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A site dedicated to Cincinnati's Over the Rhine neighborhood.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Obama on High Speed Rail for Cincinnati

Below is a statement from this article highlighting Obama's plan to connect major midwestern cities with highspeed rail. He specifically talks about Ohio as being a prime example of how a state could benefit from this plan.

"Ted Strickland has talked to me about this," Obama said, explaining that the funds will be allocated by the Department of Transportation on a competitive basis. "Every industrialized country except ours has outstanding high-speed rail systems. It's time for us to start building the kind of high-speed rail networks that are going to be good for everyone, and Ohio would be a prime example of a state that would benefit from this."

Notice he said the funds would be allocated on a "competitive basis." This is a very important point to make. Cincinnati will have to COMPETE with other cities to gain access to federal stimulus dollars to use for such rail projects. This means that if this ridiculous anti-rail charter amendment passes in November there is no way we'll be as competitive as the other cities. While we're waiting for a public vote to pass, columbus, cleveland and chicago will be raking in all the stimulus dollars that should have come to us and we'll be left behind, again.

We must not let this Anti-Rail Charter Amendment pass this November! I don't want to live in a Cincinnati that's stuck in the past with only the automobile as a mode of transportation!

8 comments:

Matt said...

completely agree with you, but damn, living here so long, it's hard to imagine the citizens (as a whole, meaning the suburbia, too) having any foresight at all - for the good of the region.

scare tactics, false marketing, gossip, and pure lies, are what the "opponents" are up to - which I'm almost positive is how they acquired a lot of their signatures. hell, they almost tricked me into signing one day too, before I demanded to see their literature. they blur the line of whose side their on...

...sorry for the rant.

nice post.

Jason said...

Thanks. And you're right, they have been really deceptive with these petitions. It angers me intensely that they are potentially holding our city back in such a bad way.
They did the same thing to my sister in law who almost signed it after they asked her "would you like to sign the streetcar petition?" Luckily she remembered that I told her to watch out for them and she said no, but can you imagine how easily they got hundreds of drunk people's signatures without even having to explain what it was?

Matt said...

man, I pretend to be a blogger with all those misspellings...

i agree - it angers me intensely when anyone does the things their doing - lying, cheating, smearing, etc.

anyway, yeah, i got hit up the same way, but actually in a pretty obscure area - early saturday morning outside of the hyde park walgreens. who would've thought. bastards.

as i've said on other blogs, if the this is passed in nov, i think we should start a petition to force the city to vote on every spending measure related to the automobile.

additionally, after hearing about the onslaught of the hyde park area (+ nursing homes, drunks, homeless, etc.) for their signatures, i really think it would be smart to set up system to follow these people around if possible. just think how different they would present their case if someone with a video camera was hovering over their shoulder every step of the way, and how few people would actually then sign. though, i guess it's a moot point now ...

Jason said...

Yeah, unfortunately most of the people they get to sign these petitions don't take the time or care to know what they are actually signing, so gathering these signatures is easy for these guys.

Our job as the educated, progressive minded people of cincinnati will be to educate the public about the dangers this charter amendment presents to Cincinnati's future.

dpjbro said...

Joe Biden hinted about rail service when he made a speech at Union Terminal last year during the campaign. There was someone in the audience to whom Biden made a very personal and cryptic remark about returning the Terminal to its former status as a train-only station. Those in attendance went wild.

Urban Studio said...

To all of you who have been "tricked" or almost tricked into signing, PLEASE write a Letter to the Editor at the Enquirer, 100 words or less. This will make a quantifiable inpact.

double two said...

It will be nice to have the subway system turned a subway system.
But it would be awesome to tell all the guys at camp that I live a few miles away from the biggest mushroom farm this side of the us.

In addition of course to having a friend that plays a magical accordion.

double two said...
This comment has been removed by the author.

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