That was quick. The nuptials performed between the city of Charlotte and the Federal Transit Administration at a “transit summit” in the glittering Westin Hotel in December have dissolved like a quickie Vegas marriage. The feds will not cover half the $371 cost of the South End light rail system as virtually everyone in the room that day believed.
Instead, the new Bush administration budget tosses Charlotte in the “promising project” purgatory, destined for a $30 million tie-me-over and maybe, just maybe, full funding later down the road. This has to be terribly disappointing to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.
When FTA administrator Jenna Dorn was feted by McCrory and assorted transit boosters at the Westin, love was in the air. Dorn was immediately smitten by claims from McCrory and Charlotte Transit Authority that the light rail project had already spurred some $400 million in new investment along the proposed line.
“The check is in the mail, mayor,” Dorn said after a glowing introduction from McCrory which included calling Dorn “one of the most effective public servants in America.” Yes, well, oh my, but that check still might be a little light, dear.
So now Charlotte finds itself, as of this moment, on the hook for about $150 million dollars to finish the South End project. Dollars, needless to say, the city does not have. This outcome is a painful reminder that using the existence of a federal honey pot as an excuse to start a transit project is never a good idea.
At the end of the day the project has to stand or fall on its own merits, not on how much cash the city can charm out of Washington to fund it. The question of whether light rail qua light rail was a good fit for Charlotte was never satisfactorily answered, if it was even asked.
Yet seemingly on the prospect of big federal check alone, Charlotte leaders sold Mecklenburg County voters on a transit tax hike and committed the city to radical re-working of land-use plans with the stated goal of ramping up density in targeted transit corridors. Light rail, you see, simply makes no sense without higher-density development.
The final piece of the puzzle seemed to be selling the Bush administration on funding half of the project. To that end the extravagant claims about light rail already boosting development along the South Blvd. corridor were advanced for months leading up to the transit summit pep rally.
But long-time Charlotte residents will tell you that South Blvd. got a big boost from a certain eight-lane interstate. The opening of the Charlotte beltway and related road improvements along 485, such as the extension of Johnston Road, pulled traffic off of South and helped make it usable again. Ascribing improvements in the corridor to transit plans still on paper simply ignores these very significant real world changes.
Real world development is also subject to universal patterns and rhythms that are clearly visible in the corridor. McCrory calls the existing South Blvd. development “junk” and “not producing revenue” is he is probably correct. But there is also nothing wrong with this state of affairs. Commercial property has a natural life cycle, and much along South is on life support. Here too is a factor quite apart from an announced light rail plan that is driving re-investment. Things get old and have to be replaced and investors flock to those opportunities
Who knows, perhaps some gnome in the FTA noticed that Charlotte claims about the light rail route’s impact were out of whack, which suggested that post-construction plans might be out of whack, too. But all we can do is guess about such things.
It isn’t even clear what it is Charlotte failed to do that relegated it to the lovely parting gifts camp. Dorn told The Charlotte Observer that the FTA just wants to make sure the city’s “ducks are in a row.” That is the technical term for, what, having all your ducks in a row?
Reading between the lines it seems the South End project needs more planning to satisfy the feds. In fairness to CTA, by more planning the feds mean “more made up numbers testifying to fact that this sucker absolutely cannot go wrong.” Here too is a good reason to steer clear of federal handouts unless absolutely necessary: Too often you have to tell them what they want to hear to get the money.
Already the Charlotte City Council has a painful choice looming. It can go ahead and act like the project is fully-funded and start buying rails cars as planned. Or it can wait to see what the feds do, pushing up the overall cost of the project. It is a classic spending dilemma, exactly the kind of mess you can expect when you give third-parties control over your spending decisions.
And the final indignity for the brokenhearted? Among the fully-funded projects, Las Vegas. What might have been.
Taylor is a Charlotte-based writer for Los Angeles-based Reason magazine and a contributing editor at Carolina Journal.