OPINION

All aboard the 'Streetcar of Hopes and Dreams'

Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes

Dusty Rhodes is the Hamilton County auditor.

The glorious moment we have all been anxiously awaiting is almost here. After several years of construction obstructing Downtown traffic and commerce, eliminating on-street parking, installing ugly overhead electric wires above streets, uprooting trees on Court Street to install a huge, hideous transformer and nine months, that’s right – nine months, of “testing” (and several collisions with cars) the fabled city of Cincinnati streetcar is finally about to commence public service.

At last, we naysayers and skeptics will be put in our place as the whole town and perhaps even the entire Tristate celebrates all weekend long and then flocks to ride the streetcar over its 3.6-mile route in record numbers. How could anything else happen? After all, local media has urged us to “make it a success” (though they haven’t told us how) and a major corporate citizen has agreed to purchase the naming rights in return for plastering its name all over the streetcars.

Everyone knows the media and major corporate citizens are never wrong.

We can now see that the politicians were right to flaunt the public will as expressed at the ballot box. Gratefully, Councilmen Kevin Flynn, David Mann and P.G. Sittenfeld, who campaigned as opposed to the streetcar, saw the light and decided to vote for it once they were elected and safely in office for four-year terms. We are truly fortunate they had the wisdom and decency to mislead us about their position and go back on their word.

All of us appreciate that after the 2013 election for mayor in which the anti-streetcar candidate (John Cranley) soundly defeated the pro-streetcar candidate (Roxanne Qualls), the lame-duck City Council and administration neglected the election and spent their final month in office doubling down on streetcar spending and planning.

Will streetcar expansion be big campaign issue?

It is good that no one demanded a complete, professional and impartial financial analysis of the project by the city’s Budget Office prior to making the decision to build it. The previous city administration and council was wise to rely instead on glowingly optimistic projections from proponents who would benefit from it. Fortunately, they ignored those who suggested that allocating scarce city resources to this fad would, without major tax increases, drain money from basic city services, neighborhood renewal, road repair and existing mass transit.

They were also able to overlook that not one of these urban transportation throwbacks exists anywhere in the country without massive continuing public subsidy – with the possible exception of San Francisco. And they were not the least bit dissuaded by the fact that nationally, streetcars cost $1.50 to run for every mile a passenger travels, compared with $1.05 for standard buses. Hey, historic appeal has a price.

What streetcar success will look like

Lucky for us a local nonprofit, the Haile Foundation, came forward in a burst of civic spirit to guarantee that “private sources” would cover “up to $900,000” of the streetcar’s estimated $3.5 million in annual operating costs for the first 10 years. We should not be concerned that the Haile Foundation’s operations director flatly refused to answer a question at a recent meeting about their streetcar funding promise.

Even before it starts running, our wonderful streetcar inspired fabulous new development along its route, development that seemingly had nothing to do with the city’s generous tax abatements, zoning changes and various other incentives. It was all because of the streetcar, the unchallenged key to all our future hopes and dreams or, as some have even said, “our redemption.”

Should the streetcar somehow, some way fail to live up to all the breathtaking projections we understand it will only be because the route is not long enough and must be expanded – no matter what that may cost. Yet one thing is for sure: Those of us who have pointed out this project’s many shortcomings, expected politicians to keep their word, and warned about the potential financial money pit will never be heard to say “I told you so.”

From streetcar skeptic to believer