Can Cincinnati Return to its Urbanist Roots?
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- Like many cities, Cincinnati has strayed far from its urbanist roots over the past century. And like many cities, it’s slowly working its way back.
For this video, we’ll dive into Cincinnati-its urban heritage, its sprawl-y present, and its slow progress towards urbanism. And for the first time, I’ll lay out my vision for what transit should look like in a city.
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Chapter Markers
00:00 Intro
00:59 Chapter 1: Cincy's Urbanist Heritage
02:22 Chapter 2: The Decline and Sprawl of Cincinnati
04:24 Chapter 3: Beginning of a Revival
07:08 Chapter 4: Crayon Time
12:24 Take Action
Older than Ohio, we had urban density on par with Manhattan. The 20th century and the lure of "a new suburban utopia" led us astray.
you really have to figure in the fact that the basin was, in large part, a crowded wasteland shrouded in trapped coal smoke.
The last year of our streetcar service, 1952, the system carried over 1 million riders.
I think a Dayton-Cincinnati commuter rail line would be nice to have. Plenty of people commute between these cities, and it has been predicted that some day they will merge into a single metro area. Dayton is also unique in maintaining trolley buses.
Dayton could be SO MUCH more redeveloped, especially downtown, if there were some options for getting around. Downtown Dayton is, sadly, a ghost town right now, but things are starting to happen. A like like this would spur that on.
The 4 csa metro areas have 8.5 mln inhabitants on a corridor of 250 miles. A frequent intercity line (120mph) complemented with a express commuter lines should be a total nobrainer !
Those 8 mln are more than , or equal as, between Hamburg-Berlin, Stockholm-Gothenburg,, Munich-Nuremberg- Frankfurt and almost as much as Rome-Florence-Bologna-Milan and Barcelona-Madrid !
I loved visiting Cincinnati and riding the bell connector, and I can relate with it not going to all the places I would like. Coming from Columbus which has nothing the connector is pretty cool. Also that highway is craazy!
Yeah, the urban highways in Cincinnati are pretty bad - not that we can talk in Columbus! Also, imagine if we had something like the connector that ran from Campus to German Village.
Absolutely loved Cincinnati when I visited. A great, underrated city
Totally agree!
Great video. Cheers from Cincy. My hope is that one day cincy and Columbus will be connected soon. Having to take uber to the suburbs to hop on a Greyhound bus to go to Columbus is not ideal. Metro has a bus that goes but it really takes 45 min to get there (vs like 15 on uber).
I’m optimistic that we’ll have the 3C rail in just a few years! Can’t wait!
I love that you input you opinion on how Cinci can improve. I think you should do something like that for Columbus! Then zoom out more and show us how Amtrak and the State of Ohio can build a regional system to connect all the major and small towns in the state.
I am heading to Cinci for the Vikings Bengals game in December and hope I can see Union Terminal. Love old train stations and wish they were used more for their purpose. Still heartbroken about Columbus Union Station, a crime against urbanism to have torn down that beautiful gothic structure.
Its a real shame and a missed opportunity for Cinci regarding Metro Moves. I bet they would be rerouting the freeway if they had initiated that and places like Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland would be rushing to build amazing metros now.
So, how do we make these things happen region wide?
I plan to do much more about how Columbus could improve - and a video with a longer-term vision for intercity rail in Ohio sounds interesting too!
I hope you have a great visit to Cincinnati in December. Union Terminal is amazing.
Part of my theory on how we move the region forward is to build more of a political constituency that wants to see these changes - which is why this channel exists!
Hot takes:
We need an urban gondola system to connect downtown to Mt. Adams/Playhouse in the Park/Art Museum. This could be done relatively inexpensively and provide fast, predictable, reliable, dedicated ROW (it's in the air, after all) to connect the two areas. Look at the systems they have in S. America and how they are working.
Price Hill and Lower Price hill need an incline put back in, but for people only, like in Pittsburgh. Then a streetcar connection to downtown via W. 8th street. That would catalyze both neighborhoods.
We also need a Tilikum Crossing style transit/bike/ped only bridge connecting Cincinnati Vine street and Covington Madison Ave. (covington is a southward extension of our CBD street grid)
Finally, the Purple People Bridge should have transit on it connecting to Newport.
I love these ideas!
I would love a video about the other old Midwestern Ohio river city, that being Louisville and how a transit system could be designed for it
Louisville is on my list (although I consider it to be Midwest-adjacent because it’s in Kentucky)!
Great video! Really love the Cincinnati spotlight.
Couple things for you:
Two BRT lines are happening! Two of the four routes were prioritized (the others might happen in the future) with a plan to open it by 2027.
This was funded by a historic 2020 transportation sales tax Levy. Cincinnati/Hamilton county residents are slowly changing their minds on transit.
The Oasis/eastern corridor project you mentioned has been talked about for years. While the rail line exists, it goes to communities that are not dense, don't really want TOD, and don't want to densify. Plus, traffic into Cincinnati from the East really isn't that bad - so convincing suburbanites to leave their car might be a hard sell. Of course, things could change, and I hope they do. Parking/traffic would really need to get worse for the Oasis line to happen
Great to hear that the BRT lines are moving forward! Here's hoping they're real BRT and not watered down.
Loved this video! I think the only thing I’d add on top of what you covered is a regional rail connection to Dayton. It would be similar in length to the Miami University line, and would serve a very busy corridor (I-75 is currently a mess, of course).
There would be three round trips to Dayton a day via the 3C rail line that Amtrak is actively considering now-so that one of the most likely improvements to happen!
It looks like highway removal is the most needed action.
You aren’t wrong!
75 can't be moved, maybe 71 but the best you could do is reroute it out of the city
if you’ve been there you’d know its not that bad
I'm glad you mentioned a westward streetcar expansion to Union Terminal. In my opinion, this should be one of the top priorities of city officials, because it will create an influx of ridership for out-of-city visitors/tourists. One of the biggest question marks surrounding the 3C+D Amtrack project for Ohio at large is how people will get around Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati once they reach their station. By adding an integrated streetcar stop at Union Terminal, visitors from Cleveland could (for example) drive or take transit to the Cleveland Amtrak station, ride to Cincinnati via Amtrak, transfer to the streetcar at Cincy Union Terminal, and get off the streetcar a few blocks from Paul Brown Stadium to catch a biannual Browns vs. Bengals NFL game. Or a family from Columbus could hop around downtown and OTR for a day trip entirely on rail/streetcar transit. As you said, "This is my dream"!
Honestly, that one suggested streetcar expansion is basically why I made the video!
My one complaint with seeing urbanist content about many cities is that I find it hard to connect with the different places you see in the video. Thanks for making a video about the city that I know and love!
Yay! Glad to be of service.
What of the abandoned subway tunnel that was originally meant for heavy rail? Certainly that can be put to good use.
And top priority should be to remove the 71 freeway between 75 and 471. The 71 traffic can use the 471 bridge and 275 circumferential highway. There would be so much land liberated for high density urban development and subway extensions once the two freeway intersections are removed!
Was in Cincinnati last summer at the tail end of the Reds' winstreak - absolutely loved the city's charm and great to see the progress being made. Thanks for the video!
I really wish there was some sort of rail/tram/streetcar service between campus and german village through the short north and downtown in Columbus!
Exactly! If Cincinnati can have a streetcar, Columbus should be able to too.
The steet car expansion I would like to see would be: First, the line to UC and the ZOO. (1 mile), Second to the museum center. ( 1/2 mile?), and Thirdly: The East side commuter lie to Milford Batavia into the 2nd street transit tunnel. Also, a connection by line rail from Fairfax (Redcomb Junction PRR) to Xavier Univ. I agree, you really don't want to mix your mass transit. The downtown connector is great, butt it would be FAR more efficient if it had exclusive rightaway.
Yeah, UC, the Zoo, and the Museum Center are all musts for me too - and I don't mind a much more "circulator" style system for those distances. But beyond that, Cincinnati needs regional rail basically. Something inspired by German S-Bahn systems would be ideal.
This was amazing.
Thank you.
I also felt it was very unfortunate when I learned about the different plans such as Metro Moves and the East Corridor rail transit plan that would link many nearby areas, were all rejected by voters.
I am also disappointed that the streetcar doesn’t go anywhere outside of the immediate downtown area.
I remember being a kid thinking that the streetcar was awesome and that finally there will be something cool on rails actually in the city.
I had loved trains as a kid and was obsessed that our city used to have streetcar and even thought of a subway and had many passenger rail lines.
This was a great video about Cincinnati and I liked what you had to say.
👏
So glad you enjoyed it. I think Cincinnati is in a good position to build on the progress they’ve made with the streetcar!
The question on my mind!
Amtrak will add Oxford and I personally found it to be too far, maybe add peak service and design the non-Cardinal service to be off-peak and the Cardinal is designed more so as an alternative to the Capital and Lake Shore Limited east of Indianapolis. I also made the Airport line commuter rail like Philly and Denver because ROW through Crescent Springs wasn’t that far away. Also if Louisville built a cross rail of sorts so someone can go from the Nia Center to Lexington as a one-seat ride (this could also be useful for a NYC-St Louis train, especially if there was support for a tunnel between Norton and Whitesburg to reduce time between Lexington and where it would split from the regional in Blacksburg as just getting the Cardinal to daily would be hard enough let alone a second LD train between Maysville and Charlottesville-although the Keystone Corridor would probably be the best option on top of a second Pennsylvanian and a Broadway/Three Rivers restoration via Fort Wayne so you have 4 trains between Pittsburgh and NYC, 17 between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, with 13 (9 Keystone, 2 Pennsylvanian, 2 LD) going to New York weekdays/11 (7 Keystone, 2 Pennsylvanian, 2 LD) on weekends as long as Keystone Service remains unchanged
Loved this video! If you’re considering doing another similarly structured video i’d love to see Columbus! It’s the largest city in the states without passenger rail 🙃
Columbus is my hometown! The channels first video was a summary of how Columbus might finally soon get rail. I'm planning a follow up video in the next few months as some of the things I covered in my first video progress.
the old subway plan that almost came to fruition is so frustrating to think about. i hope cincinnati can build modern versions of all their most important former streetcar lines, much like los angeles. also, your videos are very well produced for your size, but i think that your thumbnails could be better. i just don’t dig the font (makes it look like a seminar or something) and i think it could use some more engaging imagery. but that’s just my opinion, feel free to disregard lol. you’ve earned my subscription though!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm talking to some people about helping with the graphic design. I appreciate the note!
Living in Cincinnati and growing up near there, made me an urbanist, so much potential, so much squandered by decades of bad policy and a seeming hatred of what makes the place unique and interesting among far too many locals (though plenty of good folks down there fighting the good fight). I hope one of these days I get to see a system built there as extensive as the on you proposed. (Would be great to visit via a also hard to build high speed rail from Chicago where I live now).
High speed rail would be great, although any rail connection that doesn’t arrive in Cincinnati at 3:30 am would be a win.
Regarding the importance of students and public transportation, NKU students get free TANK access, and students depend on it so much. (especially NKU's large international student population, whom are less likely to have access to cars) As such, I can totally agree that university students would definitely ride any public transit available.
Oh absolutely. Better transit connections across the river would make such a difference.
In February there was a community meeting about adding miles to the streetcar route. We voted among nine different options, all but one connected to the extant line.
This would be amazing. I really do hope we get a line connecting Cleveland to Cincinnati. Columbus needs an amtrack line and it would connect two of the biggest east coast lines
In recent history the city residents have voted against their best interests. Cincy moves is great example of them doing just that. I hope the city residents pass the CSR rail sale so that more funding can be put back into the city infrastructure to bring back its rich urbanist heritage.
It’s a good time to be investing in infrastructure with all of the federal funding available!
I remember when Cincinnati had three of the best French restaurants in the U. S.
Nice vid - informative and makes a good argument for pubtrans
Thank you!
Great video i learned our city use to have inclines today. I think a Miami University line would be too expensive, too environmentally damging to the nature surrounding, and would have ridership significantly lower than other parts of the 2002 plan. At that point wouldnt NKU make more sense if we’re starting from the 02 plan?
I also wish you would’ve emphasized the cities need for a connection to CVG and Florence more
Thanks! The Miami University line would be entirely along existing freight rail - so I think it would be reasonably cheap to build and shouldn't have any meaningful environmental impact (except perhaps diverting students from driving to taking the train). I agree that the NKU connection is really important - sorry for not emphasizing CVG and Florence more. It's in there but certainly could have been a more prominent element.
Cincinnati NEEDS to integrate more into NKY for it to be a great urban city.
I just finished a video on St. Louis. It’s impressive how integrated to transit is between the two sides of the river. Seems like Cincinnati could take notes.
Why light rail instead of a light metro or heavy metro?
That’s a really good question. Light metro might make sense - I was building on an existing plan which was light rail. Someone more credentialed than me will need to figure out if the distances work with light metro versus light rail versus something like a German S-bahn .
Because light rail is just about the only rail transit that can get funded in the US.
You keep mentioning that transit crossing the river would bring in northern Kentucky. This is clearly an oversight on your part because, by definition, any transit in Cincinnati is in northern Kentucky. Because Cincinnati is in Kentucky.
In all seriousness, someone should do a deep dive on the 3C+D plan for the Amtrak line through Ohio. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they'd plan to incorporate Dayton but not Akron.
Haha, throwing a little shade at Cincinnati I see. Akron being left out seems to have to do with where existing freight line run. If only we could build new high speed tracks that run where it actually makes sense!
@@HeartlandUrbanist I've heard that. I just can't see spending the money for a rail connection and leaving out one of the biggest cities in the state with 2 major universities nearby. Would be excellent for students and families. Conversely, I think it would do real harm to Akron to be left out.
The first time I flew into Cincinnati, I was wondering why we were landing in Kentucky. I thought the flight had gotten diverted.
We are actually our own semi-autonomous republic made up of parts of three states. THE STATE OF CINCINNATI!
I really cant seem to understand why is there people who oppose these kind of projects, i really cant fathom it.
Right?!
theres a bit of a gentrification and even landbqck issue with some of it from what ive seen people taoking about it, the people these urban plans tend to try and help get pushed out instead, pushed to the ugly suburbs especially, never getting a chance to taste and expierende their new city... Cincinnatis history of using the highway to push blakc and brown and poor people out kind of made them kind of bitter. its built a lack of trust.
i wish to see all 3 issues (land back, walkable cities, gentrification) come together and find a way to make it work honestly, so far it only seems like these are all seperate issues when they all kind of have a similar origin or root problem.
I've lived in Cincinnati for almost 30 years. I just fell down a rabbit hole of videos like yours, about Cincinnati. Yours is the first one I've seen that isn't just scratching the surface of the issues of this city. You are the first person I've seen to even address the urban renewal issues that have faced Cincinnati since the early 20th century. And it is a travesty about public transportation here. It basically boils down to keeping the lower class out of the suburban areas farther from downtown, like Kenwood Hyde park Madeira etc.. segregation has left an ugly stain on this city, and the powers that be here are notoriously conservative. But I have seen a lot of growth since the mid- late 90's. At least they don't let the Kkk hold rallies on fountain square anymore 😂😂😂
What you really need to do is work to get a state government that gives a crap about funding transit projects. Ohio is near the bottom of states when it comes to this funding.
Trust me, I agree. My day job is as a political organizer.
That is the true problem. Ohio not only doesn't prioritize funding transit- they are literally trying to choke them to death. There is a true anti-city sentiment (how many times do we hear "the 3 C's get everything"). Here in Cleveland we have a good network of trains, but they are outdated, slow and need work. The recent infrastructure bill is allowing us to finally replace aging cars but the tracks really need to be upgraded as well.
Hey Charlottes the queen city
They both are but I think Charlotte is often referred to as the “Queen of the South.”
I will allow it. :P
I think you fail to realize that the crime rate here in Cincinnati and the potential for large scale riots is what keeps this city in the half dead state it has been sense the 2000s. For this city to grow as a whole will need major action that will never manifest
According to Fox19: “Overall, reports of violent crime are the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.”
Also, downtown Cincinnati has some of the most desirable neighborhoods in the state. Cincinnati is growing and redensifying. Apparently folks don’t agree with your bleak picture of the city.
@@HeartlandUrbanist I've lived in cincinnati for over 30 years... cincinnati has a history of crooked city council members, a history of protests and riots and a history of struggle once the meat industry left the city... if people come to cincinnati it is not the inner city they come for but the outer edges of the tri state area... inner cincinnati does struggle. I can gladly show spots in OTR that you must drive by and not notice or realize are signs of potential concern... your an outsider who does not work or drive in this community every day. I do... I'll admit it is getting better but the crime that is still here has only gotten worse and will continue to get worse as the city attempts to snuff it out.
I'll believe the city has started to change when I see the entire city limits cleaned up. Otherwise I can point to any part of the city and reference what needs to be worked on overall.
Just like any typical outsider to focus on the central business district and OTR for people to move here but fail to realize the issues with the west side, the issues that plague Norwood both at its border and inside it. And the issues around the UC campus area.
@@HeartlandUrbanist you do not consider the entirety of cincinnati you mentioned downtown... a typical outsider. Go to the west side, go to Norwood, go to Avondale for christ sakes and look at those areas of the city and tell me in another 10 years if downtown cincinnati is getting better. Just because it's density is going up does not mean it will stay up with upcoming events that have yet to fully unfold.
Another riot, another economic situation will put a stop to that growth. Yes cincinnati can be a desirable place but this place has a history of large scale confrontation. The last thing I delt with I can remember was the Gaza protest in the central business district that if there was any traffic going on that day it would not have made a major impact.
But the BLM March in 2020? That shut down the central business district and OTR as a whole for several months. I could gladly show you plenty of photos of the devastating impact locals can have on the downtown area if you would want to see?