Trolley Folly
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WHY THE TROLLEY SHOULD
BE OPPOSED
·
This project is opposed by the Cincinnati Chapter of the NAACP, the
Green Party, the Libertarian Party, Hamilton County Business Owners,
and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes. These
groups form the WeDemandAVote.com coalition and are gathering
signatures on an initiative petition to require voter approval prior
to spending taxpayer dollars on rolling stock or right-of-way
acquisition. However city officials continue to force this project
down citizens' throats despite widespread public opposition.
·
100% of the area proposed for streetcar coverage is presently served
by taxpayer subsidized municipal buses. In fact, most of the proposed
streetcar route directly overlaps existing bus routes, further
congesting downtown streets. No plans for integration between bus and
streetcar systems have been proposed.
·
The route conspicuously avoids vast sections of the urban core,
providing poor transportation coverage. Proponents tout the economic
development potential of streetcars in other cities, but have confined
the proposed route solely to portions of the urban core that are
already fully developed. This plan is not "shovel-ready" because the
route needs to be reworked in order to provide full transportation
coverage, and full economic development coverage before it can be
viable.
·
Costs for the project (capital and operating) will be shouldered by
all 330,000+ city residents. But the project will only serve perhaps
20,000 citizens in the urban core. Excitement among the few
beneficiaries of the system is, of course, very high. However loathing
for this latest political boondoggle is even greater among the much
larger number of taxpayers who receive no benefit from it at all.
·
Tax increment financing is well established in the project area, but
provides minimal funding, due to poor route selection explained above.
This is the primary source of the vast disparity between payers and
beneficiaries. Proper route selection would allow most project costs
to be paid for out of real property appreciation in the area served,
the residents of which are also the primary beneficiaries. The current
proposal cannibalizes existing infrastructure budgets in non-served
areas.
·
It's estimated that 40 permanent jobs will be created as part of the
streetcar program. They include 15 drivers for the seven planned cars,
10 maintenance workers, 5 managers, and 10 office and clerical staff.
That's about $4.5 million per job for a $183 million capital project.
·
This project requires another year of public hearings and
reengineering before it will be a viable infrastructure project,
therefore it is not "shovel-ready." This project is confined to a tiny
portion of the Cincinnati metropolitan area which is already fully
developed, so the stimulus effect will be negligible. Long term jobs
created by this project are far too costly to justify. Therefore, this
project is not suitable for inclusion in the pending stimulus bill.
______________________________________________
|
 Auditor
Dusty Rhodes says the following about the Streetcar Plan:
"The City of Cincinnati
Trolley proposal is another "pie in the sky" dream which
would cost taxpayers untold millions with no apparent
benefit beyond allowing some local "visionaries" to
fantasize they are in Portland, Oregon."
(Click to read full article)
_______________________________________________
 County
Recorder Wayne Coates adds the following:
I would have to agree with Auditor Rhodes' assessment that
our county needs to get back to common sense governance.
(Click to read full
statement here)__________________________________
Petitioner
Stephan Louis "Takes the Bus" while Petitioning to Allow
Cincinnati Voters to Vote in November on the NOW $220
Million Trolley Plan!
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Read News Stories about the recent News
Conference
"We're 1/2 way there"
Cincinnati
Enquirer Story
Click Here
Channel
5 News Story Click Here
Tom Luken Named Honarary Chair of Campaign
------------------------------------------------
WeDemandAVote.Com formally launches Trolley Petition
Drive
Press Conference May 21, 1:30 PM
Signature totals, coalition members and campaign
leadership to be announced
(Surprise announcements to be included!)
On Thursday, May
21, 2009 at 1:30 PM at Ollie's Trolley at the intersection of
Central and Liberty Avenues in Cincnnati, Ohio the WeDemandAVote.Com
coalition will formally launch the petition drive to stop the
wasteful $200 million trolley planned by Cincinnati City Council.
At that time, signature collection totals to date will be announced,
and coalition members and campaign leadership will be introduced.
The Trolley petition drive is the fourth
petition drive for the WeDemendaVote.Com coalition. In 2007, it
placed the Super-Sized Jail Tax on the ballot with 56,951
signatures. In 2008, it placed the Red Light Camera ban and the the
Proportional Representation system of electing Council on the
ballot. Despite being massively outspent by their opponents, the
Coalition has prevailed at the ballot box in two of the three
efforts.
In 2007, the WeDemandaVote.Com coalition won the prestigous
"Modern Day Sam Adams" Award and its top prize of $10,000 from
the Sam Adams Alliance in Chicago for their community-based
organizing against the Super-Sized Jail Tax. The Trolley
petition needs 6,150 signatures. The formal filing deadline is
September 3, but petition organizers expect to complete their work
and submit their signatures much earlier than that.
_____________________________________________
Download Trolley Petition
NOW!
Click Here
Download Instructions for Trolley
Petition--Click
Here
____________________________
Click Here to Read Smitherman's Letter
_________________________________________
Click Here for Complete Archive
Final Total 56,951
Click Here
To Read The Press Release
WeDemandAVote.com Chairman, Daniel Regenold and NAACP President Christopher Smitherman announced Friday, July 13, 2007 that they have received a total of
56,951 Signatures out of 28,750 needed to place the Sales Tax issue on the Ballot in November."Our partnership of 7 organizations has worked hard to make this happen for the Voters of Hamilton County. The voters need a chance to review this $900 million Sales Tax Increase and vote on it!" said Regenold and Smitherman. The petitions now go to Hamilton County Auditor Dustry Rhodes for 10 days for public inspection then on to the Board of Elections for 10 days where signatures will be reviewed against Voter Signatures Cards. A final decision on the number of signatures approved should come around August 10, 2007.
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