CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES ENDORSE CINCINNATIANS FOR PROGRESS

Join Mayor Mallory and 8 of 9 City Council Members Opposing Anti-Progress Amendment

Cincinnati, OH - Cincinnatians for Progress is proud to have received the official endorsements from Mayor Mark Mallory and 16 of 18 endorsed City Council candidates from the Republican, Charter and Democratic parties. Joining 8 of 9 current Council Members endorsing Cincinnatians for Progress and opposing the dangerous Anti-Progress Charter Amendment are Council candidates Tony Fischer, Bernadette Watson, Nicholas Hollan, Laure Quinlivan, Wendell Young, Kevin Flynn, Amy Murray and George Zamary.

"Our city needs jobs, now more than ever." said Wendell Young, a Democrat from North Avondale. "This charter amendment would threaten our economic development opportunities and likely cause our federal tax dollars to be invested in other communities, including President Obama's plan to connect Cincinnati to Chicago and Cleveland via high speed passenger rail."

Mayor Mark Mallory serves as the Honorary Chair of Cincinnatians for Progress. Current Council Members that have already endorsed Cincinnatians for Progress include Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz, Laketa Cole, David Crowley, Leslie Ghiz, Greg Harris, Roxanne Qualls and Cecil Thomas.

"The Anti-Progress Charter Amendment is about much more than the Streetcar," said Nicholas Hollan, a Democrat from Westwood. "This dangerous proposal would threaten to halt all passenger rail in the city, including light and high speed rail."

For more information on Cincinnatians for Progress, please visit www.cincinnatiansforprogress.com.

Cincinnatians for Progress Video

Paying for the Streetcar

I hear this argument against the streetcar a lot these days: "How can we justify spending money on a streetcar system during these hard economic times?" or even more often "the streetcar will never be able to pay for itself each year"
Well, this post at the Cincy Streetcar Blog does a nice job explaining how the city plans on funding the streetcar on a year to year basis. It turns out that there are lots of ways for the city to easily raise enough money each year to cover its operating costs. Additionally building the streetcar will not take any money away from the city's operating budget. As stated many times before this system will not raise taxes. Even more importantly, once its built it will generate money for the city's operating budget by attracting more tax paying businesses, residents and visitors each year.

So 3 simple, but very important points to remember and tell your friends who aren't yet streetcar believers:
1. Building the streetcar will not raise taxes or take money away from other essential city operations.
2. Operating the streetcar year to year will not raise taxes or take money away from essential city operations.
3. The streetcar will actually generate more money for the city to use for other essential city operations.

Cincinnati Picks Streetcar Builder

Today, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. announced a huge step forward in the Streetcar Project. Before a large crowd inside the new Rookwood Pottery headquarters on Race Street in Over the Rhine, Dohoney announced that the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners would be the official company hired to Design, Build, Operate, and Maintain the new Streetcar System in Cincinnati.

Mayor Mallory and City Manager Dohoney both emphasized the importance of the Streetcar system for spurring development, bringing in new businesses, new jobs, new housing, and new people to Cincinnati. They also said that the benefits of streetcars as a "game changing agent for this city far outweigh any negatives."

They chose the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners after carefully reviewing the applications of 4 different development firms that all had national and international expertise in the field. It sounds as if their choice was based in part on the careful attention to detail that the partnership demonstrated in their application and their dedication to ensuring local job creation for the laborers needed to build the lines.

Fred Craig, Program Manager for Streetcar Development Partners and Parsons Brinckerhoff, spoke about their enthusiasm for this project and the future of Cincinnati. His company has already demonstrated excellence in timely, on budget projects with the City of Cincinnati such as the Fort Washington Way project and its Transit Center. They are working with HDR Engineering who is nationally recognized for Streetcar planning with experience in bringing Streetcars to Portland, Oregon.



Finally, City Manager Dohoney emphasized the importance of pursuing federal funding for this project given the current economic downturn. The city is working closely with the federal government in seeking as much as $78 million in requests for this project from various federal programs. He specifically said that the various leaders within the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners are well qualified in helping to obtain federal funding for this project.

The City is now accepting online donations from streetcar supporters at Streetcar Online Donations



The Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners is actually a consortium of 12 companies that will work together on building the Streetcar System. The Cincinnati Streetcar Development Partners is made up of the following companies:

Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. (PB) will be responsible for management of the project during its planning, financing, and design.

HDR Engineering as mentioned above has experience with streetcar planning that is nationally recognized. They have a local office made up of over 60 professionals

Burgess & Niple, Ltd. will help with the design phase for utility relocation.

DNK Architects will provide urban station design.

G.J. Berding Inc. will provide digital design support for the design and construction effort

Wordsworth Communications will develop a collaborative strategy engaging the community in the projects design and construction.

PNC Capital Markets will work with PB and HDR to develop a locally structured financial strategy.

Property Advisors will provide economic analyses for benefits associated with the project and help with the financing plan.

Stacy and Witbeck Inc. is a national leader in streetcar and passenger rail construction throughout the United States. They will serve as the construction manager and will be opening a new office in downtown and relocating executives to Cincinnati specifically for this project!

RailWorks Corporation will provide design, construction, start-up and maintenance expertise.

Megen Construction Company will assist SWI in the construction phase of the project.

Josten Concrete Construction and its subsidiary, Brewster Pumping will also be assisting in the construction.

Also, check out the new City Website that outlines its objectives and gives information on the Streetcar Project: City of Cincinnati - Streetcar