Anti-streetcar mayor elected in Cincinnati

An apathetic public stays home.

"Only 29 percent of Hamilton County's registered voters took to the polls on Tuesday,  resulting in a shift in city council and the election of a mayor in John Cranley who promised to put the brakes on the streetcar," writes WCPO in Cincinnati.

Roxanne Qualls, who was the mayor from 1993 to 1999, a current council member, and a strong supporter of the streetcar, received 42 percent of the vote to Cranley's 58. Qualls was also a long-time member of the Congress for the New Urbanism board and a strong supporter of form-based codes. But it was the streetcar — along with a controversial lease of parking meters — that has divided the city.

Qualls claimed it is the key to future economic growth, attracting young, talented workers, and connecting the high-employment districts in the city. Cranley said it would blow a "four million dollar hole" into an existing deficit. Qualls won downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Cranley won the rest of the city.