The folks at RichmondRail.org have sent the following letter to Metro:
TO: Mr. David S. Wolff, METROMr. Frank Wilson, METRO
Members of the METRO board
CC: Mr. John Culberson, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee, Ms. Kay Bailey
Hutchison, Mr. John Cornyn
Mr. Garnet Coleman, Ms. Martha Wong,
Mr. Bill White, Mayor, Ms. Anne Clutterbuck, Ms. Ada Edwards, Ms. Pam Holm
Mr. Robert Eckels, Mr. El Franco Lee, Ms. Sylvia Garcia, Mr. Steve Radack, and
Mr. Jerry Eversole
Dear Mr. Wolff and Mr. Wilson:
In just 15 days, more than 700 Houstonians have signed their support for this clear statement:
"I support neighborhood-friendly light rail on Richmond Avenue."
We are residents, business owners, workers, and students living and working on or near Richmond Avenue. We are civic leaders and professionals with a stake in Houston's quality of life and economic vitality. We are landowners and institutions with a specific interest in the long term health of Richmond Avenue. And we want light rail on Richmond.
We want to preserve and enhance the quality of life and vitality of our neighborhoods, businesses, and institutions. We want to ensure the long term quality and success of our neighborhoods through the addition of light rail along Richmond Avenue from Main Street to its connection with the Uptown line and beyond.
Houston will not have a healthy and vital future without a mass transportation system that is built where the people, places, and destinations are. RichmondRail.org will be fighting for rail on Richmond and for solutions that maximize the benefit for all citizens - and minimize the negative impacts on businesses and neighborhoods in the corridor.
In the coming weeks, we will be signing up thousands more residents, institutions, and businesses along the Richmond corridor that support a Richmond alignment. The more than 700 Houstonians listed with this letter are just a taste of the broad based support for and logic of a Richmond rail alignment.
We expect METRO to thoroughly study and expertly design the Richmond alignment. We expect our local elected leaders to support it. And we expect our Congressional representatives to fund it.
Sincerely,
Doug Childers, Chair
RichmondRail.org
These folks got off to a slower start in the PR battle than the anti-Richmond forces did, but they're fully engaged now. Hopefully, their presence will help to change the perception of this debate. If they help nudge a few public officials in the right direction as well, that would be good, too.
The letter plus some more information is here. You can sign their petition here.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 14, 2006 to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | TrackBackGiven the current report that Rep. Culberson is threatening to kill federal funds to Metro if they don't do things his way...
Hmm, did you read a quote from Culberson or staff to that effect in that story? I didn't.
However, I think the Congressman has voiced concerns in the past about METRO abiding by the METRO solutions vote, in which a Westpark (not a Richmond) corridor was approved.
Posted by: kevin whited on July 14, 2006 8:09 AMThe key word in that last sentence, of course, is "corridor". Not "route", which would specify a particular street, but "corridor", which implies an area. Care to show me where on the map it was designated that the train would be on Westpark?
Oh, and how's that lawsuit coming? Andy Taylor doesn't work for peanuts, you know.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on July 14, 2006 10:50 AMhttp://culberson.house.gov/news.aspx?A=243
John Culberson:
"Metro asked for two weeks from Tuesday to make their case to the people on Richmond, and I agreed to wait for two weeks before making a decision based primarily on the input I receive from Richmond residents and business and property owners. I also asked, and Metro agreed, to post their plans on their website so people can see them in great detail beginning next Tuesday."