BIKE: No more cheap oil -- local implications

[Patrick Goetz]

Mike Dahmus wrote:

> those is the problem that Daryl Slusher promised to solve. And I don't 
> think that N/NE on Lamar past 183 corridor is economically viable 
> anyways - most central workers live northwest, not at Lamar/Rundberg, 
> and most reverse commuters from the center-city are headed northwest, 
> not north.
> 

Good point, I'm glad you brought this up.

In order to be cost effective, a Metro line will need much higher 
population densities and better land use than we currently have.  As 
Mike points out, there is currently a lot more development N/NW than 
there is N/NE.  This is precisely why we want the initial Metro line to 
run N/NE.  The area along North Lamar north of Airport Bvd. and between 
Lamar and IH35 beyond is ripe for high density redevelopment.  The 
relatively new and very low density housing taking up much of the 
available land N/NW won't be redeveloped for a long time.  As Mike knows 
from seeing the monorail presentation, the way we make the financials 
work is through increased real estate tax revenues through TOD; these 
kinds of systems simply cannot work unless significant very high-density 
redevelopment occurs around the rail stations.

One can view this as a bit of manipulative urban engineering, but it's 
really a nuts and bolts proposal to save the Austin economy (while at 
the same helping to curtail urban sprawl, protect the environment, and 
create a cooler, more bike & pedestrian friendly community).  A Metro 
would not only help to stimulate and guide this development but would 
also give us a new high efficiency corridor along which employers such 
as Dell, IBM, AMD, Samsung, and Applied Materials could build 
facilities.  Rather than have Dell move their operations to yet another 
state, we could offer them a pad site with transportation infrastructure 
that would guarantee that employees from all over town could get to work 
safely and quickly without having to sit in traffic and in a time 
guaranteed fashion.  Because monorail is considerably cheaper to build 
and operate than elevated traditional rail or a subway system, actual 
fares aren't a critical part of the financials supporting the system, so 
we can cavalierly make deals in such cases which would provide employees 
of such operations with free rides to work everyday.  This is something 
which would give us a competitive advantage over other regions.  Who 
wouldn't prefer to work for a company and in a place where you can live 
in a hip and affordable part of town while still getting to work every 
morning in 15 minutes with minimal hassle?  We'll attract the best 
employees, hence the employers who need their services; then vice versa.

On the flip side, if we don't do something like this soon, we can expect 
to continue to see the downward economic slide that we've been 
experiencing since King W has occupied the throne.  I don't know about 
anyone else, but this has been less than fun for me.  A number of my 
friends are unemployed and this list has seen a number of good folks and 
valuable members of the bicycling community forced to move away because 
they couldn't find a job in Austin.