First in a series
[img]1305|right|Andy Weissman||no_popup[/img]In a case beginning to vibrate with echoes of the School Board’s hotly argued impasse over the popular bond measure, City Councilman Andy Weissman strongly backs the concept of a Hayden Tract-light rail station-Downtown daily shuttle, but he fears it will not survive into the future.
Just as with the School Board, a hardy but outnumbered two-person minority favored ploughing forward with a daring, expensive project suffering from a dearth of precise data.
In both instances, the minority contends it is more important to aggressively pursue the project’s ultimate aims. The financial data can be filled in as they advance.
At Monday’s Council meeting, a prospective launch celebration crumbled into a potential funeral when members voted 2-2-1 to have a group hug.
For now. Nothing more.
Councilman Jim Clarke, who cast the abstention vote, said this morning that he supports the three-cornered shuttle concept – or alternatively, possibly a meal delivery route to the Hayden Tract. Known as Mr. Everywhere for his ubiquitous presence, he pledged to work with both sides to cure the blank spaces in the strategy plan.
Optimistic, He Isn’t
For now, Mr. Weissman sounds disheartened.
He joined Mehaul O’Leary in voting affirmatively on the proposed nine-month pilot program despite two possible glitches:
• The unknown cost of the experiment to City Hall is a major concern of dissenters, and
• No one at City Hall or on the ground has a clue how the unorthodox business community of the Hayden Tract will respond to the daily 11 a.m. to 3 shuttle.
Will they shrug and look askance since many work off-hours?
Or will they tepidly participate, patronizing the 22-seat shuttle in a barely visible drip-drip stream into Downtown’s many hungrily awaiting eateries?
For the pro side, those are irrelevant questions.
Mr. Weissman was asked if the shuttle scheme, as designed, can work for the city?
“The only way to assess the need for a shuttle, the only way to persuade those who are ultimately going to be called on to help finance it, is to show them,” he said.
“Either it works or it doesn’t work.
“‘Work’ does not necessarily have to mean that it makes money or even breaks even.
“If there is an overall benefit to Downtown, to the Hayden Tract and to the users, from that there may be other things that develop.
“I don’t think you are in a position to know about that stuff if you don’t try it.”
(To be continued)
