palchik

The Green Line serves Deep Ellum.

The station is publicly funded in the sense that it is literally funded by the by the people who listen to it
If you ever listened to KERA, you would be familiar with their very annoying, yet necessary pledge drives. Only 2% of NPR funding comes from government grants (and even that is not a guarantee, as the grants are competitive and have to be applied for). The rest of the funding comes from VOLUNTARY listener support, and private underwriting.

Transfers to the Green Line can also be made at St. Paul and West End stations

One of the things I like most about this site, is how devoid it generally is of politics. I wish it would stay that way. I have nothing against Republicans - in fact I often vote for them, but political endorsements just seem so out of place here. They would be so much more appropriate for a site called something like "Collin County Republican." Anyone else agree?

Scot: if you think that the truth, as you see it, is not substantially disseminated, than by all means go out and spread the word. That’s what democracy is all about: ideas competing in the public arena for all the people to see (and judge). However, it is very pretentious of you to basically declare that the voters had no idea what they were doing the last time they rejected a DART pull-out referendum by a 77% to 23% margin. I assure you that there were plenty of people advocating views identical to yours prior to that referendum in 1996. Maybe the results would have been different if you were around. Maybe you would have been able to make a more convincing argument, or may you would have just found a way to suppress the comments of your opponents like you do on your Collin County Republican Blog. I tried to post an opposing view in the comments section of your blog, but apparently my post was rejected. Hmmm….

"Now if a train ran within 10 miles of my commute destination, I'd be a rabid fan. But as it is, it's someone else's convenience I'm paying for. Like "Robin Hood" for commuters."

But thats sort of the paradox...when the government used our tax dollars to build the interstate highway system, they unleashed a wave of decentralization, meaning the likelihood of transit being within 10 miles of anyone's commuter destination decreased precipitously.

For a while it was great fun for the early adopters of the automobile-centric suburban lifestyle. But after a while, every Tom, Dick, and Harry was living in the suburbs and trying to shove their car into the jammed-up arterial streets that then fed into the clogged-up freeways. It wouldn't even be so bad if it was just twice a day that you had to fight traffic, but because of the development patterns needed to accommodate 2, 3, or even 4-car households walking became an impossibility. You need to buy some toothpaste? Hop in the car! The kid needs to go to baseball practice? Hop in the car! For every aspect of everyday life, the answer became hop in the car, and the traffic jams just got longer and later. Then Tom, Dick, and Harry got older...so old in fact that they probably shouldn't be operating heavy machinery. But what are you gonna do? Gotta live right? So finally, some civic leaders decided that maybe we had gone a bit too far with this automobile dependence stuff. Maybe cars weren't the answer to all of our problems...maybe they were actually the cause of some of those problems. These civic leaders managed to organize a series of referendums on the prospect of creating a special taxing authority that would be charged with providing public transportation with the money it collected. Sure it was tough to overlay a functional transit system over a landscape that had evolved almost exclusively to serve the car, but they had to start somewhere. Now this transit system is finally starting to get its legs if you will, and expanding to serve more and more people in more and more places. So what do we do? Should we support it as an alternative to the auto-centric model that has been our ONLY choice for a half-century, or do we abandon it because we believe there's not enough of it (as twisted as that logic is). I think we are on the right track (sorry for the pun), and besides, Rome was not built in a day.

Speaking of bikes, DART now has bike racks on the front of evey bus. If you get tired of biking, you can just put your bike on the rack and ride for part of the trip.

I've been up to downtown Plano plenty of times. I've even spent a few bucks on beer up there.

As for calculating the cost of DART on you, it really depends on how much you buy and where. DART is funded by a 1% sales tax, meaning one cent out of every dollar you spend in any of DART's member cities goes to fund transit. That mean that when you shop at IKEA in Frisco, you are not funding DART, but when a Frisco resident buys something at the Shops at Legacy they are funding DART. Anyway, no two of us have the same shopping habits, so how much you actually contribute will vary pretty drastically from person to person (and thats not even counting how much you spend on fares).

Who says you are not allowed to come to the hotel?

Why would we need to impeach the Mayor? If you don't like him, you can always just vote against him, and if enough people agree with you, he will be voted out of office...no need to get so dramatic.

"This downtown is still a ghost town."

Downtown Dallas, like so many others was decimated by government-funded highway projects. The loop of highways that surround the city core cut it off from surrounding neighborhoods. Downtown was decapitated if you will. In order to accommodate all the users of these tax-funded highways, blocks and blocks of formerly vibrant downtown were replaced by parking lots and parking garages. None of this would have happened without government interference (the Interstate Highway system). Now downtown is clawing its way back from the brink. Projects like the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park will help reconnect downtown to uptown, and DART helps keep the need for football fields of parking down. I guarantee you that downtown Dallas will be a far more desirable place than Plano in the long run, and it will certainly maintain its property values better.

"The further out the rail goes the less dense your population and the more you are making the article's point."

Much of the new rail will be cover the urban core. The first phase of the Green Line opens this September between Fair Park and Victory Park (also serving Baylor Hospital and Deep Elum). This same line will later serve Parkland/UT Southwest Med Center and Love Field.

An infill station is also under construction in Lake Highlands on the Blue Line. This is part of the Lake Highlands Town Center project at Skillmand and Walnut Hill. Every new station makes every existing station that much more relavant as it adds more potential destinations from every origin.

"DART rail miles: 45 MARTA rail miles: 48"

DART rail miles within 4 years: 90 miles - not including other regional rail lines such as the TRE (34 miles) and DCTA (21 miles).

"And this guy is just DESTROYING all of you in this argument."

If you are referring to Scot, the only people he needs to convince with his argument are the good people of Plano.

"But I personally would not take DART light rail because I live off of Coit Road and it would take me 35 minutes just to drive to the station. If I wanted to take a bus, it would take me an hour to get to the Parker station."

Just a helpful tip, West Plano Transit Center is at Coit and 15th St. No rail there, but lots of buses for you to enjoy. Route 210 will take you directly to downtown Dallas, although I understand you have no interest of going there.

"I do not mean to disrespect you, but you don't know what you are talking about. Any bus from any association can connect to any other mode from any other association. How do you get to Fort Worth using DART? TRE. Denton County connects to DART. No problem."

First of all, the TRE is jointly owned and operated by DART and The T (Fort Worth Transit Authority). Secondly, DART and DCTA do not currently have a reciprocal fare agreement, and passengers wishing to transfer from one system to the other have to pay twice. This would very likely be the case with whatever system you come up with for Plano too.

"palchik, seems you popped back up after about 8 months of being dormant for this issue - are you local or just a crusader?"

I'm a local (to Dallas...not Plano), and a daily transit user.

"In most cities buses operate in shorter routes based out of the rail stations. It makes it simple and faster.. less time on the bus and you know where to take the train to if you need to switch to a bus. The bus routes in Dallas look like long strands of slow cooking spaghetti, with seemingly no though or planning at all to them."

I agree that buses service is most effective when the trips are short and frequent, but the answer to that is more rail, not less as Scot is advocating. Secondly bus service in Dallas and Boston are very different because land-use in Dallas and Boston are very different. In Boston, the buses stay on major thoroughfares which are typically lined with a mix of retail, commercial, and residential activity. People who live or work a few blocks away are understandably expected to walk out to those thoroughfares to catch the bus. In the Dallas area (and especially in Plano), many major thoroughfares are completely sterile environments lined by nothing more than sound walls, and to get to the places where people are or want to get buses have to wind their way around all over the place. People can not reasonably be expected to walk out to the major thoroughfares either because pedestrian infrastructure is poor or non-existent and major thoroughfares are spaced a mile or more apart.

So, its true that generations of bad policy make good transit very difficult to provide in many parts of North Texas, but that doesn't mean we should just give up and not try to restructure our environments from here on out. If you prefer to live in a sprawling car-dependant environment, fine. I'm not saying sprawl is a bad thing Scot. I'm just saying its not for everyone. My tax-dollars went to facilitate sprawl long enough. So now, I hope you wont mind too much that your tax dollars are going to support a little bit of a different development style too. In the end it will leave us all with more choices, which I think we both agree is a good thing.

As I've said before, if you are so adamant about pulling Plano out of DART, there is a legal avenue for that. All you have to do is work toward getting the issue on the ballot in a future election. Coppel and Flower Mound pulled out of DART in the 1980s (are they better off for it?). Plano actually did hold a pull-out referendum in 1996, but it failed by 77% to 23%.

True, but these "civil rights leaders" have clearly been bought by the no-build camp. They whore themselves out to the highest bidder in every referendum campaign. This is clearly NOT a civil rights issue.

"And the Left wants to change the public's behavior by making car travel less convenient and funneling funds into rail."

Ah, so you think that all of us who disagree with your less-than-convincing op-ed are part of the villainous "Left", do you Scot?

I, for one, am a pretty consistent Republican voter, but I whole-heartedly disagree with your views on DART, rail, transit, etc. The primary reasons that I cannot support the Democrats is their belief in the redistribution of wealth, and their obsession with multi-culturalism rather than national unity.

I am very much opposed to my tax dollars going to support an able-bodied neighbor who refuses to work. But, I have no problem at all with my tax-dollars going to fund services that benefit the entire community. In my mind, that includes police and fire, parks, schools, and libraries as you have said, AS WELL AS transit. You may say that only a small percentage of Plano residents use transit, but I could say the same about libraries, and even the police and fire departments (knock on wood). DART is a service that is available to all residents regardless of socio-economic status, and its benefit is very tangable. I guarantee you that if you worked downtown Scot, you would use DART (either rail, or the express buses from West Plano Transit Center) rather than fighting traffic and paying for parking. Its a cost-benefit analysis that thousands of your neighbors have done, and decided that transit definitely beats driving.

On the second point of multi-culturalism vs. national unity, I think that public transportation is one of the most effective tools of integration in our society. If you ride a DART train during rush hour you will see every imaginable socio-economic, ethnic, and religious group together, sharing a common experience. I think thats a positive force on our society. Rather than hyphenating us apart (as the Democrats love to do), common experiences bring us together as a society.

Finally, your proposal of having a stand alone bus system in Plano is just silly. The power of DART lies in the fact that its an interconnected regional network. One of the main benefits of DART buses in Plano is that they feed into DART rail. Without the rail component, bus service in Plano would be a guaranteed failure. Plano is not a transit friendly city. It is not pedestrian friendly either and the utility of buses for in-town trips is virtually nil since the buses have to fight the same traffic as everyone else. The only people who would use buses in Plano if they were not part of a larger network would be the truly transit dependent. On the other hand buses that feed into rail service that has a dedicated right-of-way and a predictable and reliable schedule benefits us all. You should try it one day Scot, you might see what we all like so much about it. By the way, the State Fair will be served by rail this year (for the first time in about 60 years)...maybe we'll see you there?

Denton County Transportation Authority has tiny a fraction of the coverage that DART has. Plus, DCTA IS about to start on a rail line to connect with DART's green line in 2010. Why? Because it will provide an true alternative to sitting in traffic on I-35. DCTA already runs express buses on I-35 to Dallas, but these have to deal with the same traffic congestion as everyone else (except along the stretch where there is an HOV lane...but youre probably against HOV lanes as well).

I have nothing against Plano. I'm just pointing out the trends that affect communities. Pulling out of DART will do nothing to stem these inevitable changes that happen when cities age. Again, take a look at Arlington.

I personally would much rather have my tax dollars pay for public transportation than wellfare handouts (either personal or corperate).

Public transportation gives us choice. If you don't like it, don't use it, but why should I be forced to own a car just to get by in life? Thats the situation that the government created with our tax dollars over the past half-century. They built massive highway projects that encouraged sprawl and in the processess forced all formerly private transit companies out of buisness, while relegating walking to a quaint hobby or an extreme sport.

I don't agree with that approach, and I dont want my tax dollars going to support it anymore. I'm fine with having DART in my community, and I don't mind funding its continued expansion with my tax dollars.

If you want Plano to pull out of DART, there is a process for that. Get a referendum on the ballot and let the people decide. I seriously doubt you will have many supporters.

Just face it Scot, Plano is simply not as desirable as it once was. As many of the worst areas of Dallas are redeveloped, their former residents are displaced and go looking for new low-cost housing. Plano's aging housing stock (both houses and apartments) are attracting this group, and Plano's schools reflect this reality. This is a process that eventually happens in every community, and it will get worse before it gets better. Over time, the value of the property in Plano will get so low, that developers will not be able to resist the deal, and will buy it up and redevelop. That is what most big cities like Dallas have been experiencing over the last decade or so. Richardson is starting to see some of that redevelopment now too, but as I said, its gonna get a lot worse in Plano before it gets better.

I just want to point out that this guy does not in any way represent all or even most Republicans. One of the biggest advocates for transit funding in Texas is Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Frisco, McKinney, and Allen just happen to be the hot new thing...just as Plano was in the 80s and early 90s when it "stole" so many businesses from Dallas. That status won't last forever though. Eventually, Frisco and friends' stars will fade too...their housing will get old, their schools will be less prestegious, and people will move on, just like they are now from Plano. In fact, if current trends are any indication, the next few decades will be a sort of back-to-the-future, and Dallas will once again be the hot place to be, with the suburbs defined by their abandoned and crumbling homes and underperforming bankrupt schools.

What an idiotic post. Plano's tax revenues is no longer growing because Plano is pretty much built out, while Frisco, Allan, and McKinney are still growing. Also, he keeps talking about pulling out of funding rail, as if bus service would still be available. This is of course false...if DART goes away, bus and rail service both go away. I guess Scot Walker would point to Arlington as a model of success...no silly transit there!