It looks like Albuquerque officials are ramming a bus rapid transit line it's calling ART down the throats of its city residents just because there's a pot of federal money available for the project like Indianapolis officials are doing to us. At least Albuquerque residents have some media that will allow a fair hearing on the pros and cons. Here in the Soviet Republic of Indianapolis, there is no room for discussion other than what is being pitched by the proponents, who all seem to have a vested financial outcome in seeing it built.
It also appears that affected business owners in Albuquerque are more clued in to how badly their businesses are going to be damaged along the route. Make no mistake about it. Probably half of the current businesses along the College Avenue corridor between 50th and Broad Ripple Avenue will go out of business following the completion of the line, if not before, which is exactly what the proponents want to see happen. As businesses fail, developers will sweep in and buy up their property on the cheap, level their building and construct cheap, high-density apartment buildings all along the corridor, ruining the tight-knit neighborhoods that currently exist there.
Read more about community opposition in Albuquerque to the bus rapid transit system by clicking here. Also, check out how business owners in San Jose, California complain that they are being put out of business just enduring the disruptions caused by the long, drawn-out construction process for installing a rapid bus transit line there by clicking here. People had better wake up here in Indianapolis. The bus is already pulling out of the station, and those who will be impacted most by it are still clueless what dramatic changes they are going to see for the worse.
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