Streetcar Vote Tonight
The Charlotte City Council will be asked to approve spending $12 million at tonight’s City Council meeting. The reason? To reach 65% completion of the design phase for the CityLYNX Gold Line..ie, the streetcar. This is the level of “local investment” that will be seen by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as a commitment to the project by the City, which supporters say is critical to the competitiveness for a federal grant for additional funds.
What supporters don’t seem to realize is that government money all comes from the people, it really doesn’t matter if it’s the local government pocket or the federal government pocket.
Several Council members have already indicated they may not support this additional spending. If staff’s request is denied, the ability to obtain federal funds for the project will be jeopardized, and the completion of the project may be delayed further.
We can only hope.
From a post in the Washington Times:
Instead of providing (congestion) relief with the $30 billion that drivers pay in taxes at the gasoline pump, the (Obama) administration is siphoning away billions from this fund in order to bankroll obsolete forms of mass transit. The president and his Department of Transportation have gone on this spending spree in the guise of building “livable communities,” with at least $280 million dedicated to streetcars. The most recent grants have gone to projects such as the following:
• $63 million to the Modern Streetcar Project in Tuscon, Ariz.
• $45 million for streetcars in New Orleans, La.
• $23 million to renovate trolleys in Portland, Ore.
• $23 million for downtown streetcars in Dallas, Texas.
………………………………………….
The left has reignited its love affair with a mode of transportation that allows a select few to decide when and where people should be able to travel. The rest of the country prefers options that maintain individual freedom. Over 96 percent of passenger miles traveled take place in either cars or airplanes. Another 3 percent travel by bus, leaving only a fraction of 1 percent traveling by trolleys or light rail.Streetcar projects are expensive boondoggles, with average capital costs of $35 million per mile compared to just $680,000 for a bus line, according to Government Accountability Office figures. The trolley’s operating costs are even more inefficient than a bus line.
Hillary Clinton says “It Takes a Village”….
I say “It Only Takes One Village Idiot To Screw Things Up”.
This Streetcar to nowhere named Despair is one of the dumbest ideas, right up there with the NASCAR HOF, bailing out Jerry Richardson, downtown baseball and the Whitewater Center.
Um Christian, need I remind you that you don’t live in Charlotte? Heck, you don’t even live in North Carolina. Why would you care what the city of Charlotte does with its tax dollars?
You might want to consider directing that energy towards improving your own community. Fort Mill is a rat-hole filled with nothing more than white-flight neighborhoods with postage-stamp lots and strip malls. It has about as much culture as a mushroom that spends its life in poop.
Maybe Zon, but there are very few welfare queens in Fort Mill confiscating Christian’s hard earned money for things that they like.
Are you an authoritarian, Zon? Who made you king of what people want?
I don’t live in Washington either but what the morons (morzons?) do up there impacts me and mine.
Charlotte has a lot of Culture but I’d suggest you drive uptown to get to it with windows up and locked doors and park in a well lit parking garage with security. I’d not want to take light rail uptown at night. They don’t even check to see if you bought a ticket.
First of all, my “rat hole” town offers better services for significantly less money than Charlotte residents are forced to fork over. You see, they mostly concentrate on necessities down here. Better schools, better roads, lower crime. My taxes are half of what I’d pay in Charlotte, which lets me enjoy spending more money in our “strip malls”. It’s a great place, you should check it out sometime.
But why do I care? Oh, I don’t know, could it be that as Charlotte goes so will go the region? Could it be that I own a business that is registered in Charlotte? Could it be I care about my fellow man and will always help and support anyone anywhere who is struggling to raise his standard of living by fighting against the ridiculousness of government? Could it be that Charlotte is asking for FEDERAL MONEY to pay for the streetcar and last I checked I paid FEDERAL taxes?
Get a grip Zon. I can literally walk to Charlotte in 5 minutes from my house. It’s across the street and up a block.
Could it be the rabid obsession with the Street Car among conservatives is the color of skin of the majority of its users? Could it be the incessant ridicule of Charlotte, and hence the obsession with living outside its borders, has less to do with governance and more to do with the fact that it is now a minority-majority city? Nah, it’s all about the taxes. It has to be that.
Let me ask this, how many miles of sidewalk does Fort Mill have? Museums? Libraries? Fire stations? Significant employers? The answer is not much. So all the wing-nuts want all the benefits of the city and pay none of the cost, then have the gall to sit on the other side of the border and throw rocks. Until you live here, vote here and pay taxes here, you have no credibility talking about here. Mind your own business, we’re doing just fine in Charlotte without you.
That is the most pathetic post I have ever seen you make.
People’s color doesn’t change the math that streetcars are bad investments. It wastes the same amount regardless.
Half my neighbors are minorities.
Charlotte’s wealth is leaving, it’s a city on the decline. Wake up and smell the reality.
It’s about taxes, schools, transportation, education, livability, crime…
In Fort Mill we have a very nice library, several high quality fire and rescue stations, and an ever growing business community including major employers like CitiBank, Shutterfly, Red Ventures, and more.
It IS my business to point out that Charlotte’s decline will impact negatively a whole bunch of people of all races, classes, creed, etc. Stop being so blind.