City of Cincinnati

P.G. Sittenfeld
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Dear Mr. Rogoff: We write to you representing a majority of Cincinnatis City Council, which, as the policy- and budget-setting body for the City, has sole authority to make allocations for projects like the streetcar. We acknowledge that the situation involving the construction of our streetcar project has been an unusual one with a higher-than-desired number of twists and turns. While the democratic process is not always a tidy one, we do want to express unequivocally our appreciation to the Federal Transit Administration for your willingness to invest in Cincinnatis future and in our transportation infrastructure, as well as for the time and energy that your agency has devoted to this project over the past several years.
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For the first time since the new mayor and council were sworn in earlier this month, we are beginning to see a viable path forward to complete construction on this first phase of the project. Public and private sector leaders are actively collaborating to explore a number of channels through which to make the streetcars annual operating expenses manageable. It might advance these discussions if FTA could provide Council as soon as possible with three specific categories of information: (i) models that other cities have used to cover operating costs of discrete transit services other than general operating revenues of the city; and (2) the types of operational structures adopted by such cities that, in ETAs experience, have been the most effective, in terms of both functioning efficiently and attracting financial support; and () clarity as to when precisely the Cincinnati streetcar must identify its financing mechanism to cover the operating costs of the project. Finally, we want you to know how much we value our citys partnership with FTA and that we are grateful for your cooperation in helping us find a way to proceed responsibly and to avoid the damage of cancellation. Thank you. Sincerely,

Councilmember P.G.

tenfeld

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