The comical performance Monday night by CATS officials, city staff, and the elected leaders of the city of Charlotte has now been followed — predictably — by a note of excuse from the Uptown paper of record. To wit:
Public communication from the city transit chief did not accurately characterize the seriousness of problems as they emerged.
That’s wrong, and it’s a blunder with serious consequences. It shakes public confidence and gives naysayers ammunition to label an important regional project a boondoggle.
Yet it would also be wrong to let that misstep undermine plans for a comprehensive system of mass transit in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Pray tell, what should undermine CATS’ plans for light rail? A body count?
Here again the predictions of the naysayers are coming true. The Reason Foundation’s Ted Balaker noted in 2004 that transit projects are almost impossible to stop once they get started; that every set-back or cost-overrun is perversely turned into a reason not to change plans. The sunk-cost of the project becomes all-consuming as city officials try to avoid confirming their mistake by doubling down on a bad investment.
It has happened in city after city and it is happening again, right now, in Charlotte. But there is a way out.
Stay tuned…
