We could use some bicycle parking love like this in Cincinnati at least in one or two locations. The new Central Riverfront Park might be a great opportunity and is something the park officials have hinted at given the inclusion of the Ohio River Trail into the park design that will potentially bring lots of bicycle commuters into the center city from the eastern neighborhoods.
Norwood might be an unlikely place to sell Vespas and other scooters, but I encourage you to check out Metro Scooter. They sell scooters, gear, and safety equipment. Many of the scooters they sell get upwards of 75 miles per gallon, and some even get 100mpg or better.
Like cars, scooter prices vary depending on the size, style and features, but unlike cars, scooters are far less expensive. They range in price from in the $1,000’s to around $3,000 and up. These vehicles are great for traveling in an urban environment while being light on the wallet, but there are other positive benefits as well.
Parking and maneuvering a scooter downtown is easier than a car. They take up less space than cars, so more people switching to scooters will reduce the need for parking spaces, increasing the room available for economic development. Taking more cars off the road also reduces congestion and emissions. Be sure to check out this great article for more on the scooter scene in Cincinnati.
Two-Wheeler Parking Program Update:
The City’s Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) has been studying the current two-wheeler parking locations throughout downtown over the past couple of months. In addition to the study they have continued to receive lots of community input about where future locations might be best suited.
From early results, one of the most popular parking locations is the 6th & Walnut spot which also happens to be the closest location to Fountain Square. As a result the City is really trying to find another location with close proximity to Fountain Square to offer the 6th & Walnut parking spots some relief.
So far the City has identified three additional two-wheeler parking locations in the downtown area. Mel Thomas, from the DOTE, is really encouraging people to continue to send ideas for more spots as their next round of studies will start to look at additional neighborhoods outside of the downtown area.
Another item that will eventually be studied is whether to keep the parking spots free for two-wheeler users, or whether the city should start charging some kind of rate for the spots. All of this will be worked out as this is still a “pilot program” and is assumed to have kinks that need to be worked out.
Thomas encourages people to share their thoughts on all this and more by June 5th by sending emails to twowheeler@cincinnati-oh.gov.
You may very well have heard of the phrase before, but it is something that I often come back to when discussing budget issues especially during an economically troubling time.
There is no doubt about it that we as a community are facing hard times just like the rest of the nation. Luckily for Cincinnati we have fared better than most, but it is almost guaranteed that during times like these that some people will suggest that the best thing to do is tighten our proverbial belts and hunker down until times get better.
Not only is this contrary to Cincinnati’s past where we have built some of our most prominent structures and accomplished some of our most significant feats during tough economic times, but it is a bad move for our communities.
When all the private sector industries are cutting back, and putting people out of work, the last thing we need is government doing the same. What we need to be doing is stabilizing our community investments and looking for opportunities to grow our community and its assets.
Unfortunately the news out today is that Leslie Ghiz (R), who once was a part of the bipartisan coalition of politicians that support the modern streetcar proposal for Cincinnati, is now rescinding her support because of budgetary concerns.
Instead Ghiz would rather “rechannel” $800,000 approved to study Uptown route alternatives , for the proposed streetcar system, to hire two new city prosecutors to “combat blight and nuisance issues” and purchase electronic-monitoring units for Hamilton County so that the county can monitor inmates turned away from county jails who are placed on house arrest.
Not only are the alternatives misguided on a variety of levels, they present the same old tired position in Cincinnati that we stray away from something new, something bold and something that could truly transform the city.
Time and time again we tend to go with safe option and stray away from anything different. While this conservative approach has served us well through many economic downturns by not hurting us too bad, it has also stymied us from becoming the truly great city we could become.
We are no longer considered the “Paris of the west.” Nor are we representative of America’s first boomtown. Instead we seem to fit right in with many of the beleaguered Midwestern cities who also employ a similar conservative approach when it comes to taking bold and decisive actions on new things.
Public safety certainly is important and it is the core function of what government is charged with doing, but at the same time we can not allow public safety to consume all of our resources especially when they are measures meant to react to crime rather than solving the root issues at play that create the criminal behavior to begin with.
The streetcar in this issue just happens to be the most prominent political ploy at this given time and acts as the scapegoat for politicians like Ghiz. In reality the proposed modern streetcar system will revitalize Cincinnati’s center city which will in turn bolster city coffers and allow the entire city and region to be more prosperous.
This prosperity could then in turn be used to fund additional public safety programs or might even act as a means to lifting some people out of poverty and they cycle of crime by providing additional job and economic opportunities. To quote former President Bill Clinton, “it’s the economy stupid.”
This Week In Soapbox (TWIS) you can read about Rookwood Pottery’s new OTR digs, new restaurants in College Hill and Newport, downtown Cincinnati residential trends, new life for the historic Crosley Building in Camp Washington, a new water sports complex on Cincinnati’s upper westside and my feature article on Ohio’s 3-C Corridor that would introduce high-speed rail to Ohio’s primary metropolitan areas.
If you’re interested in staying in touch with some of the latest development news in Cincinnati please check out this week’s stories and sign up for the weekly E-Zine sent out by Soapbox Cincinnati.
TWIS 5/19:
This Week In Soapbox (TWIS) will be a weekly feature that highlights the various development news stories I have written for Soapbox Cincinnati. You will most likely see the variety of photographs and some general commentary about the issues and places I have covered in that week’s edition on here, but the full stories will never be duplicated.
So if you’re interested in staying in touch with some of the latest development news in Cincinnati please check out this week’s stories and sign up for the weekly E-Zine sent out by Soapbox Cincinnati.
TWIS 5/12: