News & Views — Vote No on Issue 9 |
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Streetcar opposition threatens high-speed railCincinnati EnquirerJune 28, 2009 By Don Mooney, Jr, Treasurer, Cincinnatians for Progress Online Article Imagine this: Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland joins U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood later this year to announce Ohio will get $400 million in federal dollars for a Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati passenger rail line. Cincinnati will become a hub for the nation's new high-speed rail system. Cleveland and Columbus quickly begin acquiring land for rail lines, crossings, stations or parking lots. But in Cincinnati, the first call is to the Board of Elections, to schedule an election. PACs will be formed, fat cats will write checks, retired congressmen and radio talk show hosts will bloviate, and "community leaders" will herd themselves into contentious camps to feud over whether Cincinnati really wants in on this new high-speed rail thing. Cincinnati rejected those new-fangled railroads back in the 19th century. City poo-bahs thought the future belonged to the paddlewheel. Imagine the not-so-cogent arguments some will find to keep Cincinnati a passenger-rail-free zone. That scenario is what Cincinnati can expect if voters approve a charter amendment ginned up by two odd political bedfellows: Chris Smitherman, a former one-term councilman presiding over the NAACP, and Chris Finney, whose COAST organization never saw a public investment it liked. Their amendment requires an election before the city spends "any monies for right-of-way acquisition or construction of improvements for passenger rail transportation." Petitioners talk about stopping "the trolley," the streetcar from the riverfront to Clifton. But COAST admits that this is "about much more than a stupid streetcar." The amendment would roadblock the C-C-C link, paid for almost completely with our federal transportation dollars. It would also block other projects like the "eastern corridor" rail link to reduce auto traffic from our eastern suburbs, or a rail link between downtown and our airport, like those in other major cities such as Cleveland and Chicago. Cincinnati is competing with hundreds of other communities around the nation for federal transportation funds. An electoral roadblock will take Cincinnati off the funding list on the first cut. The folks behind this mischief argue that all they want is a little old-fashioned democracy. Cincinnati already has plenty of democracy. We elect nine council members every two years. We pay them to make decisions about how to spend city money on items like recreation centers, highways and rail. Cincinnati hardly needs one more roadblock to our city's progress. Don Mooney Jr. is a Cincinnati attorney and a longtime member of the Cincinnati Planning Commission, and serves as treasurer of Cincinnatians for Progress. |
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