Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsjv
Okay so I'll bite. If this is the situation then why in the world did light rail fail in 2000?
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Several reasons, but the main reason is that Austin is a very provincial, inward-thinking place when it comes to urban development. What many see as a progressive idea (community-level activism and decision-making) turned out to be Austin's undoing; letting ersatz hippies with big bank accounts cry foul and NIMBY is not progressive in the slightest. In fact, it's really downright pathetic how many of Austin's central neighborhoods pretend to be progressive when what they're really trying to protect is some kind of gaussian blur bungalow nirvana of the past.
So you didn't have the central wards entirely on board with this. You had South Congress business owners whining that the construction would affect their business combined with many other neighborhood activists complaining that it would ruin their quality of life.
Combine that with a fairly disengaged college voting population and ambivalence in the suburban sectors of Austin and it's no wonder it failed. In fact, it was the very moment I realized that Austin was more suburb than city and wasn't quite ready or willing to take a step into the future. Instead, it became overstretched, oversprawled, and NOW people are wondering what the hell happened.