Well, looks like those city subsidies to developers who build “transit oriented” projects along the South Blvd. line have hit a speed bump. Namely, money.
The big Scaleybark station will cost the city more money than even city’s fanciful “investment” accounting can support. Of course, the correct amount of public “investment” in development around the stations is zero dollars. Yet the city has entire staff positions dedicated to nothing but coming up with ways to give public money to private developers who promise to build the kind of things city staff wants.
Like I told the Charlotte city council last year, if light rail is such a wonderful thing, there should be no need to spend even more money to get people to build around it. That view is in total opposition to what city staff keeps telling the council, like city planner Debra Campbell saying that Charlotte must “jumpstart these markets.”
Zzzzt. Wrong. Build the damn train and leave it at that. If $500 million is not enough to “jumpstart” transit oriented development, then maybe — just maybe — Charlotte should stop throwing good money after bad.
