Do you support the proposed Ohio Rail (3-C Connector)? (Cleveland: buses, suburban)

[Ohioan58]

The lack of vision apparent in this recession will kill us. You need investment NOW for growth and jobs and progress LATER. And Ohioans profoundly lack vision. It all points to Ohio stagnating in the next 20 years as other regions leapfrog past us.

[Clevelander17]

So typical. One side loses, and it means that the state is doomed. The other side loses, and they say the same thing.

Ohio will be fine now that we've got a pro-business governor in office. The train plan was the wrong idea at the wrong time. The states that did accept the money have just shackled themselves to a ball and chain that they're never going to get rid of...

[JR_C]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

So typical. One side loses, and it means that the state is doomed. The other side loses, and they say the same thing.

Ohio will be fine now that we've got a pro-business governor in office. The train plan was the wrong idea at the wrong time. The states that did accept the money have just shackled themselves to a ball and chain that they're never going to get rid of...

Just like the whole country did back in the 50's with the interstate highways.

I don't think the lack of rail travel will doom Ohio, but is a sign of things to come, unfortunately.

[Traveler87]

Ohio is going to hurt from this. We continue to fall behind everyone else, and if Ohioans who are against this get out and travel and see what rail has done for other states, you will see why Ohio missed a huge oppurtunity here. Thanks, Kasich!

[Clevelander17]

This talk of doom and gloom is ridiculous. Rail is not the future. I mean, unless I hit my head and we just rang in 1811 two days ago?

Kasich did the right thing in turning the albatross down. And he'll do a lot of other right things in the next four years that will get Ohio back on track. People are leaving this state because we're overtaxed and over-regulated. The rail project would have done nothing to address either of those issues and to increase private investment here.

[cyberdasher]

I'd love to see new passenger rail service within Ohio, but let's have some realistic expectations of the economic impact.

For instance, how much would we suffer if we removed the Amtrak routes already servicing Cincy, Toledo, and Cleveland? The answer should be instructive. Perhaps the $15m study examined that?

[JR_C]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

This talk of doom and gloom is ridiculous. Rail is not the future. I mean, unless I hit my head and we just rang in 1811 two days ago?

Kasich did the right thing in turning the albatross down. And he'll do a lot of other right things in the next four years that will get Ohio back on track. People are leaving this state because we're overtaxed and over-regulated. The rail project would have done nothing to address either of those issues and to increase private investment here.

If not rail, what will our alternate forms of transportation be? Or, do we just continue to live in the 1950's and throw all of our money at car-centric infrastructure?

[Traveler87]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

This talk of doom and gloom is ridiculous. Rail is not the future. I mean, unless I hit my head and we just rang in 1811 two days ago?

Kasich did the right thing in turning the albatross down. And he'll do a lot of other right things in the next four years that will get Ohio back on track. People are leaving this state because we're overtaxed and over-regulated. The rail project would have done nothing to address either of those issues and to increase private investment here.

Oh very easy to say that now, but let's see how bad it gets in the years to come. Ohio is falling behind the times, and of course you won't feel any immediate impact. Of course you aren't going to see the impact at the snap of a finger, but years down the road, Ohio will hurt from this.

[Ohioan58]

^ Truth.

The people against the rail funding will make smart@ssed comments about not seeing immediate economic apocalypse.

Falling behind is an incremental, gradual process and Ohio has gotten superbly talented at doing it on a methodical basis since about 1975 and you can't point to one phenomenon that "caused" it. Stagnation is a cultural effect, it becomes rooted in an area's identity, and we're there.

It's not an immediate phenomenon. Some company decides to relocate in state X or Y instead of Ohio because the infrastructure is better elsewhere and they see better accessibility and access to workers. That process plays out over weeks, months, years. In time Ohio bleeds jobs and opportunity but there is never a single event that you can identify.

That's why I said that rail is a speculation - a long term business investment - on the part of government. Just as tea baggers preach about individual initiative to invest somewhat blindly in business, there are types of infrastructure that it only makes sense for government to invest in, and the payoff to the government is an increased tax base over years or decades.

This is a large scale version of the penny pinching business owner who drives the company out of business by hassling everyone about the staples and office copies they use and who refuses to spend money to modernize. It seems to make survival sense to conservatively save short term funds but it can kill you when the money leverages jobs and growth indirectly.

You get obsessed with mere survival and as a result you don't build anything for the future. That characterizes Ohio to a "T".

[Clevelander17]

We don't need an alternate form of transportation, just a renewable fuel source. Trains are not the future.

I'd love to hear what kind of of private investment would come to Ohio with the 3-C corridor? Let's not talk pie-in-the-sky, but realistic. It's just not reality...