Is economy in Tri Cities recovering yet? (Johnson City, Erwin: bankruptcy, tenant)

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by rccrain

I don't have a problem with cameras in principle, but in implementation.

1. As pointed out by donsabi, 50 to 80% of the revenue generated goes to an out of state for-profit corporation.
2. That is disposable income sucked out of the local economy.
3. The machines do the jobs of local police officers.
4. The machines are static, cannot patrol multiple intersections.
5. The corporations have bribed officials in the past for these lucrative contracts.
6. Some of the locations are unethical. Bluff City put one on a safe stretch of road. A stretch of road that shouldn't even belong to Bluff City - miles away. But 50,000 vehicles travel this road daily, so they did it purely for profit, not safety. Most of the tickets go to residents of Bristol, Johnson City, or race fans.
7. Let's say you get a ticket in the mail from the cameras. You drive this route every day. You don't recall running a light and you're generally a cautious driver. How are you supposed to remember passing through the intersection? How are you going to determine if the camera made a mistake or you did?

I didn't see any such figure as 50%-80% of the revenue going to the camera company in donsabi's post. I know here in MD a huge percent goes to the county and it is part of their budget. And I have no problem with that, it goes to improving roads, schools etc.

I have probably gotten 10-15 tickets by speed cameras, both speeding and red light. Know what I did? I paid them. Because I was guilty. I tell you what, once you realize that they are all over in a certain county you learn to keep your speed down. I know I do that now and I don't consider that a bad thing.

Regarding #6 I can't speak for that area but if is as described I agree with you that it is unethical. As for #7 every ticket I got was one that I didn't know was coming. But when it arrived there I was, in full color, running the red light. How can I argue with that?

[DaveinMtAiry]

Funny red light camera story. This POS lawyer in Denver sued the county because a pic of him running a red light with his hot secretary in his lap at 2 in the morning when he was supposed to be working late was mailed to his house and his wife opened it.

Cry me a river.

[donsabi]

I believe most Tri-Cities residents are aware of the deal. A company, I believe named RedFlex based in Australia, agreed to install the system at no cost to the city. However Redflex was to get 80% of the revenue for five years and then the RLC would be owned by the municipality. Each one of these RLC's pull in about $1,000,000 annually.
BTW, there are also speed cams in the area doing the same thing. One issue with the speed cams is after residents become familiar with the locations the traffic over compensates causing bottlenecks.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Oh that is a problem here for sure. A really big road goes down to from 50 to 30 as it enters a the small town. Every now and then you will see someone panic and drop to 25, completely unaware that the camera won't activate until you are 12 MPH over. Drives me nuts but it's just the way it is.

As for the financials of it sounds like a good deal for everyone. Camera company deserves to be paid for their work so they get it on the front end at no upfront cost to the city. The city then reaps the revenue after year 5 for the next infinite number of years. Question is who pays for maintenance once RLC pulls out?

[rccrain]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

I didn't see any such figure as 50%-80% of the revenue going to the camera company in donsabi's post. I know here in MD a huge percent goes to the county and it is part of their budget. And I have no problem with that, it goes to improving roads, schools etc.

Johnson City currently pays Redflex a fee based on the percentage of citation fines collected based on monthly volume. The company receives 79 percent of fines collected when the count is from 1 to 100, 50 percent when 101 to 150 citations are issued and 36 percent when 151 or more citations are issued.
Johnson City Press: Should Johnson City renew its red-light camera contract?

The above numbers are per camera, per month. I don't like to send that much local money out of the local economy. I'd like to see the technology be developed locally either by the government or a partnership with a local tech company or the university.

[donsabi]

Cities get to do it all. The problem of taking millions out of the economy is continual and local businesses suffer. There are not a lot of great jobs here. Most people are just getting by. Paying a $100 fine is a real hardship here for most.
I met one girl, a single mother, who was working at the Dollar Gen..., part time. She told me she was working three similar jobs just to make ends met. Her weekly net was $300. She was forced to travel job to job. She told me her biggest fear was unexpected medical costs and second was the red light cam fines.

The other major issue is the reduction of real police officers. Live police officers do a lot more than hand out traffic tickets. The reduction in the police force and the failure to hire more police officers due to the use of RLC's is just plain wrong.

[Page2]

July labor market report

Tri-Cities labor market shows growth despite seasonal softness

[Rangerred]

Johnson City Press: Tri-Cities' retail sales best in 3 years

Good news for the area. It also appears that The Pinnacle is not hurting sales in other parts of the Tri-Cities.

[rccrain]

I wonder how much effect gas prices has on the increase in retail sales... it's down 26% compared to the 2Q 2014.

Bristol, TN appears to be getting a pretty good ROI on its $8M investment in the Pinnacle. On the local sales tax alone, Bristol should recover its cost in 5-7 years - if the retails sales bump remains steady.

[cyn7cyn]

If someone's daily fear is being fined from running red lights they have obviously run too many. I have accidentally ran a few in my lifetime. Got a red light camera ticket once. However because it's happened so rarely and I've only been caught once it's pretty far down My list of fears. Speeding tickets worry me way more.