You think its bad for PAT now, it's about to get A LOT WORSE! (Pittsburgh: airport, budget)

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by squarian

That seems to be where this is headed. On the one hand, Blackbeauty is absolutely right that a city of Pgh's size cannot do without a proper, functioning mass-transit system. On the other hand, we seem to be poised on the verge of a Khmer-Rouge experiment which will result in just that.

Presumably, eventually, if transit-friendly people can be elected to office in H-burg, some sort of phoenix will rise from the ashes - but anyone who thinks the interval will be good for the city is insane.

That's the question, what happens to Pittsburgh's economy during the interim (between PAT going belly up, and a new system being put into place) and how long is that interim going to last....I mean it could take years to get a new Agency into place.

And going by Fitzgerald indication....A new system will mean a Regional Transit Authority, which I favor and think is long over do, but there has to be a way to transition from PAT to the New Agency without killing the Pittsburgh economy in the process.

[gg]

Originally Posted by pman

would it be possible for the city to hire, say, Mr. Bland and a few managers and launch its owned city based service? would it be eligible for state funding of any kind?

Why not? This is the type of thinking that can promote change. People hate change of course, but sometimes things are just unfixable and one needs to look at other ideas. Seems the non-progressives like brian are dragging their feet on change.

Sometimes change has some growing pains. Stop worrying yourself sick. Sure you might go through some pain for a bit, but we all might be smelling roses if they can find a better method other than taxing everyone to death.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I don't get it? Because they have lots of Hispanics there?

I was kidding, of course - I live for a time when I need a passport to travel there. But seriously, Texas does things its own way: at best it's the exception that proves the rule, at worst a terrible model for the rest of the country to follow in almost every area of public policy.

And no, nothing at all to do with immigration.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

because their employees make enough to afford a car.

Including the janitors? Who empties the wastebaskets, then?

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

I think USX is contemplating moving to burbs because they want cheaper rent. I don't think they care about employees not being able to take the bus to work because their employees make enough to afford a car.

In my opinion, most of the affected USX employees, if given the choice, would pick free parking over public transportation. Now, the working poor who can't afford a car is something else.

But that situation is not good for the city....and many companies located Downtown will have the same line of thinking that Suburbs are more attractive because of the space and free parking rather than being centrally located Downtown....Again not what the City wants to see happen....Downtown could become a wasteland, so much effort right now to get Downtown going at night and on weekends that this would make the one time of day when Downtown is bustling and attractive to business look like the Nights and Weekends.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Why not? This is the type of thinking that can promote change. People hate change of course, but sometimes things are just unfixable and one needs to look at other ideas. Seems the non-progressives like brian are dragging their feet on change.

Sometimes change has some growing pains. Stop worrying yourself sick. Sure you might go through some pain for a bit, but we all might be smelling roses if they can find a better method other than taxing everyone to death.

Well, fine. But there's the still the question of what to do in the meantime - and I'm not supposing you're so ideologically poisoned that you don't see how that's going to be a real problem. Shrugging it off as "growing pains" isn't much of a solution, is it?

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by UKyank

to play devils advocate - Arlington, TX

Arlington, TX is not playing on the same level that Pittsburgh is...Pittsburgh is striving to be seen as a international city....Can't achieve that status with NO Transit.

[pman]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Why not? This is the type of thinking that can promote change. People hate change of course, but sometimes things are just unfixable and one needs to look at other ideas. Seems the non-progressives like brian are dragging their feet on change.

Sometimes change has some growing pains. Stop worrying yourself sick. Sure you might go through some pain for a bit, but we all might be smelling roses if they can find a better method other than taxing everyone to death.

laws sometimes also prevent change

Port Authority of Allegheny County (also known as the Port Authority or sometimes by its former nickname PAT, and formerly known as PATransit) is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 11th-largest in the United States.[2] When considering that its service area is the 20th largest in the U.S. in population, per person the Pittsburgh area enjoys more transit service than 9 larger metro areas. ..The Port Authority was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1956 to allow for creation of port facilities in the Pittsburgh area.[3] Three years later, the state legislation was amended to allow the Port Authority to acquire privately owned transit companies that served the area...On April 19, 1963 the Board of Allegheny County Commissioners authorized the acquisition of thirty-two transit companies, including the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which had provided bus and streetcar service to the city of Pittsburgh since January 1902, and an incline plane company; these acquisitions were made at a cost of about $12 million.[3] On March 1, 1964 Port Authority Transit began service

Port Authority of Allegheny County - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Why not? This is the type of thinking that can promote change. People hate change of course, but sometimes things are just unfixable and one needs to look at other ideas. Seems the non-progressives like brian are dragging their feet on change.

Sometimes change has some growing pains. Stop worrying yourself sick. Sure you might go through some pain for a bit, but we all might be smelling roses if they can find a better method other than taxing everyone to death.

But that's not what DoNothing is doing.....He's Doing Nothing, he has no plan to fix this or even let it be known what his idea is to better mass transit in the region...Hense my nickname Gov DoNothing, simply just do nothing...and that's not acceptable even if you hate PAT, doing nothing should not be in the cards.

[squarian]

So, I'm too lazy to dig into the legislation, but if the Gen Ass authorized PAT to acquire private operations, I wonder if PAT is within its rights to license other, new operations. Not an ideal solution, but better than the nothing we're likely to have in a few years.

Edit: After all, assuming (as I do) that the latest cuts throw PAT into a death-spiral of declining ridership, it still controls the infrastructure - and having the MLK busway and South Hills tram lines sitting unused is stupid. Perhaps some kind of successor organization, private-public, could be founded under PAT's legal aegis simply to operate those assets, perhaps even with the drink tax allocated specifically as a stopgap funding solution, to bridge the gap until a real solution can be found?