Venting Dana Avenue Frustration

While new, much needed development on Dana Avenue is certainly welcomed, something seems fishy.

Dana Avenue construction has clogged a major artery on Xavier's campus since early January. Not only does

this impede transportation to one of Xavier's most-storied watering holes, Dana Gardens, but it also affects

residents of the Village apartments. Despite promises of big fixes and aesthetic improvements, the Newswire

has learned that the construction has been unnecessarily delayed because of easily avoidable problems. These

problems include: communication errors, the city changing the original scope of the plan and a property

owner on Herald Avenue protesting the change.

We refuse to believe that the construction on Dana Avenue has been efficient, timely and so far in the best

interest of the Xavier students. There seems to be a marked lack of transparency, accountability and efficiency

from multiple parties involved in the construction process. There is plenty of blame to go around, and

each side should be more forthcoming with details. To begin, the Ohio Department of Transportation and

Engineering has some explaining to do regarding what specific additional delays have happened. Next on the

hit list is the city of Cincinnati, who clearly cannot coordinate with the state for whatever reason. Seemingly

hiding from all of this is the University. Xavier has been absent in the discussion and should mobilize its

influence in order to get serious results on the Dana Avenue construction project.

The final Dana Avenue could surprise all of us. The current street is not well designed for a growing

university with an increasing on-campus population nor can efficiently move traffic through an expanding

thoroughfare between Avondale and Norwood. While the construction has been very frustrating and verging

on unsafe, the engineers have the potential to alleviate a major problem in Xavier traffic by treating what is

now a small inconvenience,before it grows into a much more serious problem for an expanded Xavier five

to 10 years down the road.