If Milwaukee County had light rail, would you use it? (Madison: low income, homes)

[city414]

Originally Posted by Murderwaukee

No I'm sorry it would not be used by me or my family.

suburbanite^^^^

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by city414

suburbanite^^^^

I think the rail should be extended to the suburban areas like Brown Deer, Waukesha, Whitefish Bay,etc.

[Milwaukee Jason]

I would definitely use light rail in Milwaukee and know that it is long overdue in order to move this region and economy into the 21st Century.

[city414]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I think the rail should be extended to the suburban areas like Brown Deer, Waukesha, Whitefish Bay,etc.

it should go only so far waukesha(the city of)

[Twoaday]

EnjoyEP, Off topic of light-rail, but you went down this road. Anyhow, I'm not sure why people think renters don't pay property taxes, but they do. It's in their rent.

PS I'd use a light-rail system.

[jjacobeclark]

Originally Posted by Twoaday

EnjoyEP, Off topic of light-rail, but you went down this road. Anyhow, I'm not sure why people think renters don't pay property taxes, but they do. It's in their rent.

PS I'd use a light-rail system.

Precisely, as if landlords don't have to pay property taxes on the rental properties they own. +1 for you.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

Precisely, as if landlords don't have to pay property taxes on the rental properties they own. +1 for you.

I think what EP was trying to say is that renters who push for such measures don't realize that all cost are passed on. Therefore they don't realize that if the want certain things in their city and property taxes go up they think it doesn't affect them b/c they don't directly pay property taxes. I'm guessing that's what he was trying to say b/c the point that TWOADAY is raising is a common conservative talking point. As a conservative I use that one all the time.

You would be astonished on how many people don't realize that cost get passed along. I have spoken with many adults that don't believe this, they say things like "yeah tax business that make extreme profits" not realizing the rise in price of their lucky charms isn't b/c of the color of the sky but rather increase of cost of making such product.

Any who, just me two pennies

[caieva]

In the case of rentals, the costs a landlord incurs can only be passed on to a certain point, and then the property becomes unrentable. These days the price pressure on rental properties seems to be downward, as lots of folks who would like to sell but can't are becoming accidental landlords, as it were, and offering very nice condos and whole homes for just barely enough to pay the mortgage.
I myself, while I love Milwaukee, wouldn't buy right now in the city proper because I don't see any other route the city can take to preserve services except raising property taxes, which, wow, that's crazy.

[tully]

I'd use light rail all the time.

As others have pointed out, Milw gridlock pales to other cities. Routes would need to be chosen carefully to maximize the benefit.

Some of the most-needed routes may be addressed soon:

A route roughly parallel to I-94 is an obvious need...horrendous rush hour traffic. If highspeed rail is funded by the Fed, this will at least be *partially* addressed. (Oconomowoc will get a station, but nobody else, at least not according to the preliminary plan.)

A late-night route from Chicago would be a dream. Concerts and other cultural events in chicago metro would suddenly be a possibility, sans car. If the KRM line is funded, this may be fulfilled.

Another selfish "dream route" (my peeps live near southridge..) would be a line on Forest Home drive. It's a rare SE-NE boulevard, in an otherwise grid-based metro. People could be moved from Greendale, Franklin, etc to Milwaukee very quickly on this diagonal road (only 8 miles, as opposed to 15 by freeway). Southridge mall could provide commuter parking aplenty.

[KC3700]

Would I use light rail? Depends on where it goes. But if the routes were designed in a sane fashion, instead of trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents, or catering to specific groups/institutions, I would.

I doubt that that would happen. I think it's more likely that SEWRPC would probably design the routes, which would be either done on the cheap or focused on colleges - either of which will be a disaster for rail.