Tag: ohio

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Complete Your Census Forms Today!

Today is national Census Day in America, and Cincinnatians need to be certain they send their completed Census forms back as required by law. The U.S. Census is conducted once every ten years and helps give policymakers a picture of the nation. Over that ten year period, the Census influences the allocation Congressional seats, billions of public dollars that go to schools, parks, roads, police and more.

In Cincinnati alone it has been estimated that the city was under-counted by some 45,000 people in 2000. Over the ten year period since the last count it is projected that Cincinnati’s under-counted population resulted in the loss of $104 million in public funding.

So far, only 42 percent of the households within the City of Cincinnati have responded. Cincinnati’s urban core is even worse off. Downtown has roughly 35 percent of their forms in, while Over-the-Rhine is around 15 percent. The student heavy areas surrounding the University of Cincinnati have about 25 percent of the households responding so far.

Historically urban areas are the most difficult to count, but it is imperative that a high response rate is achieved to ensure that Cincinnati gets its fair share of funding for critical public assets. In Ohio’s other major cities the story is much the same. Columbus comes in at 39 percent, and Cleveland has only 32 percent of their households reporting.

The ten question form is simple and easy to complete. In most cases it will take you just a few minutes to complete. We won’t have another shot at this until 2020, so make sure you turn those forms in right now.

STUDENTS AT AREA COLLEGES: The Census counts how many people are living at a particular place at a particular time. So regardless of where your permanent address may be you should fill out the Census for where you are living as of April 1, 2010. If your parents still claim you, and your permanent residence is listed as somewhere else that is fine, but you should fill out the form for where you are living now.

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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland denounces "cheerleaders for failure"

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland discusses the $400 million that the state received for passenger rail start up service on the proposed 3C Corridor. In the impromptu interview in the halls of the statehouse, Governor Strickland denounces those he calls “cheerleaders for failure,” and emphasizes how important this money is for Ohio and the state’s future.

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Development News Politics Transportation

Ohio receives $400M for high-speed rail

The winners have been chosen, and Ohio’s efforts to land money for rail service along the Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland (3-C) Corridor have been successful. Today it has been announced that Ohio will receive $400 million for track upgrades, grade crossings, new stations, and maintenance facilities.

Meanwhile the larger Midwest region pulled in a collective $2.6 billion which was second only to the West Coast region which nabbed an impressive $2.942 billion of the total $8 billion available. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, views this as an investment that will make passenger rail more efficient while also providing better service in travel markets across the nation.

  • High-speed rail travel offers competitive door-to-door trip times
  • It reduces congestion on key routes between cities
  • It reduces transportation emissions
  • And, most of all, it creates the jobs of the future, the jobs America needs right now

For Cincinnati there are still questions though about a station location. The $400 million is a significant investment, but will still not enough to cover the $517.6 million needed to extend the line through one of the nation’s most heavily congested rail yards to Union Terminal. Additional track to run the line all the way to Lunken Airport might also prove be to costly according to project officials.

Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, responded to those questions by saying, “The state could trim costs by using rebuilt, rather than new, passenger cars and by ending the route in Sharonville rather than at Lunken Field, and when there is enough money run trains to Union Terminal.”

The 250-mile 3-C Corridor has long been seen as one of the nation’s most promising rail corridors with projections estimating that 478,000 passengers will use the rail service annually. The new service will operate three daily round trips with top speeds of 79mph and serve a population of more than 6.8 million people, close to 40 colleges and universities, and 22 Fortune 500 companies.

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Ohio facing ‘mobility crisis’ as transportation choices rapidly decline

Many people are aware of the dramatic cuts taking place at Ohio’s local transit authorities, but at the same time Ohio’s intercity public transportation modes – bus carriers, Amtrak, and airlines – are also seeing sharp service declines. According to All Aboard Ohio, these decreases in service are leaving many Ohioans stranded as they look for travel connections between Ohio’s many cities, towns, suburbs, and rural hamlets.

“Ohio is facing a serious mobility crisis,” said Bill Hutchison, president of All Aboard Ohio. “Ohio’s public officials and transportation company executives need to recognize a problem exists and start working together to address the lack of travel options.”

Intercity public transportation choices in Ohio. 1979 vs. 2009

The news comes out the non-profit’s new Transportation Report Card (pdf) in which the organization gave Ohio a “lump of coal” for the declining transportation choices. In the report, the following data illustrates that decline over the past 30 years.

  • Bus companies like Greyhound and Continental Trailways eliminated more than two-thirds of their Ohio departures and dozens of routes between 1979 and 2004;
  • In the past five years bus services have stabilized, but with some losses (Sandusky and downtown Dayton stops eliminated) and gains (Megabus adds Chicago service to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo);
  • Ohio has lost 1,000 route miles of Amtrak train service from 1979-2005 and saw service levels decline by 60 percent from 84 trains per week to 34;
  • Amtrak in Ohio has also stabilized since 2005 yet offers inconvenient middle-of-the-night services on just three routes;
  • Airlines have been in retreat after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with Ohio airports losing seat-mile capacity ranging from 10-100 percent, mostly due to cuts in short-distance flights;
  • Losses accelerated since 2007 due to high fuel prices and the recession. Since 2007, airports in Ohio and within 100 miles of Ohio have seen their scheduled domestic departures decrease 7-39 percent.

According to All Aboard Ohio, these cuts have an especially negative impact on Ohio’s growing elderly population, disabled citizens, and lower- and working-class families who can not afford to own their own or reliably maintain their own car.

“Given the sorry state of intercity public transportation in Ohio, it’s probably better that you travel to grandma’s house this holiday season because it’s more difficult for her to visit you,” said Hutchison.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Ohio residents over the age of 65 currently make up 16 percent of the state’s population – a number expected to grow to 20 percent by 2030. It is also estimated that in Ohio’s larger urban areas like Cincinnati and Cleveland, roughly 20 to 25 percent of the households have no car at all.

“While one can attribute this decline in transportation options to many factors, I believe it’s mostly due to complacency. Too many just blandly plod along and accept their fate without a fight. Well, we don’t accept it and this report is an early salvo in our fight.”

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Development News Politics Transportation

The 3C Corridor and its impacts on Cincinnati

Representatives from the Ohio’s Department of Transportation traveled to City Hall last week to host an open forum discussing and explaining the 3C passenger rail project to Cincinnatians. This proposal will connect Cincinnati to Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland via passenger rail, and a group of about 30 people gathered at City Hall to get more information on the upcoming project and voice their opinions on the project and how it will affect Cincinnati.

The 3C representatives went through a detailed presentation outlining the plan that will be submitted to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for funding. If funding is approved for this project, there will be a preliminary “Quick Start” phase to get the rail up and running as quickly as possible. In this first phase it will take approximately 6.5 hours to ride the train from Cincinnati to Cleveland, with the trains reaching speeds of up to 79 miles per hour.

The eventual goal is to develop high-speed rail in Ohio, with trains traveling up to 110 miles per hour, and eventually connecting into the larger Midwest regional rail plan often referred to as the Chicago Hub. At these speeds the travel time from Cincinnati to Cleveland will be reduced to approximately 3.5 hours. Future hubs will create more stops than the six that are currently proposed. The current recommended route that will be submitted with the proposal includes hubs in Cleveland proper, south Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, north Cincinnati, and Cincinnati proper.

So how does this affect Cincinnati? Having reliable passenger rail connecting the public throughout the state of Ohio is fantastic. Of course, high-speed rail is the preferable (and eventual) goal, but one has to wonder how effective taking “baby steps” towards rail will be as opposed to tackling high-speed rail in one fell swoop.

The biggest concern at the meeting was the location of the train station that would service the greater Cincinnati area. The research group initially picked three locations to focus on: the Queensgate area, an area near Riverside Drive/the Boathouse/Sawyer Point, or a station located farther east, near Lunken Airport. All three of these options naturally have their drawbacks. The Queensgate area already deals with large amounts of freight traffic, and the concern was that there would be too much congestion in the area to make that stop feasible.

The proposed “Option one” (Riverside Drive) area was the station that caused the most concern and alarm among residents who were in attendance at the meeting. Denise Driehaus, a state representative who hails from the West Side, voiced her concern that locating the station on the far southeast side of the City would set up obstacles for citizens traveling from the west side. It is also less advantageous from a retail and tourism perspective, as newcomers to the Cincinnati will be dropped off on the east side rather than more towards the city center.

There were several East End citizen groups who were concerned about the Option One site for different reasons. Over the course of several years, citizen groups and people from the area have worked hard to create a “Riverfront Renaissance” consisting of the network of parks and housing in that particular area. These citizens are concerned that a new diesel train station would disturb the views and tear down the aforementioned parks. All of these proposed stations are, as of now, only temporary locations. As the Riverfront Renaissance spokesman stated, “temporary’ is measured in decades in Cincinnati.”

As of the meeting, the ODOT representatives stated that they had not come to a conclusion on which Cincinnati site they would choose to include in the October 2nd proposal. However, Jason from Somewhere Over-the-Rhine cites an article from the Enquirer stating that the backlash from this open forum meeting prompted officials to choose the Lunken Airport site as opposed to the eastern riverfront area.

There are obvious drawbacks to this site as well, the most obvious being its distance from the Cincinnati’s center city and its attractions and accommodations for business and leisure travelers alike. There is also the issue of being so far away from the existing Amtrak service that connects Cincinnati with Indianapolis and Chicago to the west, and Washington D.C. to the east – both of which run out of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal in Queensgate.

What are your thoughts?