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Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line


dubone

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I have never posted comments on news web sites until this weekend.   Who wants to help me in my convo with this Larry fellow in http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article27498274.html

 

That guy has no life and is completely full of crap.  He comments on every Observer article and spews the same vitriol non stop.  I wouldn't even give him the time of day, you aren't changing his mind.  And if you do argue with any sort of fact or source, he will simply block you and stop responding to you.  Despite the desire (because I have it as well), don't feed that troll!!  Ha-ha.

Edited by ah59396
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That guy has no life and is completely full of crap.  He comments on every Observer article and spews the same vitriol non stop.  I wouldn't even give him the time of day, you aren't changing his mind.  And if you do argue with any sort of fact or source, he will simply block you and stop responding to you.  Despite the desire (because I have it as well), don't feed that troll!!  Ha-ha.

I figured as much, but I have a huge pet peeve for disseminating none factual information when discussing pros and cons of anything.  We have a huge problem with this at all levels of government anything and in my opinion is very dangerous slop to be on as a society.  I thought maybe if I could do a part to not radicalize anymore folks it would be a good day.  OK now I am way too depressed for a Monday morning before 9am.

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Larry is a moron. Tax bills are public record. It's not really that hard to pull them to see what people are paying. I posted this in response to Larry, but here is a small sample of what some of the properties around the light rail line paid in taxes in 2014:

 

Spectrum - $297,087.30. They are saving about 30% of their tax bill because they developed on a brownfield site (unrelated to light rail)

Silos SouthEnd - $156,764.88. This is at the full ~1.3% rate that everyone else in Charlotte pays.

1225 Church St - $313,397.58. Paid the full tax rate.

Juntion 1504 - $104,968.73. They got a brownfield exemption for roughly 2/3 of their tax bill, again unrelated to the light rail in any way.


Ashton SouthEnd - $733,033.20. Paid the normal tax rate we all pay.

This is just a small percentage of the projects that have sprung up around the light rail line. These were properties that used to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in appraised tax value. Now they're worth tens of millions and are paying tax bills in the hundreds of thousands.

 

The additional revenue light rail brings to the city is easily in the millions of dollars annually. Probably tens of millions when they're all added up. It doesn't require any type of special research skills or hours to put this together. This took 5 minutes to pull.

$16 million of additional tax revenue annually to be precise, and the number keeps growing.  The Blue Line looks to be well on it's way to recovering its capital costs (at least the south portion) But lets not let the facts get in the way of some good ol' fashioned Observer commentary.

See infographic:

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/planning/2030Plan/Pages/easy-to-miss.aspx

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Larry just won't stop. He's just being willfully ignorant at this point.

Did a little math on the Spectrum property for him. Thought it was interesting myself. The last year before Spectrum construction started, the tax bill on this property was $33,000.

In the 6 years since, it has had a property tax bill over over $1.7 million...or 52 years worth of property taxes at the previous billed amount.

Clearly light rail construction has not benefited the city's financial position.

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I never, ever respond to Larry of Bumgarner, the perennial CMS candidate and disturbing gadfly.

 

He's completely irrational.

I believe vehemently in public schools and have been known to equate people that pay to send their kids to private school to those that don't go to a shelter to adopt a dog.  BUT my god if this man was ever on the CMS board I would second mortgage my house to not have my children in a school system that has this person as a leader.  His FB page is hilarious if it wasn't so dangerous that people like that end up having megaphone.

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$16 million of additional tax revenue annually to be precise, and the number keeps growing.  The Blue Line looks to be well on it's way to recovering its capital costs (at least the south portion) But lets not let the facts get in the way of some good ol' fashioned Observer commentary.

See infographic:

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/planning/2030Plan/Pages/easy-to-miss.aspx

And that's just the incremental property tax revenue. How about all the incremental Sales Tax revenue from new businesses along the Blue Line corridor?  I bet it's in the millions too.

I know "Tax Increment Financing" and "Special Assesment Districts" are politically charged terms, but if the City really wants to implement the 2030 plan, I don't see how they can do it without some form of Value Capture financing. 

I'm no finance expert (we have plenty here in Charlotte, so please chime in) but can a Infrastructure REIT be financed with Municipal Bonds?  

  • Create a Infrastructure REIT for say, the prospective airport line along Wilkinson
    • All land within a certain radius will be a special assesssment district used to finance the REIT
  • Issue tax free Muni-bonds to pay for the rail line's capital costs that won't be covered by the transit tax and federal/state grants
  • Require all the increases in property taxes to pay for the Muni-bond interest
    • Also require the sale of any city-owned land in the district to pay into the fund
  • Close the special district and REIT once enough incremental property tax dollars have been collected to pay back the Principal (will take a few decades but Muni-bond investors are the patient type)
  • The City/State will reap ancillary benefits from an increase in sales taxes from new business, and an overall increase in property taxes from increased values ADJOINING the special district

Again, please chime in finance experts!  Deloitte released this study about Infrastructure REITs a few years back:

http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/mx/Documents/bienes-raices/REITs_infrastructure_proyects.pdf

Edited by ChessieCat
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I took a joyride up North Tryon yesterday (well, I used running to totalwine as an excuse). Holy crap is all I can say. I went right past the I85 connector and didn't even realize where I was, the bridges make such a huge difference. N Tryon from Old Concord all the way to the connector now sports a wide median ready to receive the new tracks, it looks like UC Blvd and north is yet to get to that point, but it's not far off.

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Any photos you can share? :)   

 

I haven't been up that way in a very long time, and the Lynx Blue line page does not share that many photos. 

Although there is this vid posted in May when they were building it.

https://video-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xpt1/v/t42.1790-2/11168144_482581185226903_562899126_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjMwMCwicmxhIjo1MTJ9&rl=300&vabr=160&oh=04384e08c6620264ac31b331fdc57a94&oe=55B63F25

Edited by dubone
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no pics unfortunately, it really requires a second person in the car. (suprisingly) traffic moved quite well despite all of the construction so I couldn't safely snap anything. and it's still university city, so walking or biking out there is a non-starter.

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no pics unfortunately, it really requires a second person in the car. (suprisingly) traffic moved quite well despite all of the construction so I couldn't safely snap anything. and it's still university city, so walking or biking out there is a non-starter.

First rule of grodney is to always take pictures when you see something worthy of being updated on UP :)

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rv-2014-infrastructure-art-community-put

Does anyone else not like the design on the retaining walls? There is something about the way one of the flowers looks on the wall that creeps me out and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The flower in the top bottom left.

Photo from the Charlotte Area Transit system website.

Edited by LKN704
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rv-2014-infrastructure-art-community-put

Does anyone else not like the design on the retaining walls? There is something about the way one of the flowers looks on the wall that creeps me out and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The flower in the top bottom left.

Photo from the Charlotte Area Transit system website.

It's an old Disney trick, lol.

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I do wonder if that flower on the lower left of the upper photo triggers some subtle trypophobia.  Don't google image that unless you have a nice cozy pet or human to comfort you afterward.  

rv-2014-infrastructure-art-community-put

Does anyone else not like the design on the retaining walls? There is something about the way one of the flowers looks on the wall that creeps me out and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The flower in the top bottom left.

Photo from the Charlotte Area Transit system website.

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I do wonder if that flower on the lower left of the upper photo triggers some subtle trypophobia.  Don't google image that unless you have a nice cozy pet or human to comfort you afterward.  

 

Need more of a warning on that next time.  What has been seen...

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Sorry.  I tried to warn.   I told my friend about it, and he send me everything he saw with a pattern of holes like that and every single one triggered a spinal tingle and shiver for me.  

 

Although jesus plucking christmas, I guess I have seen mild examples before. I just google image searched it and the photoshops and medical stuff is horrifying.  I have 2 cuddly furry pets in bed with me now and they may not cure my disgust.  

 

Here is some eyebleach to cleanse your eyes of the terrible things you have seen.

http://imgur.com/r/eyebleach/top

 

 

Edited by dubone
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Crews were working on Sunday to get the grade crossings at 7th and 8th streets opened up. At a glance it looks like most of the structural portions of the intown sections of track are on the homestretch.

Its been a long while since CATS has provided any updated timeline information on the BLE. Anyone know anything? I am not offering this as a likely precident but  I'll add that the Mesa Az extension to their LRT opened yesterday 7.5 months early......(Its a smaller project, in a different climate, yada yada)

EDIT: there was also Sunday work on the 7th street platform extension

Edited by kermit
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