[southernnorthcarolina]

It's a time-honored strategy for train proponents to tell residents of City A that they need rail transit in order to be a "real city," just like City B. That's essentially how the taxpayers of my hometown of Charlotte, a wanna-be "World Class City" if there ever was one, got duped into approving light rail. Well, Atlanta has a train, don't they? Therefore, we have to have one too. (MARTA, by the way, has really improved Atlanta's traffic, hasn't it? Oh, wait...)

But using Shanghai as the model takes the "logic" to a whole new level. Let's see... 14 million people in metro Shanghai... few with even access to a car, much less owning one... a totalitarian government which can spend transit money without voter approval and which can force or eliminate residential, business, and government development in any areas it sees fit... Yeah, the perfect model.

Rail transit -- taking people from where they ain't to where they don't wanna go for almost two centuries.

[Willie Green]

That's essentially how the taxpayers of my hometown of Charlotte, a wanna-be "World Class City" if there ever was one,

Your hometown has a very high national ranking:

Charlotte ranks 19th in traffic congestion

[Blzbba]

"That's essentially how the taxpayers of my hometown of Charlotte, a wanna-be "World Class City" if there ever was one, got duped into approving light rail."


As a former resident of Rock Hill, SC now living 50 miles NW of Atlanta, I was always amazed and puzzled why Charlotte wanted so badly to be like Atlanta in so many ways, most of which were the ways in which ATL sucks.