http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/10/Columbus_no_longer_planning_for_streetcarsx_light_rail.html

Columbus has the worst combination of apathetic urban residents and pro-sprawl city “leadership”.

The urban residents let the suburbanites dictate where our transportation dollars go, which is why in the past decade hundreds of millions have gone toward adding more lanes for their sprawling arterial roads and no serious improvements have been made whether it’s mass transit or accommodating non-auto vehicles such as bikes and scooters.

Speaking of Columbus’ streetcar system, the city should have chosen a street that was not already revitalized (N High St has already been largely revitalized and gentrified in the Short North stretch) and chosen another urban corridor that needs the boost in investment (W Broad which has plenty of empty urban commercial blocks). The city, however, was clearly not serious in having this plan go forward since they didn’t even have a master plan with even a handful lines. Instead, the commercial streets in neglected neighborhoods which could have used a streetcar line have seen the number of abandoned homes nearly double from 3,200 in 2007 to 6,100 as of Feb., 2011: just four years made this difference. The death of the streetcar line doesn’t just mean that we’re stuck with a crappy bus line, but instead bodes ill for *huge* urban neighborhoods like Linden and the Near South where their downward spiral is approaching the point of no return: you already need to have your home prepped for home invasions and expect to be accosted by an armed robber as a resident of these neighborhoods, accepting it as an inevitability.

As a result, urbanites who want a decent quality of urban living where you can easily get from point A to B without a car are all giving up on changing the status quo. It doesn’t matter if you get involved with the city by participating in local transportation meetings and communicating with city officials. They’ve already made up their minds beforehand and already have ties behind the scenes with those they are awarding contracts to for each pre-determined project. All you have to do is look at the city’s transportation projects overview page to see that all that they’re doing now and in the future is to ensure that most roads within city limits prioritize rush hour commuters.

On my now defunct Columbus blog I had exposed that ODOT was using data that was over a decade old to justify the expenditure of over $1.6 billion on a 2 mile stretch of highway bordering Downtown (that’s over $800 million per mile of highway) that is no longer needed as evidenced by their own more recent data showing a huge drop in drivers due to the recession. ODOT acknowledged this drop in front of Columbus city council and yet they voted unanimously in favor of the project going forward. There was no outrage from the public when I revealed this whatsoever.

Anyone living in Columbus and thinking that we’re on our way to being a real city, ie one where you can easily get from point A to B without a car, is sorely mistaken and wasting their time here when there are other cities that, while not perfect, make clear with their actions that they are embracing their urbanity and support it with good mass transit. No wonder there’s virtually nothing on Columbus on this website.