I received an insight today as to why the Albuquerque Rapid Transit plan by Mayor Berry and the City Council won't work. And that reason would be the City Council.
The main idea around ART is that it will lead to high density housing along the Route 66 corridor that the system will follow But, will that really happen when the neighborhood associations start looking at such development? Here is what will happen. The densification will be fought tooth and nail by those associations and the parochial city council members along the ART route will cave in to demands that dense housing not be allowed. Even after they have used denser housing as the reason for supporting the system.
Traditionally, city council members are cowards and so far as I can see it hasn't changed much, except in rare cases.
The main idea around ART is that it will lead to high density housing along the Route 66 corridor that the system will follow But, will that really happen when the neighborhood associations start looking at such development? Here is what will happen. The densification will be fought tooth and nail by those associations and the parochial city council members along the ART route will cave in to demands that dense housing not be allowed. Even after they have used denser housing as the reason for supporting the system.
Traditionally, city council members are cowards and so far as I can see it hasn't changed much, except in rare cases.
4 comments:
Did you see Ken Sanchez crying on KRQE yesterday about how the Free Press cartoon isn't fair to him and the city council. Sanchez reminds me of the cowardly lion.
The ART project is long on promises and very short on specifics and the ART project will have a detrimental affect on traffic flow and contribute to traffic congestion. Chief Operating Officer Michael Riordan in a TV 13 interview a few weeks ago admitted the impact of the project on traffic, public transit and economic growth can’t truly be measured until the $119.3 million dollars is spent essentially making the ART project a major gamble of taxpayer money. Most successful "mass transit" projects of this nature in other cities run in the BILLIONS of dollars and this $120 mllion dollar project will fail and have significant cost overruns. The City insists ART will increase bus usage up and down central. It will not. The overwhelming majority of the demographics it is targeting relies too much on their own vehicles to travel to and from work all over this entire city. A mere ten mile stretch of ART is not going to reduce people’s reliance on their vehicles and the historic neighborhoods such as Edo and Hunning Highland as you point out will oppose any increases in density housing. Already these very neighborhood associations do not like the designs of the bus stops.
Jim - perhaps also the wrong IDEA?
Lets see: one lane of traffic in each direction - regular bus service still on the same route, stopping and starting - delivery trucks for the merchants parking in the one lane - emergency vehicles go ????.
Why was not Lomas considered? A very wide street providing access to both students and the hospital.
Perhaps you could dig a little deeper among your contacts?
I was in Denver last week and the light rail system there is great for getting around. i have taken the bus in Albuquerque and the main problem is that parts of the city have poor bus service. In the UNM area it is easy to catch several buses but in other parts of the city the buses don't run often and the ART project doesn't address the transit problems Albuquerque has. Instead it is a cash cow for certain politics and business people to cash in on federal funds. Denver is booming while Albuquerque endures a deep economic depression that is losing it's citizens due to incompetent and corrupt politicians from both parties. I met some New Mexicans in Denver that left New Mexico for jobs. I am going to San Antonio next week and I am sure that I will see lots of help wanted signs like I did in Denver. The only way Albuquerque will ever have a light rail system is if the elite crooks in the city could make money off of the construction.
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