Hello all. Here’s a brief news update for ya.
Have you waited more than a few minutes for a streetcar or had trouble paying with a credit card? The Cincinnati Bell Connector continues to see strong ridership numbers, but there are some definite bugs to work out in the streetcar system. Cincinnati City Council’s Transportation Committee yesterday discussed continuing issues with the transit project, as well as ongoing efforts to address them. A few credit card readers aren’t functioning at stops, something the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which runs the streetcar, says it’s working on. Cars on the 3.6-mile rail loop are supposed to pick up passengers every 15 minutes, but there have been problems meeting that goal. Mostly, that has to do with traffic light timing, something Council would like to address after the completion of a proposed $300,000 traffic study. But stronger demand and fewer cars on weekends have also played into the timing problem. Transportation Committee Chair Amy Murray has also floated the idea of having the streetcars run on flex time — that is, running more cars during peak demand and fewer when there’s less demand. That’s something SORTA says it would like to do once it has enough data to try and predict those peak/off peak times.
• Speaking of the streetcar, a major, and controversial, development in Over-the-Rhine along the Connector’s route has gotten an important thumbs-up. The Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board Monday approved the $25 million, five-story apartment and parking garage project at Liberty and Elm Streets in OTR, despite some community apprehensions. Critics say the proposed project lacks affordable housing, is too tall and doesn’t mesh with existing architecture in the neighborhood. Developers Source 3 and 224 Liberty LLC have adjusted their original plans slightly in response to requests from the Board, including dropping a sixth story and 10 of the original 165 parking spaces from their plans.
• It looks like a downtown Kroger location is getting closer and closer to reality. The Cincinnati-based grocery giant has been eying the possibility of a store at what is currently a parking lot on the corner of Walnut Street and Central Parkway for months now and has even enlisted a development team. It would be the first new grocery store downtown in four decades.
• OTR-based Taft’s Ale House is expanding brewing production to a second site to keep up with demand. The brewery, which opened in spring 2015, recently purchased a 49,000-square-foot former P&G industrial site on Spring Grove Avenue, where it will work on cranking out more cans and kegs of beer. The project will cost an estimated $6 million and open around May of next year. Request: Make more Pierce Arrow. There aren’t enough black lagers in the world.
• The saga around picking a new Health Commissioner continues. Cincinnati Board of Health yesterday again delayed its vote on a new commissioner, instead tapping long-time Health Department employee Marilyn Crumpton as another interim commissioner. She replaces outgoing interim commissioner O’dell Owens, who was vying for a permanent spot as commish until he left to lead nonprofit Interact for Health over the long delay by the Board in choosing a leader. Owens was competing with former Seminole County, Florida Health Commissioner Swannie Jett for the spot. Jett resigned from the post rather than face disciplinary action for unspecified reasons, the state of Florida revealed last week. The most recent delay in voting for a permanent commissioner comes as two new board members, Dr. Christopher Lewis and insurance consultant Ronald Robinson, join the fray. Current Board of Health members say they want to give both time to make an informed decision.
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 5, 2016.
