Tonight, representatives from COAST and Cincinnatians for Progress will be part of a discussion on the Cincinnati Streetcar proposal. The event is part of the Downtown Residents Council’s monthly community meeting, which will take place at the main branch of the Public Library at 800 Vine Street. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm and will be held in the Tower Room on the library’s third floor.
Learn more about this and other upcoming events by looking at DRC’s Upcoming Events calendar.
In Soapbox this week I wrote about the plans for renovating Mt. Lookout Square. Below you can view the three-phased approach to implementing those changes. The work is still preliminary and is still trying to work itself out in terms of funding and overall scope. Click on any of the images to open up a larger version in a new window.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has been criticized for not injecting the necessary amounts of money into the economy quickly enough. The stimulus package is meant to do exactly that, stimulate the economy, and thus far even the proponents of said stimulus package have been frustrated by the slow activity so far.
Luckily things may be starting to change as it appears that the money is starting to flow into the Cincinnati region. Yesterday at Mayor Mallory’s press conference regarding rail transit in Cincinnati and the budget, he announced that the City received $13.5 million from the ARRA for the Cincinnati Police Department – something Mayor Mallory says could save around 50 police officers from being cut. Another $3.4 million will be going to Hamilton County to rehire 15 road patrol deputies that were laid off earlier this year.
Then today Steve Driehaus (D, OH-1) announced that the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) which runs the Metro bus system will be receiving an $823,000 grant that will be used to purchase 3 forty-foot replacement biodiesel buses.
Driehaus then sent out a later press release that announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded just over $2 million to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center through the Recovery Act. The $2+ million will go towards biomedical research and research training at the Uptown hospital.
All three seem to be good uses for the stimulus money as they are directly creating or preserving jobs. So what’s next for the Cincinnati region? The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is currently going through some issues as the state threatens funding cuts. The streetcar would not only create engineering and construction jobs in the Cincinnati area, but it would also help spur additional economic development that would come as a result of the streetcar. The announcement of a new rail transit system in the Midwest might even spur the creation of a new manufacturing facility to produce the rolling stock needed for such rail projects. What’s on your list?
After the lights went out and the dust settled from the 80th take of the Midsummer Classic, fans spilled out of St. Louis’ beautiful new Busch Stadium into an area set to be developed as Ballpark Village.
Ballpark Village is much like The Banks development in Cincinnati. The idea is similar – following a major public investment in a new urban ballpark, a high density mixed-use neighborhood would fill the space left behind from the previous behemoth of a stadium that once existed.
This new wave of thinking towards sports facilities is a trend sweeping the nation that can be seen in cities from San Diego to Baltimore and minor league parks all across the nation. The idea is that new businesses and entertainment districts can thrive off of the tens of thousands of sports fans visiting the area 80+ times a year.
Both The Banks and Ballpark Village have suffered their setbacks. In both cases beautiful new ballparks have replaced the cookie-cutter stadiums…that part of the equation has been fulfilled. What has not yet been completed is the high density mixed-use neighborhood.
There is no doubt in my mind that once developed, both Ballpark Village and The Banks will be successful if executed properly. The problem is that the execution has little to do with the ballparks built to spur these developments. In St. Louis the amount of residential space has been reduced from the original plan. In Cincinnati condos have become apartments, and the design has been “value engineered” to say the least. What could any ballpark do to change these results?
What the ballparks do accomplish is that they create an instant market for such “eatertainment” places like ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Cafe, House of Blues and so on. These places are perfect for these districts, but I honestly don’t see what else the ballparks can do otherwise.
In St. Louis Busch Stadium is connected with the region’s light rail system with a perfectly situated MetroLink station. Cincinnati has the opportunity to similarly connect Great American Ballpark with the Cincinnati Streetcar system.
St. Louis’ Busch Stadium MetroLink station – photo from dswinneyThe important thing to vibrant urban neighborhoods is the amount of people. Downtown Cincinnati and St. Louis have no problem with daytime work week activity. What they both need more of is night time and weekend traffic, and this requires more people living within the core. Less residential at these developments is the absolute wrong idea. Transit makes high density residential more financially feasible, and has a considerably greater impact than that of a neighborhood ballpark.
Great neighborhoods aren’t made by great ballparks…great neighborhoods are made by the people living, working and playing there. A diversity of these activities is needed for a place to be truly sustainable in terms of its vibrancy, and instead of pouring our public dollars into new ballparks, stadiums and convention centers we should be putting our public money into transit choices, public spaces and a diverse housing stock.
On July 1 the United States celebrated the completion of the first American-made streetcar. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was in Portland to celebrate the moment.
The Infrastructurist points out that Oregon Iron Works felt like they could be profitable producing the modern streetcars, and feel that they are already producing a superior product than what is being produced overseas. CincyStreetcar says that this event illustrates two important issues.
“The first is that public transportation is not a partisan issue; both sides of the aisle benefit from increased public transportation. The second is the progress other cities around the country are making with increasing their transportation options and the positive returns on their investments.”
When examining this news one could also speculate on what this could mean for Cincinnati as it develops one of the first streetcar systems in the Midwest region of the United States.
Last month when the City announced the selection of the development team that will help finance, plan, design, construct, operate and maintain Cincinnati’s modern streetcar system they also announced that Cincinnati Streetcar Development Team partner, Stacy and Witbeck Inc., will be opening a new office in downtown Cincinnati and will also be relocating their executives to Cincinnati specifically for this project.
First American-made streetcar in Portland, Oregon – image from United Streetcar, LLCCould the same also happen in regards to the production of streetcar vehicles in a state and region that was built on manufacturing and could easily produce streetcars with the existing infrastructure and talent in place here?
Columbus and Cleveland have recently examined streetcar systems for their cities. Milwaukee recently received tens of millions of federal dollars to build a three-mile modern streetcar system in their city that is being seen as a started line to a much larger, city-wide system (similar to Cincinnati’s effort). St. Louis and Minneapolis currently boast light rail that has vehicles similar to streetcars and could potentially be produced on the same line. Indianapolis is working on a light rail system there that would also fit into this category.
With all of these existing and future systems in the Midwest, it would seem reasonable to have a manufacturer for those vehicles right here. Could Cincinnati or Ohio attract such a firm, or grow one of their own so that it starts producing streetcar and light rail vehicles in one of the many plants we have that used to produce automobiles?