Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

[uptownliving]

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess at last night's City Council meeting jokingly asked Ron Tober if he could move the opening day of the South LRT to Election Day in November 2007. The interesting thing is that Susan Burgess was the only one in the room that laughed at her own suggestion, but her face quickly turned red and she became a little embarrased.

The South LRT has become a huge political issue and the timing on it could not be worse.

[atlrvr]

Charlotte.com has a poll on support for the project.

Currently, it's 48% pro, 52% con.

http://forums.charlotte.com/n/mb/message.a...463.1&ctx=0

[monsoon]

I'll counter his offer by purchasing http://www.transitfacts.com and forwarding it to UrbanPlanet.org. I can't stand sites like the one above as they are notorious for not presenting the facts and for not allowing the community to speak out.

If someone would like to make a fact sheet containing over-budgets, construction times, etc. for the Charlotte area I will stick it up on the Charlotte page and make it a permanent fixture. Both mass transit and the road systems have their issues but I for one think the Charlotte community (and the rest of the world) should know the facts about all types of transit in their cities instead of placing blame on just one type. Let us all edumacate the population with real transit facts.

I thought I would repost Neo's offer if any of you are interested in putting something together.

[NcSc74]

Maybe the congress needs to hire some managers from europe to help build LRT in the US. Not only am I dissgusted I am disheartened that American citizens are so bullheaded and dead set against mass transit. It is a shame that when a city decides it wants to build no one knows how. Now the congress has stranglehold on money because of inexperience. Then all of these anti-everything groups says I told you so and the rest of the populace falls right in line with them. I tire of stuff like this. I guess when NC has temps of 120-130 in April then maybe those people who oppose transit will have a change of heart but by then it will be to late.........

[uptownliving]

I was glad to see Wachovia's cheif economist Mark Vitner on TV today saying that even with all the cost overruns we need to forge ahead with the system in Mecklenburg County. He said that now is not a good time to pause everything and reevaluate.

[BobbyRobert]

I was glad to see Wachovia's cheif economist Mark Vitner on TV today saying that even with all the cost overruns we need to forge ahead with the system in Mecklenburg County. He said that now is not a good time to pause everything and reevaluate.

this is comforting. Due to all of the scandal I had forgotten that this is a project that the bankers really want (it is, in a sense, the capstone of their 20+ years of center city redevelopment expenditures). If Charlotte's history tells us anything it is that the bankers usually get what they want.

[atlrvr]

There is a class act citizen speaking right now about how they hate transit.

[uptownliving]

A grand total of 3 people showed up at tonight's Mecklenburg County Commision to speak in favor of repealing the 1/2 cent Sales Tax. 1 of the 3 was Martin Davis, who speaks at about every County and City Council meeting. You might remember that name, he is the guy who used to read lurid books from the public library at County Commision meetings. The other 2 people who spoke are married to each other...and they are also quite common at County and City Council meetings.

As expected the County Commision voted down Pucketts proposal.

The great swell of people who want to repeal the 1/2 cent Sales Tax has not yet mateiralized. Just a bunch of media hype so far.

[MZT]

Unlike Lynne Wheeler, people can't vote against Tober or Syfert. The councilmembers are doing their thing, huffing and looking indignant... I don't see a "face" to target at the polls. This will definately die down.

Most initiatives are "bought onto the ballot" with paid signature gatherers. Even if the tax repealers had a serious budget, I don't think they could get the signatures. It commonly takes about 1/3 extra signatures to make up for the illegible ones. We're talking 65,000 or so needed, to really get a vote.

[monsoon]

All of the TV stations continue to run pretty pointless negative stories but WSOC did do a helecopter fly over of the line that included a video of the running test train which was pretty interesting to see.

[uptownliving]

I saw a similar video on WCNC that showed a helicopter flyover following the train going down the tracks...they also did a really cool flyover of the tracks following them from uptown but had the video running at high speed...so it was like going down the tracks at about 100 mph.

[origin.clt]

I just saw the lead story on NBC6 at 11 hyping "the streetcar named disaster". Pretty much consisted of 3 or 4 interviews, no hard facts, and mostly negative in nature. It's pretty frustrating to watch them sensationalize this.

On another note, workers have been putting up chain linked fencing between the rails and "pedestrian path" over the last week. Additionally in the last two days, they have started putting up what are essentially street lights next to the track. Ironically, they are taller than the catenary posts.

I guess they are concerned about lighting levels on the track as well as path. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.

[uptownliving]

I am glad that at least WBTV is starting to see the light on this. They FINALLY reported that Parks Helms knew about the cost overruns before they became public. He also stated that he assumed that Pat McCrory knew about them to. The fact is that Pat did know, he just hasn't admitted it yet...or maybe he just doesn't read his e-mails.

It is frustrating since I attend a lot of these public meetings on transit and the reporters that show up, especially the TV reporters are usually only there for about 30 min of a 2 hour meeting...and then show about 10 seconds of it in their report. At the most recent meeting I went to Tim Caputo from WSOC was flirting and chatting with Morgan Fogarty from FOX...they hardly ever paid attention to the meeting. Then Tom Rousey from WBTV showed up an hour into the discussion on CATS and plopped down right next to Morgan and started flirting and chatting with her. Of course all of them were on their respective newscasts reporting everything as if they were there the whole time. At least the guy from the Observer was there the whole time...and he wasn't flirting with Morgan, like the rest of the reporters were.

[monsoon]

No girly-man drama from Scott Wickersham this morning, but he is reporting that county commissioners have voted to have the county manager to look further into a repeal of the tax, and that a repeal of the tax would be a last resort. No mention of this in the paper, so I assume that he got this information from the distracted Tim Caputo as noted above. The reporting on this station has sunk to new lows.

I agree that this issue will probably die down now and probably won't resurface unless the Republicans take control of the government and/or there are more screw ups on getting the line finished. Hopefully Tober won't blow this new $15M contigency as well.

[origin.clt]

The fence

The lights

I'm glad they went with black on the fence instead of the standard galvanized grey.

[uptownliving]

That fence will eventually become a lifesaver. I have visions of people riding their bikes and losing control while trying to dodge someone with a stroller walking down the path and end up running into the fence. Better to run into a fence than an oncoming LRT car.

Councilman Dulin will be elated to see those lights going up. At the week's Council Meeting he was ranting and raving about the need for pedestrian lighting on the pathway.

[uptownliving]

Chancellor Phil Dubois had an excellent Op-Ed piece in the Observer today in favor of keeping on track with the mass transit plan. He really hit the nail on the head in his article.

When I returned to Charlotte last summer to accept the opportunity to become UNC Charlotte's fourth chancellor, I was excited to see what the university had become during my eight years away in Wyoming. I was equally disappointed to see what had become of University City -- a patchwork of "big box" development, congested four- and six-lane thoroughfares, and shrinking green space.

Indeed, notwithstanding the new academic programs and research accomplishments that have fueled the university's growing reputation, rapid growth and poor planning in University City have left the campus sitting as an island in a pond of gas-guzzling crocodiles.

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/15673173.htm

[nyxmike]

I hate when people use the "they should finish I-485 first" argument. It just goes to show how uneducated people are about how roads and transit are funded, considering I-485 is under the state's control (not the city or county). That $450 million wouldn't even exist if it were for roads, since most of it comes from the Feds for mass transit funding. A lot of people shouldn't be allowed to vote - most of them don't even know what they are talking about. Besides, it's only half a cent!!!

[MZT]

I have tried to read the comments on the Observer's blog about the blue line, but it's too hard to wade through. So many malcontents from Union and York Counties keep prattling on, about how glad they are to escape Mecklenburg's taxes... Really asinine trolling stuff, that barely stays on topic.

OK, fine. So be happy! Why keep complaining about a system they aren't paying for anymore? (Assuming they never gas up in Meck county...)

[Charlotte_native]

So many malcontents from Union and York Counties keep prattling on, about how glad they are to escape Mecklenburg's taxes...

This arguement has always amazes me. The "savings" for moving out of Mecklenburg to, lets use Union County, is about $700 a year for a $350,000 house. If you live and work out in the county, you might actually save that, if you work in the city how quickly is that eaten up by the expense of travel, tires, wear and tear, gas. And what is your time worth? Driving for 2 hours a day? I am home and done with dinner before my mom in Mint Hill is in her driveway.

They don't even realize if even some ride the train there might, just maybe, be a little relief at 8:30 am on 77, the better for the commuters sitting alone in their cars.

[monsoon]

Well that isn't the real reason they are in Union county. A $350K place in Union county is going to be a fairly large house and yard, whereas in parts of Charlotte, that won't even buy a shak that is getting ready to fall to the ground. This and the sad state of CMS are why people locate on the other side of the county line. The property tax savings usually isn't even on the radar screen.

[uptownliving]

The Observer finally caught on to the fact that both Mayor Pat and Chairmen Helms were told in July ( a full 2 months before the Council was told ) that the South Line would be over budget.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/15681811.htm

[Charlotte_native]

Well that isn't the real reason they are in Union county. A $350K place in Union county is going to be a fairly large house and yard, whereas in parts of Charlotte, that won't even buy a shak that is getting ready to fall to the ground. This and the sad state of CMS are why people locate on the other side of the county line. The property tax savings usually isn't even on the radar screen.

I hear the arguement of "saving" taxes all the time. The other poster on here said they saw it on the Observer blog. Lots of people move to the counties for various reasons, but many claim one of the big ones is Mecklenburg's high property taxes. It's called jumping over a dollar to save a dime.

[graydog]

Well that isn't the real reason they are in Union county. A $350K place in Union county is going to be a fairly large house and yard, whereas in parts of Charlotte, that won't even buy a shak that is getting ready to fall to the ground. This and the sad state of CMS are why people locate on the other side of the county line. The property tax savings usually isn't even on the radar screen.

What is your source?

[MZT]

There have been some articles in the Observer pointing out that the "low tax" status of the surrounding counties is not really true anymore. They are having to pay for schools and infrastructure too.

In another 10 years it may cost just as much to live in northern York or western Union county anyway. May was well just be in Mecklenburg, have a shorter commute, and catch a nap on the train.