Hagan and Transit
Like Atrios, I haven’t really paid any attention to the North Carolina Senate race and thus don’t know anything about it beyond the fact that Democratic challenger Kay Hagan seems to have an improbably good chance of winning. So I thought I might poke around at her website, and she turns out to be . . . a mass transit advocate just like me like and Atrios. Her energy plan devotes substantial space to the idea that increased investments in mass transit infrastructure will boost economic growth while also helping to clean up the environment.
An economic downturn is the best time to start working on the big new infrastructure projects that, among other things, will partially determine the contours of future growth when the next upswing begins. It’d be really nice for the country to be smart about this stuff if, as seems likely to me, we have a renewed push for economic stimulus early next year.
29 Responses to “Hagan and Transit”
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October 5th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Good point Matt. NC actually had the opportunity to put in a light rail connecting Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, the RDU airport, and the RTP. The project didn’t survive due to a lack of federal dollars. I’ve no idea if Kay is hammering Dole on that or not, but she really should be.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
This is a place were trickle-up economics could really be put to work. Transit systems take years to build, so funding new starts now provides present employment and also a planning spine for future improvements.
The simple fact is that capitalism as we have known it has failed- not just in a theoretical sense, but in actual real terms. People are bankrupted by medical costs, lose their homes to foreclosure, and institutions start to crumble. As well they should when millions are homeless, hungry, and sick.
Dealing with AGW means tons of new construction for long-term reductions in energy use. The best way to reduce energy needs is to cluster new construction on highly efficient means of transportation. Because most American buildings of the past 50 years were so shoddily built, we’ll have plenty of opportunity and need to build better stuff in different locations.
It’s kinda like the Tennessee Valley in the 20s and 30s. For years capitalism talked about building power dams there eventually but couldn’t actually do it. The Roosevelt administration said “Let’s get this thing done,” and we’ve been getting power from those dams for over 60 years.
Now we have to use that power wisely.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Easy reference- light rail costs about $50 million/mile. A $billion= about 20 miles, $5 billion = about 100 miles, about the size of the additions Denver and Salt Lake recently decided to build.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Does she support roller coasters? That kind of mass transit appeals to Americans of all ages, young and old! I say we build the world’s longest roller coaster between Raleigh to Durham: only 20 miles as the crow flies, but 100 miles of track!
WHEEEEEEE!
October 5th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Thanks to the vast sprawl we have here in the Raleigh Durham area, I can’t think of worse area for light rail. Glad to see that Kay Hagan is doing so well, but it’s largely because Elizabeth Dole has been such a do-nothing, and (finally) this being a change year.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Of course, public works spending during a recession assumes that the government was not running massive budget deficits during the good times. Since the Democratic controlled Congress just passed a $700 billion dollar Wall Street Bail OUt along with an addtional $100+ billion pork attached, to to with the current $500 billion dollar FY2009 deficit, where will the money come form. What should Americans give up so that the unions and the land developers can get rich.
Mass transit programs are no trickle up economics. They are trickle down socialism. Give the money to large general contractors who will then give the money to labor unions and minority contractors for above market price work.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Matt thinks there’s going to be an “economic stimulus early next year”?
From the financial news I’m reading, we’ll be lucky to have an economy, outside of black market drugs and gun running, by then.
Last I heard, most of the financial doom-and-gloom types are saying that Paulson’s $700B is a drop in the bucket, and that something between three and five TRILLION will be needed to even stem the blood-letting.
And you still end up with a recession at the very least, if not Depression V2.0.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
While both Atlanta and Raleigh-Durham are not dense enough for light-rail in themselves, Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham would make for one of the greatest high speed rail corridors in the country. Raleigh-Durham makes for a natural partner city for us here in Atlanta.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
But I think there’s an important distinction to be made: will infrastructure projects like mass transit help pull us out of our economic slump, or will they just serve to improve the stability and efficiency of our economy (as well as quality of life) once we have already climbed out of the depression?
October 5th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
For whatever good she might bring in transportation issues, she is a corporate Democrat. Just so you are aware.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
“…she is a corporate Democrat….”
In contrast to???
October 5th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Infrastructure spending won’t rescue the economy. But it will provide people with jobs, and the dignity that comes with jobs.
I’d support it for that reason alone.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Atlanta-Triangle, yeah. Though ATL-Charlotte-Triangle would be even better.
Liddy Dole has spent less time in NC than Bush has spent in Crawford. Hence this.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Wow, that smile by Hagan is so sparkling it is almost mesmerizing. It’s sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around my living room. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
kafka:
Meaning she’ll be in the Ben Nelson/Evan Bayh part of the party.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:27 am
I’ve written to my governor (of WV) about using our existing railways for a commuter train scenario. The Japanese, who have invested a lot in WV, have developed “green” trains now. The rails are already here, and run for miles and miles, even into rural areas, yet no one seems interested in pursuing more options for these rails other than coal and Amtrak. What a waste.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’m also a big supporter of mass transit and the improvement of our rail system for passenger travel.
But, will we have enough money to actually do any of this? I ask in seriousness. Where will the money come from? We’re commited to an $815 bailout (paid to the people and organizations that took their bonus checks and ran the companies into the ground), the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan plus the huge bills run up by the various branches of the military.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am
This race has featured one of the most effective ads I’ve seen this cycle — by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hitting Dole on her horrible ranking on effectiveness and including a little subtext on age. That was run very early, blinsided Dole I think and set a good tone for the race that Dole was out of touch with the state.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:39 am
If I recall correctly, Charlotte actually had an election in which the voters supported keeping the funding stream for light rail in the metro area. This is a popular political position to take. Its a smart move. People support mass transit across the country. Polling in major metros and actual election results for dedicated funding streams backs this up.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Thanks for the tip! I’ll send some money to the Dole campaign.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Kinda surprising how many commenters here just don’t get the basic math.
First of all, we’re not paying $600 billion this year or next for the bailout. Even if we were, though, that would be no big deal if we had enough patriots ready to save our country by cutting the military spending.
Second, as anyone who has seriously done the “drive until you qualify” calculation could tell you, investments in transit are long term pluses for the economy and the individual.
Thirdly, conservation will restrain AGW faster and cheaper than building nukes.
Apparently a lot of people still haven’t realized that the meteor is coming and we’re the dinosaurs.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Interesting issue for Hagan to take on – wasn’t Liddy Dole Secretary of Tranportation?
October 6th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
You get the money by increasing taxes on rich people, of course.
And no, despite what some people will tell you, the current marginal tax rates are nowhere close to the point where the economic stimulus from increases those taxes and spending the revenues on things like infrastructure would have a net negative effect on the economy. Just the opposite.
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