New Streetcar Route Is Shorter, Skips Riverfront ($95M 3.1 mile Cincinnati streetcar)

WKRC ^ | 05/03/2011 | WKRC

[TSgt]

The City of Cincinnati today unveiled plans for a new, shortened street car route which would run from Findlay Market to Fountain Square, but misses some major points of interest, including the Cincinnati Riverfront.

The new route, which can be viewed by clicking here, would begin with a 3.1 mile track in the first phase with 16 stops on Main, Elm, 12th, Race, and Walnut Streets and Central Parkway. It stops at Fountain Square, and would not take riders to key tourist points like the Duke Energy Convention Center, US Bank Arena, Great American Ballpark, The Banks, or Paul Brown Stadium. It would cost a total of 95 million dollars to construct and $2.5 million a year to operate.

The streetcar project had to be reevaluated after a decision last month by Ohio's Transportation Review Advisory Panel to withhold several million dollars initially promised for the project.

City manager Milton Dohoney said during a news conference this morning that it would have been easy to give up on the whole project but says the city needs to expand it's tax base to create more development and jobs, adding "We are unapologetic advocates."

The City of Cincinnati says it is working to secure additional $9 million to reconnect the initial line to The Banks with a southern turnaround at Freedom Way.

[TSgt]

You have got to look real hard to find these level of incompetent government stupidity!

Cincinnati could buy 380 diesel buses for that or 190 "green" hybrid buses that could move thousands of people with infinite routes!

Mallory and his gang are dragging Cincinnati into a Detroit like abyss.

[TSgt]

Oh’ and then there’s this gem:

Cincinnati mayor sues city over benefits Tuesday, May 3, 2011 10:29 AM
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/05/03/cincinnati-mayor-sues-city-over-benefits.html?sid=101
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati’s mayor is suing the city to determine whether he’s legally entitled to his health benefits and $500-a-month car allowance.

[TSgt]

Cincinnati loses 10.4% of its population over past decade according to Census Bureau
http://www.urbancincy.com/2011/03/cincinnati-loses-10-4-of-its-population-over-past-decade-according-to-census-bureau/

Count me as part of that 10.4%!

[neodad]

And the Bengals suck, too. So who’s going to go downtown to use this?

[relictele]

As a former denizen of the area I have watched this entire white elephant circus from afar with the usual mix of wonder and incredulity.

Like other money-pit projects the routing was always curious and achieved the usual government-designed objective: it picked people up where they didn’t live and dropped them off where they didn’t want to go (or didn’t work). The route also went through some of the more, er, socioeconomically challenged areas where the welcome for most riders would not be a warm one.

Kasich made it clear that he would stop the blank checks written for this boondoggle but of course egos and reparations types have attempted to keep it alive.

[musicman]

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[CedarDave]

The route also went through some of the more, er, socioeconomically challenged areas where the welcome for most riders would not be a warm one.

Sounds like Baltimore's light rail lines.

[SC_Pete]

This will make it easier for the rabble to get back and forth. Cincinnati has been in decline since the 1970’s: economy, demographics, infrastructure, and government.

[org.whodat]

I heard a talk show guy talking from up tell them the best thing to do that would work was a rickshaw service. This is nothing more than a black hole to throw money down.

[mo]

ain’t really a “streetcar line”....its a liberal delusion...foisted off on the taxpayer.

[muawiyah]

Leftwingtard thought imagines that people only want to go from point to point They also imagine there are only 2 points.

If Leftwingtards had designed the first transcontinental railroad, they'd built only one line of track ~ it'd been from San Francisco to Midtown New York, with one train every three days.

Heavily subsidized there'd still been insufficient passengers on board to eat meals in the dining car.

Rail union members would have occupied all the otherwise unused seats and all the compartments in the sleeping cars.

Criticism would have been called UNPATRIOTIC.

[JimRed]

The tourist areas not covered by the streetcar routes are well policed and safe. They’ve got to get some foot traffic off the cars for their thug ‘n mug homies where cop coverage ain’t so great; they gotta make a livin’!

[Nepeta]

The taxpayers in this city don't want the streetcar. Only the mayor and his buddies want it--the NAACP has been circulating a petition against it and local talk radio has ridiculed the idea since it was first raised.

They want to dig up streets, relocate utilities, put down track and THEN run a streetcar to nowhere without riders.

The city pools were nearly closed this coming summer for lack of funds, but the mayor wants a streetcar.

[TheOldLady]

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[archivist007]

I knew the guy in the picture looked familar. He was on Undercover Boss.
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/cast/mark-mallory/

[LibertarianInExile]

"The City of Cincinnati says it is working to secure additional $9 million to reconnect the initial line to The Banks with a southern turnaround at Freedom Way."

What an odd confluence of terminology! Someone get Glenn Beck on the phone.