August 28, 2008

In the News:
Condo living, light rail set to re-energize Mill Avenue, The Arizona Republic, August 18, 2008
Transit planners to ponder more bus routes, stops, The Arizona Republic, August 20, 2008
Streetcars once traversed roads where light rail will glide, The Arizona Republic, August 25, 2008
Mesa conducts online survey of bicyclists, Tribune, August 25, 2008
Transit tax proposition won’t be on ballot, Tribune, August 27, 2008
Gas costs may usher in New Railroad era, The Arizona Republic, August 28, 2008

Don’t forget to visit Friends of Transit on the web at www.friendsoftransit.org!

 

Condo living, light rail set to re-energize Mill Avenue
by William Hermann and Dianna M. Náñez
Aug. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Tempe's Mill Avenue has been in a state of evolution for more than three decades, going from a dilapidated strip of old buildings to a hip '80s hangout to a '90s college hotspot.

Now hit hard by a tough economy and the opening of a major retail competitor, Tempe Marketplace, the downtown district is facing its latest identity crisis.

This time, community leaders are hanging their hopes on an influx of posh high-rise condos and the December opening of light rail, changes they believe will bring Mill Avenue to a new pinnacle as a center of urban living.

When community activists saved older downtown buildings in the 1970s and early 1980s and some restaurants and shops opened on Mill, it seemed as if the street had a new lease on life.

In 1989, DMB Associates opened Centerpoint, a 21-acre project including offices, restaurants, retail and entertainment on the northwestern corner of Mill Avenue and University Drive. Though restaurants and retail came to Centerpoint and points north on Mill, big, steady crowds never followed.

Ten years later came the opening of Tempe Town Lake. Downtown is home to big nights after football games, a successful New Year's party and crowded art festivals. But consistent crowds of shoppers still are not there.

Residential space in the urban core was the missing ingredient, many say.

About 600 new residences are expected to be completed near Mill Avenue this year.

"We had an 18-hour downtown; we wanted a 24-hour downtown," Neil Calfee said. Formerly a Tempe deputy community development manager, Calfee is now Arizona State University's director of real- estate development.

Chris Wilson, vice president of Downtown Tempe Community, a non-profit organization that provides management services for the area, said residential adds a "constant factor."

"Residential is the holy grail of downtown development," he said. "Most people shop, dine and spend time within 1 or 2 miles of their home, and that gets intensified in an urban setting where they do it within a couple blocks."

City officials, developers and merchants say the fall opening of the Centerpoint Condominiums high-rise in particular will have a significant impact.

Developer Ken Losch said he will open Centerpoint in late October, despite financing complications brought on by the recent bankruptcy of his main financier, Mortgages Ltd.

Losch said several factors are coming into play that will help residential properties on Mill Avenue succeed, including the rising cost of commuting due to high gasoline prices, the opening of light rail through downtown Tempe and Tempe's proximity to jobs and freeways.

Tempe is in what Losch calls the "A Circle" for Valley development. In contrast with "C Circle" areas like east Mesa and Queen Creek, where distances to drive to work are great and house prices have plummeted, he said central Tempe has stronger real-estate values and is becoming a place where people want to live and work.

Losch said that his research shows that within a 1-mile radius of Mill, there are 11,000 jobs; within 2 miles, 20,000 jobs; and 3 miles, 60,000 jobs.

"Mill Avenue is the next spot to be in town," Losch said.

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said the number of developers that are still building in Tempe is symbolic of the advantages Tempe has. The city is a Valley focal point nestled among metropolitan Phoenix, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and the Valley's southeast suburbia.

"Yeah, there's lots of opportunity to look for black clouds in the economy," Hallman said. "(But) if there's anyplace to look for silver linings, it's in Tempe."

Julian Wright, who recently opened LaBocca restaurant and was the originator of The Library bar and Jax Thai Bar, agreed.

"Mill Avenue is slowly growing up," he said. "The type of projects that are being opened are starting to cater to an older, more mature clientele, people who enjoy urbanism."

Tempe realty agent Will Daly, who operates the Web site WeKnowUrban.com, said that downtown Tempe now has the finite geography that large urban areas like Chicago have. Daly said Town Lake and light rail have helped create these artificial boundaries that force cities to build upward and not outward.

"Tempe is vertical, very walkable. Everything is within walking distance," Daly said. "With the light rail, you're adding a 20-mile focal point and providing a boundary, just like the lake. Most urban settings have either a boundary or a focal point. With Mill Avenue, you've got both."

Developer Ross Robb is a veteran of downtown Tempe development. Robb oversaw the financing and administration of Hayden Square, a Mill Avenue residential and commercial center, and the Casa Loma and Andre buildings, with office and retail space.

Robb agrees that high gas prices are convincing people to move closer in, that freeways create a "power center" around Tempe and that light rail will bring people by the thousands to Mill Avenue.

"But a lot depends on the national and local economy," he said. "Whether this perfect storm happens in the next few months or 24 or 48 months, I don't know."

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Transit planners to ponder more bus routes, stops
by Edythe Jensen 
Aug. 20, 2008 07:45 AM
The Arizona Republic

Less than a month after bus service in Chandler grew by 50 percent, city officials are looking to add more routes and more frequent stops by December.

Transportation manager Mike Normand said he will take proposals for new service to the Transportation Commission on Thursday but it is too early to say which ones will be implemented. Most target the city's employment center and some depend on agreements with adjoining communities and others on scarce municipal funding, he said.

Unlike Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale and Peoria, Chandler has no dedicated transit sales tax, he said. City voters rejected the tax in 1999 and there has been no recent push to put it on the ballot again, Normand said. However, recent requests for resident feedback on transportation planning are drawing a flood of pleas for better mass transit, he said.

Chandler also is hearing from large employers along the Price Road Corridor that increasing numbers of workers want to take the bus but schedules and routes are not compatible with theirs.

The Transportation Commission meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Public Works Building conference room, 215 E. Buffalo St.

What residents want

Better transit service has been a key issue for residents who are answering municipal transportation surveys and interest in taking the bus has grown with rising fuel prices.

Municipal officials are in talks with companies along the Price Road Corridor and with neighboring cities to expand existing bus routes and add new ones in late December, said Mike Normand, transportation manager.

What large employers want

Jethe Becerra, manager of Intel's rideshare program, said up to 300 of the company's 4,300 Chandler employees would take the bus if it brought them closer to their offices. A stop outside the Intel Ocotillo campus is about a quarter mile from building entrances. Intel is in talks with the city to have the bus add a stop inside the campus, she said. Workers are also interested in earlier bus service for shifts that begin at 6 a.m., she said.

Leo Baumann, a Wells Fargo vice president, said the company has installed bus bays at the Ocotillo Center campus near Price and Queen Creek roads and is communicating with Chandler officials about expanded transit services for the 2,000 employees who work at the site. That could include adding bus links from Chandler Fashion Center - a hub for regional routes - and the Price Road Corridor, Normand said.

Intel and Wells Fargo are Chandler's first- and fourth-largest employers, respectively.

Access to new casino

Normand said Chandler also is in talks with the Gila River Indian Community to extend Route 65 on Kyrene Road about a mile farther south to the new Lone Butte Casino under construction south of the Santan Freeway. The casino is scheduled to open before the end of the year and the bus extension could happen in December if an agreement is reached, he said.

Route extensions working

A popular Chandler Boulevard route that was expanded last year has seen such dramatic increases in ridership that the city wants to increase frequencies to every 15 minutes during peak travel times, Normand said. The route from Ahwatukee Foothills to ArizonaState University Polytechnic runs every half hour and also serves Intel's campus on Chandler Boulevard, Chandler Fashion Center, Chandler Regional Hospital and downtown businesses.

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Streetcars once traversed roads where light rail will glide
by Ron Sanzone 
Aug. 25, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Generations before the first track of Phoenix's new light-rail system was laid, an electric-ran system carried Phoenix residents throughout the city. It ran for six decades, from 1887 to 1948.

Long forgotten by all but a few, the Phoenix Street Railway System ran through all of Phoenix's significant commercial and residential areas, and even at one point to Glendale.

"During the time of the original streetcar, it went everywhere worth going," said Ernie Workman, president of the Phoenix Trolley Museum.

Officials at the museum, as well as a former streetcar driver, hope the opening of a new light-rail system on Dec. 27 will spark interest in the old trolley system by reminding locals that a public rail system once flourished in Phoenix.

In the trolley's early years, Phoenix was a city defined by dirt roads and adobe buildings. The first streetcars were horsecars drawn by mules - hardly harbingers of modern transportation. But just six years into its existence and still in advance of the automobile, the system acquired a modern feel with the introduction of electric cars

"It gave Phoenix a very modern, future-looking system of public transportation," said Tom Amrhein, secretary of the Phoenix Trolley Museum. "Phoenix viewed the trolley system as making it a modern city."

In the first two decades of the 20th century, trolley routes expanded as far north as Phoenix Indian School and as far west as Glendale. By 1922, the trolley cars ran across 28 miles of track. When light rail opens its starter line later this year, it will run through 20 miles of the Valley.

"The trolley lines and the city grew at the same time and in the same direction," Amrhein said.

Workman said: "It pretty much went everywhere Phoenix's population wanted to go and resided."

Streetcar memories

Phoenix's streetcar system enjoyed its heyday in the second half of the 1920s, following the city's purchase of the system from its founder, Moses Sherman. The trolley's success crested in 1929 when it carried more than 6.6 million passengers and grossed $298,000, despite the fact that fares were only 5 cents.

While fares remained stagnant, the streetcars evolved over time. Norman Shelton, 88, a former motorman who drove streetcars between 1945 and 1948, recalls the vehicles as a bit noisy, but nonetheless smooth and comfortable. Where today's creature comforts did not exist, passengers had to be resourceful.

"People raised the windows when they got in," Shelton said. "You got air-conditioning that way."

During the Depression, maintenance of the streetcar system declined, which inevitably led to breakdowns along trolley routes even before the time Shelton operated trolley cars. The growth of an automobile culture also created problems in the form of occasional collisions with cars driving across trolley tracks.

Some streetcar hazards were more difficult to prepare for than others. Shelton says that young pranksters used to water down the track with soap and water during Halloween.

"You could get a flat wheel real easy if you stopped too fast," he said.

The final years

It would take a lot more than mischievous children to bring Phoenix's trolley to a halt.

By the late 1930s, the financially ruinous Glendale line was long gone, other routes were being shortened or eliminated, and the city was preparing to phase out the trolley with buses.

The World War II years revitalized the streetcar as rubber bus tires were used for the government's war efforts.

But the same forces that had challenged the trolley before returned when the war ended: maintenance woes, competition from private bus lines, the physical growth of the city, and above all, the ability of individuals to provide their own transportation.

"I think a great part of the reason (the streetcar system ceased to operate) was the automobile," Amrhein said.

The trolley system's fate was sealed for good when a fire gutted its car barn at 13th Street, consuming machinery and all but six of the streetcars. Unable and unwilling to foot the bill to replace the lost cars and equipment, Phoenix ran its last trolley route in 1948.

"Even if the trolley had survived the fire of 1947, it would have been unable to keep up with the sprawling development of Phoenix like automobile transportation," he said.

Six decades after the last trolley clanged its last bell, Shelton's recollections of Phoenix's original rail system are as fond as they are bittersweet.

"I hated to see the streetcars go," he said. "It made you half sick."

Looking forward

Shelton is excited to witness the return of a public rail system to Phoenix, something he thought he'd never live to see. He predicts that light rail will be a hit, especially with students commuting to Arizona State University. And if he were younger, Shelton says, he would love to drive the trains taking them to class.

He took a 20-minute ride on a light-rail train this year and was impressed enough that heplans to buy a pass to ride it.

"It was nice," he said. "When it stops it makes a real smooth stop. And when it takes off, it's smooth."

Amrhein believes that a parallel can be drawn between the former trolley system and the future light-rail system. He said that both were built at a time when Phoenix had outgrown its other transportation options.

"With proper planning and direction, the new streetcar can provide the same kind of service that the old streetcar system did," he said. "Unless and until we get more highways or more buses, the need for additional public transportation is obviously growing."

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Mesa conducts online survey of bicyclists
City plans to add more paths, routes, public transit links
By BETH LUCAS
TRIBUNE
August 25, 2008

Mesa transportation officials have begun an extensive study into what bicyclists want and how to make their rides safer.

The work is the brainchild of city transportation planners and will be done by staff, not outside consultants. An online survey of riding interests of bicyclists is under way, and a second one is planned to ask bike riders what infrastructure they want and need.

The ultimate idea is to create a plan for improving bike routes through 2020, which will include specific mechanisms to ensure it’s implemented over time.

City planner Ken Hall said the plan will be comprehensive and will include needed bike lanes and routes, shared use of routes, paved paths versus unpaved canal paths, bicycle stations and storage, as well as how bicycle routes connect with public transit including buses and light rail.

“We don’t see this as something that would sit on a shelf,” Hall said. “We’re basically going to give it some feet.”

The plan should be completed by the end of 2009, he said.

The city is among area municipalities that have received accolades for being bike friendly. But with gas more expensive, city officials want to make it easier for residents to jump on their bicycles and ride to work or to the light-rail station at Sycamore and Main Street.

The city is also studying ways to provide more recreational areas for bicyclists. Mesa is among East Valley cities using canals and other trails to gradually connect bike paths to allow bicyclists to ride from Mesa to Queen Creek.

“It’s hard to say what is enough,” said Mike James, Mesa’s deputy transportation director. “If gas prices keep getting higher and higher, we need to plan for the future.”

The city is planning additional bike paths, including one that would connect Tempe Marketplace with Mesa Riverview, and one that would make it easy for residents along the Broadway Road corridor to ride along Dobson Road to Main Street’s light-rail station.

Paths under way are paid for by federal money, of which Mesa receives about $1 million annually.

Ken Cole of Mesa’s transportation advisory board, said he’d like to see what residents want and what they like so that the city can put together a long-term plan to improve bicycling either to work or for fun.

Hall said the first survey will be completed by the end of this month, and the second by August 2009.

The study will include a public participation process including meetings with the public or key groups. The city will also develop a community bicycling Web site by Sept. 30 to be used for monitoring the public’s involvement in the process to ensure it’s a wide group participating.

Another recommendation is the appointment of a bicycle planning advisory committee of municipal staff and residents who could oversee the implementation of the long-range plan. The goal would also be to implement an educational program on bicycle safety in Mesa.

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Transit tax proposition won’t be on ballot
State Supreme Court upholds ruling; trust lands measure dies
By HOWARD FISCHER CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES 
Tribune
August 27, 2008

Arizonans will not get a chance to decide whether to raise their taxes for new transit projects. 

Without comment, the state Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a trial judge’s ruling that backers of the proposed sales tax hike waited too long before challenging the ruling of Secretary of State Jan Brewer that they did not submit enough valid signatures. That leaves them no legal way to pursue their contention that Brewer and county recorders erred and that Proposition 203 should be on the November ballot. 

Tuesday’s ruling also kills any chance of voters deciding Proposition 103, a measure to place 570,000 acres of state trust land off-limits to development. That initiative also had been pronounced short of valid signatures by Brewer. 

“It’s the end of the road for both propositions,” said attorney Paul Eckstein, who represents both measures. He said that, based on the high court ruling, the separate lawsuit challenging Brewer’s decision in the trust lands measure also was filed too late. 

The ruling is a double-barreled setback for Gov. Janet Napolitano, who strongly supported both measures. 

Napolitano even cut a special deal with homebuilders, agreeing to fund transit projects solely with sales taxes — and not development fees — to get them to support Proposition 203. As part of that same deal, the homebuilders agreed not to oppose the trust lands measure as they did two years ago when it died. 

The governor was in Denver at the Democratic convention and did not immediately respond to requests for reaction. 

Marty Shultz, treasurer of the road tax campaign, said the proposal will have to be resurrected. 

“We’ve got explosive growth,” said Shultz, an executive with Arizona Public Service. He said state population will grow from about 6.4 million now to about 12 million in 2040. 

Campaign chairman David Martin agreed. 

“We still have a $160 billion transportation revenue shortfall,” he said, a figure Martin said represents the needs of Arizona in the next 30 years versus the amount of money the state will have from gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees and federal aid. Proposition 203 would have plugged at least some of that gap by hiking the state sales tax rate by a penny, to 6.6 cents on the dollar, for the next 30 years to raise nearly $43 billion. 

He predicted “impending doom on what’s going to be occurring on the transportation front.” 

Martin has another reason to push the measure: He is president of the Arizona chapter of Associated General Contractors, whose members include companies that could benefit from new road and mass transit projects. Much of the more than $1.1 million raised for Proposition 203 has come from Associated General Contractors members. 

Steve Voeller, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, hailed the death of the initiative. He said the tax plan was too aggressive and would have harmed the state’s economic recovery. 

Central to Tuesday’s ruling is how initiative petitions are verified. 

Backers of the road tax submitted petitions with about 260,000 signatures. 

Brewer threw out petitions with more than 21,000 names because of problems like the failure of circulators to properly notarize their own signatures. She then submitted a random sample of what remained to county recorders for verification. 

But initiative supporters waited to file suit until the recorders finished their count and concluded that fewer than 139,000 signatures were valid; it takes 153,365 to propose a change in state law. That was 20 days after Brewer’s initial report. 

On Tuesday the high court agreed with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto, who said challengers should have sued Brewer 10 days after her initial finding. 

That makes it too late for road tax backers to try to restore those first 21,000 names. And without those, Eckstein said there is no chance he could get enough of those signatures disqualified by the recorders declared valid to put Proposition 203 on the ballot. 

The same problem exists for Proposition 103, which, as a proposed constitutional amendment, needed 230,047 valid signatures on petitions. 

Brewer tossed about 33,000 signatures even before sending the balance to counties. But initiative supporters waited until that random check by counties showed there were insufficient names remaining on petitions before filing suit, a move that also came too late. 

Arizona was given about 10 million acres of land by the federal government when it became a state in 1912, with the state required to sell or lease the property for as much money as possible to generate cash flow, most of that for public schools. About 9.3 million acres remain. 

Proposition 103 would have amended the state constitution to remove that sale or lease requirement for 570,000 acres. Backers said it would not hurt state education revenues because the open space would increase the desirability and value of the remaining adjacent state trust lands for developers. 

The lion’s share of the funding to put that measure on the ballot came from the Nature Conservancy. 

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Gas costs may usher in New Railroad era
Ariz., other states consider intercity, commuter lines
by Glen Creno 
Aug. 28, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Passenger rail is showing signs of life around the country and here in Arizona.

High gas prices, the increasing costs of flying, airline consolidation and road congestion have travelers taking a second look at intercity rail: high-speed passenger service that moves people between distant cities.

Amtrak is racking up record ridership across the nation and in Arizona. States and cities across the country are studying new rail projects. And Arizona and 21 other states have filed proposals to get a cut of $30 million in federal money for such projects.

Rail service has long been considered a transportation alternative in Arizona. Studies have been under way on both intercity rail and commuter rail. Intercity rail would connect Phoenix and Tucson, and commuter rail would connect outlying cities to metro Phoenix.

But there has been little momentum on either project.

That may be changing. The Arizona Department of Transportation applied for $1 million in federal money for its Phoenix-to-Tucson rail project. Some local rail advocates think the launch of light rail in December will change the way people look at such travel.

"People are sensitive to the price of transportation," said Mark Walbrun, a Chicago-based rail expert and a principal for TransSytems, a transportation-consulting firm headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. "Gasoline is a major component of that. . . . This isn't about trying to take away the car. It's just adding to the transportation options."

Experts say it will take a dedicated political commitment to get rail rolling again. The systems are expensive to launch and maintain. They typically are not profitable, meaning that operating costs are subsidized.

"Railways are a great thing, but they are expensive toys to play with," said Tim James director of research and consulting at the Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University.

Rail money will be even scarcer in Arizona after a court ruling knocked a statewide transportation initiative off the November ballot this week. The initiative proposed raising $42.6 billion over 30 years for transportation projects statewide.

The plan anticipated spending $5.45 billion for commuter rail in the Phoenix and Tucson areas and for an intercity rail link between Phoenix and Tucson that possibly could extend as far south as Nogales and as far north as Coconino County.

Rail service sidetracked

Intercity rail in Arizona has been long sidetracked as a piece of nostalgia rather than an effective way to move travelers among distant cities.

Amtrak's Sunset Limited stopped service to Phoenix in 1996. For area residents, the nearest place to pick up the Los Angeles-to-Orlando train is 35 miles south of central Phoenix in Maricopa.

Amtrak runs two other trains through Arizona. The Southwest Chief connects Los Angeles and Chicago and hits such Arizona cities as Flagstaff and Kingman. The Texas Eagle also runs between Los Angeles and Chicago, connecting to the Sunset line in Texas, and then heading west.

The number of people getting on and off the trains in Arizona surpassed 80,000 in 2007, after holding fairly steady in the 72,000-to-75,000 range since 2002. This year, the number is on track to hit 86,000, according to Amtrak data.

Nationally, the trend is the same. Amtrak had 2.75 million passengers in July, 14 percent higher than the same month last year and a monthly record for the train agency.

Ridership was up 11.2 percent this year to date at the end of July. Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said bad traffic, frustrations with air travel, rising gas prices and the push toward green transportation are pumping up train ridership.

"That's in Arizona, that's all over the nation," she said.

Amtrak is looking for more ways to sell people on trains. Two key initiatives: modernizing its trains and concentrating on developing "fast, frequent and reliable" service of less than 350 miles on lines running between big cities.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., earlier this month called for a major investment in Amtrak. He is proposing that a quarter-cent be peeled from the per-gallon national gas tax to create a fund to help Amtrak modernize trains. He also proposes allowing Amtrak to issue up to $2.8 billion in bonds annually to pay for new trains.

Cities consider projects

Cities and states are pushing for more Amtrak service and considering their own rail projects.

Tennessee and Georgia are considering a bullet train connecting Nashville and Atlanta through Chattanooga. It is estimated to cost $5.4 billion.

This month, Colorado began a study to figure out if high-speed rail could be built along Interstates 25 and 70. The study group includes more than 45 cities, counties and other groups in the state.

Californians in November will vote on a $10 billion bond issue that would provide the down payment for a $42 billion bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. It would be paid for with a combination of federal money and public-private partnerships.

Gov. Janet Napolitano supports a passenger-rail system connecting Phoenix and Tucson, with possible extensions, one of them to Flagstaff. One of her constant themes: Adding new methods of transportation helps reduce the "time tax" of people stuck in traffic.

"You have to be cognizant of what happens if we do nothing," said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, the governor's spokeswoman. "It's the time tax. It's the air quality. It's managing growth."

William Lindley, a computer consultant who also is a director of the Arizona Rail Passenger Association, thinks the state is at a unique crossroads. He said a lot of the state's rail future rides on the reception light rail gets.

"When light rail opens, it will be a watershed," he said. "We are at the beginning of . . . seeing more rail and other things that are better for us socially and economically and ecologically. It all saves us money, and we all feel better."

Ward Malcom of Chandler recently took the Southwest Chief from California to Chicago, then picked up a commuter train to Ohio.

"The trains were packed," he said. "Even the commuter train was standing-room only."

Malcolm, who teaches at a Northern Arizona University extension in the Valley, says high gas prices are helping trains win the comparison with driving long distances. Arizona train travel would increase, he said, with better schedules and a stop in Phoenix.

Walbrun said European airports are installing more train service to make themselves transportation hubs that can deliver passengers quickly to nearby destinations. That's in addition to long-distance, high-speed lines that connect major cities.

"It's worked in enough places," he said of the rail service. "And we see how people respond in the U.S. when they are given quality alternatives."

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