Michael R. Levy

This letter is being written not in my capacity as founder and publisher of TEXAS MONTHLY, but as a very concerned citizen of Austin who has lived in this great community since 1969.

I am writing to urge you to vote in the November 2 general election, and to let you know I believe it is very important that you vote against CapMetro's proposition to allow it to build and operate a so-called Commuter Rail transportation system.

Here's why:

If we defeat this proposal, the CapMetro board will have no choice but to invest part (representing only one fourth of the penny sales tax it collects from you) of its large accumulation of cash on improving our road system infrastructure, thus reducing the need for toll roads, and certainly the most contentious parts of the current toll road plan such as the MoPac bridge over William Cannon. (CapMetro might even give the City of Austin some money for a modern traffic signalization system and for a large downtown public parking garage similar to the one that has been so important to the revitalization of downtown Ft. Worth.) And the CapMetro board would also finally understand that the voters really do not want to see any more proposals sent their way for other silly ideas such as the proposed 19th-century style trolley car system that would only increase traffic congestion at enormous cost.

Take a look at the enclosed document from former Tracor CEO Jim Skaggs, an engineer by training. Jim presents in detail a very compelling case that CapMetro's proposal is quite simply an extremely stupid idea that just does not make any economic or practical sense.  In essence it's basically a single rail line that goes from nowhere to nowhere that will probably wind up costing well in excess of $100,000,000 and affect less than one half of one percent of all travel trips made Monday through Friday. In addition, the train will surely slow down other commuters  because, as Ben Wear noted in his September 27 American-Statesman article, as the rail line "...turns north through East Austin and then gradually tracks northwest to Cedar Park and Leander, the line passes over 53 public roads and 20 private drives into businesses and residential and agricultural type properties."

According to the 2000 census, there are over 400,000 work commuters each day, representing more than 800,000 travel trips each day.  CapMetro is estimating that their train may have a total of 1,000 to 1,500 daily riders, or at most 3,000 travel trips each day. Do the math! We're talking about our community spending $100,000,000 on providing travel for less than one half of one per cent of our commuters!  And given the maxim among transportation planners that a community should not go to a rail system until its bus system is close to maximum utilization, when was the last time you saw a big (and very expensive) CapMetro bus with more than a few riders on it?

In addition, the CapMetro board has refused to adopt any form of reasonable performance measures over a five year period if the system is built, or to make a commitment to shut down the system if the measures are not met.

It is interesting to note that members of the CapMetro board and its staff are now acknowledging privately that "....it's good that the voters defeated their Light Rail proposal because, in retrospect, it was not such a good idea."  As opposed to the Light Rail idea which the voters nixed, the Commuter Rail proposal was developed in a relatively short period of time, and must be put in the perspective of serious questions all of us who have watched CapMetro since its inception have about both the CapMetro board's due diligence (the chair spends a significant amount of time at his second home in Italy), level of sophistication, oversight capability, and the basic competence of the CapMetro staff to design and operate a complex transportation system of any kind.

This proposal is also symptomatic of far greater problems among all of our elected officials. The Travis County Commissioners Court is a joke—the Keystone Kops of Texas politics that actually makes the Legislature seem like a rational decision-making body by comparison—and appears to be pathologically incapable of doing anything right. Our City and County elected officials have almost a Pavlovian responsiveness to a noisy few, as opposed to the needs of the many, and thus are not focused on spending our tax dollars wisely and prudently on high-quality basic services (public safety, parks, libraries, a good road system, a synchronized traffic signalization system that works, etc.) that touch the lives of everyone who lives in our community, regardless of their zip code or demographic. As an example, look at the $5,000,000 of other people's money that the Council wasted on the Austin Music Channel debacle for amateur hour of the air programming that nobody in their right mind would waste their time watching. Defeating Commuter Rail would send a clear and convincing signal that the citizens of our community believe that now is the time for our elected officials to re-focus our resources on basic local government services of the highest order.

But if this boondoggle passes, the only winners will be a few people who live in Leander, land speculators, and the usual beneficiaries of our area's infamous pork barrel politics.  The leadership and funding sources of the Commuter Rail election campaign should give you sufficient reason to suspect that the proposal is really not about transportation or improved mobility. As a reminder, take a look at the infamous skeleton of the unfinished Intel building on West 5th Street in downtown Austin.

Your vote against CapMetro's Commuter Rail proposal is important, a start on turning our community around so that perhaps some day we will actually enjoy the benefits of good and rational local government.

Sincerely,

Michael R. Levy
Publisher, TEXAS MONTHLY
Post Office Box 146
Austin, Texas 78767