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Press Release wrote
Mayor Coleman Unveils Streetcar Financing Plan
‘Benefit zone’ to provide 80% of funding
March 27, 2008
Streetcars could be riding the rails in Columbus in 2012 under a plan outlined tonight by Mayor Michael B. Coleman, City Councilmember Maryellen O’Shaughnessy, and a team of engineers and financial experts. The team brought together the Mayor’s 42-member Streetcar Working Group and residents to outline the funding scenario to pay for a $103 million starter line that would travel 2.8 miles up High Street from Mound to The Ohio State University campus.
“We’ve done our homework and asked the toughest questions, and it is clear that streetcars can be good for Columbus,” said Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “A sleek, modern Streetcar system will reconnect neighborhoods and downtown, connect workers to jobs in a time of high gas prices, help build our economy, and we can do it all without a citywide tax increase.”
The plan represents more than two years of study by the City, businesses, civic leaders, and most recently by HDR, a national engineering firm, and John Rosenberger, formerly of Capitol South, who developed the detailed financial scenario. An economic impact study commissioned by the Streetcar Working Group from the Danter Company estimated $300 million in private investment in new housing, jobs, commercial development and visitor activity along the first phase of the streetcar line.
“Along these routes you have a lot of people – some 50,000 students, 141,000 workers at 6,000 companies and another 60,000 people who live between campus and downtown Columbus. Every year we get more than one million visitors for conferences and conventions. If we share the costs among all those who benefit from having access to streetcars, we can build a great system by our Bicentennial in 2012,” said Maryellen O’Shaughnessy, City Council Member.
The funding scenario presented to the Streetcar Working Group during a public meeting held at City Hall calls for 80% of the funding to be generated from within a ‘benefit zone’ drawn approximately three blocks on either side of the Streetcar line.
All parking revenue from the ‘benefit zone’ would be dedicated to streetcars, including a increase on metered parking, and a 4% surcharge on paid parking and ticket admissions to sporting and entertainment events. Fares and an annual funding contribution from The Ohio State University would bring ‘benefit zone’ funding to 80% of the cost needed to build and operate the starter line.
“This is a funding scenario that asks a lot of people to pay a little, so that no one has to pay a lot,” said John Rosenberger, a local expert on public private partnerships and downtown development. “We have been timid too long, streetcars would be a bold, transportation option that would drive a new generation of investment.”
While the majority of funds come from those who live, work and visit the ‘benefit zone’, the remaining 20% will be paid for by the greater community, which also benefits from the economic growth of the area. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) has already pledged $20 million to the project.
Mayor Coleman proposed an initial investment from the City Capital Budget of $2 million in 2008 to begin engineering the project. Under this scenario, the streetcars could be rolling as early as 2012, in time for the City’s Bicentennial celebration, with construction starting as early as 2010.
In making its recommendation to move forward, in November 2006, the Streetcar Working Group identified several benefits that streetcars would bring the city including economic development, connectivity, help with parking, and green transportation. The streetcar also fulfills part of Mayor Coleman’s Downtown Business Plan that has already attracted two billion dollars of investment since 2002.
The full report is available here (PDF), residents can leave feedback by writing to: streetcars@downtowncolumbus
Comments
- Rmoiii: Where are the photo's of the current construction going on in the short nor
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
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Streetcar Financing Plan – How it all works
By: Walker
Related Posts:
Don’t you dare diss Da’ Burg of burgs: Reynoldsburg. Home to famed rapper Lil’ Bow Wow and the always awesome Reynoldsburg Raiders. Raider pride! Oh yeah, they also have a nice Blockbuster video—and stuff.
You love Reynoldsburg so much you fled the country for greener pastures up north, eh? And you forgot about Olde Reynoldsburg. :lol: But back on topic, I can’t remember the guy’s name but he was in an article in the SN Gazette who promoted streetcar systems for the centers (or create them where lacking) of suburbs which could all be connected to a light-rail system. Think of all of the new cool little Downtowns (more Creekside-like stuff) and improved ones (think more walkable, bikeable development in Worthington and Westerville).
That’s extremely annoying for the fucking media to spread false information like that.
WHAT
THE
FUCK
:!:
That’s extremely annoying for the fucking media to spread false information like that.
WHAT
THE
FUCK
:!: Rut Roh! Go Walker, Go Walker, GO! Go Walker, Go Walker Go
Edit: Oh, this wasn’t tongue in cheek, I completely agree with Walker!
Was this live or taped? What station was the reporter from?
I’m glad this is going forward and we just have to wait for legislation later this year. I’m sure I mentioned this before, but Toronto ripped out 6 miles of streetcar tracks and installed new ones. Only took one year. Albuquerque had their first public meetings about streetcars in 2006 and will have them up and running in 2009.
And here we are it’s going to take two years for more planning/engineering, as though installing 4 inch deep tracks are going to require that much new engineering. I thought the great thing about streetcars is how relatively quick and easy they are to install. Granted, it took a lot longer in Portland, but that was more political as they were the 1st to look into it and it was more of an uncertainty among the public. 6 years before I can ride it? I was 24 when they started talking about this and now I have to wait til I’m 30? :?
Then tack on the time it takes to see if it’s successful before they start planning the mythic Phase 2. So that gives you another 5-10 years before you can ride anything on a rail anywhere other than High Street.
Unless they immediately implement my Rollercoaster plan.
I proposed a Cannon Travel Center shortly after Secret of Mana came out. Sadly, the wheels have been turning slowly on that front, too. :wink:
Friday, March 28, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mayor Michael Coleman on Thursday announced the city’s plan to pay for a proposed streetcar line.
Coleman said about 80 percent of the funding for the $103 million project would come from a four percent fee increase on things such as downtown parking and entertainment, 10TV’s Brittany Westbrook reported.
The fee would apply to sporting and entertainment tickets sold within six blocks of the streetcar line. There would also be a fee increase for parking meters. Drivers would pay up to 75 cents more an hour.
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Vaccuum tubes like at the bank would be more futuristic than cannons. Slides would be energy efficient.
Vaccuum tubes like at the bank would be more futuristic than cannons. Slides would be energy efficient.
Pneumatic Tubes!!!!
“from wikipedia”
Pneumatic transportation
(Pneumatic Transportation here in general refers to the transporting of people inside pneumatic tubes.)
In 1812, George Medhurst first proposed, but never implemented, blowing passenger carriages through a tunnel.
Atmospheric railways, on which the tube was laid between the rails, with a piston running in it suspended from the train through a sealable slot in the top of the tube, were operated as follows:[2]
1844-54: Dublin and Kingstown Railway’s Dalkey Atmospheric Railway between Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) and Dalkey, Ireland (1.75 mi (3 km))
1846-47: London and Croydon Railway between Croydon and New Cross, London, England (7.5 mi (12 km))
1847-48: Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s South Devon Railway between Exeter and Newton Abbot, England (20 mi (32 km))
1847-60: Paris–Saint-Germain railway between Bois de Vésinet and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France (2 km (1 mi))
In 1861, the Pneumatic Despatch Company built a system large enough to move a person, although it was intended for parcels. The October 10, 1865 inauguration of the new Holborn Station was marked by having the Duke of Buckingham, the chairman, and some of the directors of the company blown through the tube to Euston (a five minute trip).
A 550-meter pneumatic passenger railway was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1864. This was a prototype for a proposed Whitehall Pneumatic Railway that would have run under the River Thames linking Waterloo and Charing Cross. Digging was started in 1865 but was stopped in 1868 due to financial problems.
Alfred Ely Beach’s experimental pneumatic elevated subway on display in 1867In 1867 at the American Institute exhibition in New York, Alfred Ely Beach demonstrated a 32.6 m long, 1.8 m diameter pipe that was capable of moving 12 passengers plus conductor. In 1869, the Beach Pneumatic Transit Company of New York constructed in secret a 95 m long, 2.7 m diameter pneumatic subway line under Broadway. The line only operated for a few months, closing after Beach was unsuccessful in getting permission to extend it.
In the 1960s, Lockheed and MIT with the United States Department of Commerce conducted feasibility studies on a vactrain system powered by ambient atmospheric pressure and “gravitational pendulum assist” to connect cities on the East Coast of the US. They calculated that the run between Philadelphia and New York City would average 174 meters per second, that is 626 km/h.
When those plans were abandoned as too expensive, Lockheed engineer L.K. Edwards founded Tube Transit, Inc. to develop technology based on “gravity-vacuum transportation”. In 1967 he proposed a Bay Area Gravity-Vacuum Transit for California that would run along side the then-under-construction BART system. It was never built.
Look at the Pneumatic Transportation section of this wiki article- Now that would be innovative.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube
Hmm. The idea of being sucked through a giant straw gives me the wiggins. I’ll stick with being shot out of a cannon, thanks.
I think you’d have to get into a capsule first. You could choose between opaque (pussy) and transparent capsules.
The financial plan is online:
http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/development/docs/ColumbusStreetcarProjectFinancialPlan.pdf
Much better logo….
Will that first car even fit under the arches? It’s HUGE!
Rendering from the report:
Ugly!
But style is the last thing I could care about at this point.
I think I would also really prefer it to be one bright color.
Posted by Paul Bonneville on March 28, 2008
Last night he Mayor reconvened the Columbus Streetcar Working Group to present the proposed funding plan that was assembled by the contractor HDR over the past several months. Long story short, the streetcars have passed the funding hurdle in as much as to whether or not is looks like we’ll be able to fund a system without additional taxes. The streetcar system has an official “go ahead” as of last night.
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