Someone needs to show Mr. Policinski the ROI from transit-oriented developments around the country and the amount of money the streetcar has spurred into OTR development. Imagine the economic development around Central Pkwy if subway stations fed visitors/customers/residents into that area of town. 

Here's hopeless. More interested in self-driving cars, flying cars and the still-elusive "tsunami of freight" coming through the drying-up Panama Canal to Cincinnati.

The article did give this gem though, save for use elsewhere on this site: 

Quote

Jake Mecklenborg, author of "Cincinnati's Incomplete Subway: The Complete History" isn't a fan of any idea.

 

On 3/16/2025 at 9:51 AM, thomasbw said:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/16/cincinnatis-abandoned-subway-tunnels-as-transit-see-old-new-ideas/77972233007/?tbref=hp

 

This is an embarrassingly stupid statement, even for Mark Policinski

 

 

Truly embarrassing. This is the leader of our MPO! No wonder we've made so little progress this century.

1 minute ago, Miami-Erie said:

 

Truly embarrassing. This is the leader of our MPO! No wonder we've made so little progress this century.

Policinski has led transportation planning in our region for 22 years. Quick, name one of his accomplishments.

1 minute ago, Miami-Erie said:

 

Truly embarrassing. This is the leader of our MPO! No wonder we've made so little progress this century.

 

 

The top three systems for productivity are all in the Midwest. Not sure if there's any lesson to be learned there, but I thought it was interesting. The fourth midwestern system is a bit of a basket case.

Did anyone share this? Either way, all of these ideas are just stupid and borderline embarrassing. I swear this city will do everything other than build the rail transit we desperately need. Even Aftab in the recent mayoral debate, said he isn't in favor of streetcar expansion. Everyone in Cincinnati loves the streetcar and wants it to expand but our politicians act like WLW and the COAST types have any sort of power. 

 

At this point, just leave the tunnels as they are until we get a good federal administration and county/city leaders that aren't afraid of their own shadow. 

https://www.wlwt.com/article/cincinnati-subway-tunnels-proposals-speakeasy-bathhouse/63443290

 

1 hour ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

Did anyone share this? Either way, all of these ideas are just stupid and borderline embarrassing. I swear this city will do everything other than build the rail transit we desperately need. Even Aftab in the recent mayoral debate, said he isn't in favor of streetcar expansion. Everyone in Cincinnati loves the streetcar and wants it to expand but our politicians act like WLW and the COAST types have any sort of power. 

 

At this point, just leave the tunnels as they are until we get a good federal administration and county/city leaders that aren't afraid of their own shadow. 

https://www.wlwt.com/article/cincinnati-subway-tunnels-proposals-speakeasy-bathhouse/63443290

 

I just don't understand it. We used to have people who ran for office with large transformational projects like these as part of their platforms. Mayors in other countries, even our neighbors up north in Canada, still do. But here, we just get some watered down promises around public safety and affordable housing with no actual figures or concrete ideas on how to fix them. 

I describe Aftab as "High-Quality Ginther".

10 minutes ago, PlanCleveland said:

I just don't understand it. We used to have people who ran for office with large transformational projects like these as part of their platforms. Mayors in other countries, even our neighbors up north in Canada, still do. But here, we just get some watered down promises around public safety and affordable housing with no actual figures or concrete ideas on how to fix them. 

Part of this is explained by the move away from four-year Council terms to two-year Council terms. Councilmembers are in a constant state of re-election and under the thumbs of big donors in the business community. They have little opportunity to develop support for their ideas. It's a fundamental problem.

Here is a concept for a pair of streetcar loops Uptown.  Both loops would have streetcars going in both directions, clockwise and counterclockwise, so most streets would have a pair of tracks on them.  

 

I made 7 maps on the post but here are 3:

 

 

What is the gradient up Vine Street? If it's under 8% a LRT vehicle can easily make that climb.

No way you could add LRT to Vine with two BRT routes going there. Also, the streetcar engineers long ago concluded that the Siemens S70 streetcar vehicle (used in other cities as an LRT vehicle) could not reliably make the climb up Vine. Putting two or three of them together to make up a train doesn't compute.

 

Plus, all the other problems with rail on Vine.

^It's my understanding that there will be no BRT infrastructure on Vine St. It will just be running a bus in mixed traffic. The original plans had a BAT lane in the east lane of Vine, but I believe that's been scaled back. 

4 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

^It's my understanding that there will be no BRT infrastructure on Vine St. It will just be running a bus in mixed traffic. The original plans had a BAT lane in the east lane of Vine, but I believe that's been scaled back. 

Further proof that we could never run a streetcar up Vine Street.

I'm not an engineer, but as far as I can tell, it's a political problem, not a technical one. If you eliminate all on-street parking you should have enough room. 

12 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

I'm not an engineer, but as far as I can tell, it's a political problem, not a technical one. If you eliminate all on-street parking you should have enough room. 

That's the problem. Few of the buildings on Vine have their own off-street parking

Vine Street is the critical connection point between the two centers of the entire region. The ROW should be reserved to the transportation of people, not free car storage. Around the corner from this stretch of Vine is E. Clifton Avenue which now has "Sidewalk Closed" signs so people can park their cars on the sidewalks. It is shocking and abhorrent that the city cares so little about connecting downtown and uptown.

All true but unlikely to change. I think the city would have to buy and pave multiple parcels on both sides of Vine to get the cars off the street and sidewalks and then allow residents to park for free in them. Probably could have done this 10-20 years ago.

In the constrained portion, couldn't parking be moved to some of the vacant land between East Alley and Loth? Or just tell the residents to park on Loth? It seems like an easy/cheap way to better connect UC and Downtown by just building 1 parking lot.  

A lot of empty parcels to work with.  

On 4/25/2025 at 10:12 AM, Miami-Erie said:

Around the corner from this stretch of Vine is E. Clifton Avenue which now has "Sidewalk Closed" signs so people can park their cars on the sidewalks.

Really? Cars have been parking illegally on the sidewalk on E Clifton for years. Perhaps the sidewalk closed sign is unrelated (i.e. there's some construction work or something) and the cars simply are continuing to park illegally on the sidewalk.

Not surprising, but after Aftab inevitably wins, if tries to flip another city asset like he did the railroad by turning the subway tunnels into anything other than a route for rail transit he should be recalled along with any council members who go along with it

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/28/mayoral-candidates-discuss-future-subway/83217537007/?tbref=hp

I'm not surprised no one is talking about expanding the streetcar or rail in this current climate but I can't honestly get what the current council, let a lone Afta,b are thinking. The man has no political future in a statewide race. Even if the state suddenly became more purple, the state as a whole doesn't give a fig about Cincinnati, and no Cincinnati politician will be making any sort of waves in a state election. He could at least focus on being a transformative mayor but he sucks at that too.

I'm frustrated too, but his political capital was blown on Connected Communities, which is a huge win. He's going to have to defend that (and attempts to water it down) for the rest of the term. The Hyde Park fight is becoming a proxy for Connected Communities too, it's not going away. Not to compare their careers, but it feels like Obama and the ACA. He blew his capital there and (among other reasons) was not able to keep his agenda moving.

He should take more risks, but he's absolutely consultant-driven. We're lucky we got Connected Communities is my perspective on it.

1 hour ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

Not surprising, but after Aftab inevitably wins, if tries to flip another city asset like he did the railroad by turning the subway tunnels into anything other than a route for rail transit he should be recalled along with any council members who go along with it

There is no recall provision in Cincinnati. And it would be asinine to have one for two year council terms.

1 hour ago, 10albersa said:

I'm frustrated too, but his political capital was blown on Connected Communities, which is a huge win. He's going to have to defend that (and attempts to water it down) for the rest of the term. The Hyde Park fight is becoming a proxy for Connected Communities too, it's not going away. Not to compare their careers, but it feels like Obama and the ACA. He blew his capital there and (among other reasons) was not able to keep his agenda moving.

He should take more risks, but he's absolutely consultant-driven. We're lucky we got Connected Communities is my perspective on it.

He should take a note from the current administration and start proposing more and more big changes so people forget about Connected Communities then, if it's his only fight then it gives the NIMBYs something to focus on.

Today, several emergency vehicles blocked the streetcar on Elm St.:

The situation did not appear to be urgent (somebody had a not-urgent medical situation of some kind). I couldn't stick around to see what happened, but there is no reason for police and fire to block the tracks when they could a)move to the left permanently or b)briefly move to the left, then return to blocking the tracks after the streetcar passed, then c)either a or b when the next one comes along.

On 4/29/2025 at 1:39 PM, ryanlammi said:

There is no recall provision in Cincinnati. And it would be asinine to have one for two year council terms.

And who does he get replaced with? Kearney is the only one with any momentum atm.

A little birdy told me that there was a wedding on the streetcar this weekend... any pictures? I'm positive someone on this forum must've been involved.

1 hour ago, ucgrady said:

A little birdy told me that there was a wedding on the streetcar this weekend... any pictures? I'm positive someone on this forum must've been involved.