Comments on Advance Indiana™: Mass Transit Bill Relies On TIFs For Financial Support

I was at a neighborhood meeting last night where w...

2013-01-09T18:31:55.040-05:00

I was at a neighborhood meeting last night where we discussed it with our state representative. The person in the room the most vocal in support of it claimed he had been at numerous meetings and found widespread support for it. Any guess what he does for a living? Yep. He's an architectural engineeer who depends on government contracts for his survival and sits on a city board. The only people at those meeting he attended clamoring for this mass transit plan are all people who stand to financially gain from it. None of them would consider using the public transit system. Some of these people get in their cars to drive four or five blocks instead of hoofing it.

Extensive Transit systems are necessary where dens...

2013-01-09T16:12:47.782-05:00

Extensive Transit systems are necessary where density mandates that it exist. There is no such mandate here, so any transit system beyond providing minimal service is a boondoggle.

Nearly everyone who wants this is selfish. The hipsters want to brag to their hipster friends in other cities. Businesses want someone else to pay for their location decisions and the transportation costs of their employees. Commuters want someone to bail them out for their location decisions and then there are the special event riders who want someone to pay for their ride to their downtown Ponzi playground.

No doubt Indy's Public Transportation is terri...

2013-01-09T07:01:29.261-05:00

No doubt Indy's Public Transportation is terrible. Light Rail is not the answer.

Public Transportation has been starved for funding, in stark contrast to the C.I.B.

I am sure although I have no proof that Crony-Capitalism will be in the mix here.

TIFs appear to be the coward's way to fund any...

2013-01-09T05:58:28.408-05:00

TIFs appear to be the coward's way to fund anything these days.

Mass Transit is a good thing, but one has to stand up and pay for it in broad daylight, or not.
The cost is painful, and in Indy's case perhaps unreasonable, but if one wants to be forward thinking, then the automobile paradigm has to be shifted at some point.

But, paying for it by slinking around in the darkened, slimy sewers is for rats (and apparently politicians).

If you want to build a light rail the airport to d...

2013-01-08T22:53:56.789-05:00

If you want to build a light rail the airport to downtown would be the way to go. It would be a short line and there would always be riders. Now can we get Kenley to move out west. :)

For that price we could build a bus only highway l...

2013-01-08T22:43:01.395-05:00

For that price we could build a bus only highway lane from Noblesville to downtown. Then we could fully fund the bus system in Marion County and still buy every loyal rider brand-new Toyota Prius. But alas bus routes just don't create any political capital. I just don't see Luke Kenley riding the bus downtown.