OPINION: Transit Tinkers: Savvy Politics or Disastrous?: CATS’ Governing Body Confronts City Council Members’ Discontent

By Mary Newsom, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

May 26–The talk was all very gracious — most of it, that is — but some not-so-gracious implications were hovering in the room.

It was a joint workshop Tuesday among the Charlotte City Council, the Mecklenburg County commissioners and the Metropolitan Transit Commission, governing body for the Charlotte Area Transit System.

Although it wasn’t on the agenda in so many words, most there knew the real topic was this: Some on the Charlotte City Council want more say-so in MTC decisions.

As is typical, this issue has several currents swirling through it.

There’s continuing resentment among east Charlotte residents, and some east Charlotte politicians, that the MTC chose light rail for the Northeast corridor and commuter rail for the North corridor and slotted those projects next. What about that Central Avenue streetcar? (Answer: It’s delayed. Federal money CATS hoped would help pay for it won’t, unless federal transit regulations change — which may happen. Or not.)

What about the Southeast corridor — the one along Independence Boulevard, serving neighborhoods where, today, bus ridership is highest? (Answer: It, too, is delayed. The federal formula for divvying up transit money meant light rail wasn’t likely to get funded and bus rapid transit was. So rather than choose those unpopular buses, the MTC gambled. It will wait a few years, hoping that formula will change. With the new Democratic Congress, it might.)

Failure to communicate?

Also, there’s continuing discontent among some on City Council that Mayor Pat McCrory doesn’t share enough information about transit and the MTC. Like every mayor in Mecklenburg, McCrory, a Republican, is his city’s MTC representative.”Communication between the mayor and council has not been the best,” council member Anthony Foxx told me this week. He and some other council members would like more influence in MTC decisions.

Finally, lurking over it all is the specter of a fall vote on whether to scrap the sales tax that pays for the transit system. The tax was passed in a countywide 1998 vote. If it dies, there won’t be money to build future transit lines, and existing transit service would have to depend on city revenue, i.e. mostly property taxes — or else on fares so high few people would ride.

All of which explains why northern Mecklenburg mayors spent rather a lot of time Tuesday explaining, again, why the North corridor commuter rail line was, really, a smart choice.

It explains why Foxx proposed adding a City Council member to the MTC. Foxx told me he hopes adding another Charlotte voice might deflect some of east Charlotte’s peevishness over decisions on the streetcar and the Southeast corridor. Foxx fears those bad feelings could mean trouble for the transit tax if the repeal measure goes on the ballot, which looks likely. “What we have right now,” he said, “is an immediate crisis of confidence.”

You say you want information?

And it explains a bit of testiness that lingered around the edges of the seemingly polite discourse. Huntersville Mayor Kim Phillips noted that staying informed about transit matters takes time. “Nobody puts out paper like CATS,” she said, pointing to stacks of documents. She complimented City Council member Pat Mumford for his command of transportation issues. She was too nice to say, if he can do it, can’t you?

Cornelius Mayor Gary Knox noted he lives 17 miles from the city-county government center, which holds City Council offices as well as CATS offices. The subtext of his and Phillips’ remarks seemed to be: “For Pete’s sake, you’re all in the same building!”

I’m not sure whether east Charlotte angst about transit is as strong as Foxx fears. He’s a politician and I’m not.

But I am sure that if people are that ticked off, tinkering with the governance structure of a body most people aren’t aware exists isn’t going to solve the problem. And if it causes some of that unspoken MTC testiness to erupt publicly, tinkering could do more harm than good.

So I hope Foxx is right. Because if warfare breaks out among MTC members, that would seriously threaten any save-the-transit-tax campaign. And if that tax dies, Charlotte’s in a heap of trouble.

URBAN OUTLOOK Mary

Newsom

—— Mary Newsom is an Observer associate editor. Write her at The Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308, or mnewsom@charlotteobserver.com . Visit her blog at marynewsom.blogspot.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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