Local-Government on The Infinite Unknown

A Streetcar Named Bankruptcy

Jared Watkins — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So our illustrious Charlotte city council last night voted to take 25 million of federal money to start a new uptown street car boondoggle.. er I mean transit system. To avoid confusion with the multitude of pet rail projects around here they decided to end service on the uptown trolley that has been in operation for the last two years.. and which we spent a whopping 40-60 million to create and operate. The real numbers there are a little hard to come by but we know it was at least 40.. and 60 is more likely. This “free” federal money for the new street car will be paired with at least 12 million of local money that is going to come not from the 1/2 cent transit sales tax.. but from the general fund.. aka property tax which they promised never to do by the way.

A little more history… back in 2007 there was a voter referendum to repeal the 1/2 cent sales tax in order to de-fund the light rail and put an end to all this train madness. One of the big reasons the repeal failed was because the powers-that-be made a promise to the black leadership that they would give them a transit project of their own.. aka the street car in exchange for supporting the funding for light rail… which will not run in the more ‘diverse’ parts of town. A few months after that vote.. the city leadership pushed the street car project to the back burner with a best case delay of about 10 years. Last night at the meeting this was referenced as being one of those ‘empty promises’ that the black leadership was none too happy about.

Fast forward to today… the city is broke.. the county is broke.. the state is broke.. and the country is broke by many measures. There have been no ridership studies… there is no money to operate the street car and CATS doesn’t want it.. other local rail projects have been running about 40% over budget to build and serious money losers to operate.. and yet none of this matters to the vote-buying city council. Promises were made.. and broken.. and now their seats might actually be on the line… so of course they cave and vote to spend more money we don’t have on a project we don’t need. [![20091121-Elizabeth Ave 02][3]][3]

This is a toy.. plain and simple not a serious transit project. Additional buses could do this job for about 1/10 the cost and would fit easily into the existing infrastructure/maintenance programs. Additionally, bus routes can be adjusted as needed.. tracks running down the middle of the street can’t. Buses can route around traffic accidents and street work.. trains can not. The tracks are deadly to people on bikes or motorcycles.. ride down in one of those gaps and over the bars you will go. In this shot of Elizabeth Ave you can see what they have in mind.. the street car will totally block traffic where the tracks are installed and what about that on street parking?

Of course.. the economic development argument is a popular one in favor of projects like this.. but lets look at that. The first 1.5 miles of this track, which we are paying at least 37 million for, will be in center city where almost the entire route is already developed. You have the hospital.. CPCC, a few government buildings and a smattering of small businesses. So.. not much development potential here. When fully built the 500 million dollar line is going to run out to Eastland Mall. This is the place the city very nearly paid 20 million for last year.. that was just sold to a private interest for 2 million with plans to turn it into some sort of big indoor flea market. That certainly sounds worthy of a half billion of our tax money right? I’m quite sure the city will be spending more money to improve Eastland mall and all along the new route just like they did with south blvd… throwing more good money after bad.. and helpfully not counting that spending as part of the cost of the transit.

Be sure to contact the members of the city council and let them know just how much you appreciate them voting for this project against the wishes of a large majority of the voting public… sorta like the uptown arena.

Charlotte Bin Watch Day 62

Jared Watkins — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

It was 62 days ago that I ask the city of Charlotte to take back their RFID tagged recycling bin. I’m not going to play their game… which if you didn’t know involves tracking your participation in their money losing recycling program… and eventually fines.. and re-education about how to be eco friendly. No thanks little brother.

Back when I first posted about this on May 6th (and scooped Taras army of research interns) I also filled out the form on the city web site to take the bin back. I was given a ticket number… but I’ve not heard anything since. At some point in July I called and was told my request was still open but they hadn’t started picking them up yet. So the program to use these new bins just started this week… and I’ve heard stories about the city ignoring a lot of requests for take backs. So I called them again today… and discovered that my ticket had magically been deleted from their system… how interesting! Darn those computer glitches. So now they tell me it will be picked up sometime in the next two weeks and I’m supposed to leave it out in front of my house.

Tomorrow will be day 63 of the bin watch… at day 90 I might just take it down to city hall and drop it off myself.

Update: Finally.. they picked up the bin a few days after my latest request.

Charlotte Giving Raises While Rome Burns

Jared Watkins — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Ok.. so maybe Charlotte isn’t Rome.. and while it’s not exactly burning it’s certainly not good out there. Locally we still have a 12% unemployment rate and according to Civitas NC state government has grown over 12% while private employment has contracted by 1.6% between 01 and 09. Ouch. Tara talked about this during drive time today.. and there was a lot of anger coming her way by people who work for the city. It seems some city employees think they are entitled to yearly raises regardless of what’s going on in the real world and how dare we lowly citizens question that.

To me this anger is misdirected. The middle finger of blame should instead point directly to our local ‘leadership’. I’m talking about the city and county managers and councils. I’ve been in Charlotte for about 12 years now and I’ve lost count of how many projects.. and how many hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been spent on feel good projects that have nothing to do with the legitimate function of local government.

Off the top of my head.. this would include: Whitewater Park, Downtown Arena, Light Rail, Nascar Hall of Fame, Numerous Museums, Numerous Greenways (including the recent 219k spent on some rocks.. huh?) not to mention the hot mess that has become of our schools around here. Our county credit card has been maxed out.. we are closing schools, libraries and firing teachers and as far as I can tell the leadership is still charging ahead with more of the same. The news came out today that the next leg of light rail might have to be scaled back. Really… ? So we don’t have the billion dollars laying around to build more trains where the existing line already costs taxpayers about $7 for every rider. Yea lets build more of that.

So with that backdrop.. and a local government that has so far not felt the pain of this recession they are going to reinstate raises for everyone on the taxpayer dime. I actually don’t have a problem with this in theory. The problem of course is that we already spent all our money on the niceties while ignoring the basics. So all you city workers who are angry about people questioning those raises… please direct your anger at those who CHOSE how to spend our money thus far.

CharMeck is broke.. but has money to track our garbage!

Jared Watkins — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A couple months ago the city left what I thought was a second garbage bin in front of my house. It took me a week or so to figure out it was actually supposed to be for me.. as I’d not heard about it or expected it. Turns out it’s a big ‘recycling cart’ which is the same size as the usual rolling garbage cans. I have absolutely no use for it.. so it’s been sitting parked behind my garage. Today I find out [these carts haveRFID chips that are tied to each street address][2].. for the stated purpose of ‘tracking participation’ with fines to come later for those who aren’t recycling enough. The city is broke.. but they have money for this kind of social agenda garbage?? (pun included) It was my understanding that recycling programs were a net loss to the city… and here they are encouraging more of it. These carts have been appearing in cities across the country this year.. and I’m also wondering if there is more of a story behind that fact.

[2]: http://www.charmeck.org/charlotte/Newsroom/News 2010/100226RecycleCarts.htm

There is a form on the linked page where you can get them to take the cart back. So at least for now.. the tracking is optional.

Charlotte's Web of Issues

Jared Watkins — Thu, 12 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

One hot topic in Charlotte lately is the city seeking the ability to ban smoking in all public places. This wouldn’t seem so bad if they were not including privately owned bars and restaurants as ‘public places’. I have no doubt they will succeed in getting this passed… the question will then be one of enforcement. There are some real (and growing) crime problems in charlotte and yet there will be people assigned to enforce the latest ‘tidy town’ rules of the week of which the smoking ban is just the latest. Recently we have also had to endure new ordinances on flag flying, limits on the se of your own property and where you can park your car (on April 1.. how appropriate), orcing buskers to audition and obtain permits, and even limits on beggars. At the same time… the city thinks nothing of spending huge amounts of public money on budget-busting transit projects that won’t accomplish any of the stated goals.. nd giving free money to billionaires and other successful businesses to build sports venues. We even have a preview of the blackhole that transit will become in the downtown trolley line.. with an estimated tax subsidy of about 90% for each ticket purchased. The $2 it would cost you to ride to southend and back for lunch ends up costing the tax payers about $20. You would think with all these freebies the city has money to burn… but no.. they are also abut to raise property taxes by about 9% on the heels of a recent revaluation.. and they have already decided to make the city less attractive to visitors by raising the hotel/motel tax. Combine that with the billion plus state deficit and you start to wonder if these elected officials are evil or just incompetent.