Tag: streetcars

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‘Taken for a Ride’ at the Carnegie – 7/14

A week from today on July 14, the Southern Ohio Filmmakers Association and Cincinnati World Cinema will host a screening of the “eye-opening” documentary Taken For A Ride.

The film looks at the abrupt and widespread end to urban streetcar service in the United States. “The film uses investigative journalism, vintage archival footage and candid interviews to recount efforts by the auto and oil industries (led by General Motors) to buy and dismantle streetcar lines, tear out tracks and replace electric-driven vehicles with diesel buses.”

Director Jim Klein is a two-time Oscar nominee and professor at Wright State University just up I-75 in Dayton. Klein will be at the screening to discuss the film following its screening. The evening will also include a pre-show reception and social hour at Covington’s Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center (as seen on MTV’s Taking the Stage).

Event organizers say that at the same time as these corporate moves, Congress was heavily funding urban highways that set the course for “deep social and environmental changes” tied to the nation’s transportation choices. Organizers go on to say that the timing is important for Cincinnatians given the recent bankruptcy of General Motors and Cincinnati’s upcoming City Charter amendment regarding the future of passenger rail transit.

The pre-show reception will start at 6pm with the screening at 7pm. Tickets (order online) are $12 in advance and $15 at the door (plus $1 Carnegie facility fee) and the money will go to benefit the Southern Ohio Filmmakers Association.

If you are unable to make this first screening you’re in luck as a second screening will be held the following day also at 7pm. This screening will not include the reception or Director Jim Klein, but tickets (order online) will only cost $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Students and Arts members will also have $8 tickets available to them for this screening (valid ID required).

Photo courtesy of bossa67 via Flickr

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Broad Support

What do the mayor of Cincinnati, eight of the nine incumbents for City Council and eight of the non-incumbent candidates for council have in common? It’s not their political party; Republicans, Democrats and Charterites alike are all on this list.

(UPDATE: The number is actually 16 of 18 candidates for Council. My mistake.)

All of them believe that proposed amendment to the City’s Charter that would effectively ban rail transit for our region takes us in the wrong direction. They believe that at this time of economic uncertainty, we should be looking for ways of keeping and enhancing Cincinnati’s competitive edge, not finding ways to diminish it.

There is no better way to maximize the attraction of our city to the young, talented, and mobile than by building the streetcar. It is an investment that will encourage and guide development while making people’s movement within the city more efficient.

But there is another reason that so many of our leaders of today and tomorrow are urging us to vote against this Charter amendment. The language in it is so broad that its passage would diminish Cincinnati’s ability to receive federal funding for regional high-speed rail. Even streetcar opponents are leery of this amendment because it puts an election, which is expensive, between the city and its request for federal dollars.

Just about every city and state in the nation bids for a limited pool of federal funding for specific transportation projects, like high-speed rail, so the competition for those dollars is tough. Only the regions best able to demonstrate a need, and do so in a timely manor, will be considered. Forcing a vote will delay our proposals, and we will all watch the federal funding to offset the local cost vanish.

To keep the city competitive, we cannot stand in the way of this golden opportunity to enhance local development by connecting our region to other successful areas like Chicago.

Tell us what you think: Do you think that this amendment would be beneficial to the city? Or would its adoption diminish our region’s competitiveness?

For further reading:
Pro-amendment: We Demand a Vote
Pro-progress: Cincinnatians for Progress
US Department of Transportation re: Ohio’s importance to High Speed Rail

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati selects streetcar development team

Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney announced that the City has selected the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners as the team that will help finance, plan, design, construct, operate and maintain Cincinnati’s modern streetcar system.

The announcement was made at the new Rookwood Pottery headquarters in historic Over-the-Rhine. The location is at what will be the northern end of the Downtown/OTR circulator which will then head Uptown from there. Rookwood Pottery is an “enthusiastic” supporter of the Cincinnati Streetcar project and was more than happy to welcome the couple hundred people that showed up to hear the news.

City Manager Dohoney with some of the crowd on hand

The crowd (see crowd pictures here) was not only robust, but diverse as well. Representatives from the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, various City of Cincinnati departments, Model Group, Cincinnati Beer Company, Metro, Cincy Energy Alliance, Mercantile Library, Hodges Law Group, Downtown Cincinnati Inc. and a slew of local business owners and investors.

The excitement was notable as Mayor Mallory and City Manager Dohoney arrived. The crowd was buzzing in anticipation of what was to be announced. This excitement continued as a large group of attendees walked over to Market Wines at Findlay Market to continue the conversation.

Development Team:
Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners is made up of 12 companies that each specialize in a different aspect that will help lead to the successful implementation of the streetcar system. The team is made up of local and non-local companies that have been involved with roughly 80% of all recent streetcar and light rail projects in the United States, including projects in San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle and Cleveland.

Members of the team have also been involved with local projects like Great American Ballpark, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the restructuring of Fort Washington Way that came in on time and under budget.

Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners

One of the companies is Stacy and Witbeck Inc. (SWI) who is considered to be the “premier streetcar and passenger transit rail construction company in the United States.” Their involvement in the Cincinnati Streetcar project will be their first in the Midwest. As a result, SWI will be opening a new office downtown and will be relocating their executives to Cincinnati specifically for this project.

The team will also consist of local companies like Jostin Concrete Construction, DNK Architects, Megan Construction Company, Property Advisors, Wordsworth Communications and G.J. Berding Inc. The Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners will be led by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. (PB) who will also serve as the project manager. PB has led several local transit projects in the past and has a sterling record.

Funding:
The City currently has $78 million in requests to the federal government, who City Manager Dohoney says will be absolutely necessary in the implementation of the Cincinnati Streetcar system.

Explore Cincinnati reported in April that millions of private dollars have been raised thus far. According to the City’s Budget Director, Explore Cincinnati also found out that several organizations have been raising private funds that have not yet been deposited into the City’s account for the project.

This revised funding strategy is a response to the national economic downturn say City officials. The City has also established a new and more comprehensive website for the Cincinnati Streetcar that also includes an online location where streetcar supporters can make private contributions to the project.

What’s Next:
The selection of the team that will design, build and operate the Cincinnati Streetcar system is a major step forward for the project.

“The leaders of this city are taking this city’s future seriously,” says program manager Fred Craig who continues, “we are seeing a new generation working to make Cincinnati a better place.”

Craig went on to say that he and the development team welcome community input and emphasized that this is a project that should be driven by the community. Craig went as far as to say that if you have any suggestions regarding the project that you should call him personally and let him know (513-639-2100 – still trying to track down direct phone line).

Mayor Mallory addressing the crowd
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News

More options promote the free market

Why is transportation such a partisan issue, and why in the world do conservatives tend to fall on the side of being against it? If anything, conservatives should support adding options into the transportation market.

Currently, local, state and federal governments pay for highways. Adding another option (or several options) will create competition for the monopolistic version of transportation we currently have.

Recently, conservative intellectual George Will wrote a scathing article in Newsweek bemoaning the government’s role in transportation planning as demonstration of the liberal agenda to control behavior and curb freedom. In the article, he bashes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for promoting transportation options, insinuating that it is not the American way to give people options.

Mr. Will dismisses the government’s role in developing the Interstate Highway system, and blatantly ignored the FHA’s role in subsidizing single-family homes outside the center city. Not only did the government coerce suburbanization by helping to pay for the homes there, they also (quite literally) paved the way to get there. And now, conservatives have the audacity to claim that increasing transportation options will limit the personal choice to drive a car, or…drive a car.

LaHood responded to Will directly, saying at the National Press Club: “We have to create opportunities for people who want to ride a bike or walk or take a streetcar.”

Mr. LaHood has it right. Sometimes it is about the choice of what NOT to do. The choice to NOT spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to purchase a vehicle (or 2). The choice NOT to spend several hundred dollars per year on car insurance, gas (on the rise again) and vehicle maintenance costs. It’s the choice to NOT drive from strip mall to strip mall to shop. It’s the choice NOT to spend time stuck in traffic.

The Transportation Secretary does not advocate that people ought to be living one place or another, or commuting using one method over another, he simply advocates that for far too long, there hasn’t really been a choice.

An increase in transportation options does not limit freedom, but expands it. It does not stifle the free market, but allows increased competition. And that is something we all can live with.