I’ve resisted writing this post. I have friends and family in Cincinnati and I don’t want them to think any less of me for criticizing my hometown. Still, I’m compelled to say how baffled and disappointed I am over the lack of support for the proposed Streetcar. Readers who come here for innovation stories, rest assured, this is all about innovation, or more precisely, the lack of it. Call it a sad and tearful tale of what might have been, an innovation not to be. I hope that my distance, and modest expertise in innovation will lend a perspective to my analysis here.
Hasn’t anyone in Cincinnati read the work of Richard Florida? Don’t they know how vital it is to foster a creative local culture, friendly to young, smart, interesting and creative people? A struggling downtown surrounded by decaying neighborhoods is not the way to retain, or attract, the talent needed to re-create The Queen City. The key for a better Cincinnati can be stated in one word: Jobs. And I don’t mean Steve Jobs — it’s decent paying jobs that will help the city prosper, and that will never happen in the heart of the city, if the city isn’t a fun, and easy place to live and be. Okay one more word: Entrepreneurs. Attracting creative people means you attract people who can’t help but start businesses. And those businesses create jobs.
I grew up in Cincinnati and spent my early career years there, and I love the city. Perhaps an unrequited love, but love. I drove a cab in Cincinnati — and there is no better way to get to know the heartbeat of a city than to ferry people around all night in a Yellow Cab. Cincinnati has an energy, a verve, that is hard to deny. James Brown recorded in Cincy! I fear that verve is slipping away, that spirit, that character, in the wind like a mystery train.
Background on Cincy: Let me emphasize the positives — and there are many. Cincinnatian’s are friendly to a fault, polite. Being nice is a cultural value. Yet, they know how to have a good time. The city itself is something of a crown jewel — in something of a corroded setting, with dazzling highlights in its 7 hills, and dark crevices of decay in its valleys. It’s a good fine arts town, a great symphony, a ballet company, a pops orchestra, the May Festival, and several fine museums. There is remarkable architecture on both a grand scale (The Carew Tower and Union Terminal) and in its unique housing stock. Chicagoans would kill for the floor space and high ceilings. It’s a terrific sports town, with a grand tradition, the Reds, and Bengals have had, and always threaten to have, championship moments. We’ll not mention our lost Royals (the NBA came and went, but we did have a few glorious years of The Big O). The University of Cincinnati, my alma mater, shines as a beacon in “uptown” Clifton, beckoning those who want to learn, as does Xavier University in Avondale. The neighborhoods are interesting, and the nicer ones are Victorian-elegant, with stately old homes, enormous hardwood trees, and quaint little shopping districts. The quality of life in these areas is as good — or better — than any city in the USA. The negatives, well, where to start? The poor neighborhoods are ghastly, scary, boarded up, decrepit, and simply awful, fostering crime and despair. Make no mistake, they’ve been abandoned. The core city has lost population, mostly to the bland but safe suburbs. The downtown area has struggled to stay viable, and it is, but just. Once upon a time those poor neighborhoods, while poor, had a bustling energy about them. The Over The Rhine area would be example number one in this category. The innovation problem here is how to attract people to move back into the city to live and work.
As a former cab driver, school bus driver, student, media worker, and entrepreneur, I suffered for years getting around Cincinnati. You have to drive a car and then cope with inadequate parking everywhere, tough winters, and a lot of congestion. Owning a car is tough for someone just starting out. A good streetcar into downtown would have been a godsend. Cincinnati has no subway. It was thought of, started, then deserted — they lost nerve. Innovation takes guts, and somewhere along they way, the Queen City lost that courage. They store wine in the subway now, and use it for fiber optic cable and water pipes. Cincinnati has no light rail for commuters. In 1958 when I moved there from back east, they still had a type of streetcar, they were gone by 1961 — call it the era of very cheap gas. It has a bus system, which is barely adequate. Amtrak passes through, but only a few trains a day, so, trips east to Washington, or Northwest to Indianapolis and Chicago are not convenient. All in all a city under-served with regard to transportation, clearly, a strong need for innovation. And yet, it’s not going to happen.
I’m writing this post with a tear in my eye. I see a brighter future for Cincinnati, but it doesn’t seem to be a vision shared by enough people, leaders in particular, to make it happen. There has been a Streetcar project kicked around and debated now for several years (in Chicago it would be done by now). My sister, MJ, has been an outspoken advocate. She’s a lot like me, MJ, something of a visionary, and not so appreciated in Cincy. To be honest, not living there, I’ve mostly ignored her positive rants until just recently. Many of the prudent and careful citizens of Cincinnati are Not At All Fans of the project, — and happy to drive around in their SUV’s. MJ happened to post on FaceBook a survey of business leaders and their various opinions, and reading it, I realized I was looking at a summary statement of why Cincinnati is not, and probably will not, achieve a more sparkling future. It’s hard to summarize, but I’ll try. Cincinnati is just too… bleeding… Careful.
People, I’ve done the reading, this is a can’t miss project. The numbers work. Smaller cities with less need have demonstrated the value. Little Rock! Portland! The list goes on. The only risk here is not taking risk.
Prediction: The Streetcar will never happen. It won’t happen because the leadership, and many of the citizens, have no vision for improving the core of the city. The Streetcar project is only the last, and most recent, glaring error of a lack of innovative courage — where is the sense of adventure, fun, where is the can-do community spirit? Those that do well in Cincinnati and enjoy their pristine and lovely neighborhoods, like Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Clifton, Glendale, and Mariemont, seem to be happy to leave the core of the city alone. It’s a neglect they will live to regret. I mentioned Over The Rhine earlier, and it’s hard to imagine a place with more potential for charm. But it needs oxygen, and paint, and new shops, and mostly more jobs. It needs working people to live there. The trolley would enliven that neighborhood and make it a viable place to live, and start a small business. It would make travel from downtown to uptown (the Clifton area and UC) so much easier.
I see the Streetcar as a vital step, and important and innovative investment in infrastructure, and a way to make the city more friendly to visitors and residents alike. Cincinnatians, please, put aside your careful and prudent hat — and put on your innovative hat, and get this project done. You won’t regret it.
Otherwise, put on your best fedora and leave town — that’s what I did — along with about 50,000 other people of talent.
12 responses to “Cry My Beloved Cincinnati”
Your readers could well check out how ‘streetcars’ – light trains have made a big & much valued difference in UK cities like Manchester and Sheffield see: http://www.metrolink.co.uk/
Fair point Mark, thanks for the link. They could also look at world class cities like Vienna and Berlin.
Greg I agree with you! There would be such a lure and charm involved with having steert car transportationin your home town I would dare to bet the majority of Cincinnatains would agree! Good job!
Steven, if you’ve ever been there you’d know how much a lure and charm it would be. It would be a game changer, but the leadership there doesn’t get it. Thanks for your comment.
In me pea brain, the cost does not justify the payback…..the loop has limiteds stops downtown, OTR and Clifton…..
Why not try trolly looking buses on the route first? That will provide data on the effect.
There will be no time savings traveling hte route via trolly.
It seems to me we should drop the elitist tude and ride the freakin bus……..the bus does not reduce a traffice lane (many of the of the streets are already narrow).
As for the progressiveness of the NATI,we are in the midst of a 500 million dollar cooperative government and private business rejuvination of the OTR hood…..two of our SMS classmates represent the private contractors. Cites across the country are studying to see how is it works….
“You cannot have a suburb without the urb!”
Agree with that entirely Bill.
A street car would be great but there is a even bigger innovation issue that needs to be addressed and you briefly mentioned it – people leaving the city for bland suburbs.
Why do they do that? More space and lower taxes. But why? Because urban land is so poorly managed. Currently the tax structure falls on buildings and not on land values. That means that an abandoned lot or a crumbling building pays almost no taxes. The owner can just hold that land with almost no carrying cost. And the small cost there might be can be a tax write-off. They are waiting for the business climate to change or for government to invest so that their property value goes up. Cincinnati is full of speculators. A tax on buildings? If I have an empty lot why would I invest unless I got a tax break or a big pay day?
There is a lot of poorly used land and hence people leave. Prices become distorted et al.
In the meanwhile the person who spends their time and their dime to maintain or improve their home or business has their assessments go up and they end up paying higher taxes and a greater percentage of the taxes.
Penalizing the workers and incentivizing those who are a drag on the economy is the exact opposite of what your fair city needs to be doing.
Slowly implementing a tax that shifts property taxes away from buildings and onto land values will put valuable land into use and create a more vital Cincinnati. That streetcar paid for by taxes is an investment that will raise property values – part of those values should be recollected as tax revenue.
Innovation is important, no doubt but innovation at what level? It is tempting to implement a good idea but if the matrix that it is stuck on can’t support it – why bother? My thoughts are that starting “lower” allows for greater innovation later that can stick.
Tax structure does matter. I’m wondering how different Cincinnati is in that regard to other American cities. My knowledge of Cincy property taxes for home owners goes back a few years, but it was very low — especially compared to what I paid later in Chicago. Your comments about unused property are interesting, it’s not much of an incentive to develop if it’s easy to simply carry it and hope to get lucky when someone else invests. I’m sure a lot of that is going on.
With regard to Cincinnati, I’d like to see it become more of an economic and social success, that’s the “innovation” (really the change) I’d hope for there. I’d define social success as a more livable city, a safer city, a city that is more holistically “well”. More of a level playing field, more opportunity at all levels. Of course, social success like that is tied to economic success. There is an inequity in Cincinnati that is very pronounced. Poverty there is of the worst possible sort, as bad as the worst areas in New York or Detroit. Transportation infrastructure is only one piece of a very complex puzzle to make the patient well. Others would include jobs, better educational opportunities, and simply a more open attitude to people, and change.
Thanks as always for your comments Mark.
Ohio is particularly bad with assessments and its property tax ratios. That is no doubt a layover from its industrial past where wealthy land owners owned huge swaths of land and had tremendous sway with city council and state legislatures that gave them preferential tax benefits.
But that setup magnifies inequality now and keeps poor neighborhoods poor and keeps jobs and homes from being generated. More and more of the tax burden falls on the less wealthy good actors while the wealthiest pay less (by and large).
While the tax structure in Ohio is particularly bad the general principle of taxes on buildings being high and taxes on land being low or non-existent is standard fare around the country with a few exceptions.
Those exceptions have some amazing buffers from the general economic malaise the rest of the country is in.
Hope this finds you well Gregg. Best – Matt
Really salient point, thanks Matt. Be nice to know where the exceptions are..
Update: Cincinnati Mayor annouces the new plan, which is a drastic scaling back of what was already a skeleton program. I’m not sure it’s worth it in a version that doesn’t connect downtown to uptown — but here’s the news: http://cincystreetcar.wordpress.com/