The news emerged last week, and official word came today. Atlanta won a $47 million U.S. DOT grant to help it build a proposed $72 million streetcar line. Here's a link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article with details. Salt Lake City also won a streetcar grant, for $26 million, and Los Angeles won $20 million for its Crenshaw/LAX light rail line. Yonah Freemark of The Transport Politic offers an analysis here. He notes that of the $600 million total in these so-called TIGER II grants most went to small-scale projects in small and mid-size cities for street improvements, building transit centers, and rehabilitating freight lines. Here's a link to the USDOT site where you can find the list of capital project grants and the list of planning grants.
Asheville won an $850,000 planning grant for its East Riverside Sustainable Multimodal Neighborhood plan. The project will "integrate existing master plans and revise codes and regulations (emphasis mine) to create sustainable development." For a bit more information, see Page 22 of the link for planning grants.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
This time, Atlanta gets streetcar bucks
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27 comments:
The tax payers weep.
Amazing how we managed to evolve away from costly, less effective street cars to more modern and flexible transportation, ONLY to have some brilliant politicians & "Leaders" think we need to lay down tracks and recreate the early 1900's..... "YES WE CAN" & "HOPE AND CHANGE"
Not sure I would use the term "win." This is a very foolish endeavor that does not make sense today nor will it make sense at any time in the future.
Kind of amazing that the Federal gov't is involve at all in what is very distinctly a local endeavor. There IS no Federal money available, there is only the prospect of more debt. If the locals don't want that debt, why in the world should people of future generations from halfway across the country be saddled with it?
Poor Mayor Fixxit....he won't be able to add more streetcars to his line to nowhere at Eastland Mall.
I don't get this story AT ALL. Did these cities win money over Charlotte? Did Charlotte miss out on funding? Why is this news and why would this story be front and center on the web page?
Thanks goodness Charlotte didn't "win" that money! More tracks to no where, we already have that in front of CPCC...roflmao!
Ms. Newsome: You don't "win" money that has to be paid back, it is called borrowing!
yeah
This is not even sad anymore
It's stupid
Spending tomorrows dollars on today's pet projects while the countries economy slurps the sides of the vacuous socialism drain
Brilliant.
first the dems in a few weeks, then nobama in 2012
they have just got to go.....and fiscal conservatism needs to make an appearance until we can afford silly projects that only benefit, mainly, government workers and antiquated social justice
agendas.
I find it funny that many of the people who are leaving comments know NOTHING about planning, transportation, etc. Ignorance really is bliss in this country.
Ball and Chain!
The President's Hope and Change has become a Ball and Chain on the American economy.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
TO: ANON 10/20/2010 07:55:00 PM
I don't need to know about planning, transportation, etc. to know our county and country are in serious debt that my great kids will be paying for.
And we ALL know how great NC & Charlotte are with road designs...
NOT TOO GOOD!
Sorry, but it is about debt right now more than shiny new toys.
More of my tax money being wasted. People n Atlanta should pay for streetcars there. People in Asheville should pay for improvements there. Spending is out of control.
50% of bureaucrats need to be fired. All they do is come up with new ways to send our money!
Mary, how good of an investment was the $50 million cost of the now-defunct trolley that ran for what, 18 months?
And the reason this story is newsworthy is...
I choose to live in a one-car family because it's the only way I can fund my 401k and my children's college fund. Could I use a streetcar in Charlotte to help me get to work everyday, YES! Could I use local buses that run more often on off-hours for my convenience, YES! These things are what living in a city is about, and I applaud our current president and his administration for promoting these transportation options at the city level.
Charlotte is a filthy rich city, it doesn't need or DESERVE federal money. If Charlotte wants something it can build it itself. We have seen that first hand the last few years.
Other cities do struggle and do deserve help.
As a matter of fact, Charlotte should be punished for its role in the economic meltdown. Charlotte's money should go to other cities to build infrastructure.
Wake up people. We don't have anymore money for mindless pet projects. Stop the madness now!
Just like Sue Myrick says in her election ads, I'm sure she will fight against this waste of borrowed money, just like she fought against Charlotte getting money wasted toward a streetcar--opps, no, wait--she was the only Republican to write a letter to the FTA SUPPORTING the application for a grant to build the Charlotte streetcar. We had to take the money or it would just go to someone else.
I may have to vote for Sue but I'll have to hold my nose...dej57
To Anon 8:23, you contradict yourself.
You are upset that governments are racking up debts and rightfully so.
But then you complain about state roads.
Sorry, you can't complain about spending and the quality of government funded projects in the same breath.
Its as simple as getting what you pay for and roads cost money. We could have the best roads in the country but that would require the highest amount of road spending in the country. Every 'design' you are upset about is limited by money.
I don't have the answers, but I know you can't have both.
Why is this reporter and the Charlotte OBserver obsessed with Atlanta? Who cares about Atlanta; it is some far off city down south in another state. Stop reporting on Atlanta news. It is not news here.
Jon, if the city can't fund buses to run at convenient times, do you really think adding streetcars will help your situation?
Strange we built the White Water thing and then could not afford to operate it and ended up just giving away all that tax money we spent on it just to cut our future losses.
So now we have this story about other cities getting more toys they can not afford, and getting in over their heads and the purpose of it is to make us think wow we could have been just as unlucky. Oh wait this is the Observer I forget they want us to be mad we did not get the money and the expensive toys we could not afford.
So you're asking taxpayers to fund "your" 401K & your childrens ed fund?? Hope&change OMG
!
Mary, I thought Charlotte/CATS did apply for three grants from TIGER II.
At a presentation a while back in Cornelius, Mr Muth said 3 apps were entered - BLE 2blk extension, station lengthening, and a parking deck in Davidson to supt the eventual Red Line.
Did none of these come through? That would be an real story locally since it would indicate declining Federal support for the BLE and Red Line projects. Or, did these not even make the cut for the application process? I think TIGER II had a pre-application piece to cut down on frivolous applications.
I'm probably wrong though, I'm sure you would have reported it if that had been the case.
North Carolina as a state got essentially no TIGER-2 funding. There was about $1 million of planning grants awarded to Asheville and Lexington, but nothing else. No construction projects were funded.
Atlanta's $48M from TIGER-II is in addition to Charlotte's $25M from Urban Circulator grant.
CATS did apply for 3 TIGER-II grants, all of which were denied. CATS also applied for the full Red Line during TIGER-I (and to the dismay of NCDOT pushing the Yadkin River Bridge), but also came up short then, too.
Charlotte did get money from the feds in the first round back at the end of September. ($25 million). Atlanta did not get any funds in that same round and Mary posted about Charlotte beating out Atlanta for streetcar funding. Now, Atlanta got some, so Mary is updating the already existing story.
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