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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Free interactive workshop at Union Terminal to gather public input on transportation investments

Ohio officials kicked off the first of eight state-wide public workshops yesterday in Columbus. The interactive workshops are structured to get resident input on public policy surrounding transportation investment.

The second of eight meetings will be held in Cincinnati today at Losantiville Cafe inside the famous Union Terminal building. At today’s free event guests will be treated to presentations by Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and John Deatrick who will discuss the economic development impact of The Banks development for which he is overseeing.

Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) organizers say that part of the focus will be on how to better create jobs through transportation investments. Officials say that the discussions are part of ODOT’s Go OHIO Transportation Futures Plan which is examining how the state invests in all modes of travel and shipping including highway, air, rail, transit, water, pedestrian and bicycle. From there officials hope to better align those various modes of transportation investments with job creation, economic development and overall quality of life.

“Transportation has always been a driver of jobs and economic development for Ohioans,” described ODOT director Jolene M. Molitoris.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that approximately eight percent of Ohio’s private sector jobs was linked to the manufacture of exported goods in 2008, with approximately $45.6 billion in total export value during the same time according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

ODOT officials believe that the state’s seventh highest ranking nationally for value of goods exported to international markets, the nation’s fourth largest interstate highway system, the fourth most tonnage of goods moved through its waterways, and the third most active freight rail mileage in the nation speak highly to the ability to leverage transportation investments into economic development.

“The timing for this effort couldn’t be better with a report out of Washington showing that infrastructure investments can and will raise economic growth and productivity,” said Molitoris.  “Low construction costs mean we can do more than ever before with our resources and at the same time create more good-paying Ohio jobs.”

The free event at Cincinnati Union Terminal (map) will take place from 6pm to 8pm with registration at 5:30pm. Reservations are not required, but those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP by emailing go.ohio@dot.state.oh.us.

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News Politics Transportation

Metro officials balance 2011 budget, spare riders fare increases and service cuts

Metro officials have announced that fares will not rise, and service will not be reduced in 2011.  The news comes as the transit agency faces declining ridership, and many feared that more fare increases or service cuts would be on the way.

In August, Metro restored service to a portion of Lower Price Hill that had previously fallen victim to an earlier round of service cuts.  Now, the transit agency says that they have been able to balance their upcoming $86.5 million budget thanks to newly announced funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) that is programmed to help with capital costs.

“Currently, Metro’s 2011 budget is balanced by using capital funding to help pay for operating expenses,” said Thomas Hock, Interim CEO & General Manager of Metro.  “The new funding from ODOT will allow us to shift those capital dollars back to their intended use for critical capital projects, with no negative impact on service.”

The $4M funding allocation from ODOT came through the department’s 21st Century Transit Partnerships for Ohio’s Next Generation which distributed $50 million in 2011 to transit systems across the state.

Metro officials warn that even though the 2011 budget appears to be in order, that future fares and service structures will continue to face pressure.  Leadership says that while fares have stabilized, insufficient funds exist for capital projects like the replacement of buses beyond their 12-year useful life.

“We have examined every expense and tightened spending for the coming year to preserve service for our customers and keep fares at their current level,” Hock explained.

The proposed 2011 budget will go before Cincinnati’s City Council who would provide approximately 45 percent of Metro’s 2011 budget through the city’s earnings tax revenue.

The One for Fun:
Metro officials have also announced that Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg will sponsor the new Route 1 bus service.  The partnership will include naming rights to the route in addition to typical bus advertising including promotions for Hollywood Casino on the back of each of the four, 30-foot hybrid buses on the route.

“As a tax-funded organization, this type of partnership is important to help Metro better serve the community,” said Dave Etienne, Metro’s Marketing Director.  Meanwhile, leaders at Hollywood Casino see the partnership as one that will help benefit their bottom line.

“As part of the Cincinnati business community, Hollywood sees this partnership with Metro as an opportunity to connect residents and visitors to some of Cincinnati’s best attractions,” said Tony Rodio, Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg General Manager.  “We’re among the top attractions in the metropolitan region, so we realize the importance of just getting people out there, actively supporting the businesses that are there for them – this effort achieves that goal – and through a simple bus ride.”

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

New documentary to tell story of Over-the-Rhine’s dramatic rebirth

Many have noticed the dramatic changes taking place throughout Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Hundreds of new residents, scores of new businesses, and a new sense of neighborhood pride has come over what used to be one of the city’s most crime-ridden areas that also happened to have some of the greatest potential.

For decades the neighborhood’s unique architectural collection and historical importance to not only Cincinnati, but the United States in general, has intrigued those interested in urban revitalization. And the fact that the neighborhood was able to largely survive an era of demolition and “urban renewal” is especially significant to those now looking at the neighborhood in a new light.

Some of those individuals include a group of filmmakers who are in the process of documenting the changes taking place in Over-the-Rhine for a new documentary they hope to release in late 2011.

“When I started talking about this incredible neighborhood I had known since I was a child we realized that there might be a story to tell,” explained Joe Brinker, co-producer of Rebirth of Over-the-Rhine. “We started looking around and we found we were right at the beginning of this push. The history of the neighborhood, combined with its present-day components, really helped to make the story.”

Brinker says that the documentary group began tossing around the idea of an Over-the-Rhine documentary back in 2007 after he had initially suggested a few film ideas from conflict zones like Afghanistan, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Pakistan where he had been working.

He says that within two weeks of settling on the Over-the-Rhine documentary idea that they had begun filming and talking to developers, shop owners, residents, the homeless, and neighborhood leaders like Jim Tarbell. The team then tapped Cincinnati-based film director Melissa Godoy to oversee the production of the documentary.

“We hope to show both the actual attempt to bring the neighborhood back against the context of different personalities that exist in the neighborhood in the form of developers that may be realizing a life-long dream or poor residents that may also be experiencing change,” Brinker told UrbanCincy. “And I don’t think we could have found a better director within 500 miles of Cincinnati to help achieve this.”

Godoy is not new to Cincinnati or the historic neighborhood. The award-winning director has produced programs for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Cincinnati Ballet. Godoy also recently completed a documentary on the late Erich Kunzel, and has won two regional Emmy awards.

Brinker says that filming is planned to continue over the next six to twelve months as several other significant events are scheduled to take place that help to further illustrate the rebirth taking place in Over-the-Rhine. But he emphasizes that what makes the film special is the attention paid to the human element.

“The documentary is all about people working towards something positive within a larger attempt to bring back the neighborhood,” Brinker explained. “Everyone in the neighborhood really seems to care and have the interest of the neighborhood at heart, and this is the story we are trying to tell.”

The high-definition production thus far has tallied up more than 150 hours of footage, and has been completely funded through private donations. The group says that contributions made to the film will help determine its final production quality, and they are encouraging Cincinnatians who are interested to attend an upcoming fundraiser that will be held at Rookwood Pottery on November 12.

Categories
Development News Politics Transportation

Induced Traffic Demand Works Both Ways

There is a popular saying that circulates in urban planning circles: “Widening roads to solve traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.”  Planners have shown over the past few decades that adding lanes to roads, while temporarily increasing flow, does little to address congestion because over time traffic demand continues to climb.  To understand it better, we have to understand the basics of traffic.

There are a few factors that determine a road’s level of service for automobiles.  There are capacity, the amount of cars that can fit on the road and maintain an adequate service, and flow, the rate at which cars pass the area under study.  Adding lanes increases capacity, but as development increases, so does demand.  This translates to more car trips and more cars on the road, which in turns leads to traffic engineers recommending adding more lanes.  The cycle repeats over and over again. David Owens highlights this in his book, Green Metropolis:

“When a city’s streets or highways become crowded, for example, the standard response is to create additional capacity by building new roads or widening existing ones. Projects like these almost always end up making the original problem worse—while also usually taking years to complete and costing many millions of dollars—because they generate what transportation planners call “induced traffic”: every mile of new open roadway encourages existing users to make more car trips, lures drivers away from other routes, and tempts transit riders to return to their automobiles, with the eventual result that the new roads become at least as clogged as the old roads, though at higher traffic volumes, and the efficiency of transit declines.”

This cycle can be seen all across suburban America.  In the Cincinnati area, there are cases where planned road widenings do not even meet future demand.  Take for instance the planned expansion of I-75.  By 2020, when construction is slated to finish, the level of service for the highway is projected to be exactly the same as it is now.  Traffic Engineers explain that this is due to…rising demand from automobile use.  It is clear that as long as America continues to spend money on roads, we will continue to facilitate demand for automobiles.

Fortunately the same is true with rail transit.  As pointed out by “The Provost of Cincinnati” on the now defunct Phoney Coney blog, we need only to look at the expansion of the New York City subway out to Queens in the 1920’s as one of the many reliable examples where investing in rail transit promoted growth.

The same location in Queens in the 1920’s (left) and 1940’s (right).

Other popular cases include:

  • The Washington DC Metro spawned millions of dollars in Transit-Oriented Development from Richmond, VA and all throughout the system.  Just recently, a massive $107 million dollar TOD development has broken ground in Northeast Washington DC.
  • The Portland Light Rail and Streetcar lines revitalized the Pearl District, an aging and blighted warehouse neighborhood close to downtown (Sound familiar?).   The area has seen over $3.5 billion in development since 2001.
  • The Charlotte Light Rail spawned over a half billion dollars in TOD development along the line.

In all cases, ridership has met or exceeded projections.  If traffic engineers were applying their same thinking to these systems, they would be calling for expanding these systems further, which is what is happening.

As Dan Bertolet writes at Publicola, “…we will be faced with a choice: Continue to build more roads and thereby preclude progress on alternative transportation, or stop building roads and accept that there is a limit to the number of cars we can accommodate if we hope to a create a balanced, sustainable transportation system and the compact land use patterns that support it.”

The argument is clear, we Americans can choose to waste our money on continuing a lifestyle that has led to increased isolationism, increased obesity and stress, and longer commutes to nowhere — or we can invest in the convenience, sensible and more healthy alternative of rail transportation.

John Yung is an Urban Planner and advocate for pedestrian friendly-planning. Currently the Zoning Administrator of the City of Bellevue, KY he specializes in Land Use Planning, Form-based Codes, Floodplain Management and Urban Forestry. John is currently pursuing a Masters Degree from the University of Cincinnati’s School of Planning.

If you would like to sound off about something for UrbanCincy’s weekly op-ed column, please submit your ideas to urbancincy@gmail.com.

Categories
Business Development News Politics

Hamilton County leaders eye land banking as potential cure for area’s housing woes

Our nation’s housing crisis and subsequent economic recession has led to an enormous increase in housing vacancy, abandonment, and foreclosures across the country. Hamilton County is no exception; the crisis has left many in the region homeless and has put a fiscal burden on local governments across the region, leaving them with the multifaceted challenges associated with widespread vacancy.

In many cases, property vacancy creates a domino effect that leads to further desertion and vacant properties within a neighborhood. This not only results in less tax revenue for cities; vacant property can also lead to increased rates of crimes such as drug dealing, prostitution, and arson. Because vacant property damages are so extensive, it is becoming more and more important for a metropolitan area to have a mechanism in place to transfer vacant property to owners who can/will pay taxes and redevelop the property.

A land bank is a tool that is growing in popularity, and on Tuesday morning local governmental and nonprofit leaders met to discuss how a Hamilton County land bank should be formed, funded and operated.

In April, Ohio Sub House Bill 313 was passed, enabling Ohio counties to create a Land Bank/County Land Reutilization Corporation (CLRC). The purpose of the CLRC is to facilitate the acquisition, reclamation, rehabilitation, and reutilization of vacant, abandoned, tax-foreclosed, and other real property. While there are still many steps that need to be taken before the CLRC is fully functional, county officials are hoping to have the land bank chartered by the end of the year.

Although no specific funding decisions were made at the meeting, there are multiple ways the CLRC can be supported fiscally. For example, the treasurer could recapture penalties and interest on delinquent taxes and assessments on behalf of the CLRC, the group could generate revenue from the resale of rehabbed property, and/or the CLRC could be authorized to issue bonds, accept gifts, and apply for grants. The recently announced NSP3 dollars can also be used to acquire homes for the CLRC.

Not only will the land bank help to address vacancy problems regionally, it will also give local CDCs and nonprofits a chance to obtain blighted property before private out-of-town investors. With a broad jurisdiction, the CLRC will be able to acquire both mortgage foreclosed and tax foreclosed properties. Moreover, the legislation allows land banks to waive delinquent taxes owed in order to clear the title on the property. This tax abatement component is crucial because often the taxes owed on abandoned property are more than the property’s actual market value.

At Tuesday’s meeting, there was a clear consensus that the land bank not just be a pilot program, but instead be a comprehensive and wide-ranging tool that helps to alleviate one of our region’s most pressing problems.

“The Board of County Commissioners want to ensure that the way this is set up is consistent with the community’s vision,” Assistant Hamilton County Administrator Jeffery Aluotto stated on Tuesday. “Land banking holds a great deal of promise as a means of addressing the increase in vacant housing stock we have seen since the recession, and the direct impacts that those vacancies have on the quality of life and economic vitality of our communities.”

With successes in Cuyahoga County and Gennessee County, Michigan, local leaders have high hopes for the potential impact that the CLRC can have on our region.

UrbanCincy will continue to follow this story as it progresses in the coming months.