Dan Schroeder October 8 2010 Transit Comments

We're sure all WCF readers will join us thanking Dan Schroeader for his tireless effort in helping Utah transportation officials get their acts together

To get the conversation rolling this morning, we're pleased to highlight the following document, which was submitted to us yesterday evening. WCF regular contributor Dan Schroeder transmitted this critique to UTA officials earlier in the afternoon, concerning the Ogden/WSU Transit Corridor Project Alternatives Analysis, with a request ask that this document be incorporated into the permanent project record and be considered by all participants as the final report for the Alternatives Analysis is prepared. Within this document Dan pokes giant holes in the UTA's transit study methodology and makes six major points, which we'll present in brief bullet point form:

1. The comment deadline should be extended.
2. The decision-making process has been inappropriate.
3. Most 603 riders would not be served by the 36th Street Alignment.
4. Congestion on 36th Street may preclude mixed-flow operation.
5. The counting of “potential takings” appears to be biased.
6. The Economic Development Opportunities Analysis is useless.
7. Riders and neighborhoods have been forgotten.

Dan's definitely done his homework here; and this is yet another typical yeoman's effort on Dan's part. Read Dan's full Transit Comments here:

• Dan Schroeder October 8 2010 Transit Comments

We're sure all WCF readers will join us in thanking Dan Schroeder for his tireless effort in helping Utah transportation officials get their acts together.

Reader comments are invited, as always.

Standard-Examiner: UTA Consultant Stands By Her Ogden Transit Study

Among other things, Mr. Schwebke has allowed Wikstrom and UTA to lead him astray with all this discussion about sales tax

By Dan Schroeader

Here's Schwebke's lousy article on how UTA still hasn't released the details of the Wikstrom economic impacts study:

• Consultant stands by her Ogden transit study

And for the archival record, here's the comment that I posted under Schwebke's article:

What a confusing article. Anyone who wants to understand this had better read the article in the Trib:

• Where’s data for Ogden streetcar analysis? asks green critic

And here’s a link to my original letter, sent on September 20:

• Dan Schroeder 9/20/10 Letter

Mr. Schwebke has allowed Wikstrom and UTA to lead him astray with all this discussion about sales tax. I carefully explained to him on the phone that I never requested that part of the data--I’m asking only to see the details of the property value calculations. The sales tax data is indeed confidential but guess what? Wikstrom’s study showed no significant difference (only 15%) in increased sales tax revenue along the different alignments. That’s well within the margin of uncertainty. And even that, as far as I can tell, is really a projection of what will happen without a new transit project rather than with one.

I also explained to Mr. Schwebke that UTA has been promising to get me Wikstrom’s raw data since August 17, and that they didn’t even offer the “sales tax data is confidential” excuse until September 28. It still isn’t clear whether they will allow the public to see any of the details of Wikstrom’s calculations. At the very least, they’ve stalled so long that it’s now impossible for the public to scrutinize the calculations before the Alternatives Analysis report is written.

Finally, Mr. Schwebke fails to mention that on September 30, Wikstrom ordered me to remove my 9/20 letter from Weber County Forum or I would be hearing from her attorney. This incident seems indicative of her attitude toward public involvement in deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. [link added - Ed.].

Ed. note: Special thanks to Dan Schroeder for offering his own commentary regarding this morning's Scott Schwebke story.

UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Open House Redux

We'll be keeping a close watch for further developments on a story which seems to be taking on a new life all its own

Within the two days following Thursday's public event, the UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Open House story has evidently developed a new life all its own. In the wake of the threat of one economic consultant to sic the legal dogs on Ogden Sierra Club community activist (and regular WCF contributor) Dan Schroeder, it appears that Mr. Schroeder has taken the offensive, and has made contact with various members of the Northern Utah print media, to blow the whistle on that consultant's bullying behavior, among other things.

This background story first popped up on SE editorial page editor Doug Gibson's blog, early yesterday afternoon, followed by this SE Dan Schroeder Guest Commentary shortly thereafter. Notably, The Salt Lake Tribune's Cathy McKitrick is also all over the story too.

Needless to say, we'll be keeping a close watch for further developments, and will welcome any savvy WCF reader comments which might be posted along the way.

UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Open House Reminder UPDATED

Some excellent new informational material furnished to us yesterday by Dan Schroeder

At risk of coming off as a dunning nag, your blogmeister will once again remind you of tomorrow afternoon's UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Open House, during which Emerald City Lumpencitizens will be afforded the opportunity to blow off steam regarding the Ogden Weber Transit Corridor Analysis, which was mendaciously and craftily rigged behind closed doors to recommend an east-west corridor leg to connect Washington and Harrison Boulevards along 36th Street.

In the interest of adding a little more "grist" to the discussion mill, we're pleased to feature some excellent new material furnished to us yesterday by Dan Schroeder, in the form of a letter, which was transmitted to the Ogden Transit Corridor Stakeholders on September 20, 2010. Within that letter, Dan identifies the following main evidentiary and methodological flaws in the Economic Development Opportunities Analysis conducted by Wikstrom Economic Planning Consultants for the Ogden/WSU Transit Corridor Project, which errors we'll enumerate and set forth here in brief:

1) UTA and Wikstrom have been unable (or unwilling) to produce the raw data that was used to obtain these results;
2) Although the Analysis apparently used objective data from current property assessments, it also used completely subjective guesses of which properties are likely to be redeveloped by 2015;
3) With respect to the Analysis, all the estimated investments are too low;
4) The Analysis assumed that all land values along the corridor will remain unchanged, even after the project is completed.

Read the full text of Dan's most excellent letter, in which he goes on to urge Ogden Transit Corridor Stakeholders to "ignore the Economic Development Opportunities Analysis until such time as these [above-identied] serious issues can be fully resolved" :

• Dan Schroeder 9/20/10 Letter

Just "a little more material added to the discussion mill," as we said. Hopefully Dan's submitted material will help get the juices flowing, in advance of tomorrow afternoon's UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Open House shindig.

We hope to see you all at the Union Station Browning Theater tomorrow @ 4:00 p.m.

Torches and pitchforks will be de rigueur. Steely-eyed lumpencitizens stares are optional (although recommended), of course.

Enraged Emerald City Citizens plan to gather again
to give mindless Utah bureaucrats a serious "hotfoot"

Savvy reader comments are invited, as always. Don't let the cat get yer tongues!

Can we see by a show of hands how many of our regular readers plan to attend this boffo UTA public bitch session?

Update 10/1/10 10:00 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner carries the post-Open House story this morning. For a glaring example of arrogant Utah bureaucracy which is completely out of touch with the will of the people, check out the link below:

• Transit corridor open house draws concerned crowd

Important UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Public Meeting Set For Thursday Afternoon

Subject: 25/H Needs Your Support and Your Voice!

By Shalae Larsen

Friends and Neighbors,

This week will mark a critical juncture for our Streetcar Revitalization efforts! This Thursday UTA is hosting an open-house to present their extremely flawed study - and biased results to the public for a Washington-36th Street Streetcar:

What: UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Public Meeting
Where: Union Station - Browning Theater
When: Thursday, September 30 · 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Let's show them that we support a 25th-Harrison Streetcar - because it is the best route in terms of community integration, sustainability, livability, economic development, and on-and on...

Check out the Trolley District Facebook event page for more details:

• UTA Ogden-Weber State Transit Corridor Study Public Meeting

And show your support for our efforts by changing your Facebook profile pic to the 25/H that you see posted on the Trolley District page (just right-click on the image to save it to your computer and then you can upload it again as your profile pic).

Thank you for your support in encouraging our public agencies to do the right thing!

Thank You!

The Trolley District

Update 9/28/10 8:30 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner provides its general readership a heads-up concerning Thursday's public meeting :

• Input sought for WSU transit plan

UTA bureaucrat Gerry Carpenter reveals that his fellow bureaucrats have exhausted all available funds with this half-assed study:

"At this point, we've taken it as far as we can take it with the funds that were made available," Carpenter said. "There is no additional funding for further study, so acquiring that funding would be the next step."

Hopefully we'll have a packed house of steely-eyed lumpencitizens at Thursday's Union Station open house, torches and pitchforks in hand, to duly berate and chastise Mr. Carpenter and his fellow bureaucratic dimbulbs for their wasteful squandering of those funds which were formerly available, and which have now been recklessly expended.

Important Council Work Session Set For Tuesday Night -UPDATED

The Ogden Transit Alternatives Analysis is on the agenda
Added Bonus: Read Dan S.'s live blogged remarks in the comments section below

For those readers closely following the Ogden Streetcar planning situation, we'd like to provide notice of tomorrow evening's council work session. Here's the full notice, straight from the Ogden City website:

Notice is hereby given that the Ogden City Council will meet for a Work Session on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 5:30 p.m., in the Council Work Room, located on the third floor of the Municipal Building in Ogden City, Weber County, Utah. The purpose of the work session is to discuss the Transit Alternatives Analysis, the property donation to St. Anne’s Center, Inc. and Council business.

Here's the link to the council packet:

• 08/17 City Council Work Session Packet

Within this lengthy lengthy (11.95 MB pdf) packet you'll find, among other things, two documents labeled "Ogden-WSU Transit Corridor AA-EIS Presentation" and "Economic Development Opportunities Analysis Presentation." In this connection we recommend that all WCF readers who are interested in this project carefully review these documents, as we have the uneasy feeling that these appear to be the sole working UTA documents upon which all interested parties will be forced to rely as the Streetcar Project moves forward.

Our initial impression upon first glance at these documents? Just as we've long suspected, the whole process has been carefully rigged to generate a finding that the 36th street east-west corridor is the "preferred alignment." Many of the so called assumptions and conclusions within these documents appear to be unsupported by reliable evidence.

Get out your magnifying glasses and green eye shades folks. Among other things revealed in the packet... A public hearing on this matter has been set at Union Station for September 28, 2010. Between now and then we'll urge all 25th Street cross-town corridor advocates to familiarize yourselves with these documents and carefully note the defects in the existing analysis, lest this project be shoved down the lumpencitizens' throats through flawed analysis.

And in the meantime we'll encourage all readers to chime in with your comments. And of course on Tuesday night we'll leave this thread open for anyone who plans to attend Tuesday's work session to provide your observations and post-meeting reports.

And in closing, we'll provide this helpful graphic, gleaned from the "Ogden-WSU Transit Corridor AA-EIS Presentation" document, just to allow our readers to see how far along we are in the Transit Corridor Alignment selection process:

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Scary ainnit?

And yes... we do confess... we photoshopped it just a little bit... just to clarify where we really are within this obviously rigged process.

Update 8/17/10 2:52 p.m.: Here's another reminder of tonight's Transit Analysis council work session, per Brandon Chase Bell, via Facebook:

• UTA/Ogden City Council Meeting Tonight 8/17 5:30 p.m.

We're glad to see the word is getting out; and once again we encourage all meeting attendees to get back to WCF, to post your post-meeting comments.

Update 8/17/10 5:46 p.m.: Surprise of surprises, Dan S. is now live blogging from the City Council Chamber! Open the below comments section and refresh your browsers to read Dan's continuing real-time remarks.

Update 8/18/10 7:15 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner's Roy Burton throws in his own 2¢ this morning with his brief post-meeting writeup below:

• Ogden streetcar far from happening

Special thanks to Dan S. for last evening's excellent real-time play-by-play reporting.