By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The Covington Business Council luncheon at the Madison Event Center was billed as a preliminary discussion about the extension of the Cincinnati Streetcar into Northern Kentucky.
A group called the Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee , however, has already begun to explore ways to extend the route into Newport and potentially, to other river cities.
Community leader Ian Budd, of Newport, said the group has been exploring the extension for about 18 months.
“We had a schedule (and) we were going to start to formalize the committee later this month, and this meeting came up, so we decided to move forward,” Budd said. “We have people contacting us every day wanting to join the effort, so it’s moving fast.”
Budd, CEO of ICB, an audiovisual company in Cincinnati, said the streetcar group is planning a trip to Washington D.C. to seek funding for a feasibility study.
The study is expected to cost about $300,000 and Budd said if the group is unable to obtain Federal money for the project, it will seek private funding.
“It’s really not lot a lot of money,” Budd said.
The panel invited to discuss the potential for a Northern Kentucky streetcar included Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach, former Cincinnati mayor Roxanne Qualls and John Schneider, a longtime resident of downtown Cincinnati.
All are strong supporters of the Cincinnati Streetcar project.
Schneider said he came to the project as a skeptic but in his travels around the country he saw that a well-managed streetcar could positively impact a city.
“I remember a light bulb went off thinking this is exactly what Greater Cincinnati needs to do,” Schneider said. The streetcar is not about making a cool city, it’s not about attracting the millennials, although it will do that, it’s not about tourism.”
Schneider referenced the first streetcar study completed in Cincinnati, which identifies its purpose as a tool to stem the population loss for the core of Cincinnati and increase economic development.
“And by God that’s what’s happening, he said. “There is an amazing amount of economic development going on.”
Qualls said most people have followed the streetcar debate in Cincinnati, which has been a polarizing issue. Opinions range from fervent support, to vehement opposition and everything in between.
“What we are looking at in Cincinnati, is how we use the streetcar to not just connect downtown and Over-the-Rhine but ultimately other (nearby) neighborhoods to support their further economic development,” Qualls said. “The political reality is there’s always a fight about how you’re going to spend your money.”
She added that investments in public transportation have always been a divisive issue, but it is just as essential to economic development as spending for roads and bridges
“When you invest in, whether it’s public transit as we’ve traditionally known it (buses) or innovative public transit, for instance streetcar, many people simply cannot wrap their minds around the fact that you have to invest the money,” Qualls said.
Seelbach, who lives in Over-the-Rhine, said the Cincinnati Streetcar will prompt additional development in a neighborhood that is already experiencing a renaissance.
“Over-the-Rhine, ten years ago was probably the most undesirable neighborhood in the country, definitely one of the most unsafe,” Seelbach said. “When we talk about it going from one of the most unsafe neighborhoods, to now very safe…it didn’t happened because we added 100 cops to the street, it happened because of development.”
It was the plan for the streetcar, Seelbach said, that spurred that investment in the community.
“In December of 2013, when it looked like we were going to cancel this project, hundreds of residents and business owners came to City Hall to say, ‘the reason we bought…was because of the promise of the streetcar,’” Seelbach said.
Budd said the City of Newport supports the plan for a streetcar extension into Northern Kentucky and City Commissioner Beth Fennell will be part of the contingent that goes to Washington D.C.
While there is not official support from other river cities, Covington Mayor Sherry Carran said it is a project worth exploring.
“I knew there were people in the community wanting this, but I didn’t know that the effort was this organized and I was glad to hear that,” Carran said. “I was a big supporter of the streetcar in Cincinnati, but I need to learn more about what would be the benefit for Covington. The river cities work very well together and there is not that competition that you see in, for example the suburbs of Cincinnati, so if we can get a feasibility study together, it could be really helpful.”
Carran pointed out that Northern Kentucky also has the advantage of seeing a real-time experiment with the streetcar in Cincinnati to help in the decision-making process.
Budd said the cost of a streetcar project is between $20 million and $25 million per track mile.
As the Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee plan is currently envisioned, the route would initially extend across the Taylor Southgate Bridge into Newport then head west along the Riverfront.
The total cost would be determined by the length of the project, but a Northern Kentucky streetcar could also provide a direct transit link between Covington and Newport.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hanel@nkytrib.com