The streetcar began operations 8 years ago today.

On 9/8/2024 at 1:28 AM, Lazarus said:

 

Yeah the manufacturer is probably onto the next generation of the Urbos 3 by now, meaning the next streetcars we buy will not be fully compatible with the existing fleet.  This means that they will not always be able to swap parts. 

Some of this was discussed at AAO's streetcar tour. A lot of the sub-systems have not aged well but the streetcar itself was essentially a prototype given US regulations around rail. With KC expanding their system, not only could Cincinnati piggyback on that order to upgrade some of the subs but KC would be the guinea pig for any major changes to the Urbos 3, not Cincy.

Does the same company make LRT vehicles? I know in some cities like SLC, they basically just run one car of their Seimens LRT vehicles as a streetcar. If/when we get full light rail, it would make sense to run the same vehicle and the current streetcar vehicles don't look like they're capable of being used in that capacity.

Urbos 3 is the third generation of the Urbos series, and it is still the current model... there is not yet an Urbos 4.

 

All Urbos 3s are LRVs. Cincinnati (and KC) just have the shortest version that CAF makes (3 segments). They just add more segments to make longer variations, like this 9 segment version:

 

 

They also make versions for other cities that have off-wire capabilities with batteries and even the capability for the battery to be charged from below while stopped at stations:

 

 

1 hour ago, taestell said:

They also make versions for other cities that have off-wire capabilities with batteries and even the capability for the battery to be charged from below while stopped at stations:

This is a supercapacitor. It does not hold as much as a battery but it also charges faster. That said, it's still made from lithium.

  

2 hours ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

Does the same company make LRT vehicles? I know in some cities like SLC, they basically just run one car of their Seimens LRT vehicles as a streetcar. If/when we get full light rail, it would make sense to run the same vehicle and the current streetcar vehicles don't look like they're capable of being used in that capacity.

The current streetcar vehicles would probably be close to their end of life by the time the Cincinnati region got commuter rail so this isn't really an issue any time soon. In any case it's the wrong question to ask. It's not LRV vs streetcar, it's high floor vs low floor. It's also not a given that a LRT network should use the existing streetcar tracks.

41 minutes ago, Dev said:

This is a supercapacitor. It does not hold as much as a battery but it also charges faster. That said, it's still made from lithium.

  

The current streetcar vehicles would probably be close to their end of life by the time the Cincinnati region got commuter rail so this isn't really an issue any time soon. In any case it's the wrong question to ask. It's not LRV vs streetcar, it's high floor vs low floor. It's also not a given that a LRT network should use the existing streetcar tracks.

 

Sad to say, but I doubt Cincinnati will ever get light rail. SORTA is selling its rail ROW's. So, any light rail would need to run on city streets. As you probably know, the 0.8 cent sales tax passed in 2020 forbids SORTA from using any of those proceeds for a "streetcar." if we tried to do that, rail opponents would quickly sue SORTA, claiming that a street-running light rail train is essentially a streetcar (note the comparisons in posts which precede this). I guess that language could be repealed or perhaps another tax adopted with specifically permits street-running electric vehicles. Even so, street-running trains will be slow and would probably be confined to the city core including Uptown and some other close-in neighborhoods where car ownership is problematic and the trips are short. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, just the way it is. Maybe it will change, I dunno. 

11 minutes ago, John Schneider said:

SORTA is selling its rail ROW's

 

Which ones? And how do we stop them from doing this?

 

11 minutes ago, John Schneider said:

As you probably know, the 0.8 cent sales tax passed in 2020 forbids SORTA from using any of those proceeds for a "streetcar."

 

I honestly didn't know that. It's not an impossible challenge but a hurdle nonetheless. 

 

12 minutes ago, John Schneider said:

Sad to say, but I doubt Cincinnati will ever get light rail.

 

This isn't to attack you in any way because I know how hard you fought for the streetcar and I appreciate your advocacy. That said, I refuse to believe this. One big problem this city/county has had is people giving up on good ideas. I watched a documentary about the San Diego Trolley and they didn't win their first ballot measure but they regrouped and tried again. Same with Seatlle's rail transit system. But Cincinnati suffers a setback and we just act like hope is lost.

 

Get on Reddit, and not a week goes by without folks in the Cincy subreddit talking about how they'd love a rail transit system. The people who fought against MetroMoves are either old, dead, or in many cases, considered a laughing stock. We can and should be constantly pushing our leaders for better rail transit rather than allowing the ghosts of Cranley and COAST rob us of a better future. We should be pushing for streetcar improvements and expansion yesterday instead of selling off viable rail RoW for bike paths and half-assing BRT. 

 

Again, this isn't directed at you in any way. 

1 minute ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

 

Which ones? And how do we stop them from doing this?

 

 

I honestly didn't know that. It's not an impossible challenge but a hurdle nonetheless. 

 

 

This isn't to attack you in any way because I know how hard you fought for the streetcar and I appreciate your advocacy. That said, I refuse to believe this. One big problem this city/county has had is people giving up on good ideas. I watched a documentary about the San Diego Trolley and they didn't win their first ballot measure but they regrouped and tried again. Same with Seatlle's rail transit system. But Cincinnati suffers a setback and we just act like hope is lost.

 

Get on Reddit, and not a week goes by without folks in the Cincy subreddit talking about how they'd love a rail transit system. The people who fought against MetroMoves are either old, dead, or in many cases, considered a laughing stock. We can and should be constantly pushing our leaders for better rail transit rather than allowing the ghosts of Cranley and COAST rob us of a better future. We should be pushing for streetcar improvements and expansion yesterday instead of selling off viable rail RoW for bike paths and half-assing BRT. 

 

Again, this isn't directed at you in any way. 

Not taking it personally. In fact, it pains be to talk about it. But SORTA's selling the ROW's is a real thing - appraisals are complete, and I'm guessing we'll see sales starting soon. Understand, SORTA's board is no longer controlled by the city. Several counties, in the aggregate, now control it, and I'm sure they're very happy to kill commuter rail. It started with Cranley's loading the board with opponents including Brendon Cull, who is now president of the Chamber of Commerce. I know the San Diego situation very well; a friend ran that system and built it up over 20 years. SD had a unique advantage. There was a fairly extensive system of freight rail ROW's which used to move oranges and other produce to market. A severe storm in 1976 pretty much wiped out much of that ROW, which was not built to withstand that kind of weather. All of a sudden dozens of miles of ROW were abandoned, and SD picked it up for a song. So, they had that to start with and just built from there. And it's true, other cities have had multiple votes. I think Phoenix finally passed light rail on its fifth try. Kansas City had maybe six? failed votes for light rail and finally gave it up and built a very successful streetcar. Austin lost a squeaker vote for light rail in 2000 and now is perhaps on the verge of getting it if it can beat back the opponents in court. Along with Kansas City and Portland, Cincinnati has one of the most successful streetcar systems in the United States. It's a real asset that we can use to repopulate the city while the suburbs stew in their own exhaust. On the leadership of our city, that's become a real problem. When I led several efforts for the business community a generation ago -- FWW, GABP, MetroMoves -- we had Roxanne Qualls. Later we had Mark Mallory with the streetcar. These were leaders, not the "managers" we have now at City Hall. They were willing to look beyond the election calendar, to stick their necks out. Then we started getting guys like Luken and Cranley, and it was downhill from there. And the current crop is not much better. They want to get quick wins, nothing that really moves the needle.

 

On 8/23/2024 at 5:01 PM, Miami-Erie said:

 

Agreed! Where is the leadership?

 

On 9/4/2024 at 8:45 AM, JaceTheAce41 said:

The more time that goes by with record ridership but without a hint of expansion plans, improvement plans, plans to extend hours our buy another train...you know...basically nothing from city council; the more frustrated I get. Cranley is gone and the trolls who fought to kill the streetcar don't have the kind of public support they used to. People love the streetcar now and there's public will to see it expand but our city council does nothing.

 

Meanwhile, in the car-brained hellscape of Kansas City, they're extending their system. I might run for city council with my only policy platform being to expand the damn streetcar.

 

25 minutes ago, John Schneider said:

Sad to say, but I doubt Cincinnati will ever get light rail. SORTA is selling its rail ROW's. So, any light rail would need to run on city streets. As you probably know, the 0.8 cent sales tax passed in 2020 forbids SORTA from using any of those proceeds for a "streetcar." if we tried to do that, rail opponents would quickly sue SORTA, claiming that a street-running light rail train is essentially a streetcar (note the comparisons in posts which precede this). I guess that language could be repealed or perhaps another tax adopted with specifically permits street-running electric vehicles. Even so, street-running trains will be slow and would probably be confined to the city core including Uptown and some other close-in neighborhoods where car ownership is problematic and the trips are short. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, just the way it is. Maybe it will change, I dunno. 

Oh I know lol. I was thinking pretty far out there past BRT implementation when there's another opportunity for a levy. I figure that the only chance Cincinnati has of a rail system, whether light rail or heavy, will require another round of massive Federal investment in urban transit, like what happened under LBJ.

16 minutes ago, John Schneider said:

Understand, SORTA's board is no longer controlled by the city. Several counties, in the aggregate, now control it, and I'm sure they're very happy to kill commuter rail.

Butler, Clermont and Warren each have one member on the board, yes, but they do not get a vote. The city still appoints 5 voting members, while the county has 8.

  

33 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

Which ones? And how do we stop them from doing this?

The FTA is requiring that SORTA finally do something with the RoW. They are tied up with Issue 7 and the city declined pursuing something themselves so it all has to be either sold or turned into paved trails. You're several years too late on this as this has been in the works for a while. This is a slide from a board meeting from July 2021:

 

On 9/4/2024 at 11:47 AM, thomasbw said:

I think getting a transit-only lane on Walnut is a good next goal. 

If it’s anything like the “transit-only” lane on Main, it’s not worth a dollar. 

9 hours ago, Dev said:

Oh I know lol. I was thinking pretty far out there past BRT implementation when there's another opportunity for a levy. I figure that the only chance Cincinnati has of a rail system, whether light rail or heavy, will require another round of massive Federal investment in urban transit, like what happened under LBJ.

 

UMTA 1970 was signed by Nixon.  Its $10 billion allocation did not inflate with the decade's unprecedented inflation, meaning it bought much less transit than planned.  Also, there was no such thing as "light rail" in 1970 but by 1980 it existed and various projects that were supposed to be heavy rail were downgraded to light rail.  A great example is Baltimore, where the first line is a heavy rail subway built to specs identical to the neighboring Washington Metro, but the second line was downgraded to a surface light rail line that doesn't even meet the subway line at one of its stations.  You have to walk out of the subway station and walk a block.  Not terrible, but nothing at all like the very convenient metro transfer stations in nearby Washington, DC. 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Lazarus said:

Also, there was no such thing as "light rail" in 1970 but by 1980 it existed and various projects that were supposed to be heavy rail were downgraded to light rail.  

 

 

The term may not have existed, but GCRTA's blue and green lines began life as the Shaker Rapid (transit) in 1913.

On 9/11/2024 at 12:26 AM, Gordon Bombay said:

If it’s anything like the “transit-only” lane on Main, it’s not worth a dollar. 

The one on main suffers from only being in operation for about 20 hours and it's in the curb lane where parking is sometimes allowed. If you paint the tracks red on Walnut and hang "transit-only" signs from the cat poles you should be able to at least send a clearer message. Realistically you'll need enforcement to make it work though. 

 

The lack of enforcement for the non-exclusive BAT lanes is going to be a huge issue for BRT. 

On 7/23/2024 at 3:52 PM, thomasbw said:

For the first five months of 2019, streetcar ridership was only 14% of Tank ridership. 

 

For the first five months of 2024, streetcar ridership was 56% of Tank ridership. 

 

In June 2024 it was 69%.

For July it was 72%

On 9/10/2024 at 2:00 PM, John Schneider said:

 As you probably know, the 0.8 cent sales tax passed in 2020 forbids SORTA from using any of those proceeds for a "streetcar."

 

On 9/10/2024 at 2:17 PM, JaceTheAce41 said:

I honestly didn't know that. It's not an impossible challenge but a hurdle nonetheless. 

 

You have the remember that many of the prominent members of the "pro-bus" group that pushed the county sales tax for Metro were also quite anti-streetcar. They (falsely) believed the existence of the streetcar was taking resources away from the bus network and insisted that Metro must fully distance itself from the streetcar in order for a bus tax to pass at the polls. That was the main driver for the "streetcar divorce" where the city took over operations and the anti-rail language that got put into the Metro ballot issue.

Another strong ridership month for the streetcar. 6th in the nation for ridership (3rd among new systems) and 2nd for productivity. 

 

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/10/22/landsman-sonza-streetcar-expand-federal-funding.html

Will either congressional candidate back federal funding for Cincinnati streetcar expansion?

 

"City Hall’s public interest in a streetcar expansion continues to be tepid even as streetcar ridership has skyrocketed since the city made it fare-free in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, smashing ridership records in both 2022 and 2023. Passengers took 1.1 million rides in 2023, a number the streetcar likely will eclipse in 2024. Other similar-sized Midwestern cities that pursued streetcars in the 2010s, including Kansas City and Milwaukee, have either expanded their systems or are pursuing such projects. Cincinnati’s city government never has come up with an expansion plan in the wake of the political war waged by former Mayor John Cranley over the project."

 

With the entirely Democratic council, can anyone explain why this is the case? As for the article's question, Landsman said "If the streetcar is going to be expanded, Uptown has to take the lead", which I guess means the university of hospital systems need to demand it? 

3 minutes ago, ucgrady said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/10/22/landsman-sonza-streetcar-expand-federal-funding.html

Will either congressional candidate back federal funding for Cincinnati streetcar expansion?

 

"City Hall’s public interest in a streetcar expansion continues to be tepid even as streetcar ridership has skyrocketed since the city made it fare-free in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, smashing ridership records in both 2022 and 2023. Passengers took 1.1 million rides in 2023, a number the streetcar likely will eclipse in 2024. Other similar-sized Midwestern cities that pursued streetcars in the 2010s, including Kansas City and Milwaukee, have either expanded their systems or are pursuing such projects. Cincinnati’s city government never has come up with an expansion plan in the wake of the political war waged by former Mayor John Cranley over the project."

 

With the entirely Democratic council, can anyone explain why this is the case? As for the article's question, Landsman said "If the streetcar is going to be expanded, Uptown has to take the lead", which I guess means the university of hospital systems need to demand it? 

My sense on this is that City Hall is now more interested in human services issues as opposed to infrastructural investment. They're doing some needed things like improving roadway safety and pushing for more and better housing. But sooner or later, failure to focus on major projects will catch up with us. Think of the things we love about Cincinnati and which are (probably) fueling visitor and population growth - our new riverfront and new homes for the teams, the streetcar, FCC's new home, new parks. We can thank some big-picture types for those things - Qualls, Mallory, even Cranley to some extent. To me, the current crew at City Hall is just focused on quick, non-controversial wins, not the kind of long-term and difficult projects which have taken our city to a new level. As for Uptown, a crunch is coming as the university community grows and spreads out to east and south. You've got a lot of density, transit-dependent populations, and increasing congestion. It's going to be a mess in a few years. Finally, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Brendon Cull, speaking for "the business community," has put the damper on City Hall's interest in streetcar expansion. 

I just found out that the TRAX light rail vehicles consistently climb 7% grades. What’s the grade up Vine to UC again?

20 hours ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

I just found out that the TRAX light rail vehicles consistently climb 7% grades. What’s the grade up Vine to UC again?

 

I don't recall off hand, but our streetcars were chosen for their ability to travel up the grade of the Vine Street hill, so they're ready to be used if that extension is ever built.

Nice commentary from Chris Wetterich in today's 5 Things column in the Business Courier (scroll down to the "Future City" section at the end) about the lack of progress over the past few years when it comes to extending/improving the streetcar, developing the surface lots downtown, etc. It's short enough that I won't post an excerpt here, and it should be free to read without a subscription.

On 10/24/2024 at 10:51 AM, ucgrady said:

With the entirely Democratic council, can anyone explain why this is the case?

It's the same problem that every US city has: decades of sprawl and disinvestment means the vast majority of people engaged in local politics do not live in the densest parts of the urban area. Traffic calming is popular because it impacts everyone across the city, regardless of their housing or economic status.

On 10/24/2024 at 11:05 AM, John Schneider said:

My sense on this is that City Hall is now more interested in human services issues as opposed to infrastructural investment. They're doing some needed things like improving roadway safety and pushing for more and better housing. But sooner or later, failure to focus on major projects will catch up with us. Think of the things we love about Cincinnati and which are (probably) fueling visitor and population growth - our new riverfront and new homes for the teams, the streetcar, FCC's new home, new parks. We can thank some big-picture types for those things - Qualls, Mallory, even Cranley to some extent. To me, the current crew at City Hall is just focused on quick, non-controversial wins, not the kind of long-term and difficult projects which have taken our city to a new level. As for Uptown, a crunch is coming as the university community grows and spreads out to east and south. You've got a lot of density, transit-dependent populations, and increasing congestion. It's going to be a mess in a few years. Finally, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Brendon Cull, speaking for "the business community," has put the damper on City Hall's interest in streetcar expansion. 

I've been a bit disappointed with the newest batch of council and mayor exactly for these reasons. It's good they are taking care of the things that need to be taken care of but I hoped there would be a big push to expand the streetcar or at least make a hugely robust BRT system. The BRT system was put together under Cranley though still?

 

There have been needed bump outs being installed throughout the city at least where I am at, so this part is good. But with the growth of Uptown and OTR / Downtown, really feels like Cincinnati can take the next step with an expanded streetcar or some true BRT at the least.

^I have a public records request in with SORTA for any updates to their BRT plan, but from what I'm hearing they've already rolled back elements of the modest BRT plan they had previously proposed. 

There is nothing rapid about BRT. More like "better bus." It's an improvement for sure in terms of customer amenities and better equipment. But there is nothing "rapid" about it.

On 10/24/2024 at 11:05 AM, John Schneider said:

 To me, the current crew at City Hall is just focused on quick, non-controversial wins, not the kind of long-term and difficult projects which have taken our city to a new level.

 

This is because they've seen one councilman after another destroy their political careers by taking a challenging position.  Laure Quinlivan lost her seat for actually taking positions.  Sittenfeld challenged Cranley and ended up in federal prison.  Derek Bauman was left off the party ticket after doing more legwork than any other candidate.  But in this last go-round people nobody heard of snuck onto council without even campaigning because they kissed the party ring. 

 

 

 

 

On 11/2/2024 at 9:08 AM, John Schneider said:

There is nothing rapid about BRT. More like "better bus." It's an improvement for sure in terms of customer amenities and better equipment. But there is nothing "rapid" about it.

 

This is the elephant in the room at Metro.

On 11/5/2024 at 10:02 AM, Miami-Erie said:

 

This is the elephant in the room at Metro.

If you accept the fact that stop consolidation is both (i) essentially free and (ii) the biggest source of increased speeds under this proposal, we're looking at spending $300m to increase the speed of two bus routes by around 1.0-1.5mph

On 11/6/2024 at 11:44 AM, thomasbw said:

If you accept the fact that stop consolidation is both (i) essentially free and (ii) the biggest source of increased speeds under this proposal, we're looking at spending $300m to increase the speed of two bus routes by around 1.0-1.5mph

 

How is this fact not ringing alarm bells in the halls of power and in the media?

4 hours ago, Miami-Erie said:

 

How is this fact not ringing alarm bells in the halls of power and in the media?

75% of the estimated budget is coming from the FTA and something that would be top-tier by international standards would probably be too expensive to be approved by the grant program, let alone not politically viable

5 hours ago, Miami-Erie said:

 

How is this fact not ringing alarm bells in the halls of power and in the media?

Because they don’t actually care about improving transit. This is a typical Cincinnati threadbare approach. The “business community” gets to market that Cincinnati has “rapid transit,” local politicians get to say they “improved transit,” and the social media warriors (who’ve posted on Instagram stories way more than they’ve ever taken a bus) get a “victory” as well.
 

Just more of the bare minimum in order to generate press releases. Don’t look too closely at the actual plan (although you’ll have more than ample time to do so while sitting on Metro for an hour and a half). 

on the bright side, we're on pace to break the previous year's record before Thanksgiving despite not adding any transit-only lanes, increasing signal priority, or expanding service span.

48 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

on the bright side, we're on pace to break the previous year's record before Thanksgiving despite not adding any transit-only lanes, increasing signal priority, or expanding service span.

What's especially surprising about this is that the streetcar has been facing a lot of headwinds. It's only tailwind this year was Blink. 

 

Consider:

• Convention Center is closed for reconstruction
• Reds had a s**tty season
• Bengals are having a disappointing season too
• FCC out of the playoffs

Don’t go through red lights and turn into the far lane.

 

Especially when the train has the right-of-way.

 

11/26 around 11:50 AM. Thankfully, everyone seemed ok. I was biking behind the streetcar when this happened.

 

Edited November 26, 2024Nov 26 by Gordon Bombay

59 minutes ago, Gordon Bombay said:

Don’t go through red lights and turn into the far lane.

 

Especially when the train has the right-of-way.

 

11/26 around 11:50 AM. Thankfully, everyone seemed ok. I was biking behind the streetcar when this happened.

 

That persons insurance company is going to have quite the bill.

I know signal priority can't solve people running lights, etc. But signal priority and bollards protecting the tracks would be great.

15 minutes ago, 646empire said:

That persons insurance company is going to have quite the bill.

 

They can drop you for that.

Streetcar broke the 2023 record yesterday. We really need a transit-only lane on Walnut. 

Setting a bad precedent here- https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2024/12/11/cig-seventh-st-apartment-conversion-streetcar-fund.html

 

I think they also did this with the Court Street Kroger building and apartments. 

A huge step in the wrong direction. The city administration's allergy toward improving/expanding the streetcar is disappointing. The system is an objective success; people enjoy using it, and they want more streetcar/rail transit. Yet, our city council and mayor are still acting like the Cranley contingent of local politics, and COAST still has any sort of power. When the reality is, they are all looked at as fools at this point. 

 

This is why if anything is going to get done, it's going to take some grassroots organizing by citizens. Luckily, that's happening. Stay tuned.

This, however, is a step in the right direction- 

 

"The design also calls for building what are called “sacrificial slabs” on I-75 overpasses along Fifth Street and Ezzard Charles Drive for later installation of streetcar tracks. Those are beds in concrete that are filled and then later removed to make way for tracks. "

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/12/15/roundabouts-proposal-queensgate-grid-part-of-brent-spence-project/76944409007/

another article about the Signature Street Concept:

 

 

Cincinnati City Council to approve another project that won’t kick in for streetcar operations

By Chris Wetterich – Staff reporter and columnist, Cincinnati Business Courier

Dec 18, 2024

 

Cincinnati City Council is set to approve major incentives for another large urban core development that will not kick in operations funding for the streetcar – and it will receive nearly $3 million in cash from the city.

 

Urban Sites and Triversity Construction are co-developing a $33.4 million mixed-use residential and commercial project centered around the former Grammer’s bar in the southeast corner of Walnut and Liberty streets, a key spot in Over-the-Rhine. They call it the Lockhart and plan 116 apartments and 4,522 square feet of commercial space.

 

“I think it’s going to be a dynamic addition to OTR,” Mel Gravely, executive chairman of Triversity, told City Council Dec. 16.

City Council is expected to approve both a $2.8 million forgivable loan for the project and a 15-year property tax abatement at its Dec. 18 meeting. The forgivable loan will come from the downtown/OTR east tax-increment financing district.

 

TIF districts take the property taxes on improvements made to properties and divert them from local governments and schools to be used by cities for public purposes. Building new housing is an allowable TIF expense.

 

MORE

If they want to no longer use VTICA, they could create a new policy where they record the addresses of the projects that are benefiting and then dedicate some or all of the marginal increase in the earnings tax at those addresses to fund streetcar operations. 

I know it's been brought up before, but I've been extremely disappointed in this council so far, I guess I just need to hope Aftab has an ego or needs a resume boost for his next/bigger office and wants to do something big project before he's out of office, but I have no expectations that it's going to be streetcar related at this point. 

Hopefully we'll have some progress this year, but it's entirely possible this will be the schedule for streetcar improvements:

 

2025- Do nothing waiting for Metro BRT

2026- Do nothing waiting for Metro BRT

2027- Construction of transit-only lane on Walnut

2028- Transit only lane opens on Walnut

 

Realistically, we could get this functional before Red's Opening Day as it's just red paint and signs. You don't even need to build or remove a bump out.

If I could move within city limits I would, just to run on a platform of "do something about transit". I think I'd win too. 

1 hour ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

If I could move within city limits I would, just to run on a platform of "do something about transit". I think I'd win too. 

Nah, you’d probably lose to some “democrats” supported by the unelected “business community” who would be worried that transit improvements might make parking more difficult for all the folks coming down to visit Five Iron and Jeff Ruby’s. 

It is important that sort of whining over the loss of 3-5 street spaces gets muffled so that projects that the city needs can happen.