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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CM was getting ready for an election in May or November of 2001. Krusee forced them to go early, and do so in an election where the suburban Republican vote would be at its highest (because of W). Thus, all the stars were aligned against it:
1. They didn't know for sure which streets it'd go down in a couple places (because they were forced to the polls before being done)
2. The opposition's message is simple - and works great when people are being shown a hazy route with no real details
3. The rednecks were already out at the polls
Despite all of this,
it still lost by about 1500 votes, which is less than 1%. It
passed in the city of Austin. Revisionist history by people like Lyndon Henry (and "SecretAgentMan" aside), a scaled-back starter segment would easily have passed in 2004 - but by then, CM had new leaders who don't really want to build rail - and Krusee found a way to get some rail built out to Round Rock someday without having to do anything nice for the hippies in Central Austin (and without his Round Rock constituents actually having to pay any taxes for it, either).