Besides paying attention to urban issues locally I like to keep tabs on similar battles in other regions. Yesterday had some interesting outcomes:
Voters in Washington State approved the most restrictive smoking ban in the country. Not only is smoking prohibited in public buildings but also within 25 feet of an entrance. Oh the joy of not dealing with stray cigarette smoke…
Washington State voters also upheld a recent law that would raise gasoline taxes by as much as 9.5 cents per gallon. This was a rural vs urban vote with rural voters opposed to paying the increased taxes for projects in mostly urban areas. However it was noted during the referendum that Washington’s urban areas pay more in such taxes than they receive in benefits. From the Seattle Post-Intellegencer:
If it had passed, I-912 would have stripped $5.5 billion from the $8.5 billion highway plan. It would have sent transportation planners, who are counting on $2 billion earmarked for repairing the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct, back to square one and lawmakers who supported the plan back to Olympia with a major defeat as they head into an election year.
In a much different turn of events, Seattle area residents voted for a 5th time since 1997 on extending their Monorail 10 miles. The four previous votes approved the extension but recent cost increases and questions of management doomed the project. The current monorail is basically a tourist thing since it is so short in distance but adding 10 miles would have served transportation needs of locals. Much like when you buy your house you try not to think about what you paid in interest at the end of the 30 years, the $1.8 billion monorail project was seen as costing $11 billion if you added up all the financing charges. Seattle is also in the process of building a separate light rail system which should be open in a couple of years. Good thing because the drive from the core of Seattle to their airport is brutal.
Get the latest scope on the monorail here.
Yesterday New York State voters approved a $2.9 billion dollar bond act to fund transportation projects, including a new 2nd Avenue subway in Manhattan. NYC is full of subway lines yet they are willing to fund another for areas not well served by mass transit beyond the bus. Good job New York! Like Washington State, rural voters voted against the measure while urban voters supported it.Full story from the New York Times.
The lesson here is that transportation interests in urban areas is quite different from rural areas. Yeah, I know — duh! Maybe we in the St. Louis region need to team up with folks in Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield to push for measures protecting our interests and our tax dollars. Strengthening our state’s major urban areas by making them more sustainable in the future will benefit the entire state.
– Steve
Thanks for your congratulatory words on the passage of the Transportation Bond Act widely referred to hereabouts as Prop 2.
As the Times story noted, the measure was approved 3 to 1 statewide. It seems reasonable to conclude that this statewide victory was the result of a very clear strategy.
To avoid a No vote similar to that suffered by the last Transportation Bond Act, the just-approved measure distributes goodies pretty evenly, upstate and down, mass transit and private auto transit (roads and highways). Something for everyone. And the strategy worked.
As for the Second Avenue subway: If you’ve ever ridden the 4 or 5 trains (the Lexington Avenue lines) during rush hour, you know how insane it is that the West Side has three subway lines and the East Side only one.
Further, the lack of a subway line to serve the far East Side fuels a lot of the use of private cars and taxis in Upper East Side neighborhoods. So the new subway line will both relieve the overburdened 4 and 5 trains and reduce the use of private surface transit.
A (mostly) happy day.