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New city councilmembers support added Metro bus service

Posted at 5:23 PM, Nov 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-09 19:32:13-05

CINCINNATI -- Avondale resident Doris Chatman depends on city buses, but she said she sometimes waits as much as two hours for a bus.

"That's ridiculous," she said.

With the election of a new city council, Chatman wants them to get moving on public transportation.

"They really need to do something better about the transit, because the streetcar -- I don't know -- it doesn't seem like it's doing what it's supposed to do," Chatman said.

Some of the new faces joining the city council have similar thoughts about the streetcar. 

Councilmember-elect Jeff Pastor said he believed the focus should be on Metro buses before the streetcar.

"We need to connect people to jobs," he said. "It shouldn't take two hours to go from the West Side to Walnut Hills. We have to work together."

Greg Landsman, another councilmember-elect, also said he believes there should be more buses and more routes and "a system that gets people from Point A to Point B in 10 to 15 minutes, and it's something that allows everybody to access the good-paying jobs."

Landsman said he believed there was support to expand the streetcar Uptown.

"I think it's a great thing, and they should take the lead," he said. "And I hope to be someone to facilitate that."

Councilmember-elect Tamaya Dennard also said bus service and other infrastructure like the Western Hills Viaduct should be prioritized ahead of the streetcar. 

"We need to look at how we make our transit system more equitable early on without costing us any money," she said.