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Nov
10
Establishment reacts to Clay Chastian’s light rail success
November 10, 2006 |
It’s been a frantic week at City Hall as politicians and bureaucrats scramble to assess the impact of voters’ surprise approval of Clay Chastain’s latest light rail plan. One thing is obvious, citizens are tired of the status quo and impatient with glacial plans to bring the suburbs into a regional transit system.
It looks like the City Council has little room to deviate from Clay’s plan and is reluctant to repeal it outright. Look for the city to spend the next 6-12 months coming with a modified plan to take back to voters for approval.
- Star: Seventh times a charm for light rail (with video)
- Star: Heavy thought for light rail
- More video from the Star
Comments
15 Comments so far
Until KCMO can prove it can create a viable transit system that actually provides nodes that can benefit those subarbs whose money you so covet. But don’t look to the subarbs to throw good money away after bad.
Sorry, Chris… some poor editing.
drop the period after covet and uncapitalive the B from butt.
Lemon - Maybe the 3rd times a charm, you comments don’t make any sense even with your edits.
Try Firefox, the latest version has a spell check built it.
^^^^^
See, no errors!
Dang compound sentances. My English teacher always told me to keep it simple. Less chance for missunderstandings. Perhaps I’ve misjudged the intelligence of this blog.
I will not vote to spend my county’s monies towards a regional system based on the unfunded plan currently approved for KCMO.
If you still need help understanding I’m afraid I can’t help you.
We will have to find a way to revise the Smart Moves plan by incorporating the light rail into it. Smart Moves should have been on the ballot this time instead of waiting.
Many people didn’t even know what they were voting on… I think it was an underhanded move by Chastain to put it on the ballot in that manner. I’m still skeptical where the money for this project going to come from.
Also, i think there are more pressing issues than a light rail system (like our sewers, roads, etc).
Light rail has caused an economic boom everywhere it’s been built, and there is no reason to believe KC will be any different. The best way to pay for roads, sewers, etc is through economic growth. This will be an engine for it. Think of the cities that have trains, subways, etc and then try to imagine them without it. We’re way past due for decent public transportation, and it will help make us a bigger, better, more densely populated city that is more competitive for all the extra money that visitors and conventioneers bring into a city that is modern and truly works.
Tim-
N ot many cities with succesful light rail systems straddle state lines such as the KC metro area. I will further posit that light rail will do very little to bring tourism dollars to KC. Until the Sprint Center gets a bonafide tenant I see little reason to be optimistic about the “redevelopment” of downtown KCMO. Why would tourists come to KC? For the jazz music that barely survives? To hear a symphony no better than those in Omaha, Des Moines or Oklahoma City? We (the combined metro area) are not Boston, NY or even St. Louis. That doesn’t mean that we can’t become a more influential metropolis. I just thin k that building light rail at this point is a little like putting the cart before the horse.
Does St. Louis not straddle a state line? I am not saying it will put us on a par with Boston or New York, but they are already booked with tourist and convention business, and the important thing is to think, say, 25 years down the road. If we have this transit option well in place by then, we will be glad we did it. Who knows what the price of gasoline will be by then, and organizations that don’t want to foot the bill for it (much less the price of a hotel in places like Boston or NY) will take a look at what other cities have to offer. Staying competitive in these areas means amenities like light rail, since we obviously don’t have a coastline, etc. We are forced to build the things that show that we are a viable, progressive city. Nature has not bestowed these things upon us, we have to work at it.
Tim St. Louis does straddle a state line. The problem is St. Louis does not fall into the category of a city that felt an economic boom from the light rail. Actually they just went through issues were the maintenance and upgrades of their current system forced them to raise taxes for the third time. When the first original tax was suppose to cover the cost. The same thing will happen here. 5 years ago the federal goverment had 800 million dollars allocated for our light rail plan. The voters turned it down though. Then the goverment takes that money away and we pass it. If we did implement this latest plan we would have to pull money from the Metro system which would then force a new tax on this city in 2009 to keep the buses running.
Aaron, yep.
“Show me the money.” And from the sounds of it, it’s hard to come by lately for KCMO. Hmm… who in the world’s been managing KCMO’s money lately?
St. Louis does straddle a state line but has the balance of population and and wealth are o0f the two metro areas not comparably divided between the respedctive states. I doubt that East St. Louis provided the kind of support in monies,if any, or ridership that KCMO is going to need from its KS neighbors to make light rail work. It is not that I oppose light rail. I do question the approach being taken in KCMO as well as that city’s troubled ability to manage its money responsibly.
Limo, it’s the attitude that you seem to represent that is one of the reasons light-rail passed this year: the vote was KCMO only and did not rely on the provincial, not in my backyard thinking of some JoCo’ers. My prediction is that if anything gets built, it will most likely be a starter line from the river to the Plaza, at least in the foreseeable future. If and when KCMO has rail, any rail, up and running you will no doubt see a desire for connections to JoCO and elsewhere, and it will be someone elses problem figuring out how to handle links in their own communities. In regard to your comments concerning “why” tourists/conventioners would want to come here: central location, easy access, economical, with the bonus of a surprisingly rich smattering of culture and activities (and I speak of the metro area as a whole, of which I am happy to be a part), despite what you may believe.
Lexi, I agree, it will change everything. Imagine something like this bypassing all the traffic and getting commuters from A to B like clockwork and not worrying about being on probation at their job for a small sales tax increase in exchange? It will be the catalyst for a whole new way of thinking about urban travel. And you can still get home right on schedule, without having to worry about microwaving that leftover chicken.
I’ll wait until the plan is viably funded before I jump on this bandwagon.