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COLUMBUS City Council meeting – Streetcars to get public hearing next week
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 3:06 AM
By Robert Vitale
Columbus City Council members complained last week that they’ve been left out of the loop on Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s streetcar plan.
Last night, they made the loop bigger.
The council will host its first public hearing next week on the $103 million proposal to build a 2.8-mile rail line between Downtown and Ohio State University. The council’s decision came in an impromptu debate at the end of the weekly meeting.
The day and time haven’t been firmed up, but Councilwoman Maryellen O’Shaughnessy said she wants the session to take place before the council votes on Coleman’s proposed 2008 capital budget.
That budget, which includes a $2 million request to begin design and engineering work for the streetcar line, is scheduled for council action on May 5.
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Streetcars to get public hearing next week
By: lazyfish
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OMG I want a magnetic lift train that can save me from wars in the future. :shock:
Yeah, I muted him.
This hasn’t been the lynch mob I expected. Maybe I tuned in too late.
The big thing is the big picture and I do agree that there needs to be a larger vision and plan to explain the viability of the Streetcar. Some of the fantasy maps here have left me drooling.
Does it strike anyone else as…well am at a loss for the right word….but the people who are getting up saying why does everything revolve around downtown and not MY neighborhood. Maybe someone can help me out here…
I think the word is “sucky”…and yes…
people often suck.
p.s. Pissed I can’t be there, but am up to my ass in engine grease and transmission fluid…which I wouldn’t be if I could RIDE A MOTHER F’ING TRAIN!
Thanks.
It just seemed to miss the point that the 2.8 mile stretch connects: 4-5 colleges, 3-4 museums, city, state and federal government, 2 (eventually) sport venues and 4-5 theaters and other performance space, not to mention the multitude of hotels and the convention center. Yes, lets blow millions to run a rail line to Reynoldsburg.
Don’t get me wrong, Columbus needs to address a lot of issues. Transit being one of them. The streetcars are not the be all, end all solution, but offer a great point.
Speaking of Reynoldsburg, the number 2 has a park and ride that way correct? So in theory you wouldn’t have to, say, drive to downtown and pay 9 dollars in parking to ride a train to campus? The number 2, in theory would, take you right there.
I’m watching the stream but have only been since about 7:30. Has anyone suggested making high pedestrian, bike and streetcar only? I really think that would be awesome.
One or two suggested expanding bicycle infrastructure through the city. Some touched on the street creating denser, more livable cities.
I think it is a wonderful idea, with the availability of several major east-west connectors away adjacent to High it would not be difficult. Then we again we live in Columbus. Maybe when gas hits $10/gallon this will be doable?
Heheh… Tigertree, spankin’ the mayor for his absence… :shock:
Someone should tell that guy to read CU so that he’d know Wendy’s is a goner :)
I love all the “There is nothing downtown” comments…
Maybe we need to invite them to Saturday’s at Warehouse Cafe?
that kid was good. he’s right that it’s never gonna get any cheaper.
Oh yes, I thought he was too, just a little ribbing.
Core, is this the guy we were worried about???? :shock:
Yeah, the last guy… whoa… “Yeah, I ride in a limousine, cuz I’m sick!”
Overall, at least from the part I watched, seemed like it was pretty evenly split between the pros and the cons. I hope the cons were seen by most as being as wacky (and easily dismissible) a group of people as I thought they came off as being.
Saved the best for last!!
Dr. Hodge of the Earth Temple (???) was AWESOME!! He and others like him are the best reasons to watch council meetings. I do have to agree that the city should commit some dollars to Public Access TV again. I miss Damon Zex :cry:
Oh yeah, this was about streetcars… I want them too! I am surprised there weren’t more naysayers, but I missed the first half. :roll:
wow. what if they did put that $1 mil into public access tv? cooool…
i mean $100 mil :?
Who is up to join me @ Bodega after?
A.
What business do you own? I thought you were a secretary.
Lol. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I formed a picture of Andrew in my head as an attorney. Not a ambulance chaser, or defense attorney, but as a corporate attorney, the ones that would work at Jones Day for instance.
Flattered, I guess. Though if I were a corporate atty, I think I wouldn’t last long for wasting all these billable hrs on CU.
My wife is a physician and I manage her practice. We own our building as well. Speaking ‘as a business owner’ is also speaking as the collective. I also work on other projects, not of which are relevant to streetcars.
I got to say my little piece, based on what we’ve garnered from patients and others.
It was very interesting overall. What I said a while ago is playing out though : COTA’s legacy of failing is coming back to haunt both in general terms of how public transit is perceived and how many people have concerns that the streetcar focus will mean further diminishment of COTA and more reneged promises.
A.
It just seemed to miss the point that the 2.8 mile stretch connects: 4-5 colleges, 3-4 museums, city, state and federal government, 2 (eventually) sport venues and 4-5 theaters and other performance space, not to mention the multitude of hotels and the convention center.
COTA connects all of these places too! And we already have the bus system in place! No need to spend millions of public dollars building a redundant transportation system!
I’d much rather spend money improving our existing bus system. It’d cost less, and could serve more people in Columbus.
If we had higher population density downtown there might be call for a newer mass transit system, but most of the growth in the county is taking place around the outerbelt, not downtown. (Someone posted MORPCs 20 year forecast in another thread.) A streetcar may be cool, but that’s not a enough of a reason to justify the public investment. Transit solutions follow population growth, not the other way around. This ain’t no field of dreams…
No.
Just here in Columbus, look at the population and commerce centers which sprang up in the middle of fields after 270 was built.
Transportation can and does mold population geography.
A.
It just seemed to miss the point that the 2.8 mile stretch connects: 4-5 colleges, 3-4 museums, city, state and federal government, 2 (eventually) sport venues and 4-5 theaters and other performance space, not to mention the multitude of hotels and the convention center.
COTA connects all of these places too! And we already have the bus system in place! No need to spend millions of public dollars building a redundant transportation system!
I’d much rather spend money improving our existing bus system. It’d cost less, and could serve more people in Columbus.
If we had higher population density downtown there might be call for a newer mass transit system, but most of the growth in the county is taking place around the outerbelt, not downtown. (Someone posted MORPCs 20 year forecast in another thread.) A streetcar may be cool, but that’s not a enough of a reason to justify the public investment. Transit solutions follow population growth, not the other way around. This ain’t no field of dreams…
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of questions yet to be answered.
As to connecting, lets think about this. If I were to go to the bus stop off OSU at the Gateway area. I could pretty much take that down through the Short North, into downtown and out east. But to go from OSU-CSCC, which a good number of students do, you have to take the number 2 to a point and transfer or walk. The streetcar route in its conception does a considerable job in streamlining the system and making it convenient. The Art Museum is another example of this: #2 bus line to transfer at Broad for the #10. As far as I know, you would basically hop the streetcar servicing the green line. You go to one stop, connect and don’t get off till your destination. Correct me if I am wrong, here, someone.
I think in this case transit issues need to go hand in hand with development, regardless of population. Even without a large residency population, downtown is a destination. Streetcars can only improve that.
I stated above a few posts that the city needs to present a big picture vision of how this one little piece would work in the puzzle. Show us the ideas-as off the wall as they could be-for a new City Center; show us a massive commuter rail project connected in with light rail. If they do this, it will make more sense and, I believe, bring legitimacy to downtown redevelopment.
And of course the relationship between COTA and the light rail system need to be addressed, namely the redundancy.
COTA connects all of these places too! And we already have the bus system in place! No need to spend millions of public dollars building a redundant transportation system!
diesel: $4.20/gal today, going up maybe to double that within 5 years by some analysts and unlikely to ever go back down, sold to us in large part by people who do not like us…
electricity: somewhat better, at least a local product. It is what people used before cheap oil changed everything.