Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney has proposed using a portion of the proceeds from the Cincinnati Southern Railway sale to benefit 15 “underserved” communities. Other council members have backed the proposal.
UPSHOT: Proceeds from the $1.6 billion sale were “to be used to improve or replace existing streets, bridges, municipal buildings, parks and recreational facilities, parking improvements, and other public facilities.”
BACKSTORY: On Nov. 7, 2023, Cincinnati voters approved a ballot initiative to sell the 337-mile-long municipally owned rail line between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern Corporation. Nearly 52% of voters cast ballots in favor of the sale.
SAYING: “Our elected officials just can’t help themselves, they see money available and regardless of what the voters were told, they want to spend it on something else,” a local resident said in a letter to the editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer.
