Passenger rail might be banned in Cincinnati?

[thelakelander]

I thought we had it rough here.

'Poison Pill' amendment is about less, not 'more'

Editorial: Cincinnati Rail Proposal


A funny thing happened to Cincinnati on the way to the streetcar - funny, but certainly not amusing.

A proposed city charter amendment on this November's ballot has not only altered the debate over the city's plan for a $185 million, riverfront-to-Uptown fixed-rail streetcar route, it has all but obliterated it. It has sucked the air out of any substantive discussion about such a system's actual merits.

Instead, public debate - no doubt as the amendment's creators, avowed streetcar foes, intended - has focused on an acrimonious disagreement about what its wording actually means and what its effect would be:

Is it about the streetcar?

Or is it about more than the streetcar?

Unfortunately, its proponents' rhetorical sleight of hand continues to divert attention from the real answer:

It is about less. Far less.

And Cincinnatians ought to recognize it for what it is.

It is about less because it is DECEPTIVE in its language and intent.

The Charter amendment, supported by forces headed by the Cincinnati NAACP and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes (COAST), is a classic example of lawyerly weasel-wording. It proposes to "prevent the expenditure of monies by the city for right-of-way acquisition or improvements for passenger-rail transportation (e.g., trolley or streetcar)" without a public vote.

Christopher Smitherman, Cincinnati NAACP president, says it's meant to target the streetcar, but was written broadly in case city leaders decide to give the project a different name, like "trolley" - or perhaps his personal, derisive favorite, "choo-choo train."

That's nonsense. Christopher Finney, co-founder of COAST, wrote the ballot language. He is an attorney. He knew what he was doing. He could have made it clear and specific to this proposed project.

Instead, he fuzzed it with an "e.g." and widened its scope to affect any city participation even peripherally related to the Eastern Corridor project, the Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland "3C" passenger-rail proposal, a regional commuter light-rail plan or any other such project in the foreseeable future.

The effect is to divert and distract, to sow confusion.

A "Yes" vote on the Charter amendment effectively means "No" on the streetcar, but its faux-populist "let the people vote" cachet might draw support from people who otherwise might favor a streetcar. A "No" on the amendment, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily translate into streetcar support.

More deception: Finney claims that virtually every other city that has built a streetcar has put it to a public vote. But that's apples and oranges. Most were votes on new taxes or bond issues to fund a system - not a vote on any "right-of-way acquisition or construction of improvements," which would leave Cincinnati hamstrung, in an unenviable class by itself.

And as Cincinnatians for Progress, a group formed to oppose the ballot language, points out, a number of other cities did build their streetcar systems without a public vote.

Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper is right: This amendment is a "poison pill," exactly as its proponents intend. In selling it to the public, they want to have it both ways. In fact, they want to have it three ways.

Smitherman says it's an anti-streetcar measure, and COAST's Web site urges residents to vote "Yes" to "Kill the streetcar!"

COAST's blog constantly refers to it as an "anti-boondoggle Charter amendment," citing a range of development projects it could or should have stopped.

And yet Finney told The Enquirer recently: "The only thing that we're having this November is a referendum on the power of the people vs. the power of the legislature."

So which is it? This deception doesn't even rise to the level of "smoke and mirrors." Mirrors would denote some sort of reflection. This is just smoke.

It is about less because it is DIVISIVE for our community.

The campaign in favor of this amendment is effectively tapping into deep-seated, long-standing resentments based on race, class and neighborhood.

Its proponents raise issues of trust - specifically, a lack of trust by people who feel city leaders have mishandled major projects, and have left their neighborhoods and communities out of the economic benefits. They cite, with some validity, a litany of projects - the Bengals stadium, the Transit Center under Second Street, the Banks project and more - as examples. Their concerns should not be minimized, but they shouldn't paralyze future actions either.

The jury's still out on the ultimate value of those projects, but they provide convenient flashpoints for the pro-amendment campaign - which, in turn, gives not only streetcar opponents, but anybody with a gripe against the city, a focal point for their displeasure.

Some of these concerns, particularly in the African-American community, have validity. In this struggling economy, people need jobs, and they need transportation to and from those jobs. They don't see an immediate payoff from a streetcar system. Smitherman implies that the project is taking resources that could be directed toward immediate job creation.

In reality, the streetcar project would use dedicated capital dollars that cannot be used in the general fund for regular city programs. And it wouldn't start at all unless the city receives at least $60 million in federal funds.

But it's hard for streetcar supporters to make those distinctions clear. Opponents aren't buying it. This is one reason why we advocated recently that the city put the streetcar project on the back burner.

The message on streetcars is not getting through, especially with all the problems the city faces - huge budget deficits, pending layoffs of city employees, problems with the pension system and other city programs.

City Council's penchant for public-relations gaffes - such as proposing to spend $3.2 million on recycling bins a day before announcing job layoffs - doesn't help ease divisions, either.

The city must get its act together. Cincinnati leaders must develop a smart plan, articulated well to the public, not only for a streetcar but other investments that will help residents now and later. But that's difficult in this environment, during a council/mayoral election year, amid all the rhetoric surrounding the charter amendment.

It doesn't help that Finney calls Cincinnati a "shrinking" city that needs to "get back to basics" - whatever that means.

Let's be clear: This amendment fits into what COAST proudly declares is its larger, long-term agenda to block any "additional spending and taxes," regardless of its economic worth. It is a formula that would ignore the city's pressing needs for more investment, resources, growth, development and long-term job creation.

Supporters of the anti-rail amendment, in effect, are trying to force the city into a rancorous discussion about how to divide the existing pie, rather than how to make the pie bigger for everybody.

It is about less because it is DANGEROUS to representative democracy.

The amendment would further us on an unwise path to a "government by referendum" that lessens the effectiveness of the representatives we elect.

We already see the effects growing in our area, on the state level and elsewhere in the country. Putting "everything" up to a general vote, as some proponents actually advocate, makes important public policies vulnerable to high-tech, high-decibel demagoguery, and makes a mockery of the system that the founders of this nation and state crafted.

We are a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. The initiative system exists to give the people a safety valve, a direct say where needed. But it can't extend to every possible issue of consequence.

That's what we elect representatives to do. We grant them the power and responsibility to study issues intensely, discuss them thoroughly, craft sound plans and forge reasonable compromises - not to simply execute the results of an up-or-down vote. If they fail, we vote them out.

City Councilman Chris Bortz, a leading streetcar advocate, says it best: "I think there's a real slippery slope here, a dangerous trend. And we only need to look to California to see what happens when you end up in a situation where you're voting by referendum and you're governing that way. When you hand it off to special interests, which is ultimately who ends up on either side of many of these ballot initiatives, then it becomes all about rhetoric, and it can lose the concrete facts that are underlying the decision-making."

Lawmakers become less responsive, less accountable to the people if every significant decision is taken from them.

The proposed charter amendment is fraught with economic peril as well. For example, the "3C" proposals are already rife with potential conflicts over the location of a terminal in the Cincinnati area, its effect on neighborhoods, the funding mechanisms, and more. The amendment's passage would only complicate all those issues.

Debate over the streetcar ought to focus on issues such as this: whether the anticipated economic development along the route, and increased tax revenues to the city from that development, would sufficiently outweigh the expenses of operating and perhaps subsidizing the system.

But, as worded, the amendment clearly would delay and confuse any move the city made, however small, regarding rail transit.

In an economic environment in which leaders need to act quickly and smartly on development to make sure our area isn't left behind in the dust, that's dangerous.

Deceptive. Divisive. Dangerous: Three "D"s that amount to an "F" in our book.

This proposed charter amendment is enabled by fears, fueled by resentments and driven by cynical agendas.

It deserves to fail - because Cincinnatians should not settle for less.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090808/EDIT01/908090343/1019/EDIT/Editorial++Derail+Charter+amendment

[ralpho37]

Cincinnati is notorious for enacting these types of things.  This is very sad for Cincinnati too because it is a city rich in streetcar history.

Hopefully our city planners don't get any bright ideas from this...

[charlestondxman]

I used to get WLW on XM, and I heard horror stories about their transit system, and their plan was the butt of jokes by the local talk show hosts.

They tried to start their own commuter rail system with a half-cent sales tax in 2002, but it failed by a 2 to 1 margin. They would have a good system, but since there's only one Amtrak route going thru Cincinnati, they don't have a base to start.

[Ocklawaha]

I used to get WLW on XM, and I heard horror stories about their transit system, and their plan was the butt of jokes by the local talk show hosts.

They tried to start their own commuter rail system with a half-cent sales tax in 2002, but it failed by a 2 to 1 margin. They would have a good system, but since there's only one Amtrak route going thru Cincinnati, they don't have a base to start.

Actually Cincinnati has one of the greatest rail terminals in the midwest. Not unlike Jacksonville, they have found other uses for it, but it's plan and primary focus is still rail. Fill it with bones and it's a train station, statues of soldiers? It's still a train station . Line the walls with paintings? Still a train station. Fill it with the wonders of science? Its still a train station.
yet like Jacksonville, Cincinnati can't seem to figure out where to put a train station... DUH?

As for only one Amtrak route, this is only half true. The 3-C's route (Cleveland - Columbus - Cincinnati) plus routes to Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, Pittsburg, Washington, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis and JACKSONVILLE all have a traditional hub in Cincinnati.

Anyone remember the "Amtrak train survey" I posted some time back? One of the favorite routes of Jaxson's was that of The Royal Palm/Ponce De Leon trains:

Section #One

Buffalo
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Cincinnati

Section # Two

Detroit
Toledo
Lima
Cincinnati

Section # Three

Chicago
Indianapolis
Cincinnati

COMBINED TRAINS

Cincinnati
Lexington
Knoxville
Chattanooga
Atlanta
Macon
Valdosta
Jacksonville

Section #One

Jacksonville
Orlando
Lakeland
Tampa

Section #Two

Jacksonville
Waldo
Ocala
Lakeland
Ft. Myers

Section #Three

Jacksonville
St. Augustine
Daytona
Melbourne
Ft. Pierce
West Palm
Ft. Lauderdale
Miami

Breaking the train into 3 sections to terminate it or originate it, means this one train, each way daily, could do the job of 14 trains. It's the magic of railroading. It's on only one Amtrak route because even though Amtrak was born with all the equipment it needed, it was only fed one tit yearly until President Obama came along. Every politician up until Obama-Biden has take one quick look and said, "This baby is sick, (undernourished), so let's kill it!"

THIS IS WHY CINCINNATI NEEDS TO BE AT JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL AS WE SET THE AGENDA FOR AMTRAK IN THE SOUTHEAST. Time for "The Queen City of The Midwest," to meet "The Gateway City of Florida," emperor of the rails.

Cincinnati also has a fantastic opportunity to use STREETCARS and lay the tracks in the Subway. The tunnels and even some of the stations were built then the tracks were never laid. Run on the surface in the pretty, urban neighborhoods, then duck into the tunnels for the run below downtown.

And as Cincinnatian for Progress, a group formed to oppose the ballot language, points out, a number of other cities did build their streetcar systems without a public vote.

"Cincinnatian," These anti railroad guys didn't just coin this phrase! In fact they don't even know the history of the word, because if they did it would embarrass the hell out of them: Cincinnatian, Powhattan Arrow, and Pocahontas, are all three RAILROAD WORDS, having once been the names of the three primary streamliners between Washington, The Tidewater, Virginia and the Midwest.

I think both JTA and the COJ are aware that even if the streetcars ran completely empty, they will still be profitable to the city as a development tool. Norfolk is losing population but the streetcars have already created a building boom in downtown. Yeah, downtown in a city running in reverse. Big money, big projects and big names are all part of Norfolks streetcar strategy.

OCKLAWAHA