The NYT orders itself a double shot of Obvious at the Journalism Bar with a news story that highlights failing mass transit systems in Boston, New York and Washington D.C. Here are the key paragraphs, buried after columns of color quotes from frustrated riders etc. etc.:
One of the most vexing questions is how to pay to fix infrastructure. With federal transit funding essentially flat, many states and cities are grappling with how to cover improvements on their own.
Some experts have called for increasing the federal gasoline tax — which has remained the same since 1993 — or raising state gas taxes, sales taxes or tolls for highways and bridges. Many praise the so-called value-capture approach, which allows cities to pay for projects by recovering tax revenue generated from new development.
“You either pay now or pay later,” Richard A. White, acting president of the American Public Transportation Association, said. “The more you stick your head in the sand on this issue, the worse the problems are going to become.”
Unstated conclusion: in the present climate, public ownership does not yield sufficient capital to maintain these vital systems. Structural reform is required for any substantive changes.
Raise taxes? We’d rather watch baby seals get clubbed. While both are now seen as horrific, at least we feel no physical pain watching the seal. Even here in “Blue” Massachusetts we feel we need a “holiday” from taxes. Will the house raise taxes? Hell no.
We’ll just keep raising fees and the like, all the stuff that’s just a few bucks (if that) for the wealthy but remains a real hardship on the poor. Our advice to the poor? Get a better education, work harder, and stop being poor. It’s really that simple. Besides, the poor have been believing this crap for a long time. They don’t blame the system for their lack of resources, even basic transportation (do I dare mention health care?) Heaven knows how long this will last but as long as it does, we’re not paying now or later. Some of us worry that paying later will be violent. I tend to agree. I already see signs of it.
if the high end of the youth workforce are involved I think governments will find the money, including tax increases to fund improvements. GE made this big move to locate the design part of its business (employing the same people they are advertising to in those trendy ads) in a happening place. Along with all the other employers in Cambridge/Seaport/Downtown, these are the jobs and people places want. A few billion is chump change in that quest. First thing is they’ll clean up all the T messes, then the money will start to flow.
PS I don’t think the federal gas tax is going to be the major source for mass transit projects in the future.
Look at the Seaport. It was A-1 prime for good new mass transit. High end jobs, terrible traffic through downtown, a yet-painted canvas allowed for easy right-of-way and routing.
What did they do? A half-assed bus. How half assed? Consider that when the Silver Line gets above ground, the very first light it comes to isn’t BRT. The Silver Line has to wait at a red for a half dozen cars to go the perpendicular direction. At that location, the Silver Line is filled with white collar workers going to well paying jobs. If we didn’t make it work for them, there’s no way we’re going to make it work for the hipster millennials.
We’re not talking about lower socio–economic people trying to get to their miminum wage jobs. True, no vision on the Seaport, but then again it was a bunch of parking lots. Ultimately they’ll fix it.
The new buildings are being built with significant parking, and how will you retrofit the Seaport with better mass transit after it’s already built out?
The property lines and street configurations are already set, and will be enormously difficult to change. We had a chance to create proper pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly neighborhoods there, and we blew it.
It needs to be said that it was a bunch of parking lots because of long-standing disputes between the property owners and Mr. Menino about who would get paid what when.
The Seaport district development is a fiasco and an embarrassment, especially in comparison to the similar transformation that Kevin White brought to the Quincy Market waterfront a generation earlier.
Yeah, that gives this misanthrope a bit of hope for the future. Contrary to the general talk, GE did not move here for the tax breaks. They would have gotten tax breaks anywhere, even bigger ones in places like South Carolina and Arkansas, I suppose. Nope, the reason they want to be here is that the brains they want to hire want to live here. Personal note, my son is one of this crowd. He’s an engineer for a private company that just hires super nerds on steroids. These people want excitement, culture, and best of all, they shun “personal luxury cars” and all that garbage. They want to live in a city that lives as they do. And that’s going to require a better transit system.