Matthews Mayor Lee Myers seems to have come to his senses. His town cannot afford to say no to a CATS bus rapid transit line down Independence. Light rail is not coming. It is either a busway along with significant improvements to Hwy. 74 or nothing.
Charlotte city council member Nancy Carter, however, still does not appear to get it. Light rail will not fix East Charlotte. It is not solely responsible for the re-development boom along South Blvd. Not when those development numbers include the $138 million city-subsidized Westin Hotel and do not take into account the effect of 485 making South Blvd. functional once again.
What will fix East Charlotte is making Hwy. 74 functional again and finally adding the improvements on the books for 20 years. Bus rapid transit, done right and with a strong eye on fiscal responsibility — hint hint, can be part of that function.
The Metropolitan Transit Commission and CATS need to understand this — they mess up Independence Blvd. they will kill East Charlotte and probably Matthews as well.
