Don’t let light-rail naysayers stop progress
MARGIE RICHCREEK | Special to The Kansas City Star
October 25, 2008
Bob Lewellen, former sixth district is leading the charge against the unanimous City Council vote for the light-rail plan. He’s joined by the regular light-rail opponents from midtown, people who don’t want anything to change in their world. But when was the last time you drove down Main Street? Are vacant properties, payday loan and car washing operations the kind of development objectives we should be happy with?
Actually, many of the light-rail opponents’ contentions are accurate: light rail does not reduce automobile congestion; it provides an alternative to congestion. Light rail is way more expensive than busses, but it attracts many who would otherwise consume valuable real estate with parking. Light rail usually prevents mid-block left turns, but it increases pedestrians on sidewalks who become potential customers for businesses along its routes. Light-rail construction is disruptive to business, but current techniques use concentrated, two and three-shift efforts along small sections of the route to shorten construction disruption to a series of tolerable periods.
The Mainstreet Development Corporation has produced a long-range plan that seeks more productive development along its jurisdiction, and the light-rail investment is one of the ways to achieve their aspirations. Light rail in many of our sister cities has been credited with stimulating renewed development, revitalized retail and more well-maintained public amenities. The recent resurgence of downtown investment has been limited by the current demand for parking, and the critical key to unlocking more development action in our urban center is providing an attractive transit alternative. The Downtown Council is actively supporting the light-rail election campaign because their members recognize the benefit this investment will bring to their environment.
The long-term aspiration of this community is the attractive, seamless, regional network of transit service envisioned in the Smart Moves Plan that was initiated by the Mid-America Regional Council and adopted by the Regional Transit Proposal. But achieving this aspiration is a long-term effort, and starting with Kansas City and North Kansas City teaming up for the November election to fund the “Starter Line Regional Spine” mirrors the development pattern used in virtually all of our sister cities: start small and watch it grow.
Yes, Kansas City has lots of fiscal challenges, like improving the sewer system, but Light Rail should not bee seen as a “cost”; it is an “investment” that will generate development that produces new “revenue” to offset its own cost and other costs too. Don’t let the light-rail opponents win this day. Even the fiscally conservative leadership of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce sees through their rhetoric to the reality that the Light Rail investment is a positive step toward success in this community.
Margie Richcreek, Chair
Regional Transit Alliance
Lake Waukomis, MO
