Tag: Cincinnati

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Business News Transportation

Metro to implement new flexible payment options March 1

Beginning March 1, Metro buses in Cincinnati will implement a new monthly pass system. The new system will allow riders to purchase rolling 30-day passes at any time, replacing the month-by-month system currently in place.

The new system was introduced last November after the city received $3.6 million federal grant to match their $900,000 local commitment. The total investment allowed for Metro to upgrade the fareboxes and monthly passes for all 342 buses in their fleet.

After only two months of the month-by-month passes, Metro decided to provide riders with the option to purchase passes on a rolling 30-day basis. The new rolling passes are part of an effort to increase public transit across the city.

An articulated bus picks up passengers at Government Square in downtown Cincinnati. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

“We are striving to make public transit more convenient,” Metro public relations manager Jill Dunne told UrbanCincy. “Our goal is to increase public transit and to encourage people to take advantage of Metro.”

Metro also has plans to implement smart passes with a tap-and-go capability this summer. The idea is that the technological improvements will make using public transit easier, and offer riders greater flexibility with the cash value they store on their cards.

Over the course of 2011, UrbanCincy challenged its readers about Metro’s functionality and how to improve the system. The responses overwhelmingly said that the lack of GoogleTransit interface and the outdated payment system used were the two things in most need of improvement. In spring 2011, Metro finalized their interface with GoogleTransit, and now it appears as though the new payment options are a strong step in the right direction.

“Kudos to Metro. I still remember the time I saw the bus driver take a large utility knife to the coin collector, while driving because change was stuck and no one was able to pay,” Zachary Schunn commented. “I hope to never see that again.”

Dunne says that Metro is always open to new ideas, regarding both passes and the bus system in general, and that Metro has recently updated its website in an effort to make its information more accessible. Watch a YouTube video on how to use the new payment options.

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Arts & Entertainment News

New tilt-shift video captures University of Cincinnati’s award-winning campus

While tilt-shift photography has started to take root in Cincinnati, tilt-shift videography has yet to really take off. That is until now.

Brian Spitzig has produced a tilt-shift video showcasing the uptown campus of the University of Cincinnati. The two-minute video takes viewers all over the university’s main campus, and highlights some of its immediate surroudings including Corryville and Clifton.

The most dynamic parts of the video show off the university’s internationally acclaimed campus features – most notably Main Street (1:15) and McMicken Commons (1:28). The short video is set to Coldplay’s Paradise which has its chorus play triumphantly over these dynamic scenes of campus life at the University of Cincinnati.

Most notably absent from the University of Cincinnati Tilt-Shift video were any scenes from Campus Green, the College Conservatory of Music, Herman Schneider Quad, or the campus’ southern Clifton Heights border.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Development News

A revitalized Washington Park intends to serve as historical, cultural bridge

This Friday hundreds of people will gather at Memorial Hall to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Cincinnati Streetcar. Appropriately so, the event will take place in the city’s oldest neighborhood and right outside of Washington Park which has long served as a prominent landmark within the region’s urban core.

Cincinnati is changing, and as a city with a prominent history, Cincinnati is working to reconnect with its past during this process. But the people are not the same as they were in the past. There are new faces and a new culture.

At the center of this change is the redevelopment of Over-the-Rhine. From the remodeling of Italianate brownstones to the renovation of Music Hall this change can be seen everywhere. However, no change has been as significant, both in scale and in reconnecting with the significance of the past as the $48 million renovation of Washington Park.


Cincinnati’s majestic Music Hall overlooks Washington Park. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

In 1888, Washington Park hosted the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States. With the newly created Music Hall illustriously lining Elm Street, Washington Park, only 33 years old at the time, showcased progress the Northwest Territory and city of Cincinnati had made in a century’s time. The exposition presented the urban development of a thriving city, and the economic and social progress of the United States, to the rest of the nation.

It has been a long time since 1888, and in 2010 the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) began upgrading Washington Park to meet the needs of a changing urban core. The park’s historical significance has been on the mind of the developers since the very beginning.

“Everything we do is greatly influenced by history,” 3CDC Vice President of Communication, Anastasia Mileham, told UrbanCincy. From Civil War cannons to head plaques from the Presbyterian cemetery that once occupied the site; the renovated park will be filled with artifacts and reminders of the past.

Project officials say that the changes taking place at Washington Park are about more than just nostalgia, however, and will serve to help advance the urban revitalization taking place in Over-the-Rhine.


Construction work progresses at Washington Park in November 2011. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

“This will be a great civic space similar to Fountain Square,” Mileham explained. “Once finished, the park will have the potential to be the heart of the community as it once was.”

The people who make up Cincinnati have also changed greatly over the past 124 years. Today Over-the-Rhine is the definition of a multigenerational and multiethnic district. With a two-acre expansion, an underground parking garage, an interactive water fountain, and a grand performance stage, the new Washington Park will seemingly be a place for individuals and families alike – a reflection of the changing neighborhood.

“If you want to stroll through the park, walk your dog in the fenced in dog park, or listen to the CSO perform on a Sunday evening, then Washington Park is for you,” Mileham said, “It has features for everyone, and will make a mixed neighborhood in every sense of the word.”

As Cincinnati changes, so too does our understanding of its history. Washington Park is in part a monument to the past. It is a monument to what Cincinnati once was. But as the city takes on new shapes and sizes, and becomes increasingly diversified, Washington Park will also serve as a bridge. A cultural connection and a monument to what Cincinnati has become.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati to break ground on streetcar project next week with Ray LaHood

Councilmembers Christopher Smitherman (I) and Charlie Winburn (R) called a special city council hearing today to discuss the finances of the $110 million Cincinnati Streetcar project. The hearing had a specific focus on utility relocation agreements due to the current impasse between the City and Duke Energy.

City officials stated unequivocally that the project will move forward, and that it is common for projects of this scale to have ongoing issues needing to be resolved even once ground has been broken. Both Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney stated that an agreement will eventually be made with Duke Energy, but that the engineering disagreements between the two parties needs to be resolved first.


Rendering of the streetcar along Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati.

The biggest question at hand, with Duke Energy, is that the City has looked at existing streetcar projects around the United States and come up with a standoff they believe is workable. Duke Energy, meanwhile, has disagreed with those statements and believes that a much greater standoff is needed.

Duke Energy estimates that the relocation work, based on their engineering, would cost approximately $18 million. The City, on the other hand, believes it should only cost $6 million based on the work of their engineers.

“Utilities are issues in every transportation project, not just rail but roadway projects as well,” a representative from Parsons Brinckerhoff told UrbanCincy immediately following the meeting. “This is true for every single project, and they get worked out, and moved forward.”

At a press conference held earlier this week, City Manager Dohoney stated that City of Cincinnati should not be responsible for subsidizing the modernization of Duke Energy’s utility assets, and that the two parties will remain at an impasse until the engineering is validated.

The big news came in the final statement of the meeting when Mayor Mallory announced the groundbreaking for the Cincinnati Streetcar will take place at 1pm on Friday, February 17 outside of Memorial Hall (map). Mayor Mallory also stated that city and project officials will be joined by the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at the groundbreaking.

Jenny Kessler and John Yung contributed to this story.

Categories
Business News Politics Transportation

Duke Energy announces they will leave streetcar negotiations, city fires back

Yesterday was a tumultuous day for Cincinnati’s modern streetcar project. With virtually all other issues resolved, and construction forthcoming, Duke Energy made the announcement that they would walk away from negotiations with the City of Cincinnati about the relocation of their utilities.

The impasse comes over cost. Based on other similar projects, the City believes the utilities only need to be relocated three feet, but Duke Energy has stated an eight-food clearance is needed. That five-foot difference roughly equates to an $11 million funding gap.

The Duke Energy announcement seemed to take project and city officials by surprise. But the strong stance by Duke Energy does come at the same time as the City of Cincinnati is aggressively pursuing a new energy aggregation agreement that has the potential to cost Duke Energy significant business.


Future Cincinnati Streetcar stop at Sixth and Walnut Street. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory is currently in Washington D.C. at the Community Streetcar Coalition’s annual Streetcar Summit representing the City and discussing best practices with other cities that are building, or have built, streetcar systems.

“I am calling on Duke Energy to be reasonable and work with the City on a plan that will be best for both citizens and their customers. These issues will be resolved one way or another, just as we have resolved previous issues facing the project,” Mayor Mallory stated in a prepared release. “The best thing for everyone involved is if Duke is a part of that resolution. Walking away does not help to move our community forward.”

The mayor’s comments were then followed by an official press conference called by City Manager Milton Dohoney who elaborated on the mayor’s statements and went on to say that Duke Energy has yet to provide engineering documents to support their claims.

City Manager Dohoney began the press conference by stating that the Cincinnati Streetcar project will unequivocally be moving forward. He also stated that the City of Cincinnati should not be responsible for subsidizing the modernization of Duke Energy’s aging utility assets.

In the end, it appears as though the city has the leverage in the matter. A view expressed by city spokeswoman Meg Olberding who stated, “They’re our streets. This project is moving forward, and we intend to use our streets.”