A bridge too far?
 Today marks the opening of the new pedestrian bridge from the Freighthouse to Union Station. The bridge originally set unused and rusting in the Rivermarket. $5 million later it opens as a much needed link between the two attractions. I'm glad that we're finally doing something for pedestrians. I'm actually a bit stunned that someone actually realized that forcing people to get in their cars and drive to Main or Broadway to get from Union Station to the Freighthouse was a bad thing.What I'm curious about, as usual is the finances. First of all, did we really need to put a "tube" through the bridge? I'm sure that was costly. Why would you want to hide the people? It's pedestrian activity that attracts other activity. We spent a lot of money to hide the best quality of a pedestrian bridge; the people! I know you're not going to be surprised by this if you're a regular reader, but I studied the TIF plan. They didn't add any reimbursable costs to the plan, they just shifted $650,000 to the bridge. Sounds fair enough at first glance. No added expense to the taxpayers. Originally the reimbursable expenses for Maintenance and Infrastructure were $1,286,632.00. After they subtracted the $650,000 for the bridge, the new total for Maintenance and Infrastructure is $636,632.00. You can look at this three ways. They are simply shifting money, OR they're admitting that they had too much money allocated to infrastructure and maintenance, OR they're being irresponsible and robbing the future financial health of Union Station to pay for something they want right now. Any bets on which one it is? |
Comments on "A bridge too far?"
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Laz said ... (10:43 AM) :
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the wife said ... (12:21 PM) :
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Mark said ... (1:08 PM) :
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Millie said ... (4:08 PM) :
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Adrianne said ... (6:49 PM) :
post a commentalot of pedestrian talk. soon you'll be talking about pedestrian synergy.
And any way you look at that is a ridiculous amount of money for a ped bridge for the amount of traffic it will get. We all know no one goes to Union Station.
L
Were you acutally stunned, actually?
Laz,
Of course it's a lot of pedestrian talk. I am the walkability guy after all. As far as "pedestrian synergy", I think I will focus on the bandwidth while avoiding push back and deal breakers. I'll build consensus to shift the paradigm from vertical integration to organic growth, all the while making sure I do the right thing.
Oh and by the way. I go to Union Station quite a bit. Isn't that worth $5 mil? :-)
Thanks for reading!
That's some mighty good corporate speak!
Consider who previously owned the bridge and who sits as the Chair of the Board of Trustees, it does smack of a ill-planned pet project. However, I am completely in favor of anything that promotes walkability. Having made the treacherous trek across the Main St. bridge (which leaks!) in order to get from the Freighthouse District to Union Station, I am happy to see an alternative.