Former Huntersville town planner Mike Ciriello helps advance the case we’ve made for years that building trains is about much more the moving people around; it about changing Charlotte from a family friendly area to a dense, trendy “destination location.”
Ciriello, who has also worked for big Smart Growth developer Bryan Properties, writes in the today’s Observer that CATS’ train plans cannot and will not pinch money away from CMS because mass transit attracts the childless. Specifically:
Those concerned about CMS funding being hijacked by light rail don’t understand demographics or fiscal efficiency. Childless, taxpaying people like my partner and me were attracted to Charlotte because the city has had the foresight to offer a choice of transportation options, which create a choice of housing options.Here’s a little secret for the CMS-at-the-expense-of-light-rail crowd: People like us and the people occupying those billions of dollars worth of real estate along the rail line rarely have children. What does that mean to CMS? It means thousands of people paying millions of dollars in taxes but placing no burden on the school system.
See? Ain’t that grand? A dream world where government does not actually have to deliver much in the way of services, yet tax revenue pours in as higher density makes every square foot of property more valuable. At least that’s the idea.
If you share Mike Ciriello’s idea of a great community, do nothing. That’s the direction the Uptown crowd is already heading.
