T.U.R.D.S. -- Qualls Streetcar hearing plans

On Monday at 6 PM, Roxanne Qualls will convene a hearing whose official purpose is "to receive an update from the city administration regarding the 'Street Car.'"  In Qualls' words, it is "to step back and have a robust and transparent public discussion about the best way to move forward."

Yes, after six years of planning, repeated commitments and re-commitments, and the expenditure of more than $42 million, we are actually about to actually ask some hard questions about the Streetcar.  And who believes after all these years of equivocation and obfuscation that such conversation will be open and honest?

•  Do you think anyone will ask the City Manager why the estimates be publicly put forth for years were intentionally low, as he has admitted?  
• Do you think anyone will ask the real cost of the Streetcar with all City Hall time spent on it, and the Water Works relocation costs included?  
• Do you think anyone will ask what happens if the Blue Ash litigation does not pan out as the Solicitor has promised?  
• Will the question arise about what the City will do if there are additional cost overruns?  
• Do you think there will be a candid confrontation of the issue of "getting up Vine Street hill"?   
• What will happen when the Common Pleas Court tells the City it must pony up the costs for Duke Energy's utility line relocation?  
• Do you think anyone will discuss the entirely vacuous promises of getting the Streetcar done by the time of the MLB All-Star Game?

COAST predicts a few things:

• A pep rally for the Streetcar;
• Blaming COAST for driving the costs higher and delaying the project;
• Another tax increase to fill the $17.4 million gap;
• Doing anything to postpone the tough discussions until after the November election; and
• A further postponement of the  inevitable -- the death of the Streetcar project.

COAST will not be testifying Monday, as there is no reasoning with these folks, and no rationale to present facts to them.  They suffer from the syndrome known as "TURDS," Trolley Urban Rail Derangement Syndrome, and no amount of counseling, no amount of medicine we can apply cures that ailment.  The only thing that finally cures this disease is the cold, hard fiscal realities of running out of money.

So, COAST will continue to watch as the people of Cincinnati continue to suffer under abysmal leadership from City Hall and await the day the voters awake and throw the bums out who can't restrain their irrational urges to waste public monies.