The Good News Report

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

5 hours ago, KJHburg said:

If you ever spent a summer in the DC area you will know it is a swamp.  I did for 10 years and it is as humid as Florida in the summer.  

It was a 2016 election joke...

[KJHburg]

9 hours ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

It was a 2016 election joke...

It is a swamp physically the city was built on a swamp and metaphorically a political swamp.  

[Crucial_Infra]

18 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

It is a swamp physically the city was built on a swamp and metaphorically a political swamp.  

#WellActually, it’s built on wetlands.

[jednc]

4 hours ago, Crucial_Infra said:

#WellActually, it’s built on wetlands.

I like that hashtag.

[KJHburg]

the industrial warehouse market in the Charlotte region continues to boom.  Check this JLL graphic out.  Lot of new companies in the market too. 

https://www.us.jll.com/en/views/snapshots/charlotte-snapshot-1-15-20-jll

[KJHburg]

story from NC Research Campus up in Kannapolis with an expansion of a nutrition company there.   It is becoming a food science hub there. 

""Standard Process — based in Palmyra, Wisconsin — has entered into a new, five-year lease agreement to keep its nutrition innovation center at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis through March 2025. Asa part of the deal, the nutrition innovation center will also more than double its space. It is adding an additional 15,000 square feet to the 10,000 square feet the center has operated in since it was established in April 2018, Bassem El-Khodor, director of discovery science and innovation at Standard Process, told the Charlotte Business Journal. The nutrition innovation center currently has 17 employees, and El-Khodor is expecting to hire an additional three to eight new employees as part of the expanded lab space.""

subscriber story https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/01/14/wisconsin-company-to-significantly-expand-r-d.html

and from Rock Hill a new company opening there    with 100 new jobs

https://charlotteregion.com/news/2020/01/15/alliance-news/optimized-armor-inc.-establishing-new-operations-in-york-county/

 

[urbanlover568]

The Real Cost of Smoking by State

https://wallethub.com/edu/the-financial-cost-of-smoking-by-state/9520/

 

NC is No. 1 for being the cheapest. 

[QCxpat]

Today's CBJ - "City says no property tax increase for 2021" by Erik Spanberg

"No property tax increase is anticipated for the Charlotte city budget year that begins in July, according to a financial update presented this week as part of council’s annual planning retreat."

'Charlotte’s city budget is $2.6 billion, but most of the focus is on the $727.7 million general operating fund. Property tax revenue accounts for $390 million of that total. The rest of the city budget is comprised of enterprise funds that rely mostly on user fees — the airport, Charlotte Area Transit System, water and stormwater — and either dedicated revenue or publicly financed construction and infrastructure repair. Examples of dedicated revenue assets include the convention center and NASCAR Hall of Fame."

"Preliminary figures for fiscal 2019, to be finalized soon, show the city recorded a surplus of $1.5 million in its general operating fund.  For 2020, ending June 30, surplus estimates range from $2 million to $4 million."

Photo credit:  Melissa Key - CBJ

Link:  https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/01/16/should-charlotteans-expect-a-property-tax-increase.html

[Matthew.Brendan]

Imagine the revenue they would generate if payment for the Blue Line was actually enforced.

[kermit]

16 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

Imagine the revenue they would generate if payment for the Blue Line was actually enforced.

I dunno, lets sketch it out.

I see ticket checkers about twice a month (give or take). Looks to me like they find 1 person per train (on average) without a valid fare.

If CATS runs 200 trains per day (just a guestimate), and each of those trains has one fare evading person,  then revenue loss per day is $440 -- $160,000 per year

How much do they pay those armed three person crews to collect that $160,000?

 

[Windsurfer]

5 minutes ago, kermit said:

I dunno, lets sketch it out.

I see ticket checkers about twice a month (give or take). Looks to me like they find 1 person per train (on average) without a valid fare.

If CATS runs 200 trains per day (just a guestimate), and each of those trains has one fare evading person,  then revenue loss per day is $440 -- $160,000 per year

How much do they pay those armed three person crews to collect that $160,000?

 

I think it ought to be free myself, but I still argue we need some sort of 'suit' on those trains, even if they don't do much. 

[kermit]

22 minutes ago, Windsurfer said:

I think it ought to be free myself, but I still argue we need some sort of 'suit' on those trains, even if they don't do much. 

I agree, a security presence is useful. But they don't need armed, three person teams to do that.

[Matthew.Brendan]

So first things first, the onboard shakedown system is a terrible way to enforce/collect payment for a number of reasons. Even worse is when they stand on the platform and trying to block people as they are exiting the train. Thankfully I haven't seen that nonsense in a long time.

Surely you are aware of how the CATS Pass app works, that you can simply buy X number of tickets, and redeem them when needed. I'm not sure what average daily ridership numbers are but if you honestly think everyone who rides the train is buying a new ticket each and every day, well, I don't know what to tell you.

Fact is there is no way to effectively enforce paid usage (turnstiles or other controlled entry) and so I agree with you that yes, it's not worth the cost to employ ticket checkers to pop a few people here and there for $50 because they either don't realize there is an app or perhaps don't have a smartphone.  Hence my original comment, "imagine if..."

[videtur quam contuor]

Vaguely related: Montréal is a city on an island in the Saint Lawrence. The flow of the river drains an immense part of North America. Cost of maintaining a reliable water supply=$0. Years ago I owned a condo in MTL and there was no residential water metering because the cost of meter installation and reading, clerical functions, mailing bills, collecting, depositing, enforcing, dealing with non-payers and all the rest was deemed unworth the income.  Of course there were profligate users.

As time passed and the concern about general conservation of resources grew, including treatment of waste water, and automatic reading and billing arrived there is now a residential device for each user. It provides each user with a measurable sense of participation even if it costs the city.

Point being, municipal services sometimes cost more to maintain than any income they may provide. Fares are a signal to users and citizens. The semiotics are lost on some.

[Urban Cowboy]

I have several friends who ride every day into uptown, don’t pay fares, and just have the app at the ready so they can purchase tickets (from the rail car) in the event of a ticket check. They get the impression that a lot of other people are doing the same thing and they’re ironically annoyed by the chronic overcrowding - and they have expressed that more ticket checks would actually curb ridership at peak times. I hear it’s becoming a real problem and that more frequency is needed in rush hours.

I also heard that CATS has limited their ticket checks to scenarios when they can check everyone getting off at once - because they allegedly were in a scenario where they were accused of racial profiling for their ticket checks. So my understanding is that they rarely do checks at peak times because it’s difficult to stop everyone. Not sure if that’s accurate because I never ride.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

On 1/16/2020 at 12:49 PM, tarhoosier said:

Fares are a signal to users and citizens. The semiotics are lost on some.

 

[t_money]

This isn't good new or anything but thought people would find it interesting on this forum:

https://housemethod.com/buyers/median-home-age-us/

Edited January 19, 2020 by t_money

[KJHburg]

Good news is that NC has the 2nd lowest auto insurance rates in the USA only trailing Maine.  

SC is substantially higher than NC.   SC is 31st and NC is 49th highest price. 

https://www.thezebra.com/state-of-insurance/auto/2020/#download

top 5 most expensive Michigan, LA, FL, KY  and RI

(and from what I have seen driving around here in metro Florida I see why LOL) 

 

[kermit]

23 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Good news is that NC has the 2nd lowest auto insurance rates in the USA only trailing Maine.  

SC is substantially higher than NC.   SC is 31st and NC is 49th highest price. 

https://www.thezebra.com/state-of-insurance/auto/2020/#download

top 5 most expensive Michigan, LA, FL, KY  and RI

(and from what I have seen driving around here in metro Florida I see why LOL) 

 

I am surprised that rates have remained low despite the flood of Yankee drivers. 

State regulation of our auto insurance gets much of the credit for our relatively low rates (SC and KY have very similar urban/rural geographies and climate, regulation is the only big difference).  Sometimes regulation is good. Who would have thunk it?

Edited January 21, 2020 by kermit

[kermit]

On 1/16/2020 at 11:44 AM, Matthew.Brendan said:

So first things first, the onboard shakedown system is a terrible way to enforce/collect payment for a number of reasons. Even worse is when they stand on the platform and trying to block people as they are exiting the train. Thankfully I haven't seen that nonsense in a long time.

Surely you are aware of how the CATS Pass app works, that you can simply buy X number of tickets, and redeem them when needed. I'm not sure what average daily ridership numbers are but if you honestly think everyone who rides the train is buying a new ticket each and every day, well, I don't know what to tell you.

Fact is there is no way to effectively enforce paid usage (turnstiles or other controlled entry) and so I agree with you that yes, it's not worth the cost to employ ticket checkers to pop a few people here and there for $50 because they either don't realize there is an app or perhaps don't have a smartphone.  Hence my original comment, "imagine if..."

I did know about CATS pass, but was not aware of the extent of the abuse, that sucks. Seems like that could be fixed by asking fare inspectors to actually look at the timer...

A discussion of fare evasion in the much larger Denver system is here (they use the same ticket and audit approach that we do): https://www.cpr.org/2020/01/20/how-many-cheaters-ride-rtds-trains-for-free-not-that-many-turns-out/.

Here are some excerpts:

Quote

RTD has considered “hardening” its stations by adding turnstiles and gates, outgoing General Manager Dave Genova said at a September meeting. But that infrastructure could cost $175 million to build and $16.7 million to operate every year, according to a 2011 analysis.
And that infrastructure would be difficult to install in downtown Denver, where stations are on public sidewalks. 

RTD estimates it lost about $850,000 to rail system fare evasion in 2018. That amounts to less than 1 percent of the $143 million in fare revenue collected that year, and a tiny amount of the agency’s overall revenue of $978 million that year. 

The ability for passengers to purchase tickets on their mobile phones poses a new wrinkle for fare checkers. Board member Judy Lubow said in December that she’s heard about scofflaws riding for free, only buying a ticket when they see an inspector on their car. The phenomena was even mentioned in a money diary on Refinery29, a lifestyle magazine. 

“I will say that it is difficult to do that,” Grado told the board, explaining that the app shows when the fare was purchased. “If they know that that fare was purchased a minute ago, and they just bought the train, then we go ahead and cite them.”

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by kermit

[Miesian Corners]

On 1/18/2020 at 6:04 AM, Urban Cowboy said:

I have several friends who ride every day into uptown, don’t pay fares, and just have the app at the ready so they can purchase tickets (from the rail car) in the event of a ticket check. They get the impression that a lot of other people are doing the same thing and they’re ironically annoyed by the chronic overcrowding - and they have expressed that more ticket checks would actually curb ridership at peak times. I hear it’s becoming a real problem and that more frequency is needed in rush hours.

 

That's really shady. This is exactly why we can't have nice things.

[Matthew.Brendan]

It’s even better than that. There’s no timer after buying the ticket. It only begins when you ‘redeem’ the ticket. Keep one already purchased in the app and you only actually have to redeem it should the security guards roll through. 

[jednc]

59 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

It’s even better than that. There’s no timer after buying the ticket. It only begins when you ‘redeem’ the ticket. Keep one already purchased in the app and you only actually have to redeem it should the security guards roll through. 

Or, if you have some morals and integrity, you just buy a ticket before you ride the train. In other words, pay EVERY time. I'm more and more thankful for my parents every day.

[Matthew.Brendan]

https://www.wbtv.com/2020/01/17/charlotte-city-council-member-is-pushing-fare-less-public-transportation-system/

[navigator319]

1 hour ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

It’s even better than that. There’s no timer after buying the ticket. It only begins when you ‘redeem’ the ticket. Keep one already purchased in the app and you only actually have to redeem it should the security guards roll through. 

 

40 minutes ago, jednc said:

Or, if you have some morals and integrity, you just buy a ticket before you ride the train. In other words, pay EVERY time. I'm more and more thankful for my parents every day.

 

TBH I am guilty of this.  Have been for over a year now since they launched the app.   It's not as cut and dry about morals.  I see it as a gray area, justification or not.   FIX THE DAMN APP.  Until then it's a loophole and I'll continue to use it.  Everyone else in society has loopholes they exploit so it's about damn time the more average and even less than average finally got one of their own.  It is idiotic CATS thinks this app is acceptable as is anyways, pathetic even, but hey nothing with operations surprises me with them.