What community was this?

 

  I remember one of the comments about the Metro Moves proposal:

 

  "In order for me to get to work on this system, I'll have to transfer twice, and it's going to take me an hour and a half to get to work. I can drive in 25 minutes."

 

    One of my friends said, "Sure, I'd be happy to use it. I would even use it if took 10 minutes longer, because I could read while riding. But it has to come to my house."

 

Which is exactly why I've always argued that the streetcar is the right way to start a rail transit system.  Start small, with a circulator in the city.  People move in, utilize the streetcar and make the nearby areas more attractive to live in.  Then you run light rail to the nearest neighborhoods, making them more attractive to live in as well.  Proceed slowly from there, adding more lines and stops as needed.  If you try to go with light rail to the far flung suburbs first, you never hook people with a driving mentality.  The key is to have the people who want to ride transit slowly populate the areas that transit serves, not to make transit attractive to people in neighborhoods built for automobiles.

^ Boom.

The key is to have the people who want to ride transit slowly populate the areas that transit serves, not to make transit attractive to people in neighborhoods built for automobiles.

 

The problem is that all of Cincinnati's inner ring suburbs were built for streetcars, not automobiles. OTR, Clifton Heights, Walnut Hills, and Northside would thrive with streetcars.

^Very true.  But you still have to start small and spread out, even to these neighborhoods.  We're having a hard enough time finding money for one streetcar loop downtown.  I'd love to start up a whole network tying in other neighborhoods all at once, but I don't think that's doable at the moment.  Also, when I mentioned neighborhoods built for cars, I'm thinking about the outer suburbs and areas beyond the 275 loop, not Northside or Walnut Hills.

The "time" mindset is a mess.  If whatever amount of time a car saves over riding public transportation, biking, or walking is so valuable, then *that* time should be used to calculate the cost of car ownership.  So if someone can drive to work in 20 minutes but it takes 30 minutes by bus, then how much do those 10 minutes cost?

 

Plus, as is known by anyone who bicycles in cities, a bike is not only usually car-competitive, it actually beats cars much of the time. 

^ Then you gotta add back all the minutes you spend pumping gas, sitting around at the auto repair shop, driving people to/getting driven to cars and other gymnastics, time spent parking, time spent with insurance companies/the BMV, washing it, and going to the auto parts store just to name a few.

That is true to point . . . how about 45 minutes versus 10 minutes. When I was working in Philly, it took 45 minutes plus to go from West Philly near Penn to Temple versus 10 minutes by car (I took the trains because parking was impossible), but the reason is that I had to go into Center City and then change trains. In a car, I could go pretty much directly from West Philly to North Philly. There were no buses that made any variation on that crosstown trip. Even with an ideal system, that equation happens all a lot (and w/ the hills of Cincinnati, I'd guess any system will have any number of similar gaps).

This is the main problem.  People expect transit to take them anywhere and everywhere, but it simply can't.  It should take over the most used corridors (city center to city center, inner city to downtown, uptown to downtown, etc.) where it does the most good.  Then it can expand to other areas as it becomes established, like suburb to downtown.  If you can't make transit work for you, then don't use it!  It still works for others though, and at least you can use it when you need it rather than being completely trapped otherwise. 

Jeff has the right way to look at it.

 

And another thought: do people always select the fastest mode when deciding how they are going to travel? I realize that this is the basis of all transportation models, but I doubt that it's as universal as people make it out to be. For example, I can always catch a frequent bus home for work, a journey of ten minutes or less, with very little wait-time. But on a lot of days, I walk home. It takes three times as long but it's worth a lot in terms of of psychic income. I know people who hate I-75 so much that they use arterials to avoid it. For a long time, people have driven to cities 100 miles away from Cincinnati to get cheaper fares than Delta offers, sometimes irrationally so if they really considered the value of their time. My wife have taken two month-long driving trips all around the western United States on two-lane roads, hardly ever going on a freeway. Sure, these trips took way more time, but they were worth it.

 

 

Depends on how you look at it, John.

 

Last weekend, when I was heading down to backpack in the Smokey Mountains, I took the most direct route: Interstate 75, and kept it at a near 80 MPH the entire trip, and made it there in 4.5 hours with only 1 stop for food. My goal then was to get there as soon as possible, since I left after work Friday. I ended up car camping in the Pisgah N.F. that night, and got a very early start Saturday. My objective then was time. And coming home, leaving Pisgah at 6 PM, I had to hightail it on the interstate at night to get home and rested for work Monday. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the back roads, and I almost always find those more enjoyable and pleasant than the interstate.

 

But when you talk about commuters, especially those who drive and commute to the suburbs, their number one factor is almost always time. Time to get home and cook dinner, see their wives, cut the lawn, take their child to soccer practice, or get home before dark. This may not be the shortest route, or the fastest. There are times when I've become so frustrated by Interstate 75's logjam, that I'll loop around on Interstate 74 and 275. It may add a few miles, but it is less stressful to drive in free flowing traffic than that of bumper-to-bumper, and I can average 70-80 MPH versus 25 MPH.

 

As for the time factor - overall, someone mentioned the time wasted pumping gas, repairs, etc. They all take time, but so does waiting for the bus, walking to/from the stop and doing the whole transfer bit. There are definite advantages though - in some circumstances, to taking the bus. When I go to work, and need to carry a lot of gear, I opt to drive to Xavier from Northside - 4.3 miles and 15 minutes, than taking the bus (1 transfer, 40 minutes, or 3 transfers and 50 minutes). I do bike to work from Northside, and that takes 19 minutes on average. I almost always find more pleasure biking than driving to work - especially if it is the same route and the same commute every day, or taking the bus when I'm fairly empty handed (it's not fun carrying bags of gear on the bus).

Depends on how you look at it, John.

 

Last weekend, when I was heading down to backpack in the Smokey Mountains, I took the most direct route: Interstate 75, and kept it at a near 80 MPH the entire trip, and made it there in 4.5 hours with only 1 stop for food. My goal then was to get there as soon as possible, since I left after work Friday. I ended up car camping in the Pisgah N.F. that night, and got a very early start Saturday. My objective then was time. And coming home, leaving Pisgah at 6 PM, I had to hightail it on the interstate at night to get home and rested for work Monday. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the back roads, and I almost always find those more enjoyable and pleasant than the interstate.

 

But when you talk about commuters, especially those who drive and commute to the suburbs, their number one factor is almost always time. Time to get home and cook dinner, see their wives, cut the lawn, take their child to soccer practice, or get home before dark. This may not be the shortest route, or the fastest. There are times when I've become so frustrated by Interstate 75's logjam, that I'll loop around on Interstate 74 and 275. It may add a few miles, but it is less stressful to drive in free flowing traffic than that of bumper-to-bumper, and I can average 70-80 MPH versus 25 MPH.

 

As for the time factor - overall, someone mentioned the time wasted pumping gas, repairs, etc. They all take time, but so does waiting for the bus, walking to/from the stop and doing the whole transfer bit. There are definite advantages though - in some circumstances, to taking the bus. When I go to work, and need to carry a lot of gear, I opt to drive to Xavier from Northside - 4.3 miles and 15 minutes, than taking the bus (1 transfer, 40 minutes, or 3 transfers and 50 minutes). I do bike to work from Northside, and that takes 19 minutes on average. I almost always find more pleasure biking than driving to work - especially if it is the same route and the same commute every day, or taking the bus when I'm fairly empty handed (it's not fun carrying bags of gear on the bus).

 

I don't disagree, but can we stipulate the travel-time matters less in the choice of a mode as travel distance decreases? There was no car-competitive alternative available for your trip to the Smokies, but there is for your four-mile trip to work. And you don't seem to mind losing time or going a greater distance if doing so makes the trip less stressful or more enjoyable.

Well when you don't have a car, you simply don't make these kinds of trips.  And you don't miss them, or really miss out on much.  I went four years without a car and don't believe I missed out on anything whatsoever.  People think they have to make all these little trips across town, but you really don't.  When you don't have a car, you choose and apartment or home that IS on the transit lines or is within walking distance of your workplace.  You live in a real neighborhood, with a grocery store and business district, not on some remote hillside with a view of the river, where that view functions simply to retain property values and impress visitors.   

 

Tragically, moving back to your hometown makes living without a car much more complicated, since it's unlikely that your relatives and old friends in any way prioritize living on the bus lines.  In Cincinnati, only 2 of my 20-odd relatives on a bus line (one in White Oak and one in N. College Hill), the rest all live outside 275 in various directions.  When I first moved back, I biked to these get-togethers.  It so freaked out the people, especially the women, that I've stopped doing it.  They always insisted on driving me back because they thought it was too dangerous to bike.  The other issue -- and you can't downplay this -- is that the minds of these women were so totally and completely blown that they literally thought I was a bad influence on their kids.  I was planting a seed that was so rebellious that they literally didn't want their kids -- my cousins -- to interact with me in any way whatsoever, as if biking was some sort of gateway drug.   

 

From the Enquirer comment pages, regarding Norwood not passing a budget:

 

Clearly Norwood's biggest problem is lack of a streetcar. If they only had a streetcar, the clouds would part, sunlight would shine in, and dollar bills would rain down from the heavens to fill their vacant buildings with new residents and businesses. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even prevent crime; just ask a new urbanist.

 

Norwood needs to borrow a hundred million or so bucks and provide the kind of transportation choices that will motivate young creative hipsters to move into their community. If they did that, it wouldn't be more than a year or two later that they would be annexing Cincinnati. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even create jobs; just ask a new urbanist.

 

The other big problem Norwood needs to fix is their car-centric culture. What other suburb has a highway named after it? None. That's why Norwood is hurting. If they would just rename the Norwood Lateral, they would see some progress. Call it the St. Bernard lateral instead. Or better yet, tear it out within their city limits and convert it into a park or bike trail. What could be more progressive than that? They could even run their new streetcar through the park in homage to the Cincinnati Subway Boondoggle that never got built there. Even Portlanders would flock to Norwood then. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even solve the oil crisis; just ask a new urbanist.

 

Norwood needs to hire HDR to do a report detailing all the wonderfulness that will come from their new streetcar. Even if Norwood isn't a good candidate for streetcars, the HDR report will prove it beyond a shodow of a doubt. All their reports do that, whether it's true or not; they have never come to any other conclusion.

 

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether Norwood has any cops or firefighters or trash collectors or pothole fillers at all; as long as they have a streetcar, everything will be fine. Streetcars are magical like that; just ask any new urbanist.

From the Enquirer comment pages, regarding Norwood not passing a budget:

 

Clearly Norwood's biggest problem is lack of a streetcar. If they only had a streetcar, the clouds would part, sunlight would shine in, and dollar bills would rain down from the heavens to fill their vacant buildings with new residents and businesses. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even prevent crime; just ask a new urbanist.

 

Norwood needs to borrow a hundred million or so bucks and provide the kind of transportation choices that will motivate young creative hipsters to move into their community. If they did that, it wouldn't be more than a year or two later that they would be annexing Cincinnati. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even create jobs; just ask a new urbanist.

 

The other big problem Norwood needs to fix is their car-centric culture. What other suburb has a highway named after it? None. That's why Norwood is hurting. If they would just rename the Norwood Lateral, they would see some progress. Call it the St. Bernard lateral instead. Or better yet, tear it out within their city limits and convert it into a park or bike trail. What could be more progressive than that? They could even run their new streetcar through the park in homage to the Cincinnati Subway Boondoggle that never got built there. Even Portlanders would flock to Norwood then. Streetcars are magical like that. They can even solve the oil crisis; just ask a new urbanist.

 

Norwood needs to hire HDR to do a report detailing all the wonderfulness that will come from their new streetcar. Even if Norwood isn't a good candidate for streetcars, the HDR report will prove it beyond a shodow of a doubt. All their reports do that, whether it's true or not; they have never come to any other conclusion.

 

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether Norwood has any cops or firefighters or trash collectors or pothole fillers at all; as long as they have a streetcar, everything will be fine. Streetcars are magical like that; just ask any new urbanist.

 

Mark Miller must be out of work again.

Clearly Norwood's biggest problem is lack of a major highway interchange. If they only had a new highway interchange, the clouds would part, sunlight would shine in, and dollar bills would rain down from the heavens to fill their vacant buildings with new residents and businesses. Highways are magical like that. They can even prevent crime; just ask ODOT.

 

Norwood needs to borrow a hundred million or so bucks and provide the kind of transportation choices that will motivate old uninspired rednecks to move into their community. If they did that, it wouldn't be more than a year or two later that they would be annexing Cincinnati. Highways are magical like that. They can even create jobs; just ask Governor Kasich.

 

The other big problem Norwood needs to fix is their anti-car culture. What other suburb wouldn't want a highway named after it?  If they would just expand the Norwood Lateral, they would see some progress. Or better yet, build another one running north-south so the city can be split into 4 disparate parts instead of two.  What could be more progressive than that? They could even run their new highway through the park in homage to the Cincinnati Subway Boondoggle that never got built there. Even Portlanders would flock to Norwood then. Highways are magical like that. They can even solve the oil crisis; just ask the Koch brothers.

 

Norwood needs to hire HDR to do a report detailing all the wonderfulness that will come from their new highways. Even if Norwood isn't a good candidate for them, the HDR report will prove it beyond a shodow of a doubt. All their reports do that, whether it's true or not; they have never come to any other conclusion.

 

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether Norwood has any cops or firefighters or trash collectors or pothole fillers at all; as long as they have a major new highway and lots of interchanges, everything will be fine. Highways are magical like that; just ask the oil-rich countries of the middle east.

That made me laugh, first as pure satire, then because their situation is so sad.  Quite literally, the tallest structure in the city of Norwood is the parking garage they still use left over from the GM plant.  I'm not sure it makes much sense from Norwood or Cincinnati's viewpoint to merge.  I don't know if anyone wins or if it's a win-win.  Maybe it's a lose-lose. 

 

Norwood as a 2% earnings tax, .1% lower than Cincinnati's.  By COAST's own logic, companies and residents should be fighting for space in Norwood. 

 

Clearly Norwood's biggest problem is lack of a major highway interchange. If they only had a new highway interchange, the clouds would part, sunlight would shine in, and dollar bills would rain down from the heavens to fill their vacant buildings with new residents and businesses. Highways are magical like that. They can even prevent crime; just ask ODOT.

 

Norwood needs to borrow a hundred million or so bucks and provide the kind of transportation choices that will motivate old uninspired rednecks to move into their community. If they did that, it wouldn't be more than a year or two later that they would be annexing Cincinnati. Highways are magical like that. They can even create jobs; just ask Governor Kasich.

 

The other big problem Norwood needs to fix is their anti-car culture. What other suburb wouldn't want a highway named after it?  If they would just expand the Norwood Lateral, they would see some progress. Or better yet, build another one running north-south so the city can be split into 4 disparate parts instead of two.  What could be more progressive than that? They could even run their new highway through the park in homage to the Cincinnati Subway Boondoggle that never got built there. Even Portlanders would flock to Norwood then. Highways are magical like that. They can even solve the oil crisis; just ask the Koch brothers.

 

Norwood needs to hire HDR to do a report detailing all the wonderfulness that will come from their new highways. Even if Norwood isn't a good candidate for them, the HDR report will prove it beyond a shodow of a doubt. All their reports do that, whether it's true or not; they have never come to any other conclusion.

 

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether Norwood has any cops or firefighters or trash collectors or pothole fillers at all; as long as they have a major new highway and lots of interchanges, everything will be fine. Highways are magical like that; just ask the oil-rich countries of the middle east.

 

That's funny! I did a similar bit of satire on the Buckeye Policy Institute by simply swapping the word "highway" in place of "rail" in an anti-rail release they did a while back. I posed as coming from the "Ohio Institute of Real World Solutions" and sent it to Joe Blundo of the Columbus Dispatch, who ran it verbatim! Joe runs a sort of whimsical column in the Dispatch.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110402/NEWS01/104030327/Streetcar-backers-turn-Plan-Bs?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|News

 

Facing the expected loss of $52 million in funding from Columbus, streetcar backers at City Hall are reluctantly pursuing possible Plan Bs that, among other options, envision a scaled-back line, perhaps only from Downtown to Over-the-Rhine around Findlay Market, forgoing for now the roughly one-mile climb up Vine Street.

for now, I completely agree with this plan--

 

The full line to the Zoo will be amazing and incredibly impactful.  The line up to Corryville stopping at the Kroger will be good, but it's potential won't be fully realized until the line is completed through short vine and to the zoo. I'd rather have the downtown loop in 2013 than the loop and the uptown connector in some far off, unknown year.

Merging with Norwood probably makes more sense today than in 1990, but really only makes sense if part of a larger bulk expansion of the core city (Norwood, St. Bernard, Elmwood Place, Columbia Township, bits of other townships, maybe Silverton and Deer Park, and perhaps some of the tiny west side burgs). What Norwood actually could use would be the completion of the Cincinnati Rapid Transit system circa 1919.

The Enquirer hides the common sense from John at the bottom, thought that was funny.  In today's toilet tissue, they don't mind giving Joe Blow** his 5 sentences of fame.  "If we lived in Washington D.C. where everyone is on top of each other, I could see the need," Haas said.  "But that's not true here and I don't ever see us becoming a Los Angeles, D.C. or Chicago."  The vultures at the Enquirer feed on the defeated attitude and major inferiority complex of Cincinnatians.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110402/NEWS01/104030349

 

I'm big on the Oasis line and was disappointed some months back when Qualls said that "the Oasis line isn't a priority for the City".  Guess that comment has come full circle for her.

 

The Eastern Corridor project could be the start of something big in Cincinnati, bonafide comprehensive transit.  If the County sees the logic in funneling from downtown to Clermont County, how long before they warm up to linking with Butler County?  Once commuter rail is in Butler County, connecting to Dayton will be swift and beautiful, two results Hamilton County has sworn to never obtain.  Butler County is thirsting to get in on the action, and won't hesitate to seize their economic opportunity to connect to Montgomery County.

I'm glad to hear that Council is already discussing the possibility of building a scaled down phase 1.  I think the OTR/Downtown Loop will be hugely successful, especially with the banks opening and the casino coming.  If they can just scrap the requirement for the uptown connection now and start work on the downtown loop, I think we have a strong chance of actually getting a system in place.  In my opinion time is not on our side right now.  The longer they take to get this started, the more likely we'll run in to further hurdles and may never see it start. 

John, how likely do you think it is that council will start working on this now?

^ I suspect planners have been working on Plan B for some time now. I can imagine COAST's reaction to whatever is proposed: "We hated the idea of building 4.9 miles of streetcar line, but we hate the idea of only building 4.0 miles even more. And they better not shorten the line any more!"

 

By the way, if the project were scaled-back from the planned 4.9 miles, it shouldn't be regarded as any kind of defeat. The truth is, 4.9 miles would have been the longest modern streetcar line ever completed in the United States. It was always pretty ambitious.

 

Portland started on a 3.9-mile first phase in 1999. Soon after construction started, Portland State arranged, by change-order, for the line to be extended through its campus, increasing the first-phase length to 4.8 miles.

 

Tacoma opened a 3.2-mile line in 2003, and is now looking at a major expansion up the hill to Tacoma Community College.

 

Seattle opened a 2.6-mile line north of downtown in late-2007. Happy with that investment, it is getting ready to build another streetcar line a couple miles away that will connect the southern part of downtown to Seattle University, Swedish Hospital and Capitol Hill.

 

Remember, we're running a marathon here, not a sprint.

It's April. We need a groundbreaking!

 

  ^-Naw, a Marathon is 26.2 miles.

What ever happened to the support from Ky on this? Didn't they want an extension to Covington and Newport?

They would only want it only if the Cincinnati phase happens. NKY doesn't have the buy-in to build their own w/out the Cincinnati streetcar up and running, and producing results. Also if you think convincing Ohioans in Cincinnati is a tough sell, try Kentuckians who constantly point to Florence and Boone County as idealistic examples of preferred future growth.

 

 

Edit: Oh yea, Newport and Covington both passed resolutions of support for the Cincinnati Streetcar back in 2009/2010 but that's as far as it got.  I was at a meeting a few weeks ago with some big NKY players who wondered why the Brent Spence Bridge was not a "priority" for Cincinnati when Cincy leaders were talking to DC a few weeks back. Then they scoffed at the mention of the streetcar project.

Also, it may have been posted before, but does anyone have email addresses for the individual TRAC board members?

 

Here are the emails for all the TRAC members excluding Wray.

 

William Brennan Commissioner, Division of Building Inspection, City of Toledo- [email protected]

 

Robert Clarke Brown Treasurer for Case Western Reserve University [email protected]

 

Patrick Darrow Secretary/Treasure & Business Manager for Teamsters Local 348 [email protected]

 

Bill Dingus Executive Director, Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce [email protected]

 

Ray Di Rossi = [email protected]

 

Antoinette A. Selvey-Maddox Senior Management Advisor, Management Partners, Inc this page will take you to her email http://www.managementpartners.com/asp/emailform.asp?ID=36

 

Patrick J. Ungaro Former Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio [email protected]

 

 

 

Besides the ODOT director, Jerry Wray = [email protected], a new member of TRAC was omitted from this list.

 

He is Jack Marchbanks, formerly the director of ODOT District 6, now director of business development for an engineering firm.

 

He's a Xavier grad. A good guy, from what I hear.

 

His email is [email protected]

 

 

I know Jack and he is also a pretty reasonable guy who "gets" rail and transit.

^ has anyone emailed Jack to congratulate him and ask for his support on the Cincinnati Streetcar?

The Environmental Analysis document is out and available for comment here:

 

 

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/noncms/projects/streetcar/environmental/index.cfm

Another Enquirer hit piece on the streetcar tonight.  They really want this project dead.  This really is getting absurd.  Is there anything we can do to call them out on their propaganda?

^ It's getting insane--- they publish so many damn articles on this. 

There has got to be something we can do to counter the Enquirer.  Yesterday they released an anti-transit editorial while hiding the pro transit editorial from the online edition...This is just absurd

The Enquirer is a private business. Compete with them by offering a better product. UrbanCincy and others are certainly well on their way to doing that. Continue to take more business from them.

^ I do know of some people -- and not just avid streetcar supporters -- who have dropped their print subscriptions recently in part because of the Enquirer's coverage of the streetcar. Some are neutral on the issue but have said the Enquirer's reporting and editorial hammering on the streetcar is emblematic of a paper that no longer tries to inform but rather seems content to rely on dogma.

I would love to see a map showing the Enquirer subscription delivery density, both for paper copies and for online page hits.  These data are out there.  Just sayin...

 

Anyone know how all of the announced City Council candidates stand on the streetcar?

"The Enquirer is a private business. Compete with them by offering a better product."

 

  How about compete with them by constructing a privately owned streetcar?

 

  (I know, I know, all forms of transportation are subsidized and no private company can afford to build a private streetcar. Or so they say...)  :wink:

^ Sure, if you were willing to privatize the roads, have them pay property taxes on their rights-of-way just as the old streetcars had to do. Plus figure out a way to capture the increased property values arising from the presence of the streeetcar -- hard to do with a bunch of private land ownerships.

 

As things stand now, it's pretty hard for private transit to compete when its competitor gives its product away for free.

 

^  Well, if a private operator can't compete, what makes you think that the City of Cincinnati can?

^ Because the city has the capacity to collect taxes. Did you read what John wrote?

Are people still arguing about the concept of public infrastructure...aka civilization...on THIS board?

It amazes me how some people reflexively think private enterprise is the answer to all ills. Any civilized society (outside of maybe North Korea, Cuba, and Somalia) has a mix of private-sector and public-sector services. I don't want mass transit to be at the mercy of private investors any more than I'd want to shop in a government-run grocery store.

 

  "Because the city has the capacity to collect taxes."

 

  I disagree. This is the heart of the problem. The City does NOT have the capacity to collect taxes, or at least they don't have the capacity to collect enough tax revenue dedicated to the streetcar. 

 

  The City of Cincinnati spends about $1 billion per year. There is ample funding for the streetcar. But instead of building the streetcar, they spend the money on a hundred other things. The City of Cincinnati does not have the political will to divert some of that revenue to the streetcar.

^ I do know of some people -- and not just avid streetcar supporters -- who have dropped their print subscriptions recently in part because of the Enquirer's coverage of the streetcar. Some are neutral on the issue but have said the Enquirer's reporting and editorial hammering on the streetcar is emblematic of a paper that no longer tries to inform but rather seems content to rely on dogma.

 

The streetcar was planned to operate in a black slum with a poverty rate around 50%.  I never tire of hearing that people are willing to cut off the Enquirer, but I love knowing that someone has given up on the local media because of their dogmatic approach to reporting issues affecting Cincinnati's minority communities.  We all REALLY know why the streetcar faces so much opposition.

 

I want people to hate the Enquirer because they hate brown people.  That covers their virulent approach to the streetcar, the Banks and anything else that has or will happen in the central city.

 

Letter to the editor:

 

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/letters/2011/04/07/streetcar-bashing/

 

 

^  Well, if a private operator can't compete, what makes you think that the City of Cincinnati can?

 

Because the public sector is not responsible for as many costs, or diverts them to nonusers, as the private sector is. In America, unlike most other civilized nations, roads are seen by many as a public good while rails are seen as a private good. So the users of roads are asked to pay the direct, but not the indirect costs of using roads, while the users of rail are asked to pay the direct and indirect costs of using rail. If the cost structures of both systems were identical, such as by making rail a public good as most of the rest of the civilized world does, then rail has a better opportunity to compete.

^ Sure, if you were willing to privatize the roads, have them pay property taxes on their rights-of-way just as the old streetcars had to do. Plus figure out a way to capture the increased property values arising from the presence of the streeetcar -- hard to do with a bunch of private land ownerships.

 

As things stand now, it's pretty hard for private transit to compete when its competitor gives its product away for free.

 

And thus we have the beauty of the interminable Anderson Ferry.  ;)