Charlotte, You Can Keep Your Lousy Streetcar.
Decatur Metro | July 9, 2010Everyone knows that streetcars haven’t been cool since Judge Doom destroyed them all in the 1940s to make way for his “eight lanes of shimmering cement.”
But now the Obama Administration is allowing streetcar funding with Federal Transportation Administration grants and the whole country is doing the Charleston like it’s 1922.
On Thursday, Charlotte, Cincinatti, and Fort Worth all received around $25 million to put toward streetcar projects in their respective cities, as part of nearly $300 million in announced transit grants, while much of the remaining funding went towards bus service. A full list of the lucky recipients can be viewed HERE.
Oh man are they going to be red-faced when the Judge shows up and rips up all their rail lines and sprays Dip all over their cartoon cities.
h/t: Fresh Loaf
Being the resident transit scold around here, I happened to read an article about Cincinatti’s project yesterday. They’re “lucky” indeed.
This is a city facing a $50 million budget shortfall for 2011. And I will bet that, like many cities, they have a pension time bomb set to explode in the not too distant future. So what to do? Of course: plan to issue about $80 million in bonds (i.e., go deeper into debt) to fund the $125 million first phase of the project. Even with the federal money added in — that too being borrowed — Cincinatti is still $14 million short. So what is their plan? They don’t have one. From their local paper:
“City Hall hopes to secure the roughly $14 million still needed to round out the project’s first-phase budget through other grants available from Columbus and Washington later this year.
Should that not occur, Mallory said he is confident that the city “will come with that amount one way or another.”
Oh yes, “hope” to get more grants, followed by the back-up plan to getting the money “one way or another.” I prefer to merely “hope that somehow everything works out,” but that’s semantics. And this is just phase 1. Where’s the money for phases 2, 3, etc? No one has a clue.
It seems every project of this kind I look at suffers from the same problems. We can’t afford it, but we’re building it anyway. Make the grandchildren pay for it all. The suckers can’t vote right now, so screw ‘em.
Digging deeper into debt only makes sense if future taxpayers benefit from the infrastructure (capital) improvements and the ROI is postive in the long term. What is the projected ROI for this or any streetcar project? Is this a practical transport mode or a cute tourist draw?
So, I’m a huge nerd and subscribe to the UGA Press’ RSS feed (I have a grad degree from there and want to make sure I catch any of my former professors’ and colleagues books), but just today (!) I read that said Press has published a book about how Charlotte is a “globally ascendant” city.
http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/charlotte_nc/
Correct me if I’m wrong, because I haven’t spent much time there, but is this true? And, if I’m not mistaken, that has to be a MAJOR typo that Charlotte is the 5th biggest metro area in the U.S. (after the “more” jump on the link).
I know it’s chic to say that the sun has set on Atlanta and Charlotte is the new New South city du jour, but this seems a little out of hand. Thoughts?
I think you are a nerd.
Seems like a pretty major typo. Maybe they meant 5th fastest growing or something. According to Wikipedia’s table of US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (which are stats from the US Office of Management and Budget), the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill MSA ranks 33rd in the US. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta ranks 9th.
They list it as Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta? That’s just weird, too. I am actually surprised Charlotte ranks 33rd. I guess its growth sneaked up on me.
I read the abstract of book mentioned and do wonder if maybe its thesis is a bit hopeful for Charlotte, especially given the current climate.
Oh, and I meant to add that perhaps it is the fact that they actually seem to be practicing urban planning is a reason that Charlotte might be seen so positively by urban policy professors. Georgia and Atlanta in particular have practiced a grow at all costs mentality- pro developer and pro business to the detriment of long term livability. Who knows what the impact of such a limited, short sighted approach is gong to be in 20 years?
The Atlanta streetcar proposal is a gimmick and nothing more. Charlotte seems to have it’s act together not only with running it’s public tranisit but also in getting the fed funding for it.
From posts I have read here and elsewhere, it seems Atlanta is content to carrry on a ‘Field of Dreams’ strategy with all of it’s transit proposals. Build the useless beltline, streetcar, high-speed rail first and then people will use it. It’s not forward thinking…it’s a waste of time and resources.
Are you TRYING to drive us grammarians nuts?
It’s pretty funny how in your claim to be a grammarian you break basic rules of capitalization. Is that irony or sarcasm? I don’t know; and I’m pretty sure you don’t either.
Dude, chill. Have a brew and a World Cup.
The blog grammar police on here are the ones who need to chill. No one is getting graded on posts, and I frankly think it’s pretty damn rude to pick on sentence structure, typos and errors in this context. It’s one thing to complain about stupidity like the apostrophe on the market signs- someone paid for and printed up those signs for public display. They should have carefully proofed by someone somewhere. It’s another to snidely attempt to point out the errors of others. I think smalltowngal and others who practice this are rude- it’s one thing to heatedly argue a belief or a point. It’s quite another to needlessly criticize someone for a grammar error in this type of forum.
Unless the error is funny, then can we comment?
That goes without saying. karass!!
I just don’t see the need hurt people’s feelings.
+1
There was a good piece on Channel 2 this morning pointing out that a) the Lynx light rail in Charlotte is exceed projected ridership by 50% and b) the economic development around the Lynx line is one of the few bright spots in Charlotte’s real estate economy. Here’s the Lynx link (sorry, couldn’t help myself): http://www.wsbtv.com/news/24185267/detail.html
Streetcars/LightRail… Waste of $ … ? … Then how come I always WANT to ride the streetcars when I go to New Orleans and San Francisco? The last time I was in NO, I rode the streetcars every day, because I like a restaurant out on River Bend better than its downtown site and the ride out/back is “part of the fun.” I will be in SF in August, and can’t WAIT to jump on the trolleys. The concept(s) would be a winner in Atlanta too. I am especially fond of the idea to route a new line from downtown on Edgewood to the MLK Memorial neighborhood (and beyond, if possible). I will be in Houston this coming weekend and want to take my first ride on their light-rail system too. I am a real fan of public transit, you see, in all shapes and sizes. “Build it and they will come” has a certain amount of validity to it, in my opinion.