Mecklenburg County commissioners Karen Bentley and Dan Bishop try to correct a few glaring misperceptions about their opposition to the current $9 billion transit plan and support for the half-cent repeal.
As they say, their position has “touched a nerve” among supporters of the status quo in Charlotte. Touched a nerve because they have called the bluff of those local officials who have designed, built, and implemented our current transit and transportation plan. Mecklenburg County is not, in fact, a helpless victim of the General Assembly in these matters.
Nor have we placed congestion reduction as the top-most priority in our transit and transportation plans. Instead our top goal has been to further “transit oriented development,” development which in many cases will actually increase congestion. That will certainly be the effect of the $470 million North line commuter rail, which will — if CATS is to be believed — attract 250,000 people to the corridor by 2030 and put exactly 4600 of them on the train.
The “comprehensive” transportation plan Pat Mumford again defended this morning puts exactly zero dollars into improving the road capacity in the corridor to meet that new demand. This is why the current plan is a blueprint for gridlock and — ultimately — the demise of Charlotte as an attractive place to live and work.
This is not some dark fantasy. At a recent Summit on Growth held by the Centralina Economic Development Commission in Concord, Wachovia chief economist John Silvia warned that the biggest threat to the region’s economic life is traffic congestion. Further, attendees report that Silvia warned that we are currently not addressing this threat with our current transportation plans.
To top it off, Silvia agreed with a questioner who called the speculative tax increment financing plan for the North line fiscally irresponsible.
In sum, once again a credible, well-respected expert has voiced serious doubt about our current path. Silvia serves Economic Development Board for the State of North Carolina as appointed by Governor Mike Easley and is a member of the Business Advisory Committee for the City of Charlotte. His opinion should matter to anyone trying to craft a cost-effective, meaningful transit plan for this region.
But it will not to the defenders of the status quo. Instead they will continue to throw out more nightmare scenarios if the tax is repealed and mount new attacks on anyone who dares to say otherwise.
Let’s blow up the current plan and start over. Before it is too late.
