Category Archives: Cities

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Ronny Salerno wrote a great post at Queen City Discovery about the efforts to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to Cincinnati:

This city is often overlooked and under appreciated, even by those that live here. [Cincinnati 2012 President] Nick Vehr dared to challenge the public perception of Cincinnati. He dared to dream big. Cincinnati 2012 may not have brought us the Olympics, but it did bring a sense of civic pride to the city. […] While in recent time, Cincinnati has certainly been on the rise, Vehr’s Olympic story shows us that you can combat the naysayers and change the perception — Cincinnati is a city worth fighting for.

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I wrote to Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown regarding Representative Steve Chabot’s attempt to overturn the will of Cincinnati voters and insert an anti-earmark against bus and rail transit into a federal transportation funding bill.

Fortunately, Senator Brown sees the danger of the amendment, and replied:

I appreciate hearing your views on how important it is to fund transportation initiatives in Cincinnati. Recently an amendment was offered to the House appropriations bill that would restrict funding for light rail or “fixed guideway” systems in the City of Cincinnati. I share your concerns about this potentially overbroad language.

Should relevant legislation come before the Senate, you can be sure I will keep your concerns in mind.

On the latest episode of The UrbanCincy Podcast, we discuss Rep. Chabot’s amendment, which would ban future federal funding for any sort of light rail, commuter rail, streetcar, freight rail, bus rapid transit (BRT), or other “fixed guideway” system in Cincinnati.

We also discuss how the extreme politicization of transportation issues results in politicians “selling out” their own constituants and costs taxpayers much more in the long run.

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The Cincinnati Enquirer has posted a photo gallery of Cincinnati’s re-opened Washington Park, which consists of other people’s photos found on Instagram, Flickr, and Twitter. (Maybe they no longer employ any photographers of their own.)

Unfortunately, they either threw this thing together quickly or didn’t realize that Cincinnati isn’t the only city with a Washington Park. Their gallery currently includes a shot of Washington Square Park in New York (pictured above). I assume they will go back and remove it as more people point this out to them.

(Thanks to Jake Mecklenborg for the tip.)

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Back to the City

Moreover, [author Alan Ehrenhalt] notes, “the [millennial] generation is simply so large—by one conventional measure, sixty to seventy million people—that even a respectable minority of this cohort seeking an urban life is bound to change American metropolitan areas dramatically.” In other words, the inversion, to the extent it is occurring, is the product of real preferences, not an urban-planning straitjacket imposed by those who disdain suburban sprawl.

As much as I link to articles about the upcoming generation preferring urban life, I understand that different people want to live in different environments and cities aren’t for everyone. The great point being made here is that even a moderate shift toward urban living is going to have a huge overall impact.

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Americans Want More City Planning

A recent survey of 1,300 Americans—including people of all political persuasions living in cities, suburbs, and small towns—had some interesting results.

Respondents were also asked to rank the top five factors that make up an “ideal community.” The results:

  1. Locally owned businesses nearby
  2. Being able to stay in the same neighborhood while aging
  3. Availability of sidewalks
  4. Energy-efficient homes
  5. Availability of transit

More people are realizing that shopping at big box stores and having to drive everywhere is not what they want out of life.