Cincinnati Union Terminal
If you haven’t checked out the new transportation blog in town yet, now’s a great time to head over to CBus Transit. There’s a very good post explaining attempts to thwart Cincinnati’s streetcar, and in the process the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati inter-city Amtrak route too.
Could Cincinnati Derail Ohio’s Plans?
Cincinnati is poised to derail the state-wide and regional plans for intercity and high-speed rail through one organization’s anti-rail tirade and another organization’s lack of oversight.
Cincinnati has been planning for some time to build a streetcar loop through its downtown, but anti-transit and anti-tax groups have been gathering to defeat the proposal. COAST, Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, and Cincinnati’s local chapter of the NAACP have teamed up to force a ballot question on the issue. The NAACP believes the money will be better used elsewhere in the city, while COAST is largely opposed to all government ventures of the type. Together, the two have successfully petitioned to get a charter amendment on the ballot, but if approved, the measure would have unintended consequences.
According to this article, the proposed ballot language is as follows:
Be it resolved by the people of the City of Cincinnati that a new Article XVI of the Charter is hereby added as follows: The City, and its various Boards and Commissions, may not spend any monies for right-of-way acquisition or construction of improvements for passenger rail transportation (e.g., a trolley or streetcar) within the city limits without first submitting the question of approval of such expenditure to a vote of the electorate of the City and receiving a majority affirmative vote for the same.
As worded, the ordinance would include all passenger rail, including the 3C corridor if City funds were to be involved. There is hope though. The proposed language can be edited by the council before going to the ballot:
Although the signature drive’s success compels Cincinnati City Council to place the issue on the ballot, council members are not bound by the petitions’ precise wording and are expected to decide that potentially contentious matter at their next meeting Aug. 5.
Since this issue in Cincinnati would have impacts on the rest of Ohio, I suggest contacting Cincinnati’s City Council to let them know you oppose including all forms of passenger rail in the wording of this ballot issue.
Unfortunate set of potential circumstances for a city that needs a lot of help.
We could always change the 3C corridor to the CCT Corridor – Cleveland – Columbus – Toledo.
Or it could stop in Dayton and we could call it the CCD corridor. Maybe the Catholic Church would then use the trains to educate youth and could chip in for construction.
[...] Read the rest at CBus Transit and Xing Columbus. [...]
Your blog has actually received some attention from the blogs based in Cincinnati.
I can tell you that not all Cincinnatians agree with COAST & the NAACP. Check out http://www.cincinnatiansforprogress.com which is a group that has formed to oppose the ballot issue that the two groups above have started. We’re not going to let this happen in Cincinnati.
Frankly, I’m sick of seeing my city as the black eye of Ohio because of a few people who have never seen a tax they liked.
Even if it passed, I don’t think it’s going to hold up the project. once the federal funds are secured and the 3C plan starts moving forward, I think there would be a real minority in Cincinnati that would vote against them getting a stop on the line. There have been a number of news articles about small towns in Ohio fighting for a rail stop.
Everyone is always opposed to this when it’s all about getting money on the table. Once the money is actually on the table, then everyone starts talking about how much of it THEY get to spend.
I’m not too worried about Cincy shooting themselves in the foot on this one, although it’s giving their streetcar project more hurdles to jump.
From Cincinnati here, and the local NAACP and COAST are strange bedfollows, almost bizarre really. But COAST despises any public expenditures and the consequences are not “unintended.” They know exactly what they’re doing. Paint the charter amendment as anti “trolley” but with broadly written language that requires a vote for any “passenger rail” spending. We will be working to see that voters understand this, but I worry that it won’t get across to people.
Of course, the rail system could come down to the Cincinnati area, it would just stop outside the city limits. Pretty foolish, which is what this charter amendment is. It’s frustrating to think these people could derail the long awaited rail connections between the major Ohio cities (and elsewhere).
Check out the online poll for this article about Cincinnati’s ballot measure. Right now 60.5% are in favor of streetcars.
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