But he campaigned on being an advocate for the neighborhoods, and then suggests cutting the funding neighborhoods are asking for the most. I would usually expect the mayor to concoct a phony budget with the manager that's cutting these things, so the mayor can come in and "save" that funding before bringing his budget to council.

It sounds like an attempt to make it difficult to change street configurations, generally. Which in this day and age usually means accommodating pedestrians, bikes, and transit.

 

Of course. It's easier to say we don't have the funds than to say it is not a priority.

But he campaigned on being an advocate for the neighborhoods, and then suggests cutting the funding neighborhoods are asking for the most. I would usually expect the mayor to concoct a phony budget with the manager that's cutting these things, so the mayor can come in and "save" that funding before bringing his budget to council.

 

This has been the way they've done it for tears. Even during the Mallory years. The budget is the city's biggest political football. I expect Council to make further adjustments and then like the last few years, we'll watch those revisions be pulled out one by one for potential vetoing.

Keep in mind that this latest budget crisis was caused by Cranley buying reelection with public dollars by giving police/fire a reckless raise just a week after the city manager approved a raise. 

 

 

Kansas City Streetcar had 14,092 riders on June 1st.

 

Cincinnati Streetcar has 13,255 riders May 27-June 2nd.

Streetcar was discussed at Council today. Mann and Landsman seem on board and committed to making it work.

 

Oh, you mean actually do their job and promote policy that maximizes taxpayer investment??  Someone please inform former Transportation Committee chair Amy Murray about this. I once heard a story about how Republicans are smart with money...or something...er nevermind.

Amy Murray literally did nothing to improve the streetcar during the entire 4 years that she served as the Chair of the Transportation Committee. We have already seen more action from Landsman in the time that he has been in charge of streetcar related matters.

Amy Murray everytime she went on WLW about the Streetcar, opening line: "Remember, I did not vote for the streetcar"

Kansas City just voted to extend their streetcar to the University of Missouri - Kansas City, which is about 5 miles from downtown Kansas City. So frustrating that here in Cincinnati, our political leadership can't muster the will to get the streetcar up the hill to UC and the hospitals.

 

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/kc-streetcar/article213456569.html

http://kcur.org/post/voters-approve-streetcar-extension-university-missouri-kansas-city#stream/0

^Somebody told me yesterday that on a recent drive to Kansas City they saw billboards in rural Missouri advertising the "free streetcar". 

 

Closer to home, you see billboards for the "Historic Sherman House" in Batesville.  The arc.  The creation museum.  Nothing for Findlay Market & Over-the-Rhine. 

So frustrating that here in Cincinnati, our political leadership can't muster the will to get the streetcar up the hill to UC and the hospitals.

 

Hell, our political leadership can't even get the portion we do have running with a good operation.

^Somebody told me yesterday that on a recent drive to Kansas City they saw billboards in rural Missouri advertising the "free streetcar". 

 

Closer to home, you see billboards for the "Historic Sherman House" in Batesville.  The arc.  The creation museum.  Nothing for Findlay Market & Over-the-Rhine.

 

Yes, I find it very weird that there is virtually no local advertising for downtown attractions. Our tourism organization should be lining 75, 71, 74, and 32 with these.

^Somebody told me yesterday that on a recent drive to Kansas City they saw billboards in rural Missouri advertising the "free streetcar". 

 

Closer to home, you see billboards for the "Historic Sherman House" in Batesville.  The arc.  The creation museum.  Nothing for Findlay Market & Over-the-Rhine.

 

Yes, I find it very weird that there is virtually no local advertising for downtown attractions. Our tourism organization should be lining 75, 71, 74, and 32 with these.

 

(not to get too far off topic)...but whenever i see Cincinnati tourism commercials  its always "Come to a reds game and the aquarium" ...which is great but not capitalizing on anything unique...lots of places have MLB teams and an aquarium.

 

^Somebody told me yesterday that on a recent drive to Kansas City they saw billboards in rural Missouri advertising the "free streetcar". 

 

Closer to home, you see billboards for the "Historic Sherman House" in Batesville.  The arc.  The creation museum.  Nothing for Findlay Market & Over-the-Rhine.

 

 

I'll talk to my aunt about putting up another Trader's World billboard

I think it's the "embarrassment of riches" thing that many people have already brought up in regards to Cincinnati. Our local tourism orgs never miss a change to talk about our chili or the Reds, but completely ignore the places like OTR and assets like the streetcar. Our peer cities advertise the hell out of stuff like that.

Advertising the streetcar in rural areas reinforces the notion that it's not a real transit line, but rather a toy or attraction. I see no need to advertise for the streetcar specifically, except perhaps as a means of getting around the core and seeing other real attractions like Music Hall, Findlay Market, OTR in general, etc. It's either real transit or it isn't. Should there also be signs in the middle of nowhere saying "Come to Cincinnati and ride the bus!"?

Advertising the streetcar in rural areas reinforces the notion that it's not a real transit line, but rather a toy or attraction. I see no need to advertise for the streetcar specifically, except perhaps as a means of getting around the core and seeing other real attractions like Music Hall, Findlay Market, OTR in general, etc. It's either real transit or it isn't. Should there also be signs in the middle of nowhere saying "Come to Cincinnati and ride the bus!"?

 

Well they're doing it in Kansas City and it's working. 

 

 

It can be both an attraction and real transit. I've ran into groups on the streetcar from places a close as Clermont County and as far away as Wales that heard about the streetcar and decided to spend the day in the urban core riding it around to various destinations like Rhinegeist, Vine Street, Washington Park, and the Banks. I also know people who use it to commute to work every day and to take it to meetings.

I've mentioned this a 1000x before but every major city in the midwest has advertisements on the Chicago L to visit them except for one and that one is Cincinnati.

 

Columbus has these weird ads on trash cans, and even Kalamazoo was talking about how you can get beer there.  Kalamazoo.... :/

 

Cincinnati is like if Boston was trying to be Indianapolis and then even falling at that.

 

You guys aren't even mentioning Spring Grove Cemetary, the Beer Tunnels in OTR, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the Freedom Center (which is actually loved outside of the region by people who know about it) or even Mt Adams.  Cincinnati is terrible at promoting itself - pictures of the neighborhoods sell the city, that's all that's needed, then you can talk about how the breweries are undiscovered gems of quality form a city with a deep brewing heritage, your city's promotion writes itself and the people who sit on the chamber are too stupid / provincial to see it.

Advertising the streetcar in rural areas reinforces the notion that it's not a real transit line, but rather a toy or attraction. I see no need to advertise for the streetcar specifically, except perhaps as a means of getting around the core and seeing other real attractions like Music Hall, Findlay Market, OTR in general, etc. It's either real transit or it isn't. Should there also be signs in the middle of nowhere saying "Come to Cincinnati and ride the bus!"?

 

There's no reason that advertising can't say come for a Reds game but take the streetcar to Findlay Market. It's not about the streetcar specifically as much as it is about visiting downtown Cincinnati. And luckily there's a streetcar to get around!

I got to a streetcar station today with the sign reading "4 minutes...".  The streetcar rolled up to the platform 4 minutes later.  But the 4 people ahead of me in line could not figure out the ticket machine.  I stood there in disbelief...this thing is not that hard.  The machine was not malfunctioning, they just couldn't figure it out.  So the 4 of them plus myself jumped on without paying. 

 

Advertising the streetcar in rural areas reinforces the notion that it's not a real transit line, but rather a toy or attraction. I see no need to advertise for the streetcar specifically, except perhaps as a means of getting around the core and seeing other real attractions like Music Hall, Findlay Market, OTR in general, etc. It's either real transit or it isn't. Should there also be signs in the middle of nowhere saying "Come to Cincinnati and ride the bus!"?

 

There's no reason that advertising can't say come for a Reds game but take the streetcar to Findlay Market. It's not about the streetcar specifically as much as it is about visiting downtown Cincinnati. And luckily there's a streetcar to get around!

 

They did a Jim Day's Out where he rides the streetcar and takes it to Findlay Market and other stops.

 

 

WVXU's Jay Hanselman just reported that the major projects committee is considering moving the Area G bus station to eliminate streetcar conflicts.  Not sure how this is going to cost $600,000 but that is the estimate. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1022036,-84.5098979,3a,49.9y,148.14h,86.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suSyQtfnjJrNYvcVUeRXDbQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The $600,000 cost is to move the shelter and the real-time arrival time signs.

 

thomasbw[/member] made the suggestion several months ago that the city should simply eliminate Area G and have most of those routes (6, 16, 32) stop at Area H instead; and simply don't have 17 and 19 stop at Area G since they already stop at Area B. He estimates this change would only cost a few hundred dollars to have new signs made. The downside with this approach is that it does not preserve the additional capacity which may be needed in the future if bus service is expanded.

The $600,000 cost is to move the shelter and the real-time arrival time signs.

 

thomasbw[/member] made the suggestion several months ago that the city should simply eliminate Area G and have most of those routes (6, 16, 32) stop at Area H instead; and simply don't have 17 and 19 stop at Area G since they already stop at Area B. He estimates this change would only cost a few hundred dollars to have new signs made. The downside with this approach is that it does not preserve the additional capacity which may be needed in the future if bus service is expanded.

 

If you want to relocate the physical infrastructure currently at Area G (which has to be the source of the costs) you can still do that at a later date, so that capacity can be reactivated when needed (and it might be better to move those physical assets to Uptown or a new park and ride or transit center).

 

Also when Government Square reopened in 2006, Metro had about 25,000,000 riders per year. There's ample excess capacity at Government Square.

Councilman expects SORTA to move bus stop causing congestion, streetcar blockages

 

Councilman Greg Landsman said Tuesday that he expects the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority will move buses from a stop at Fifth and Main streets to a stop one half-block north in an attempt to reduce congestion around Government Square for cars, buses and the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar.

 

The stop was the source of a political skirmish at last week’s City Council meeting, with Mayor John Cranley vetoing an ordinance that would have allowed the city to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SORTA and spend up to $600,000 to move the stop using unspent streetcar capital funds. 

 

In a statement, SORTA said it was working with the city and the Federal Transit Administration on a solution.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/07/03/councilman-expects-sorta-to-move-bus-stop-causing.html

The @kcstreetcar had 223,877 riders in June. The @CB_Connector had 57,837. The difference? Kansas City’s is fast, frequent and free. (Also KC’s lowest ridership day would have been Cincy’s second highest for the month of June)

 

If it wasn't for the pride parade boosting streetcar ridership, KC's worst day would have beaten our best day.

^ Yep. And while thank goodness for Landsman, not many other folks seem to even care. It is going to take a while, and another administration, to dig out of this hole that we find ourselves in, by building a great piece of infrastructure with a poorly funded and poorly communicated operational component. I mean, I couldn't believe it when I read that Smitherman (!) complained that the traffic study was something that should have been completed before operation began, not two years afterward. As if, that was an example of what a "boondoggle" the streetcar was and is, and not that you were instrumental in making sure everything was as hard to get done as possible, all the way along.

 

This is an example of why some industries have come to the realization that "build-operate" is the right way to contract for these sorts of things. Otherwise there's too much potential to just "get it done" and walk away once the concrete is cured. So short sighted...

 

 

Is this study from 2016 the one that we are still somehow waiting on results for , or was this one completed and the results not popularized and it is a different one we are waiting on answers for? How can this take so long?!? Also good to see that even back then the Mayor was consistent on his negativity but why the desire to use general funds for it? Perhaps to make it an election issue later on? https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/downtown-cincinnati-traffic-study-first-in-20-years?page=2

 

In Kansas City, they have managed to find the ability to get signal prioritization for their streetcar, despite operating on a 2-way street (which somewhat increases complexity). Come on Cincy... get it together.

 

http://kcstreetcar.org/schedulechanges/

^Can't, Cranley needs the fire-breathing suburbanite votes for when he runs for state or U.S. office

The @kcstreetcar had 223,877 riders in June. The @CB_Connector had 57,837. The difference? Kansas City’s is fast, frequent and free. (Also KC’s lowest ridership day would have been Cincy’s second highest for the month of June)

 

If it wasn't for the pride parade boosting streetcar ridership, KC's worst day would have beaten our best day.

.

 

How were the June numbers for Cincinnati’s compared to May’s numbers?

 

Definitely needs to be fast and frequent. Free is a concept worth exploring, but in my view it’s more necessary for the streetcar to re-establish itself as useful transit amongst downtown residents and people who are downtown a lot.

Is this study from 2016 the one that we are still somehow waiting on results for , or was this one completed and the results not popularized and it is a different one we are waiting on answers for? How can this take so long?!? Also good to see that even back then the Mayor was consistent on his negativity but why the desire to use general funds for it? Perhaps to make it an election issue later on? https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/downtown-cincinnati-traffic-study-first-in-20-years?page=2

 

 

It's the same traffic study that the administration agreed to do after the streetcar first opened. It was delayed multiple times and finally put out for an RFP. I'm not actually sure if the study is actually happening now or has yet to begin.

 

Meanwhile, Cranley's former chief of staff has tweeted many times that "automobile traffic should not be inconvenienced to benefit a few streetcar riders." So even if the traffic study ends up finding that numerous tweaks need to be made to speed up traffic on Main and Walnut, I'm sure this administration is only going to implement a watered-down version of what the study calls for. It's truly sad that we will need to wait for the next mayor in order for any real positive changes to be made.

In Kansas City, they have managed to find the ability to get signal prioritization for their streetcar, despite operating on a 2-way street (which somewhat increases complexity). Come on Cincy... get it together.

 

http://kcstreetcar.org/schedulechanges/

 

It should be pointed out that KC only owns four streetcars as compared to our five for a line of the exact same length.  I don't doubt that they are running all four with some regularity. 

 

 

Dan Hurley discussed Hamilton's green power situation at length today on WVXU.  Apparently Hamilton was already getting hydro power before the Mendahl Dam plant came online recently from another Ohio River hydro dam and with a long-term contract with a provider at Niagra Falls.  So to answer those Green Party critics of the coal-powered streetcar, it's now possible that Metro could use a local hydro dam to power a countywide electric bus/rail system, or even electric catenary for an electrified 3C's rail system. 

Dan Hurley discussed Hamilton's green power situation at length today on WVXU.  Apparently Hamilton was already getting hydro power before the Mendahl Dam plant came online recently from another Ohio River hydro dam and with a long-term contract with a provider at Niagra Falls.  So to answer those Green Party critics of the coal-powered streetcar, it's now possible that Metro could use a local hydro dam to power a countywide electric bus/rail system, or even electric catenary for an electrified 3C's rail system.

 

That's the City of Hamilton not Hamilton County that owns the share of the hydro plant though, right?

^Yes, the City of Hamilton, which is in Butler County, not Hamilton County or its county seat, Cincinnati. 

 

Cincinnati has always had a privately-owned electric utility, thanks to John Kilgour, which evolved into Cincinnati Gas & Electric, which became Cinergy, which was then bought by Duke Energy.  Ironically, the Cincinnati streetcar cannot be currently powered by the Mendahl Dam thanks to...John Kilgour, owner of the Cincinnati Street Railway in the 1800s. 

Then I guess I'm missing your point, could you clarify what you mean by this?

 

So to answer those Green Party critics of the coal-powered streetcar, it's now possible that Metro could use a local hydro dam to power a countywide electric bus/rail system, or even electric catenary for an electrified 3C's rail system.

Back in 2007 the Cincinnati Green Party came out against the Cincinnati Streetcar because it would use coal-generated electricity from Duke's grid.  At the time the Mendahl Dam hydro plant was in planning but its construction was not a certainty.  If the streetcar had not been mired in such fevered controversy from day 1, a deal could have been negotiated to buy power from the then-future Hamilton-controlled Mendahl Dam. 

 

The use of coal-generated electricity to power electric trains and electric cars has some validity to it.  But the fact is that the Green Party was always more concerned about gentrification of OTR.  But even COAST, etc., jumped on the "coal-powered" streetcar. 

 

It was described on WVXU yesterday that Hamilton does not have a direct feed from the Mendahl Dam.  That power simply flows into the grid and then Hamilton is billed for the clean power that Mendahl generates, but the new dam generates more than Hamilton needs, and so it is selling the excess electricity to customers outside its municipal boundaries.  The clean power has enabled Hamilton to attract some new business from EU companies that must operate in the U.S. within EU clean power mandates. 

Yep. Opponents on both the far left and far right called it a "coal train" during the debates.

FYI- It's Meldahl.

FYI- It's Meldahl.

 

Dam. 

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense. I've posted about it before, but the City of Hamilton(!) is doing a lot of interesting things right now. I'm not sure why, but there seems to be a completely new class of civic leadership there. Exciting times.

^Hamilton's city manager, now in his role for eight years, has really been leading the charge. The city (and larger community) were working on a lot of the right things before he came, but he has figured out how to leverage assets and resources in newer (and faster) ways and really get big stuff done. There's still plenty to do, but if you look at the progress over the last five years its pretty wild what has been pulled off. You can see some of the highlights on pages 3-5 of the 2018 Initiatives Update:

 

http://hamiltonohiobusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-Initiative-Update_WEB.pdf

 

 

In addition to Meldahl, Hamilton built a major hydroelectric dam at the Greenup Dam on the Ohio River (between Ironton and Portsmouth) in the late 1970's.

Yep. Opponents on both the far left and far right called it a "coal train" during the debates.

 

 

"That's right Flash, Daddy's gonna stick it to them Duke Boys! He he he!"

 

 

Yep. Opponents on both the far left and far right called it a "coal train" during the debates.

 

 

"That's right Flash, Daddy's gonna stick it to them Duke Boys! He he he!"

 

$10 if you can tell me what the P stands for without utilizing the Google machine.

Apparently Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune managed to to collide with the streetcar Tuesday night.  The fake transit supporter was leaving a SORTA meeting where he argued against a sales tax for the bus system. 

 

 

 

Apparently Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune managed to to collide with the streetcar Tuesday night.  The fake transit supporter was leaving a SORTA meeting where he argued against a sales tax for the bus system.

 

I thought you were joking, but he actually hit the streetcar while driving.

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/17/hamilton-county-commissioner-todd-portune-wheel-car-streetcar-crash/794463002/

Streetcar was held up a second time in the last few weeks last night on Race near Central Parkway due to someone who apparently can't park their SUV.  Last time it took nearly 90 minutes to tow the car and restart service.  This time it only took about 45 minutes to tow the SUV and restart service.  I'm trying to figure out if this is progress because they're getting faster at clearing the vehicles, or taking another step back since people continue to block the streetcar on the regular.

There are people who've ridden the streetcar that don't even realize it's on rails (they think the rails are for something else, are abandoned, or don't even know what they are).  I witnessed this first-hand.  So don't underestimate the capability for people to be completely blind to what's in front of them, or under their feet. 

 

45 minutes is a joke.  Can passengers even get off in such a situation or are they trapped in the vehicle the whole time?