Citizens for Better Transit / The Prop 9 issue in Cincinnati

Citizens for Better Transit, an anti-transit organization run by a small group of people given a voice only because of the media's effort to be fair and balanced (50% for, 50% against, no matter how unequal the sides may actually be), has made an attempt to spread a lot of disinformation related to Metro and public transit in general.

Among the things they've advocated is the dangerous idea that all transit expansion should be approved by the voters.  Before this ever enters people's minds, let's think about what is involved in getting voters to approve something.  Political capital and money are not limitless.  Getting something on the ballot, organizing advertising, and doing all the things you need just to get a yes or no from the people would cost us all a lot of time and money.

Did we vote on the I-64 project?  No.  Did we vote on the Mississippi River Bridge?  No.  Do you vote on potholes being filled? No.

If we ever made a rule where Metro had to ask the voters for approval of their decisions, they would end up spending their time (our tax dollars) bothering us to approve their work. 

This was a big issue last year in Cincinnati where they had a proposition on the ballot called Prop 9 that was ostensibly a vote on funding a planned streetcar, but was really a vote about the way government functioned.  There were some excellent advertisements related to it that you might enjoy.

Promoting St. Louis / Promoting Rotterdam

Enjoy



So Rotterdam is a place of active people riding around without helmets engaging in casual conversation and healthy living.

Let's compare 4 minutes of Rotterdam to 4 minutes of St. Louis.

This is from the St. Louis Downtown Partnership,




Ok, kids have fun in St. Louis apparently, but adults shop at corporate grocery stores instead of the independent one blocks away, they live expensive lives in expensives places, and appear to have semi-superficial friendships--bowling hipsters aside.


What happened to all the bikers and fun loving people we saw in Rotterdam?



Wash U's law school is selling a pretty exciting part of the city.  Rotterdam, where are your ariels of misty park land and imposing castles?  Eh? 


I'm not feeling the "I need to move downtown" vibe yet. We need to work on this still.