Talking with Mayor John Dickert this week, he offered a couple of important points about the regional transit authority proposal announced Tuesday.
1. The proposal's ultimate goal is to allow people to move around SE Wisconsin without a car. Right now, that's impossible. You can barely get around Racine on mass transit, much less get to Milwaukee, Kenosha, Chicago, etc. "You need a car," Dickert said.
2. It's really a county-wide plan. It connects Racine to Union Grove, UW-Parkside and Kenosha and Burlington to Milwaukee. This makes sense and gives people outside of the city a reason to support paying for an expanded mass transit system.
3. The state is investing billions of dollars into expanding I-94 between the Illinois state line and Milwaukee. Racine will receive little, if any, benefit from this expansion. It will only help people drive by Racine faster, Dickert mused.
4. Improving mass transit, including the addition of KRM, opens up avenues of bringing people to Racine. This will help the city.
5. The federal government is demanding a comprehensive mass transit system in SE Wisconsin, Dickert said. It won't support KRM without an improved bus system, and it won't support high-speed rail in Wisconsin without commuter rail (KRM). So, basically, the region works together on improving its mass transit system or it isolates itself from economic centers that can actually help the community.
KRM is something we the people do not want or will use my car is easier to use.
ReplyDeleteRacine use to have a line to Parkside but dropped it because it did not make the cash to pay for itself. KRM will not either/ The Monorail in Vegas in millions in debit KRM will be too and of course the tax payers will be looked at to pay for it.
With high crime poor schools and only bars downtown why would anyone want to stop here?
Last note Mr Mayor last night saw the rage of the voter on Democrats in Government. If the GOP can win big in MA. we will here in Wisconsin and Racine. I would make your call to Obama for a job thinking you will need a new one very soon.
Did the local politicians happen to hear the news from Massachusetts last night? Their political futures may depend upon it.
ReplyDeleteWhen one party has to keep trying new tactics to pass an expensive bill during bad economic times it is a bad bill. If this was such a great idea both GOP and Dems would have supported it when the economy was good. Now is not the time for new taxes and spending. Let this rest for now until a really good plan comes together. If it was a good plan you would have votes from both parties.
ReplyDeleteLet's see how fast this so called mayor can ruin Racine. Raise Taxes.......spend 2 million dollars on un-needed recycle bins, this KRM debacle, no-bid contracts to friends....this guy really is a winner. Dickert tricked us all! His term is up in a year and it could not come quick enough. I admit I voted for this waste of a mayor and now I'm feeling heavy voters remorse.
ReplyDeleteIt really just shows how out of touch the mayor really is with the people of this city. Bye-Bye Mayor your days are numbered!
ReplyDelete6. The land on State St. will become much more valuable when this is KRaMmed down our throats and Dickert's friends stand to make a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteThe King of Racine real state scams rejected development from the minority community to honor the minority community on State St so he could reserve it for his cronies. He never gave a damn about State St or the people there until the dollar signs lit up. Oink, oink, oink.
Party on, lying John.
I have been at more then one city meeting to find that there is an undercurrent of opposition to Dickert and that's its growing every day.
ReplyDeleteMass transit in itself is a good idea where you have concentrations of people(hence mass) to transport. Racine and surrounding municipalities do not and will not fit that profile for decades. Forcing a rail line to service a landlocked city at major taxpayer expense is just unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteCreating the mechanism for mass influx to these areas is also short sighted. If the only way Racine can survive is to bring in Chicago monies, then be prepared to sell your soul.
So the CEOs of half a dozen multi-billion $ companies think it's okay but we should listen to you clowns? Seems to me they might understand the big picture and the impact on their employees and business. Use your car and leave! Sure, it isn't the best time to consider building, but we'll need it when the economy is better too. If we start then, we will be even further behind... climb out from under your rock and get some vision.
ReplyDeleteSo the CEOs of the biggest and brightest investment banks and insurance companies on Wall Street tanked the country's entire economy, but we should listen to you clowns?
ReplyDeleteYeah, dem CEOs is real geniuses.
ReplyDeleteCEOs of half a dozen multi-billion $ companies Like who? J Wax our owners? and if they have so much then they can pay for KRM can't they?
ReplyDeleteAll you need to do is drive down I-94 and look at the new over passes to know that trains are already decided. The new over passes have been built to accommodate only 4 lanes in each direction. When you talk to the planners they don’t see an expansion of car traffic on I-94 beyond 8 lanes total in the next 75 years. In fact they plan on trains /mass transit going down one side while cars will just use one side of I-94 in the future. Their vision is that once gas pegs again the car traffic will only need 2 lanes in each direction.
ReplyDeleteThe only decision left is how we will be taxed so others can come to SE Wisconsin for cheap land and workers but still go home to Chicago at night.
Sadly the planners don't think we will have cars that run on anything but gas. If there are electric or other fuel cars available in the future then I-94 will be too small due to bad planning in the 2000's.
The decisions are made. How do you want to pay for it is all that is left to decide.
12:25
ReplyDeleteDo not smoke crack before posting I know that and Bar are the only business in Racine right now (unless your a pal of the Mayor then its no bid after no bid contract time)
Don't ANY of these politians remember the NORTH SHORE LINE?
ReplyDeleteSame route as proposed, high speed train (could hit 100 MPH) and BANKRUPT in 1963
The feds are demanding a mass transit system? Like the proposed banking tax? Did you see all the "regular people" talking at this thing too?
ReplyDeleteFor the hundreth time, we have a coach bus line that runs the KRM route multiple times per day now, it is largely empty.
ReplyDeleteIf people needed this route so much would they not be riding the bus? You mean you really want me to believe people will not use available transportation just because they would prefer a train?
I'm not buying it.
And once again I will point out that the projected revenues needed to run this thing are too low.
It is currently projected to run at an 83% loss. That's why they need a tax to prop it up.
That figure is baced on a projected ridership estimate of 1.4 million people. Yeah, 1.4 million.
Break it down 14 trains on weekdays, 7 on weekends and holidays that is an average of 321 riders on every train just to meet that revenue projection.
That's 321 riders per train in order to only lose 83%. Guess what folks, the real number will be much higher than that.
The people pushing the train know that, they just don't want you to know that. They just want to get it going, then they can increase taxes to pay for this albatross.
Transit is worthy, KRM is a massive waste of resources that the people in this community just do not have.
I wonder who among the Mayor's pals will be getting the money?
ReplyDeleteWe know that is what its all about.
One word Brown
What I'd like to know, from Dickert's own words, "The federal government is demanding a comprehensive mass transit system in SE Wisconsin," well, who in the hell is the federal government to demand anything INTRAstate? This is Wisconsin's land, residents and taxes, not the feds! If we, the people of Wisconsin, feel that we want a mass transit system, then let us determine when, where and how it's implemented. Federal government, STAY OUT OF OUR STATE! You don't know what's better for the people of Wisconsin than the people of Wisconsin do, and our internal affairs is our OWN business, not yours!
ReplyDeleteOh, and John, keep pushing KRM and it will be, if nothing else, the one thing that ends your political aspirations. That is if cramming the recycle bins down our throats, raising taxes, wasting the taxpayer's money, conducting backroom deals, and providing jobs and special interest deals to your friends and family won't. You better wake up and smell the coffee, boy.
Brown who? Not Michael Brown I hope, the old FEMA director.
ReplyDeleteRegarding point three menitoned in the article about driving by Racine faster on the freeway-When will someone in local government press the state to improve access to the freeway such as extending the Lake Freeway south into Racine County? No farmland would be lost since it could be built along the Union Pacific right of way. Make Hwy 32 and 38 four lanes to Milwaukee. Racine is becoming a second class city due to its lack of an adequate highway connection.
ReplyDeleteDICKERT=MASSIVE FAILURE
ReplyDeleteACK 1:55 How dare you! Don't you know highways are of the Devil?
ReplyDeleteIt saddens me to see captians of industry and government leaders who are szupposed to do the willof the prople stand with Diamond Jim and push taxation without representation. We do not want a bloated tax sucking whole in the ground that will have no accountability to the people they would be taxing. This un-americian principle being pushed by Lehman, Dickert and the family company will only benefit the friends of Jim, John and Fisk. I will be asking my local governing body to opt out of any attempt to stuff this down our throats.
ReplyDeleteI have been in the majority camp about KRM and have publicly said so in comments here on Racine Post. When I read the comments here I couldn't agree more with them. I have always said we need a comprehensive county mass transit system for KRM to make sense. But I didn't connect the dots between KRM and Peak Oil.
ReplyDeleteI have been aware of our Energy problems for quite some time, as most people have been. I even have a web site about the subject I am about to share with you. But I never put 2 and 2 together until today.
When I read this article above, I started to think perhaps there might be more to this.
There is good evidence that the amount of petroleum we have to use is peaking. It's called "Peak Oil". Google it. If you look beyond the horizon it could be possible that could be driving the thrust for KRM.
Take a look at this web site:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
It certainly has all the flavor of fear in it's address, I totally get that. But when you actually read what is says they back up everything with documented expert information.
So what! Well, the point of Peak Oil is we will have as much petroleum available for gasoline going up the curve as we will have going down the curve from the peak. Except petroleum will cost a ton more because of less production and the doubling of the population by 2030 on good ole mother Earth. China and India will make sure of that.
Once prices go skyward it might be worth looking into improving mass transit all over the place. We simply won't be able to afford to drive our cars. Think that can't happen? Again, read that web site. You can not say for absolute certainly it won't happen the way they describe it.
Mass Transit might be a reasonable answer to this problem. Read that site. It is written by an attorney who clearly states he is not an expert on energy but uses his skills to document what the experts are saying. If you know more than the experts then you're a better person than I am. When I read it, the subject was really pretty scary.
Could it be our Federal Government knows about this? Of course they do. Could it be this actually could be a response to our transportation problems if oil gets so expensive that we have to ditch the all mighty car or truck? At the very least it could provide a more reasonably priced transportation alternative. The lead time to make all of this work together is a factor too.
It could make sense. I totally agree it "appears to make no sense right now" to install and use KRM. But by the time a number of years go by we might want it more than we can imagine today.
We might want to check this out before we crush the KRM idea totally. Like I said, maybe someone knows something we don't know. Maybe we should have KRM.
I realize many here will chew my comments up, so be it. It won't bother me. I honestly believe we need to think out of the box more than we have been.
To reach the web site I manage just click on my name above. It's called Transition Wisconsin. It is a site designed to create communities around the State to prepare for Peak Oil and Climate Change. It is always better to plan than to react to difficult changes in the economy, if you have that opportunity.
If this to work you would need folks TO RIDE THE TRAIN. If thet are not riding the bus they are not riding the train.
ReplyDeleteWe do not have the funds to pay for the Mayor's pals for yet more no bid contracts for toys.
Metra is million in the red
The Vegas Monorail is bankrupt.
The City of Racine now is not running bus lines to Parkside due to lack of riders.
God only know why you or anyone else are so willing to trust the Government that gave huge unemployment to know more have they done a good job with that so far?
Everyone has a car because we were manipulated by car companies to buy cars, at a time when people used mass transit. Now the manipulation begins again.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who voted for tricky Dickert owes the rest of us a HUGE F'N APOLOGY. You people are a sad, sad bunch. How can you sleep at night? Seriously? How can you sleep at night??
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:35, that's a really dumb statement. I grew up through the 50s and 60s, started driving in the mid-60s and through the 70s and 80s, and all during that time I have no recollection whatsoever of being "manipulated" to purchase a car. Taking a job that was beyond my local bus line or further off the Shore Line than I cared to walk was my decision, not some car company's. I never heard any message telling me that if I didn't have a car that I would be limited in my opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThe real answer to this "mass transit" dilemma is smaller buses that run on LP gas and expanding the system to the entire county. It will employ more people, cost less and give everyone access to the entire county while costing little or no more than we're putting out now. You can't do that with a train, no matter how "green" you think. And if downsizing to smaller buses means giving up federal subsidy dollars, then so be it. We don’t need the Fed telling US what WE need.
Also, it has been said time and time again, the KRM WILL NOT go to Chicago. It will only take you to Kenosha to transfer to the Metra line, where you have to buy another ticket at $8.50+, to get you to Chicago. The Southern Pacific has already denied use of their rails to the KRM system, which means an additional 21% on top of the projected millions is needed to install new track. Not to mention that the KRM proponents even admit that for the first 25 years it will run at an 80%+ deficit! Where is the sense in this?
Anon 6:59, there are two reasons DICKert won: first, was thanks to the imbeciles who simply vote for the name they recognize the most. If they had any intelligence at all they would have voted based on the issues. The race for mayor, or any public office, is not a popularity contest. Second, the lazy eligible voters, that should have gotten off their duffs and gone to the polls, allowed the other idiots the opportunity to elect a bad mayor. The same happens over and over with our city council and state and national elections. Apathy is killing our country and allowing bad people to win office. Hopefully, that is over.
ReplyDeleteRees
ReplyDeleteThe majority of voters in Racine does NOT want KRM. Be nice to have a vote then everyone would know and it would DIE!
Thank God Walker when Govenor will put a State in this monster's heart
Graham, YOU got it right! Hopefully Dickert won't destroy this city more then he has already! (i.e. 6 year contract to city administrator, raised property taxes, no bid city contracts, 2.2 million dollar garbage cans, KRM, land give aways.....what a failure.
ReplyDeleteDid anybody see where Wiznewski was sitting?
ReplyDeletePreviously Anon 8:44 PM said:
ReplyDelete"The majority of voters in Racine does NOT want KRM."
Oh, I hear that loud and clear. But given the choice of using a car at astronomical cost or mass transit at reasonable cost (in comparison) do you still think people will still use cars when gas prices go sky high?
That is what my earlier comment was about. Obviously, if County wide mass transit never materializes KRM would be a huge mistake because hardly no one would use KRM.
But if I could hop on a bus in the Indian Hills subdivision and make my way to the train station and take KRM to go to the Milwaukee airport, for example, then take a shuttle bus to the airport terminal, I think I would. I'm just using that as an example. Heck, right now I have no idea if KRM would go anywhere near the Milwaukee airport.
The point is we must have a longer and wider understanding on what our leaders say is going to happen mass transit wise. Are we going to head in the direction of a County wide mass transit system or not? Only then can any real decision be made on KRM that makes sense.
Until then I agree with your statement that voters in Racine do NOT want KRM. I wouldn't either.
So Mayor and/or County Exec, what is the vision? Give the voters a better vision of tomorrow or justifiably endure their wrath if huge mistakes are made.
"In Wisconsin we are already behind many regions in transportation" etc., courtesy of SCJ's Fisk Johnson
ReplyDeleteFisk, I see you on TV talking about your business being "a family thing". I have a family too pal, and you don't give a damn about them.
If the heads of these companies that were sitting behind Doyle think that this will bring in new people and improve their bottom line, then use the additional profits to pay for it. The state is in debt, these companies are not. Let them foot the bill.
ReplyDeleteNow the loons in Madison want to implement the car emissions rules that California has. Why would anyone want to follow California's leave over the cliff? Why does the left keep pushing cost creating job killing legislation when our economy is in the tank?
ReplyDeleteHello!
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The above comment must be part of Dickert's 10 year plan for employment.
ReplyDeleteRees, as was made quite clear in the last round of discussions about KRM, it WILL NOT go to the airport. That was one of my two biggest complaints: you can't get to the airport, and so many people are still under the misconception that it will take you to Chicago.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:50 asks, "Why does the left keep pushing cost creating, job killing legislation when our economy is in the tank?" The answer to that is simple: look at the actions of the left from our pseudo-mayor/city council all the way to the Marxist in the Oval Office; the more jobs they kill and the more they destroy the economy gives them the power they need to destroy the middle-class. Once the middle-class is destroyed and our finances drained, the easier it will be to confiscate our guns, void the U.S. Constitution and impose their national socialist agenda over everyone in the country. Then, they'll get to rewrite history and make themselves out to be the great saviors of the country. Not to mention their most primary agenda: implementing the one world government.
Anon 9:56, this is not an advertising platform and, please, take a grammar and composition class. Based on your communication skills, I wouldn't invest a wooden nickel with you.
How GM killed the trolley(rail)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm
Now we are seeing the same manipulation against driving and owning a car. emissions restrictions, jacking up gas prices etc.
Anon 4:35/10:33, it would seem that you couldn’t hold on to your job at GM, got fired and now have a vendetta against them. And, think about how ignorant your statement is: “…jacking up gas prices…” Do you honestly think the oil companies would sit still for driving their customer base away in favor of taking buses and trains? Maybe you’d better ask Santa for a thinking cap for next Christmas, because it’s obvious you can’t do it on your own. I went to the “Love Earth” website and read the unsubstantiated article. I don’t believe it. The demise of the electric street cars was, yes, caused by the automobile, but not as it is suggested by this, again unsubstantiated, article. It was caused more by the limited access of the street cars, for which automobiles were not confined by the boundaries of tracks, and the fact that you drive from door-to-door anywhere at any time of the day or night. Long distance bus and train lines did not disappear and are still in use today. Maybe you are so easily manipulated, but the vast majority of intelligent, independently thinking Americans are not.
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:35/10:33, it would seem that you couldn’t hold on to your job at GM, got fired and now have a vendetta against them. And, think about how ignorant your statement is: “…jacking up gas prices…” Do you honestly think the oil companies would sit still for driving their customer base away in favor of taking buses and trains? Maybe you’d better ask Santa for a thinking cap for next Christmas, because it’s obvious you can’t do it on your own. I went to the “Love Earth” website and read the unsubstantiated article. I don’t believe it. The demise of the electric street cars was, yes, caused by the automobile, but not as it is suggested by this, again unsubstantiated, article. It was caused more by the limited access of the street cars, for which automobiles were not confined by the boundaries of tracks, and the fact that you drive from door-to-door anywhere at any time of the day or night. Long distance bus and train lines did not disappear and are still in use today. Maybe you are so easily manipulated, but the vast majority of intelligent, independently thinking Americans are not.
ReplyDeleteMayor!
ReplyDeleteSoon to come to CAR 25 will be a show highlighting the facts on KRM they do not want you to know from the much higher costs to how long it will take to build.
Randolph said...
ReplyDeleteI want a strong defense for my country … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want my garbage picked up … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want the police to come when I call … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want kids to go to school … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want people to have enough to eat … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want homeless people off my street … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want kids to get health care … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want old people secure … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want sick old people cared for … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want bad guys locked up … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want streets and roads … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want more jobs … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want disabled people helped … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want college for smart kids … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want natural disasters fixed … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want more teachers … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want more police officers … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want safer food … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want sewers … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want clean water … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want clean air … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want a strong economy … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want peace … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want snow and ice cleared … but I don’t want to pay for it.
I want everything I have now and more … but I don’t want to pay for it.
Tea, anyone?
Randolph apparently does not understand the concept of the TEA parties and their message. NO ONE attending the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) gatherings are saying they don't want to pay taxes, they are saying that it is time to STOP WASTING THE TAXES WE ALREADY PAY and to stop adding additional taxes on us to pay for programs that don't work. Stop sending our tax dollars to countries that hate us, stop giving our tax dollars to welfare cheats and then taxing us more to give the lazy bums even more, and don't WASTE even more money spending our hard earned tax dollars on a government run health care system that will bankrupt us and deteriorate the medical care currently available.
ReplyDeleteThe fools that constantly say that the TEA party goers don’t want to pay any taxes at all have obviously not attended any of the rallies. Though largely a conservative movement, there are a lot of moderate and right-wing Democrats and Independents attending these meetings. They “get it.” Randolph, apparently, does not.