Phoenix Light Rail will Turn out to be a Boondoggle

The Metro Light Rail made its downtown debut Thursday when it ran a test from 3rd Street and Washington to McDowell and Central.

Downtown Phoenix

PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido News Network) October 3, 2008 ― The City of Phoenix has spent 1.4 billion dollars to construct the light rail basically along the same route of the existing Red Line beginning at Christown Spectrum Mall Station turning eastward to Central Avenue then proceeding south to downtown Phoenix then turning east eventually ending in Mesa, Arizona.

The transportation plan's next phases include light rail extensions connecting with the initial light rail system but with the cost of 70 million dollars per mile in today's dollars, future extensions will be exorbitant and will probably never be built. Thus most Phoenix commuters requiring some mode of transportation will continue to depend on buses as the only means of mass transit.

The 1.4 billion dollars spent on light rail would have been much better spent on purchasing 500 new buses to reduce the wait time to every 10 minutes during the week on all Phoenix bus routes and 20 minutes on weekends. Buses are now packed beyond capacity during the week and on the weekend, it takes as much as 2 hours to go from one point to another point when having to use 3 different buses routes. On Sundays, going east from 32nd Street and Indian School Road to 44th Street transferring to the 2nd bus to Thomas Road then transferring to the third bus going east on Thomas Road to Saint Theresa Catholic Church at 5045 E. Thomas Road requires 2 hours. Same route returning requires 4 hours on Sunday buses.

As the Phoenix City Council gloats with the commencement of the light rail, Phoenix residents undergo horrendous contentiousness hardships with the present bus transit system. It is hard to accept waiting for the next bus requires waiting nearly an hour standing under a 100 degree plus sun without shade protection. (All north side bus stops on any route have no shade protection because of the sun's alignment from the south.)

Because of the financial collapse of credit markets with a looming recession already taking its toil on reduced revenue for state and local governments, construction of the light rail has reduced sales taxes and created significant inconvenience during light rail construction that has had an adverse impact on the Phoenix economy.

Very soon after operation begins, the light rail will be identified as a boondoggle with the only reason for the light rail being acknowledged as public relations theatrics for the Phoenix city council to get away from the stigma of buses and go to the buzz project of the day further wasting taxpayer money. Not a lot of expertise and creative vision on the part of the city council. Downtown development is not working and the light rail is one more fiasco.

The light rail will be a bonus for ASU's main campus connecting with Phoenix downtown ASU buildings; however, the ASU campus in downtown Phoenix is only instant gratification of putting up any building to fill empty land parcels and should never have been built. It has already been exposed the 5,000 plus student population used by Mayor Phil Gordon and ASU President Michael Crow to promote and substantiate taxpayers paying $220,000,000 ($220 million) to build the ASU downtown college campus is a charade. Gordon and Crow dangled an enticing carrot to obtain the $220 million from Phoenix taxpayers: The Arizona State University campus would bring thousands of students to struggling downtown shops.

Voters OK'd the bond money and the students came. But the enrollment numbers ― about 6,200 in 2006, 6,600 in 2007 and 8,400 in 2008 ― don't tell the full story.

An Arizona Republic review of ASU documents shows each year, roughly half of those students didn't take any classes downtown.

Gordon and Crow used the same ploy of half truths and conjured up false data as George Bush used for justification in invading Iraq to destroy the weapons of mass destruction

The actual count is only at most a few hundred students. These few students will add nothing to consumer spending in downtown Phoenix. One look at the number of retail outlets on the Tempe ASU campus is ample proof — students have few disposable dollars for retailers in downtown Phoenix.

The land used to accommodate the downtown Phoenix ASU buildings is some of the most valuable land in Phoenix. Valuable land parcels in downtown Phoenix should only be used to enable Phoenix to enter into the realm of becoming a world class tourist destination. The direction downtown Phoenix has taken by Phil Gordon using the "herd mentality" of manipulating the city council to go along for the ride would make Friedrich Nietzsche proud. Not a lot of bright thinkers among the city council especially Mayor Phil Gordon.

The ASU buildings in downtown Phoenix make no contribution to tourism marketing and convention center required amenities and supporting activities. The Phoenix ASU buildings were only built because of the availability to tap into $220 million of Phoenix tax payer money to finance the ASU downtown Phoenix buildings. In addition, the ASU downtown Phoenix buildings were built to fuel the use of scarce available land in downtown Phoenix only to lay claim to the vitality of a vibrant Phoenix downtown development but in reality ― the ASU downtown Phoenix buildings add zero to the designation of Phoenix as a world class city.

Bluntly stated so everyone understands, the ASU downtown Phoenix buildings are a charade — a readily perceived pretense; a travesty exaggerated by a grotesque imitation of spearheading revitalization of downtown Phoenix. Every member of the Phoenix City Council who voted to approve spending $220 million for a charade should be removed from the Phoenix City Council. Phil Gordon is termed out and will be gone after this current term. Gordon has been too frivolous with Phoenix taxpayer funds. Michael Johnson can serve one more term but he has done enough damage following Gordon blindly and so hopefully, he will see the hand writing on the wall and choose not to run again.

To give clarity to the decision to use $220 million to finance the downtown Phoenix ASU buildings, with less than only 500 actual students in downtown Phoenix at any one moment, Phoenix taxpayers are spending $440,000 per student. Wall Street greed is certainly alive and well in downtown Phoenix as Phoenix taxpayers pay for the folly of Gordon, Crow, Johnson and the other city council members who voted for the ASU downtown Phoenix buildings.

It is long over due to rein in government spending using taxpayer money to finance private and other government entities' development. The downtown Phoenix ASU buildings should have been built on the main campus in Tempe using ASU funds — not City of Phoenix taxpayer money.

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