Are you tired of all the knobs, levers and gizmos in your car? Also, you would do open-heart surgery on yourself, so why are you driving yourself? Trains are the most efficient, economical and best investment. It’s obvious.
Those are a couple quotes from this video that cleverly covers the issue of transportation and how high-speed rail boast clear advantages over other means of transportation, and it does it all through the Mad Men scope. Enjoy.
The Cincinnati Park Board has been pursuing a more sustainable future over the past few years. Projects have included solar trash compactors, geothermal wells, rain gardens, invasive non-native plant removal, rain barrels, wind turbines and the development of solar panels among others.
As a result of their efforts, the Cincinnati Park Board is now the owner of the largest number of solar-powered structures in Ohio. Additionally, their 2010 Solar Panel Installation project has earned the organization first place honors from the Ohio Parks & Recreation Association (OPRA) and a Green Award of Excellence.
“Cincinnati Park Board’s use of solar voltaics in their parks is laudatory and quite amazing,” said Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land. “It is possibly doing more than any other park agency in the country.”
Elsewhere across the United States the Center for City Park Excellence points to two solar-powered fountains in Kansas City, solar-powered concerts in Austin and solar-powered lights in Santa Fe. In Atlanta, Harnik notes, that officials with the Atlanta Beltline have installed a 35kW system in a 7.5-acre park there that should make the park economically neutral.
State officials say that the awards were judged in a two-tiered process which included a panel of parks and recreation professional from around the state in addition to the OPRA’s board of directors. Cincinnati park officials earned the award specifically for their aggressive solar energy project funded by $451,000 in federal grants, $300,000 in state grants and additional private funds that made the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at 13 park facilities possible.
Ault Park, Krohn Conservatory and International Friendship Park are three of the locations for solar installation that are contributing to an anticipated 166,900 kWh energy production. An operations headquarters at 3215 Reading Road is the largest production location generating an estimated 50,000 kWh.
Going forward the Center for City Parks Excellence sees the use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources within city parks as a unique opportunity, but that additional studies and analysis should be conducted from these early adopters. In particular, Harnik says that it will be interesting to find out how much money Cincinnati’s effort makes or loses, and how much energy is fed into the grid.
Friendship Pavilion rooftop solar panels photo by UrbanCincy contributor Thadd Fiala.
Is your guitar from college looking a little underused? Joseph-Beth Books and UC’s CCM will collect used musical instruments for local music students this weekend at the store located at Rookwood Pavilion.
LINKS, or Lonely Instruments for Needy Kids, is a scholarship program run by UC’s College-Conservatory of Music. School music teachers apply for the reconditioned instruments on behalf of students unable to afford to rent or purchase their own. Local 1st- through 12th-grade students benefit from the contributions of instruments, which are reconditioned, cleaned and tuned by Buddy Rogers.
Bring unwanted instruments to Joseph-Beth, 2692 Madison Rd., Hyde Park, on Saturday from 10-5 or Sunday 12-5, for placement with a young musician in need. All donations are tax-deductible. Joseph Beth Booksellers will donate 20% of all book sales and 10% of all Brontë Bistro sales to LINKS during these collection days.
Cincinnati will join the ranks of Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, Washington D.C. and Miami, Florida as another city to utilize Bike and Roll, a nationally recognized bicycle rental and tour company, as the operator of the Bike, Mobility and Visitor’s Center for the Central Riverfront Park. The center is scheduled to open in Fall of 2011, along with the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Stage and Event Lawn, despite recent city budget cutbacks to the Parks Board.
“The Phase I features currently under construction are being built with a blend of previously procured federal, state, local and private funds,” said Willie Carden, Director of Cincinnati Parks. “So this construction work will proceed as we endeavor to open and maintain the park. In the meantime, Common Area Maintainence charges from The Banks development, the Schmidlapp Event Lawn rentals, and rent from the Moerlein Lager House and the Bike Center will begin to generate significant revenues for the operation of the park – attracting thousands of visitors for recreation, socialization and relaxation to the region’s new front door.”
In a true example of public-private funding and ownership, Bike and Park (the Cincinnati branch of the company) will exclusively staff, maintain, and operate the Visitor’s Center and bike rental facilities – including lockers, showers, and toilet rooms – in the park. They will pay all rent and operating costs, and will fully furnish the center.
The Bike and Mobility Center will offer a full range of options for both visitors and Cincinnati residents to enjoy. A wide variety of bikes will be available for rent, as well as strollers, tagalongs, trailers and kids’ safety equipment.
Bike repair services will be available at the center, a relief to bikers in the Basin who have been longing for a bike shop or a place to fill their tires that is in the 45202 zip code. There will also be bike storage facilities for commuters coming in from the Ohio River Bike Trail who want to ride to work. The Visitor’s Center shop will carry bike-related retail items, as well as pre packaged snacks and drinks for purchase.
“The Bike Center will provide more health and recreational opportunities to downtown commuters and visitors than ever before,” said Carden. “Bike and Park is committed to providing outstanding service and equipment to enhance the Cincinnati Riverfront Park experience for all—just as they have done in the dynamic communities in which they currently operate.”
Bike and Roll has built up a vast network of sight-seeing tours for its other locations – visitors can ride around at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, or Navy Pier in Chicago. Having an experienced, nationally recognized company create new routes, maps and biking experiences will help to shape Cincinnati’s cycle culture for the better, making riding a bike in Cincinnati safer and more mainstream.
picture: Bike and Mobility Center at Central Riverfront Park, provided
Streetcar supporters were outraged when they heard Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) was considering pulling as much as $52 million in state support from the Cincinnati Streetcar project. Such of move would have left the project with a financing gap and would have resulted in reduced scope or delayed construction. But according to some, a move of that nature by the governor may not carry legal merit.
The premise for cutting the funds for Cincinnati’s modern streetcar system is that the State of Ohio is facing an $8 billion budget deficit, and state leaders are examining many ways to cut that figure. But according to Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, those funds awarded to the Cincinnati Streetcar would not actually impact the state budget.
“The funds to be cut are federal transportation dollars. If they are not used on the streetcar, then they would be used on a transportation project with a lower TRAC ranking,” Prendergast explained. “In other words, Kasich is giving Cincinnati a false choice.”
Prendergast is referring to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) which was first established in 1998 to depoliticize the allocation of transportation funding. TRAC awards money based on a merit score, and the Cincinnati Streetcar earned 84 points which placed it as the highest-scoring transportation project in the entire state.
Local officials close to the Cincinnati Streetcar project believe Governor Kasich is attempting to strip the funds from the streetcar and reallocated them to the $2 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement which scored a paltry 44 points on TRAC’s transportation list. The other reality is that the money could go to the Eastern Corridor plan which had three components scoring 34, 39 and 48 points – all well below the Cincinnati Streetcar’s state-leading 84 points.
“Our governor is making a false argument that pulling back this federal money will save the state money,” said Prendergast. “The streetcar funding has nothing to do with the state’s deficit. If it is not used for the streetcar, it will go to a lower-ranked Ohio road project.”
Two separate studies estimate that the modern streetcar project will stimulate approximately $1.5 billion of new investment in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, or roughly 15 times the cost of the streetcar project. The Cincinnati Streetcar’s second phase Uptown is also expected to make large economic impacts, and has scored a 71.5 points on TRAC’s list.
“Why is our governor against redeveloping Cincinnati’s downtown and Over-the-Rhine areas with the streetcar? Steel rails offer a far superior path to jobs and growth and clean air than yet another asphalt road pitted with potholes,” concluded Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council.
According to Prendergast, the end result may be a another legal battle for the controversial governor. He says that at attempt to move the funds from the streetcar to another, lower-ranking transportation project, that Cincinnati officials would have legal grounds to sue the state for not following its own criteria in awarding federal transportation funds.
Modern Streetcar in Cincinnati photograph by UrbanCincy contributor Thadd Fiala.
