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2030 Transit Plan

monsoon

By monsoon
in Charlotte

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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The sad fact is that the petition drivers (I guess I'll leave the unintentional pun) do not care about facts or other people's opinions. They certainly would not be readers of UP or Mary Newsom's blog, and even if they did, they would not likely internalize the facts or opinions presented.

The fact is, the petitioners lied to people. A reduction in the transit tax would either cause another tax increase to pay for transit, or a separate tax increase to pay for roadway improvements to cover the lower efficiency of those roads provided by the bus system.

I've got to admit, 2007 has gotten me very steamed at CATS management and MTC oversight. We keep getting things taken away that we thought we had coming to us. We lose car 85, various trolley stops, art, the pedestrian/bike bridge, the streetcar system within the next decade, and on and on. I realize that unexpectable inflation caused much of it, but to lose things we all thought were to be included after an expensive and extensive due dilligence engineering phase is downright frustrating. I'm sure that many of the people that might vote against the transit system in the likely vote on the subject in the November are anti-transit or anti-tax, but I think that many of the people who might vote against the system are people who are frustrated to not be getting what they expected. As a result, they might view transit as not being for them, and they might not my philosophic enough to see the bigger impact on the city.

Either way, the 'quiet' leader of this whole mess is Jay Morrison who lives at 10201 Ventana Ct, Charlotte, NC 28277, if you want to send him a friendly letter of thanks. That is, even though he wants to 'move on'. ( http://www.charlotteobserver.com/217/story/62793.html ).

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Just a clarification. The MTC does not have any oversight on CATS. That job falls squarely on the heads of the Charlotte city council and the mayor. CATS is a department of the city and the chief, Tober, reports to the Charlotte city manager and not the MTC. This is in fact one of the problems that hurts the regionalism of the system in that only the voters of Charlotte can directly influence how CATS is maintained and operated.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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Noramlly I would agree, but Jay Morrison fancies himself a politician. He ran against Ric Killian last year to fill an empty seat in NC's general assembly, and he has stated intentions to run for the school board. Politians addresses and phone numbers are always publically advertised as a way of making themselves available to their constituents. If he wasn't interested in being contacted, then he wouldn't have run.

Also, this man will be responsible for tens of thousands (if not more) in additional expenses to the city and county because of this petition, and ultimately the tax payer. It would seem that anyone who has a problem with his views should have easy access to express them.

He says he wants to stay out of sight, but I don't think he has that right when his actions jeapordize the quality of life for a county of over 800,000 people.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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I'm not advocating doing anything short of being civil. But people are talking about how posting on UP will help change the discourse in politics. Certainly it helps, but I tend to think that people who are anti-transit and anti-urban are not the bulk of our reading public. It should not stop you from writing to the politicians whose decisions could make or break this city for decades. His address is public information, and he has made himself a public figure. So write him and your city and county leaders to help make a difference.

Also, thanks to fraud, he has the personal information of tens of thousands of citizens, so having his personal information out there is just desserts.

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A2 Town

A2

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Just finished watching the news and more info about the half cent sales tax debate. All I can say is that at least the news media is pitching the outcome of what the true end results would be. I will say this, that if these F***ing idiots are successufl and send Charlotte back to the dark ages, with respect to transit, this region will surely suffer great economic losses.

I will also state for, for the record, that I will move from Charlotte if it is repealed! I have had it with ass backwards thinking and do not think I can be in a city that is not focused on saving the environment, and lacking the fortitude (otherwise known as "Balls") to shape its destiny in all aspects. (Especially on something as vital as transit)

Repeat:

If the Transit Tax is repealed, A2 is gone!!!

(I have already had job opportunites in other more transit friendly cities, and have passed to be a part of a city that I thought was on the move. But if this city is content on promoting ideologies and leaders that are not in line with mine and 99.9% of the posters on UP, see ya!)

A2

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sax184 Hamlet

sax184

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Repeat:

If the Transit Tax is repealed, A2 is gone!!!

(I have already had job opportunites in other more transit friendly cities, and have passed to be a part of a city that I thought was on the move. But if this city is content on promoting ideologies and leaders that are not in line with mine and 99.9% of the posters on UP, see ya!)

A2

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Neo City

Neo

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UP in print form....mmm...

Something I would absolutely LOVE to see happen. I have investigated the matter a little, but doing it would require financing that just isn't there.

If you would like to create any sort of publication in web format however (PDF is fine), I will gladly put it up on the site. If you are generic and the PDF is in good form and can be contributed to transit solutions around the world I will put it up permanently on the main UrbanPlanet.org site. You can PM me if you are interested.

I want very much to bring anti-transit protests to a halt and while that will never happen I certainly want to offer any assistance in curbing the effects of such a protest.

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Durhamite Hamlet

Durhamite

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What's so perplexing is that this transit tax was installed almost 10 years ago. Isn't there a way to prevent such matters from either being challenged after a period of time? Think of the waste of money and time by these nimrods. With the money, time and energy they're wasting, it've could've been used to improve the rail system.

This is not about rail IMO, this guy has an agenda.

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Norm2 Burg

Norm2

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Something I would absolutely LOVE to see happen. I have investigated the matter a little, but doing it would require financing that just isn't there.

If you would like to create any sort of publication in web format however (PDF is fine), I will gladly put it up on the site. If you are generic and the PDF is in good form and can be contributed to transit solutions around the world I will put it up permanently on the main UrbanPlanet.org site. You can PM me if you are interested.

I want very much to bring anti-transit protests to a halt and while that will never happen I certainly want to offer any assistance in curbing the effects of such a protest.

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Neo City

Neo

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What financing is required to put out a publication like that? making the actually prints themselves isnt too expensive I dont think.....it would be everything else that gets expensive?

This isn't the topic to discuss this so after this post if there is additional comments or questions you are free to start a new thread here: Suggestion Box

Making the actual prints isn't what is costly and with advertising and possible subscription fees it would no doubt pay for itself. The initial investment needed to get such a project off the ground is what is costly and none of the staff have enough free time for such a grand project. We would no doubt need to hire a dedicated team to push a publication out. Trust me, if there is ever a time when UP can afford financial backing for this project it will be the first to come to fruition. This is the one thing I'd like to see be a reality. I have a lot of ideas for it but unfortunately at the moment I can't afford the staff that would be needed to pull it off.

I think postcards can be bulk mailed for something like 40
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e2ksj3 Whistle-Stop

e2ksj3

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Whatever you guys decide to do, I'm gain, and I'll contribute as much as I can, because I think it's real important to educate people.

From reading this article in the Charlotte Observer on how to fund the transit in case the tax is repealed and looking at the comments from users, it seems like people really have no clue what they are talking about. :rolleyes:

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MZT Burg

MZT

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My father ran for Congress once as a minor party candidate. He basically had no organization, but one weekend, he and a friend walked through some apartment complexes hanging "vote-for-me" fliers. He actually did get 15% of the vote in that one precinct, just for trying to reach the voters.

The anti-transit backers are out of town carpetbaggers! Surely a local effort to stir the electorate is possible. So, if 50 people would write "Support Light Rail! Keep the sales tax!" 100 times on the UP fliers we already have, and then go door-to-door.... I could imagine it tipping the balance in the end.

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uptownliving Town

uptownliving

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Something else to think about:

If the 1/2 Cent tax is repealed and transit is reduced then pollution will almost certainly go up with more cars and congestion. Charlotte is already boarderline on meeting Federal Air Quality Standards. Reducing transit could very well send us over the edge into noncompliance. And what is the result of noncompliance? All Federal Road money for the area is cut.

That is the irony of this: a vote to repeal the transit tax is also a vote to cut all federal road funding.

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UrbanCharlotte Burg

UrbanCharlotte

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I hate the "simplemindedness" that so many people in this city have. They dont believe we need rail because we are low density? The whole point of light rail IS to create density. Its hard to have a dense city without the proper infrastructure :angry:

Thus by repealing the transit tax, we will just continue to be a low density, car oriented society in this city. Hopefully this doesn't come to fruition, because it's really infuriating.

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uptownliving Town

uptownliving

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I was at the Charlotte Neighborhood Symposium this weekend where over 700 neighborhood leaders were in attendence from all over the city. The topic of the transit tax came up a lot and the people that were there understood that if the transit tax was repealed it would kill the bus system as well as the rail system. Most of the people there don't live in or near the Center City so it really gave me hope that this transit tax repeal won't happen. It seems at least on a local leadership level that people arn't buying into the "SCAT" theory on transit.

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