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RTD's Fastracks project was a “bait and switch”

This letter has not been edited

N.J. Silberling, Lakewood

Published July 31, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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In defense of RTD’s woefully low original estimates for the cost of the Fastracks project, Cal Marsella (RTD General Manager) is quoted by Kevin Flynn (RMN News, 7/19, p. 4): “Why would we lowball it and not be able to deliver? One obvious answer to that would be that this vast project was a “bait and switch” scheme from the outset and that little more than the west corridor of light rail through Lakewood was ever the real goal. Evidence for this is provided by the history of the Fastracks promotion. Among its strongest original promoters were former Lakewood mayors Linda Shaw and Linda Morton, both strong advocates for local real-estate development and speculation. Morton, as mayor, pushed through the adoption of Urban Renewal by the City of Lakewood and then, as the Director of DRCOG, served as chairperson for “Guide the Ride,” the first attempt at getting tax-payer approval for Metro-area light rail. Meanwhile, members of the Lakewood city council and government repeatedly misrepresented the history of the abandoned 13th avenue rail line as a full-service freight railroad rather than an artifact from World War II, at which time the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood served as an ammunition factory. Although it runs through and alongside an established, attractive residential neighborhood, the old 13th-avenue rail corridor was an obvious way by which to force the location of high-density residential and commercial development. From its outset the West Corridor light-rail project was planned around a density of stations more than twice that of other existing or planned light-rail lines in the Metro area. All of these stations are now planned or potential Transit Oriented Developments. Development was planned as a way to provide the ridership for light rail, not the other way around. As the saying goes “build it \[fixed guideway light rail\] and they \[the slums of tomorrow\] will come,” and the developers and local politicians who represent them will have made a tidy profit at the expense of spoiling the residential character of a particularly nice part of Lakewood.

Comments

  • August 1, 2008

    11:53 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    EnlightenedOne writes:

    N.J. Silberling, Lakewood writes:
    "As the saying goes 'build it \[fixed guideway light rail\] and they \[the slums of tomorrow\] will come,' "

    Mr. Silberling, it sounds like you're suggesting that transit users are slum dwellers. It's obvious that you don't use the system, and have no basis for your statements.

    I can only point you to the most recently completed rail line as evidence of the real story. The development currently occuring around stations on the Southeast Corridor can hardly be classified as slums.