The Standard is reporting this morning about Boss Godfrey's reaction to a new UTA streetcar proposal, which was apparently discussed at last night's City Council meeting as a non agenda,"new business" item. Here's the lede:OGDEN -- Mayor Matthew Godfrey is questioning what he describes as a radically different proposal from Utah Transit Authority to build a streetcar system from downtown to Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital for $35 million less than originally projected.Read the full story here:
With a mere 2-1/2 months remaining until the lame duck Boss Godfrey's ushered out of office, you'd think he'd give his feverish opposition to a cross-town streetcar system a rest. But no, the streetcar proposal wasn't his idea and he'll therefore rage against it forever, we suppose.
Kudos to the city Council for keeping the concept alive, by the way. So long as the project isn't deep-sixed, we can expect clever designers, engineers and numbers-crunchers to continue to tweak the design and financing parameters, just as the UTA people seem to have now done. If the project had been put to rest as Boss Godfrey had earlier demanded of course, the issue of further prospective cost savings would be a dead letter.
Remember, as the UTA's Mick Crandall said at a Streetcar Stakeholders meeting in early July of this year, "If every transportation project that didn't have enough funding at this stage were to be abandoned, we would have no transportation projects at all and we'd be getting around on foot."
That's it for now.
Who'll be the first to chime in?
3 comments:
Follow the money on this, people.
Godfrey has been invisible since he decided not to run, but he still surfaces from the scum pond to fight the streetcar. Why?
It's because somebody is paying him to do it. Ask yourself: Who stands to be financially harmed by a streetcar, or who stands to financially gain from having it blocked?
Godfrey is working for somebody here. Find out who it is and you'll understand Godfrey's strong opposition to it.
One of the reasons Godfrey spoke out on this is simple. He still harbors dreams of a gondola system to benefit his friend Chris Peterson. As long as there is noalternate mass transist system in place the gondola remains alive.
Lots of good comments over at the SE article site ...
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