If you've ever read Bill Brooks' column "Babblin Brooks" in the Urban Times, you get a clear picture that he's pretty much an advocate of anything being touted by the downtown mafia, including tax and fee increases, more regulation of businesses, public subsidies for the pay-to-play crowd's real estate developments and virtually any publicly-funded boondoggle in general. Why not? They're the ones buying advertising in his free publication.
In the latest edition of the Urban Times, Brooks claims to have surveyed his readers to see where they stand on the proposed multi-billion dollar mass transit boondoggle funded with another increase in the local income tax. Brooks claims that he attempted to find readers both for and against the proposal but "received little in the way of negative response." It's kind of hard to find negative responses, Bill, when you only seek responses from the small circle of friends with whom you converse who share your own opinions on most subjects. Sort of like how you reported no opposition by business owners in Fountain Square or Mass Avenue to the economic improvement districts before it turned out that there was all kinds of opposition.
It's amazing how full of it some of the people are who responded to Brooks' very unscientific survey about how they would utilize mass transit if a much larger, regional mass transit system is built, which is quite laughable since I know for a fact that most of those responding make no attempt to ride IndyGo, even though it's much easier for them to take advantage of it than many people who live in other parts of Indianapolis. Hell, I see a number of them get in their car and drive to work at nearby workplaces downtown, IUPUI, Eli Lilly and Wellpoint. They drive by me in their cars as I promote a green-friendly environment by walking to work every day.
Here's a clue. A person who won't walk four or five blocks to work, or who could easily catch a bus within a block or two of their home and ride directly to their currently place of work in and around downtown aren't going to find anything different with the new and improved regional transportation system than their current aversion to using IndyGo. You don't ride IndyGo because it's beneath you. You don't want to sit on a bus with those "other people." Let's be honest.
And please explain to me why on earth anyone in my downtown neighborhood would claim with a straight face that we really need a light rail system to ride from downtown to Noblesville? Why do you want to ride a train to Nobleville when you already have the City's best attractions within walking distance or a short drive from your home?
Some of these simpleton thinkers visit other cities that are landlocked with much higher population density, ride their costly transit systems as out-of-town visitors rather than take a cab and look at it like a child seeing a new toy he or she just has to have regardless of its utility value. This is precisely why I don't want the legislature to give voters a chance to vote on mass transit. Between the freeloaders who pay no income taxes and the eggheads, you can't trust them to make a decision, particularly when the only perspective any voters will hear in the debate is the one-sided view of the proponents drilled in their heads by the local news media and reinforced with a PR campaign paid for with our tax dollars.
1 comment:
I live near downtown, just off East Michigan St., and still drive to work downtown. I like riding the bus, but the route that runs by my house only has a frequency of every 90 minutes, or every 60 minutes at peak time. That means you might have to arrive at work over an hour before starting time. It is possible to walk to catch the route on 10th street which runs every 20 minutes, but those buses are usually overcrowded, and it's half a mile to that stop. Since I often work evenings, bus service often stops before my shift is over. Bike and bus is a good idea, but with only 2 bikes able to be hauled on each bus, it's not often possible. It's about two miles to walk home from work.
It's $60 a month for a bus pass as well. If the only place I can take the bus is downtown, that's fairly expensive. When IUPUI used to offer free passes, I always rode. I have nothing against the people riding the bus. Those are my friends and neighbors. There are unsavory people anywhere one goes.
My point is that an improved Mass Transit system would attract more riders. Maybe a train isn't the answer, but there are definite improvements that could and should be made to IndyGo.
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