City hires engineering firm for streetcars

6 comments on “City hires engineering firm for streetcars”

1. Posted by Eric | Jul 25, 2007 3:04 pm

   We (downtown residents) have been “investing” in sewer line extensions, road extensions, lane additions, electric line extensions, water plant upgrades, COTA inefficiencies, police stations, fire stations, and all kinds of other “investments” that come along with suburban sprawl. It’s about time we start investing in our core infrastructure again.

   Also, the consultant will develop a plan that will include some sort of intensely local taxes on property owners like myself (which I’m ok with) who live within two blocks of the line. The plan might also include taxes on hotel rooms (with room keys being accepted as streetcar fare), parking surcharges (to promote the use of mass transit over cars), possible corporate sponsorship, possible OSU sponsorship?, or god knows what kind of creative funding. Coleman understands how tight the residents of this city are and how they’d react with the apparent “subsidization” of downtown.

   Lets also keep in mind that streetcars are cheap! They’re only $60-80 million. Barely more than the Main St. Bridge, less than 10% of the cost to untangle the 70/71 split (without caps), and similar to one year of COTA’s operating budget of $70 million.

2. Posted by underducky | Jul 25, 2007 8:35 pm

   Eric’s right. The ‘burbs cost a lot of public money, too. And the way we are building them, you have to have a car to live there. That’s gonna cost way more than money… eventually. We know we can’t keep building cities this way without it ultimately killing us all, so let’s pony up the dough to make our city livable and sustainable. We can start with the streetcar and wait until laser-guided tractor beam transporters are invented before we install them.

   Thanks for the quote Brian. Sorry about all the cuss words.

   Hey, did anybody hear about the Mayor’s plan to trick-out the bike paths?!?

   That is also a good idea.

3. Posted by Columbuser.com » No light rail for Columbus | Jul 27, 2007 11:43 am

   […] rail for Columbus is officially off the table for now. (Note: this does not refer to the city’s streetcar project.) From ThisWeek: The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) has officially removed the […]

4. Posted by Brian | Jul 27, 2007 12:16 pm

   I don’t buy the argument that downtown residents are subsidizing new sewer lines etc for suburban or outlying city areas. Downtown residents already have all of that infrastructure, so it’s not an unfair subsidy to bring everybody up to par. Streetcars would be “over and above” this level, and only directly benefit downtown residents. And I suppose at one time downtown residents helped to “subsidize” the suburbs of German Village and the Short North, so it’s a question of drawing a line, which would have to be arbitrary.

   I’m for creative funding. We hear constantly about the increased economic activity the streetcar will bring- the funds should be taken from there.

   Hotels: it’s way too easy for cities to “painlessly” increase hotel taxes- after all, almost no residents feel any pain, directly that is. But the using hotel keys as a free pass would be a nice offset.

5. Posted by Eric | Jul 27, 2007 3:50 pm

   Brian, It’s more about efficient land-use than direct subsidization. Per capita, suburban residents use more sewer line miles/resident, sidewalk miles/resident, snow plow miles/resident, police stations/resident, road miles/resident, school busses/resident, electric line miles/resident than more dense areas like German Village or Downtown, yet they don’t pay a higher share for the maintenance of those systems. I live in a building with 54 other units, and I have a hard time believing that our building requires the same level of infrastructure support as does a 54 home Dominion development.

   I’m not saying that we should have a one-size fits all solution to housing, but we’re talking subsidization here and paying your fare share, and from where I’m sitting, I’m paying more than my fair share.

   I really wish mass transit could efficiently serve everyone in Columbus for the simple fact that it provides residents with another option. Unfortunately, land-use and mass transit go hand in hand, and we didn’t have much foresight in our land-use decisions.

6. Posted by Lucienne Penniston | Jun 20, 2011 3:59 am

   Very nice post and right to the point. I am not sure if this is in fact the best place to ask but do you people have any ideea where to get some professional writers? Thanks

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