Thursday, April 30, 2015

Does the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Hate Transit ?

A couple times a year The Cincinnati USA Chamber of Commerce shuts down the main bus transit hub in Cincinnati, Government Square for Taste of Cincinnati and Oktoberfest. With the addition of the Streetcar to the basin, their festivals will now cut into streetcar service.
Why?
"That's what we've always done"
Looking at the Chamber's board members, they seem to be less interested in promoting business than maintaining their old school power base and A. they don't use transit and B. their businesses are around Fountain Square.
Thing is, there's this new park & non essential road down by the river that would be perfect for festivals of this nature. It also offers better transit options with the streetcar & buses at the Transit Center. But, yeah, transit doesn't matter.
The small businesses around the events suffer during these events as booths are set up curbside and the sidewalks in front of the businesses are used for storing trash.
The boys at UrbanCincy think moving events to the riverfront makes sense, but, of course they don't own multi million companies with offices around Fountain Square.
Moerlein has a tent set up to celebrate Oktoberfest and there's no reason not to tap the keg on Fountain Square & maintain a beer garden there & at Findlay Market for people wh don't have much tolerance for crowds. And all those locations can be tied to mass transit. crap - I keep forgetting....
It just seems short sighted, petty & vain.

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