It’s Time to Share

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie (Tenneva Jordan). I like this quote because I think it’s an apt description of the state of our government in Ohio, and more specifically, in the Cincinnati/NKY region. We have fewer pieces to go around all the time (see County 2009 Budget cuts) and we need to start re-evaluating our pie—the proliferation of government entities and duplicated public service providers.

The first step is shared services across government entities. In a recent column in Cincinnati Gentleman, Commissioner David Pepper wrote that cutting alone doesn’t get us to the finish line and doesn’t address the underlying root of some of the budget problem. He said, "Citizens want to see the best services at the lowest cost, regardless of which government provides them. Having dozens of governments doing the exact same thing on a small scale does not make sense for many services, especially when budgets are squeezed. On the other hand, providing a service at a regional level, or in a shared way, will often provide both the best quality and nest price to the citizen."

We might not be talking about merging the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County governments completely right now (although we should be) because many of the township leadership in Hamilton County thinks the City is more trouble than it’s worth (public schools, crime, etc.) and it’s really hard to merge large governments, but some people are doing more than talking about it.

A couple years ago, Cincinnati City Council and the Hamilton County Commissioners started a shared services task force called the Government Cooperation and Efficiency Project (GCEP) that is looking at how the City and County can actively begin to make bulk salt purchases together and share emergency dispatch services, etc. Do we really need two chiefs and two fire engines at two fire stations to put out fires in the same geographic areas?

Agenda 360, the regional community action plan that is set to be released in January, has identified GCEP as an important “pilot” for all four southwestern Ohio counties, and perhaps even NKY. It is a significant step that the regional community supports and should be encouraged.

The second step is merging small government entities themselves. Did you know that Ohio is one quarter the size of California and has one third the population of California but Ohio has 88 counties to California’s 58?! And did you know that there are 48 municipalities just in Hamilton County alone?

Does there need to be a Hamilton County and a City of Cincinnati in the long run? Or a Kenton and a Covington? Charlotte and Louisville, to name two, don’t seem to think so, and they’ve benefited from their merged governments.

Economic forces do not recognize political boundaries as hard borders for evermore. Neither should we. If we weren’t in a global competition with other regions, this would be good governance. But we are in an unprecedented competition, and sharing services and merging small governments ought to be in our game plan going forward.

SoapBlog 2: Bengals Failure is Reds Anti-Recipe for Playoffs in 2009
by Bobby Maly

The Bengals organizational misery is cause for great optimism when thinking about the Cincinnati Reds’ upcoming season. That’s because the organizations are essentially polar opposites. While the Bengals refuse to hire capable winning officers who have a proven track record for success, the Reds have put baseball people in charge who do.

The best indicator of future success is past performance. Sorry, Bengals fans. Cheers, Redlegs, you’ll make the playoffs in 2009.

The Reds have an ownership group headed by Bob Castellini who has been an MLB owner for 30 years—many of those were in St. Louis which is one of the best organizations in the game. Castellini hired Walt Jocketty who was also part of that winning formula in St. Louis. Jocketty’s Cardinals went to the playoffs seven of the 13 years he was there, including a World Series Championship. Dusty Baker took the Giants to the playoffs 4 of his 10 years in San Francisco, and even took the hapless Cubs there in his first season with Chicago. The Reds finally have winners in ownership and management positions.

The second reason the Reds will make the playoffs in 2009 is because of pitching. The Reds have arguably the best 1-4 starting pitchers in the National League. The 1995 Reds, the last to make the playoffs, had 48 wins from their top four; the ’99 Reds had 45; last year’s Phillies and Rays (World Series participants) had between 48-50. Can the Reds top four get 12 wins each? Based on recent history, yes. Harang and Arroyo have had double digit wins in 4 of last 5 years, and both are perennial leaders in strikeouts, innings pitched and wins. Volquez led the MLB in ERA and wins much of last year, and Cueto had 9 W’s last year in his impressive rookie campaign. All four were in the top 20 in strikeouts last year.

The third reason they’ll make the playoffs is that they are led by young talent who now have big league experience. Once the team jettisoned Dunn and Griffey, their defensive rank went from the bottom third to the top third in the last part of the season (both the Phils and the Rays ranked in the top third in defense last season). They have the best second baseman in the game with golden glover Philips, and defensive improvements in Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.

The Rays’s Longoria led all rookies with 27 homers last year; second? None other than Joey Votto with 24 (and he didn’t start much of the first month). Bruce was right behind him with 20+. The Rays did not start a pitcher in the playoffs last year with anyone under the age of 26. Three of the Reds starting five next year will be able to say that, and the other two (Arroyo and Harang) are relatively young and in their prime. On top of that, the Reds’ four or five best players are under the age of 26.

So when you start watching the NFL playoffs without the Bengals again for the 18th time in the last 19 years, you can take heart in their dismal organizational failure knowing that the Reds saw what the Bengals have done and decided to do the exact opposite. That’s makes me look forward to April.

SoapBlog 1: Fences vs. Streetcars
Bobby Maly

Allow me to introduce myself with one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes: “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.”

You were expecting a different Twain quote weren’t you—one about Cincinnati specifically? I apologize, but that quote has been forever retired heretofore due to the fact that it just isn’t true. Based on recent successes and direction, we’re acting like a progressive group of people again - people who are going to build a streetcar.

Can/should we build a streetcar system here? The answer is: yes we must. And here’s a not-as-often-cited reason why.

Is anyone else tired of talking about ‘brain drain’ and ‘attracting and retaining young talent’ and want to do more doing? You might interchange those phrases with Twain’s ‘weather.’ But unlike the weather, we can do something about attraction and retention.

Our City Government has wisely recognized the idea of dense mixed use development occurring along transportation lines is neither new nor untested. In 1800, our city was born because of a river and a significant number of steamboats (which we built here) on that river. In 1825 we proved to be early adopters of the canal, which led to explosive growth along the canal passages. Conversely, delays throughout the 1860s in adopting a direct railroad connection to New York and Chicago prevented city growth. Failure to complete the subway system in 1925 didn’t help us grow either.

It is a fact that people in this country have always been, are now, and will continue to be attracted to transportation lines. The lines induce development. The development attracts people, which attract other people. Jobs, environmental benefits, lifestyle benefits, connecting investment, connecting job centers and increased tax bases are all well documented arguments in favor of streetcars as demonstrated in clear and numerous case studies.

But here’s the most significant reason why our City will build a streetcar system.

Because we have one of the most successful corporate communities in America. Ask Fortune 500. These companies are built and sustained by attracting the best and brightest. The next best and brightest are 24-35 year olds. It’s simple, if you need that talent, create things that attract them. We know this group wants mass transit and environmental forward thinking. We know 50% live in (and 66% near) walkable high density urban neighborhoods. We know the streetcar goes a long way in creating that place because it creates smaller communities where chance encounters and random occurrences with real people are possible.

And we know there aren’t enough 25-34 year olds to go around. There are loser cities in which this demographic is not choosing to live. They are voting with their feet. Did you know that 66% of this group chooses a city to live in before finding a job? The ten cities best at growing this population group all have one thing in common—mass transit. It is a fact. So let’s embrace that fact and get busy getting more attractive.

There are important details to resolve on our streetcar endeavor, but we need a shared commitment for how to, not if. Stadiums don’t do it. YP initiatives at the Chamber are great, but they are not the bold difference-maker. As an added bonus, the other highly mobile demographic, empty nesters, are picking the same cities as their younger counterparts for many of the same reasons. We need to create an environment attractive to these movers now or lose them forever.

A friend of mine said, “the streetcar is sign of a city that wants to behave differently.” I like that. There are such things as defining moments. 1800. 1825. 1860. 1925.  How will we remember 2009? We need riders of streetcars, not fences. Let’s go.

If you’d like more information on the streetcar, please email streetcarcincy@yahoo.com.