Please Contact the Enquirer about Their Inaccurate Reporting on the Anti-Passenger Rail Amendment (Columbus: apartment, unemployment)

[Cincystreetcar]

Fellow Cincinnatian,

As you may know, a coalition of naysayers has recently announced they have collected enough signatures to place a charter amendment on the fall ballot that would prevent the City from making any investments in all forms of passenger rail without a popular vote. This ballot initiative threatens Cincinnati’s ability to receive federal rail funding and may result in Cincinnati being bypassed by President Obama’s High Speed Rail Plan and Governor Strickland’s Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland rail corridor.

I am writing to you today to ask you to contact the Cincinnati Enquirer and tell them to accurately report on the Anti-Passenger Rail Amendment. In recent articles the Enquirer has been calling this Amendment the “Streetcar Measure” or the “Streetcar Issue” when the reality is that is will affect all passenger rail—not just the streetcar.

It is inaccurate and misleading for the Enquirer to call the ballot initiative the "Streetcar Issue" when it would permanently affect all passenger rail. A ballot initiative that affected all highways would not be called the "Norwood Lateral Issue," nor would an initiative that affected all parks be called the "Eden Park Issue."

Please contact the Enquirer and tell them to accurately report on this issue. Write a letter to the editor [email: letters@enquirer.com] , write an email to the reporters who use the term “Streetcar Issue” and carbon copy (cc) their editor, comment on the Enquirer’s website, or write a blog post about this inaccurate reporting. Don’t have a blog? Pass this on to someone who does.

Here is a list of who to contact at the Enquirer:

Julie Engebrecht, Deputy Managing Editor
E-mail: jengebrecht@enquirer.com

Barry Horstman, Reporter - Transportation
E-mail: bhorstman@enquirer.com

Jane Prendergast, Cincinnati City Politics Reporter
E-mail: jprendergast@enquirer.com

David Holthaus, Reporter
E-mail: dholthaus@enquirer.com

Thank you for your time and effort on this critical issue that could affect generations of Cincinnatians to come.

http://www.cincystreetcar.com

[Hartwell Girl]

You lost me at Naysayers...Sounds like part of Mayor Mallorys speech...

[goyguy]

Spam, spam, spam, spam...
I bet this person will never be heard from again. (Not you, HWG )
The Enquirer is fraught with bias and inaccuracy. But that, in a way, is what makes it worth reading. The reporters don't even know what part of the city an address is in sometimes. When an elderly woman died from the heat a few days ago in her North College Hill apartment, the article placed it in Mt Airy.
Call me a naysayer, but despite being a major rail fan I think the streetcar proposal is - well - off the rails. Either fund the thing all the way to UC or don't lay out a cent. Light rail that only goes to the northern edge of OTR is a Bridge to Nowhere.
Gotta say it's a typical tactic of people I don't agree with to throw the baby out with the bath water on a ballot issue they draw up. A vote against the grandiose trolley proposal should be just that, not one to squash intercity trains altogether.

[Wilson513]

Having had some experience with Chicago's L, I am puzzled by the proposals for a rail to OTR. No one in Chicago would get on the L for a 6 block trip. That's why Chicago also has busses. The shortest trip I ever took on the L was from Berwyn to the Loop, about 10 miles.

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

Having had some experience with Chicago's L, I am puzzled by the proposals for a rail to OTR. No one in Chicago would get on the L for a 6 block trip. That's why Chicago also has busses. The shortest trip I ever took on the L was from Berwyn to the Loop, about 10 miles.

And, if all they are talking about is a little trolley on tracks in the street, its moronic to spend anything more than the cost of a little islander type rubber tire streecar.

[mike1003]

If the trolley comes along, how long do you think it will last? Mallory's Folly is a terrible waste of money.

All it will do is give the street people a place to warm up. That is better served at walk in shelters

[restorationconsultant]

Its ironic
Cincinnati passed on Railroad in the early days because it thought riverboats were the "future" of commerce.

Cincinnati actually built a subway system it never opened

Cincinnati dismantled its incline system and its streetcar system.

Think how different this city would be if we had kept those things? We might be leading Indy and Louisville instead of 20 years behind it in downtown restoration and redevelopment.

I support passenger rail , streetcars, heck... lets reopen up the subway. The facts are that while gasoline is 2.70 right now it will likely be 5-6.00 in a few years. You may not think we need this now but the cities that get ahead of the curve on this will be the cities that attract new industry and business and have a strong economy and low unemployment.

Maybe Cincinnati likes being the laughing stock of the Midwest? If we don't start looking forward and get ahead of the curve we will be the next Detroit!

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by goyguy

The Enquirer is fraught with bias and inaccuracy. But that, in a way, is what makes it worth reading.

LMAO.

Call me a naysayer, but despite being a major rail fan I think the streetcar proposal is - well - off the rails. Either fund the thing all the way to UC or don't lay out a cent. Light rail that only goes to the northern edge of OTR is a Bridge to Nowhere.

Yeah, that too. The streetcar proposal is starting to remind me of the "entertainment district" the city tried to shove down our throats in the 80s, when Second Street was in full swing and Main Street was starting to gain momentum. Not well thought out, not logical, and not what the residents of the city will need or use.

[jlrosen]

The current plan is to go all the way from the Zoo to the riverfront, the first section running from UC to the Banks.

[camelot05]

If there was a quick way to get from the Norwood/Hyde Park/Oakely area to downtown, I bet a lot of people would use it for work and the weekends. I know Id rather use it than catch a bus or cab... but only if it was quick. Who is gonig to ride it from OTR to the Businesses