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   a multi-billion dollar transit plan. The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit   
   Authority proposed a ballot referendum called Metro Moves, which would   
   have created an extensive light-rail system incorporating the three   
   remaining 1920s-era subway stations at Liberty, Brighton, and Hopple   
   streets.   
      
   In many ways, Metro Moves was more ambitious than the original Rapid   
   Transit Loop. It included seven light-rail lines and 72 stations, at a   
   total cost of $2.7 billion. While the federal government would have   
   covered the bulk, Hamilton County (which encompasses Cincinnati) residents   
   were asked to approve a half-cent sales tax levy to cover their portion.   
   Just like they had a century ago, local businesses endorsed the plan, as   
   well as environmentalists and good government groups. Supporters blanketed   
   the airwaves with positive ads in favor of Metro Moves, and dominated   
   opponents during numerous public debates.   
      
   Metro Moves was the result of a decade-long effort to bring light rail to   
   Cincinnati. Moreover, it was the city’s chance to erase the stain left   
   behind by their unfinished subway project. But Hamilton County residents   
   rejected Metro Moves in a 2-to-1 vote, with over 68 percent voting against   
   the project.   
      
   Wedged between the Fort Washington freeway trench and the Ohio River, a   
   stone’s throw from the city’s baseball park and football stadium, sits the   
   Riverfront Transit Center, a two-story tall, half-mile long underground   
   concrete tube opened in 2003. That makes it one of the largest transit   
   stations in the world. It is also another failed Cincinnati public   
   transportation project: most of the time it sits completely empty.   
      
   When it was envisioned, planners thought that the transit center would be   
   a hub where light-rail lines — if Cincinnati ever got around to building   
   them — could converge. In the meantime, the massive underground transit   
   station would serve as a pick-up and drop-off location for public and   
   private buses, as well as special shuttles during game days. Today, the   
   above-ground portals are locked and the driveway leading up to the main   
   entrance is closed for 275 days out of the year. Though I’m told the   
   center is lined with subway tiles and mosaic art, I wasn’t allowed inside.   
      
   "It is an orphaned station," a Channel 9 reporter mused in a 2011   
   investigative piece on the station’s underutilization. No rail lines   
   currently run to the Riverfront Transit Center, and it’s only open during   
   during major events. Public metro buses are left to do their pick-ups and   
   drop-offs at street level.   
      
   With a $48 million price tag, the transit center has been enough of a   
   money pit to turn once ardent supporters into foes. Former Cincinnati   
   mayor Charlie Luken, who helped cut the ribbon on the Riverfront Transit   
   Center in 2003, now calls it the biggest waste of money he’s ever seen.   
   "The only reason there's not more outrage about it," Luken told Channel 9,   
   "is because people don't know it's there."   
      
   When I ask him about the Riverfront Transit Center, Dan Hurley, a local   
   historian and civic leader, almost chokes on his water. "Underutilized is   
   such a kind word," he says. "Boondoggle is the one I hear more often."   
      
   What is it about Cincinnati that it served as the setting for not one, but   
   two multi-million transportation fiascos? Most of the Cincinnatians I   
   spoke to shrug off the question, insisting that the forces that gave rise   
   to both the subway and the transit center have nothing in common. The   
   subway was never finished, while the transit center is complete, if   
   underutilized.   
      
   In September, the city will cut the ribbon on its new streetcar system.   
   Many Cincinnatians are excited for their fancy new streetcars. Others   
   remain opposed, including Cincinnati mayor John Cranley, who calls it a   
   waste of money and "a mistake." In 2013, Cranley tried to stop the   
   streetcar, but the city council, perhaps realizing the horrible irony   
   involved in canceling another half-complete transportation project,   
   overruled him.   
      
   Recently, the city realized it was losing money by keeping its empty   
   spaces like the Riverfront Transit Center empty for most of the year. In   
   October, the station will be unlocked and the gates flung open for Ubahn,   
   a two-day hip-hop and EDM musicfest. (The German word "U-bahn" translates   
   as an underground rapid transit or metro.) The organizers are billing it   
   as the "the first underground music festival in Cincinnati."   
      
   New York City transformed an abandoned elevated train track into a world-   
   class park. It’s now doing the same for an empty trolley terminal in   
   Manhattan. The High Line begat the Lowline. If the Ubahn is successful,   
   could the Cincinnati subway be far behind?   
      
   Moore says no. "We’ve had people approach us about using the tunnel for   
   everything from grain malting, to a water bottling operation, to   
   nightclubs — you name it." None of these ideas will work, though. There’s   
   no way the subway can accommodate thousands of sweaty club kids. The floor   
   is uneven, there are pillars, and the water main, which was installed in   
   the 1950s, leaks constantly.   
      
   Which is not to say the tunnels aren’t in good condition. In 2008, the   
   city was faced with a choice: spend $100.5 million to revive the tunnels   
   for modern subway use, $19 million to fill the tunnels with dirt, or $2.6   
   million to simply maintain them as an abandoned space. After two years of   
   debate, the city went with the cheapest option. The subway houses a water   
   main, as well as fiber optic cables. And with Central Parkway running   
   directly above, the tunnels needed to be refortified to keep the street   
   safe.   
      
   Today, most people don’t know why the subway was never finished. Even   
   Murray Seasongood, the posh city manager who was most responsible for its   
   demise, didn’t seem to understand his own role in the boondoggle. When he   
   was researching his book, Mecklenborg stumbled across an old interview   
   from the 1960s with Seasongood, who was in his 80s at the time. The   
   interviewer, a college student from the University of Cincinnati, asked   
   him if he regretted killing the subway. "He was very jovial, very   
   enthusiastic," the student said of Seasongood. "But as for the details of   
   the subway system, he could not recall them."   
      
   Back at Hopple Street, Mecklenborg and I emerge from the labyrinth, a   
   little dirtier than when we entered but otherwise unharmed. Despite   
   everything that he and his city have been through, he’s surprisingly   
   indifferent to the decision to seal off the subway from the public   
   forever. He thought that the tours were okay, but prone to misinformation.   
   Maybe it’s better this way. "You can go on a tour of the subway, you can   
   physically see it," he says, "but you still wouldn’t understand it."   
      
      
   --   
   His Omnipotence Barack Hussein Obama, declared himself "Pooptator" of all   
   mentally ill homosexuals and crossdressers, while declaring where they   
   will defecate.   
      
   Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the seven   
   years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United   
   States of America.  The only American president to deliberately import a   
   lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.   
      
   Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth   
   certificate.   
      
   Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then   
   relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder   
   in order to cover up his own ineptitude.   
      
   Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare   
   increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.   
      
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