Tag: ohio

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Up To Speed

Cincinnati boasts highest private sector employment of any Ohio metro

Cincinnati boasts highest private sector employment of any Ohio metro.

Cities drive Ohio’s economy, and new Census Bureau figures show that Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus account for nearly 2.5 million private sector jobs in the Buckeye State. Cincinnati has the most private sector jobs (874,547) overall, but Cleveland has the greatest number of businesses (52,149). More from The Business Journals:

America’s three metropolitan giants contain more than 1.1 million private-sector businesses, a number that is greater than the combined total for the next eight markets…New York unsurprisingly leads the nation in a second category, private-sector employment, with 7.27 million workers. It’s followed by Los Angeles at 4.85 million and Chicago at 3.80 million.

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News Opinion Politics

What can Ohio’s failed high-speed rail program teach us about America’s standing in the world?

When Governor John Kasich (R) gave away $400 million intended to start passenger rail service along what is known as the 3C Corridor, it spelled the end of Ohio’s high-speed rail aspirations for the foreseeable future.

While those aspirations were well intentioned, they were also quite modest. Initial service would have had trains traveling at top speeds of 79 miles-per-hour between Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. In an effort to keep upfront capital costs low, simple stations were also proposed along the corridor’s length.

In a city like Cincinnati, which boasts one of the grandest passenger rail stations in the United States, the 3C Corridor proposal left Union Terminal off the map in order to avoid the costly approach into the station through the congested Queensgate rail yard.


Cincinnati’s famous Union Terminal serves light Amtrak service and museum-goers today. Photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

America used to build big things. Ohio used to build big things. This, it appears, is no longer the case, and it makes one wonder if the United States is even capable of building inspirational and useful structures like the Miami and Erie Canal, Union Terminal, or Interstate Highway System again.

The fall from grace may not be as noticeable if it were not for the exact opposite trends playing out across Asia, where the economic scale is tipping.


Hong Kong’s $1.3 billion West Kowloon Terminus Station will serve as a dramatic entryway into the global city from mainland China. Renderings provided by Aedas.

In contrast to the modest, and failed, 3C Corridor, leaders in Hong Kong will soon realize an extension of China’s high-speed rail network into the heart of their city. A 16-mile link will be built from Hong Kong’s Kowloon district to the region’s border with Shenzhen.

Most notable is that the entire 16-mile, $8.6 billion stretch will be underground and terminate in what will become the world’s largest underground high-speed rail station. It is a critical link that will open up those on the mainland to Hong Kong via the entire 87-mile-long Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Link.

Passengers arriving in Hong Kong will not only be treated to a center city arrival at 124 miles-per-hour, but also an arrival to a truly inspirational structure meant to not only provide a critical service, but awe those exposed to it. The investments will halve the amount of time it takes to travel between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and will be completed in 2015.

America has also been an inspirational place for people around the world, and America has always built and done things that inspire us all. It appears that current policy makers may be content with resting on those past successes instead of investing in the country’s future, and ushering the United States into another generation of global leadership.

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News Opinion Politics

It’s time to put an end to the campaign falsehoods

New data released by the Ohio Department of Health says that state’s four-year-old, voter-enacted, smoking ban is not in fact negatively impacting Ohio businesses. The analysis goes completely against the claims made by those originally opposed to the idea of a public smoking ban, and highlights how campaign rhetoric is often left unquestioned.

In 2005, Cincinnatians heard over and over how the $48.9 million ($4M public funds, $44.9M private funds) renovation of Fountain Square and its underground parking garage would end up as a waste of scarce public resources. Since its renovation, public activity, private investments and the number of businesses in the area have gone up, and crime has gone down. Furthermore, you could argue that the renovation of Fountain Square was the initial force that sparked the urban renaissance currently taking place in Cincinnati.


A crowd gathers for a fashion show and concert on Fountain Square in August 2011. Photograph by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

The trend continues in 2011 as transit opponents wage yet another battle against the Cincinnati Streetcar and the future of rail transit in the Queen City. It was less than two years ago that this same group of opponents asked voters if they would like to hold a public vote on all rail transit expenditures in Cincinnati. The voters rejected that proposal and yet in 2011 Cincinnatians are being asked to vote on the first rail transit expenditure to come about since November 2009.

Rigorous public debate should take place in America, that is, in part, what makes the nation so unique. The problem is that voters seem to have a short memory, and the media often has no interest in reminding them of the false rhetoric put forth by the same parties in the past.

Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) is not a new group, and does not include new political players. The small group of well-connected men running COAST have been around Cincinnati politics for some time.

These are the same people who, under the auspice of Citizens for Community Values (CCV), amended the City’s charter to legalize discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation, which was terrible for the city and later repealed. These are the same people that called the renovation of Fountain Square a guaranteed boondoggle. And these are the same people that continue to beat the boondoggle drum in regards to the Cincinnati Streetcar project.

This group has perpetuated falsehoods for too long. Cincinnatians, and reality, continue to reject their special interest ideologies focused on holding the city back, but yet, it is time once more to entertain their tired antics. This November I look forward to Cincinnatians voting against this group’s proposed anti-rail transit Charter amendment, and sending them a bit further into the depths of irrelevancy.

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Business Development News

Cincinnati Park Board wins state award, national praise for solar energy program

The Cincinnati Park Board has been pursuing a more sustainable future over the past few years. Projects have included solar trash compactors, geothermal wells, rain gardens, invasive non-native plant removal, rain barrels, wind turbines and the development of solar panels among others.

As a result of their efforts, the Cincinnati Park Board is now the owner of the largest number of solar-powered structures in Ohio. Additionally, their 2010 Solar Panel Installation project has earned the organization first place honors from the Ohio Parks & Recreation Association (OPRA) and a Green Award of Excellence.

“Cincinnati Park Board’s use of solar voltaics in their parks is laudatory and quite amazing,” said Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land. “It is possibly doing more than any other park agency in the country.”

Elsewhere across the United States the Center for City Park Excellence points to two solar-powered fountains in Kansas City, solar-powered concerts in Austin and solar-powered lights in Santa Fe. In Atlanta, Harnik notes, that officials with the Atlanta Beltline have installed a 35kW system in a 7.5-acre park there that should make the park economically neutral.

State officials say that the awards were judged in a two-tiered process which included a panel of parks and recreation professional from around the state in addition to the OPRA’s board of directors. Cincinnati park officials earned the award specifically for their aggressive solar energy project funded by $451,000 in federal grants, $300,000 in state grants and additional private funds that made the installation of solar photovoltaic panels at 13 park facilities possible.

Ault Park, Krohn Conservatory and International Friendship Park are three of the locations for solar installation that are contributing to an anticipated 166,900 kWh energy production. An operations headquarters at 3215 Reading Road is the largest production location generating an estimated 50,000 kWh.

Going forward the Center for City Parks Excellence sees the use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources within city parks as a unique opportunity, but that additional studies and analysis should be conducted from these early adopters. In particular, Harnik says that it will be interesting to find out how much money Cincinnati’s effort makes or loses, and how much energy is fed into the grid.

Friendship Pavilion rooftop solar panels photo by UrbanCincy contributor Thadd Fiala.

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Business Development News Politics

Cincinnati loses 10.4% of its population over past decade according to Census Bureau

Contrary to the U.S. Census Bureau’s own annual estimates and revisions, Cincinnati and Hamilton County both lost population from 2000 to 2010. Hamilton County, Ohio’s third most populous, lost 5.1 percent of its population which is now 802,374. Meanwhile, the City of Cincinnati lost 10.4 percent of its population over the same time period.

The numbers are sobering for a mayor and city that had thought population declines were beginning to level over recent years. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory even led the charge to get out higher response rates for the city, but his efforts fell well short of the 378,259 person goal with only 296,943 people counted in the city during the 2010 hard count.

During the 2010 Census count, it is estimated that only 70 percent of households responded in the City of Cincinnati which fell below the 74 percent national average. Inner city neighborhoods saw signficantly lower response rates across the state.

While the primary city in the Cincinnati metropolitan statistical area lost population, the region as a whole continued to add people. The largest percentage growth took place in Warren County which now is home to 212,693 people. Butler County also saw gains and remains the region’s second largest county with 368,130 people.

Elsewhere in Ohio every major city lost signficant population except for Columbus which grew 10.6 percent and now has 787,033 people within its city boundaries.

UrbanCincy will update this report over the coming days as we are fully able to analyze these numbers. There is a lot of data out there and we will break it all down, so stay tuned.