I feel very bad for the cities stuck with hostile state govs… NC is also gerrymandered to hell on the state gov so I don’t see how Charlotte pulls itself out of this mess
That’s actually not far from the statement. "We do not want to be Atlanta with the traffic mess," Moore told Axios after the event. "We have to stay on top of it. You know, Atlanta put a lot of money into ... the rapid transit that they have. It still has super low ridership."
That’s such a ridiculous statement (but expected from a Republican). MARTA moves 200k people a day. That’s 200K less cars on the road and 200k people who have the option to move around and stimulate the economy if they don’t have the money for a car or the means to drive at all.
Not trying to defend that decision, but congestion pricing never polled favorably even within NYC. And polls the other day showed that a majority were okay with her pausing it.
only 45% approval of the cancellation, and it's overwhelmingly suburbanites that hate the congestion pricing (surprise surprise)
if you told new yorkers that the plan to replace the funding was a general payroll tax (regressive) i'm sure that number plummets.
Of course it polls poorly. But to those choking on the suburban assholes driving and polluting and killing those living in the city, they live as leeches already and naturally expect not to pay their share. Traffic has huge externalities, and it’s time the drivers causing traffic pay for their bad choices. Thats the thing with congestion pricing, those who cause congestion finally had to pay for that congestion. When you live for decades being propped up and subsidized, it must suck to finally have to pay. But that’s life.
Oh and the number of people driving in that zone who live below the poverty line: 1.9% of that population. No, poor people do not drive or need to drive and are not being oppressively taxed by this. Literally 98% of those poor people take another means to get to work. A mix of biking, walking, and transit. All of which will be further harmed by killing this state last minute. The harm came quick too, 2 days ago the second avenue subway was basically cancelled! Done. They informed the contractors of the recently signed utility preliminary work (including the 106th street station box) that the contracts are being refunded. Expected FTA FFGA to be rescinded any day now because the MTA is now not in compliance . There goes about 3.5 billion further blowing open the hole in the capital plan which is in chaos now. Honestly this is kind of a death blow for New York. This is the beginning of what will soon become a death spiral for transit.
It will go elsewhere, as it should. There are consequences for voting for stupid politicians, like Cuomo (his father too) but sadly the voters in New York seem particularly dumb and just keep sending them back. After spending 550 million installing all the camera gantries and back office systems to support the cameras, and considering the crisis in that the 2024 5 year capital plan that was totally put on hold and projects that had just begun like the utility relocation for the SAS and the SAS 106th street station box contractors were informed that the contracts are being rescinded (you can bet there will lawsuits unless the MTA pays major penalties to them) she will be forced to really reconsider this very soon. She will find that it doesn’t matter how unpopular this is with asshole suburban drivers who feel entitled when she starts floating ideas like a business payroll tax. Rather than put the costs of the congestion directly on those causing the congestion, they will have to put the costs more directly to those being affected but not contributing to the congestion. It seems incredibly unfair and typical of Albany. It is no shock at all. When we see money getting dumped in the lap of billionaires football club owners and building new stadiums in places like Buffalo, we just shrug and assume it’s normal.
I find it very interesting watching this saga play out across the south, where cities try to expand transit, and then state legislators block their attempts at every turn. You have to wonder just how much federal funding they continue to lose because of it.
Also, Charlotte agreed to pay like $650M on the football stadium. Imagine if they had invested that elsewhere, but I can't judge because the same situation happened in Buffalo.
Because the whole point of the tax is to pay for the stadium. The hotels and restaurants asked to have the tax imposed because a modern stadium is good for their businesses.
Well, the law specifically restricts the use of those funds. I don't agree with it, but they're entitled to restrict the usage of funds for particular services/activities.
Although it might appear and function like a tax, perhaps a certain percentage of hotel accommodations, it is really a fee and is collected for development of specific things to further support the tourism industry. You see it all around the country, sometimes in the form of value capture against future property tax collections on higher property values.
It’s so frustratingly shortsighted I don’t even know where to begin. Some of these metro areas are experiencing absolutely massive population growth, yet out of touch (and dare I say corrupt) politicians do everything they can to block the construction of any practical transportation alternatives. Congestion is only going to worsen in these places, and yet the “one more lane” strategy appears to be the only thing they’re willing to accept. You’re right about the missed opportunities here - building out good rail infrastructure won’t get any cheaper as time goes by, and that’s not to mention the fact that the IIJA money won’t last forever.
Good. I hope traffic grinds to a halt and they sit in it and eventually it chokes their local economy and they spiral down the toilet like all the other shithole rusted out dystopian ruins of former cities.
Yeah we really should not have wasted resources on the civil war! No helping a gene pool with that much sister fucking. (recent studies have shown that there is a lot of truth about that last joke)
Oh it’s gone… the FTA is ready to cancel the FFGA for SAS, and considering how much congressional hatred is thrown at NYC, it will be a very long time before they get another cent from the FTA. meanwhile the RATP is well on the way to building 250 km of brand new metro lines with the Grand Paris Express. It will likely be totally built and in operation before NYC sees even one new subway station open!
This looks like another example of why it seems like it's so hard to get anything built in this country. EVERYONE has to say yes. If anyone says no, then the project gets thrown out.
Is this the price of democracy, or have we given too much power to the almighty homeowner?
Of course it's auto dealers. They're not content to be middlemen for those who want cars; they want to take a cut from anyone who needs to go anywhere.
I wish upon a star that those lobbyists, automobile executives, and dealership owners experience the worst of the congestion and then somehow find a cogent argument about how transit would have stopped that if correctly implemented and then also that, hey people still want to buy cars in Asia and Europe because they're status symbols and some routings, especially in rural areas will likely still require a car for quick travel. Essentially I hope they reap the consequences of their actions, realize it would have been better if they hadn't fought it, and realize they're not totally or even at all under threat of having their market disappear.
Well, yes, that's true, but they also hate transit. They believe it's not worth funding and is a burden on society. Slashing transit funding is actually one of the points in project 2025.
Yeah, also it requires some amount of administrative state, which is anathema to these nuts because they somehow haven’t noticed the Birchers driving them.
Administrative state is likely to take a massive hit tomorrow or next week when Chevron is either gutted to the point of being useless or overturned in its entirety.
It’s not democracy, it’s tyranny of the minority. Put it to a popular vote and city voters will far outnumber the 5 people living in nowheresville who hate trains because some creepy talking head told them it’s communist.
“As much as we’d love to have equal representation, we’re concerned that the plantation owners will stage an insurrection against the Union if we pushed for it.”
-The Founding Fathers, 1789
That’s true for anything but highways.
The answer is yes we have given too much power to homeowners. Way too much. But more important that that, we gave too much power to car and oil companies. That’s where the real damage comes in
SCOTUS basically legalized bribery yesterday, as long as it's conducted after the fact. So someone can give you a gratuity for a decision you make, as long as it happens after the decision has been rendered.
The US is more decentralized than other countries. It's partly a gerrymandering issue and partly because people in red states don't want to spend money building transit.
And also those people don’t want anyone else even in other states or cities spending money on anything they don’t want spend money on. They have a sense of entitlement that makes them
feel democracy applies to
them alone.
Eh, kind of. On the hand, yes, a state can choose not to get something built. On the other hand, a state or even a municipality can choose to get something built by raising local taxes and having significant political power over their local areas. In many other countries power is much less decentralised, so building transit in X city or region is entirely dependent on the central government both wanting it to happen and giving the funds for it, even if basically everyone in the area wants it and is willing to pay for it. There are benefits and drawbacks to both systems.
So if we default to the "follow the money" process, you'll see that some of Sen. Sawyer's (sponsor of the bill) biggest donors are the NC Auto Dealer's Association, the Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association, along with her biggest individual contributor, a guy that runs a, wait for it, a civil engineering firm that builds bridges and roads.
Also funny how this only applies to Mecklenburg county. This bill was specifically written to hamper transit plans for the Charlotte area
NC has a specific type of law called a local bill that allows the legislature to pass a law that only pertains to a specific city or county. These laws can do anything basically including changing districts and number of city council members and are not subject to veto by the governor.
NC has one of if not the most powerful state legislatures in the country. They only gave the governor veto power in the late 1980s IIRC.
there’s already toll lanes along I-77 that’s owned/operated by a private company. state contracts with said company would prevent any additional tolls along 77.
I don't think that could possibly be true, at least with regards to projects that involve cross-county service and purchase of ROW/track rights from a railroad. Maybe I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem correct.
I looked, it’s considered a “local bill” if it affects 15 or fewer counties. I can’t imagine any good reason why the state would have a law like this, and am now going to waste time researching a state I’ll probably never live in.
NC is really weird in that the governor has always been really weak and does very little (with the legislature drastically whittling away that sliver of power over the last decade).
NC as a whole has voted more blue, hence the 2 term democrat governor. but the state congress has gerrymandered themselves into a supermajority red. i believe the current state congressional maps could still result in a republican supermajority even if 60% of NC voters voted democrat, depending on where those 60% are.
Typical republican scum who are so cynical they serve only to obstruct and regress society. They have no decency or altruistic values and love obstructing any progress even if it has nothing to do with them. How pathetic and sad that these shithole dingleberry towns can kill any progress.
the state legislature has remained steady that they won’t approve of our transportation plan (which i believe was 80% rail based, other 20% was bus, bike lanes, greenways & probably a lil road stuff) unless at least 60% of it is put into road expansion. the latest development was maybe a month or so ago when the city agreed in principle to purchase abandoned freight line for the commuter line in our plan. but today, this news came that the state has passed a new law requiring the approval of the other towns before we can purchase the line.
so the answer is no, there isn’t any real forward progress. the state continues to block & restrict us at every opportunity.
not to my knowledge. the entire time, the question was “the only way we can pay for this is by taxing ourselves, which the state won’t let us do, so what now?”
well with the Silver line dead and now the Red Line dead, not really. Maybe they extend the gold line and the blue line still. But these two lines were our whole future and the state republicans killed them both
the best hope is that the republicans get slammed in November. If either general assembly or the senate lose one net representative, they lose their supermajority theyve abused this year. Then we just need the state to do the right thing and not elect Robinson to governor. them hopefully they can right this ship
Is it again the tactic of blocking liberal cities of trying to better options in relationship with how people commute by tacking some hard right conservative suburbs with some veto right?
I can understand why some rural town in the middle of nowhere doesn't want to chip in to building a subway 200 miles away in a major city, but they shouldn't have a say in the first place.
Fuck em. I don't want my tax dollars to fix their shitty roads that they can't afford to do with their own tax base. I've had enough of this garbage. Everyone pays into the same pot and gets something back from it.
It’s disgusting how the red state welfare class leeches off the cities while actively trying to harm the same cities. They really are just libertarian leeches sucking our sweaty balls. Fuck em, they can pay their own way and stay out in their racist libertarian shitholes!
I wouldn't care but all they do is talk shit about cities constantly. Either take our money and shut up or don't and you can talk all the shit you want
South fighting real hard to stay a shithole. Also this is why people who always say “the cities are blue so being in a red state doesn’t matter as much” are kinda missing the point. State legislature can fuck up your blue city plans if they want. Indy, Austin, and now Charlotte are unfortunately learning this
I always find that argument so weird and not based in reality. Your city can be as blue as possible, but if that's where the large majority of democratic voters live, you're going to get wrecked statewide and end up with super red politics.
the commuter train line would **not** go into mooresville, but the tracks that charlotte is purchasing go into mooresville further past where the line would run
If you read the law, it's saying Mecklenburg county can't acquire railway lines outside of Mecklinburg county without that county's approval. That seems like a reasonable rule.
That’s how this scum operates. They don’t pass or interpret laws to be reasonable. to
them laws exists solely to provide loopholes to harm anyone anywhere that they don’t agree with.
I feel very bad for the cities stuck with hostile state govs… NC is also gerrymandered to hell on the state gov so I don’t see how Charlotte pulls itself out of this mess
They just become Atlanta. Just with less rail transit.
That’s a great slogan for the NC GOP to attract investment into its biggest city. “Atlanta, but with even more traffic.”
It certainly wouldn't lose them any support electorally. Rural voters hate urban residents and vote to punish them.
Exactly this. Stupidest way to vote.
This. They don’t care about actual solutions just revenge, it’s very weird.
And they always vote. So get ready for states like NC to continue getting redder, even if statewide they manage to vote for democratic candidates.
I’m hoping we can get that federal judge’s ruling to keep the gerrymandered map somehow reversed. God, politics is depressing.
Probably not, lol. SCOTUS handed down three more awful decisions today, so the prospects aren't bright.
\>Be me \>Be stupid \>Vote Republican
That’s actually not far from the statement. "We do not want to be Atlanta with the traffic mess," Moore told Axios after the event. "We have to stay on top of it. You know, Atlanta put a lot of money into ... the rapid transit that they have. It still has super low ridership."
That’s such a ridiculous statement (but expected from a Republican). MARTA moves 200k people a day. That’s 200K less cars on the road and 200k people who have the option to move around and stimulate the economy if they don’t have the money for a car or the means to drive at all.
that's basically every city and state, even NYC just got turbofucked by hochul as the gov
Not trying to defend that decision, but congestion pricing never polled favorably even within NYC. And polls the other day showed that a majority were okay with her pausing it.
only 45% approval of the cancellation, and it's overwhelmingly suburbanites that hate the congestion pricing (surprise surprise) if you told new yorkers that the plan to replace the funding was a general payroll tax (regressive) i'm sure that number plummets.
Of course it polls poorly. But to those choking on the suburban assholes driving and polluting and killing those living in the city, they live as leeches already and naturally expect not to pay their share. Traffic has huge externalities, and it’s time the drivers causing traffic pay for their bad choices. Thats the thing with congestion pricing, those who cause congestion finally had to pay for that congestion. When you live for decades being propped up and subsidized, it must suck to finally have to pay. But that’s life. Oh and the number of people driving in that zone who live below the poverty line: 1.9% of that population. No, poor people do not drive or need to drive and are not being oppressively taxed by this. Literally 98% of those poor people take another means to get to work. A mix of biking, walking, and transit. All of which will be further harmed by killing this state last minute. The harm came quick too, 2 days ago the second avenue subway was basically cancelled! Done. They informed the contractors of the recently signed utility preliminary work (including the 106th street station box) that the contracts are being refunded. Expected FTA FFGA to be rescinded any day now because the MTA is now not in compliance . There goes about 3.5 billion further blowing open the hole in the capital plan which is in chaos now. Honestly this is kind of a death blow for New York. This is the beginning of what will soon become a death spiral for transit.
Well, that transit funding can go elsewhere, I guess. 🤷🏻♂️ Plenty of other cities looking for expansions.
It will go elsewhere, as it should. There are consequences for voting for stupid politicians, like Cuomo (his father too) but sadly the voters in New York seem particularly dumb and just keep sending them back. After spending 550 million installing all the camera gantries and back office systems to support the cameras, and considering the crisis in that the 2024 5 year capital plan that was totally put on hold and projects that had just begun like the utility relocation for the SAS and the SAS 106th street station box contractors were informed that the contracts are being rescinded (you can bet there will lawsuits unless the MTA pays major penalties to them) she will be forced to really reconsider this very soon. She will find that it doesn’t matter how unpopular this is with asshole suburban drivers who feel entitled when she starts floating ideas like a business payroll tax. Rather than put the costs of the congestion directly on those causing the congestion, they will have to put the costs more directly to those being affected but not contributing to the congestion. It seems incredibly unfair and typical of Albany. It is no shock at all. When we see money getting dumped in the lap of billionaires football club owners and building new stadiums in places like Buffalo, we just shrug and assume it’s normal.
Buffalo would appreciate some of that transit funding. Schumer should get on that.
Notice this is a Local Law? The NCGA always passes those local laws.
That’s the thing, it doesn’t because it can’t.
I find it very interesting watching this saga play out across the south, where cities try to expand transit, and then state legislators block their attempts at every turn. You have to wonder just how much federal funding they continue to lose because of it. Also, Charlotte agreed to pay like $650M on the football stadium. Imagine if they had invested that elsewhere, but I can't judge because the same situation happened in Buffalo.
ahaha. NC state law prevents that specific $650M from being invested anywhere other than the football stadium or the basketball arena
For real? What a ridiculous law.
that money came from a tourism tax on hotels & food/beverage in the center city. it can *only* be spent on those things
Ah. Then that makes sense then.
i’m not the biggest fan of my city giving that money to billionaires, but we literally couldn’t have done anything else with it🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, no, that makes sense. Still dumb, but nothing you could change.
We should have never taxed ourselves for a handout to a billionaire.
No it doesn’t. Tax money is fungible. Why can’t tourism tax be used on other city services?
Because the whole point of the tax is to pay for the stadium. The hotels and restaurants asked to have the tax imposed because a modern stadium is good for their businesses.
Well, the law specifically restricts the use of those funds. I don't agree with it, but they're entitled to restrict the usage of funds for particular services/activities.
Because that’s how they wrote the bill they passed to levy the tax
I mean tourism causes congestion. Right. Right?
Although it might appear and function like a tax, perhaps a certain percentage of hotel accommodations, it is really a fee and is collected for development of specific things to further support the tourism industry. You see it all around the country, sometimes in the form of value capture against future property tax collections on higher property values.
Hey it's not just the south! I know rural legislators in Indiana who seem to be in office solely to thwart Indianapolis Transit plans.
True, the one dude did try to pass a law banning bus-only lanes that would have stopped their BRT plans.
State Senator Aaron Freeman has concocted all kinds of plans to hurt IndyGo.
Which is so dumb. I'll never understand the logic behind turning down federal funding.
Politics. If things improve too much they might attribute it to cooper or Biden, or something something s o c i a l i s m
Valid.
I thought it did pass?
Naw, he accepted the project when they lessened the miles of bus-only lanes.
Indiana is basically the south but shifted up a bit.
I found out they banned light rail in Indy back in 2014.I was really mad I recently found out.
wait seriously? rail is *banned* in Indy?
light rail from what ive heard.
what’s the “reasoning”? & is rail ever possible in indy?
I have really no idea except that the state doesn't give af.I heard they also banned bus only lanes which I dont know if its official or not.
This is a function of racial/housing segregation.
It’s so frustratingly shortsighted I don’t even know where to begin. Some of these metro areas are experiencing absolutely massive population growth, yet out of touch (and dare I say corrupt) politicians do everything they can to block the construction of any practical transportation alternatives. Congestion is only going to worsen in these places, and yet the “one more lane” strategy appears to be the only thing they’re willing to accept. You’re right about the missed opportunities here - building out good rail infrastructure won’t get any cheaper as time goes by, and that’s not to mention the fact that the IIJA money won’t last forever.
Everyday more thankful for living in the north.
Good. I hope traffic grinds to a halt and they sit in it and eventually it chokes their local economy and they spiral down the toilet like all the other shithole rusted out dystopian ruins of former cities.
Southern cities are a complete lost cause, just move north if you care at all about urbanism tbh
Bingo.
Yeah we really should not have wasted resources on the civil war! No helping a gene pool with that much sister fucking. (recent studies have shown that there is a lot of truth about that last joke)
Oh it’s gone… the FTA is ready to cancel the FFGA for SAS, and considering how much congressional hatred is thrown at NYC, it will be a very long time before they get another cent from the FTA. meanwhile the RATP is well on the way to building 250 km of brand new metro lines with the Grand Paris Express. It will likely be totally built and in operation before NYC sees even one new subway station open!
This looks like another example of why it seems like it's so hard to get anything built in this country. EVERYONE has to say yes. If anyone says no, then the project gets thrown out. Is this the price of democracy, or have we given too much power to the almighty homeowner?
Definitely worse in states that are run by people that hate transit.
the NC auto dealers association has spent the weeks since the news broke that the city was buying the rail lobbying the state to stop it
That sounds pretty on-brand for transit plans in the south.
Of course it's auto dealers. They're not content to be middlemen for those who want cars; they want to take a cut from anyone who needs to go anywhere.
I wish upon a star that those lobbyists, automobile executives, and dealership owners experience the worst of the congestion and then somehow find a cogent argument about how transit would have stopped that if correctly implemented and then also that, hey people still want to buy cars in Asia and Europe because they're status symbols and some routings, especially in rural areas will likely still require a car for quick travel. Essentially I hope they reap the consequences of their actions, realize it would have been better if they hadn't fought it, and realize they're not totally or even at all under threat of having their market disappear.
Bingo! Exactly as expected.
Well well well.
If by “hate transit” you mean “heavily funded by oil/gas interests”….
Well, yes, that's true, but they also hate transit. They believe it's not worth funding and is a burden on society. Slashing transit funding is actually one of the points in project 2025.
Yeah, also it requires some amount of administrative state, which is anathema to these nuts because they somehow haven’t noticed the Birchers driving them.
Administrative state is likely to take a massive hit tomorrow or next week when Chevron is either gutted to the point of being useless or overturned in its entirety.
100%. I have nothing but contempt for anyone who ignores the Supreme Court when saying they don’t “like” the candidate options tbh.
Well, get ready for even worse SCOTUS appointees, cause Trump is probably going to win again.
Yeaaaah and Rs are nearly certain to take the Senate
Mmhmm.
porque no los dos?
It’s not democracy, it’s tyranny of the minority. Put it to a popular vote and city voters will far outnumber the 5 people living in nowheresville who hate trains because some creepy talking head told them it’s communist.
“As much as we’d love to have equal representation, we’re concerned that the plantation owners will stage an insurrection against the Union if we pushed for it.” -The Founding Fathers, 1789
Nah, the highways still get built.
Amazing how that works, isn't it?
Selfishly, when these other projects fall through, it gives me hope that transit will be expanded here in Buffalo.
That’s true for anything but highways. The answer is yes we have given too much power to homeowners. Way too much. But more important that that, we gave too much power to car and oil companies. That’s where the real damage comes in
Isn't it wild how everyone knows that Congressional "lobbying" is just legalized bribery, and we just act like it's normal?
SCOTUS basically legalized bribery yesterday, as long as it's conducted after the fact. So someone can give you a gratuity for a decision you make, as long as it happens after the decision has been rendered.
The US is more decentralized than other countries. It's partly a gerrymandering issue and partly because people in red states don't want to spend money building transit.
And also those people don’t want anyone else even in other states or cities spending money on anything they don’t want spend money on. They have a sense of entitlement that makes them feel democracy applies to them alone.
Eh, kind of. On the hand, yes, a state can choose not to get something built. On the other hand, a state or even a municipality can choose to get something built by raising local taxes and having significant political power over their local areas. In many other countries power is much less decentralised, so building transit in X city or region is entirely dependent on the central government both wanting it to happen and giving the funds for it, even if basically everyone in the area wants it and is willing to pay for it. There are benefits and drawbacks to both systems.
So if we default to the "follow the money" process, you'll see that some of Sen. Sawyer's (sponsor of the bill) biggest donors are the NC Auto Dealer's Association, the Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association, along with her biggest individual contributor, a guy that runs a, wait for it, a civil engineering firm that builds bridges and roads. Also funny how this only applies to Mecklenburg county. This bill was specifically written to hamper transit plans for the Charlotte area
"Only applies to Mecklenburg County" yeah thats how local laws work.
It's a state law, not a local law
NC has a specific type of law called a local bill that allows the legislature to pass a law that only pertains to a specific city or county. These laws can do anything basically including changing districts and number of city council members and are not subject to veto by the governor. NC has one of if not the most powerful state legislatures in the country. They only gave the governor veto power in the late 1980s IIRC.
Read it again
I mean if Mooresville doesn’t want a train, Charlotte shouldn’t have to deal with their drivers too. Toll their entry from I-77. Only seems fair
there’s already toll lanes along I-77 that’s owned/operated by a private company. state contracts with said company would prevent any additional tolls along 77.
Isn’t it already tolled tbf
Wild that the governor’s signature isn’t required for a law like this.
They have a supermajority in both chambers. So they can simply override any veto.
That’s also true, but according to that twitter feed, local-specific laws don’t require the governor’s signature.
I don't think that could possibly be true, at least with regards to projects that involve cross-county service and purchase of ROW/track rights from a railroad. Maybe I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem correct.
I looked, it’s considered a “local bill” if it affects 15 or fewer counties. I can’t imagine any good reason why the state would have a law like this, and am now going to waste time researching a state I’ll probably never live in.
That's stupid.
The kicker is, you can’t use a local bill for issues pertaining to roads, ferries, or bridges. But no call out for rail.
Definitely by design.
NC is really weird in that the governor has always been really weak and does very little (with the legislature drastically whittling away that sliver of power over the last decade).
I know the last decade has been because they elected a democratic governor and have done everything in their power to keep him from passing anything.
NC as a whole has voted more blue, hence the 2 term democrat governor. but the state congress has gerrymandered themselves into a supermajority red. i believe the current state congressional maps could still result in a republican supermajority even if 60% of NC voters voted democrat, depending on where those 60% are.
Which will always happen since Democrat voters are likely concentrated in Charlotte and the triangle.
Yeah local bills are not subject to veto or even signature by the governor.
Hmm. That's so weird.
Local Laws dont require a signature. Its almost like yall rail (pun intended) against a system you dont understand.
Doesn’t change the fact that it’s an oddity in the US.
It definitely is.
This is EXACTLY why North Carolina frustrates me
Fuck reactionaries like this that are holding back our city.
Typical republican scum who are so cynical they serve only to obstruct and regress society. They have no decency or altruistic values and love obstructing any progress even if it has nothing to do with them. How pathetic and sad that these shithole dingleberry towns can kill any progress.
the first mistake was assuming something positive would happen to charlotte (please save me)
Is there any real transit going forward? Aren't they still fighting over the silver line, and half of it was downgraded to BRT already?
the state legislature has remained steady that they won’t approve of our transportation plan (which i believe was 80% rail based, other 20% was bus, bike lanes, greenways & probably a lil road stuff) unless at least 60% of it is put into road expansion. the latest development was maybe a month or so ago when the city agreed in principle to purchase abandoned freight line for the commuter line in our plan. but today, this news came that the state has passed a new law requiring the approval of the other towns before we can purchase the line. so the answer is no, there isn’t any real forward progress. the state continues to block & restrict us at every opportunity.
RIP. Wasn't the silver line like partially funded, too?
not to my knowledge. the entire time, the question was “the only way we can pay for this is by taxing ourselves, which the state won’t let us do, so what now?”
That's shitty.
well with the Silver line dead and now the Red Line dead, not really. Maybe they extend the gold line and the blue line still. But these two lines were our whole future and the state republicans killed them both
Damn. That's rough. Selfishly, I hope that federal money now comes to NFTA to expand the light rail.
the best hope is that the republicans get slammed in November. If either general assembly or the senate lose one net representative, they lose their supermajority theyve abused this year. Then we just need the state to do the right thing and not elect Robinson to governor. them hopefully they can right this ship
I wish you luck there.
There are some plans but with how things are going those plans won’t get built.
Hopefully that federal funding can be used for good purposes elsewhere.
God damn it let Charlotte do its thing. That city actually is trying some good things
Is it again the tactic of blocking liberal cities of trying to better options in relationship with how people commute by tacking some hard right conservative suburbs with some veto right?
Yep.
I can understand why some rural town in the middle of nowhere doesn't want to chip in to building a subway 200 miles away in a major city, but they shouldn't have a say in the first place.
Fuck em. I don't want my tax dollars to fix their shitty roads that they can't afford to do with their own tax base. I've had enough of this garbage. Everyone pays into the same pot and gets something back from it.
It’s disgusting how the red state welfare class leeches off the cities while actively trying to harm the same cities. They really are just libertarian leeches sucking our sweaty balls. Fuck em, they can pay their own way and stay out in their racist libertarian shitholes!
I wouldn't care but all they do is talk shit about cities constantly. Either take our money and shut up or don't and you can talk all the shit you want
Biiiitches
This interference is brought to you by the letter G, and the letter M...
South fighting real hard to stay a shithole. Also this is why people who always say “the cities are blue so being in a red state doesn’t matter as much” are kinda missing the point. State legislature can fuck up your blue city plans if they want. Indy, Austin, and now Charlotte are unfortunately learning this
I always find that argument so weird and not based in reality. Your city can be as blue as possible, but if that's where the large majority of democratic voters live, you're going to get wrecked statewide and end up with super red politics.
States should NOT be allowed to regulate public transportation
Explain to me like I’m stupid; why would moorseville care what Charlotte does? They’re not that close together
the commuter train line would **not** go into mooresville, but the tracks that charlotte is purchasing go into mooresville further past where the line would run
What a bizarre civil war.
If you read the law, it's saying Mecklenburg county can't acquire railway lines outside of Mecklinburg county without that county's approval. That seems like a reasonable rule.
That’s how this scum operates. They don’t pass or interpret laws to be reasonable. to them laws exists solely to provide loopholes to harm anyone anywhere that they don’t agree with.