Guy Phillips sent along his own analysis of last night’s Council meeting:
Last night your city council deliberated about renewing a contract with the TPC on the grounds that it would cost the city a few million dollars to renovate, and that the mayor “was concerned” about having to spend money to keep them there.
Then, they approved by a 5-2 vote to allow engineering to start a $10 million experiment to put a double lane roundabout at Hayden and Northsight. Someone’s priorities are askew.
The Phoenix open, a worldwide sporting event that brings in 250 thousand people in a course of a month is a must have. Scottsdale would be severely handicapped (pun intended) if we lost the TPC.
On the other hand, there is already a traffic light on Northsight and Hayden, but the council has no qualms about tearing it out and replacing it with a social experiment.
Roundabouts are bad for big trucks, pedestrians, motorcycles, and bicycles.
The idea that 79% of people don’t like them until they are installed and then 70% do like them afterwards is a fallacy. I also read that article, but it is referring to roundabouts that replaced four-way stops, not double lanes in a busy intersection.
Not only is the roundabout not needed, I sincerely believe this will curtail business in the airpark. Traffic will simply avoid the area. Not to mention the construction, which Mr. Williams said would only take six months. The roundabouts on Cactus took over three years. The mini roundabout they put in my neighborhood on Cholla Street took over a year to complete. Then they came back six months later, tore it out, and built another one because of drainage issues.
Watch for 10 lawsuits as the city tries to take the private property by eminent domain for this project.
Like I said last night, common sense trumps academia. However, the City Council bowed to the will of four engineers, plus Paul Basha, a former city engineer that was responsible for screwing up the roads back in the 80s.
Yes, the current city council and Mayor are there to serve the city, not the people. They only way to change this is by your vote in 2012.