New tech, Mesa Cubs plan could reshape Tempe streetcar line

2 comments:

• Suelee posted at 6:42 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.

  Posts: 118

  Yet another boondoggle at the taxpayer's expense. Tempe's lame excuse for the Mill Avenue electric cars (that will block the right lane and clog traffic on Mill Ave.) is that the outrageous cost is being funded with federal tax dollars instead of Tempe taxpayer dollars. Surprise! Tempe residents do pay federal income taxes, so instead of taking the money out of my right pocket (Tempe taxes) they take it out of my left pocket (Federal taxes). Electric street cars are not flexible. Unlike buses (or even rubber wheeled trolleys) that can be reassigned to a different route based population shifts and changes in business development trends, electric cars are stuck on outdated routes.

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• lauraaz posted at 8:47 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.

  Posts: 31

  This project has to be one of the biggest wastes of our taxes in Arizona
  history. They want to spend 130 million on a two mile trolley route. Then
  we will need to pay another 3 million a year for maintenance. We don't need or want a
  a trolley down Mill Ave. The housing density along the route won't support the
  cost of this streetcar to nowhere.
  The only reasons they want to build this are;
  1. Provide offsite parking for ASU and the downtown merchants in our residential
  neighborhoods.
  2. Provide justification for high density development outside the downtown core
  most likely starting at Danyelle plaza. Tempe quietly bought a large portion
  of Danyelle plaza in June from Tempe insiders, John and Barbara Bebbling
  (cabo Marlin LLC).
  3. Make money for the developers who own land along the route.

  Its time for the residents of Tempe to draw a line in the sand to stop the city council and the transit organization from working only for the developers and have them
  stand up for the citizens of Tempe first.

  This is not the time to start thinking of adding three more miles of track to visit
  the Cubs stadium which is used for what, six weeks a year with maybe 10 cubs games.

  So is the city council going to come back to us and want another 300 million to
  send the streetcar to the Cubs games?

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