Recently my neighbors & I got a bill from the city that penalizes us
for living in a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. The special tax
bill charges each of us hundreds of dollars for the privilege of that
most basic of human activities: walking. This is a bill that vast
areas of automobile-oriented parts of the city will never have to pay.
Meanwhile, the costs for the dominant mode of transportation in the
auto-oriented parts of the city are spread across the entirety of the
tax base. No special bills for them!
Thus residents of older, walkable neighborhoods end up having to pay
to walk *and* for others to drive.
The free-loading of the peripheral sprawl/car-oriented areas of the
city has never been questioned before in any meaningful way.
This year, was different.
Several awake alders attempted to rescind the worst of the worst
sprawl funding out in the Mineral Pt. Rd/Junction Rd/Valley View Rd
area. The amendment went down in flames. But the mere existence of
the amendment was historic.
Below is the language for the amendment. Had it gone through, it
would have forced better, more urban, less costly land use and
transportation. True, the failure did provide a victory for the
sprawlmeisters & car freaks in the Planning Dept. and City & Traffic
Engineering.
But I'm hoping that this portends a sea-change in transportation
planning at the political level. Yes, the thing went down in flames,
but the 5 votes for saner, more efficient, more civilized
transportation and land use were five votes more than we got last
year. There is evidence that the amendment did resonate with others,
even thought they couldn't bring themselves to go against the power
this time. So we'll see....
Thank you Alds. Robbie Webber, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Marsha Rummel and
Tim Gruber for sponsoring & voting for the amendment, and Ald. Brenda
Konkel for voting for this important amendment. They deserve a thanks
from all of us for their brave effort.
The rest deserve wrath. They voted for more CO2. They voted for more
paving. They voted for more strip malls. They voted for dirtier air.
They voted for dirtier water. They voted for epidemics of sedentary
lifestyles. They voted for chronic diseases. They voted
for...Oklahoma City.
This mayor deserves particular blame given that he supposedly knows
better and ran against *exactly* this sort of bad transportation
planning.
-Mike Barrett
**********************************
You can see the entire debate about the amendment on the
streaming coverage of the Council meeting.
http://www.cityofmadison.com/mcc12/archive/mc111407.ram
Click on Cap A6
The debate goes for about 25 minutes. I speak first, and then again at
around hour 2:20. Satya speaks around 2:14.
Amendment No. 6
Agency/Project: Engineering - Major Streets / Project #14 - CTH M (CTH PD Area)
Engineering - Major Streets / Project #15 - CTH M (Mid Town Road Area)
Engineering - Major Streets / Project #16 - CTH M (Valley View Road Area)
Engineering - Major Streets / Project #17 - CTH M
Engineering - Major Streets / Project #18 - CTH M (CTH S Intersection)
Page(s): 62, 67, 68, and 69
Sponsor(s): Alds. Webber, Rummel, Konkel, Gruber
General Obligation Debt $ (1,050,000)
Other Funding -
Total $ (1,050,000) Levy Impact: $ (135,980)
Remove funding for all components of County Trunk Highway M projects
for 2008 through 2013. Future years'
funding will be contingent upon the development of favorable cost
sharing arrangements with Dane County.
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
