In a show of pointless persistence, second only to the example above, City leaders say the streetcar is still a "go project."
- (Left arm) Before resigning from Council, former Democratic Jeff Berding appoints Republican Wayne Lippert, who vows to vote against the streetcar until the City gets its finances in order. Council is now comprised of 4 anti-streetcar Republicans, 4 pro-streetcar Democratics, and 1 pro-streetcar Charterite who is a registered Republican and tends to vote that way. However Charterite Bortz is forbidden from having anything to do with the streetcar due to ethical conflicts. Under council rules (PDF Pg 14, #6.6), "on a tie vote, the matter is lost."
"'Tis but a scratch...I've had worse." - (Right arm) ODOT personnel today advised Ohio's TRAC board to reallocate all $51.8 million that had been previously recommended for the streetcar. Two of the ten board members expressed reservations about defunding a project assigned the highest score under the old Molitoris rules. We kindly refer them to PDF page 24 of TRAC's Policy & Procedures, which says, "It should be emphasized that the TRAC process does not require that a selected project have a numeric ranking nor that the TRAC must fund projects in order of their ranking. The ranking is a means to help the TRAC generally prioritize and rank projects in order of their transportation and community/economic development benefits." "It is explicit TRAC policy that projects can be selected regardless of their score, ranking, cost, or functional class. The reason is that no ranking system can completely measure all project attributes. If other factors arise that the TRAC finds important to a project, the TRAC can select the project for funding."
"Just a flesh wound." - (Right leg) The Ohio Senate unanimously passed HB114, the transportation budget, including a provision which “prohibits state or federal funds appropriated by the state from being used for the Cincinnati streetcar project.” The Feds purposely pass funds through the state first so they have recourse for funds recovery should the recipient city go bankrupt. Legislators obviously see the project as something less than a guaranteed money-maker.
"Right, I'll do you for that...kill yah. ...I'm invincible!" - (Left leg) Councilmember Charlie Winburn introduces a "cease and desist" motion in Council to halt all spending and activity on the streetcar. Citing the police/sheriff outsourcing deal as precedent, he reminds the City that when the votes aren't there to see a project through, it's best to abandon it before wasting everybody's time.
"All right, we'll call it a draw...I'll bite your legs off."
It's a bright day in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you Governor Kasich for killing the streetcar.
ReplyDeleteIn other news:
- Brad Thomas mooches a ride in a CAR from his girlfriend... Again...
- Randy Simes sanctimoniously complains about outsiders influencing City of Cincinnati business from his residence... in Korea.
- Bobby Maly lounges in his hip urban loft in OTR, tears streaming down his hipster cheeks as he calls a realtor to see if its too late to move back across the river to Kentucky. Poor Bluegrass Bobby.
- Gordon Bombay calls COAST irrelevant while commenting for the tenth time of the day on the COAST blog and hopes people don't remember all of his taunting after his now completely and totally irrelevant Issue 9 victory. How many feet of track have been laid Gordo?
- Travis Estelle sobs into his Kashi GoLean with locally grown organic blueberries and asks out loud to the empty chair next to him how he and his ilk could have been foiled again by the COASTers who he considers his intellectual and moral inferiors. Seriously, how do you live with yourself Travis? If I got my ass handed to me by my rival as much as you trolleyites I'd go into hiding and never come out again.
- Candace Klein calls David Pepper and whines like an impudent little brat. David whines back. Misery loves company.
- CincyCapell, well, who gives a crap. Honestly, who cares? CincyCapell is to the blogosphere what Jersey Shore is to television - Embraced only by a few morons, and loathed by every other person in the world. SnookiCapell....
This is a parody post for those of you who aren't complete and total idiots. I have no personal doubt that all of these things actually happened today, but Bluegrass Bobby Maly has never invited me to his YP snob loft.
I feel terrible for the streetcar snobs today. Now they're going to have to continue riding a putrid bus, putting up with those damn minorities and poor folk, instead of getting an all-white streetcar for themselves. You poor babies!
ReplyDeleteAnd Bim, don't forget about Jake Mecklenborg and Kevin LeMaster, two people who need to move beyond their dreams of an urban-only, all-white, no-car planet and get on with leading their own lives. You guys would be happier - and far wealthier - if you'd learn to live in the real world with the rest of us. It's a world with cars, trucks, buses, cities, suburbs, rural, white, minority, and all sorts of others.
Most of that world doesn't want to pay for a $143 million streetcar toy. Thank goodness we finally have a Governor who has listed. Thank you Governor Kasich! I'm proud that COAST was one of the first groups in Ohio to embrace him.
Holy lord. I just peed my pants laughing.
ReplyDeleteYou know it's really pathetic that the only voice of support for COAST comes from Bim Turke or Bris Chortz when he's using that name. It's funny how Bim wants to talk about COAST handing an ass whooping to the streetcar supporters when in reality when COAST tried to do things directly, they had to resort to lying and misconceptions and in fact had their ass handed to them. And you're right Bim, I will bring up Issue 9 again, cause when you asked the people (and you guys made so much noise about involving THE PEOPLE) if they wanted to have a specific ballot measure against rail and the streetcar (e.g. streetcar or light rail), they struck the proposed charter amendment down.
ReplyDeleteYour spokesperson is Tom Luken, who is all over youtube, caught lying through his teeth.
What did it take to stop state funding for the streetcar? An amendment to the state budget bill that had no input from the people and was snuck in at the last minute. Where was COAST on that? I don't seem to see anyone giving COAST any credit. Seems like that one was Kasich and the recommendations made by Jerry Wray. And again, you're right, I'll point how irrelevant COAST has become on the issue. I didn't see Johnny K. thanking the efforts of COAST, but as long as Bim wants to ride the coattails I'm sure in his mind he will.
Now, I can already see it - Bim's gonna reply about how I'm a snob, hipster or brat and that's perfectly fine with me. He doesn't have any good way of attacking the streetcar project except to try and make it a race issue, when really it's never been about that. As COAST would put it: "That's just sand in the voters eyes."
Call us all YP snobs and keep working towards a political environment with that kind of attitude that keeps young people away. Tom Luken's lived forever, so why won't we all? You're so right Bim, we don't need anything to attract young people to this city. Times keep changing, but some folks just want to keep Cincinnati the same.
Meanwhile, the state will give no money to the streetcar, but in turn the state has saved no money. Canton's getting some new roads though.
Irony: Gordon Bombay here on the COAST blog at 1:11 AM to remind us how irrelevant we are. Actually, you have no idea how hard and effectively COAST worked to kill the streetcar.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the bus Gordon. I hope all those minorities, poor people, and working residents don't bother you too much. It's the only way you're getting around this town (unless you hitch a ride in Brad Thomas' car).
You're right. Me posting at 1:11 A.M. is almost as bad as someone posting at 1:21 A.M. Pssh, what was I thinking.
ReplyDeleteI'm here because I know how relevant COAST is and how much they did to stop your all-white streetcar from getting state funding. If COAST is so irrelevant why are you here at 1:37 AM to tell us how much they don't matter? You don't see me at urbancincinnati whining about how unfair it is that Cincinnati will now have to pay for its own streetcar.
ReplyDeleteCOAST makes the post and provides a comment section for readers to voice an opinion. I have every much of a right as you do to post on here, regardless of my opinion and so long as I have not broken COAST's "living room" rule.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your point? We know you have a right to comment, and the fact that your posts don't get deleted shows they are in compliance with COAST rules.
ReplyDeleteIt's the contest I commented on. I find it a bit ironic that you spend so much of your free time to tell us how irrelevant COAST is.
Ok the streetcar is dead.
ReplyDeleteWill Cincinnati's budget be balanced this year or next?
What about Ohio?
What will you attack next? The Banks? The County is already trying to hurt that.
The new bridge? The State is already there.
So other than police and fire, what should Cincinnati pay for?
COAST fights to keep over-funding police and fire to perpetuate this budget situation. Never let a good crisis go to waste, especially an artificial one!
ReplyDeleteHey Gordon and Jakee, you know it's kind of funny how you guys love to talk about how you won Issue 9 and we didn't. You guys claimed if Issue 9 passed then Cincinnati couldn't get a streetcar, 3-C, or the Eastern Corridor project. Let's see what happened:
ReplyDelete- The 3-C project is dead.
- Your beloved streetcar is dead.
- The city itself killed the Eastern Corridor, a project COAST never even opposed in the first place.
You guys won only a single referendum vote. COAST won the fight. Now you can keep crying in your overpriced $5 YP latte that you drink while riding shotgun in Brad Thomas' car.
What is the obsession with Brad Thomas' car? I've never heard Brad Thomas advocating against cars. Rather, if you read the streetcar website it calls for multiple options of transportation - cars and highways included. The streetcar is far from dead, even COAST admitted it in their post, but I'm aware that reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. The project is still moving forward and we'll see where it goes from there.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that's dead was the state of Ohio's contribution, which had to be killed by a roundabout amendment to the 2 year state budget bill. In the end, it saved the state of Ohio no money as the money will still be spent. The battle is far from over.
COAST is still irrelevant. Even though this is my 4th comment of this blog post alone.
ReplyDeleteGordo and his Issue 9 complex reminds me of our neighbors across the pacific. The Japanese caught us by surprise with Pearl Harbor. It was a loss for the US.
ReplyDeleteThey made the mistake of waking a sleeping giant though. They won the battle, the Allies won the war.
Gordon is like a Japanese Zero pilot pining for his victory at Pearl Harbor while the Japanese Military leaders signed the surrender documents on the deck of the USS Missouri.
In fact, I just found this group photo of Mark Mallory, Roxanne Qualls, Laure Quinliven, Bobby Maly, and Gordon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surrender_of_Japan_-_USS_Missouri.jpg
Gordon's the one in the back yelling that General McArthur is irrelevant.
Bim, that kind of looks like Professor Fuji in the front of your photograph.
ReplyDelete