Empty sheriff's car blocking streetcar on Main right now

^So I circled back around to see what went on since I was bored (like a lot of us right now). 10 minutes later the deputy came out and moved the car. It was on that part between 5th and 6th where the tracks move from the right lane over to the second from left. Basically I think the deputy didn't realize that the streetcar is wider than the tracks so the left side of the car was still blocking the streetcar.

Some of the streetcar's original orange-yellow paint scheme is showing:

 

I think all of the streetcars are like that now. Just one of many signs of the sloppiness and lack of attention-to-detail that has been amplified since the city took over running it this year.

And Paul's departure.  But what's the physical reason?  Is that paint that was covered only by decals?  If so, why were the decals removed?  

Maybe they had to remove the decals to do some type of maintenance or repair work. I have no idea whether the decals can be removed and reapplied, or if they have to make new ones. It's also possible that they are going to refresh the graphics (or Cincinnati Bell is dropping their sponsorship?) and don't want to have new decals made using the current graphics. In any case, it just looks sloppy.

Maybe they took the doors off for deep cleaning and replaced them with old ones.

I don't think they were like that on Monday. I might not have noticed though.

2 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

Maybe they took the doors off for deep cleaning and replaced them with old ones.

 

Maybe they're dipped into a vat of acid.  The same one that destroyed all evidence of Jimmy Hoffa. 

 

I like that the streetcars remain mysterious.  In a metro area of 2+ million, only 3 or 4 people at most know why the yellow is showing. 

No foamers yet 

On 3/9/2020 at 1:39 PM, jmecklenborg said:

Prediction: Cranley shuts down streetcar over virus fears.  

 

The streetcar, Red Bike, and scooters are shutting down for the duration of the pandemic.

Barry Horstman Jason Williams:

Williams got a boner writing this. If Cranely can get it shut down "permanently" he can make the 2021 election all about the streetcar.  Again.  For like 15 years every election has been about the streetcar. 

 

 

[ This column is being provided for free to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Enquirer at cincinnati.com/subscribe ]

 

Cincinnati's streetcar is shut down. It should stay closed. Forever.

 

[...]

 

This is an opportunity for Mayor John Cranley and City Manager Patrick Duhaney to try and stop the streetcar budget bleeding for good. They must call the Trump administration and ask for it to let Cincinnati out of streetcar prison. My apologies to the four people who regularly ride the streetcar. 

 

[...]

 

 

I hope the six politicians who voted to build the streetcar – councilmen P.G. Sittenfeld, Chris Seelbach, Wendell Young, David Mann and ex-council members Yvette Simpson and Kevin Flynn – learned a lesson on Monday. 

 

People before streetcars. 

If y’all have the inclination you should go back and watch the press conference for the moment Williams asks his questions. Cranley has just had to announce he is furloughing people he knows and cares about and Williams, like a vulcher, comes in with his queries about the streetcar.
 

If Williams were man enough to actually be present and ask those questions in person (we all know he isn’t), I’m thinking Cranley might have strangled him. 
 

He is a literal piece of sh*t. 
 

Edited March 31, 20205 yr by Pdrome513

The topic is seriously soooooo tired, and his logic is SOOOOOO BAD.

 

Then on top of that why the heck would you ever ask that question after he just had to furlough so many of his employees. I mean, Jason Williams is an absolute idiot. 

 

And you think PG Sittenfeld who is going to be our next mayor or anyone on cancel is going to shut down the streetcar because a once in 100 year event happened and you could have saved 10 people from getting furloughed who are actually able to still collect probably most of their paycheck anyways? Then you go and pay back all the bonds and everything on it. 

 

I always find it funny too on this one, it hits twitter and there are literally 3 people who tweet back and forth to eachother on it. Jeff Cappel, GOCOAST, and the Cincy Buckeye

 

Literally, not one other person tweets about it.

1 hour ago, IAGuy39 said:

The topic is seriously soooooo tired, and his logic is SOOOOOO BAD.

 

Then on top of that why the heck would you ever ask that question after he just had to furlough so many of his employees. I mean, Jason Williams is an absolute idiot. 

 

And you think PG Sittenfeld who is going to be our next mayor or anyone on cancel is going to shut down the streetcar because a once in 100 year event happened and you could have saved 10 people from getting furloughed who are actually able to still collect probably most of their paycheck anyways? Then you go and pay back all the bonds and everything on it. 

 

I always find it funny too on this one, it hits twitter and there are literally 3 people who tweet back and forth to eachother on it. Jeff Cappel, GOCOAST, and the Cincy Buckeye

 

Literally, not one other person tweets about it.

 

100%

14 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

[ This column is being provided for free to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Enquirer at cincinnati.com/subscribe ]

 

Cincinnati's streetcar is shut down. It should stay closed. Forever.

 

I called this morning and cancelled my subscription. 

22 hours ago, Pdrome513 said:

If y’all have the inclination you should go back and watch the press conference for the moment Williams asks his questions. Cranley has just had to announce he is furloughing people he knows and cares about and Williams, like a vulcher, comes in with his queries about the streetcar.
 

If Williams were man enough to actually be present and ask those questions in person (we all know he isn’t), I’m thinking Cranley might have strangled him. 
 

He is a literal piece of sh*t. 
 

https://www.fox19.com/2020/03/30/watch-live-mayor-cranley-city-leaders-provide-update-cincinnatis-coronavirus-response/

 

Link to this, embarrassed at my internet sleuthing and how long it took me to find and not sure if there's a better source, kinda harder a day later. The question starts at ~32 minutes, but you really need to watch the whole thing to get the vibe of the press conference when he asks the question (after previously missing his opportunity). 

17 minutes ago, shawk said:

https://www.fox19.com/2020/03/30/watch-live-mayor-cranley-city-leaders-provide-update-cincinnatis-coronavirus-response/

 

Link to this, embarrassed at my internet sleuthing and how long it took me to find and not sure if there's a better source, kinda harder a day later. The question starts at ~32 minutes, but you really need to watch the whole thing to get the vibe of the press conference when he asks the question (after previously missing his opportunity). 

 

Thanks for the link.  Williams struggles to smoothly read the questions COAST texts him.  He's struggling to hide his squeals of delight. 

 

In this particular situation, I suspect that that Cranley is a lot less worried about the streetcar than he is his contemplated political future.  He already caused one riot and now he's facing a potential second. 

 

But assuming that the great Biblical plague largely passes Cincinnati by, and Cranley emerges unscathed, the Republicans upon whom he depends for higher office will punish him mercilessly for restarting the streetcar. 

 

In short, if Cranley runs for governor, he wins zero votes by restarting the streetcar, but he loses potential republican votes if he does.  So in order for the streetcar to pick up where it left off, he's going to have to make it somebody else's decision. 

13 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

So in order for the streetcar to pick up where it left off, he's going to have to make it somebody else's decision. 

 

I don't see how that's any different than the decision to resume construction after Cranley took office. Cranley can talk all he wants about how the streetcar is a "boondoggle" but at the end of the day, he doesn't run the city, a supermajority of council does. City Council forced the city to resume construction and they can force the city to resume operations. The only way Cranley can emerge victorious here if is he gets the FTA to drastically reduce or eliminate their requirements for the streetcar's operating hours. Then Cranley can declare that it will only run on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day and make it into the amusement park ride that he always claimed it would be.

 

Also, you have to go through a lot of mental gymnastics to believe that "the streetcar is sucking the city budget dry and we can no longer afford to run it." From the beginning, Cranley has insisted that no "city money" would be used to run the streetcar, so the city came up with a variety of new funding sources to pay for it -- VTICA, raising parking meter rates, fares, and advertising. If Cranley can somehow get away with cancelling the streetcar, do we believe that he is going to cancel the VTICA payments and reduce parking meter rates to pre-streetcar levels? Absolutely not. Cranley would steal all of the streetcar's special funding sources and redirect them to the city's general budget to pay for the police and fire departments -- the exact opposite of what streetcar opponents have always claimed was happening.

14 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

In short, if Cranley runs for governor, he wins zero votes by restarting the streetcar, but he loses potential republican votes if he does.  So in order for the streetcar to pick up where it left off, he's going to have to make it somebody else's decision. 

 

I'm a Democrat. I believe in Democratic policies and in Democratic politicians. I believe in the Democratic vision for the country, the state, the region, and the city. I have not voted for a Republican in years and do not plan to do so any time soon. I actually think John Cranley would make a good governor. 

 

But so help me god, if he uses this crisis as an excuse to try to force the permanent closure of the streetcar I will walk into a voting booth in November 2022 and vote for Mike DeWine. 

Probably wouldn't be hard to orchestrate something again where Council saves it as Cranley publicly whines.

Streetcar operator: Cheaper to maintain system with skeleton crew

 

The operator of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar has recommended maintaining a passenger-less, skeleton crew instead of shutting it down almost entirely, providing an estimate that restarting it “cold” after the COVID19 crisis would cost more.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/04/02/streetcar-operator-cheaper-to-maintain-system-with.html

 

Cranley claims that our streetcars are a health hazard, in a reprise of Jason Williams' mold accusations from a year or two ago.  Kansas City is keeping theirs open for passengers, albeit with shorter hours of operation and just two of their 6 streetcars.

 

 

 

Another thing: 10~ years ago I suggested doing a streetcar for local teams (Reds, Bengals, Xavier, UC) and local institutions like the Zoo and Museum Center.  I was howled at by the purists.  Instead we got weird off-orange streetcars that were haphazardly wrapped by Cincinnati Bell and the Neutered Cat charity.  KC changes their streetcar exterior motifs seasonally with the sports seasons, along the lines of what I suggested.  Their ridership smokes ours. 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

Their ridership smokes ours. 

 

Let's be honest—while their sports motifs are certainly a good marketing ploy, that's not the reason their ridership "smokes ours." Theirs is operated properly and always has been from the start. Ours has had the "leadership" of a dis-interested transit board who then kicked it to the city. 

 

By the time ours got going, and with very few championing it on level where any real change could happen, who was going to get the Reds or Bengals to sign on as sponsors? Our streetcar doesn't even hold sponsors when it's running under the best of its hampered operations. 

3 hours ago, Gordon Bombay said:

 

Let's be honest—while their sports motifs are certainly a good marketing ploy, that's not the reason their ridership "smokes ours."

 

We're supposedly a "branding capital" but people resisted branding it.  Look back hundreds of pages in this thread and I suggested calling it "The Findlay Market Streetcar".  Instead it was and still is just "the streetcar" which means it gets to be anything detractors want to make it. I suggested solid, uncontroversial branding but instead we got the weird pseudo-yello-orange color that referenced something hardly anyone alive could remember, but then they didn't even get that right because the color didn't really match the old Cincinnati Street Railway color.  

 

So instead of having streetcars that were clearly branded to rock-solid Cincinnati items, we instead got the "they made it Stealers colors" victory lap from COAST. 

 

Again, we're the branding capital, or something. 

 

I actually think that the "Cincinnati Streetcar" branding, logo, color scheme that the agency came up with was really cool. But then Cranley insisted on selling the naming rights, so at the last minute, we rebranded it to "Cincinnati Bell Connector" and wrapped everything in awful graphics copied from the Cincinnati Bell vans.

I actually like the Cincinnati Bell wrapping and color scheme, but I do find it ironic that KC is able to brand these with their sports teams and their streetcar doesn't take them to those stadiums, whereas our streetcar can take fans to all 3 of our stadiums, but we don't work with them on sponsorships.

The Reds were mad that the streetcar took a lane of Second Street away from cars. Seriously.

7 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

I actually like the Cincinnati Bell wrapping and color scheme, but I do find it ironic that KC is able to brand these with their sports teams and their streetcar doesn't take them to those stadiums, whereas our streetcar can take fans to all 3 of our stadiums, but we don't work with them on sponsorships.

 

This. 1,000 times THIS. Especially for FC Cincinnati and connecting people with the other attractions in town. Seems like it would be a no-brainer for various power brokers around town, but also... the app is rough, the signs are still hit or miss, the fare machines are awful, arrival times are iffy, etc. 

 

All the issues from Day 1 could've been fixed. 

I hope when this is all finished we can somehow unite on the streetcar. Mostly, that is as simple as getting Cranley out of the discussion on the topic.

Make ? it ? free. You eliminate issues with the app and the fare machines right off the bat, and probably speed up boarding too since the streetcar doesn't have to wait for people to fiddle around with the dumb machines. 

 

Of course it's a political nonstarter, but if it happened it would probably do double-duty as fixing a lot of the user experience and giving Jason Williams a brain aneurysm. 

35 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

I hope when this is all finished we can somehow unite on the streetcar. Mostly, that is as simple as getting Cranley out of the discussion on the topic.

 

I hope that whoever becomes our next mayor has a "grand reopening" of the streetcar after all of the issues get fixed. If you can add the signal priority that the traffic study recommended to significantly speed it up, and make it free to eliminate all of the hassles with the app and TVMs, it's basically a whole new system compared to what it is today. Maybe do a rebranding back to Cincinnati Streetcar at the same time if Cincinnati Bell pulls their sponsorship.

6 hours ago, 10albersa said:

I actually like the Cincinnati Bell wrapping and color scheme, but I do find it ironic that KC is able to brand these with their sports teams and their streetcar doesn't take them to those stadiums, whereas our streetcar can take fans to all 3 of our stadiums, but we don't work with them on sponsorships.

It beats the Steeler colored cars that were part of the original scheme.

Cranley saying that free Metro is having "unintended consequences".  Watch him use the same argument against free streetcar fares.  

 

https://www.wcpo.com/news/transportation-development/public-transit/metro-set-to-reinstate-bus-fare-collection-amid-worries-that-free-rides-encourage-illegal-gatherings

Just catching up after a long hiatus from the forum. My goodness with Cranley! I'm a sentimental type but one thing I cannot stand are leaders and politicians that cry in public like this. It's miserable to watch. Between this and the Tre Day blubbering, I'd hate to see this guy react to bigger crises.

 

I suspect that it has more to do with his petrified fear of losing his political aspirations/career.

Edited April 13, 20205 yr by Rabbit Hash
Added thought about political career.

Yup.

 

https://www.bygonely.com/cincinnati-old-photos-1900s/

The soon-to-be furloughed Jason Williams is back at it.  I cancelled my subscription so I can't read it. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, here is March 2020 in Kansas City:

 

 

9 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

The soon-to-be furloughed Jason Williams is back at it.  I cancelled my subscription so I can't read it. 

 

 

 

 

Mannn, Jason Williams really must be taking a hit. Does really anyone really think that the Whitehouse or any one that can actually pull a string gives 2 iotas about a streetcar in Cincinnati when we are facing the massive issues we are facing at this moment? I mean seriously, you think this politician who I assume is probably Chabot is going to go in front of the President or people in charge at this time and be like "ummm oh hey by the way can you give Cincinnati $45 million dollars please for a streetcar?" and then you think that would actually get authorized? 

 

Jason Williams needs to be let go. He's part of the problem in this country, Opinion writers with no critical thinking skills masquerading as experts. Unfortunately he's gotten a boost from Mr. Trump but I think the majority of people are starting to run out of patience.

 

Just another example of how people are so uninformed through media outlets, I heard on 700 WLW a guy call in saying every death is now coded as COVID-19 and this is all a plot to take down Trump. Mike McConnell was completely flabbergasted. Mike didn't have a great response but he basically said "you are really splitting hairs man"

6 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

Jason Williams needs to be let go.

 

Well revenue from car dealerships ads is no doubt almost non-existent right now, so layoff/furloughs are coming to The Enquirer.  I heard elsewhere that there are car dealerships that haven't sold a single new car in the month of April. 

 

Also, the federal grant was a grant, not a "loan".  Many grants are forgivable loans, but nobody describes them as such.  

9 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

soon-to-be furloughed Jason Williams

 

I would expect the Enquirer to furlough their actual journalists and photographers, and whittle the staff down to just Williams, Coolidge, and a few social media interns in order to maximize clicks from angry boomers.

Jason Williams is an idiot. I've listened to a few episodes of his podcast because they actually have decent guests and I thought I would give it a chance. But listening to him speak is like nails on a chalkboard. He stumbles over every word, has a hard time putting a string of thoughts together, and switches track mid-sentence. You can almost hear the gears slowwwwlllyyyyy turning inside his head as he tries to formulate a coherent thought. 

I think the Enquirer has already started furloughing most employees for one week every month.

 

I agree that Williams gets a lot of clicks, so he'll stick around til the bitter end. Unfortunately, he has a small gig with WLW, so he'll land there when the Enquirer shuts down.

 

It sucks for the few talented journalists and photographers still at the Enquirer. I hope they land somewhere decent after all of this.

4 hours ago, DEPACincy said:

Jason Williams is an idiot. I've listened to a few episodes of his podcast because they actually have decent guests and I thought I would give it a chance. But listening to him speak is like nails on a chalkboard. He stumbles over every word, has a hard time putting a string of thoughts together, and switches track mid-sentence. You can almost hear the gears slowwwwlllyyyyy turning inside his head as he tries to formulate a coherent thought. 

 

Yeah he's amazingly bad on the radio.  700WLW doesn't pay its weekend hosts almost anything.  I wouldn't be surprised if they're only getting $200 for a 3-hour show.  

They'll just replace Williams with some other turd to get angry suburbanite clicks if ever got fired. Remember, this is the paper that employed Peter Bronson. 

21 minutes ago, cincydave8 said:

They'll just replace Williams with some other turd to get angry suburbanite clicks if ever got fired. Remember, this is the paper that employed Peter Bronson. 

The editorial board is not the same as it was when Bronson or Laura Pulffer were there. It is decidedly much more of a liberal bent and liberal paper now. Williams gives it some balance which is good because he offers a different perspective. Believe it or not, there are many people who share that perspective so it is worth hearing them and understanding their voices. 

We hear that crap all the time. It's not new to any of us. We live in Ohio, not some commune in Northern California. 

1 hour ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is decidedly much more of a liberal bent and liberal paper now.

 

You can not argue in good faith that the Enquirer has any sort of "liberal bent". Their occasional good coverage of a social issue or their endorsement of one Democratic presidential candidate in the last century does not make them liberal. They do a horrible job of covering urban development type issues and, in particular, remain extremely anti-transit. Jason Williams does not "balance" anything with his ridiculous anti-streetcar articles and op-eds, such as the time he claimed that dangerous amounts of mold were detected in the streetcar's ventilation systems, which turned out to be completely and totally false. A week later am actual mold outbreak was discovered in one of UC's dorms and the Enquirer didn't even cover it.

I'd hate to see what he thinks of the Dispatch now that the Wolfes don't own it