Cincinnati Needs the Streetcar

The Portland Street Car that Cincinnati is basing its designs off of.

For years the Streetcar Project has stirred endless controversy and filling e-mail inboxes with hundreds of messages both pro and con. I was relieved when I thought the Streetcar Project was a done deal even though the vast majority of my friends thought the Project frivolous. Indeed, most felt the Streetcar Project incurred too much expense and would be financially unsustainable after construction due to low ridership and maintenance costs. Probably, from a financial perspective, their concerns were and are valid. But, you might make a similar argument about the 400 or so millions of dollars spent on Paul Brown Stadium or even the investment in the development of the Smale Riverfront Park.

The real arguments in favor of the Streetcar are less tangible. For Cincinnati to continue to be a ‘Major League City,’ Downtown Cincinnati must undergo a transformation such as what you see in dozens of other major metropolitan areas. Cincinnatians must revitalize the Inner City into a community that attracts permanent residents that frequent the restaurants, shop the retail stores and become the population base that supports everyday commercial activity. If you doubled the downtown population with affluent condo owners and apartment renters, do you think that Saks Fifth Avenue would be relocating to Kenwood or that Downtown Cincinnati would still lack infrastructure such as service stations, big box stores and supermarkets? The suburban shopper who enjoys the ease and convenience of the Kenwood and Rookwood shopping malls is never going to crowd downtown retail stores again even during the Christmas rush.

Ethically, I have difficulty with the regentrification of our Inner City. Coercively moving the social safety net agencies such as the Drop in Center, City Gospel Missions and Jobs Plus into adjoining areas and displacing an indigent population seems unfair and unjust. However, from a long term perspective, I can understand why the City Officials have enabled and facilitated this relocation.

Every individual that I have talked with that lives downtown loves it there and never plans to move back to the suburbs. Generally, they are younger and socially active. Many do not have cars because of their close proximity to fine restaurants, entertainment venues and the ‘action.’The Streetcar would be a great attraction for folks to move into downtown and fill the wonderful array of new condos and apartments that are sprouting up throughout the Center City. A Streetcar would support the businesses, impress the visitors and conventioneers, delight the children and recapture some of our heritage from the incline Streetcar Days. Moreover, it would energize business activity and encourage investment in making Cincinnati a showcase city. It would also be a first step toward a streetcar connection to Uptown where 43,000 students attend the University of Cincinnati and elsewhere.  In projects such as this, the mission of the project always seems to default to money. In this instance, the project is already funded and underway. It is crazy to trash it at this late date and to continue the interminable debate about its merits seems nonproductive.

For more history regarding the streetcar, visit this Wikipedia page