Tag: public policy

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News

New parking restrictions added to MLK Drive

Parking just got a little tougher for students at the University of Cincinnati. Traffic Engineers from the City’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) have now eliminated on-street parking during rush hour commutes along Martin Luther King Drive heading between Woodside Drive (entrance to Burnett Woods) and Clifton Avenue (map).

Martin Luther King Drive between Woodside & Jefferson removed on-street parking completely when the street was repaved [LEFT]. Martin Luther King Drive between Woodside & Clifton now has rush hour on-street parking restrictions [RIGHT]. Photography by Jake Mecklenborg.

The westbound stretch of roadway has been precariously without parking meters and is one of the most sought after off-campus parking locations for students at UC’s College of Business and College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning. While the eastbound side does have parking meters, the rates are extraordinarily low and are not on pace with nearby parking rates on-campus, in Burnett Woods, on other off-campus streets or garages.

The move comes after the City completely removed on-street parking from the both directions of MLK Drive between Woodside Drive and Jefferson Avenue, and is seemingly part of the larger effort to grow MLK Drive to a much more auto-oriented street than is currently present.

DOTE officials state that the new parking regulations are intended to “improve traffic flow” and “reduce traffic accidents” along the six-lane stretch of roadway. The new regulations prohibit parking eastbound on MLK Drive Monday through Friday from 6am to 9am and westbound from 3pm to 6pm.

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Business News Politics

Tap dancing with effective content-neutral billboard regulations

Two years ago Cincinnati City Council member Chris Bortz proposed that the City should more intensely regulate advertising benches seen placed along Cincinnati’s sidewalks. The intent of Bortz’s effort was to clean up the city’s streets by ridding them of these often unsightly bench billboards that bring in around $900 a year per bench.

After Bortz’s proposal took effect the City removed some illegal bench billboards that were not properly permitted and paying the $30/year fee to the City for using the public right-of-way. With more than 1,000 of these benches located across the city there is a huge revenue opportunity being missed.

The problem is that these bench billboards are often not well maintained and create an unappealing aesthetic where they are located. Many of the benches located near bus stops tend to collect trash which then must be managed by the City. When Bortz discussed the issue in 2007 he stated that he would like to see the benches replaced with “rod iron” style benches that would help clean up the appearance around bus stops and the city’s neighborhood business districts.

Bench Billboard photograph by Jake Mecklenborg

The issue is one that closely aligns with First Amendment rights, but a recent Federal Court decision that found a new right-of-way encroachment ordinance in Covington constitutional gives the issue new life. The court ruled that Covington can regulate items such as advertising benches, vending machines, and newspaper stands to meet certain size and aesthetic standards.

“This is a great step in the right direction that helps the City reduce sign pollution and encroachments in the public right-of-way,” said Covington City Manager Larry Klein. “The ordinance allows the City to continue its beautification efforts, and ensures that the public can traverse City sidewalks safely.”

Local governments can carefully craft content-neutral without the fear of acting unconstitutionally. When doing so the government must regulate in a way that does not involve the suppression of speech and violate the First Amendment. The government must also illustrate that the law serves an important objective (like aesthetics according to the Covington ruling) and is crafted in a way that allows for alternative means of communication.

Cincinnati should regulate bench billboards and other items placed in the public right-of-way more heavily. At the very least the City should charge more for the use of their valuable real estate to capture a greater revenue stream. Policies that move Cincinnati forward in such a direction could steer the way for more aesthetically pleasing benches and newspaper stands, and help accomplish the very things City Council member Bortz outlined in 2007.

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News

Qualls establishes new subcommittee on ‘Major Transportation & Infrastructure Projects’

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls has established a new Subcommittee on Major Transportation & Infrastructure Projects as the chair of City Council’s Livable Communities Committee. The new subcommittee will meet monthly at 10:30am in Committee Room B at Cincinnati City Hall (map) to discuss and oversee “additional major transportation projects” in addition to transportation and infrastructure work.

The first meeting of this subcommittee takes place today and will give an overview of major projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar, 3-C High-Speed Rail Corridor, Hopple Street-MLK-Madison Road Corridor, Eastern Corridor, and the I-71/MLK Interchange in addition to Interstate 75 work that the Livable Communities Committee has been overseeing for some time.

Those interested in attending future meetings can mark their calendars for the future monthly meeting dates: February 2, March 2 (at 10am), March 30, April 27, May 25, and June 22. City Hall is well-served by Queen City Metro routes 1, 6, 10, 32, 33, 40X, 49, and 50. To see which route is most convenient for you, and to plan your trip now, use Metro’s Trip Planner.

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Development News Politics Transportation

Ohio receives $400M for high-speed rail

The winners have been chosen, and Ohio’s efforts to land money for rail service along the Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland (3-C) Corridor have been successful. Today it has been announced that Ohio will receive $400 million for track upgrades, grade crossings, new stations, and maintenance facilities.

Meanwhile the larger Midwest region pulled in a collective $2.6 billion which was second only to the West Coast region which nabbed an impressive $2.942 billion of the total $8 billion available. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, views this as an investment that will make passenger rail more efficient while also providing better service in travel markets across the nation.

  • High-speed rail travel offers competitive door-to-door trip times
  • It reduces congestion on key routes between cities
  • It reduces transportation emissions
  • And, most of all, it creates the jobs of the future, the jobs America needs right now

For Cincinnati there are still questions though about a station location. The $400 million is a significant investment, but will still not enough to cover the $517.6 million needed to extend the line through one of the nation’s most heavily congested rail yards to Union Terminal. Additional track to run the line all the way to Lunken Airport might also prove be to costly according to project officials.

Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, responded to those questions by saying, “The state could trim costs by using rebuilt, rather than new, passenger cars and by ending the route in Sharonville rather than at Lunken Field, and when there is enough money run trains to Union Terminal.”

The 250-mile 3-C Corridor has long been seen as one of the nation’s most promising rail corridors with projections estimating that 478,000 passengers will use the rail service annually. The new service will operate three daily round trips with top speeds of 79mph and serve a population of more than 6.8 million people, close to 40 colleges and universities, and 22 Fortune 500 companies.

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News

Cincinnati City Council approves $775k to move streetcar project along

Cincinnati City Council approved $775,000 for environmental studies and preliminary engineering work on the Cincinnati Streetcar project that will run from the riverfront, through Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, and go up the hill to the Uptown neighborhoods surrounding the University of Cincinnati.

The approval of the $775,000 allows for the City to move forward with the proposed Cincinnati Streetcar and maintain its spot in the contest for state and federal transportation dollars that are necessary in order to make the project happen.

The first of such money comes from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants and will be announced in February. The Federal Government’s Grants for Urban Circulator projects will be announced sometime after TIGER, and then money from Ohio’s Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) should be announced this Spring.

More money is needed in order to complete the preliminary engineering work and can be approved at a later date – a move that put some on council at ease about earmarking too much money for the project before we know the outcome of said grants. Should all go according to plan, Cincinnati could open the nation’s next modern streetcar system in 2012.

Chris Monzel (R), Leslie Ghiz (R), and Charlie Winburn (R) were the three opposition votes. Interestingly enough, all three of City Council’s Republicans have already announced that they will be running for the open Hamilton County Commissioner seat this Fall. Monzel has gone as far to say that he is a “son of the suburbs” and will probably be moving out of the City once he is no longer on City Council.