Posts about Baltimore Red Line

The concept phase is early planning, including alternatives analysis and environmental clearance. Design is the engineering phase, including Preliminary Engineering (PE). For projects in this phase, conceptual details have been finalized and detailed construction plans are being prepared.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

From the article:

"If you live—as I do—in a rural area, you don't share those hopes and dreams of mass transit as you have in the urban areas," Pipkin said Monday during a panel discussion on Maryland's economy and infrastructure.

He said the state's rural counties have dire transportation needs that aren't being met by the dwindling pot of state transportation dollars allocated to road and bridge repair.

The solution to having too little transportation money isn't to cut off infrastructure investment in the parts of the state that contribute the most tax revenue. The wealthy urban parts of Maryland never complain about subsidizing rural road projects. The rural parts can't afford to do it on their own. Since we are one state, it has never been an issue whether or not to contribute to the infrastructure and standard of living of the less affluent counties.

Then, why does Pipkin want to punish the parts of the state that have benefitted his constituents for so many decades? Demonizing the wealthy parts of the state who aren't represented by members of his political party is political red meat to a large group of his constituents.

I grew up in Cecil County and my parents live in Senator Pipkin's district. Many people from the Upper Eastern Shore think of Baltimore and Washington as far away places that are alien. His legislation would message well to people who view mass transit as an unfamiliar big-city amenity.

However, it's Pipkin's job to represent his district's monetary interests, not to appeal to their misinformed views about the urban parts of Maryland. His constituents will benefit from the tax revenue generated by the economic development from the Purple and Red Lines.

It is also logically inconsistent that Pipkin is targeting light rail projects but not the ICC. Because of the sticker shock from the ICC, the state is considering raising tolls to cross the Baltimore Harbor, the Susquehanna River, and the Chesapeake Bay. Why isn't Pipkin decrying the huge chunk of the Maryland transportation budget that is going to constructing the ICC?

Transportation funding in Maryland should not be a parochial argument about roads vs. rails. It's about building infrastructure that is appropriate to the communities it serves as they envision themselves in the future. Senator Pipkin's constituents deserve far-sighted representation that will generate economic development in all of Maryland, benefiting his constituents through increased tax revenue to fund more state services.

Governor O'Malley has been a consistent champion of the Purple Line and the Baltimore Red Line. Both projects would provide acres and acres of smart-growth formatted economic development opportunities. Those opportunities will include places that are currently economically vibrant and ones that are desperately in need of new investment.

Governor O'Malley has consistently budgeted funding for planning and engineering both the Purple and Red Lines throughout his first term. During Mr. Ehrlich's time serving as governor, he pursued a strategy to obfuscate, alter, study and delay the Purple Line.

During the current 2010 election, Mr. Ehrlich has gone on record opposing the Purple Line. During debates in Baltimore, he expressed similar opposition to the Baltimore Red Line.

Finally, Mr. Ehrlich was a huge proponent of the ICC. Little good will come out of this project, except the unintended sticker shock that is leading to Marylanders realizing the actual costs of expensive new highways.

Unfortunately, Governor O'Malley did nothing to halt its construction early in his term. The political will was not there at the local level. The newly-inaugurated governor could have spent enormous political capital trying to kill the highway and still could have been unsuccessful. Mr. O'Malley instead used his political capital to move the Purple and Red Lines forward. In an ideal world, the ICC would have been halted and the Purple and Red Lines would have already broken ground using its funds. However, given the world as it existed in 2007, Governor O'Malley made a pragmatic and reasonable decision.

The two candidates' records on education could also not be more different. Mr. Ehrlich has a record of defunding both K-12 and higher education in Maryland while Mr. O'Malley has made good on his promise to maintain Maryland colleges' affordability.

I feel very lucky that I graduated from the University of Maryland in May 2003. During the Fall 2003 semester, students experienced a tuition increase of thousands of dollars per semester. Fellow GGW contributor Matt Johnson had to pay many thousands of dollars more in tuition to attend the same university as I did because he was unlucky enough that his birth year put his college years during the Ehrlich Administration. The tuition increase was a direct result of then-Governor Ehrlich cutting the budget for the University System of Maryland. One of Mr. O'Malley's central campaign promises in the 2006 campaign was to properly fund higher education and freeze tuition during his service. Governor O'Malley has kept his campaign pledge.

According to the Gazette, Mr. Ehrlich proposed eliminating the Geographic Cost of Education Index, a $126 million fund that provides K-12 funding aid for areas with high costs of living, such as Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Baltimore city. The change would cost Montgomery County alone $31 million in education funding.

Differences on transportation and education alone show very large differences in judgment and pragmatism between the candidates. Greater Greater Washington proudly endorses Governor O'Malley for a second term as governor of Maryland.