Two things happened this past week in Cincinnati. First council approved a controversial plan to build a street car in the city. I’m not going into the good and bad of it per se but once again Cincinnati tries to follow plans of other cities to promote tourism while never seeming to lead the way. One reason it is controversial is because opponents say that fares will not cover the cost to operate the streetcar and the city will continually have to pony up money to keep it in business.
Secondly, they decided to double the parking rates in downtown from $1 per hour to $2 per hour. While not New York pricing, this is one of the highest in a 250 mile radius. On top of it they increased the rates for city garages. So let’s see…what was the plan to bring more people downtown?
What stuff does your city do that you question?
Comments
103 responses to “Editorial Cartoon: Cincinnati raises Parking Meter Rates”
I have been to Allentown, PA a few times. The first time I was there as a child, their downtown was vibrant. They added parking meters, parking garages, and parking zones. Their downtown is practically a ghost town
Hey didn’t you listen to Billy Joels Allentown. that is because they were shutting all the factories down.
They had to shut them down… the employees couldn’t afford to park.
Well Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line.
Our local authority requires each property to have NINE different containers for sorted recycling (glass, tins, paper, waste food (2), plastic bottles, garden, old clothes, general refuse). It is said to be the most complex system in Britain.
Old Clothes. Don’t you have a Goodwill or local shelter to give it to. I guess separating your paper makes it easier for the identity theives not to have to dig through the old banana peels to get to those credit card offers.
The garments are actually taken by a charity… and ‘er shreds any personal papers…
Not such a bad idea…but since tin is really the only thing that will make money back for the city, I wonder how much they have to spend on the project.
It is all to reduce the huge fees for landfill discarding of rubbish. These were hugely increased about 8-10 years ago mainly because Britain is so small in size and we have been producing so much sh8te for the last 300 years that we are running out of space. Plus some of the landfill fee is tax to central government to be used on environmental matters.
The theory is that NOT recycling is so expensive and politically unwise that we will all go for it to keep our local taxes down. Most of the news and magazine paper in Britain is from recycled paper; whilst our waste food goes to make electricity by a biodegradable power plant.
Does it all make sense and economy, FOK?
So true. Hadn’t thought about the increasing landfill cost. And given that you are on an island, there are only so many places to go with it.
You are lucky Bearman, we pay friggin $2.90 an hour in the most isolated capital city in the world. We must be the only city in the world who has NO public transport to and from our domestic or international airports!!!!
Yeah but $2.90 an hour is equal to like $.50 here right?? haha
Use to be until you kind of had an economic kaboom!!!!
wait wait let me clarify things there IS a bus .. A BUS that does say “domestic airport” it costs anywhere between $2.50 to $9.00 for a single ticket… and you have to walk into the airport … takes about 40 mins from the main road bus stop to the door of the airport…seeeeee not so bad?
haha
Don’t they have cabs down there?
yes, but the taxi drivers are usually…um… how can i say it… people of certain ethnicities who try to take you for a fool ALL the time. And they never speak the same language as you and dont know where the hell they are going…
Oh…so they are English.
Where’s Paul Newman when you need him?
What’s he going to do…make me some salad dressing?
The reference was to one of histories all time best movies. I think “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
I thought that line was from Ernest Saves Christmas.
It’s from Newman’s greatest movie, “Cool Hand Luke.” The movie starts out with him drunk and cutting down parking meters. It came out in 1967, so probably before your time.
Once Bo let me know, I realized what it was. But they did use that line in Ernest.
I think I have used that line at least once a week ever since I saw the movie (the first time) when it first came out.
Never saw that one. Is it worth it?
No Ernest movie is worth it.
Stella. Stella!!!
That line was used in Ernest Saves Christmas too?
But he doesn’t have a street car named desire does he?
Who knows..there was a ton of those Ernest movies.
It might be a way to push people toward public transit. Toronto seems to be evolving into such an anti-driver city. Irrational bike lanes making driving downtown impossible, high parking fees etc. I don’t think fewer cars is bad. But our transit system just can’t support the amount of people that use it. The city should evolve gradually, and its transit with it. As it stands, forcing people on an aging system just doesn’t work.
I am all for public transportation. That is why I voted for a light rail system that failed miserably 10 years ago. With the exception of buses, we have no public transportation. But the streetcar isn’t a public transport option for the entire city. It is just another way to get from a few miles north of downtown to the river.
so basically, the streetcar’s going to be for tourists to potch around… our public transportation stinks here too.
tampa area, florida
That’s not what Nake says.
yes he did, he said the exact same thing. the only difference is he is for high speped rail and i’m against it in this area..are you trying to stir up a fight? (see my comment via nate’s comment)
Yes…I am good for stirring it up.
…our downtown has a free parking garage, not to mention free parking on the weekends—granted, Nashua, NH isn’t as big as Cincinnati but it’s still a nice little financial break when I’m looking to parallel park my lemon-yellow Oldsmobuick on Main St…I usually use that extra cash to go tanning and raving…
Have town officials considering taxing Ocho-Dinko and T.O. and extra 10,000$ a week—just because they’re total nincompoops…?
So how many tourists are coming to Nashua for the free parking these days? haha
haha—tons! It’s a mad-house around here 🙂 The sex-worker industry is booming as a result of all this tourism though…
A strip club on every corner huh
don’t forget your “free state project” for us liberty-loving folks. never been to NH but would love to go because of this.
the free state project, not the strip clubs though i imagine they are splendiferous as strip clubs usually are!
How many have you been to?
wat is and where is NH?
ive been to a strip club once.. i was hotter than the strippers lol
NH is New Hampshire. Sorry for the US code.
I have been to a strip club where the woman looked like she came right from the hospital after giving birth. We lasted all of about 10 minutes in there.
well unlike bearman and susi-cutie, i’ve only been to the good ones. oh and to answer your question, i’ve been to enough to know that you find out WHERE youre going BEFORE you go to avoid the whole pregnant, coked-up stripper thang.
I wasn’t in charge of planning.
Mine is spending approx. $2 million on new and improved downtown parking, in spite of the fact that downtown has a dearth of businesses to begin with.
Build it and they will come.
boom, boom… ching!
in my city they are decreasing the parking in order to get people OUT of the city…bastards
What blows my mind completely for my city is that they’re constantly building stores and malls, but don’t spend any money for parking at all. I realize real estate is expensive, but if you’re gonna have a grocery store, the least you can do is give us a place to park. 🙂
That’s what you get for living in CA and that high cost of living.
Just a simple case of The Ends Justifying the Means.
Let’s hope. I just hope in 10 years they aren’t talking about ripping out the streetcar tracks to save money.
I can never remember … is Cincinnati the “Mistake on the Lake” or is that Cleveland?
That is Cleveland. Cincinnati is the Liver on the River…or something like that.
Parking in sydney is really expensive but I think it’s because we’re being encouraged to use public transport instead of our cars. Yet another reason why i so rarely leave the house except to work
Which would be great if we had a viable public transportation system.
I remember one area of Boston where the only parking was a garage, with a minumum fee of 15.00. Hartford is strictly business, with very little night life or reason to go there. With NYC and Boston within a couple of hours either way, it’s no wonder. The NY Times called it a “failed city”. Great, huh?
New Yorkers think anything other than NY is a failed city so don’t feel bad.
I question everything in my town.
Because whatever they do will never be good enough. lol
I would hate to be your offspring…haha j/k
Ha! It never even clicked in my brain you run the funnies on the weekend! Get your Obama change out and ready, quarters, dimes, nickels. Why do we still have pennies?
I have been trying to stick with a 2x per week schedule lately. Ideally Sundays and Wednesdays but sometimes it is Monday or Thursday.
He only posts a couple of times a week but he has more comments and more groupies than the rest of us put together. It might just be his magnetic personality or it could be that it’s pretty good stuff.
I go with personality.
Well this is basically a socialist country so they do tend to waste a ton of money to keep people in work, but it’s better than having them not working.
One thing that I like is that they make every welfare recipient work 4 or 6 hours a day for the city depending on their health and skill. Street sweeping, phones, painting, computers… if you’re on the dole, they will find something for you to do.
They do??? I have said they need to do that here. But then the street sweepers would say they are stealing their jobs.
We are building high speed rail here in the Tampa Bay area. Obviously, there are a lot of controversies over it. I’ll all for it though. Driving around here is horrible, and I typically take the train anyway when traveling.
Our parking is FREE on weekends, and a dollar an hour. And I live in a tourist trap! What’s up with Cinci?
BTW – the trolley system in Tampa does quite well.
That’s b/c people plan on visiting Tampa. With the exception of , Oktoberfest, sporting events or KI there are few reasons for people to plan a trip to Cincinnati.
True. You guys need more beaches there
nate! 🙂 you must be my neighbor man.. i’m in clearwater at the beach. i do agree, driving in tpa is horrible. the traffic situation is crazy!…however, i doubt whether people will use high spped rail to go to orlando considering there’s no transportation set up to get to tampa to catch it. i really do think that if folks have to drive to tampa to catch the train they will just drive the extra hour and keep their car to get around once in orlando. the way io see it, the problem is the traffic INSIDE the city not across the state. what say you?
When you live as far out in the boondocks as I do you pretty much park where you want to and it don’t cost nothin’.
Yeah but then it’s a pain carrying the groceries 2 miles.
Uphill to the house and back uphill to get back to the vehicle.
Did someone already make the reference to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”.
“What do I need a car for? We’ve got the best public transportation system in the world!” [I probably didn’t quote that perfectly, but I think I left my memory on the trolley-car].
I wish they would get off their butts and make the Prequel to that movie already.
$2 an hr to park? geez, i dunno, sounds kinda steep. re the streetcar thing, we’re going through the same thing here in florida sort of. they’re trying to come up with the funding to build high speed rail service from tampa to orlando. jsut seems to me the better idea would be to fix the darn road between here and there, but it looks and sounds COOL so most people want it.
I’d be for high speed rail around Ohio. I would much rather spend 3 hours on a train than 3 hours driving.
I’ve almost gotten to the point where I don’t even ask questions any more. I just hide. 🙂
Well you better not or no one will know where to find your business.
At least the additional money goes to the city. In Chicago, for instance, the city sold the parking meters to a foreign investor that immediately quadrupled rates. Even Mayor Daley, never known for his keen intellect, realized that selling the meters was a bad idea . . . after the deal was done.
No…the money will go to the consultant they hired to determine they needed to raise meter rates.
Its amazing how much I learn about how things work here in the states by reading the comments on your cartoons, Bearman. lol
Pretty good artwork, too. ;`)
I hang with an educated bunch (some of them even comment on my site)
it’s actually spelt edgukated…
At first I thought that was some English version..haha
The council has narrowed a lot of streets here lately to put in bicycle lanes. The only problem is that all the Tour-de-France wannabe lycra wearing racing bike riding cyclists still insist on their right to ride 2 abreast in the main traffic lanes. Apparently real men don’t use bike lanes. However where there is a bike lane it is compulsory to use them & a fineable offence not to. They really annoy the heck outta me when they insist on holding up the traffic at pedalling speed. Beep your horn at them & you cop the one finger salute & a mouthful of abuse.
Do bike lanes allow your scooter?
Oh look at my previous comment. I got a weird avatar. Changed my email on my WP profile & forgot to change it in my comment
That’s even weirder. Click on my name & this url comes up
http://beartoons.com/ynot60.com
Yet my blog url is correct in the comment form
Oh I just figgered it out. I had one / not enough in my http:// bit.
See…and you had me going for a minute as to what was happening on my end.
Actually, after thinking about it, it would be much more amusing if Cinci went with a subway system instead
Not amusing at all. All they have to do is reclaim all the built subway tunnels that are already there.
In St. Louis City, the biggest problem is crime. Our officials do everything they can to promote tourism in the city- landscaping, new parks, a trolley system, ad campaigns, etc., spending money on everything except what they *should* do- beef up the police presence. For some reason, in all these years, they still don’t understand this concept, even though all the citizens are screaming for it. It’s frustrating.
Who is Dan Lnog and what have you done with Long?
As long as the crime isn’t against the tourists, they probably think it is OK.
Parking for me is insanely expensive, but the company foots the bill. I’d take the bus if it dropped of anywhere near my office, but I don’t want to walk a mile every day to work, and if I need to get home fast because one of my kids decides to blow chunks at school, I kind of need the car.
Maybe a “green” company would have a few pool cars that people could rent cheaply for a day in those cases where their employees need a chunk day.
We’ve been paying $2 an hour for as long as I can remember. Not only that, a parking spot downtown costs more than some apartment rentals.
That’s why if they don’t work in the core, some people go years without stepping foot in the city centre.
$2 canadian is like $10 American…right? No wonder..haha