It looks like Albuquerque officials are ramming a bus rapid transit line it's calling ART down the throats of its city residents just because there's a pot of federal money available for the project like Indianapolis officials are doing to us. At least Albuquerque residents have some media that will allow a fair hearing on the pros and cons. Here in the Soviet Republic of Indianapolis, there is no room for discussion other than what is being pitched by the proponents, who all seem to have a vested financial outcome in seeing it built.
It also appears that affected business owners in Albuquerque are more clued in to how badly their businesses are going to be damaged along the route. Make no mistake about it. Probably half of the current businesses along the College Avenue corridor between 50th and Broad Ripple Avenue will go out of business following the completion of the line, if not before, which is exactly what the proponents want to see happen. As businesses fail, developers will sweep in and buy up their property on the cheap, level their building and construct cheap, high-density apartment buildings all along the corridor, ruining the tight-knit neighborhoods that currently exist there.
Read more about community opposition in Albuquerque to the bus rapid transit system by clicking here. Also, check out how business owners in San Jose, California complain that they are being put out of business just enduring the disruptions caused by the long, drawn-out construction process for installing a rapid bus transit line there by clicking here. People had better wake up here in Indianapolis. The bus is already pulling out of the station, and those who will be impacted most by it are still clueless what dramatic changes they are going to see for the worse.
Thousands of cities experienced 'motorist rapid transit' being implemented in the 60's. The devastating blight it caused to those areas is still visible today: block after block of empty buildings and homes, and an endless stream of lawmakers promising to bring them back to life, if only we fork over enough tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to work like time-travel fiction, where mankind gets ruined by even the smallest effort to and 'fix' something in the past change the course of the future.
Those perpetrating a fraud on Indianapolis taxpayers must be held responsible- there is no "right" to commit fraud.
ReplyDeleteWhite flight will be taken to whole new level. What these developers are doing with this transit plan is the equivalent of 21st century "blockbusting". These parasites living outside the county and bleeding us dry will not stop until Indy is a gutted wasteland.
ReplyDeleteDensity, you want density. Indianapolis had density,once upon a time. Center Township has less than 50% of the population it had in 1960. Where did the people go and why? The mile square is nothing but mostly infill. Half of the downtown has been torn down and replaced with cheap crap buildings that make old Soviet architecture look like masterpieces.
You are right Gary, this is all about a few people stuffing their pockets with cash from developers to the do-gooder poverty pimps masquerading as nonprofit neighborhood help groups.
This is not about the poor or even the hipsters for that matter. It's about the money.
ReplyDeletePete... every Councilor in this City should be held responsible for fraud perpetrated by the Uber Corrupt Greg Ballard. Every damn one of them. Oh, Wait... that didn't happen, did it? They could moan, whine, come up with asshole ideas like franchise fees but hey, they still cash their paychecks and all that corrupt crap is still there.
Why do you think anything is going to change in this town? It is not. Unless, of course, you are a Democrat or Republican attorney at or near the top of the politically corrupt food chain. You can break, bend, twist, and pervert the very law you were sworn to uphold.
Gary, another great post, and you touch on something a lot of people just don't get - transit oriented development. One of the big drivers for BRT is for the development hacks downtown. I bet if we could lift the veil on just who has ownership interests in the large downtown projects we would see the same people voting to give away millions in TIF and other subsidies.
ReplyDeleteyou hit that on the head about putting small businesses out of business. Have others noticed on the commercials the animation of multi-story houses that pop up behind the simulated transit? Probably the failed residential-over-retail buildings that no one asked for or likes. Agenda 21, or whatever they're calling that global scam nowadays.
ReplyDeleteRed Line construction in Broad Ripple would be at best a temporary nightmare for College Avenue businesses. What the Chamber of Commerce has in mind when pushing so hard for construction I do not know other than pleasing a State Legislature that created the framework for a multi-county central Indiana project at the inconvenience of Marion County taxpaying residents.
ReplyDeleteRapid transit works well in densely populated areas but not along routes that are mainly residential. Not to underestimate developer demands to build apartments like an originally proposed six story, 205 unit apartment building, on two acres, at Kessler and College. Reduced to 4 stories and 151 units, the proposal was finally nixed with District Representative Fanning having "mixed feelings".
After the State Legislature eliminated a 10% business contribution to the project, the local Chamber of Commerce has now asked corporations to pass the hat. Since corporations have never paid a County local income tax and we do let's defeat this referendum and hold out for a better deal.
I'm not a proponent of the Red Line as it stands and would prefer a Keystone Avenue alignment, but the statement that 50% of the businesses along College between 50th and Broad Ripple will go out of business because of the line is absurd. What do you base that on? In city after city where such systems have been implemented, both in the the US and abroad, that has been the argument and in every single one of those cities where BRT was eventually built it did not happen. This project is wrong on a lot of levels. That's where we should focus. Fearmongering, especially when loads of data suggest otherwise, is beneath us, or at least it should be.
ReplyDeleteCollege Avenue is not a wide street. When you start taking out entire lanes of traffic for a dedicated bus line for miles and block people from making left turns, there will be no more on-street parking and the traffic lanes for cars will become so congested people that people will avoid the area like the plague. The adjoining neighborhoods already complain about the spill-over parking problem in their residential area for people frequenting businesses along College Avenue which provide little off-street parking. That's not taking into account the disruptions that will occur during the construction phase of the project. You have to envision the drastic change in traffic patterns for that narrow, heavily-trafficked corridor to grasp just how fundamentally different it's going to be changed. That's why I've said all along that a bus rapid transit line on the north side is much more suitable for Keystone Avenue.
ReplyDeleteGary, they will take it down from 3 to 2 lanes of traffic. That is hardly as drastic as you make it out to be. Also 90% of the parking will stay so you should watch the language that you use. There is zero evidence that mass transit implementation is some sort of modern blockbusting. There are plenty of shit areas of town that are cheap and available for developers to put up large buildings. Why would they choose to ruin an area of town first? That makes no sense and needs evidence if you're going to predict such a wild conspiracy.
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