NORTH CAROLINA’S STORM OF A LIFETIME - FLORENCE (THE AFTERMATH)

NORTH CAROLINA’S STORM OF A LIFETIME - FLORENCE:

IT’S NOT OVER YET - THE AFTERMATH IS WORSE THAN STORM.

HURRICANE FLORENCE DEVASTATES NORTH CAROLINA -

DEATH TOLL IS RISING.

COAST GUARD CALLED IN FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE.

HELP & PRAYER NEEDED FOR NC RESIDENTS.


Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, CNN, Fox News, Weather.com, WRAL, Youtube


***** Storm of a lifetime


For days, residents had been told to heed the warnings. Hurricane Florence, at its peak a Category 5, would be the "storm of a lifetime"for portions of the Carolina coast," the National Weather Service said.

It would bring powerful wind, relentless rain and life-threatening storm surge to an area that wasn't used to hurricanes.

More than 1 million people were under mandatory evacuation orders as the storm crawled toward the East Coast.

t would soon become clear why residents had been told to leave.

The calm before the storm

As Florence twisted over the Atlantic Ocean Thursday morning, 65-year-old Deb Frese took a walk along the shoreline. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, resident knew the storm could be keeping her inside for a while, so she wanted to fit in one last stroll.

Frese lived in the evacuation zone, about a mile from the beach, but she chose to ride the storm out in her home.

"Flooding, that's the biggest concern," said Frese. She also recognized that she might have to make do without power. But with a stockpile of food, batteries and lanterns, she was prepared to hunker down for "at least a week," she said.

"Then I might have to go."
'This is just the beginning'

By Thursday afternoon, Florence's wind speeds had dropped, and the storm was classified as a Category 2. But forecasters said its biggest threats remained: potentially deadly storm surge, flooding, and what was expected to be a historic rain event.

In New Bern, North Carolina, along the banks of the Neuse River, a CNN crew watched the water rise and flood Union Point Park until they were forced to leave.

Todd Willis, a resident of Kennel Beach, North Carolina, shared video on Facebook of tidal flooding. It was early in the afternoon, and water was already collecting beneath homes lofted on stilts. Some water inched up to the road as Willis drove by.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "It hasn't even gotten here yet and there's already water (in the) bottom parts of people's houses."

By evening, the storm was downgraded to a Category 1. But conditions continued to deteriorate into the night, as thousands of evacuees slept in emergency shelters.

Annazette Riley-Cromartie's home in eastern North Carolina began to flood around midnight. As her kids tried to sleep in a top bunk, her husband could hear voices in the distance.

"While we were still waiting, my husband kept hearing people yelling for help," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper, her voice thick with emotion. Her 6-foot-2 husband tried to go out and help, she said, but the water was already above his chest.

"You just keep hearing people yelling, and you can't do anything," she said. "It's the worst feeling in the world."

Back in New Bern, 200 people trapped in their homes were plucked from the water overnight.

"WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU," the city tweeted. "You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU."

By sunrise Friday, the town had seen about 7 inches of rainfall and 10 feet of storm surge, and scores of people still needed saving.
Trapped by floodwater

At 7:15 a.m., Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, became eerily calm as the eye of Hurricane Florence, now a Category 1 storm, loomed overhead.

Florence, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, had made landfall.

Trees swayed from the wind and toppled over, blocking roads. Deserted streets flooded and swollen rivers escaped their banks. Power transformers exploded in bursts of light like fireworks, leaving hundreds of thousands of electric customers in the dark. Whole neighborhoods soon became swamps.

Back in New Bern, the Cajun Navy and other ragtag teams of volunteers joined emergency responders to rescue people from the rising water.

As water poured into their homes, residents sought refuge in attics.

"In a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it is to the chest," Peggy Perry told CNN's Chris Cuomo Friday morning.

"We have been up here for like three or four hours."
In River Bend, south of New Bern, a man shouted out of his open window at a small boat that had been left behind and commandeered by the Maryland Swift Water Rescue Team.

But when they asked if he needed help, the man said no.
He had everything he needed, he said. He just wanted to say hello.

The first deaths

A tree came crashing down on a house in Wilmington, North Carolina.

A family of three was inside the home, and emergency responders worked for hours to save them.

In the afternoon, authorities confirmed that a woman and her infant daughter were dead -- the first known deaths attributed to Florence. The child's father was taken to a local hospital.

A group of firefighters who had rushed to the scene were shaken. They knelt outside the home in a circle and began to pray.

It's time to go'

By Friday evening, Florence had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

But the rain showed no signs of abating and rivers continued to spill over their banks.

On Saturday morning, the National Weather Service warned of the possibility of "catastrophic flooding."

"We face walls of water at our coast, along our rivers, across farmland, in our cities and in our towns," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters that morning. "More people now are facing imminent threat than when the storm was just off shore."

Susan Bostic and her family had initially planned to wait out the storm in their Rocky Point, North Carolina home, not far from the Cape Fear River.

They changed their minds on Saturday, as water from the river spilled onto their property, collecting in big pools on the ground.

Bostic had lived through Hurricane Floyd in 1999, she said, and it took everything -- cars, clothes, her home.

"And they're expecting this to be even higher," she said. "So we know it's time to go."

About 40 miles to the northeast, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Marti Dias was grappling with the same realization. She watched water from the New River slowly creep up her street, mailboxes jutting above the surface. Some of her neighbors had already left. It was time to go.

"I'm not going to lie, I cried this morning," she told CNN. "I broke down and cried."

Residents of Lumberton, North Carolina, also kept a wary eye on their own Lumber River, which quickly rose foot after foot as heavy rains continued to drench the state. The river had inundated Lumberton two years before, during Hurricane Matthew, and city officials scrambled this week to plug a hole in the town's levee system.

As floodwaters rose, roads quickly became impassable. An abandoned car was left running idle in the street with water lapping at the passenger windows.

That night, emergency responders and volunteers in Wilmington, North Carolina, made about 700 rescues; Pender County conducted 172, and lost two ambulances in the floodwaters.

By the end of the day, 13 people would be confirmed dead, several of them from flash flooding.

On Saturday evening, Hailey Burgalow was traveling to Virginia with her sister, her sister's boyfriend and her aunt when they hit flooding on Interstate 95, forcing them to pull off and venture into Lumberton.

The town was still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Matthew, and many homes appeared to be abandoned or in disrepair, their windows boarded up and weeds growing tall in the yards.

The group parked at a gas station and tried to get some sleep in the car, Burgalow told CNN. Eventually, a police officer stopped, and they asked him if there was any way to make their way north. There wasn't, the officer told them. He directed them to a shelter that was filled with evacuees.

"They ran out of cots and blankets," Burgalow told CNN. "It was super crowded, but we were thankful."
On Sunday morning, Burgalow and her family realized they were stuck there.

Flooded roads and fragile levees

The National Hurricane Center issued its final advisory for Florence on Sunday morning as the storm, crawling inland, weakened to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph -- but plenty of rain was still on its way.

The center said in its last advisory that southeast North Carolina could see up to 40 inches of rain, and also warned of the risks of landslides across western North Carolina and southwest Virginia.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo called the flooding in the northern part of the county a "phenomenon," and "something we've never seen before." The city was essentially cut off from the rest of the state because of high waters, he said.

Any direction you try coming into the city -- from 20 to 40 miles out, roads are impassable," he said. "Anyone trying to get in here -- don't try. You will be turned away."

The Lumber River was close to 25 feet high by midday -- 12 feet above flood stage. At 26 feet, Lumberton city officials said, the levee around the river could be overwhelmed.

At that point, "all bets are off," said Corey Walters, deputy director of Public Works.

The rain had slowed down overnight, he said, giving officials another chance to try and plug the gap in the levee system -- but Walters didn't sound optimistic.

"Our crews are taking one more crack at trying to stop it," Walters said. "We're just fighting time here. There's another rain band that's going to be coming through and we know it. We're expecting to get another 4 to 6 inches."

Water began seeping beneath the sand barriers workers had placed there Sunday afternoon.

Bobby Hunt was just about finished packing belongings into the back of his pickup truck.

"Y'all ready? Lets get in the truck and get out of here," Hunt told his wife and cousin as they prepared to leave their boarded-up Lumberton home, which still bore the damage from Hurricane Matthew.

That storm had caught them by surprise with flooding in the middle of the night, he told CNN.

But after being told by the city that the levee could be overwhelmed, the family didn't hesitate to leave.

On Sunday, Bostic, who fled her Rocky Point home the day before, learned she and her family got out just in time.

Her home, about 200 yards from the river bank, was submerged, and the water was still rising.
Nearly 20 years after Bostic lost almost everything to Hurricane Floyd, Florence would also force her to start over.
It's not over

On Sunday, two more deaths were confirmed in South Carolina, bringing the toll to at least 18.

Hundreds upon hundreds had been rescued in the Carolinas.

There were at least 170 patients in four medical shelters across the state, and officials believed more would be on their way as the rescues and flooding continued throughout the day.

Pender County, North Carolina officials said they had received 300 calls for help by Sunday.

Rescue attempts and other essential services were hindered by a lack of fuel.

Gov. Cooper accompanied the Coast Guard on a flyover of flooded areas in North Carolina.

He said he saw significant flooding in the farmland of Jacksonville and throughout Onslow County.

In New Bern, where the drama of Friday morning had significantly diminished, the governor saw boats washed up in town and significant debris.

Flying over Fayetteville, he said, "it was stark to see the raging Cape Fear River, and you knew it was rising and you could see these vulnerable communities."

We've got a tall task ahead," Cooper said.

The rain had slowed a little in Fayetteville, but officials there worried that would lure residents into a false sense of security and prompt them to make their way back.

"We're going to get hammered," said Kevin Arata, the city's director of communications.

"The worst is still yet to come."

METRO ACCESS - PARATRANSIT REMAINS BROKEN IN DC (GREASED PALMS)

METRO ACCESS - PARATRANSIT REMAINS BROKEN IN DC:

YET THE PROGRAM COLLECTS MORE FEDERAL FUNDS.

WHICH POLITICIANS' PALMS ARE BEING GREASED??

WHY NOT REPLACE CONTRACTORS WITH UBER & LYFT DRIVERS?

METRO ACCESS GROWING PROBLEMS INCLUDE.......

POLITICALLY-RIGGED CONTRACTS,
POOR MANAGEMENT,
HORRIBLE PERFORMANCE LEVELS,
SEVERE RETALIATION AGAINST WHISTLE BLOWERS,
EXTREME DISORGANIZATION,
RARE ON-TIME PICK-UPS,
DISABLED PASSENGERS FORCED TO RIDE FOR HOURS,
NEPOTISM,
DISPATCHERS DON'T KNOW WHERE DRIVERS ARE,
POWER STRUGGLES,
SEXUAL HARASSMENT,
HOTBED FOR SINGLE WOMEN LOOKING FOR SUGAR DADDIES IN THE WORKPLACE.


Sources: Washington Post, WTOP, Youtube


******* How problems with MetroAccess have left D.C.’s most vulnerable commuters stranded


Users of Metro’s service for the elderly and people with disabilities say they have recently endured hours-long waits for rides, spent entire afternoons in vans traveling nonsensical routes and watched as fellow riders soiled themselves on unreasonably long trips.

The routes that MetroAccess drivers must follow are not only unnecessarily long, but sometimes also take them in the opposite directions from their destinations, say customers, including some who are blind, medically fragile or use wheelchairs. One former customer said her doctor recommended she stop using the service to get to her lung cancer treatments because it was too stressful.

For MetroAccess’s 43,000 registered customers, the problems began last September with a sudden, seven-point drop in on-time performance. The share of excessively late trips nearly tripled from the month before. Metro officials have blamed soaring numbers of late and missed trips on a driver shortage.

“I feel like because I have a disability, I’m being treated like less than everyone else,” said Shannon Minnick, 46, who is quadriplegic and uses a wheelchair.

Minnick, of Silver Spring, said she recently missed a doctor’s appointment after spending more than 2½ hours in a MetroAccess van for what is typically a 25-minute ride. On another recent trip, a driver taking her home from Rockville first picked up someone in Kensington, five minutes from her home, and then drove another passenger to north Silver Spring before heading south again to drop her off.

Nancy Childress, 63, of West Springfield, Va., recalled how one MetroAccess trip took so long this winter that another passenger soiled herself after being in the van for two to three hours.

“She couldn’t help it,” said Childress, who has trouble walking and balancing from being hit by a car two decades ago.

The driver disinfected the van, and they went on their way, Childress said.

Heidi Case, a disability advocate, said she knew a woman who almost called the police, frantic that she hadn’t heard from her severely disabled daughter who had been stuck in a van for more than two hours.

Those are the kinds of “disastrous things that are happening,” Case said. “It is a significant quality-of-life change.”

On-time performance remains near its lowest level since at least mid-2013. In April, 88 percent of customers were picked up on time — better than the 83 percent in the fall but still below Metro’s minimum target of 92 percent.

By April, the number of trips deemed “excessively late” — more than 20 minutes past the half-hour pickup window — had nearly doubled since last summer, from about 2,400 a month to 4,700. Incidents in which the driver never showed also doubled to almost 1,500 in April.

The number of botched and excessively late trips make up a relatively small portion — about 3 to 4 percent — of MetroAccess’s overall service. But with about 8,000 trips a day, the percentages mask thousands of missed appointments, late arrivals at work and frustrated customers who rely on the service to live independently.

While high driver turnover has been a problem in the paratransit industry for decades, Metro officials say the growth in services such as Uber and Lyft has further cut into the driver pool. The shortage worsened just as ridership was picking up from the summer lull, Metro officials said, even though the agency’s own data shows usage actually dropped by 9,500 passengers between August and October.

Christian Kent, Metro’s assistant general manager for access services, said contractors were down about 100 drivers in September, leaving the companies 10 percent short of the 1,000 needed for full service. As the driver shortage increased throughout the fall, Kent said, on-time performance couldn’t recover, even in months when ridership dropped.

“The contractors experienced a more competitive driver market than they have had to deal with in the past, and the number of people who applied for jobs with MetroAccess was lower than we’ve seen in the past,” Kent said.

Transit agencies are required to provide paratransit service under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and MetroAccess is the fifth-largest such program in the country. Usage has more than doubled in the past 14 years, from just under a million trips in 2003 to more than 2 million trips. It is the agency’s fastest-growing and most expensive service.

Metro spends about $100 million annually to provide Metro¬Access service via five contractors. The transit agency subsidizes 92 percent of the costs, with the rest covered by fare revenue.

Rides cost two times the equivalent bus or rail fare, with a maximum $6.50, for a trip that costs the agency an average of $50.

Customers must make a reservation a day in advance and are given a 30-minute pickup window. As a ride-sharing service, there are typically multiple passengers per van.

Many of those who rely on MetroAccess cannot easily navigate Metro or afford taxis or ride-hailing services.

Kent said a trip is considered late if it is even one minute outside the 30-minute pickup window.

Just because on-time performance dropped, he said, that doesn’t mean “that suddenly every trip is egregiously late.”

Contributing to the problem are the computer-generated routes that drivers are required to follow — even if they don’t make sense in terms of geography or time.

Documents obtained through a public records request show that MetroAccess contractors began “dropping” routes at a precipitous clip last August, meaning the companies didn’t have enough drivers to accept all the trips that the computer assigned them.

During some months last fall, as many as 1,337 trips had to be reassigned among available drivers.

Fewer drivers means those on hand must cover larger areas and have more trips tacked on to their routes, Kent said. Accommodating these “add-on” trips causes the circuitous routes that customers have complained about.

Steve Polkinghorn, of Burke, Va., said his commute home from his job in Arlington County used to rarely exceed 90 minutes. Now it can take more than two hours. That’s because the drivers who pick him up at his Crystal City office often head into the District to pick up another passenger before turning around and slogging through traffic back to Northern Virginia to take him home.

“Why am I driving due north when I live due south?” said Polkinghorn, who has multiple sclerosis.

Cindy LaBon, who is blind, said out-of-the-way routes have left her and her guide dog stuck in a van up to three hours.

In the fall, LaBon said, a fellow passenger who was mentally disabled began crying after the driver passed her street to drop off someone else miles way. The woman had already been in the van for three hours on a trip from Lanham to Silver Spring.

Two weeks ago, LaBon said, she spent more than two hours trying to get from Burtonsville to Gaithersburg — both in Montgomery County — in a van that first took her to Northwest Washington.

“They don’t know geography,” LaBon, 68, said of whoever sets the drivers’ routes. “They don’t even put trips [together] going in the same direction.”

While the computer suggests three options, staff members in the scheduling center can override the software, Kent said.

“On days when we have surging ridership and depleted drivers to route, sometimes the dispatchers don’t have an ideal choice coming out of the computer,” Kent said. “We are very much aware of the issue.”

Metro has fined the three companies that provide drivers — Transdev, First Transit and Diamond Transportation — almost $1 million each in contract “damages” since the fall.

But Metro officials say they’ve also cut the companies a financial break to help them hire more drivers. The agency has greatly reduced future financial penalties, in some cases by 90 percent, for six months, according to Metro. Transdev also has been allowed to use temporary drivers, a Metro spokeswoman said. And the agency recently agreed to pay the contractors “slightly” more so they could raise wages.

“It’s very difficult for them to put out the extra cash to pay drivers at a higher wage scale if, simultaneously, we’re taking the money back from them in damages,” Kent said.

Transdev, the company responsible for half of MetroAccess rides, blamed the sudden downturn on the difficulty of recruiting drivers, “given the current robust labor force and low unemployment rate.” The company said it had been fully staffed a year before the performance drop, but suddenly attrition rose and driver training classes shrank. Meanwhile, ridership increased in the fall just as back-to-school-and-work traffic jumped.

First Transit, which is responsible for 35 percent of Metro¬Access trips, said it faces the same problems attracting drivers. By fall, the company was short 35 to 50 drivers, spokesman Jay Brock said last month, and the workforce hadn’t fully recovered. Brock said the company is participating in job fairs, increasing its marketing and undertaking grass-roots efforts to attract new hires.

“We’re screening, interviewing, taking [applicants] through our background checks and trying to get them on the road and behind the wheel,” Brock said.

John Gray, acting project manager at MV Transportation, which manages the MetroAccess call center, directed reporters’ questions to Metro.

Kate Walden, a spokeswoman for Diamond Transportation, which provides 15 percent of MetroAccess trips, said driver shortages are occurring nationwide. She said the company is now “nearly fully staffed” for MetroAccess and is “aggressively recruiting to ensure we have a full complement of drivers this summer.”

A union representing paratransit drivers says Metro is letting contractors off the hook for poor service. A key problem, they say, remains the “poverty wages” drivers receive. The companies recently agreed to increase wages to at least $15 an hour, union officials said. For example, Transdev drivers who were making $13.85 an hour saw their wages increased to $16 an hour.

“You cannot operate a public service with a sweatshop employment model,” said Todd Brogan, a union organizer with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 at a recent demonstration urging Metro to stop using contractors for paratransit.

[Transit service for elderly, people with disabilities sees sharp decline]

Kent said training classes are now full and efforts continue to hire more drivers to meet the growing demand. The agency said late Friday that they were fully staffed. Metro also recently began receiving 207 new vans to replace older ones and expand the fleet by 25 vehicles.

The five-year MetroAccess contract expires in June 2018, and the agency is putting the new one out for bid. The agency also is exploring ways to partner with Uber, Lyft and other transportation services to provide same-day paratransit service at a fraction of the cost.

Kent said MetroAccess will improve, even as the number of people needing it continues to grow.

“There’s really not a choice,” Kent said. “MetroAccess is our responsibility to our customers with disabilities. We must provide it under the ADA, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

UBER & ERIC HOLDER versus KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS (JOBS)

UBER & ERIC HOLDER vs KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS

WHY IS KASIM REED (BLACK MAN) FIGHTING SO HARD TO STOP UBER FROM HIRING BLACK DRIVERS?

ERIC HOLDER PARTNERS WITH TRANSPORTATION GIANT UBER TO HELP EMPLOY QUALIFIED DRIVERS.

Sources: AJC, Sacbee, YouTube

***** Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder backs Uber in letter to Atlanta mayor

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has written a letter to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in support of Uber, as the city considers regulations of Uber pickups at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The Atlanta airport earlier this year proposed to legalize airport ride-share pickups and require fingerprint-based background checks for Uber X and Lyft drivers to pick up at Hartsfield-Jackson. Taxi and limo drivers who have long been fingerprinted say they want a level playing field.

Uber and Lyft have objected to the proposed requirement, saying they do their own background checks, which do not require fingerprints. The city of Atlanta is revising the airport proposal but has not said how it will change.

Holder, who was the nation’s first black attorney general, argues in the letter to Reed: “Requiring fingerprint-based background checks for non-law enforcement purposes can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color.”

Holder’s reasoning, also voiced by Uber: FBI records may lack information about the final outcome of some cases, and may not indicate if someone arrested was charged or convicted, so a fingerprint-based check “can prevent people from getting a job even if they were never found guilty of a crime.” That “disproportionately disadvantages people who have been arrested,” which “can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color,” Holder wrote.

Reed’s office and the airport acknowledged receiving the letter but declined to comment on it.

Holder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 and left office in April 2015, works for law firm Covington & Burling LLP. The firm has a relationship with Uber that is also connected to Holder. Holder’s former chief of staff Margaret Richardson also now works at Covington & Burling and is a member of Uber’s U.S. Safety Advisory Board, providing “critical recommendations and counsel” to Uber.

Holder has written recent similar letters to officials in New Jersey and Chicago amid ride-share debates there.

And former U.S. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan also wrote a letter in support of Uber to Reed. Sullivan is also on Uber’s safety advisory board.

“In my opinion the City’s proposal to require a fingerprint-based background check for drivers doing pick-ups with Uber and Lyft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlatna International Airport will neither increase nor improve airport security,” Sullivan wrote in his letter. He also wrote: “

Because there is a significant lack of information about the final outcome of cases, an individual may be prevented from a work opportunity even if he or she was never convicted or even charged with a crime.”

However, the state’s requirements for a “for-hire endorsement” on a driver license specify that in order to be eligible, applicants shall not have been convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude.

“The standards for the state level are a conviction,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation director of privacy and compliance Dawn Diedrich. A plea of nolo contendere is also considered a conviction.

Diedrich said if there is an arrest on record without information about whether there was a conviction, “you can ask the applicant” if the charges were dismissed.

California Approves Statewide High Speed Rail Infrastructure Project: JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!

Lawmakers Vote to Move Ahead With California Rail Link

Despite deepening doubts about the cost and feasibility of a $70 billion high-speed rail proposed to cross California, the State Senate on Friday narrowly approved legislation to spend $8 billion in federal and state money to begin construction, starting with a 130-mile stretch through the rural Central Valley.

The vote came as the federal government threatened to withdraw $3.3 billion in financing for the 520-mile project if the Legislature did not approve the release of state bond money to begin construction. Democrats and Republicans expressed fear that the project could be remembered as a boondoggle passed when the state is struggling through a fiscal crisis.

Polls suggests that voters have turned against the project after voting for it in 2008. Several Democrats, in arguing against the expenditure, warned that voters would be less likely to approve a tax package on the ballot this fall that Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said was necessary to avoid more cuts in spending on education and other programs.

The vote was a major victory for Mr. Brown, who had strongly urged lawmakers to approve the project, which eventually would link San Francisco to Los Angeles. He described it in keeping with the state’s tradition of grand projects and said it would pump money into the ailing economy. It was passed in the Senate with 21 votes, one more than was needed. The Assembly passed the measure on Thursday.

“How many chances do we have to vote for something this important and long-lasting?” said Darrell Steinberg, the Democratic president pro tem of the Senate.

Opposition cut across party lines. Speaker after speaker noted there was no source of revenue for the train line beyond the initial $8 billion, and that it was being built in rural California, far from where the bulk of the state’s population lived. Several noted the incongruity of embarking on such a major project weeks after passing a budget that included deep cuts in spending on schools and other programs.

“This is a colossal fiscal train wreck for California,” said Senator Tony Strickland, a Republican. “Members, this bill is spending money we simply don’t have here in California.”

Mr. Brown heralded the vote, saying, “The Legislature took bold action today that gets Californians back to work and puts California out in front once again.”


View Larger Map


Sources: CNN, LA Times, NY Times, PBS News, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Urges Congress To Act NOW On Student Loans & Construction Jobs: Weekly Address

Congress Must Act on Transportation Bill and Student Loans

President Obama discusses the urgent need for Congress to act now on two common sense measures to help middle class families: preventing interest rates on federal student loans from going up and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job.


Sources: White House.gov, Youtube

Gas Prices Irk Southern Voters; High Speed Rail Badly Needed In The South!

In 2011 the GOP's Political Gimmick was "The Federal Deficit".

In 2012 its "Gas Prices".

Did you know that for decades the Federal Gov't has been paying Big Oil Companies Billions Annually in Tax Payer Money just to keep Gas Prices low?

So in essence We (Tax Payers) are paying these Blood Suckers NOT to charge us $50 & $60. a Gallon versus $2.00, $3.00 & $4.00 a Gallon.

WOW!

Which States use more Oil & Gas?

Southern States!

Which States Oppose Pres. Obama's Nationwide High Speed Rail Plans?

Southern States!

Its time to Eliminate those Federal Subsidies, Build High Speed Rail in the Southern States & Stop Depending on Foreign Oil.





Price of Gas Matters to Voters, but Doesn’t Seem to Sway Votes


Stacy Hawks is angry that the rising price of gasoline is squeezing the profits of her father’s produce company and draining the wallets of friends who drive trucks. She is angry that the government has not acted to reverse the trend.

But Ms. Hawks, 26, a North Carolina resident who describes herself as very conservative, said she does not expect the price of gas to influence her vote in November.

“What I look for in a candidate is whether or not they have experience, values, morals,” said Ms. Hawks. “Mostly, I want someone that I trust as a leader.”

There may be no number stamped more frequently on the American landscape than the price of gas. And as the average price has climbed toward $4 a gallon nationwide, it has generated abundant chatter about the threat to the economic recovery, and to incumbent politicians.

Republicans have seized on the issue to attack President Obama’s management of the economy. The president has responded with speeches defending his energy policies, including increased domestic oil production.

But there is surprisingly little evidence that gas prices deserve an outsize reputation for economic and political influence.

Studies suggest that most voters agree with Ms. Hawks: they are angry about gas prices, but other factors, like the economy and the personal qualities of candidates, ultimately determine their votes.

Gas prices influence voters indirectly, because rising prices can slow the pace of growth. But the influence is modest, because spending on oil and its derivatives makes up only a small part of the nation’s economic activity. Gas purchases account for less than 4 percent of household spending. Prices would need to increase by at least 28 percent to lift that share by a single percentage point. So far this year, they have jumped by 15 percent.

“Presidential elections are based on evaluations of presidential performance and on the performance of the economy. You can’t reduce that to one small issue,” said Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University. “Are gas prices part of the equation that people think about? They probably are, but only a small piece.”

Rising gas prices also make Americans less confident in the nation’s economic prospects and less approving of political leaders, according to public opinion surveys. But these, too, are small effects. One study by a political scientist estimated that the impact of changes in unemployment was 27 times greater than the impact of equivalent changes in gas prices.

In part, the difference is that Americans are divided as to whether politicians should be held responsible.

Donald J. Wheeler, a ball bearing tester from Springfield, Ohio, said people blamed the president because it was the easiest thing to do. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “In my opinion, it’s the companies that are gouging people.”

Brian Gregory, who delivers auto parts in northern Virginia, spends about $60 most weekdays filling his station wagon. He said that he blamed Mr. Obama for failing to control prices and that the issue was a major reason he planned to vote “either for a Republican or not at all.”

“I don’t understand health care as well as I should,” he said. “Housing, I’m kind of vague on that. But this I can definitely understand.”

Gas prices exert an unrivaled hold on the public imagination. Americans spend more on gas than on almost any other single good, and the exact amount is hard to miss as the numbers spin by on the pump. It hurts to watch, but there is also little choice. People can substitute chicken for steak, but they still need to drive the same distance to work.

When prices rise, people wait to buy cars; they travel less; they buy fewer lottery tickets and spend less on child care, according to a study by Paul Edelstein and Lutz Kilian, economics professors at the University of Michigan.

Michael Wills has stopped driving weekly from his home in Fairfax, Va., to his father’s home in North Beach, Md., a distance of 50 miles. Mr. Wills, 56, said he had seen his father only a few times in recent months.

Amy Rivera, 24, of Orlando, said she shorted her electric bill last month to make sure she had enough money for gas.

And Pat Rosenbeck, 57, a restaurant owner from Franklin, Ohio, said the flow of customers had slowed as gas climbed above $3 a gallon.

The impact on happiness is even larger than the changes in spending, according to a 2010 study by researchers at the Brookings Institution, in part because people do not like uncertainty, and they do not know how high prices will climb.

Republican primary voters overwhelmingly cite gas prices as an important issue. But voters’ views of a president are influenced by a wide range of issues.

Rising gas prices sometimes track declines in presidential approval ratings. Gallup reported that President George W. Bush’s ratings fell to 48 percent at the end of October 2004, just before Election Day, from 60 percent in January. The price of a gallon of regular gas climbed 27 percent over the same period.

But gas prices often move out of sync with approval ratings, too. President Bill Clinton’s ratings rose to 54 percent just before Election Day from 42 percent in early January 1996, even as the price of gas climbed 13 percent.

Since 1976, a 30-cent increase in gas prices over a three-month period has corresponded to a reduction of two percentage points in a president’s approval rating if other economic factors are held constant, according to an analysis by John Sides, a professor of political science at George Washington University.

That kind of movement has not been sufficient to affect the outcome of a presidential election, he said. “I think of the information flow that takes place during a presidential campaign as a big, wide Mississippi River, and gas prices are a tributary that flows into that river,” Professor Sides said. “It’s hard for one number, even if it’s staring you in the face while you’re pumping gas, to burn through all the other information that’s out there about the economy and the candidate.”

A key implication, however, is that gas prices could make a difference if the movements were large enough and the race was close enough.

A 2011 study of the impact of economic conditions on regional voting patterns found that the spike in gas prices in the summer of 2008 did give a small boost to Mr. Obama. Independent voters in areas where prices climbed highest reported a significantly more negative view of the health of the economy and were less likely to vote for incumbents.

James Gimpel, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland who was a co-author of the study, said the increased volatility of gas prices was raising its importance in elections. “It may well be that this is an emerging factor that we’ll have to consider,” he said. “But if I can rely on that old social sciences copout, we need more evidence.”


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Sources: MSNBC, NY Times, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

N.C. GOP Slams Democrats Over Unfair DOT/ Roads Funding (Decision 2010)

N.C. GOP Campaigns On Roads Funding Issue


Traffic jams still cut as a campaign issue in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, even in an election year focused on jobs. And Republicans have noticed.

John Aneralla, a GOP N.C. state Senate candidate, plans to pound his Democratic opponent over the county's need for road money.

"As I sit in traffic on I-77 - knowing that's one of the roads that should have been widened years ago and I-485 should have been finished years ago - absolutely I'm going to use that issue," said Aneralla, the lone Republican candidate for the seat held by Sen. Malcolm Graham, a Charlotte Democrat.

GOP candidates already have political momentum behind them, given the anti-establishment tenor of many voters. Now Republican legislative candidates in Mecklenburg are starting to argue that incumbent Democrats who control the state legislature haven't gotten enough road money funneled to the city - a contention that resonates with voters weary of staring at four lanes of brake lights.

An Observer report last month revealed how Charlotte-Mecklenburg County ranked 89th out of 100 counties in per capita road spending by the state.

"It's definitely an issue Republicans can use," said Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm.

The difficulty for the GOP, Jensen said, is that Charlotte-Mecklenburg offers perhaps only one competitive district among the county's five Senate and 10 House seats, that of retiring Rep. Jim Gulley, a Republican. The rest are drawn to safely elect either a Democrat or Republican.

Democrats are playing defense, too.

Malcolm Graham organized a town hall-style meeting at Mallard Creek High School last week, less than a month before the primary, to talk with his constituents about the forthcoming completion of Interstate 485. State transportation officials are in the process of selecting a contractor.

Graham, whose district has a solid Democratic voting history, co-chairs a Budget committee on Transportation Funding and emphasized that he is pushing to change the not-so-aptly-named state equity formula for road funding.

Many Urban leaders criticize the formula as shortchanging the cities. Graham and urban legislators in both parties want the formula to include traffic congestion in determining where the money goes.

"I don't think people care about Democrats or Republicans with respect to transportation," Graham said. "They just want the roads built."

Rep. Thom Tillis, a Huntersville Republican, holds a relatively safe GOP seat, but he's helping other Republican House candidates in hopes of winning a majority.

If that happens, Tillis is widely expected to run for speaker. His advice: "Needle Democrats on the lack of road funding".

"It falls behind Jobs and the Tax issue (with voters)," Tillis said. "But it's right up there after that."

Urban and Rural Funding

Republican candidates are expected to accuse local Democrats of following legislative leaders from the eastern half of the state who treat Charlotte as an afterthought.

When Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, a Democrat from the Outer Banks, held a Charlotte fundraiser in January, former Sen. Robert Pittenger, a Charlotte Republican, dispatched a mailing to a dozen of the 44 invitees.

The packet included a copy of a letter Basnight sent to four Democratic senators on the coast last fall, talking about legislative battles in which he helped protect the interests of Eastern North Carolina communities.

"Our urban areas are congested, yes," Basnight wrote on transportation funding, for example, "but they also are home to major employers and economic sectors that benefit their local economies. Improving infrastructure in our rural areas will help businesses and economic growth to our communities, too."

Sen. Bob Rucho, a Charlotte Republican, is encouraging GOP candidates to deploy road funding as campaign ammunition.

He questioned why Charlotte donors would help Basnight maintain a Democratic majority in the Senate when Rucho says Basnight is pumping state money into rural areas devoid of road congestion.

"People in the Charlotte area and the business community need to know that Marc Basnight is not working for their best interests," Rucho said.

Basnight said he supports the current equity formula for road funding but that urban and rural communities alike need money. Roads are what draw businesses and jobs, he said, arguing that a change in the formula takes money away from low income communities in the mountains and in the east.

"Would it stop economic development in the east and west?" he said. "I don't believe the people of Charlotte want (that)."


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Sources: Interstate Guide.com, McClatchy Newspapers, MUMPO, N.C. General Assembly, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte's Mayor Foxx Spends $500M On 1.5 Mile Streetcar, Mocks Jobs

(Beware: The contents of this post are one of the reasons why North Carolina officials, including some Charlotte City Council Members are working hard behind the scenes to get rid of me.)


On the heels of Pres. Obama trying to reign in unnecessary Congressional Spending, Charlotte's new Mayor Anthony Foxx and his Partisan City Council Political Hacks (Democrats) voted last night to spend $500 Million on a Streetcar in a looming Recession, which will only travel 1.5 miles.

This is nothing more than a Mayoral Legacy, Vote Buying Scheme and he's taking money out of these necessary City Fund budgets to make his dream a reality:

1) Business Corridor Revitalization, 2) Economic 3) Development and Smart Growth.

In addition this foolish Spending spree will cause Property Taxes to increase because the Federal Gov't will only give $25 Million to help finance it.

When asked about creating Jobs last night Foxx actually mocked the issue by speaking with disdain not compassion in his voice for Charlotte's unemployed:

"You know I've heard over and over again about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs".

So he's going to take money from the City's Business Corridor Revitalization Fund allocated to help create Jobs in Lower Income areas to finance a Democrat Vote Buying, 1.5 mile traveling Streetcar.

This is why Pres. Obama does NOT need to give City Mayors blank checks when it comes to distributing Stimulus Funds.

Here are 7 reasons why Charlotte doesn't need a Streetcar right now:

a) Charlotte's population is less than 1 Million citizens because due to problems with Bank of America and High Unemployment (11%) people are leaving like crazy.

b) Charlotte already has a Mass Public Transportation system with a Light Rail line, City Buses and Street Trolleys.

c) I don't care how much Foxx spins this Streetcar issue it will NOT spur long term Job Growth for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Region!

d) The Streetcar Foxx is spending $500M to develop will in fact travel the SAME places Charlotte's City Buses already travel.

e) Instead of using this money to extend Charlotte's Light Rail line as promised by Foxx while campaigning and during his tenure on the Charlotte City Council, he's using these Funds to buy Votes from East/West Charlotte citizens.

f) If Charlotte City Officials (including Foxx a former City Council Member) were serious about this Streetcar why didn't they start it 5 years ago when Charlotte's Economy was booming?

g) Foxx is also going to more than likely personally benefit from this transaction because of his connections with Design Line Intl.

(Foxx is an Attorney for Design Line Intl, a company which manufactures Hybrid City Buses for the City of Charlotte.)


Now do you understand why Charlotte City Officials should NOT be wasting $500 Million a Streetcar project at this time.

I'm not opposed to expanding Charlotte's Mass Public Transportation System.

I'm only opposed to Waste for Political Gain disguised as expanding Charlotte's Mass Public Transportation System.

Mayor Foxx thinks he's so slick and so "highly intelligent" he can continue fooling Charlotte Constituents.

Corrupt Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon thought so too.

It happened in Baltimore where disgraced Mayor Shelia Dixon hiked taxes on city parking lots by 18 percent in order to provide "Free" bus service via buses from Mayor Anthony Foxx’s DesignLine International bus-builder. This is what Charlotte has to look forward to — tax hikes, waste, and corruption.

Vote For Charlotte Streetcar, Vote For a Tax Hike
Meck Deck Blog



As I've stated several times previously you can thank your friendly neighborhood newspaper the Charlotte Observer (community nickname: "Charlotte Disturber") for this bit of loveliness.

WARNING: Going forward don't just listen to Foxx's words, watch his actions!

Foxes are extremely sly, cunning animals.

Keep reading for more details on how Mayor Anthony Foxx plans to "improve Charlotte's Transportation system" with Taxpayer money.

Please vote responsibly during the 2010 Midterm elections, 2011 (when Foxx's term ends) and in 2012 (next Presidential bid).









Charlotte City Council Votes To Seek $25 million Federal Grant For Streetcar


Charlotte is going to ask the federal government for $25million to help build a streetcar line uptown.

The City Council voted 7-4 Monday night to apply for a grant that would pay for much of a 1.5-mile line from the Charlotte Transportation Center to Presbyterian Hospital on Hawthorne Drive in the Elizabeth neighborhood.

If successful, the city would need to spend at least $12 million of its own money to finish construction.

Republicans Andy Dulin, Warren Cooskey and Edwin Peacock voted against seeking the grant, along with Democrat Warren Turner.

The Charlotte Area Transit System's long-term transit plan calls for a 10-mile streetcar line from Beatties Ford Road to Eastland Mall via uptown. The line's entire cost has been estimated at between $450 and $500 million - roughly the same cost as the Lynx light-rail line from uptown south to I-485.

The challenge has been finding money to pay for it.

CATS doesn't have the money. The Federal Transit Administration has historically not funded streetcars, though the Obama administration recently changed that rule and released some money for streetcars. The maximum one city could receive is $25 million.

"For every local dollar that goes into the grant, we get two federal dollars back," said Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, a Democrat whose campaigned for mayor last year advocated a streetcar line.

Cooksey and Dulin held a news conference Monday afternoon to voice their opposition to the line.

Dulin said seeking the federal grant would send "mixed messages" to Washington as to which transit project is most important to Charlotte. Regional plans call for a commuter rail line north to the Lake Norman area and for extending the Lynx light-rail line from uptown northeast to University City.

The city of Charlotte stepped up its streetcar quest two years ago.

The service would begin at the Charlotte Transportation Center near the Time Warner Cable Arena. It would go south down Trade Street and link with streetcar tracks already in place on Elizabeth Avenue to Presbyterian Hospital.

The line would have a small loop around the arena to tie into the light-rail tracks. That would allow streetcars to be stored at the light-rail maintenance facility south of the New Bern light-rail station.

"This is a step in the right direction - we have already invested taxpayer dollars in it," said Democratic council member Patrick Cannon, referring to the streetcar tracks installed on Elizabeth Avenue.

The city estimates it would handle 950 trips a day based on bus ridership on the segment today. By comparison, the multicar, 9.6-mile Lynx handles 14,000-15,000 passenger trips a day.

One downside to the starter streetcar line is that it wouldn't replace any existing routes. That means the Charlotte Area Transit System would continue to operate existing service like the Gold Rush, and someone - either CATS or the city - would have to pay for the streetcar's estimated $1.5 million annual operating cost.

Assistant City Manager Jim Schumacher said it's unknown whether CATS or the city would pay for the operating costs.

The $37 million cost also doesn't include buying new trolleys. One option is to use three replica streetcars that the non-profit Charlotte Trolley uses through South End.

"We don't have to buy cars," said Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess, a Democrat who voted to seek the grant. "That buys us time. Everything is coming together."

City Manager Curt Walton has identified $24 million that could be used for the streetcar. He has proposed spending $2.5million set aside for engineering and design of the streetcar. He also has tapped $10.5 million set aside for economic development, $4 million from "smart growth" funds and $7 million from a business corridor revitalization fund.






Charlotte City Smart Growth, Economic Development Funds May Be Tapped For Streetcar


The city has the money to take a first step in building its proposed streetcar project. It should use it.

Tonight the Charlotte City Council is to decide whether to apply for a $25 million federal grant for a $37 million project that would build 1.5 miles of its proposed 10-mile streetcar line. The city would have to find $12 million for its share.

City staff suggested pulling the $12 million from among four different pools of city money. The council's Transportation Committee recommends using three of those pools: $2.5 million in unspent streetcar planning money, a $4 million "Smart Growth" revolving fund and $5.5 million from $10.5 million set aside in debt capacity for economic development projects. Because the streetcar is a council priority, and because the money appears to be available, it's likely the council will opt to apply for the grant.

Whether the city will win the federal grant, of course, isn't known. City staff said they're optimistic, however.

The council must also decide whether to apply for another federal grant for a $15 million project to add hybrid electric "Sprinter" buses and increase the frequency along Central Avenue and Beatties Ford Road routes. Similar buses are already being used to run to the airport from the uptown Transportation Center. This would mean a rider could get on a "Sprinter" on Central and ride clear to the airport. The Charlotte Area Transit System already has the money needed to pay its share of the project. As we said last week, that should be a no-brainer.

The streetcar question is trickier and more political. The full route would eventually run from Beatties Ford Road at Interstate 85 through uptown and out Central Avenue to Eastland Mall. The section under consideration goes from Presbyterian Hospital to the Transportation Center uptown. Tracks and some of the wiring have already been installed between the hospital and Kings Drive, and the city already owns three faux-historic streetcars.

Last year the council's Republicans voted against the streetcar planning money, objecting to spending money on a project with no revenue source. And last week, council member Warren Cooksey pointed out that the $12 million might be better spent on other needs such as sidewalks and bike lanes.

Democrats, many of whom represent neighborhoods where the streetcar would run, are more enthusiastic about its potential to lure development. Mayor Anthony Foxx has said repeatedly the streetcar would likely be built in small segments - as other cities such as Portland, Ore., have done.

Some people don't think the streetcar is a good idea to start with. Some people think any transit spending is wasteful. We disagree.

The need for good public transit will only grow stronger as the city grows, traffic worsens, gas prices rise and the city struggles to escape its auto-generated ozone pollution problem.

Now, it appears, the city might get $25 million in unexpected federal money. It would be smart to take advantage of it.







Anthony Foxx: No Property Tax Hike For Charlotte Streetcar


Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx said Thursday he wouldn't raise property taxes to pay for a streetcar, despite his vote to move ahead with the project and suggestions from city staff that a hike may be needed.

"We aren't proposing or considering any increase in property taxes, and now would be a terrible time to think of that," he told the Observer. "I will not raise property taxes for the streetcar."

The streetcar and property tax issues came up when Foxx and Republican John Lassiter spoke to a luncheon of the Charlotte Regional Mortgage Lenders Association at the Myers Park Country Club.

Lassiter has also opposed property tax increases.

The rivals, both at-large city council members, were on opposite sides last month when council Democrats overrode Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million to start design work on the line.

The project, which would run from Johnson C. Smith University through uptown to Eastland Mall, would cost over $450 million. It's unclear where the money would come from.

"I could not promise to build something I didn't know how to pay for," Lassiter told the mortgage group.

Foxx defended his vote. He said the line would bring economic development to neighborhoods that need it. One study showed new development could generate $112million in new property taxes over 20 years.

"The future of our city is dependent on making every part ... a great place to live in," he told the group.

On Monday the city staff outlined ways to pay for the line to the council's Transportation Committee, which Foxx chairs. One option called for creating a special taxing district along the line and enacting a 4-cent tax hike for every $100 of taxable value. Another called for a citywide tax increase of 2 cents.

The city's current tax rate is 45.86cents.

"By supporting the streetcar, I'm not committing myself to a property tax increase," Foxx said later.

During the meeting, he defended his vote for a 2006 city budget that raised property taxes 9 percent - the first increase in at least a decade. Lassiter voted against the budget.

Foxx said the tax hike helped pay for the 70 new officers the police chief requested, more than in the no-new-tax budget supported by Lassiter and McCrory. It also brought in money for new roads and neighborhood improvements.

He suggested that without the tax hike, Charlotte's crime rate might not have gone down. Police say it's down 20percent from a year ago.

"You can't out a price on (a) family's sense of safety, put a value on the life saved because we had the additional police officers," he told the group.

Lassiter has criticized "unnecessary and unmanaged government spending" that he says had nothing to do with police, roads or neighborhoods.

Thursday he alluded to this year's General Assembly actions that raised the state sales tax by a penny and enacted surcharges of 2 percent or 3percent on some taxpayers. He told the mortgage lenders that he'll keep taxes down.

"We're in a high-taxed city in a high-taxed state," he said. "We've got to right the ship."







Finding That Charlotte Streetcar Money


Just finished an interview with Charlotte budget director Ruffin Hall (NOT Ruffin Poole, just in case you're confused by the Ruffins), to find where in the budget this $12 million was hiding. What $12 million? See yesterday's post. Or read on.

Of course, it isn't really hiding. The city staff is pointing to a variety of city funds (listed in the city budget) that still have money in them, funds set aside for just this sort of thing: a project that arises unexpectedly for which elected officials would like to find money.

In this instance, the city is considering whether to set aside $12 million, which it would spend if it gets a $25 million federal grant. The $37 million total would build a 1.5-mile first segment of a proposed 10-mile streetcar line. The City Council is to vote Monday on whether to apply for that grant (plus another one that would add hybrid electric buses). If the city can't find/isn't willing to spend the $12 million there's no point in applying for the grant. Here's a quick rundown of the $12 million:

First, it is capital expense money.

That's a separate, $803 million budget apart from the overall $1 billion operating budget that pays for things such as police officers and garbage collection. (You may or may not like the idea of spending the $12 million but it isn't money that could be used to hire more police.) Remember, too, the airport and the water/sewer departments, while counted in the budget, are self-sustaining "enterprise funds." (Also here's the perennial reminder: The city doesn't pay for schools, parks and recreation, welfare, mental health facilities or a variety of other needs paid by the county or state.)

- $2.5 million in streetcar planning funds. Last summer, in a controversial vote, the City Council allocated $8 million for streetcar planning and engineering. The contract came in for less, and $2.5 million is available. You can find it on page 166 of the city budget. Here's a link. This comes from a pot of money called PAYGO (pay as you go). This budget year the city put roughly $96 million into this fund, which is spent for things like transit maintenance, street improvements, roof replacements, etc.

- $10.5 million in reserve for economic development initiatives. This isn't PAYGO money. It's money set aside to repay debt the city might choose to take on. The council's transportation committee members Thursday said they'd use $5.5 million of this fund. Look on page 163 of the budget.

- $ 7 million in business corridor revitalization funds. These, too are PAYGO funds, as yet unspent. The committee didn't want to do this.

- $4 million in Smart Growth fund. That brings us to a multimillion "Smart Growth" fund, which the committee recommends using as part of the needed $12 million. Many folks wonder: The city just has $4 million sitting around that we didn't know about? I asked Hall. It turns out the money isn't just sitting around in some secret account. It's been used to help with transit-oriented development along South Boulevard.

Hall said it's a revolving fund (i.e., the city replenishes it with money the fund itself generates) that the council hasn't put money into for years. Because it doesn't get money allocated to it, it's not a line item on the budget. It would be on the city's financial statement, he said. Here's a link to that. I ran out of time to do more than a search for "Smart Growth" which turned up nothing. (Other writing deadlines loom larger and larger as I type this.)

Hall said the Smart Growth fund was used, for instance, when the city spent money for its proposed Scaleybark transit oriented development project. When the city sold the land to a developer (the project is stuck in the recession and is delayed), the money went back into this fund. I have a call in to Economic Development director Tom Flynn, in whose department Hall said, the fund sits. Hall didn't know whether taking $4 million would drain the fund.

Update: Flynn just called. He says that when Scaleybark Partners, the developer, repays the city in February the Smart Growth fund will have $4 million in it. It was set up as a revolving fund 9 or 10 years ago, he said, to be used for projects of that sort.

Bottom line: Money is fungible. A smart city manager will always keep things flexible enough so he or she can find funds for projects the elected officials want - or for things that arise unexpectedly midyear. I want managers who can do that. At the same time, I think the public (and elected officials) are owed more transparency about how much money is sitting, awaiting expenditure. It's smart to have some reserve money. It's also smart, if you're a council member, to know just what your reserve money is and where it lives in your budget.







CATS Requests More Tax Dollars For Charlotte Streetcar


CATS said the streetcar line planned between Beatties Ford Road and Eastland Mall would cost about $372 million. It would open in two parts. The first part would open in 2018 and the rest would open in 2023.

Many people along the proposed line are pressuring officials to build it sooner. As a result, city leaders are looking at ways to pay for it sooner. They asked CATS to look into other other funding options to build the line now, like new taxes for people who own property along the line or even projects that aren't built yet along the stretch.

Charlotte council member Nancy Carter said, "It's crucial for us. It's moving people. This is public transit."

People voted for the half-cent sales tax for projects like this and, transit officials said, that'll cover part of the tab, but not all of it.



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Sources: NY Times, Meck Deck Blog, John Locke Foundation, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WCNC, Baltimore Sun, Charmeck.org, Google Maps