Cincinnati's Terrible Billion Dollar Sale of its Railroad
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Published 2023-10-31
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:31 Nordvpn Ad
1:19 History
2:30 The Lease
3:10 Why is the Purchase bad?
6:13 Mayor Problems
7:28 Vote No on Issue 22
8:08 Outro
Articles & Groups:
www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/critics-claim-…
www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/report-norfolk-southe…
www.facebook.com/groups/1363324024257214/
www.instagram.com/derailthesale/
www.railroadworkersunited.org/
All Comments (21)
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If you live in Cincinnati Vote No on Issue 22! Also. Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months free here ➼ nordvpn.com/alanfisher
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Chicago made this mistake with its parking meters. Do not replicate Chicago's mistake of selling them off!
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Native Cincinnatian here. Selling the railroad would be incredibly short-sighted and I have no idea why anyone would support this, on either side of the aisle. I haven’t met anyone who supports this, the only support I’ve heard is from the mayor and city council. We have a history of corruption in Cincy, hoping for bipartisan opposition to Issue 22, but since the city usually votes blue and we have a Dem mayor and council not sure what to expect
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Norfolk southern, doing everything in its power to ruin Ohio 💀
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They also don't seem to have even tried to get a counter offer from CSX. The entire deal is predicated on the idea that Norfolk Southern would be the only interested party for leasing or buying the railroad. A railroad that cuts through Daniel Boone national forest and would likely cost significantly more to construct an alternate route. Cincinnati's politics has always been unbelievably corrupt, a few years ago 3 city council members were arrested on corruption charges.
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I had no idea that Cincinnati owned this amazing asset. I try to imagine the equivalent for other cities, and how much it would cost to acquire in the modern context. The contrast between the foresight of Cincinnati's 19th-century leaders, and the lack in the 21st, is really something.
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I'm a Cincy native. Thank you for publishing this, I can only hope my fellow residents have the sense to recognize what we have here.
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This was almost weirdly well timed with the video on Chicago's similarly terrible mistake of selling it's parking meters for arround 1.5 bil
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BC, Canada sold their public railroad for such a low price and terrible deal that several politicians were convicted of corruption. . .but the judge let the deal go through anyway 😢
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This is one of those mayors who after getting kicked out of office walks straight into a cushy job at the company he just handed a bunch of public money to.
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Also, it is very naive to think that the cash infusion is going to fix the most/all of the infrastructure woes in Cincinnati. Any widespread repair program or major project is practically guaranteed to go overbudget, leaving half-finished work behind.
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After seeing 40+ years of neoliberalism in action it should be pretty clear that selling off anything the public sector owns (particularly land, which can never be replaced) is in most cases likely either stupid or corrupt. And selling it to a private entity that currently pays to use it anyway under a lease is either fantastically stupid or fantastically corrupt.
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It is a real shame, it seems that the mayor won his campaign to sell NS the rail line.
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Selling off municipal infrastructure to corporations is only good in very narrow situations. My town's citizenry fought tooth and nail to keep their sewage plant system public. It was a crushing defeat for the lobbyists.
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If just 1,308 people voted No instead of Yes, Cincinnati would've kept the railroad. What a shame! Short-term gains in favor of long-term profits. My question is: How will they finance all of that infrastructure the next time it will need to be repaired?
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Corruption at its finest.
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Harry Truman said it best "Show me a rich politician and I will show you a crook."
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Nice ad, this is often literally me. Also interesting timing, being released on the same day as two popular videos about Chicago selling its parking meter rights
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Just look at UK rail privatisation for a playbook of what not to do. They need to avoid making the same mistake we did.
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Well. It passed. The city is selling the railroad. That’s a damn shame
