San Antonians should vote yes on streetcar amendment - San Antonio Express-News

San Antonians should vote yes on streetcar amendment - San Antonio Express-News


I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw the headline “Streetcar Amendment Is a Bad Policy” and then noticed it was written by Pat DiGiovanni. To my knowledge, Mr. DiGiovanni has never invested a nickel in any projects downtown but has taken thousands of dollars for “advice and consulting.” How this gives him any position in this issue is a stretch.

Now for the facts: The San Antonio City Charter Amendment Proposition 1 is just common sense for anyone who believes the public has a right and even a duty to vote on any project that is taking public money. As I read Proposition 1 and the upcoming vote, that is what passing it does. I am going to outline below reasons for this and why it is good policy to vote for Charter Amendment Proposition 1.

This charter amendment is necessary because San Antonio voters currently have no right to vote on light rail or streetcar, no matter how expensive. The recent streetcar project that Mayor Ivy Taylor put a stop to was not a “pay-as-you-go” project, as was recently claimed on the editorial page. It was paid for with debt, but voters were precluded from voting on the bonds by legislation passed in 2011 which took away the right of local taxpayers to vote on bonds for light rail. The city charter amendment restores that right no matter how the rail system is paid for.

A light rail or streetcar system would require the prolonged destruction of city streets, hundreds of millions of dollars to build, decades of debt payments, huge operating subsidies from local taxpayers and then full replacement of the system in 30 years when the rail system needs replacement.

Why would a charter amendment single out one mode of transportation for voter approval? Because it is uniquely expensive and does so little to actually improve mobility. Our roads are paid for with gasoline tax dollars and some local tax dollars, carry almost all travel in our community — including bus transit — and require no operating subsidies like a rail system would.

Voting on every road expansion or improvement would be silly, and no one is proposing to do that. We expect roads to be improved and expanded as traffic increases, and we endure the construction hassles along the way. Yet, only about 2 percent of trips locally are taken on transit. Imagine moving a small fraction of these trips onto a rail system — designed and built from scratch — that would likely cost billions, but doing so without the scrutiny of voters. It is unfathomable.

Do we need a “diverse” transportation system? Certainly. We currently have diversity that could be expanded and includes regular bus transit, rapid bus (VIA’s Primo System), private automobiles, bicycling, walking and telecommuting. The cheapest way to add capacity to our current transportation network is to encourage the already growing trend of telecommuting — working at home rather than driving to work at all, which already has a larger market share than transit. But where is the leadership on this front?

Adding light rail would offer very few in our community a viable transportation option since it is so expensive — $198 million/mile on average — inflexible in its routes and difficult to expand.

Want more rapid transit? Synchronize traffic lights for a rapid bus system, or build dedicated busways for modern rapid bus — far cheaper to build than rail, but such a system would carry more people at faster speeds with less capital costs than rail.

Downtown redevelopment is happening without rail. The momentum to improve downtown should continue, as it obviously will in the coming years with our new convention center, Hemisfair park redevelopment, improvements to the Alamodome and a new high-rise office building next to the Frost Bank.

Voting yes on City Charter Amendment Proposition 1 — which requires voter approval before rail can be built — is a wise step to ensure we make good decisions about our transportation future.

Red McCombs is a businessman, civic leader and philanthropist.