Light Rail Extension Brings Blight (Phoenix, Glendale: insurance, construction, salary)

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

…...I won't go into to many details about what solutions I have in mind, but one is replacing traffic lights at many major intersections with roundabouts.

Originally Posted by Burning Madolf

If it weren't for all the potential fatalities, that would be AWESOME entertainment!

MM is right, roundabouts are actually safer than traffic lights.

[Sno0909]

Originally Posted by kytoaz

It's these kind of vast, sweeping statements about entire groups of people that are indeed the path to fascism. I am a member of the American legion and I personally know several homeless combat veterans that simply got broken during wartime. They can probably never go back to a normal life. Yeah, let's just call them names and make unfounded conclusions about them because they make us uncomfortable. And another thing, most working people in this country are just a couple of bad breaks away from being homeless.

The only "vast, sweeping statements" around here are calling anyone that doesn't have a leftist mentality a fascist.

[InchingWest]

Originally Posted by AndyDwyer480

Well the light rail has successfully extended about a mile and a half from mesa and Main down to Gilbert and Main.

Now there are more junkies hanging out at the 7-Eleven and the McDonald's at that corner. There are more people just hanging around smoking meth and shooting heroin

The area was never Paradise Valley but it sure as hell wasn't as bad as it's getting now and it's only been a little over a month since the damn train got extended down here.

It's an unfortunately reality of mass transit. If you allow a route the dregs will come. In an ideal world having mass transit would be wonderful and we could clean the dregs up, but we unfortunately do not live in that world.

Here in the Baltimore area, the southern extension of the light rail down into the suburbs brings all kinds of people who just wander around and hang out at the McDonalds. All the shops are across 5 lanes of traffic from the southern terminus so one has to dodge these people all the time because they don't care about crosswalks.

There is a Plasma donation center that really attracts the junkies and the grocery store closed down for lack of real customers (chased away by the dregs). The only thing keeping that plaza alive is the games store, and there's at least 8,000 square feet of retail not being utilized because of the dregs.

Fortunately the county has stepped up crime enforcement and told the city to fork off when it comes to enforcement of the light rail. Thankfully we have a Republican governor who gave the go-ahead for joint state and local enforcement. The county police now have jurisdiction when it comes to entering the trains rather than just the state transit authority police (who are useless).

Ideally we would just not have dregs around. I wish they'd stay home. Awhile back I heard about an effort to try to close down the Plasma place because druggies are attracted to the quick money, but it's a private business and I doubt anyone can do much, but it would likely be in the best interests of the landlord to not renew their lease.

[ShampooBanana]

Originally Posted by phlinak

MM is right, roundabouts are actually safer than traffic lights.

Correct. There have been numerous studies on this over the decades.

[new2colo]

Phoenix is not ready for an extensive mass transit system. The metro area is not cosmopolitan enough for people to understand the importance of giving people of all backgrounds inexpensive alternative options for getting around. Many people here would rather sit in their personal vehicles, constantly gripe that ADOT is not doing its job because they can’t zoom across the 202 at 75 MPH at 5:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, and then turn around and say that transit (which is proven to take some people out of their cars) is a waste of money. Yes, let’s force people to drive everywhere and then sob when we’re “stuck” in rush hour “traffic.” People whine about the lack of high paying jobs here and the fact that educated younger people tend to pass Phoenix over for cities like Denver, Austin, LA and San Diego, ignoring the fact that Phoenix’s anti urban attitude is a huge contributing factor behind a lot of people’s decisions to look elsewhere. This is the hallmark of a city whose residents would rather shoot themselves in the foot than to put up with the solvable issues that light rail has spread to some areas. To say that light rail alone hasn’t spurred development is beyond laughable. All the apartments that have gone up along and within 5 blocks of the Central Corridor within the past 10 years are due to the presence of light rail. Midtown was basically decaying until light rail helped spur development that has helped to encourage projects like the redevelopment of Park Central and the medical school and apartment building that’s coming with that. There is a proposed project for the NW corner of Thomas and Central on a lot that has been empty for decades that is a result of the light rail across the street.

The top 10 most populous cities in the US, with the exception of San Antonio, have rail transit. When compared to cities, especially on the immediate east and west coasts, Phoenix’s homeless population is small. People should be more concerned about why there aren’t more social programs to help the transients who they say are trashing neighborhoods and loitering on the train than thinking that killing future rail extensions is the solution to hiding “undesirables.”

If a person expects Phoenix to become a city that’s economically competitive and desirable among other major cities, they should understand that killing off rail transit extensions is a terrible idea. No, expanding bus service is not an acceptable alternative. Rail is faster and tends to attract more people from all socioeconomic levels as opposed to buses, which largely tend to be utilized more by the poor than any other group.

[AZSunDevil83]

Originally Posted by new2colo

Phoenix is not ready for an extensive mass transit system. The metro area is not cosmopolitan enough for people to understand the importance of giving people of all backgrounds inexpensive alternative options for getting around. Many people here would rather sit in their personal vehicles, constantly gripe that ADOT is not doing its job because they can’t zoom across the 202 at 75 MPH at 5:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, and then turn around and say that transit (which is proven to take some people out of their cars) is a waste of money. Yes, let’s force people to drive everywhere and then sob when we’re “stuck” in rush hour “traffic.” People whine about the lack of high paying jobs here and the fact that educated younger people tend to pass Phoenix over for cities like Denver, Austin, LA and San Diego, ignoring the fact that Phoenix’s anti urban attitude is a huge contributing factor behind a lot of people’s decisions to look elsewhere. This is the hallmark of a city whose residents would rather shoot themselves in the foot than to put up with the solvable issues that light rail has spread to some areas. To say that light rail alone hasn’t spurred development is beyond laughable. All the apartments that have gone up along and within 5 blocks of the Central Corridor within the past 10 years are due to the presence of light rail. Midtown was basically decaying until light rail helped spur development that has helped to encourage projects like the redevelopment of Park Central and the medical school and apartment building that’s coming with that. There is a proposed project for the NW corner of Thomas and Central on a lot that has been empty for decades that is a result of the light rail across the street.

The top 10 most populous cities in the US, with the exception of San Antonio, have rail transit. When compared to cities, especially on the immediate east and west coasts, Phoenix’s homeless population is small. People should be more concerned about why there aren’t more social programs to help the transients who they say are trashing neighborhoods and loitering on the train than thinking that killing future rail extensions is the solution to hiding “undesirables.”

If a person expects Phoenix to become a city that’s economically competitive and desirable among other major cities, they should understand that killing off rail transit extensions is a terrible idea. No, expanding bus service is not an acceptable alternative. Rail is faster and tends to attract more people from all socioeconomic levels as opposed to buses, which largely tend to be utilized more by the poor than any other group.

This.

[yukon]

People whine about the lack of high paying jobs here and the fact that educated younger people tend to pass Phoenix over for cities like Denver, Austin, LA and San Diego, ignoring the fact that Phoenix’s anti urban attitude is a huge contributing factor behind a lot of people’s decisions to look elsewhere.

Spot on. I'm looking to move in the next year and one of the must-haves on my city list is decent, reliable public transportation. And I'm not even in the "educated younger" group, the "homeless" group, or the "can't afford a car" group. I just prefer to have public transit to fall back on, and to definitely count on down the road when I'm too old to be driving.

In defense of PHX, though, our public transit is decent considering we do not have a large number of concentrated job areas like Dallas, San Fran, NYC etc have (which makes it easier to plan/build light rail and subways) and we're so spread out. The system needs some improvements, but one could live in PHX without a car and get around.

[Burning Madolf]

Originally Posted by ShampooBanana

Correct. There have been numerous studies on this over the decades.

Yeah, I learned to drive in MA and had plenty of experience. That being said I'll still take action on:

AZ drivers + plus today's distracted drivers + increased levels of idiocy on the roads = horror at the rotary

[Vincent_Adultman]

Originally Posted by yukon

People whine about the lack of high paying jobs here and the fact that educated younger people tend to pass Phoenix over for cities like Denver, Austin, LA and San Diego, ignoring the fact that Phoenix’s anti urban attitude is a huge contributing factor behind a lot of people’s decisions to look elsewhere.

Spot on. I'm looking to move in the next year and one of the must-haves on my city list is decent, reliable public transportation. And I'm not even in the "educated younger" group, the "homeless" group, or the "can't afford a car" group. I just prefer to have public transit to fall back on, and to definitely count on down the road when I'm too old to be driving.

In defense of PHX, though, our public transit is decent considering we do not have a large number of concentrated job areas like Dallas, San Fran, NYC etc have (which makes it easier to plan/build light rail and subways) and we're so spread out. The system needs some improvements, but one could live in PHX without a car and get around.

You make a good point that fundamental to Phoenix's ineffective rail transit is its land use issues and poor growth management. The city and metro is completely decentralized and sprawls endlessly. These are tough conditions for transit to thrive in. The first priority should be to address those land use challenges.

That said, it could still be doing a lot better on transit even with the current conditions, especially given the relatively cheap cost of construction per mile compared to other light rail systems.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by Vincent_Adultman

You make a good point that fundamental to Phoenix's ineffective rail transit is its land use issues and poor growth management. The city and metro is completely decentralized and sprawls endlessly. These are tough conditions for transit to thrive in. The first priority should be to address those land use challenges.

That said, it could still be doing a lot better on transit even with the current conditions, especially given the relatively cheap cost of construction per mile compared to other light rail systems.

It's only a "challenge" to those that want a transit oriented city - most people in Phoenix metro do not. I quite like that my wife can have her nice salary IT job and not have to leave the suburbs. I'm also a car guy and prefer driving. Although I am pro light rail, I likely would never use outside of an occasional ball game. I like having the satellite employment centers rather than one strong urban core.