Visit to Cincinnati, The Under-appreciated River Gem

We Just Got back from a 5 day trip to Cincinnati. Several posts on the way.

I know I promised several posts after my trip to Atlanta, and I still might get them up- over a year late. Cincinnati, obviously seems closer and more relevant to this blog.

Potentially Great Moment for Transit Oriented Development as The Cincinnati Streetcar Breaks Ground

Can we say it? Pittsburgh's transit situation is an epic clusterf...k with service on even the most critical core routes being cut or eliminated.

A core problem is that we have always sold transit as basically a charity item (or jobs program) and never properly connected transit investments with development. Am I excited about the opening of the North Shore Connector? Only mildly, since it mainly connects to a sports facility used a few times a year and a gambling casino targeted at a broad base of car oriented gamblers.

For purely political reasons we supported many suburban money losing routes with few riders which helped people think that transit is a waste of money. (when is the cost of a road ever questioned)

Cincinnati's streetcar excites me-because it actually is the product of a new way of thinking about how people get around and how land will be used. I'm not saying they will get this right, but they are thinking in the right way.

Ground Broken For Cincinnati Streetcar



Something tells me, suburban voters get it, which is why they hated this project from the start. The streetcar means the city property owners can use land for something other than storing cars.