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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > August > 25
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Editorial: Trains can pick up speed with time
The passenger rail system that Gov. Ted Strickland wants for Ohio is not a high-speed system. Building an expensive high-speed system isn’t politically practical, given the widespread skepticism about how many people would actually ride trains.
Train advocates have been pushing for a foot-in-the-door system. The trains would have top speeds of about 79 miles per hour. This approach has worked elsewhere, producing political support for investing in a better system.
A second generation of trains could go 110 mph.
In Pennsylvania, a state-funded system has trains reaching at that speed from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, with a Pittsburgh leg planned.
Opponents of passenger rail service for Ohio argue that trains won’t generate much ridership, because the average speed wouldn’t be near 79 mph, and trips would actually take longer than car trips. Last week an organization pushing the “3C” train project — connecting Cleveland and Cincinnati via Columbus and Dayton, possibly with stops in Springfield, Middletown and Hamilton — admitted car trips would be faster.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission projected that a trip from Cincinnati to Columbus — downtown to downtown — might take three hours, which the rail commission said is about 40 minutes longer than the drive. Columbus to Cleveland might be three hours, too, as opposed to a two-and-a-half-hour drive.
Just keeping the train rides that short required ruling out some stops, such as at the Air Force Museum. Officials offered hope that stops might be added later.
About the longer times, two points beg to be made: (1) taking the train allows one to make better use of travel time; and (2) we’re talking about the first generation of trains. The first generation of highways was slower than interstates, too.
Nobody is saying trains will attract as many travelers as highways, only that there’s a substantial niche: people who don’t want to use gas, don’t like to drive, don’t have a reliable car, or who like the idea of getting something done while they travel.
Sadly, many Ohioans think of passenger trains as belonging to the past, or as only being useful in densely populated places like the east and west coasts.
In fact, however, not only Pennsylvania, but Illinois and Michigan have their own state systems. Michigan has a train going from Detroit to Chicago. Illinois has several routes in various directions from Chicago. All those states are looking to expand on what they have.
They want to connect with Ohio. Current connections are almost nonexistent. (There are Amtrak lines that run through Ohio, connecting Chicago with New York City and Washington, D.C., but they don’t run often.)
Michigan wants to connect to Toledo and Cleveland. Pennsylvania eyes connections from Pittsburgh. Illinois wants to greatly improve its tie to Cincinnati.
It would be amazing and foolish for Ohio not to relish the establishment of a vibrant Midwestern system.
However, just as Ohioans should not be under any illusions about how fast the trains will be, neither should they assume the trains will finance themselves through the fare box. Few passenger train systems do that.
There are other ways for systems to make money, of course: naming rights, advertising, concessions. But a public subsidy is typically necessary. That’s the norm for all modes of transportation, including highways. Yet transportation is central to the whole idea of a modern economy.
The 3C project may offer more for Daytonians than for Ohioans in other major cities. Dayton would have direct routes to Columbus and Cincinnati, whereas people in those cities would have indirect routes (through Dayton) to each other.
And, unlike Cincinnati and Cleveland, Dayton would have Ohio trains leaving in two directions. Columbus would, too, of course. But Columbus would benefit less, already having its firm niches as the state capitol and home of Ohio State University.
In the face of all that, the few minutes that would be lost relative to car travel is hardly a factor to get hung up on.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Transportation
Richard M. Zimmerman: Bedbug warnings were ignored by officials
The emptying of the Biltmore Tower on account of a bedbug infestation should be no surprise to the Dayton Daily News, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Public Health Department.
More than two years ago, a local pest control industry insider warned local governments of the impending bedbug epidemic. The warnings were cast aside for fear of inducing panic. Local officials were well aware of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s war on bedbugs, as well as the efforts taken by both to combat the bedbug outbreak there.
So why didn’t our local governments make an effort to warn citizens?
An occasional story in the DDN or an occasional spot on a local television station hardly seems like the type of response our community deserves.
Dayton and Montgomery County have ignored recent complaints that residents with bedbug infestations have been selling their personal items at garage sales, knowing that the unsuspecting consumers are at risk of carrying bedbugs to their own home. Local courts also have turned a deaf ear on landlords trying to evict tenants who have infested their property with bedbugs, and instead have favored tenants who fail to comply with notices to have the property professionally exterminated within prescribed time frames.
Ignorant of bedbug biology and not realizing the risk being created for the community, a local magistrate has ruled that tenants can treat whenever and however they want.
The treatment of the Biltmore, which probably will cost six figures, will be paid for by taxpayers, as was the fumigation of an area for preschoolers at Longfellow School when it became infested with bedbugs.
The spread of an infestation can easily be accomplished by people with bedbugs transporting the bugs to bus stop benches, restaurants, movie theaters, their place of work, schools, courtrooms, etc. Because of the biology of the insect, it can live for more than a year without feeding, giving the bug time to wander around and allowing an unsuspecting person to unknowingly provide the bug a means to hitch a ride to their home.
For those residents not familiar with bedbugs, it’s in your interest to educate yourself to the early signs of an infestation. Should you develop an infestation, you should investigate the proper procedures for treatment.
If you need to hire a professional pest control company, ask the company how it treats for bedbugs and hire a firm that treats according to pest control industry standards. Hiring the least expensive business may only compound your problem by leaving you with the infestation — and less money.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Regulation, is an excellent source of information, as well as the entomology department at the University of Kentucky. And beware of online ads that boast that their product “kills on contact.” My shoe and your shoe can do the same thing. Buyers beware.
Richard M. Zimmerman, of Dayton, is president of A-OK Exterminating Co.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Guest Columns, Montgomery County
Richard M. Zimmerman: Bedbug warnings were ignored by officials
The emptying of the Biltmore Tower on account of a bedbug infestation should be no surprise to the Dayton Daily News, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Public Health Department.
More than two years ago, a local pest control industry insider warned local governments of the impending bedbug epidemic. The warnings were cast aside for fear of inducing panic. Local officials were well aware of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s war on bedbugs, as well as the efforts taken by both to combat the bedbug outbreak there.
So why didn’t our local governments make an effort to warn citizens?
An occasional story in the DDN or an occasional spot on a local television station hardly seems like the type of response our community deserves.
Dayton and Montgomery County have ignored recent complaints that residents with bedbug infestations have been selling their personal items at garage sales, knowing that the unsuspecting consumers are at risk of carrying bedbugs to their own home. Local courts also have turned a deaf ear on landlords trying to evict tenants who have infested their property with bedbugs, and instead have favored tenants who fail to comply with notices to have the property professionally exterminated within prescribed time frames.
Ignorant of bedbug biology and not realizing the risk being created for the community, a local magistrate has ruled that tenants can treat whenever and however they want.
The treatment of the Biltmore, which probably will cost six figures, will be paid for by taxpayers, as was the fumigation of an area for preschoolers at Longfellow School when it became infested with bedbugs.
The spread of an infestation can easily be accomplished by people with bedbugs transporting the bugs to bus stop benches, restaurants, movie theaters, their place of work, schools, courtrooms, etc. Because of the biology of the insect, it can live for more than a year without feeding, giving the bug time to wander around and allowing an unsuspecting person to unknowingly provide the bug a means to hitch a ride to their home.
For those residents not familiar with bedbugs, it’s in your interest to educate yourself to the early signs of an infestation. Should you develop an infestation, you should investigate the proper procedures for treatment.
If you need to hire a professional pest control company, ask the company how it treats for bedbugs and hire a firm that treats according to pest control industry standards. Hiring the least expensive business may only compound your problem by leaving you with the infestation — and less money.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Regulation, is an excellent source of information, as well as the entomology department at the University of Kentucky. And beware of online ads that boast that their product “kills on contact.” My shoe and your shoe can do the same thing. Buyers beware.
Richard M. Zimmerman, of Dayton, is president of A-OK Exterminating Co.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Guest Columns, Montgomery County
Editorial: School data means nothing if it’s wrong
Ohio Department of Education statistics show 295 Dayton Public Schools students were expelled last year — a shocking number if it were true.
In fact, the real number was just 11 expulsions, a worrisome, but manageable, figure for a district with slightly more than 15,000 students.
The fact that the official figure could be so far off says something disturbing about Ohio’s educational data collection system. Although the state’s system is considered good when compared with many other states, it has huge holes that allow for wild inaccuracies and also present an opportunity for fraud.
The Ohio Board of Education has to put safeguards in place.
Consider another disturbing example of data nearly gone wrong. Michael Pittman, former curriculum director for Fairborn schools, resigned and is being investigated by the district, the state and the police, in part, for allegedly attempting to alter the district’s test scores before reporting them to the state, Fairborn’s school board president has said.
School districts largely control the information they report, while the Ohio Department of Education has a laissez-faire approach to oversight. The system is built on trust and not much scrutiny.
This problem has been ongoing. The first time the state collected and released school violence data in 2002, errors were plentiful. That first report showed a terrifying 16 gun incidents at schools across the Dayton area. In fact, no one was threatened with a gun.
Most instances involved knives or other items being seized from students and being miscoded as guns. In a couple cases, they were toy guns. Seven years later, Dayton — and other school districts as well — is still struggling to accurately manage the same coding process.
In 2003, Richard Allen charter schools in Dayton mistakenly turned in state test results for the spring testing period only, not realizing it was their job to aggregate the spring and fall scores. Nobody caught the mistake until the wrong numbers appeared publicly, but, by then, the state said it was too late to go back and change the scores.
The schools just had to live with a wrong report card.
Local districts themselves report most of the data that the state tracks. They, for instance, are the keepers of attendance, graduation rates and expulsions. They enter that data into the state system, following the state’s coding protocols. If districts enter data incorrectly, it usually just stays wrong unless the district discovers the error itself.
For test data, scores are tabulated by a testing company and reported to the state, which sends scores to the districts. The districts then enter that data into the education department’s information system. Again, errors happen.
Or, as may have been the case in Fairborn, the opportunity exists for a district to fudge numbers. For security’s sake, it might be better to have the testing company enter data in the state’s system, even if it adds cost. For other reported information, some system of double-checking in which eyes outside of the local district find their way onto the data is needed.
Perhaps this could even be automated. Couldn’t a computer program, for instance, raise red flags when data significantly changes from the prior year?
One of President Barack Obama’s priorities for states calls for establishing good data systems so reliable judgments can be made about schools’ quality and progress with students. Ohio’s system generally gets high marks for its efficiency, but it still isn’t quite there.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
