LOL. Nice one.
The problem with the light rail is how slow it is.
A subway line would have been better.
Iâm sure that would have been beyond the scope of affordability though.
I just donât see how light rail is the answer because of the slow speeds and short trains.
Used to think it was great until reality set in and I experienced it.
Itâs still nice to have transit. But how much can it grow and people want speed and convenience.
If itâs less convenient to take the light rail than your car then it seems like the system has failed.
Iâve said this before but you cannot gauge a shitty transportation system by the numbers of riders.
For example, the blue line had huge ridership, until the speeds were reduced from 55mph to 35mph and frequency went from every 7.5min to 20min.
People only ride PT if it is convenient (or if youâre me, because youâre an environmentalist). So when the system is terrible, then the ridership will also decrease. Build it and they will come.
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Does CATS have any plan to restore the Blue Line to 55mph as it was designed? A derailment caused the trains to be slowed down. I donât think they need to build to new line until the existing Blue Line is properly restored. If they canât manage what they have now how are they going to manage a system that is over twice as large?
The NCDOT wonât allow them to run at 55mph again until all train cars are fixed. The derailment was caused by fatigued roller bearings. The old CEO never got them their scheduled maintenence.
They have to ship the cars out to Cali to get fixed. They wonât all be fixed until 2027 I believe.
In the near future, CATS should be able to send major repairs to the Siemens Mobility facility under construction in Lexington, NC, as opposed to all the way cross-country to Sacramento. Groundbreaking took place last August.
I met with the maintenance head once. He previously worked for the dc metro system. We suffer the same issue dc does for reliability largely for one reason: there is an unwillingness to shut the system down to make major repairs so everything just gets bandaided together over and over and over again. Nobody wants to deal with the backlash of the inconvenience of shutting down for weeks to do critical repairs.
Maintenance should have been figured into the original budget. If not it was pretty shortsighted by the original people that purchased it.
Wasnât a budget issue. It was a not wanting to piss people off thing according to him. No leader wanted to be responsible for reducing service or pulling trains out of service for weeks because of bad optics.
$153k to buy an average home?
Oof.
Is there anything to the fact that so many people are inheriting money from the baby boomer generation to support these high home prices?
clt wants to write on that screen
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I think banks are just stupidly handing out loans to support these high home prices
Itâs banks but I also think itâs impact of people moving in from higher prices areas of the country. They sold their house and made bank.
I can say from personal experience the housing market is batshit crazy at the moment. I came out on the lucky side of crazy recently.
Actually answered one of those realtor letters where someone was interested in our house after coming back from spring break. Within 24 hours, sold and bought a home. Got more than we were asking (?!) and we asked more than our realtor friend said we had a prayer of getting. Totally unplanned.
Similar situation to what you said @NinerWupAss. They had sold big elsewhere and were dead set on what they wanted.
Banks underwriting standards are as high as theyâve been since the 80s with the exception of lower down payment programs. Also, if you have a problem with âbanksâ giving away loans, what you really mean is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They control the underwriting standards for the vast majority of homes purchased.
Very, very few people not already owning a home can afford $80k down plus closing costs, which is getting you close to $100k, to buy a very meh house.
Weâve created a totally unsustainable situation. Looks like itâs unfolding just the way the black rocks of the world want it to.
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Yep. It will be tough for my kids to experience home ownership. They may have to wait for my wife and I to kick the bucket.
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Maybe we can have lifetime mortgages (aka rent) like my buddy from Hong Kong has. 
Mac. Did your old neighbors throw you a parade on the way out for resetting the market. Lol
Have seen some data and reports that we are heading for troubled waters again because of the prevelance of non traditional banks and their increasing share of the volume of loans they fund and under capitalization on their part. Stop me if you have heard this beforeâŚ