When the insurance company shut down their Headquarters relocation across from Hilton it was a major blow to the area. It was downplayed at the time as not that big of a deal, but in retrospect it was huge.
Youāre talking about Centene.
Yes, that was going to add hundreds of 6 figure jobs to the University area. Would have been a huge boon to the entire area, especially real estate and local businesses.
Anyone have any idea what they have done with that building? I drove by it maybe a year agoā¦ They were still building it even after the announcement. Pretty campus, but also a relic of an office age that is probably ending.
clt says Centene pulled CFC sponsorship, no surprise
Theyāre still building. Almost finished now. I suspect itāll just be subdivided for multiple tenants.
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Upwards of 6,000 employees, with median wages well over 100k.
Yeah that hurt UC badly. Canāt imagine what home prices in the area might have done.
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clt hopes dababy has to walk thru a metal detector before the event
Atlanta has put a lot of money into their subway but they get no state support.
TTBOMK they are the only subway in the nation that doesnāt get state support.
If they had kept building out their subway properly then they wouldnāt have the traffic problems they have.
These politicians have no idea what they are talking about or are in the pockets of special interest.
History has proven you cannot build roads to beat gridlock after you hit a certain population.
Thatās why all major cities have public transport.
This is typical BS from podunk politicians who have no clue.
They need to shut their mouths and remember what drives the economic engine of this state. The bigger cities.
This is like in congress when the podunk states talk shit about the big states when itās the big states that are net positive contributors to the federal budget and the podunk states are net negatives towards the federal budget.
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What is your ideal example of public transit in the United States? The ridership numbers donāt justify the cost in most American cities.
āBuild it and they will comeā is a statement that is true for all transportation types.
Public transport has not only been stigmatized but destroyed in the US over the course of just these past few decades.
Currently in Charlotte, it would take me 1hr and 20 mins to get to Noda by public transport while only taking me ~15 mins by car and ~25-30 mins by bike.
That is why most will choose to either drive or bike.
However, in order to bike to Noda, you have to deal with shoulder less roads and high speed and angry drivers.
That is why most choose to drive to Noda.
An inconsistent, poorly conceived, hub and spoke public transport network should never be judged by their ridership numbers. Thatās an invalid metric to base it.
Ridership numbers for the light rail were super high, until of course we cut back from 7.5 min schedules to 20 minute schedules and slowed them down from 55 mph to 35 mph.
EDIT: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Also to consider is the extremely high cost of of car infrastructure and itās unsustainable future as an effective method of living. Not even in an environmental impact kind of way, just in monetary cost. For example, the city of Charlotte spent $50 million on a 1.5 mile road extension just a couple years back, which is about double the cost of the 20 mile Sugar Creek Greenway. This isnāt even to mention that because cars are so heavy, they destroy the roads they drive on as the wear from weight increases exponentially. So consistent repaves and the filling of pot holes is a constant money burner year after year. So that 1.5 mile, $50 million road extension may cost the city another ~$20 million in 10-15 years depending on how much usage it gets.
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My final point is itās easy to look at the cost of greenways, rail infrastructure, and public transportation because itās something that many of us donāt use on the daily. Yearly road extensions, repaves, and repairs arenāt talked about in the media and are costs we turn a blind eye toward because we do use it on the daily.
Once we shift that mindset, weāll not only saves billions of dollars each decade, weāll also create more lively and community bound neighborhoods.
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With the rise of personal transit options (bikes, scooters, etc) I think a robust network of greenways and protected lanes dedicated to those is a huge piece of future mobility. A ton of people in southend ride their scooters or e bikes to the office every day. A lot more would if they didnāt have to brave traffic to do so. My friend worked in southend, but lives in pineville. When the little sugar creek greenway extension opened down to pineville, he took his scooter to work some days. His scooter will do 35mph, so it took about the same amount of time as driving, but it was good for his stress and mental health to not deal with traffic.
Both the buildout and the maintenance of paved paths is considerably lower than for roads, and they can also have the secondary benefit of improving health for those that ride actual bikes.
Id frankly rather see the city spend a billion on a comprehensive buildout of the greenway system over the silver line.
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Your friend rides his scooter 35mph on the green way?
If there are open stretches with nobody around, sure. Typically more like 15mph though.
Iāve never been on the greenway. Is it all paved? Anyone know if you see sketchy people standing around? You hear of women getting attacked so didnāt know if they hang in plain view waiting for a victim or hiding in woods
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Itās all paved.
Iāve never seen a sketchy person on the greenway personally, though Iām sure some homeless people wander on or around it sometimes, especially in the more urban portions.
During daylight hours, especially in warm months, itās usually pretty full of people biking, running, or walking. Not a great place to attack someone unless youāre out there after daylight hours and someone is alone.
In the next few years, that greenway will go essentially all the way from SC up to Campus and will be the XCLT greenway. Slated to be complete by 2028 with it all funded and segments under or in planning I believe.
Itās a goal of mine to have a place I can ride/walk to the XCLT and lightrail.
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Oi vey. Yeah man super sketchy, nothing but dentists getting high on their own supply and sand coated walkways to ensure youāre annoyed on your walk. I hear they even cut down all the trees and purposefully kill the grass with gasoline on the weekends.
Super dangerous, I would never let my 6-year old daughterās goldfish walk the trail. Not to mention it gets cold some times of the year, luckily it hasnāt snowed for two consecutive years due to climate change, so thatās a bit of a relief.