More Rail and Rentals

These letters appeared under “YOUR VIEWS” in today’s Scottsdale Republic:

Scottsdale transit fails workers

Although I moved to Scottsdale from another state, I have lived here most of my adult life. I often marvel at how unprogressive we are in a variety of areas, especially mass transit.

I recently had surgery and was un­able to drive. I was offered a job, but was unable to accept the position be­cause I had to rely on the bus. Although the job was not located far from my home, I still required three buses to reach my destination. The job began at 6 a.m. and one of the three buses I had to take didn’t even start running until that time. Another job I had ended at 10 p.m. and transit service for my route stopped an hour earlier.

Last week, I tried Scottsdale’s an­swer to mass transit — the trolley — for the first time. Although it provides a service, the vehicles were hot with poor or non-existent air-conditioning and a trip that should have taken no more than 30 minutes took over an hour thanks to vehicle breakdowns.

Scottsdale needs to lead, follow or get out of the way and watch as cities like Mesa step up to the plate and pro­vide quality transit service for resi­dents who simply need to make it to work on time.

— Kari Jennings, Scottsdale

[Scottsdale’s mass transit suffers from a number of problems, including having funding cannibalized by Valley Metro’s light rail. e.g., the 510 express route into downtown Phoenix that was killed off last year because Phoenix didn’t want to pay for the portion inside Phoenix city limits, and Scottsdale can’t legally pick up the tab]

More rentals mean less regard

The Scottsdale City Council ap­proved more apartments for the Valley Ho site? This is news? The real news would be if this council, who never met an apartment complex they didn’t like, did not approve an apartment devel­opment.

There seems to be a rush to trans­form the area into a haven for renters, and this is true even in residential com­munities where investors have pur­chased multiple units in condo commu­nities and turned them into rental situa­tions. Many, not all, of these investors live out of state or are associated with larger development companies and have little regard for whom they rent to and the consequences that result from their lack of oversight. They are in­terested in one thing: profit.

At least someone is making money — and in Scottsdale, isn’t that all that really matters? It certainly isn’t quality of life.

— Krista Harris, Scottsdale

A blind eye to transit crime?

In a recently published My Turn, Jim Derouin was incensed by the term “crime delivery system” in reference to light-rail transit. I happened to hear him on a local radio show recently, where he continued to deny the crime issue, calling it phony.

I believe, be­cause of his continual denial of any criminal activity, he is losing his credi­bility as a spokesman for the light-rail advocates. I can only conclude he was either being knowingly deceitful re­garding the crime-delivery system or he is misinformed. Not a good way to try to sway public opinion.

— Tom Mason, Scottsdale