I’m probably the last person not to like bike paths. I use the newly created bike paths and trails in the West Chester and Liberty Township areas extensively for the videos I make with these articles I write. I have spent thousands of hours on them filming these videos, so I would say it’s safe to say I am an extensive user and have walked every mile of all of them many times over. However, I understand why West Chester Trustee Mark Welch is not a fan of the proposed connecting bike path that has been discussed for running through West Chester, from the Mason area, aiming to link the Little Miami River to the Great Miami. There is a long-planned fantasy to connect those rivers through this part of southern Ohio, and logic is not at the center of any considerations. This issue recently arose when I was writing an article about vertiports in West Chester, and Mark and I discussed the bike paths and parks that are part of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 and 2030 sustainability plans, which end up in local planning offices across the United States. The blind commitment to bike paths from foreign planning commissions that cost a lot of money is going to be a centerpiece to the re-election of Mark Welch and whether we embrace a future off the lessons of the past, or we follow the mindless dictates of foreign influence and their radical ideas about climate science that are at the heart of building more green space to inspire humans not to use their cars so much, and to get healthier lifestyles that don’t put too much burden on the top heavy cost health care industry that is corrupted by labor unions and pharmaceutical company monopoly status.
The current dream is to connect bike path infrastructure along Tylersville Road, West Chester and to meet up with the existing bike path built near the Trinity Pub in Port Union. Before I outline my next comments, I see numerous positive uses for these bike paths. I have a grandson who is riding them all over the state. He and his dad are planning a trip to Cleveland from their home along the Loveland Bike Trail, which is used pretty extensively. However, proportionally speaking, we are still talking about under 2% of the population that uses them at any particular time. They are not being used in the way that Agenda 21 sustainability planners envisioned in their communist fantasies. Nothing ever works out as planned. However, I think they are pretty neat in a luxury-oriented culture. It’s nice to have them, but they are not used by most taxpayers, not even occasionally. So Mark’s position in West Chester is to put the issue to a vote, and if people vote in favor of spending money on the bike paths, then he’d be all for it. However, paying good money from the current tax base is not a good idea, as it is using government power in the wrong way. Bike paths are not a core competency of government, and for the trustees of West Chester, it’s too much to ask them to take on. But for the bottom feeders who are trying to knock Mark out of this race and to take his seat, completing these bike paths with taxpayer money will be one of the foundations of their campaigns as a feel-good sentiment that does not have broad appeal, but might sound like a good idea without context.
The bike path that starts at Port Union, near the Trinity Pub, cost approximately $13.8 million to construct. It was relatively easy because it runs along the property that used to be part of the Erie Canal, which ran from Hamilton down into downtown Cincinnati through the Mill Creek Valley. Before there was even a railroad, or I-75, there was the Erie Canal. That’s why Port Union is named that way, because that was a port of entry for getting on the canal. So, what was left of it was open, unused land that was perfect for building a bike path to preserve parts of it for historical perspective. The land was relatively easy to acquire, and to the north of it was raw farmland with minimal residential properties to contend with. And that is the constant theme of most of the bike paths that have sprung up all over Ohio, including the one my nine-year-old grandson plans to use to ride to Cleveland and back. I think it’s a pretty bold and cool idea for him and his dad to do, as I show them here using the bike paths for training for that adventure together. But most of those bike paths are built along rivers and railroads, and don’t involve much eminent domain. However, to cut through West Chester, it will be costly to create the bike path because there is a lot of private property to acquire, and numerous eminent domain cases will be a significant issue. So it’s nowhere near as easy as building the bike path at Port Union. Bike paths, under the best conditions, cost approximately $ 250,000 to $ 500,000 per mile. The cost increases significantly when private property is involved, as it would be in West Chester, Ohio. A concept that the Agenda 21 planners never anticipated, given that their monetary policy was based on Modern Monetary Theory, where they planned for governments to print fake money. In Europe, the concept of private property often takes a back seat to state needs and desires. The people who want bike paths in West Chester are those kinds of Democrat thinkers.
So, I spend a lot of time at the one by Trinity Pub, and I hardly ever see anybody there. When the Trinity Pub was built, it was intended to be a hub for the bike path, and it would be a great idea if people used the trail. But that little restaurant has barely hung on and is under its latest set of owners, who are trying to get things going there, but without much success. I’d like to see them make it, but the bike path hasn’t helped them at all because nobody uses it. So with all this expense involved, why do them? Although I like and use them, the cost does not make sense. Especially when private property acquisition is involved, these bike paths form an extensive network, and I was surprised to see how nice they are, even in remote areas between Middletown, Ohio, and Franklin, along the Great Miami River. They are nice to have, but they are part of a luxury culture that can afford them. They will never be used in the way the Agenda 21 planners envisioned, as a means to replace cars, save the planet from human beings, and keep people from traveling on vacation because they had plenty of parks in their neighborhoods to visit. All the central planners involved in America got suckered by this European fantasy, and Mark Welch has declared himself not to be one of those suckers. If voters want to raise their taxes to pay for something that they will never use, then fine. But in the back of all logic, it says that people don’t care. Especially if they have to pay for it out of their own pockets, and when it comes to the West Chester Bike Path to connect the Little Miami River to the Great Miami River, they just won’t.
Rich Hoffman

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