Friday, July 09, 2010

The little engine that will never die

The effort to get a passenger rail white elephant in Cincinnati got closer to happening when the feds decided to waste 25 million on the project..................

The long, contentious debate over whether Cincinnati’s proposed streetcar system will be built has effectively ended, with a $25 million federal grant announced Thursday having made the controversial project all but a done deal.

The ferocity of the verbal salvos on both sides Thursday, however, demonstrates that the debate over whether the streetcar should be built likely will continue unabated for years.


By pushing the local, state and federal funds approved to date for the Downtown-to-Uptown streetcar plan above $114 million, Thursday’s grant brings the project’s $128 million budget within reach.

More.......

A couple of months ago, I received this comment from one of these train obsessed nitwits.........

If you aren’t convinced Cincinnati will benefit from building a modern streetcar, here is some information on the Cincinnati Streetcar:

http://cincystreetcar.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/not-convinced-cincinnati-would-benefit-from-streetcars/


I briefly looked over some of these studies and reports and here's my response. Can you name one......... seriously......... one public works project that ever 1) came in under budget 2) delivered on the projected use and 3) didn't involve an increased public subsidy after completion?

Let me offer some of the better projects the city of Cincinnati has under taken in its history.

Do you know of the Cincinnati Subway?
The Cincinnati Subway is a set of unused tunnels and stations for a rapid transit system beneath the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is recognized as the largest abandoned subway tunnel in the United States.[1] Construction took place in the early twentieth century, but the project was not completed so it never hosted a paying customer.[2]

Need something more recent? How about Fountain Square West?

Across the street from our cornerstone civic area, our city leaders decided that the department store (Elder Beerman) residing on that strip was not up to quality of the real estate at hand. The original plan was to build a high rise hotel /office building with lots of retail space.

After the city blew millions and years of planning on acquisition, demolition and construction, it was ultimately blackmailed into providing the land to a department store operation (Macy's).

How about our beloved stadiums?

The original projection was that the county would provide $800 million into the construction of football and baseball fields.

The voters trusted that the county representatives would negotiate favorable lease conditions on behalf of the taxpayer's. The end result were stadiums that cost over one billion, the most ridiculous leases in all of pro sports and now we're looking at tax increases because the county cannot service the bond payments that need to be paid.

How about The Banks?

As part of the stadium deal(s), the county tore out a whole section of entertainment areas for the room to build the stadiums. We were promised that the space between the stadium would be a whole new area dedicated to retail and entertainment projects. It's been over ten years and we're still about three years before anything of substance goes into that space.

So I'll make my friend Brad or any other of you train obsessed morons a wager. I'll bet my life saving against yours the actual results of this white elephant will never do what one of these surveys or studies says it will do.

Mean while, the city will manage to blow 100 million on a project as it sits in financial insolvency.

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