its not over, its just beginning

That's what Rob Richardson, one of the original founders of Cincinnatians for Progress said, and he's right. The streetcar has come too far to stop now.
Yesterday thousands of Streetcar supporters lined up two to four or five people deep for almost a mile along the length of the completed streetcar line to show solidarity.
One thing I want to point out, everyone keeps repeating the advantages of the streetcar and how much it will cost to stop. But let's be totally honest now. The streetcar is a battle of egos and power. Once the streetcar is built young professionals will pour into the urban core. You think the old guard power brokers are happy about this? Hell no. They will still have their millions if they stop the streetcar, they aren't wasting their own money but ours. All the better to waste our money if they hang onto their power base.
But there are thousands of people already working to make sure that doesn't happen.

They had 500 balloons to hand out and probably every other person had one, so maybe 1000+ people at the rally. Interestingly, the opposition has never had more than 15 people show up to any of their events.

Ryan Messer of We Believe in Cincinnati has helped take up the fight along side Cincinnatians for Progress.



Its been a bizarre couple days. Chris Smitherman has a conflict of interest in the streetcar, a conflict that he has known about since at least 2009. And then this letter from CAF USA, the streetcar manufacturer,

"...CAF has already incurred or committed a large part of the total project cost. This kind of projects involve a large amount of resources upfront in the design phase as well as in the placement of contracts with our sub suppliers which involves dozens of companies mostly located in the United States. CAF would have to cancel all the sub contracts which will, of course, include cancellation costs.
We hope all members of the City Council can be made aware of the enormous expense a cancellation of this contract would entail and that reason prevails..."

Seeing how train maker Talgo is suing the state of Wisconsin for $65.9 million for canceling their plans, canceling our streetcar will get very expensive very quickly.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
3 comments