lucky dogs that live close to this

[buffettjr]

Originally Posted by steve78757

Supporters for these types of projects love to make this argument. But everything adds up, and nothing is free. Eventually taxpayers will feel the pain of both the operating budget and projects like this. The budget crunch was a result of tough economic times. Non-essential projects should be put on hold at times when essential services are being threatened. Just my opinion.

We are going to have to end this discussion here because we are at an impasse. I firmly believe that this project will boost property values of taxable land all along the trail east of the highway, attract richer residents, and greatly increase property taxes. You believe it will have little or no economic impact and that most or all of the money spent on the project is simply lost forever. We cannot agree on that, so there is no point in going further.

I do not believe taxpayers will feel any pain form supporting this relatively small project that had a significant amount of private donations because it will indirectly pay for itself. Not just in the numerous qualitative benefits to the city and the people who visit it but in quantitative ways by helping the east side rapidly gentrify and greatly increasing the tax revenue produced by that area.

You claimed jogging is important to me. It is not. To say that this trail is about "jogging" shows that you either do not understand or do not accept the numerous other issues that surround this trail, from the way it is used (not just joggers exercising) to its impact on our sense of community, to its economic value to the residential and commercial areas near it.

[Kosmonaut]

The problem is the provincial thinking in this town. The different sides of the city are cut off from each other due to lack of infrastructure, and as a result, they have a hard time seeing the value of added amenities in other areas of town.

The people in the suburbs get pissed when their tax money is spent in central Austin, the north side gets pissed when it's spent south, central Austin people get pissed when it's spent in the suburbs. The city of Austin gets pissed when the Y gets fixed for the Bee Caves/LT people.

The problem is that the different parts of Austin are disconnected from each other. No one visits the other side of town, so improvements outside of ones area of town are generally viewed as irrelevant.

Remember how everybody was so excited about the F1 track? People crowing about how it was going to have a *hill country setting* and maybe Lake Travis as a backdrop. Other peopel assumed it was going to be built in Cedar Park as part of it's self promoted manifest destiny. When it was announced it was being built in SE Austin, the attitude about it got real ugly, real fast. The other 3/4 of the town turned on it and rooted for it's failure.

That's the provincial attitude that I'm talking about.