Bridges for sale? Bi-state authority prepares public for $1 tolls, private investment, by Jonathan Meador.
... In fact, all grim economic and political realities considered, authority member and President of Greater Louisville Inc. Joe Reagan stuns nearly everyone in the room when he calls for a target construction date of August 2012.
“It’s not a reckless decision,” Reagan says, adding that setting a target date will help move the process along more quickly. “We have to be definitive.”
A quiet wave of snickering washes over the attendant opposition, and Say No to Bridge Tolls co-founder Dan Borsch looks at me and rolls his eyes.
“They can’t be serious,” he whispers. “They can’t even meet their own financing deadlines, yet they’re already setting construction dates? It’s completely arbitrary.”
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
LEO's Meador demolishes tolls and tollers ... again. Give that man a medal.
Amok Time approaches for the Tolling Authority, which meets again tomorrow and next Thursday in addition to Monday's forthcoming, "We'll pretend to listen to the public while gazing at erotic bulldozer videos on YouTube with our iPhones," a grudging session at the Muhammad Ali Center. Meanwhile, in the thoroughly corrupted absence of the Courier-Journal, Jonathan Meador hits all the correct buttons in today's LEO.
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16 comments:
I'm not sure why there is such a all or none push from both sides.
What wrong with putting forward a project of building a EE bridge first and only for now, charging a $1 toll each way. (you will see me on it everyday and I'll pay).
Make it a mandatory bypass for thru truck traffic to avoid Hospital curve and cut traffic into spaghetti junction.
After this is done then just Wait.
Hell what could it hurt. It only took 40 plus years to get to this point. Whats 5 to 10 more if they really need another downtown bridge.
I'm willing to consider tolls on a single new bridge in the East End, although the argument is fairly convoluted.
First and foremost, there's money enough to build an East End Bridge without tolling others or it.
But if it's the only one tolled, the prevailing wisdom is that people will bypass it, and enough tolls won't be collected, althugh tolls weren't needed in the first place.
Again, Vetteman, if we only build the East End Bridge that an overwhelming majority of regional residents support, there is no need for tolls. It can be built easily without them.
Another thing: When it's all or nothing from the proponents with politicians in their pockets, opponents have almost no tactical choice except to fight the same way.
Tolls are necessary only because the scale of the project is huge.
The scale of the project is huge because it includes a downtown bridge.
Eliminate the downtown bridge, and the need to toll disappears.
That's precusely why the all-or-nothing Stemlerites must have a $4 billion project or none at all.
And why they must be fought.
Jeff and Roger,
This may be strange for you to read but I agree with you as why you fight it that way and agree with you on there should be enough money to build with out any tolls.
I would just put to you that if you made it a mandatory truck bypass and if they put a toll onit they could collect some money to help with the future needs. (downtown bridge that's in question).
This could be seen as a win by both parties.
VetteMan speaks a reasonable point. You could sell a buck toll on a new EE bridge, or pay for it without tolls, but a user fee on a new bridge, even if just a mandated freight surcharge, could be sold politically as a regional solution.
I feel like the dubious "authority" is 75% politically motivated and 25% concerned about the right thing being done. This is also going on as I write on Capitol Hill as, we'll see, some little Democrats in the house stand up and say NO to tax cuts for the pillar and plunder mega-wealthy.
All-or-nothing
It would also be wise to consider what tolls would do to the housing market in Southern Indiana.
If I wanted to remodel my house, I as most likely a majority of people, would do one room at a time or set aside a specific amount of money for a project. If you remodel any room in a house another area of the house is going to become crowded and messy.
Keep it simple. Tolls hinder the community and myself directly. I feel like we need a preschool demonstration for the authority.
I'm not for sure which thread to post on but the topic is the same.
First everyone here is in agreement a statue of Calipari downtown would be embarrassing.
As for bridges, I'll take the counter argument to help facilitate discussion.
One point people are failing to mention is that the current traffic models, which the current and future mayors of Louisville have pointed out, show that even if the EE Bridge is built the Kennedy is over capacity.
Karen argues the only undeniable argument that Hoosiers workers who work in Louisville will suffer.
This is true in the short term and can be argued against in the long term.
If the over capacity point is a fact then Karen would gladly pay a toll then see her and her husband die in a Minneapolis like bridge collapse.
Will such a catastrophic event happen to the Kennedy? I don't think so, but if I was the Mayor of Louisville I wouldn't want to be responsible if one did, neither would anyone here.
I've made this point before and have given links to where the Mayor said it, but like Karen’s argument, no one pickup on it, even though bridge supporters are using it to justify their position.
Going to Police Chief Bailey’s meeting, so not much time to discuses Jeff’s arguments on both threads that supports Daniel’s argument that bridges will help local efforts here more then they will help.
Induced demand.
There you go, Kate, doing all that thinking again.
There are lots of goods and services, Vetteman - different foods, music, arts, crafts, films, organic gardening supplies, sporting equipment, computer equipment, etc - that are currently only available in Louisville. Those are just things I've looked at for personal use lately.
Thousands (if not tens of thousands) of us have spent a majority of our adult lives going to Louisville regularly precisely because we couldn't get what we wanted on this side of the river. The Louisville market is larger and more diverse.
Pretty much all of those products and services are from niche businesses. For arguments sake, let's say they are of interest to 10% of the entire regional (Clark, Floyd and Jefferson (KY) counties) population.
Populations (2008)
Jefferson 713,877
Clark and Floyd Combined 180,453
A product or service that appeals, in general, to 10% of the regional population will have a prospective customer base of 71,388 in Jefferson County. In Southern Indiana, the number drops to 18,045.
If travel between the two is restricted or becomes unnecessarily expensive, where do you think a prospective niche business owner is going to open up shop?
The businesses in Louisville will remain open but will lose Hoosier customers when the psychological impact is felt from tolls. Because tolls will prevent people from crossing over to Louisville it will open up an advantage that Southern Indiana has never had.
Twenty years ago there wasn't the economic base or population we now have. Hoosier Entrepreneurs will stand up and meet the demand that tolls have created from the psychological toll barrier.
All the services listed above will now have a competitive advantage in attracting Hoosiers to stay local.
In effect tolls will cause Hoosier to look to themselves to provide the services that Louisville once did, thereby creating more local jobs and a greater interest in local issues.
What we should do is list as many business that we wouldn't go to in Louisville if tolls existed and instead spend our money in Southern Indiana.
See Vetteman it's not unlike what happen to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The Austrians cut off money to Serbia after the Balkan War thereby forcing Serbia to find new sources of credit and therefore Serbia reaching out to Russia for support and alienating Austria-Hungary and encouraging Slav unity
In Germany's case they cut Russia off of credit following the Russo-Japanese war thereby forcing Russia to search for new sources of credit, thereby allowing France the opportunity to do business. France was then able to reach an alliance with Russia thereby isolating Germany and forcing them to fight a two front war if war came and it did. Serbia had the support of Russia and France had the support of Russia and World War one was on its way
If tolls are enacted then Clark, Floyd and Harrison County will reach an alliance a few years will go by with rapid economic development in Southern Indiana while Louisville stagnates.
We will then have the opportunity to invade and conquer Louisville thereby getting rid of tolls.
See Vetteman it's not unlike what happen to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Only completely different, but any excuse to invade Kentucky is a good one.
I have to amuse myself if no one will play.
I thought everyone likes a bad
20th century diplomatic analogy
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