It appears that when SunRail finally got its vote, the vote was ‘no.’ And why not? Those who vowed to fight again after last year’s defeat were barely heard after the list of issues facing the legislature this session, with the exception of the editorial coverage in the Sentinel.
Now that it appears to be over, what do we think the fallout will be for Kissimmee and the surrounding area?
Nothing.
Nothing will change in Kissimmee as a result of not having a commuter rail line.
No new traffic (ie potential customers) will be generated downtown as a result of employees heading to and from a commuter rail station every day. Discuss that with the businesses who would love to have a new group of people passing by their doors twice a day, while going to and from making money.
No new demand for residential properties will be generated by Orlando-based professionals who would have had an easy commute from their small-town/lakefront homes. Doesn’t look so good for the city’s future mixed-use project on the old KUA site.
No new Lynx hub will be developed in the city. We forecast that without close proximity to commuter rail, Lynx will find other needs for their limited funding. A cheaper hub deal will be renegotiated with Osceola Square Mall, or further north along Osceola Parkway. Guess “those people” who ride Lynx will be pushed further to the edge of our community.
Median income of city residents will not increase, again because those commuting professionals won’t be relocating here. Employers will continue to follow the money into the southern part of Orange County.
New interest in properties around the commuter rail station will not appear, because there won’t be a commuter rail station. The pool of potential buyers stays the same...small.
Again, nothing will change. And we’re all enjoying the status quo, right?
If you supported commuter rail, right about now you need to be asking your elected representatives why they couldn’t get it done.
Didn’t support commuter rail, for whatever reason? That’s OK too. After all, if it was such a good deal, the state would have had a much more straightforward story of its operations and benefits, right? Can anyone truthfully say they understood whether the state would really own the tracks after the deal? Or would they just be leasing them from CSX?
What we need to ask our elected officials now is, what’s next? Transportation is off the table to stimulate the local economy. What else do they have up their sleeve?
In the meantime, wave to us during your I-4 commute.
4 comments:
Did you break the news to Gemsky? He and Swan were strongly in favor of this. What happens to the All America City banner now? Does it get folded up and put away? Until its used in the next campaign?
I just want to know if all the developments they passed by saying Commuter Rail was going to help them meet their transportation needs, are still legal?
I hope this time the light rail project stays dead. Now we just need the Signature Crossing project to get shot down the same way!
If you wanted to get commuter rail done, you should have Horner, Sanchez, and Tomkins in charge. They would have found a way to stick it to the taxpayers. I heard there is an ethics charge against Horner for bid rigging. Has anyone else heard anything?
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