Hizzoner Chutzpah
Get a load of Mayor Anthony Foxx smacking down a group of boosters who showed up at city council’s Monday night dinner meeting to do a little cheerleading for the north Meck commuter rail line.
“I’m growing increasingly irritated with conversation I’m hearing about whether Charlotte considers the north corridor a priority,” Foxx scolded before they launched into their pitch. “The whole transit system is a priority.”
This from the mayor who spearheaded the push to fast-track a streetcar project years ahead of schedule, committing millions of local dollars to a project that nobody knows how to pay for in the long run, largely for the sake of political expediency.
For what it’s worth, the group of north Meck leaders rolled out the usual pro-rail transit mantra that promised a goldmine of increased economic development if tracks are laid. Citing an Urban Land Institute study, they said development along the proposed rail line, which would run from uptown to Mooresville and cost upwards of $358 million to build, would create $2.4 billion in new capital investment and create 19,500 jobs.
The north corridor advocates were deferential in their deluded cheerleading (19,500 jobs? really?), taking the mayor’s rebuke and his call for “improved dialogue” in stride.
“Mr. Mayor, we hear your admonishment and we couldn’t be more agreeable to that approach,” said Carroll Gray, executive director of the Lake Norman Transportation Commission.
Assuming, of course, an approach of improved dialogue includes coming off the hip in short order with copious amounts of cash to bankroll a commuter rail line to north Meck.
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