urbanSTL

The NGA isn't an urban renewal agency. And World Wide Tech isn't an urban renewal company. And my county friends aren't urban renewal families. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We have seen over and over again what selfish and short-sighted decisions will do to this region. Either we as citizens and companies and organizations take it upon ourselves to make regionally responsible decisions or we continue to watch our region slow grow itself to death.

One family or one business or one government agency is always just one situation or not the right situation to take this stance on. Until you put them altogether, and then you've destroyed a city and with it a region.

Sad and true. This: "You get too much!" is funny because Shiloh is a cow town and has a fckng air force base and super-subsidized "airport".

^ Apparently St. Clair county has proposed extending Metrolink to the proposed NGA site and MidAmerica Airport:

http://www.co.st-clair.il.us/nga/Pages/default.aspx

Historic flooding at that. I-55 and I-70 have never previously closed due to flooding, and I-44 has only had issues a couple times before. Grasping at straws. On the flipside, building more impervious surface over farmland in sprawlland only exacerbates flooding.

Randy wrote:^ Apparently St. Clair county has proposed extending Metrolink to the proposed NGA site and MidAmerica Airport:

http://www.co.st-clair.il.us/nga/Pages/default.aspx

What if the big Metro/Public transportation news is, the City/State announce the N-S Metrolink to aid in efforts to keep NGA here?

^^ ...City/State offer up spending $1,800,000,000 to keep a $3,400,000 in earnings tax....tho that is something the city would TOTALLY do. and N/S isnt being built without Fed 50% at least...next available fed $ for transit expansion is free around 2024...so at best N/S would be open for riders in about 2028-2030

Why would the City pay for Metrolink in the County? You can take a big chunk of cost out of that $1.8 billion.

I think the point is they ain't doing it without matching federal funds. And those aren't available until '24

moorlander wrote:I think the point is they ain't doing it without matching federal funds. And those aren't available until '24

Unless they find a new tax...

But not lets forget Dbln way of showing a one time capital expense against annual earnings revenue number. His point is will taken because if you annualized the cost of building N-S @ $1.8 billion over thirty or forty years say plus the annual operating expenses less the fare box it will still be a huge number against the $3,400,000 in annual payroll tax earnings. It simply doesn't make financially sense for state, county and city to propose such a commitment.

Probably a good comparison is the annual bond/debt payment costs on the Cross County extension after that was built @ +$650 million without Feds help at a length that would be comparable to what would be in the city. I'm guessing that debt payments have to be in the $25-30 million range which would be close to ten times the amount of earnings tax revenues

The city is probably better off proposing a streetcar extension as part of the St Louis corridor street car plan or even a stand alone N-S streetcar just as St. Clair proposed extending metrolink. To me its a wash on fixed transit because both accomplish the same and neither parties bidding have a leg to stand on whether it will be funded let alone built. Fed funds are for all intents and purposes are committed several years out. At the same time, MO doesn't fund transit and IL budget is a huge mess from already funding everything that buys votes. Comes down to city taking on debt for the streetcar and St Clair county on the debt for metrolink extension or both giving Metro funds for specific bus/better service

Which all gets us back to the family guy.

The positives of the N/S line would hopefully extend beyond NGA (which it really doesn't get very close to under the route in the study, btw).

Remember we have $4.7B for our poo, no problem including interest on $900M in bonds, plus another $900M if Prop Y passes.

The poo issue is federally mandated. Light rail is not.
Biggest issue with applying for New Starts program is by 2024 a GOP president could kill the program. So while the Feds today could promise us let's say $600m in 2024 but it comes with a condition that says this assumes the New Starts or its successor exists in 2024

not sure if its a rule but after Cross County went from $250M to $600M, i think the regional leaders said never again with local only money.

^ Too bad cross-county/Blue Line extension is pretty much a waste because Richmond Heights, Brentwood, Maplewood, and Shrewsbury have shown little or no interest in TOD or supporting a walkable built environment around their stations. We should've just stopped the western terminus at Clayton station and saved the rest of the funds to add transit density for the N-S line. I don't think we can afford any more extensions at the periphery. We need more density in the center.

Announcement will be Apr 1