There’s multiple options, three or four of which have nothing to do with the trolley trail; won’t touch it, won’t run on it, won’t use the lines on it.

The problem for residents and businesses is that no one will tell them what those “multiple options” are, so they are left guessing. The Kansas City Business Journal has published a map of where the rail lines will be laid, approximately, but this is just a broad route. The “multiple options” the mayor speaks of seem to be only a series of cross-section cartoons of what a rail might look like on the road, or on the trail, or in a mixed setting. For all the reality it represents, it might as well include subway tunnels or Clay Chastain’s gondolas. It is not a route and it is not binding on the city. (Note that in the bottom image they just extended the graphic out into the left margin to insert a third turning lane, in effect increasing the land available to them. You can’t do this in the real world.)

Kansas City voters are being told to vote to increase their sales and property taxes now and discuss what it is going to pay for later. And what comes later could easily include eminent domain, dead-end neighborhood streets, bulldozed neighborhood parking lots, railroad crossing gates placed over every street that the route crosses, and the destruction of green space all along the route. No one knows.

Amid such little transparency, it is understandable that voters do not want to give City Hall broad power. If transportation planners want support for their plans, they should come to voters with a complete proposal, not non-binding — and physically impossible — “options.”

The post Kansas City Streetcar: Tax Now, Answer Questions Later appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

That the city will re-use the means of voting most favorable to moving the proposal ahead is no surprise. The city has been foursquare behind the trolley proposal even after losing its bid for federal funding for the project. (Not that federal funding would have been a good reason to go forward with it.) And despite the funding gap for the starter line, there have already been discussions about adding southern and eastern extensions to this hitherto non-existent trolley. To be sure, business owners in the newly created trolley district will not be the last ox gored in the city’s quest for streetcars. This looks like a vanity project that will raise taxes in a city that is well above average in municipal taxation already. And the project will probably grow even larger from here.

The trolley voting period will likely conclude Dec. 11. Whether the result will be a Christmas surprise or a lump of coal depends on your perspective.

The post Kansas City Makes Streetcar Tax Proposal Another Mail-In Affair appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

• A proposed $100 annual tax on billboards to help the city “deal with billboard blight.” Similar to an earlier idea that would have enacted a 2 percent tax on the revenues companies collected for outdoor signs, the $100 iteration was ultimately scuttled over concerns that the revenue generated would not actually fix the problem of billboards that, among other things, were blank “too long,” which could be as little as three months. Pretty sure “blank billboards” do not exactly rise to the level of pressing municipal issues in Kansas City. Apparently, given the functional and funding problems presented to the council in the proposal, city officials seemed to agree.
• A proposal from a group called the “Peace Planters” which would have blocked any financial involvement by the city with manufacturers that produce nuclear weapons components. Curtailing municipal handouts is certainly good policy — after all, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and other tax incentives are long-overdue for reform — but to prevent only one type of business on ideological grounds from going to the trough seems like just another way of picking winners and losers. Better to reform how all incentives are meted out than selectively change one minor aspect of a fundamentally bad policy.
• Yet another proposal from eternal light rail advocate Clay Chastain to build a light rail system in Kansas City. Although Chastain’s promise to “go away” after years of activism if the council put his proposal on the ballot certainly had its allure, the council declined to take him up on the offer.

The post Kansas City Adds Single Measure To November Ballot appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Sure, the article conceded, trolleys had been falling out of favor
with the public for years, but “[n]ow gas prices, air pollutants and
spiffy promotional campaigns are making people more aware of the
trolley as mass transit.” One trolley company even said that at least
10 cities were “studying or planning or requesting funding for new
light rail vehicles.” On that list: Kansas City.

Sounds like trolleys are the fresh, happening thing these days when
it comes to municipal development, except for one important thing:
The article quoted here is from 1975. As long-time residents can tell
you, Kansas City does not have a streetcar today, and it’s hard to
argue that streetcars made a substantive “comeback” in the 1970s,
or since.

But will Kansas City soon bring streetcars back to its Main Street?

Maybe, if the city has its way. Last month, the Parking and
Transportation Commission and the Kansas City Council approved
a plan to install $100 million worth of trolley lines following a 2-
mile route running from the River Market to Crown Center.

That’s $50 million per mile; a ludicrous expense, and that’s in the
context of a city that has seen its share of ridiculous rail proposals
over the years.

Indeed, the idea of bringing rail lines in one form or another has
been kicked around exhaustively for the last two decades, and there
are, in fact, two competing passenger rail proposals in Kansas City:
the Main Street trolley and, no joke, yet another $1 billion-plus rail
project that perpetual rail proponent Clay Chastain has proposed.

But even Chastain, the name and face behind KC rail for years, won’t
rally behind a trolley project.

“You’re not going to take a streetcar to the airport,” Chastain told The
Kansas City Star. “This is not the major response we need to build a
world-class transit system.”

When Clay Chastain says your project is impractical, it just might be
impractical.

Missing in all of the streetcar talk is any substantive discussion of why
these projects are necessary, or even desirable, especially in today’s
economic circumstances. Kansas City and other cities removed their
trolley lines decades ago in no small part because trolleys were
impractical for their times, and the impracticality problems of trolleys
remain to this day. The Parking and Transportation Commission’s own
report puts the expense of trolleys at five times what a comparable bus
costs, and that’s assuming there are no cost overruns in the trolley line’s
construction.

But let’s break this municipal issue down to its most salient and important
question: Is a trolley project really the best use of already-depleted
taxpayer dollars? The money Kansas City would spend on these projects
couldn’t be spent on other pressing municipal matters. What would the
city forgo if it rebuilds rail lines that were torn out long ago?

In this economy, Kansas City needs… trolleys?

Really?

Patrick Ishmael is a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute, which
promotes market solutions for Missouri Public Policy.

The post A Streetcar Too Far: Vanity Rail Lines Are a Waste of Kansas City Tax Dollars appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

On Tuesday, a key Kansas City transit group unanimously endorsed a plan that would put the downtown route primarily down Main, not Grand Boulevard.

The city’s Parking and Transportation Commission approved a consultants’ recommendation, which favored streetcars over rapid buses on a two-mile route from the River Market to Crown Center.

“A Main Street streetcar is the superior alternative,” project manager Charlie Hales, with HDR Engineering, told the commission.

This calls for a Kansas City trolley soundtrack. Hit it, Johnny!

For those unfamiliar with Kansas City’s politics, the idea of bringing rail lines in one form or another has been kicked around exhaustively for the last two decades, to the point where currently there are actually two competing passenger rail proposals: the Main Street trolley and, no joke, a $1 billion-plus rail project that perpetual rail proponent Clay Chastain has put forth. While the prospects of Chastain’s proposal (again) look bleak, supporters of the trolley project are pumping theirs up at a fraction of that price — a cool $100 million.

But even Chastain, of billion dollar rail fame, won’t rally behind a trolley project:

One outspoken opponent [of the trolley project] is Clay Chastain, who has mounted numerous unsuccessful attempts to bring light rail to Kansas City. Chastain has once again gathered sufficient signatures to place a $1.4 billion light rail system before voters next year, but the City Council has not yet approved it for an election.

“You’re not going to take a streetcar to the airport,” Chastain said Tuesday when told about the commission’s recommendation. “This is not the major response we need to build a world-class transit system.”

When Clay Chastain says your project is impractical, that’s saying something.

Of course, Kansas City’s not the only major metropolitan area in Missouri that might put hundreds of millions of quarters on municipal rails. St. Louis is putting together a trolley project that would run from Forest Park to the Delmar Loop — locations that Metrolink already serves, and within walking distance of the #1 Metro bus.

To give you an idea of the sort of distance we’re talking about here:

View Larger Map

The estimated cost for the roughly 2-mile line? About $50 million.

Are these projects really the best use of taxpayer dollars? At least one form of public transit already serves both areas, and in the case of St. Louis’ proposed line, there are two. The money the respective cities would spend on these projects couldn’t be spent on other pressing municipal matters. What would the cities forgo by rebuilding rail lines that were torn out long ago?

In this economy, Kansas City and St. Louis need…trolleys? Really?

The post Nothing Says ‘Progress’ Like a Vanity Trolley Project appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

I see that Clay Chastain has filed a lawsuit to enforce the voter-approved referendum on light rail in Kansas City. I am not going to say anything on this now, but check out the main SMI web page on Wednesday, January 23, and you will see something very big on this exact issue. 

As discussed elsewhere on this blog by our intrepid intern, Nick, mandatory steroid testing of high school athletes has been proposed by the state legislature. There is nothing I loathe more than drug testing for any but the most sensitive of jobs, safety-wise (i.e., school bus drivers) — so, as you can imagine, I think this is an absolutely atrocious idea. Hey, kids! If you want to run cross-country, you first have to piss in a cup and prove your innocence! I am usually pretty good at understanding the reasons why people disagree with me on various issues, but I have never been able to remotely fathom the enthusiasm many people have for drug testing.

The Riverfront Times has a well-done story (link via Missouri Political News Service) on the similarly terrible decisions to install red-light cameras throughout the city of Saint Louis. The article in question focuses on a new camera at the intersection of Skinker and Delmar, a location I know very well. As teenagers, we used to buy beer at the J & W Liquor store two blocks east of there, until the whole area up and got gentrified. Anyway, there is absolutely no "safety" reason to have a red-light camera there. The reason there is a no-right-turn-on-red sign from eastbound Delmar to southbound Skinker is so residents of Parkview will have easier openings in and out of their subdivision. (I am certain of this, by the way, based on knowledge from a former job.) While that may well be a legitimate reason for the ban, it serves the convenience of the residents rather than any "safety" issue. The normal reason for such right-turn-on-red bans is a lack of visibility at certain intersections — but the visibility at this intersection is absolutely fine. Saint Louis city is doing absolutely nothing more than using cameras to raise money.

I think this is enough for today. Damn, the skiing was great! 

The post Back From Vacation and Ready to Rip! appeared first on Show-Me Institute.