Blog — Vote No on Issue 9

Monday, June 15, 2009

Ohio Cities Begging for High Speed Rail

While the naysayers who are pushing the Anti-Progress Charter Amendment are throwing up road blocks that would prevent connecting Cincinnati with Cleveland and Chicago via high speed rail as part of President Obama's transportation plan, other Ohio cities are hoping the rail will stop in their town, according to the Enquirer.

Why? Well, because the high speed rail will be a boon to economic development.

A train station is just the sort of hub that can spark new economic development, said Dave Oles, city manager in Galion, a small city about 50 miles north of Columbus that hosted a statewide meeting last month for rail advocates.

Rail has proven to spur economic development, and the jobs and increased tax revenue that comes with it, in cities across the country. As the article stated:

In Saco, Maine, a developer is spending $110 million to turn an old mill into condos and an office park next to a new Amtrak station that picks up travelers along a rail corridor that runs to Boston.

“There’s a new economic energy once these small towns become part of a larger transportation network,” said Patricia Quinn, executive director of Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which manages Amtrak’s Downeaster route.

An Amtrak depot that opened in 1995 in Lafayette, Ind., led to a neighboring $36 million development project 10 years later that included condos and an office park.

We can't let the same old naysayers who want to block Cincinnati from moving forward to succeed - we need to vote NO on the Anti-Progress Charter Amendment.

posted by Cincinnatians For Progress at 11:00 AM

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Blog — Vote No on Issue 9

Ohio Cities Begging for High Speed Rail

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