargo hub sought; passenger service cut to Youngstown in 2005

 

By JOE GORMAN / Tribune Chronicle POSTED: January 18, 2008   

 

YOUNGSTOWN — The councilwoman who sponsored a resolution supporting a rail cargo hub says her ultimate goal is to bring Amtrak passenger service back to the city.

 

Read more at:

 

http://www.tribunechronicle.com/page/content.detail/id/500204.html?nav=5021

[email protected]

 

Glad to hear they haven't let the interest fade. If they want an interim passenger service, then Rep. Ryan should come up with $6 million in federal funds to get the Ravenna Connection track built to restore the 1-mile missing link between two high-quality rail corridors serving Cleveland and Youngstown. That would allow Amtrak's Capitol Limited to serve Youngstown. Expanded and more convenient services would require more money, of course.

FANTASTIC NEWS!!! All who support having real choices in how to travel between cities in Ohio and those in neighboring states should contact their mayors, Gov. Strickland, plus state and federal legislators and ask that they support this....

_________________________

 

NEWS

OHIO RAIL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

50 W. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215

 

 

ORDC Commissioners OK Rail Vision for 2008

Action Plan Approved Along with Ohio Hub Resolution

 

(Columbus) – Citing the increasing need to address a variety of economic, mobility and quality of life issues by moving more people and freight by rail in and through Ohio, ORDC Commissioners have approved a 2008 Action Plan aimed at a number of goals and funding strategies.

 

The plan is the result of discussions ORDC Chairwoman Jolene Molitoris has had with individual Commissioners since being named Chairwoman by Governor Ted Strickland late last year.  The Governor has prominently featured the role of railroads in his “Turn Around Ohio” plan for Ohio’s economy.

 

The ORDC action plan takes a multi-tiered approach toward:

 

·        Seeking funding for rail infrastructure initiatives for freight, passenger and rail safety

·        Accelerating efforts to develop inter-city passenger rail through exploring opportunities for Amtrak start-up services and continuing to build a long-term system of fast, corridor-based passenger trains under the Ohio Hub Plan

·        Develop a State Rail Strategy Plan in cooperation with ODOT and other state agencies like the Ohio Department of Development to identify challenges like rail choke-points and needs like increasing capacity for more trains

·        Continuing Ohio’s strong commitment to improving rail safety projects that benefit the public and improve delivery of those projects.

 

In a related action, Commissioners approved a resolution asking Ohio Congressional delegation “to work to establish a federal program with the long-term funding necessary for full participation in the development of the Ohio Hub corridors.”  The resolution also requests each member of Ohio’s Congressional delegation to support the development of an intercity/interstate passenger rail system by funding a “program-level” environmental impact statement (PEIS) for the Ohio Hub passenger rail corridors that will serve the citizens of their districts.

 

That resolution is already being communicated to Ohio’s members of Congress.

 

In still more actions:

 

Commissioners approved a $200-thousand dollar matching grant to build a 2,500 foot rail spur to serve the Case Farms feed mill near Massillon.  The project will expand operations and allow creation of 20 new jobs at the mill.  It will also enable Case Farms to expand their chicken processing operations at Winesburg in Holmes County and create 200 new jobs at that facility.  $100,000 in matching funds for the project will come from Case Farms, the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad and local sources.

 

Another impact of the project is that it also opens up 150 to 350 new acres of land in a local industrial park to attract new rail-related industries and more jobs.

 

In a second rail spur project, Commissioners approved a staff-recommended $300,000 loan to MGQ Inc. (Maple Grove Quarry) to help offset the costs of building 4,200-feet of new track to better accommodate unit trains of aggregates at the quarry near Maple Grove (near Tiffin) in Seneca County.  The project will help improve operations for both MGQ and the Norfolk Southern Railroad and eliminate the cost and loss of time in storing empty hopper cars several miles away from the quarry site.  Completion of the project will also help create 6 to 20 news jobs and increase car-loadings from 750 to 4,000 new carloads.

 

In other business, Commissioners approved a new committee to begin considering possible

legislative remedies for insurance liability relief as it relates to operation of excursion trains, rail trails and other non-railroad activities in active freight rail corridors.  It was determined that the issue needs to be addressed as a statewide concern.  Three commissioners will serve on the Committee and work with staff on a possible legislative solution.

 

(The Ohio Rail Development Commission is an independent agency operating within the Ohio Department of Transportation.  ORDC is responsible for economic development through the improvement and expansion of passenger and freight rail service, railroad grade crossing safety and rail travel & tourism issues. For more information about what ORDC does for Ohio, visit our website at http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/)

^ok folks, we need to write our state reps and state senators and ask them to support ORDC's plan. 

^I'm on it.

Here's how you do it.... Just write a short, personal note. Doesn't have to be a pulitzer-prize winner. Just enough to keep the issue before your elected official and where you stand on the issue....

 

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland:

http://governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=69

 

How to contact your Sstate Representative:

http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/Representatives.jsp

 

How to contact your State Senator:

http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/

 

How to contact your U.S. Representative:

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

 

How to contact your U.S. Senator:

http://brown.senate.gov/

http://voinovich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm

 

Please contact these officials TODAY!

Sandusky on board for high-speed rail project

By JENNIFER GRATHWOL | Sunday January 20 2008, 1:14am

 

SANDUSKY

 

City leaders are laying the tracks to connect Sandusky to the future of high-speed transportation.

 

Read more at:

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2008/01/20/front/572358.txt#blogform

Dude sure can turn a phrase...hee hee

 

"Passenger rail is penicillin for pain at the pump," said Stu Nicholson, public information officer for the Ohio Rail Development Commission.

 

 

I think we can take our cue from the old saying about advertising:  "When times are good, you should advertise.  Whe times are bad, you must advertise."

 

Seems the same should apply to investing in our infrastructure, especially rail.

 

Good points about what such an investment can mean in terms of actual saving in other areas:

 

• The cost of operating the state's motor pool of cars used for state travel.
  
• The reduced costs of insurance, health care, etc gained from less congestion and fewer accidents on those less-congested highways.
  

How's that for starters?

 

I noticed in this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer that the State is swithcing it's preferred motor pool car of mid-sized Ford Tauruses and Chevy Impala's to the smaller Ford Focus.  Why not base the state's government transportation needs around a system like the Ohio Hub? 

 

But the point is that there has to be a conscious commitment to making the essential investment in our rail infrastructure, as well as our local transit systems and other parts of our infrastructure.

 

How does one think we emerged from the Great Depression of the late 1920's and eraly 1930's?  The Roosevelt era Works Projects Administration undertook thousands of public works projects, many of them infrastructure related.  We reaped the benefits from this investment for decades and some of these projects still serve a purpose in this new Century.  Critics back then called it "make work" projects.  Maybe so, but it stimulated the economy a whole lot better than millions of tax rebate checks that will wind up being either put into savings or used to pay off debts.

 

If our leaders in DC really want to stimulate the economy, start funding and building the major infrastructure projects and critical improvements we need.... like enabling our rail systems to move more people and freight.  If people and goods can't move in a timely and cost-effective manner, the economy doesn't move either.

^^Good-bye High Speed Rail Initiative...for another decade anyway.

Let me guess...you're French! I figured the state budget situation would represent a challenge to reshape the message, not a reason to climb into a hole and shiver like a scared cat.

the french may surrender a lot but they have much better rail than we do

Okay.... point and counterpoint.... can we move on?

After reading Strickland's comments in the Columbus Dispatch concerning the state's financial problems, I think he's going to push for ways to better the state. I would not give up on rail or anything else right now. In fact, I think the situation calls for just the opposite...that rail and better transit is one way to help lift Ohio out its doldrums.

What about the state using its bonding authority to advance major infrastructure like rail & transit?  Worth considering, I would think.

No reason why not. just because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. If it should be done the question becomes: How do we service the bonds?

Not to sound like a wet blanket, but remember, this is Ohio we're talking about... It's not a think-outside-the-box kinda place.  Moreover, we don't elect presidents (or is it, have them SElected?... oh well, another discussion) for no good reason... for good and bad, we're a microcosm of America... we've phased out the corp franchise tax, except on struggling financial instructions killed by the foreclosure mess... We've got more burden than expected/normal on Medicaid: we're older, poorer and our boomer workforce hasn't been adaptively re-trained adequately... and so on.  America.  And you really want nightmares?  Consider that Ohio’s attitude toward passenger rail is even worse than America's toward Amtrak.  Now that's a scary thought.

 

Strickland's certainly progressive enough; wildly liberal for what this state's used to; ditto his Dem (junior) Senate counterpart in D.C. Sherrod Brown.  But Ted's dealing with Republicans in the legislature.  Hello!... Do you think we're actually ready for a 'radical' solution in THIS state like shifting infrastructure spending to passenger rail when there's so scant little of it existing that any long-term economic curative talk is going to sound like some namby-pamby intangible liberal placebo?

 

This isn't some Dem vs. Republican rant, but merely noting what exists and what's realistic, in THIS state; a state with the current lowest state spending on passenger rail in the already generally conservative (economically) Great Lakes region.   Just like with the old high speed rail plan of the 80s; just like with Cincy’s promising regional “starter” light-rail commuter package; just like with Cleveland-area’s planned Cleveland-Akron-Canton commuter plan, -- one Republican pol or town can (and usual will) emerge from the woodwork just in time to derail well thought-out, progressive rail-based proposal/solutions… pun intended.   Much easier, in this state, for Voinovich and his contractor buddies through ODOT to, say, add a lane of Turnpike for a couple ten miles to ‘convince’ the public we’re really attacking OPEC and a listing economy…. My hard-earned tax money for passenger trains that ‘I’m not going to use anyway!?’ … are you kidding?  … ‘I mean, what the hell is that high-falutin’, liberal M.I.T.-type lingo like inf-er-a-rastructure anyway, Myrtle?’

 

Fact is, leadership (and by that I mean a steady yet subtle education geared toward a gradual paradigm shift) has got to come from well organized grass roots efforts… like All Aboard Ohio.  Look how, slowly, attitudes are slowly shifting along Cleveland’s very conservative West Shore suburbs in embracing the concept of commuter rail… it’s coming from the grass roots, peopled by folks on this board, in an orderly, steady methodical approach.  It can happen statewide, just not overnight. And even then, don’t expect Ted publicly embrace it immediately and totally.  He sits in the saddle of a stubborn mule where a carrot and stick can make the animal mule, but spurs will only get him thrown to the ground. 

 

Maybe ideas like noozer's for using the state's bonding authority for rail infrastructure can fly.  But it's going to take a lot of research and education in this not-so-thinking-out-of-the-box state.  All Aboard's got to really roll up its collective sleeves.

 

Remember, he got to the Guv’s mansion not because this state suddenly woke up and became enlightened/progressive, but because we had an idiot, crooked Republican gov in a nation fed up with the Iraq war policies of a similarly dim-witted Republican commander-in-chief. 

 

Now, I’m taking my wet blanket with me to bed.

 

Fact is, leadership (and by that I mean a steady yet subtle education geared toward a gradual paradigm shift) has got to come from well organized grass roots efforts… like All Aboard Ohio.  Look how, slowly, attitudes are slowly shifting along Cleveland’s very conservative West Shore suburbs in embracing the concept of commuter rail… it’s coming from the grass roots, peopled by folks on this board, in an orderly, steady methodical approach.  It can happen statewide, just not overnight. And even then, don’t expect Ted publicly embrace it immediately and totally.  He sits in the saddle of a stubborn mule where a carrot and stick can make the animal mule, but spurs will only get him thrown to the ground.

 

This is well spoken, and basically the crux of the problem.  We aren't going to get anything done until people understand what it is all about.  In particular, it is important to get out the type of information that no one knows about but changes the whole nature of the ballgame.  For example I was was blown away when I found out that Ohio has the same popultion density as France, and the largest population density of any state in the U.S. that isn't on the east coast.  Everyone else I've repeated those statistics too has also been taken aback.

 

In addition to educating the general public, there needs to be a concerted effort to educate the local small fry movers and shakers who command the loyalty of all those revolving door Republican statehouse politicians who have controlled the State of Ohio for the past fourteen years.  A campaign focused on the local leadership of those areas that would significantly benefit from regional rail is appropriate.

 

All of what I've stated might already be happening.  Civindr just inspired me to rant.  But I'm afraid that Strickland doesn't have the political stones to push this thing forward like it needs to be pushed.

CINCINNATI:

 

The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) will be doing a presentation to the Economic Development Committee of Cincinnati City Council on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 12 noon.

 

Cincinnati City Council Chambers, Third Floor, Cincinnati City Hall, 801 Plum Street, downtown Cincinnati.

 

 

 

CINCINNATI:

 

The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) will be doing a presentation to the Economic Development Committee of Cincinnati City Council on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 12 noon.

 

Cincinnati City Council Chambers, Third Floor, Cincinnati City Hall, 801 Plum Street, downtown Cincinnati.

 

What is the end goal of this meeting for City Council, and more specifically, the Economic Development Committee?  Essentially what I'm wondering is what the jist of the meeting/presentation will be about, and is the EDC considering taking some kind of action based on this presentation?

^It's just informational.

After reading Strickland's comments in the Columbus Dispatch concerning the state's financial problems, I think he's going to push for ways to better the state. I would not give up on rail or anything else right now. In fact, I think the situation calls for just the opposite...that rail and better transit is one way to help lift Ohio out its doldrums.

 

I agree.  The tax cuts and bust ODOT's budget approach to economic development pursued by Taft and the legislature has been a failure.  I think it's obvious now that we need a different investment-based approach to helping the economy.  One only needs to look at the real estate boom in the cities with stops along the Downeaster corridor between Portland, ME and Boston to see that rail investments work-- even with high oil prices and an otherwise sinking housing market.