Tag: Politics

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Boehner’s stimulus priorities contradict public opinion

Many Americans believe strongly that the infrastructure spending plan should look beyond widening our highways and building new roads. According to a recent study (pdf), 80% of Americans believe it’s more important that a stimulus plan include efforts to repair existing highways and build public transit rather than build new highways. 45% of those polled go on to say that construction of new highways should “definitely” or “probably” not be included in the plan.

The American public has seen the days of highway spending dominate their lives. As a result we are damaging our environment, limiting our transportation choices, and negatively impacting our health. It appears as though House Minority Leader and Republican from West Chester Township, doesn’t agree.

“I think there’s a place for infrastructure, but what kind of infrastructure? Infrastructure to widen highways, to ease congestion for American families? Is it to build some buildings that are necessary? But if we’re talking about beautification projects, or we’re talking about bike paths, Americans are not going to look very kindly on this.”
-John Boehner (R-OH)

It is a real shame that when Americans are standing up and proclaiming that they want a change in the way we allocate our transportation resources we also have politicians who are standing up for the status quo. Boehner needs to quit worrying that his constituency feels negatively towards comprehensive transportation – because they don’t.

Over the past decade or so I-75 through Butler County has been widened, Union Centre Boulevard interchange built, SR 129 (Michael A. Fox Highway) built, and the new Liberty Interchange is under construction. Over that same period the City of Hamilton has seen their bus service disappear, rates have gone up on Metro express routes, and the Ohio Hub Plan is looking for some federal money to get going. It should also be noted that Boehner was one of the few opposing votes to a measure supporting increased funds for Amtrak service in Ohio (even Steve Chabot supported it).

With all this highway spending does America or Boehner’s district (map) really need additional highway capacity and more highways? Mr. Boehner (contact info) should be supporting democracy and freedom for Americans. We are strangled by an automobile oriented society that leaves no other choices for most Americans. Democracy, freedom, and choice would all seem to be things Boehner would support; so why doesn’t he?

The 2009 Growth and Transportation Survey was conducted by Hart Research Associates, January 5-7. Hart Research Associates telephoned 1,005 adults living in the U.S. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Photo from Getty Images

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News Politics

Breaking down the chatter

It seems that lately all you have to do is say something will turn out like the never-completed subway, the stadiums, The Banks, or the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and your position of opposition immediately gains some sort of credibility. I don’t get it.

The connections are normally weak at best, and the projects are so incredibly different. What’s most disturbing though are the criticisms of the Freedom Center. Ever heard someone refer to the museum as a “handout?” Have you ever heard people criticize crimes committed by blacks in one sentence and then suggest turning the Freedom Center into a prison to solve Cincinnati’s jail overcrowding in the next?

I have, and on more than one occasion. I find it very surprising that this seemingly in your face racism is tolerated in public dialogue. People talk about the museum as being a drain on taxpayer dollars. Well guess what, it is quite typical for museums and other cultural institutions to receive public aid. Why single out this one institution over the others?

So while I’m upset that people use the museum as a way to somehow predict failure for other unrelated projects in an anecdotal fashion, I am even more upset that the overtly racist tone of those comments is even tolerated in the first place. We’re better than that Cincinnati.

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News Politics

Greg Harris to replace Cranley on City Council

The wait is over for those anxious to hear who will replace John Cranley’s vacated seat on City Council. Anonymous sources tell UrbanCincy that fellow westsider, Greg Harris, will fill Cranley’s spot on council as determined by existing Council Democrats.

The appointment benefits all Cincinnatians as a very pro-streetcar Harris will replace one of the two opposition votes (Cranley, Monzel) to the streetcar proposal on council. Harris feels that, “streetcars offer incredible return on investment, and represent Cincinnati’s shot to generate hundreds of millions in new revenue. Let’s take this bold step to grow our prosperity as a city and region.” He goes on to say that, “Ultimately, we have to determine what kind of future we want for our city. Do we want to be a ‘Can Do’ city that leverages and inter-connects its tremendous assets? Do we want to be a green city that attracts and retains talent? The economic and environmental dividend of streetcars would help us realize this vision.”

In 2007, Cranley held up the process by repeatedly asking questions like whether busses running on painted lines could do the same thing as a fixed-rail streetcar, and how long it takes to walk from Fountain Square to Findlay Market (21 minute walk, 14 blocks) – something that could have easily been answered through a simple Google search like this.

The move of resignation was described as a business decision by Cranley. He cited that he wanted to focus his efforts more on his development work on the westside particularly in the Price Hill neighborhood.

Cranley would have been term-limited this election leaving a vacant seat behind during the November race. The move now allows another Democrat to run as a defacto incumbent come November. This is not the first time this resignation strategy has been employed as Cranley first got onto council in 2001 through Todd Portune’s resignation and more recently Roxanne Qualls was able to use the defacto incumbent role to her benefit as Jim Tarbell stepped aside before term limits in 2007.

Harris lost his run for City Council in 2007 and finished 15th in the overall vote tally (nine members on council). In 2002 and 2004 Harris ran unsuccessfully against Steve Chabot (R) for Ohio’s 1st Congressional District seat. In 2007 Cincinnati voters elected 100% of the candidates who were running as incumbents.

EDIT: WLWT News 5 confirms Harris appointment at 4:26pm

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News

Six year reform effort a success for CPD

The most important role of government is public safety. Over the past few years this has become the primary concern for voters in Cincinnati as the city reeled from the results of the 2001 race riots. This civil disturbance led to a close examination of how the Cincinnati Police Department conducts its business.

This examination was done by a court-appointed monitor, Saul Green, who closely examined the police department’s actions and procedures for the past six years. The report has been released and the results are very encouraging.

The monitor’s report refers to Cincinnati’s police reform effort as “one of the most ambitious ever attempted – and one of the most successful.” He goes on to say that Cincinnati is now a national model for how these types of reforms should happen.

These efforts of reform have not come alone. They have been matched with aggressive and innovative police strategies to fundamentally reduce violent crime in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) is the primary program of note in this regard.

The CIRV is a long-term effort that focuses on reducing the actual desire for individuals to commit and live their lives through crime. The results aren’t necessarily seen right away, but luckily enough for Cincinnati the numbers are already improving. This is probably a combination of things from Operation Vortex, to a number of major gang busts (see Tot Lot Posse and Northside Taliban), to improved community relations.

The bottom line is that public safety in Cincinnati is improving. This year saw a slight uptick (2005 – 2008 saw 79, 85, 67, 75 homicides respectively) in the overall number of homicides, but was on pace to be even lower than last year’s improved number until the string of non-random homicides at the end of the year. The work must continue and these aggressive and innovative measures should continually be tweaked to be most successful. But at this point Cincinnati, its leaders, and citizens deserve some congratulations.

Image Credit:
http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/monroenews/?ptp_photo_id=824726

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News Politics Transportation

Letting Cincinnatians Down

I know I promised no new posts for awhile, but the moment has struck me with a series of unfortunate events from organizations and people who are there to represent the interests of Cincinnatians.

The local Green Party, local chapter of the NAACP, and Green Township officials continue to let us down. What do these unlikely bedfellows have in common? They all seem to have a vested interest against the improvement of Cincinnati’s transit system beyond that of roadways.

The Green Party most notably led by Justin Jeffre locally has an unusual opposition to the ongoing efforts to bring a modern streetcar system to Cincinnati. Their unusual tactics have included referring to this modern streetcar proposal as a “choo choo train” and likening a streetcar’s functionality and benefits to that of an electric bus. For their efforts, as perplexing as they may be, are still just words and rank them the lowest of the three offenders mentioned here.

Next up is the local chapter of the NAACP. The NAACP has a stated mission of, “ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” Seems reasonable enough to me, and you would think an initiative that would improve transit options and service in the center city while also creating many permanent and temporary jobs would be something that the local chapter of the NAACP would be on board with right? Wrong.

The NAACP has made the denying of improved transit for Cincinnatians one of their top 3 priorities for 2009. They have passed the measure internally and have agreed to collect signatures to have the issue put on the November ballot. What is most troubling about this is that they can not put the legislative measure itself on the ballot (as it is not increasing taxes or changing law). Instead they are putting in on the ballot as a Charter amendment.

So if the local chapter of the NAACP were to achieve success they would alter the City’s Charter to prohibit streetcars altogether. That means that even if some big company wanted to come in and fund a streetcar system with 100% of their own money they would not be able to do so as it would occur within the City’s right-of-way. I’m curious to look at the language even more closely to see if it would also include something to prohibit light rail or high-speed rail efforts that would also benefit Cincinnatians and their city.

Finally you have Green Township officials. Forget the fact that the State Representatives from this westside community have spoken out against virtually every single rail initiative that this region has seen. We’ll just look at buses – something that several townships and suburban areas, like Anderson and West Chester townships, have learned to embrace over the years.

Green Township is a community with close to 60,000 residents. To its west is the rural portions of Western Hamilton County. To its east and south are the first ring suburbs of Cincinnati including Cheviot, Westwood, and Price Hill. There is little to no bus service for this massive township and Township Trustees are working on getting rid of what is currently there.

During the Legacy Place rezoning effort Township Trustees worked to block Metro from serving the proposed retail development. Their rationale was that they didn’t want to see the same thing happen to Legacy Place (no mentioned tenants) that happened to Western Hills Plaza (home to stores like Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, Bath & Body Works, Sears, and Staples) down the road. Ignoring the obvious racial undertones and prejudice of that statement I’ll assume that they don’t want to see any massive reinvestment in Legacy Place when it too loses its newness.

More recently Green Township officials have been lobbying Metro to remove some or eliminate all of the #33 bus route that runs through the township. With recent Metro budget constraints they figured why continue the fight and decided to cut a portion of the #33 route – one of the only routes in the township – at the township’s request.

Contact these organizations and people and let them know how disappointed you are with their actions. Let them know how out of touch their actions are with their constituencies. And most importantly let them know how important transit options are to you.

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Green Township Trustees | Cincinnati NAACP | SW Ohio Green Party