And if you haven't written to ODOT's TRAC in support of the funding for the streetcar, tomorrow is probably the last day to send your letters. E-mails can be accepted until Friday. For details, see: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/TRAC/Pages/Default.aspx
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2011 02 07
Monkeys on our Backs
Monkeys on our Backs
Once again, the alliance of extremists who brought us the failed Issue 9 campaign in 2009 has demonstrated they can't take a hint. In their 2009 their catchphrase was "We Demand a Vote!" This year it may as well be, "You voted the wrong way in 2009, stupid!"
As in 2009, the primary instigators are the Tea Party-affiliated COAST ("Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes") and Chris Smitherman's local branch of the NAACP. They are joined by the bosses of the police and firefighters unions as well as Westwood Concern.
Their reasons for opposing the streetcar are varied. In theory, COAST sees the streetcar as an example of wasteful government spending, but this conveniently ignores the streetcar's projected a nearly 2.7 to 1.0 ratio of Benefits to Costs, and when it comes to unnecessary freeway projects that make the streetcar budget look like pocket change, COAST's silence is deafening. If COAST had any intellectual honesty they'd be applauding the city for finding common-sense ways to improve the city's business climate and strengthen its tax base without raising tax rates, but given how their Tea Party friends are largely financed by an oil company and how COAST endorsed a gubernatorial candidate who promptly placed a former asphalt industry lobbyist as director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, one doesn't need to look far to realize there will never be a rail proposal that COAST likes nor a freeway proposal that COAST hates, regardless of the costs or merits.
READ MORE AT:
Ken Prendergast
Executive Director
All Aboard Ohio
12029 Clifton Blvd., Suite 505
Cleveland, OH 44107
(216) 288-4883
kenprendergast@allaboardohio.org
www.allaboardohio.org
Executive Director
All Aboard Ohio
12029 Clifton Blvd., Suite 505
Cleveland, OH 44107
(216) 288-4883
kenprendergast@allaboardohio.org
www.allaboardohio.org
