Prop 1 Open Thread (Austin, Carrollton, Lakeway: loan, how much, employment)

[mayfair44]

Austin rail supporters launch campaign to garner support for bond - Community Impact Newspaper

Greg Hartman, Seton Healthcare president of academic medicine, research and external affairs., who played a key role in pushing voters to approve funding for the new Dell Medical School, is leading the Let’s Go Austin PAC.


Surinder Marwaha, a former Capital Metro planner and project manager, said that even if building rail on Lamar/Guadalupe would reduce traffic by one lane in each direction, roads can only handle a capacity of about 600 people per hour while rail could accommodate upwards of 10,000 people per hour.
“If you cannot have a dedicated lane, why build [rail]?” Marwaha said.

He added the proposed plan would not connect to major activity centers such as the west side of downtown or West Campus at The University of Texas where most students are located. The rail line would also have an anticipated 18,000 average daily ridership, but Marwaha said this is far lower than the project 2030 ridership on Lamar/Guadalupe corridor of about 37,600 daily riders. “What it means is the taxpayer—if the [Highland-East Riverside] corridor is approved and built—[will] be paying a much higher subsidy per trip,” he said.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by mayfair44

Greg Hartman, Seton Healthcare president of academic medicine, research and external affairs., who played a key role in pushing voters to approve funding for the new Dell Medical School, is leading the Let’s Go Austin PAC.

It should come as no surprise that Greg Hartmann - whose entire pre-Seton career has been as a mouthpiece for Democrat politicians - wants to raise your taxes.

Understand Seton's benefit in this as well. They get a $600M taxpayer subsidized amenity at their front door. And since they are not-for-profit, their property taxes won't go up a cent.

Follow the money. Cui bono.

[Reggieray]

Uh no thanks.

[jb9152]

Originally Posted by mayfair44

Surinder Marwaha, a former Capital Metro planner and project manager, said that even if building rail on Lamar/Guadalupe would reduce traffic by one lane in each direction, roads can only handle a capacity of about 600 people per hour while rail could accommodate upwards of 10,000 people per hour.
“If you cannot have a dedicated lane, why build [rail]?” Marwaha said.

He added the proposed plan would not connect to major activity centers such as the west side of downtown or West Campus at The University of Texas where most students are located. The rail line would also have an anticipated 18,000 average daily ridership, but Marwaha said this is far lower than the project 2030 ridership on Lamar/Guadalupe corridor of about 37,600 daily riders. “What it means is the taxpayer—if the [Highland-East Riverside] corridor is approved and built—[will] be paying a much higher subsidy per trip,” he said.

Just so we're clear - Surinder Marwah's position at Capital Metro was project manager of the oh so successful MetroRapid, where we've managed to pay millions in order to *decrease* transit ridership in the corridor. He was fired by Capital Metro. So, I would take anything Mr. Marwah says with a very large grain of salt. Sour grapes and all, you know...

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Did you intentionally ignore what I wrote? The requirement is spending, not bonds. If they (highly unlikely) got $400 million road dollars from the feds in a grant, it wouldn't affect property taxes at all.

I think it is highly unlikely, that if they get approval of the bonds, they will hold of spending any of that authority until they can verify that they get the $400 million road dollars. Time is money right, it makes sense to start right away, delay just makes it more expensive later.

Far more likely is they will start spending the bond money immediatly, planning, hiring consultants, design, buying ROW, etc., etc. And then later if the $400 million road dollars don't materialize, they will be looking for other ways to get us to pay for the remainder. After all they will have already spent 30-40% on planning, design, ROW, etc. Don't we want to finish what we started?

I really do not trust the way this is all being laid out.

Regardless, even if we get the $400 MIL, this still does not seem like a good deal for the Austin property tax payers.

[cBach]

This is the bottom line. Austin is a growing city and will eventually need something along the lines of Prop 1. Things will only get more expensive as time goes on and land costs are greater. Save the future agony and get it built now, absorb the cost now while we're still booming.

Stay ahead of the curve for once instead of way behind it.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by cBach

This is the bottom line. Austin is a growing city and will eventually need something along the lines of Prop 1. Things will only get more expensive as time goes on and land costs are greater. Save the future agony and get it built now, absorb the cost now while we're still booming.

Stay ahead of the curve for once instead of way behind it.

Hard to get folks to pay for something they likely will never use. How many voters/taxpayers are planning to be here after 2020 or whenever some of these projects will be useful to SOMEone? Planning is one thing, asking folks to pony up for something they may never see...?...

[lndigo]

why don't we just expand the metrorapid infrastructure? it's much cheaper than a light rail, especially since part of the infrastructure is already there. furthermore, it has a greater carrying capacity than light rail. it's on a better corridor anyway than the proposed light rail

Moderator cut: copyrighted material

[scm53]

Originally Posted by cBach

This is the bottom line. Austin is a growing city and will eventually need something along the lines of Prop 1. Things will only get more expensive as time goes on and land costs are greater. Save the future agony and get it built now, absorb the cost now while we're still booming.

Stay ahead of the curve for once instead of way behind it.

Would you feel the same way if you knew that a $1.4B line - that will raise the average Austin taxpayer's taxes over $200/yr - will only take 1,800 cars a day off the roads?

[jb9152]

I am continually fascinated by the way that the bomb-throwers steadfastly refuse to present a competing vision for transportation in Austin. Everything is simply bad, expensive, not worth doing, etc. I have yet to hear one of them actually present a compelling vision for how we are to handle the huge influx of new residents that we'll be facing.

Pretty easy to sit at a keyboard and pontificate about how every idea sucks; I've done it myself at times. Much tougher to actually offer a positive plan for moving forward. It's as if we just don't want to get started. Imagine the same attitudes in the time before the construction of the Interstate Highway System. We'd never have built a mile of it had the bomb-throwers had their way.