[continued from previous message]

>New projects to replace the old, falling apart systems run into a
>different kind of problem: self-sabotage. Baltimore’s Red Line is a
>perfect example. A 14-mile light-rail line to connect the city’s
>impoverished west side to its more affluent east side, the project was
>weeks away from breaking ground in 2015 when Maryland’s Republican
>governor dubbed it a "boondoggle" and pulled the plug. The same thing
>happened to the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel, recently
>described by President Obama as the most important infrastructure project
>in the country. It became the pawn in a political pissing contest, and
>eventually bit the dust.
>
>"These rail services are expensive, quite frankly," Robert Puentes,
>president and CEO of the 95-year-old Eno Center for Transportation, told
>me. "They're expensive to build, they're expensive to operate, and when
>you do them right, they can have enormously positive implications on
>regional economies. And if you do them wrong, they can be a big white
>elephant."
>
>In 2002, Cincinnati’s voters had a chance to resurrect their incomplete
>subway, to transform it from a graveyard of embarrassment to a linchpin in
>a multi-billion dollar transit plan. The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit
>Authority proposed a ballot referendum called Metro Moves, which would
>have created an extensive light-rail system incorporating the three
>remaining 1920s-era subway stations at Liberty, Brighton, and Hopple
>streets.
>
>In many ways, Metro Moves was more ambitious than the original Rapid
>Transit Loop. It included seven light-rail lines and 72 stations, at a
>total cost of $2.7 billion. While the federal government would have
>covered the bulk, Hamilton County (which encompasses Cincinnati) residents
>were asked to approve a half-cent sales tax levy to cover their portion.
>Just like they had a century ago, local businesses endorsed the plan, as
>well as environmentalists and good government groups. Supporters blanketed
>the airwaves with positive ads in favor of Metro Moves, and dominated
>opponents during numerous public debates.
>
>Metro Moves was the result of a decade-long effort to bring light rail to
>Cincinnati. Moreover, it was the city’s chance to erase the stain left
>behind by their unfinished subway project. But Hamilton County residents
>rejected Metro Moves in a 2-to-1 vote, with over 68 percent voting against
>the project.
>
>Wedged between the Fort Washington freeway trench and the Ohio River, a
>stone’s throw from the city’s baseball park and football stadium, sits the
>Riverfront Transit Center, a two-story tall, half-mile long underground
>concrete tube opened in 2003. That makes it one of the largest transit
>stations in the world. It is also another failed Cincinnati public
>transportation project: most of the time it sits completely empty.
>
>When it was envisioned, planners thought that the transit center would be
>a hub where light-rail lines — if Cincinnati ever got around to building
>them — could converge. In the meantime, the massive underground transit
>station would serve as a pick-up and drop-off location for public and
>private buses, as well as special shuttles during game days. Today, the
>above-ground portals are locked and the driveway leading up to the main
>entrance is closed for 275 days out of the year. Though I’m told the
>center is lined with subway tiles and mosaic art, I wasn’t allowed inside.
>
>"It is an orphaned station," a Channel 9 reporter mused in a 2011
>investigative piece on the station’s underutilization. No rail lines
>currently run to the Riverfront Transit Center, and it’s only open during
>during major events. Public metro buses are left to do their pick-ups and
>drop-offs at street level.
>
>With a $48 million price tag, the transit center has been enough of a
>money pit to turn once ardent supporters into foes. Former Cincinnati
>mayor Charlie Luken, who helped cut the ribbon on the Riverfront Transit
>Center in 2003, now calls it the biggest waste of money he’s ever seen.
>"The only reason there's not more outrage about it," Luken told Channel 9,
>"is because people don't know it's there."
>
>When I ask him about the Riverfront Transit Center, Dan Hurley, a local
>historian and civic leader, almost chokes on his water. "Underutilized is
>such a kind word," he says. "Boondoggle is the one I hear more often."
>
>What is it about Cincinnati that it served as the setting for not one, but
>two multi-million transportation fiascos? Most of the Cincinnatians I
>spoke to shrug off the question, insisting that the forces that gave rise
>to both the subway and the transit center have nothing in common. The
>subway was never finished, while the transit center is complete, if
>underutilized.
>
>In September, the city will cut the ribbon on its new streetcar system.
>Many Cincinnatians are excited for their fancy new streetcars. Others
>remain opposed, including Cincinnati mayor John Cranley, who calls it a
>waste of money and "a mistake." In 2013, Cranley tried to stop the
>streetcar, but the city council, perhaps realizing the horrible irony
>involved in canceling another half-complete transportation project,
>overruled him.
>
>Recently, the city realized it was losing money by keeping its empty
>spaces like the Riverfront Transit Center empty for most of the year. In
>October, the station will be unlocked and the gates flung open for Ubahn,
>a two-day hip-hop and EDM musicfest. (The German word "U-bahn" translates
>as an underground rapid transit or metro.) The organizers are billing it
>as the "the first underground music festival in Cincinnati."
>
>New York City transformed an abandoned elevated train track into a world-
>class park. It’s now doing the same for an empty trolley terminal in
>Manhattan. The High Line begat the Lowline. If the Ubahn is successful,
>could the Cincinnati subway be far behind?
>
>Moore says no. "We’ve had people approach us about using the tunnel for
>everything from grain malting, to a water bottling operation, to
>nightclubs — you name it." None of these ideas will work, though. There’s
>no way the subway can accommodate thousands of sweaty club kids. The floor
>is uneven, there are pillars, and the water main, which was installed in
>the 1950s, leaks constantly.
>
>Which is not to say the tunnels aren’t in good condition. In 2008, the
>city was faced with a choice: spend $100.5 million to revive the tunnels
>for modern subway use, $19 million to fill the tunnels with dirt, or $2.6
>million to simply maintain them as an abandoned space. After two years of
>debate, the city went with the cheapest option. The subway houses a water
>main, as well as fiber optic cables. And with Central Parkway running
>directly above, the tunnels needed to be refortified to keep the street
>safe.
>
>Today, most people don’t know why the subway was never finished. Even
>Murray Seasongood, the posh city manager who was most responsible for its
>demise, didn’t seem to understand his own role in the boondoggle. When he
>was researching his book, Mecklenborg stumbled across an old interview
>from the 1960s with Seasongood, who was in his 80s at the time. The
>interviewer, a college student from the University of Cincinnati, asked
>him if he regretted killing the subway. "He was very jovial, very
>enthusiastic," the student said of Seasongood. "But as for the details of
>the subway system, he could not recall them."
>
>Back at Hopple Street, Mecklenborg and I emerge from the labyrinth, a
>little dirtier than when we entered but otherwise unharmed. Despite
>everything that he and his city have been through, he’s surprisingly
>indifferent to the decision to seal off the subway from the public
>forever. He thought that the tours were okay, but prone to misinformation.
>Maybe it’s better this way. "You can go on a tour of the subway, you can
>physically see it," he says, "but you still wouldn’t understand it."

--- SoupGate/W32 v1.03
 * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)