1. The politics of food trucks in Raleigh
The News & Observer reports that Raleigh may allow hungry residents to buy food from food trucks. Downtown restaurants have lobbied to prevent the competition from low-overhead food trucks. If downtown restaurants are successful in restricting food trucks, consumers will continue to pay higher prices and have fewer food choices. Let’s hope that the city council responds to the desires of many consumers going about their daily business and not be swayed by the money and votes of the restaurant owners seeking the council’s favoritism.
2. Cary buys yet another theater
According to this N&O report, Cary spent $410,000 to buy the old downtown theater and will spend about $1 million to restore it. This is in addition to the two other venues that the city owns, the Koka Booth Amphitheater and the new, $13 million Cary Arts Center. While it is possible that these facilities pay for themselves, it is unlikely given the track record in Raleigh, Charlotte, and other cities. Have any city council members asked the question why some forms of entertainment receive taxpayer subsidies and others do not? Should those residents who prefer movies at private, tax-paying theaters pay taxes to subsidize the entertainment of residents who prefer live concerts at city subsidized facilities?
3. Raleigh’s train to nowhere
This N&O article discusses the controversy over competing light-rail routes through downtown Raleigh. The reporter and the participants in the discussion miss the moral of the story. A fixed, nineteenth-century technology is ill suited for a dynamic urban region like the Triangle. Simply put, a fixed-rail system does not go where people want to go, when they want to go there. The numbers prove that point. Twenty-two major rail systems in the U.S. carry an average of only 1.15 percent of the motorized passengers in their area. Thus, almost 98 percent of the passengers in these cities have decided that rail does not go where they want to go, when they want to go there. Since that is the case, rail will not solve the traffic congestion problems in the Triangle.
Click here for the Local Government Update archive.
