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The city of Cincinnati’s political leaders have once again failed to properly plan or execute a plan and we’re all going to suffer from it.

When the streetcar planning began several years ago, the thought was that it would not only connect downtown and uptown, but parts of the city through a comprehensive route in the spirit of cities like Portland, Ore. or Chicago.

Unfortunately, given our city’s history, this was more dream than reality.

Our streetcar went from fantasy scenario to nightmare in less than two years, and its future isn’t getting brighter any time soon.
Currently, city council is wrangling with the prospect of having to pick up the tab to move Duke Energy’s power lines approximately eight feet to ensure safety.

The cost of the shift is $18.7 million — not exactly a round of drinks at Uncle Woody’s.

Options on the table for the city are either pick up the tab and spend more than half its budget for the program relocating the lines, or force Duke Energy and its nearly 400,000 customers in southwest Ohio.

This is where politics and public opinion come into play.
The city can either force Duke Energy to pay for something it never agreed to — the company has already said it will pass on the cost to its customers — or it will be forced to cease and desist its progress on the project.

How did we get to this point?

Simple: The people that run this city have never really planned out or followed through with the best projects.

See: subway, subway: part two and all things public transportation. So why would this time be any different?

Well, we continue to hope against hope that Cincinnati will finally do something that not only makes sense, but is somewhat modern in the process.

Of course, that would be asking too much from our elected officials.

The streetcar plan, as it stands, would only provide transportation from Findlay Market to Second Street and back — a far cry from the original plan to connect Clifton, Walnut Hills, Norwood and downtown.

Although the city is starting to make strides of progress to modernize with the rest of the nation, it still fails to take into account the needs of its urban populace — people that might be without a car, or simply cannot afford to take a cab to various locales throughout the metropolitan area.

For a city that fails to make the list of the top 50 when it comes to public transportation, an efficient and all-encompassing streetcar system would have gone a long way toward improving that rating.

Mayor Mark Mallory might have the seminal moment in his service to the city with the construction of this project, but it still falls short of what it could have been.

Mallory’s pet project continues to run into roadblocks, whether political or economical.

This latest setback is not only self-imposed, it shows a glaring weakness that continues to plague Cincinnati — inability to plan or execute anything efficiently.

The next time the city plans to build an innovative project, maybe some careful prior planning is in order.

Otherwise, the next great monument of this “Queen City” might end up being another monument to inefficiency.