Tag: Politics

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Critical vote on Cincinnati Streetcar funds today at 1pm

Today, Cincinnati City Council will vote on whether to approve roughly $2.6 million in City funding for the streetcar project. This financial commitment from the City is not only important to help keep the project moving forward, but also to help the project win future allocations of state and federal grants.

The Cincinnati Streetcar came away empty handed when the first round of TIGER funds were awarded, and one of the primary reasons for this was the lack of a local financial commitment to the project. The Feds, like any investor, like to know that they are investing in a project that is supported financially by those asking for the money. They like to know that the local community has a financial stake in the project and want to see it succeed.

If you are able, attending the meeting today at City Hall would be extremely helpful. There needs to be a majority in favor of approving these funds to make it happen, and so far there are four firm yes votes (Quinlivan, Cole, Qualls, Thomas). Both Chris Bortz and Jeff Berding appear to be on the fence, so let them know that your vote depends on them supporting this crucial investment in Cincinnati’s urban core, and let the others know that their future political aspirations outside of City Hall depend on their support as well.

If you would like to comment you should show up to City Hall 15 minutes early (meeting starts at 1pm) so that you can fill out a card to speak. If you are not quite comfortable sharing your story with members of Council, then simply show up to let them know that there is a critical mass of support for this project that won overwhelmingly at the ballot box this past November. If you are unable to show up at all, please contact members of City Council to share your thoughts.

Categories
Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati may miss opportunity with new Marine Highway program

This past Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a new initiative aimed at moving more cargo by water to avoid congested U.S. highways. America’s Marine Highway program will be administered by the Department’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) and, according to Federal officials, identify rivers and coastal routes that can carry cargo efficiently, bypassing congested roadways and reducing greenhouse gases.

“For too long, we’ve overlooked the economic and environmental benefits that our waterways and domestic seaports offer as a means of moving freight in this country,” said Secretary LaHood, speaking to transportation professionals at the North American Marine Highways & Logistics Conference in Baltimore, MD. “Moving goods on the water has many advantages: It reduces air pollution. It can help reduce gridlock by getting trucks off our busy surface corridors.”

In Cincinnati the Ohio River provides such opportunity allowing cargo to bypass the heavily congested Interstate-75 on its way to southern sea ports by taking the marine highway to ports located in New Orleans. When combined with shipping costs five times less on water than by freight truck, or three times less than freight rail, river port projects like the proposed Queensgate Terminals project become more and more attractive.

Renderings of the proposed Queensgate Terminals transfer facility on Cincinnati’s western riverfront provided.

The new federal regulation will allow regional transportation officials to apply to have specific transportation corridors or projects designated by the DOT as part of a marine highway. Such a designation would result in preferential treatment when it comes to future federal assistance from the DOT or MARAD.

“There are many places in our country where expanded use of marine transportation just makes sense,” said David Matsuda, Acting Administrator of the Maritime Administration. “It has so much potential to help our nation in many ways: reduced gridlock and greenhouse gases and more jobs for skilled mariners and shipbuilders.”

So far in 2010, Secretary LaHood has announced $58 million for the start-up or expansion of Marine Highway services awarded through the DOT’s TIGER grants program. Congress has also allocated an additional $7 million that will be awarded by MARAD later this year.

As the Federal looks to expand the usage of the nation’s Maritime Highways, Cincinnati is struggling to work out an arrangement for the development of the Queensgate Terminals project that would create a 31-acre, $26 million high-tech transfer facility along Cincinnati’s riverfront immediately west of the Central Business District.

Diagrams of the proposed Queensgate Terminals transfer facility on Cincinnati’s western riverfront provided.

The project has been held up by a slew of public resistance from west side residents, and a litany of legal troubles surrounding the sale of the land. A recent settlement forced the City of Cincinnati to deposit $1.68 million into a court escrow account for the losses incurred by the developer since September 2005 after the City had agreed to sell the property, then retracted the sale agreement.

The legal and political battles have caused so much trouble in Cincinnati that the whole project may in fact be in jeopardy. During this time the State of Ohio has pledged $9.5 million towards the proposed South Point barge terminal further upriver in Lawrence County – a move that could place potential funds for a Cincinnati barge terminal in limbo.

In an economy moving cargo shipment off of the roads, and onto trains and barges, Cincinnati may miss capitalizing on its central and prominent location along rail and water corridors, and may continue to overlook the environmental and economic benefits the Ohio River provides.

Categories
News

Ohio’s 3C rail corridor could reach 110mph speeds

Ohio’s plans for the 3C “Quick Start” passenger rail project can include speeds of up to 110mph without the need for new track construction according to a release from Linking Ohio – a citizen advocacy group started by All Aboard Ohio.

Recent news reports have indicated that top speeds of only 79mph would be possible due to current regulations, but the advocacy group cites Section 24308 of Title 49 of the United States Code that has a process that would allow systems operated by or for Amtrak to operate on freight corridors at these accelerated speeds. The appeals process would be heard by the Surface Transportation Board who would then determine whether the accelerated speeds would be safe for the proposed corridors.

Those behind Ohio’s 3C “Quick Start” Project say that while the higher speeds are possible, they are not necessarily desirable for the initial start.

“Experience with other new start passenger rail services show that improved reliability, frequent service, convenience and service amenities are important factors in attracting riders,” said the advocacy group in the release. “The 3C “Quick Start” Project has consistently been communicated as a first step to bringing high-speed passenger rail to our state, and in order to quickly offer this travel option to 6.8-million Ohioans living along the 3C corridor, Ohio can implement speeds at 79mph by making some initial upgrades to the existing tracks now being used solely for freight transportation.”

The plan currently on the table calls for upgrades to existing freight bottleneck areas and a variety of other improvements that will make passenger rail to safely operate on the same tracks as existing freight rail. Other improvement costs cover the construction of passenger rail stations, parking and “last-mile transportation options.”

“Once the initial service is up and running at 79mph, the State will begin implementing additional corridor upgrades to achieve 110mph service using the existing track infrastructure,” Linking Ohio stated. “However, there are steps and negotiations with freight railroads that will need to be navigated in order to increase speeds.”

Following this initial quick start process, officials hope to upgrade the system to even higher speeds reaching 125mph – the optimal speed for rail service between cities 100 to 500 miles apart. Any service reaching these speeds will require its own separate right-of-way and tracking. With 79mph passenger rail service not scheduled to start until 2012, 125mph service or above is something that appears to be a decade in the making.

All Aboard Ohio testimony in Washington D.C. photo provided by All Aboard Ohio.

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati’s Airport Location Failure

In an ever globalizing economic system, it becomes increasingly more important for metropolitan regions to have a strong international airport that not only provides reliable high-quality air service to the residents and businesses of that region. Cincinnati’s robust corporate community has historically helped position the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport as one of the major players in the nation thanks to a large Delta presence.

That presence is nowhere near the same today and Cincinnati’s international airport may soon be positioned to lose its Delta hub status altogether thanks to the recent Delta/Northwest merger that left the Cincinnati with the odd airport out with nearby hubs in Atlanta and Detroit.

Atlanta is Delta’s hometown and has the busiest airport, as measured by enplaned passenger, in the world. Meanwhile Detroit Metro Airport is a large newly renovated facility that was a major hub for Northwest prior to the merger. The new mega-airline no longer has a need for the overlapping hubs and seemingly has its eyes set on giving Cincinnati the treatment Pittsburgh received US Airways reduction from a prominent “hub” to a mere “destination” in 2008.

With Cincinnati’s large and growing business community, a region experiencing regional population growth, and a central location to other large metropolitan markets it would seem like Cincinnati’s international airport should be anything but the odd airport out in this shuffle – especially with recently upgraded facilities, top-of-the-line security, and large capacity. The problem might be that Cincinnati’s international airport is located in Northern Kentucky.

This is not said as a slight to Kentucky, but rather said as a reality that Northern Kentucky represents the southern most reaches of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and is very distant from the southern reaches of Dayton’s MSA that is poised to be merged with Cincinnati following the 2010 Census creating the Cincinnati-Dayton Metroplex with roughly 3.1 million people.

Imagine this: Instead of having the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Cincinnati’s south side and the Dayton International Airport on Dayton’s north side, the new metroplex has one mega-regional airport located in the middle of the two population and job centers. The draw would be so great that the airport would attract travelers from Columbus and Indianapolis alike for its profound reach much like the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport view during early stages of construction of the third parallel north/south runway (top left) – image from Landrum & Brown.

A mega-regional international airport located around the Monroe area in Butler County would been a further distance from the center cities of both Cincinnati and Dayton when compared to both cities existing airports, but Cincinnati would not have the difficult and expensive navigation over the Ohio River and Dayton would be able to benefit from an international airport with the pulling power of Cincinnati combined with their own.

The region is currently pouring $2-plus billion into the construction of a new river crossing primarily needed because of the sprawl in Northern Kentucky, and by association, the related industries that locate around airports. This money instead could have been used to construct high-quality rail connections between the population and job centers of Cincinnati and Dayton with the international airport located in northern Butler County. The inevitable metroplex then would have not only had a larger and more effective international airport serving its residents and businesses, but the metroplex would have had passenger rail connecting the two centers with one another.

Had this scenario played out, would we be talking about Detroit’s international airport experiencing reduced service instead? Would we be talking about a $2-plus billion bridge replacement over the Ohio River? Would the northern and southern sprawl outward from Cincinnati been instead consolidated into the northern corridor along I-75 that has been met with Dayton’s southern sprawl? How much economic and population impact would this have represented for the State of Ohio? Would the Cincinnati-Dayton Metroplex be an even greater center for aviation industries than it already is?

The answers to these questions may not be easily identifiable or defined, but it does seem clear that the best location for a large international airport serving the Cincinnati-Dayton Metroplex would have been in the middle of the two population and job centers – not the far southern or northern reaches.

Categories
Development News Politics

Bellevue ‘Smart Code’ workshops begin Monday

You may know Bellevue, Kentucky for its historic neighborhoods and the unique shops in the pedestrian-friendly Fairfield Avenue business district. Or you may know its “shopping center district” with big box retailers and fast food restaurants in an auto-oriented plaza. City leaders want new developments to be more like the former and less like the later. That’s why the Bellevue community is working on a new form-based zoning code that fits with the city’s motto of “Preserving the Past, Preparing for the Future.” The code will reportedly encourage walkability and the mixing of uses in new developments.

People who live, work or play in Bellevue have been able to get involved in the efforts to adopt a ‘Smart Code’ from the beginning. On January 27, the first public meeting featured architect Jeff Raser of glaserworks explaining how the code works. At the meeting, many residents were initially skeptical, not understanding the purpose or implications of the change, but came to understand the benefits as Raser answered their questions.

Raser explained that public involvement is essential if the code is to be successful. If citizens participate now, they have the chance to “prescribe” how new developments should look, feel, and function. Residents and developers will both benefit as new projects get off the ground quicker due to the reduced need for zoning variances and other time-wasting processes.

The next public meeting was held in February, allowing citizens to participate in a “visual preference survey.” Results from the meeting showed that citizens overwhelmingly wanted new developments to better fit in with existing historic structures. They also wanted to preserve public parks, plazas, and views of the Ohio River and Cincinnati skyline.

The last chance for citizens to have their voices heard will be next week, from Monday, March 22 to Wednesday, March 24, when the city is holding a charrette, or public workshop, at Bellevue’s Callahan Community Center (616 Poplar Street). Various topics will be covered throughout the charrette, and open house hours will allow citizens to share any other opinions or concerns they may have. An open house “pin up session” will be held on Thursday, March 25 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., where final results from the charrette will be presented.

Photo courtesy of the Coding Bellevue.