Talk About Telescopic Views

A letter to the editor in the Enquirer today from West Side civic leader and former city council candidate Pete Witte brings into sharp relief why streetcar opponents have it wrong. The letter is not long, so I'll just quote the entire thing.

Hey City Council how do the other 50 neighborhoods in the city benefit from the Streetcars? Will Bond Hill benefit? How about Mount Washington, Westwood, Price Hill, etc?

City Hall needs a telescope to see beyond the blocks outside their windows.

Why would this city support $100 million effort to shuffle a couple hundred people a day around Over-the-Rhine and Downtown? We need to link Westwood to Mount Washington and Bond Hill to Uptown, not make it easier for bar hoppers to hit OTR and Fountain Square. Maybe a thoughtful council member will encourage a referendum so that citizens can vote on this expenditure. A referendum will force them to think about a comprehensive plan benefiting many, not the few.

Pete Witte, West Price Hill

*golf clap* What Witte and so many suburbanites who disregard the central city do not realize is that the area between and including Uptown and the CBD form the heart and soul of the entire region. They don't realize that the success or failure of Greater Cincinnati will always begin with the CBD, OTR, the area around UC and the hospitals, and all the areas in-between. They don't realize that if these areas founder, then the entire region will founder. They don't realize that without the core, there would be no Westwood, Mt. Washington, or Bond Hill.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh on Mr. Witte and his ilk. He doesn't actually say he's against streetcars, only that any proposal should include more neighborhoods. Well if that's the case I must ask, how else would you start a plan to link and spur growth in all the neighborhoods with fixed line transportation? Would you build a line from Westwood to Bond Hill, and then extend it downtown? That doen't make any sense. Oh, and there was a referendum on a comprehensive regional transporation system several years ago which was soundly defeated. I wonder what Mr. Witte's vote was then? I know that was light rail, and this is not, but I doubt the average person knows the difference and that the general attitude would prevail again if this was put to a vote.