Some rocket scientists in the Atlanta city gummint thought it would be a really neat idea to bring back streetcars. Yannow there is a reason that streetcars went away in this country. They were too expensive and no one rode them but it seems that old is new again to liberals and that is why we have bird killing inefficient windmills generating electricity.
Anyhoo, the Einsteins in Atlanta city gummint built a streetcar line that consists of a 2.7 mile loop in downtown Atlanta. It runs from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center (a distance of about a mile) and back in a 2.7 mile loop. It was originally gonna cost about $68 million and begin running last summer but due to unforeseen circumstances it cost an additional $30 million and didn’t open until December 30. Over budget and behind schedule on a gummint program. I’m shocked! It’s gonna be free for the first three months and then cost a buck a ride after that. Streetcars will run every fifteen minutes to take people from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center, a route they can walk in twenty minutes. City officials claim it will be jammed with tourists. It only cost around $36.3 million a mile. My prediction? Within the next five years they will tear up the tracks and repave the streets. This will be about as successful as the miniature golf course and arcade they opened up by Turner Field. It lost money from the get go just like the Atlanta Streetcar will.
Aren’t the brainiacs that run gooberment really sharp?? In the early 90’s
I lived in Long Beach, CA. The Long Beach Naval Base which was there since B4 WWll had a naval shipyard. The shipyard had drydocks which were the only ones big enough to float a carrier on the west coast.
What did the gooberment gomers decide to do?? Why they closed the base & shipyard in Long Beach and spent about $75 MILLION to build new large drydocks at the San Diego Naval Base!!
I guess that the US Rep. in San Diego either had more power or had some dirt on the Long Beach rep.
They never learn…
Richmond, VA’s disaster…
Originally built with what was supposed to be a Federal grant to “renovate” the Armory. (They lost that money because the Feds claimed that they changed the original architecture of the Armory.)
The Developers declared bankruptcy and the City got stuck with it…
The City spent the least possible to barely keep the doors open and it deteriorated from there till it closed and was torn down in 2003
http://6hourday.org/6street.html
http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/article_9046e29a-0402-5663-8d09-4df3645699d0.html
…though the “food court” remained open till 2008 and that third of the development still stands empty as a ghostly reminder.
The last time I saw it, there were mostly empty sections of what was to be office development in the upper floors of the armory complete with mechanical equipment awaiting installation that simply rusted in place.
Denver built a much larger light rail system (47 miles of tracks) that almost no one rides, except homeless bums, and since paying to ride is based on the “honor system”, and most homeless have no honor (or money to spend on that), the taxpayers continually fund this boondoggle.
Can anyone name one thing liberals have done that A. Did what it was supposed to do when proposed, and B. Cost what it was supposed to after actually building it? The answers are no and no. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
And that Denver system is held up as “success” by liberals. Atlanta officials traveled to Denver to check it out and get transit ideas for Atlanta.
Must be contagious or perhaps it is just part of the libs dna……………
There are ‘still’ some trying to foist the same type of system here, although we did manage to get the biggest one kicked out, I mean upstairs to fedzilla 😉
After havin’ spent some time on the local school board some years back, I decided that I’d had enough of bein’ so active in the community. Stayed away from local groups and organizations as much as possible (still do) but let myself get roped into takin’ part in a “community improvement” committee. At the second meeting I realized what I was up against when one local mom liked the idea of starting a program that wasn’t gonna be “funded by our taxes” because the money didn’t come from Sacramento. I when I pressed her a bit, she told us it came from DC. I asked her where the folks in Washington got the money they spend and you could see the light bulb come on over her head. Unfortunately, she seemed to switch it back off almost immediately and went back to pushin’ the program.
And when the blacks start riding it, these geniuses expect white tourists to ride it also? Like everything where blacks are allowed to congregate white people will not go, because they value their lives, and let’s face it, most of the worthless niggers that use these things will be young uncivilized sub-human ghetto savages. Like what’s happening at Navy Pier in Chicago…
http://hillbuzz.org/diversity-huge-brawl-ruins-winterfest-at-navy-pier-in-chicago-22917
Blacks will prolly be the primary customers for the Atlanta Streetcar since it goes to their holy sites, the MLK tomb, the church where he preached, and the house that he lived in.
Then there was the niggers brawling in the iconic Rock and Roll McDonalds in Chicago…We need to build a wall around our inner-cities and keep these sub-human ghetto savages caged in so they can murder each other at will.
http://hillbuzz.org/question-of-the-day-guess-who-was-brawling-inside-the-rock-n-roll-mcdonalds-in-chicago-on-122714-122714
I know I have posted this here before, but going to again. Some years ago the Boise city councilors wanted to have a streetcar here. Same kind of thing, about a 3 mile loop through downtown. The money was partially from a federal grant ($40 million) and the rest raised by taxing the homes and businesses along the streetcar route. Naturally, the homes and businesses along the loop were not happy that they would be footing the entire balance on their own, something like another $30 million.
The problem with Boise downtown is the same as so many other city downtowns…lots of traffic on already cramped streets and limited (and expensive) parking. Installing a streetcar would take away from these. The proposed route was nearly useless. It did not go to the BSU campus. There are plenty of local shops and stores downtown, but pretty exclusive and expensive places. No Wal-Mart or other places that a large number of people would go to. In short, we would have a streetcar that very few people would use. Nobody is going to spend 25 minutes to get downtown, pay $4 for parking, wait 15 minutes for a streetcar then pay $2 to ride it for 8 blocks. They could have driven the 8 blocks in 2 minutes, paid $2 for parking in the garage (or $1 at the meter) and been right there where they wanted to go in the first place.
When the vote to raise the taxes failed 80%-20%, the liberal city gal was on the local radio show and said “The biggest problem is that we failed to educate people properly on the benefits of having a streetcar”. I want to know what kind of education people need to understand the “benefits” of an expensive waste of money. Libs just never understand the meaning of NO.
A lot of businesses along the streetcar route lost customers during the construction and most barely survived. They are hoping their customers will come back and that the streetcar will generate new business. Good luck with that! In a few more years they’re gonna lose business again when the track is ripped up and the streets repaved. These same people promoting the streetcar bitch about the city footing part of the cost of a new stadium. The stadium actually generates revenue what with fans spending money on hotels and restaurants and other stuff. The SEC Championship football games is played every year at the Georgia Dome. So is the Peach Bowl. It’s hosted the Final Four basketball games. When the new stadium is built we’ll prolly get a Super Bowl. The Atlanta Streetcar is a $98 million waste of money. There’s a reason streetcars died out in the 50’s and 60’s. History does repeat itself.
Across The Columbia River in Portland, Oregon, they built a streetcar systme with about 6 or 7 different routes, designated by colors (red line, green line, etc.) They also have bus routes that go all over the city. The street car lines average 18 mph to get you from A to B, whereas the buses average about 30 mph or so. Anyone who rides the street cars, especially at night, takes their safety in their own hands, because too many thieves, gangsters, and just plain no good bums are always on it, usually by jumping the turnstiles and getting on free. Then they start intimidating the honest riders. This, to the “smart people” in Portland is “progress”.
Atlanta city officials also traveled to Portland to see that system since that system is also considered a success. Atlanta is also developing the Beltline. This is an area running around the city where railroads used to run. They are developing mixed use areas with parks, apartments, and businesses and eventually plan to run streetcars or light rail around it. It will never be completed.
MARTA – Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta
MARTA – Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta
Arlington Co. Va just rescinded their command for a streetcar run. Years of planning, taxpayer boodle, ‘community activists’ meetings. Finally, they changed their minds. One of the best lines I read: ” we got rid of streetcars for the same reason we don’t make wax ring records or press vinyl records to listen to music anymore.”
From: The Other Ron – In Ohio
Ya’ know Denny; This light rail/street car crap is just another Lib-O boondoggle to spend money and provide more union jobs. During the last Bush administration there was no funding given to the FTA to fund these projects. Some say it was because of Dubya’s oil ties. If so, so what! it still makes sense to not fund them with tax dollars. If private investors want to do it, go for it!
Nevertheless, here in the Midwest, the city of Cincinnati and the bankrupt city of Detroit have persevered with their plans for their own trolly lines. The outrage from thinking people is deafening. These are the only two that I have any knowledge of, but they’re enough to make me mad.
The Cincinnati trolly will go less than 4 miles from the “Over-the-Rhine” neighborhood to the north – The highest crime area of Cincinnati – to the Great American Ballpark on the Ohio River. Carrying da’ criminals cheaper to spread their plague more efficiently. But hey! Anything to appease da’ bros especially after the 2011 city council election placed fellow bros in a position to help. It’s estimated to cost $102 mil, $128 mil, $185 mil, take your pick, I’m betting they’ll settle on the larger number, and then, you can at least double that figure before it’s finished. BUT WAIT! – They’ve already been awarded $229 mil in taxpayer money even though they say, “the city has had trouble raising the full $35 million needed from private sources”. That’s OK, The Obungler administration will find a way to fund the rest.
The Detroit line will go less than 3-1/2 miles from the “New Center” Amtrak station, south to the infamous “People Mover” (The laxative express) an automated mono rail that runs a 2.9 mile circuitous route in downtown Detroit. It has NEVER turned a profit and operates a less that 3% of its daily capacity at over $4.00 per passenger mile compared to about 80 cents per passenger mile for Detroit’s buses. So, after too many outcries over the initial $500 mil cost 8 years ago the funding was turned over to “private investors”. Guess what? So far, these “private investors” have ask for and received at least $37 mil in federal funding, the bankrupt Detroit city council approved a $125 mil bond issue and the line is going to require the destruction of two perfectly good overpasses and the reconstruction of two wider ones over two Interstate highways. Hmmm, wonder who’s gonna’ pay for that? So, if ya’ start with the $500 mil cost estimate (Which historically, should at least double before its finished) deduct the $162 mil in funding so far, which leaves a minimum of $338 mil balance – Wonder where that money’s coming from? Better put a locked zipper on your pockets Mr. & Mrs. taxpayer.
Also here in the Midwest we have a few existing street car lines that date back to the early 1900’s, albeit very short ones, in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I can’t comment on either one or their cost to taxpayers since I’ve never been to either city.
This week a streetcar was held up for hours because a stolen car plowed into telephone pole that fell and the streetcar couldn’t navigate around it. Of course, a bus would have just driven around the fallen pole. This may be a crazy idea, but why don’t they replace rails with people movers running on street tires?