Tag: Transportation

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Arts & Entertainment News

Metro Art Shelters Project to Transform Eyesores into Literary Canvasses

In January 2013, Cincinnati City Council voted to ban advertising on public right-of-way. The idea was to rid the city of all those bus bench billboards and other seemingly unsightly ads, but what the ordinance also did was force the removal of advertisements at all bus shelters throughout the city.

In a classic case of unintended consequences, City Council actually may have made the public right-of-way less attractive by making bus shelters to appear as abandoned and leaving scared sidewalk spaces where bus benches once sat.

The situation surrounding the bus shelters was so bad, in fact, that Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI) found, through their annual safety perception survey, that individuals had a negative perception of safety around bus shelters.

While some viewed it as a misstep, ArtWorks and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) saw it as an opportunity to do something different.

Later this month, Cincinnatians will see the former ad space at 24 of these bus shelters, throughout Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, re-purposed as a canvass for local artists. The specific end product will include varied artistic styles all portraying some work of literature.

“Through this collaborative partnership between ArtWorks, SORTA, the Main Library, and DCI, these twelve bus shelters will receive a playful face-lift and add to the public art vibrancy in our central business district,” explained Cait Barnett, Marketing Manager at ArtWorks.

Barnett went on to say that SORTA will clean and paint the shelters and that the lead artist for ArtWorks, Ryan Little, and youth Apprentices between the ages of 14 and 21 will design graphic prints for the empty spaces.

The literary designs, ArtWorks officials say, were determined by the community through a public survey conducted by the Public Library of Cincinnati through June 30. Those literary inspirations came from the following pieces of work:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

  1. Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
  2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  4. Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
  5. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
  6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  7. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  8. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  9. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  10. Dracula by Bram Stoker
  11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
  12. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
  13. The Odyssey by Homer
  14. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
  15. The Man in the Iron Mask by Paul Mantell
  16. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
  17. The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
  18. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  19. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  20. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
  21. Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
  22. The Tortoise and the Hare by Aesop
  23. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
  24. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Metro Art Shelters project has also been championed by the Downtown Residents Council (DRC), who is hoping to raise $5,000 for public art throughout Downtown. Those interested in giving to the project can do so through the DRC’s power2give webpage.

According to ArtWorks, all donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by The Johnson Foundation.

Learn more about power2give in our recent podcast with Greg Lutz from ArtWorks and Laura Belcher from power2give, who was kind enough to call in to the show from Washington D.C.

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News Opinion Politics Transportation

Greg Landsman: Riding the Cincinnati Streetcar to Success

Downtown to Uptown Cincinnati Streetcar RouteWhether you were for or against the streetcar, here are the facts: contracts have been signed, millions spent, and construction is fully underway. The proverbial train has left the station. Now it is up to both public and private sector leaders to ensure that this new transportation system and driver of economic development is a success.

Like so many, I had been frustrated with the way in which this project had been managed. But with a new and serious project manager in place, my own pragmatism, and firm desire to see Cincinnati succeed mean that I and others get fully on board – and help lead.

To achieve success, the following must happen:

  1. We need a credible operating plan, and it needs private sector support. Taxpayers should not have to pay the full cost to run the streetcar, and with the right deal makers and plan, meaningful partnerships can get done.
  2. The streetcar has to go to Uptown (the Clifton and University of Cincinnati area). So, let’s make it happen. Businesses, property owners, and our institutional partners in Uptown could very well work with the City to ensure the Uptown Connector (Phase 1B) not only happens, but happens as soon as possible.

If elected in November, I pledge to focus on getting the streetcar up the hill to Uptown, not to mention a credible, privately-supported operating plan in place. In fact, I believe we should have a framework for both plans within months, not years.

The work will not end here, of course, and our entire transportation system needs updated. The streetcar should be a catalyst for transforming our transportation system, one that better connects people to jobs and where they want to go – and does so faster.

Cincinnati is on the verge of a major comeback, but long-term growth is not inevitable. Our momentum is real but fragile, and the decisions we make now will determine whether or not Cincinnati is a great city again. Getting the streetcar right, and to Uptown, will be critical. Failure is not an option.

Greg Landsman is a Democratic candidate for Cincinnati City Council. He is currently the executive director for the Strive Partnership, a non-profit dedicated to improving public education, and previously served in the Ted Strickland (D) administration. If you would like to have your thoughts published on UrbanCincy you can do so by submitting your guest editorial to urbancincy@gmail.com.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Nearly $4B in Work Progresses in Decade-Long Reconstruction of I-75 Through Hamilton County

I-75 Construction Work at Mitchell Avenue (August 2013)

In the early 2000s the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) developed plans to widen and modernize Interstate 75 between the Ohio River and Interstate 275.

The $531.7 million Millcreek Expressway Project was slow to commence because of state and federal funding problems related to declining gasoline tax revenue. In 2009 a $7 million overpass connecting Monmouth Street and Central Parkway (Phase 2) received federal stimulus funding and, without ceremony, kicked off what will be a decade of continuous construction.

ODOT began reconstruction of I-75 in and around the Mitchell Avenue Interchange (Phase 1) in 2012. As of August 2013, all new retaining walls have been completed, the replacement Mitchell Avenue and Clifton Avenue overpasses are each about halfway completed, and final pavement has been poured on two access ramps.

The $53 million Phase 1 makes provisions for widening I-75 to four lanes in each direction, but the expressway will not actually be widened until Phase 5 rebuilds the I-74/75 interchange near Cincinnati State Technical & Community College.

Reconstruction of the Hopple Street Interchange (Phase 4), meanwhile, began earlier this year and as of August 2013 has taken on the chaotic character typical of urban expressway widenings. This project will radically remake the area, with Hopple Street passing for the first time above Central Parkway to meet W. Martin Luther King Drive at grade.

While most of the buildings near this interchange have been acquired and demolished, the nearby White Castle restaurant will remain unaffected as a “jug handle” is built around its south and eastern property lines.

Although the overall widening and modernization work was thought to have been delayed, the program received a boost thanks to the Ohio Turnpike.

On July 22, 2013 Governor John Kasich (R) announced that $350 million of work on remaining phases of the Millcreek Expressway reconstruction project will be funded by the sale of bonds to be repaid by future excess Ohio Turnpike tolls.

Additionally, Kasich pledged $100 million in Turnpike funds to build a new interchange connecting I-71 and E. Martin Luther King Drive.

When combined with the $463.5 million Thru The Valley project and $2.7 billion Brent Spence Bridge project, the reconstruction efforts along I-75 through Hamilton County totals some $3.7 billion in work and are expected to continue for the next decade.

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Up To Speed

Traffic congestion can actually be a good thing for urban districts

Traffic congestion can actually be a good thing for urban districts.

Engineers are well-known for coming up with solutions to rid our communities of dreaded traffic congestion. To most people this seems logical, but do we always want to rid ourselves of traffic congestion? In urban shopping districts you want lots of pedestrians, cyclists, transit and cars…it means that there are lots of potential customers. More from Strong Towns:

If people enjoy crowded places, it seems a bit strange that federal and state governments continue to wage a single-minded and expensive war against traffic congestion. Despite many hundreds of billions dollars spent on increasing the capacity of our roads, they’ve not yet won, thank God. After all, when the congestion warriors have won, the results aren’t often pretty. Detroit, for example, has lots of expressways and widened streets and suffers from very little congestion. It also has lost 2/3 of its population and is in the hands of a bankruptcy trustee.

After all, congestion is a bit like cholesterol – if you don’t have any, you die. Like cholesterol, traffic exists as a “good kind” and a “bad kind.” Congestion measurements should be divided between through-traffic and traffic that includes local origins or destinations, the latter being the “good kind.”

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Up To Speed

Charlotte transforming city center through dynamic public investments

Charlotte transforming city center through dynamic public investments.

Cincinnatians have experienced first-hand what good public policy and investments can do to improve quality of life and economic value. New parks, improved infrastructure and expanded mobility options are sweeping through Cincinnati and it has been noticed nation-wide. Cincy’s not the only place taking this approach..Charlotte has also been investing in light rail lines, a streetcar, improved infrastructure and other public facilities like parks. More from the Charlotte Observer (including a video):

As soon as he was hired to lead Mecklenburg County’s parks seven years ago, Jim Garges heard the same criticism people had been saying about uptown Charlotte for decades. It had no life after 6 p.m. – it was nothing but a grand office park. Now on Labor Day weekend, Garges wants everyone to look at uptown again and explore its latest addition – the 5.2-acre, $11 million park to honor renowned artist and Charlotte native Romare Bearden.

“It’s a game changer,” said Garges, director of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. “People aren’t laughing anymore about uptown. It’s become the place to be.” It’ll take three days to grandly open the park that – with BB&T Ballpark next door and Bank of American Stadium blocks away – is sure to transform a piece of Third Ward that was once remnants of industrial buildings and gravel parking lots.