10 minutes ago, taestell said:

 

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.

 

Jason Williams is Billy Cunningham but the dumb version

6 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

Jason Williams is Billy Cunningham but the dumb version

 

Bill Cunningham is a smart person who plays a carnival barker on the air. Jason Williams is the kind of guy who listens to Bill Cunningham and doesn't know it's an act.

He got taken out of his wheelhouse of going to high school football games all the time and assigned to streetcar hit pieces because he knows how to write to people who go to high school football games all the time. 

49 minutes ago, taestell said:

 

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.

is the Enquirer the New York Times, obviously not, but it is also not the same Enquirer as it was say back in 2005-2010.  Your issue with their job covering urban development may have more to do wiht the fact it is a dying newspaper with limited staff and they do little journalistic work anymore. The days of the local paper breaking the next big scandal are over, not because of some conservative bent, but because they no longer have those resources.

 

I have been before the editorial board on more than one occasion. I would hardly call the group a bunch of conservative hacks.  Far from it. Williams represents a viewpoint that should be heard, even if it is a minority. 

I saw a supposedly shut-down streetcar patrolling the area this morning.  

They need to keep the streetcars running during the shutdown without passengers, in order to avoid going through a full shut down process + reopening process, which Transdev estimated would cost something like $1 million.

 

I actually haven't seen any streetcars running since the shutdown, so they may only be taking each streetcar out for a loop once per week, or something like that.

It looked like two were in the garage this morning, so they might be performing long-term maintenance on each streetcar while they have the chance.  

Warren County orchestrates publicity stunt, The Enquirer rushes to sniff the seat:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/05/06/coroanvirus-ohio-commissioners-cares-act-money-slam-streetcar/5175455002/

Cranley, via the Enquirer, throws more mud at the streetcar:

 

Jason Williams is really going hard on this "USDOT needs to give Cincinnati permission to permanently shut down the streetcar" thing, huh?

On 5/13/2020 at 12:22 PM, taestell said:

Jason Williams is really going hard on this "USDOT needs to give Cincinnati permission to permanently shut down the streetcar" thing, huh?

I wonder if that is a backdoor attack on BRT. If the FTA  is forced to give Cincinnati permission to permanently shut down the streetcar (and they would have to be forced FTA is not in the business of unilaterally forgiving grants). I can't imagine they would give SORTA (the original grant recipient for the streetcar funds) any money for BRT or any other discretionary grant knowing that the powers that be in the area are actively hostile to transit. 

I doubt Williams is thinking that many steps ahead, but that is certainly true. Why would the FTA give us a big chunk of money again, if we blew it this time?

At the same time there are no real BRT advocates, I think there are also few BRT opponents.

2 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

At the same time there are no real BRT advocates, I think there are also few BRT opponents.

I think there are few BRT opponents because there are no real BRT advocates. As soon as BRT advocates spring up, the opponents will decide to fight it.

Nashville's mid-2010s BRT plan was vociferously fought by Lee Beaman, the city's car dealership kingpin, AND the Koch Brothers:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/04/amp-opponent-lee-beaman-still-has-issues-with.html

 

A few of Beaman's car dealerships are situated on what has become some of the most valuable land in a second-tier American City, straddling Broadway and West End Ave. near Vanderbilt University.  BRT, specifically, would have made it hard to turn in and out of his car dealerships.  He came back in opposition to the LRT subway plan, which failed at the polls in 2018, even though it wasn't going to physically affect his dealerships, but because it would have made the Davidson County sales tax higher than surrounding sales taxes (currently it is counter-intuitively lower).  

Also, should Biden manage to oust Trump in November 2020, we might see a TIGER grant reprise in 2021.  We will no doubt witness Cranley completely ignore the opportunity to fully fund streetcar expansions with the grants in 2021 as he did 2014-2016.  

Now that Issue 7 has passed, it's time to re-start the streetcar and make it a zero-fare system. Here are some idea on how to pay for that.

 

We’ve seen the benefits of eliminating fares in the successful Blink and Ride Free with Your Reds Ticket promotions, and it’s time to permanently increase our ridership by transitioning to a zero-fare system. Simply put, no other policy or combination of policies will be as effective for increasing ridership as removing the fare barrier.

 

Fare-free Kansas City has five times the ridership as our system. Tampa had middling ridership for a decade that tripled almost overnight after going zero-fare, and Milwaukee has 50% higher ridership than our system using a sponsorship zero-fare model. Washington DC and Tacoma are two other examples of high ridership zero-fare streetcar systems.

 

Ideally this restart would also be accompanied by signal prioritization, re-timing of signals, re-timing of the pedestrian walk phases at the mid-block crossings on Walnut and Main and Green and Race (these signals alone add 1 minute and 16 seconds to every single streetcar trip, this is the lowest hanging fruit), and increased enforcement related to blocking the tracks; however, re-launching with a zero-fare system will be the biggest driver of increased ridership.

 

Net Fare revenue for the CBC for FY20 is estimated at $70,834. Currently Transdev pays for the cost of the CPD Officers on the streetcars checking fares (estimated at a cost of $120,000 per year). If we move to zero-fare, I believe the City of Cincinnati will have to take over the cost of security, increasing the total cost for a zero-fare system to $150,000.

 

To reach our goal of a zero-fare system, we can either raise the $150,000 or reduce the cost of going zero-fare. One easy cost saver would be to use Downtown Ambassadors rather than uniformed CPD Officers to provide security on the CBC. Another potential cost saver would be to negotiate with Transdev and see if we could get them to agree to perhaps splitting the cost of security on the CBC, potentially saving them $60,000.

 

On the increasing revenue side, here are my suggestions. The entire $150,000 (or less if we use Downtown Ambassadors for security) doesn’t have to be raised by a single new or expanded source of revenue, several of the below options could be employed to raise the total amount needed:

 

1.     Restore Parking Meters at Washington Park- When Washington Park was renovated, all the parking around the park was removed. By my rough estimation, there’s room for about 57 parking spaces. The revenue from those meters would cover the lion’s share of the amount we need to raise for a zero-fare system and add 57 much needed new parking spots to Over-the-Rhine.

2.     Increase Parking Infraction Fine $3- Increasing the fine for parking tickets from $65 to $68 would raise enough money to make the streetcar zero-fare.

3.     Increased Advertising Revenue- Increasing ridership will increase the value of advertising on the streetcar and may attract new advertisers. Additionally, we should expand where ads can be placed on the streetcars and at the stops. Sell ads on everything, every seat, the floors of the cars, the ceilings, put special panels on the railings at the stops. A free, gaudy system will attract more riders than we have presently. 

4.     Use a Portion of the Proposed Over-the-Rhine Special Improvement District- The proposed OTR SID will generate $650,000 per year. Either increasing the size of the SID ask or using a portion of the SID could cover some of the cost of free fares.

5.     Add FC Cincinnati Stadium to the SID- The current SID footprint is just OTR south of Liberty. Adding the FC Cincinnati Stadium to the SID would generate more than enough for free fares.

6.     Add North of Liberty to SID- Arguably nowhere along the streetcar line benefits more than North of Liberty. Extending the SID to cover this area would be a logical expansion and help fund free fares.

7.     Add Pendleton to the SID- The Pendleton Community Council boundaries extend all the way to Main Street, so the streetcar is located in Pendleton according to their Community Council Boundaries. Extending the SID to include Pendleton could increase the funding available for free fares.

8.     Pendleton Park by Phone- In Over-the-Rhine, there are places where you can park by phone in the residential parking district during the day. This program could be expanded to Pendleton’s residential parking district and the revenue used to fund a zero-fare system.

9.     3rd Party Service Provider Contract Reduction- If we could identify a 3rd party service provider (for example, if Paycor did the City’s payroll) who would agree to reduce their contract price by $150,000, we could then offer to give them the advertising for underwriting free fares. The cost to the 3rd Party wouldn’t be the full amount, only what their profit margin would have been on the service, but the savings to the City of Cincinnati would be the same.

10.  New Community Authority Funding- The Banks has a new community authority that generates approximately $500,000 a year from a 1% sales tax. Using 10% of this fund to increase connectivity to the Banks with a zero-fare streetcar could boost business at the Banks, especially during the Reds and Bengals offseason.

11.  Voluntary “New Community Authority”- While a New Community Authority has specific requirements regarding property ownership in the district, several of the larger landlords along the route (e.g. 3CDC, Model, Urban Sites) could agree to include a “voluntary” surcharge in their leases and use these funds to underwrite free fares.

12.  Federal CMAQ Funding- OKI distributes congestion mitigation/air quality funds from the Federal Government. The CBC is a zero-emission vehicle that also uses much less street space per passenger than any other motorized form of transportation in the region, we might be eligible for funding under this program.

13.  Parking Ticket Amnesty- The City of Cincinnati is owed over $10 million in unpaid parking tickets. We could propose a one-time amnesty and use the money raised for free fares several years.

14.  Sell Outstanding Parking Tickets to a Debt Collector- If allowed by law, we could sell the outstanding parking tickets to a debt collector. If they buy it up for ten cents on the dollar, that could endow free fares for about eight years if the principal can make a 3% return on investment.

15.  Garage Naming Rights- The City of Cincinnati owns several garages in the urban core. We could sell the naming rights and use the funds to help cover free fares. A free streetcar might make garages like the one at 9th and Vine more popular and increase parking revenue there as well.

16.  Reducing Service Hours, Redistributing Funds- Currently we have abysmally low ridership in the very early morning and very late at night. If we cut service during these hours, we can either re-distribute them to when we have high ridership or use the savings to make the system zero-fare.

17.  Property Taxes from Fountain Square West- The City of Cincinnati has been paying approximately $600,000 in property taxes annually for this property. If we use 25% of what we had spent on those property taxes, we can make the system free.

18.  "Kill Grill" Increased Parking Costs- There’s been a trend in SUVs and Trucks to make the height of the hoods higher and higher. This design trend greatly increases the chance of a fatality if a pedestrian is struck. To disincentivize these vehicles, improve pedestrian safety and advance our “Vision Zero” program, we should charge higher parking rates for these unsafe vehicles and use the proceeds for a zero-fare system.

19.  Kilowatt Hour Tax- Columbus makes $3.4 million per year from a Kilowatt Hour Tax. I don’t know if the City of Cincinnati is able levy this tax or if it already does, but it might be worth looking into.

20.  Parking Tax- Cleveland charges an 8% parking tax on commercial parking facilities. If Cincinnati charges a parking tax at any rate, it should cover the cost of free fares.

21.  Private Donations- Private Companies could donate funds to make the streetcar free similar to purchasing the naming rights.

22.  Increase Parking Fines along the Route- Currently the fine for parking improperly and blocking the streetcar is $100. We should increase the fine to $250 (same as parking in a handicap space). The streetcar was deliberately made to have no steps and level boarding for maximum accessibility. Blocking it should be like blocking a handicapped space. Additionally, we should hold commercial drivers to a higher standard and increase the fine for commercial vehicles to $500 increasing to up to $1,000 for repeat offenders. One commercial citation per day would generate enough revenue for us to adopt a zero-fare policy.

23.  Eliminate First Ten Minutes Free- According to the DCI Website, the first ten minutes of parking at downtown meters are free (please confirm, this may have already been eliminated). While this program was likely designed for allowing free parking for someone going inside a store to run a quick errand, in all likelihood most people just get ten free minutes. If we eliminate this program, the additional revenue could be used for a zero-fare system. If there are business like a dry-cleaners that rely on the ten minute free parking, we could install a green ten minute free parking meter in front of their establishments.

24.  Expand the Downtown SID- The Downtown Special Improvement District will be up for renewal next year. SID’s require property owners holding 60% of the frontage to be approved. The casino is not currently in the SID. Adding the casino could increase the funds available for a zero-fare system. If casino would vote “no”, Yeatman’s Cove and Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park could also be added to create new frontage that would counteract the casino’s “no” vote. This technique could also be used to increase the total amount raised by the SID and dedicate a small portion of those funds to a zero-fare streetcar. If the Downtown SID, OTR SID and Banks New Community Authority gave $50,000 per year each, we would have enough for a free system in perpetuity.

25.  Electric Leaf Blowers- Everyone hates leaf blowers, they’re loud, they pollute heavily and they don’t really seem to work that well. The City of Cincinnati should require electric leaf blowers, but allow non-electric leaf blowers if you pay an annual fee, perhaps $100 a year for residential uses and $1,000 a year for commercial uses.

26.  Legalized Sport Betting- In the event sports betting is legalized and it is handled by the casino commission and not the lottery, use the incremental increase in the casino fund to make a zero-fare system. 

27.  Download an App, Ride Free- This proposal wouldn’t make the streetcar a zero fare system, but could be used as a promotion to test free-fare usage. Some months ago, I attended the College Football Hall of Fame and admission was free if you downloaded the Chic-fil-a app. I downloaded the app and then deleted it after I was in the museum, but the promotion got me to download the app in the first place. I would imagine many visitors keep the app on their phone, but in the case of the streetcar, many more people will plan on riding again and retain the app. A company like Kroger or P&G might sponsor this promotion for three months at $0.50 per rider showing the app with a maximum payment of $50,000 (I’m just throwing out numbers here). Kroger benefits by getting customers to download the app and keep it on their phones and since the entire streetcar isn’t free, standard ticket checking will occur under the existing contract, reducing the City of Cincinnati’s direct costs.

 

I’m confident using one or more of the above funding sources we can cobble together the funds needed to make Cincinnati Bell Connector a zero-fare system and enable it to live up to its full potential.

There are three places where the streetcar has a specialized signal to change lanes (Walnut between 4th and 5th, Main between 5th and 6th and Race and Elder). At all of these-

 

Midblock light goes red

Pedestrian Walk Phase (23 seconds)

Streetcar Move Phase

Light goes green.

 

Change it to

 

Midblock light goes red

Streetcar Move Phase

Pedestrian Walk Phase

Light goes green

 

We are having the streetcar wait 23 seconds even when there are no pedestrians there.

 

Change all three and that's over a minute of travel time gains every loop at almost zero cost. The pedestrians, if there are any waiting to cross there, might have to wait two or three seconds for the streetcar to move. If we made this change, most people not riding the streetcar would never even notice. 

 

So much low hanging fruit. 

11 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

1.     Restore Parking Meters at Washington Park- When Washington Park was renovated, all the parking around the park was removed. By my rough estimation, there’s room for about 57 parking spaces. The revenue from those meters would cover the lion’s share of the amount we need to raise for a zero-fare system and add 57 much needed new parking spots to Over-the-Rhine.

10.  New Community Authority Funding- The Banks has a new community authority that generates approximately $500,000 a year from a 1% sales tax. Using 10% of this fund to increase connectivity to the Banks with a zero-fare streetcar could boost business at the Banks, especially during the Reds and Bengals offseason.

26.  Legalized Sport Betting- In the event sports betting is legalized and it is handled by the casino commission and not the lottery, use the incremental increase in the casino fund to make a zero-fare system.

 

I really like these three ideas. I think the Banks stands to benefit the most from free fairs, especially in conjunction with all the parking underneath and using the streetcar as a shuttle to get to downtown/OTR/FC games etc. I know SORTA is now divorced from the streetcar, but if the streetcar was free the need for the riverfront parking shuttle Route 85 could also be eliminated. I believe Omnicare or the Atrium center helps pay for that, so maybe just eliminate the shuttle and ask for their money to go towards the fair free streetcar instead.

Chris Seelbach was on "That's So Cincinnati" the other day sans Jason Williams. He revealed that the streetcar was supposed to be free starting July 1st, but Cranley wanted to wait until after the bus levy was completed - which makes sense as the read between the lines conclusion when it was slated for public comment and disappeared without a trace. He was noncommittal as to when it would reopen pending budget deficit but compared it to parks, and mentioned signal priority as a priority going forward. 

 

Curious what the plan would have been to close the deficit in response to the detailed suggestions/options above by @thomasbw. 

 

On a related note, I personally think using the downtown ambassadors would be a better option than CPD going forward, especially if it cuts costs. If the streetcar isn't fare free right away, enforcement by ambassadors/citizens rather than police could serve as a useful pilot for a future BRT system. I don't have the source on hand but I know Higashide advocated for that move in Better Buses Better Cities as more likely to improve equity and ridership but retain the speed benefits of payment prior to boarding. Also reduces risk of unconstitutional biases in enforcement. 

Other cities just have fare enforcement officers that work for the transit agency. I'm not sure what the primary reason was for choosing to have police officers do this job in Cincinnati. If we ever have BRT or any other bus routes that have off board fare payment, Metro will need to hire fare enforcement officers for those routes.

22 hours ago, shawk said:

Chris Seelbach was on "That's So Cincinnati" the other day sans Jason Williams. He revealed that the streetcar was supposed to be free starting July 1st, but Cranley wanted to wait until after the bus levy was completed - which makes sense as the read between the lines conclusion when it was slated for public comment and disappeared without a trace. He was noncommittal as to when it would reopen pending budget deficit but compared it to parks, and mentioned signal priority as a priority going forward.

 

This is all good news.  I'd expect fare free to be pushed to March/April 2021.  It's just refreshing to hear that signal priority isn't forgotten either, but that may be on hold until a new mayor is elected.

13 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

 

This is all good news.  I'd expect fare free to be pushed to March/April 2021.  It's just refreshing to hear that signal priority isn't forgotten either, but that may be on hold until a new mayor is elected.

If ridership drops 21% off projections (which is very likely with the current situation) net fare revenue would be negative for the year so there's no reason not to go zero-fare. It's safer and it's revenue neutral and it will increase ridership long term. 

 

Note: this is using FY20 numbers. FY21 numbers won't be out until June 11th.

Good point, but there's no way FY2021 will budget for "nice-to-have's" like a free streetcar. I guess I'd target July/August 2021 then as a likely date (if the economy recovers at a normal pace)

 

They'll get eviscerated by the public for it, whether it is good for the budget or not.

Edited May 21, 20205 yr by 10albersa

It took four out-of-service #31 buses to transfer all of the arrested rich kids protestors from Findlay Market to the Justice Center.  If the streetcar was running, they could have loaded all of them onto a single streetcar.  They could have save labor costs and reduced fossil fuel consumption.  

 

Cranley and the SORTA board had the supervisors drive those buses.

 

 

I liked that the first bus that pulled up was wrapped with an ad for "The Hammer."

 

Blake Maislin would have been a better choice but I don't think he has any bus wraps.

I see the Mayor's budget has in there to stop funding the Cincinnati Streetcar and ask President Trump for loan forgiveness on the federal loans.

 

That again, is nothing more than him flaunting to the conservative side for his run for Governor or Senator or whatever he ends up running for. He knows it won't pass but he will be able to say "Look at my record."

 

The good thing is that once PG wins they will make the streetcar free and run efficiently.

Nothing is better at advancing the narrative that the City has been the biggest obstacle than trying at every available moment to undermine and cancel the project!

21 hours ago, JYP said:

Nothing is better at advancing the narrative that the City has been the biggest obstacle than trying at every available moment to undermine and cancel the project!

 

It really is fascinating that Cranley stuck his foot down and never relented on it.

 

I wonder if it will make him look bad once the easy fixes are in and it becomes a massive success if people will use that against him on his future runs for office "He refused to look at the other side and cost the city xxx while suppressing transportation options."

17 minutes ago, IAGuy39 said:

I wonder if it will make him look bad once the easy fixes are in and it becomes a massive success if people will use that against him on his future runs for office "He refused to look at the other side and cost the city xxx while suppressing transportation options."

 

No because nobody will remember.  Name another Seward's Folly - there is only one example of a wrong decision that really looms over the U.S. psyche.  

The first proposed budget has been made public.  Cranley wants to lob $900k more to police and keep the streetcar closed to passengers for a year, but still technically "operating".  

 

He at the very least is setting up a legal showdown with the feds over what constitutes "operating".  Said showdown will generate endless publicity for the cran-man.  

Sorry - some maybe dumb questions coming. Does anyone have insight as to how you can see the breakdown of TransDev's operating costs? The reason I ask is I'm assuming that if they cut service and the contract by 50%, there will be layoffs, though they're not city of Cincinnati employees. Budget proposal assumes no fare revenue and no money from advertising naming rights, which even assuming reduced service would be.... 500k? So city has to close ~1.5m gap to have riders?

 

I am also wondering if anyone has insight as to the timeline of when the VTICA payments actually occur as compared to when the CRA is approved? 

 

Trying to approach this rationally and make informed statements, and trying to figure out how VTICA goes from 130k (FY19) to 324k (FY20) to 505k (FY21) and project that out going forward to a limited extent. The only source I have is the Economic Incentives page on CincyInsights, but I have to be missing something or it is incomplete. For 2019, the page says there were 37 CRA projects approved by council for a value of only 420,000...which feels incomplete given that the prior two years were ~$10m. There is nothing for 2020.

 

Thanks! Got a working document with what I've found so far, but any insight is great. 

https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2020/06/10/streetcar-newport-licking-river-bridge-project-among-okis-list

 

With a headline that includes the words "Streetcar to Newport" the comment section is as awful as you'd expect, but there is a link to all the projects in OKIs planned budget for plan 2050. This is why all the bad press around the streetcar is so poisonous, because the main problem people have with the streetcar is that it "doesn't go anywhere" yet to get the Streetcar up the hill to UC or across the river to Newport/Covington isn't popular because the streetcar is already a failure, so why sink more money into it?

 

Off topic, but at least the Eastern Bypass is officially out of the 2050 plan...

Actor Emilio Estevez pens letter to Cincinnati leaders: 'Let's get the streetcar up and running'

Posted at 11:42 PM, Jun 15, 2020

CINCINNATI — Actor and filmmaker Emilio Estevez has a message for Cincinnati leaders: he wants the Cincinnati Bell Connector ferrying riders across Over-The-Rhine once again.

Estevez, whose 2019 film "The Public" was set and shot entirely in the Queen City, penned a letter to Mayor John Cranley and City Council calling for the streetcar to let passengers to ride again after the streetcar suspended service April 1.

 

"As much as I love to walk, it's getting hot now, and I know that I speak for many of the OTR residents who would like to get on the streetcar and ride to Findlay Market and other businesses that can use all of our help to get back on their feet during this pandemic," Estevez wrote in his letter Monday.

Estevez says he has embraced Cincinnati, the city where his mother was born, as both a unique place to shoot films and as a unique city to live in. For him, the streetcar is more than just a way to get around, but is also a symbol of modernity and a changing urban landscape. He says it's among the main reasons he chose to shoot part of "The Public" on the streetcar.

 

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/actor-emilio-estevez-pens-letter-to-cincinnati-leaders-lets-get-the-streetcar-up-and-running

Edited June 16, 20204 yr by rhyThmaTik

Mayor to Emilio Estevez: ‘Give the bus a try’

 

Mayor John Cranley urged actor/director Emilio Estevez and other residents of the urban core to ride Metro buses while the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar is out of service, repeating his criticism over the years that the streetcar was aimed at wealthy residents of the neighborhood.

 

In a lengthy reply, the mayor also for the first time indicated the parameters under which the streetcar might be restarted, which he shuttered during the Covid-19 crisis and now claims there is not enough money to activate.

 

Estevez wrote Cranley on Monday, urging him to restart the streetcar to help Over-the-Rhine businesses, which have suffered amid the recent civil unrest and Covid-19 pandemic. In his letter, Estevez noted the city’s checkered history when it comes to transit, including the unfinished subway and shuttered streetcar.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/16/mayor-to-emilio-estevez-give-the-bus-a-try.html

 

As I commented above, I wanted to look into the VTICA portion of the streetcar budget. This is probably pure preaching to choir but there's really not a lot of reason to be concerned after the Haile money goes away as long as planned projects are completed. 

 

As long as DCED's publicly projected numbers end up being at least somewhat accurate, just 10 projects that I think are already completed are ~320k in VTICA/year for at least the next 10 years. 

 

Add the > ~$10m projects that are planned and it becomes easily over $1.5m/yr operating costs. Add smaller projects between $1m and $10m and it is close to $2m/yr. 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-hW78FadxNTZzN3ATETt39Yi_qfXFntTdodmhi_uV9o/edit#gid=1370669176 

The long strange path of this thread has taken yet another peculiar turn.  13 years on, enter...Emelio Estevez. 

12 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

The long strange path of this thread has taken yet another peculiar turn.  13 years on, enter...Emelio Estevez. 

 

16 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

 ‘Give the bus a try’

 

I wonder if Cranley realizes that there is literally no bus route that duplicates the streetcar route.

He'll beat DeWine for sure by doing this!

 Cranley has made a point to make sure the streetcar vote is a standalone vote per Chris W’s tweet. Needs 6 votes. 

Edited June 17, 20204 yr by cincydave8

Someone from the USDOT needs to call Cranley and scare the @*$%* out of him. Make it clear that it he cancels the streetcar that was built with federal money, Cincinnati is not getting federal money again. And if Cranley becomes Ohio's next governor, Ohio's not getting federal money. We clearly can't be trusted.

7 minutes ago, taestell said:

Someone from the USDOT needs to call Cranley and scare the @*$%* out of him. Make it clear that it he cancels the streetcar that was built with federal money, Cincinnati is not getting federal money again. And if Cranley becomes Ohio's next governor, Ohio's not getting federal money. We clearly can't be trusted.

I am certainly not an expert on this topic but won't the federal money have to be paid back if it was cancelled.  I recall a controversy regarding the redesign of Public Square in Cleveland with the city wanting to closed Superior Avenue which runs through the square as part of the project.  The feds threatened to force the city to return something like 20 million dollars if they did so due to some provision relating to the Euclid Ave BRT project.  

Yes. The feds have been very clear that we have to run it at the intended frequency and hours of operation, or we will be in violation of USDOT's terms and will need to repay the federal money. When Cranley lost the fight the first time, he said "why don't we just run it on weekends and during Reds games?" and the feds made it clear that wasn't OK. He is hoping for a miracle here -- that the Trump administration or Mitch McConnell's wife will give Cincinnati permission to shut it down without paying the money back.

I'm hoping this fight broadens the vocal support for the streetcar at least a little.  There's always been a few local big proponents of it, but it always seems that the default impression is that this thing is a waste of money.  With Emelio fighting back, at least there's a big name making a stink about the ridiculousness of stunting the streetcar and the benefits it provides, might light a fire among the many that don't care.

Edited June 18, 20204 yr by 10albersa

My impression is that, as we have gotten farther away from the political battles that were fought to get it built, the general population has warmed up to it. Ridership for Jan/Feb 2020 was trending upward from Jan/Feb 2019. For anyone claiming "no one rides it/it doesn't go anywhere", we now know that it is the 8th highest-ridership transit route in Cincinnati. Business owners along the route are asking for service to restart because they saw an increase in business from riders + the benefit of more "eyes on the street". It's really not a hot button political issue like it was 3-4 years ago.

 

This is nothing more than Cranley exploiting an unrelated city budget crunch to punish the streetcar -- after the city's emergency fund was raided a year ago to build soccer stadium infrastructure for his buddies.

Yeah, I guess the way I was thinking about it is similar to the Obamacare fight in 2017.  Once people felt that the ACA was in danger, support for it skyrocketed, I'm kind of hoping the same logic applies here and there are a bunch of silent supporters of the streetcar. 

 

Anecdotally, I get ribbed in my friend group for being a strong proponent of parking somewhere cheap and using the streetcar to get around the basin anytime I go downtown, and my friend group is all left-leaning.  Similar story if I take a bus to an FCC game where traffic and parking are the worst.

Edited June 18, 20204 yr by 10albersa

2 hours ago, 10albersa said:

Yeah, I guess the way I was thinking about it is similar to the Obamacare fight in 2017.  Once people felt that the ACA was in danger, support for it skyrocketed, I'm kind of hoping the same logic applies here and there are a bunch of silent supporters of the streetcar. 

 

Anecdotally, I get ribbed in my friend group for being a strong proponent of parking somewhere cheap and using the streetcar to get around the basin anytime I go downtown, and my friend group is all left-leaning.  Similar story if I take a bus to an FCC game where traffic and parking are the worst.

Honestly the best analogy to the streetcar battles is the endless fight over the ACA.

Feds weigh in on city’s ‘zombie streetcar’ plan

 

The Federal Transit Administration, which provided Cincinnati $45 million to build the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar, indicated this week that it expects the city to comply with the agreements it made when it accepted federal funds for the $148 million project.

 

The FTA was asked about Mayor John Cranley’s plan to run what’s become known at City Hall as a “zombie streetcar” — one where the system and vehicles are maintained and run on occasion but without passengers. The Cranley administration has said there is not enough money to run the streetcar in fiscal year 2021, which begins on July 1. The mayor halted passenger service in March, saying that he was seeking to close off avenues for the spread of the virus.

 

In a statement provided to the Business Courier, the agency indicated some leeway for the city to deal with Covid-19, given that transit service has been reduced across the country in response to the pandemic. But the FTA’s statement also suggested the slack it is cutting the city will not be unending.

 

“Recipients of federal transit grants must use the funds for public transportation purposes. However, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, many public transportation services have been reduced,” the agency said.

 

“Given that the one-year suspension of streetcar passenger service is proposed and not yet approved by the city of Cincinnati, FTA expects the city to provide a plan for meeting the requirements associated with the streetcar’s federal funding. FTA will coordinate with the city to identify how and when the city plans to resume service.”

 

Previously, the FTA has indicated that while it would not dictate to the city how the streetcar would be run, the city would have to operate the streetcar in a manner similar to how it told the feds it was going to be run when it applied for funding, which was seven days per week, 16 to 18 hours per day.

 

Under the master grant agreement Cincinnati signed with the FTA, the agency could yank back the funding it distributed to the city.

 

“Should the recipient unreasonably delay or fail to use project property during the useful life of that property, the recipient agrees that it may be required to return the entire amount of the federal assistance expended on that property,” the agreement said.

 

Full article below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/18/feds-weighs-in-on-city-s-zombie-streetcar-plan.html