The Rapid Grand Rapids Michigan NO on The Rapid transit tax millage proposal: 50 MILLION!

2011 updates. The Rapids environmental study on the Rapids website reveals that Divsion avenue Intersections from 54 th to Franklin street are slated to FAIL during rush hours, because of the new bus decicated to one of Divison avenues lanes. Congestion on Division will hurt the area, and hurt the many parents trying to get kids to Grand Rapids, Kentwood, and Godwin schools. Drivers using 44th, 54th, 36th,Franklin, 28th street to get to 131 will be in daily traffic jams. Parents of children will not be happy with traffic diverted onto sidestreets all along Division avenue by drivers trying to get to Buchanan, Jefferson, and Madison to get off Division. Everyday drives for area residents will take much longer.
The proposed bus is not faster AND IT HURTS THE POOR as fares will have to be increased, and the number of stops for those who RELY ON THE BUS will be reduced. So the single mom with kids in tow, and the elderly handicapped person will WALK FURTHER to get to the bus! NUTS Video shows
My visit on a Spring Monday arrived at 6:30 p.m. to Dead peopleless Monroe Mall downtown Grand Rapids-. Most doctors offices on the Medical Mile also close at 5 p.m. On the current bus, my ride from 54th street Meijers took only 28 minutes to get to Division and Fulton with a detour on Division due. Existing bus stops all along this route start at 4 a.m and run every half hour until after 11 p.m. The modern hybrid electric buses have bike carriers and handicap ramps. There is absolutely no need for a new bus system. The Monroe Mall as you can see in video looks like the scene of a life after people movie as people pull out after 5 p.m. as their are no open stores. I did see a few street people looking to buckle down for the night, but there was absolutely no where to go here. It was a litlle scary for me to be walking there.This mall has been dead since the late 1960's and several times in the past decades we have been lurred to spend Millions remodeling the streets of this mall because we were told it COULD spur redevelopment. None of this money spurred any redevelopment. People are traveling to shop in nearby suburban malls Rivertown Crossings Mall in Grandville, and Woodland Mall in Kentwood. Existing stops all along this route and it is evident that the bus stops have not spurred ANY redevelopment. West Michigan is oversatured with old shopping malls and businesses and we can't throw money at them all to try to keep them going as some will still fail. That is business. The Portland rapid transit bus that they have tried to glorify to sell this ill-hatched plan has arial trams, trains, and trolley cars and buses some have tunnels and roads DEDICATED TO THE BUS AND ONLY THE BUS FOR THE SAFETY OF PEDESTRIANS AND DRIVERS!!! . Portland has 2 OCEAN front State parks with marinas for yachts that draw visitors downtown Yet they close many bus routes to downtown down in the winter when temperatures get down to a balmy 40 degrees!
Vote No May 3th. When and if we build rapid transit lets do it RIGHT. This is a very bad, duplicate plan to have a bus line on rubber wheels that is a duplicate of what is already there that will have a very great destructive effect on many neighborhoods. Traffic congestion will force more drivers onto 131 and away from the area. The Rapids own study says it won't work. The RAPID has DOZENS of EMPTY routes like the route to Metro Hospital in Wyoming, or the Bus that stops EMPTY at 36th street and Jefferson over a dozen times a day. Empty underused routes are not GREEN, or saving us any money.

. The GVSU bus runs from Allendale thru downtown till 3 a.m. on weekends. College students are being targeted to get this destuctive millage passed as many won't READ the environmental study on the Rapids website as they are too busy.. but the study explains why this bus can't even use its own lane and it will have to turn off its Traffic Signal Priority technology and operate like a regular bus. So they will tear up roads for a duplicate bus that is very expensive to people during a recession, (many homeowners are struggling to stay out of foreclosure, and property values have dropped as much as 50 percent while taxes continue to rise) for nothing. The Silverline bus will stop at traffic lights and operate no faster than the current bus. Taxpayers should get some improvement for their dollars. This system gives none. VISIT. www.kcffr.org for more infomation or www.itpwatch.org They are hiding the SILVERLINE in advertisements because it is the Antitaxpayer, Antisustainability, STUPID Bus. The Rapid would buy more Hybrid Electric buses at a cost of 200,000 each for IMAGE only as they do offer any fuel savings!

VISIT FRIENDS at www.ITPWATCH.org
and www.GrandRapidsbustaxhike.org
for more information

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Grand Rapids
• Bus
• Millage
• tax
• election
• ballot
• Wyoming Michigan
• Kentwood Michigan
• Walker Michigan
• Grandville Michigan
• East Grand Rapids
• Property tax rates
• Kent County
• Downtown Grand Rapids
• Ballot Proposal

[streamcaddis]

Maybe the reason you don't see any people is because you took the video EARLY SATURDAY or SUNDAY morning!!!!

[lotsofcats33]

@streamcaddis Nope

I took this trip during the week. Maybe you don't want to believe that downtown gets that dead after the lunch hour but it does. A bus is not going to get people to start going downtwon either. On a recent visit I noticed many new storefronts look occupied from the outside and they are more businesses that came and went under already. There are empty businesses at strip malls all over.

[lotsofcats33]

@streamcaddis Nope

I took this trip during the week. Maybe you don't want to believe that downtown gets that dead after the lunch hour but it does. A bus is not going to get people to start going downtwon either. On a recent visit I noticed many new storefronts look occupied from the outside and they are more businesses that came and went under already. There are empty businesses at strip malls all over so why the denial about downtown being as empty as it is...

[4CLINTONinTEXAS]

VOTE NO MAY 5TH. The Rapid Video posted by the account GRRapid / RapidGR is PROOF that the bus system we have already is in perfect working order to serve our citizens. This isn't New York City, we do not need this here, its just a waste of millions of tax dollars better spent elsewhere. VOTE NO May 5th!

[lotsofcats33]

I agree. We don't have the population to support this and we already pay taxes to support G.R.Community College so we should not be taxed twice if they have parking problems. The millions of $ would only update ONE street among dozens and they will only want more taxes to do this to other streets in the future which would triple our taxes. I wonder who is paying millions to advertise this during Prime Time T.V.? Maybe owners of vacant properties the city would have to buy if this goes through?

[externalpower]

its a bus. grand rapids already has a bus. someone is trying to make some money.

[sunbeansnflowersluv]

Division would be a mess with the Silverline. A bike rider was killed last year and school kids have been hit. It does get very busy at times and this would make it so crazy. Besides, if you live along Division route you know that during the afternoons & evenings the bus is pretty empty so they could close down some unused times and reroute for peak times to speed it up cheaply. The buses have not helped our neighborhood (Kelloggsville-Kentwood) grow-it seems like they have hurt the area

[qwandiddy]

@4CLINTONinTEXAS I agree, plus they still got some work to do to improve better service rather than wasting money on that crap like Extend later service than 9:45pm on Saturday, Extend couple more hours on Weekday like until 1AM, Sundays until 10PM like current saturday evening service times.

[jimmythekiddd]

like if you live here and can't afford a car, something is wrong with you. I grew up here this town and state suck the big Kahuna. No need for busses, everybody drives. At least they used to until Bush/Obama started fucking everything up. And what is with Michigan's governor?? She is an idiot!! When will Michiganders learn how to vote??

[aprilskutt]

I grew up in michigan and I use to go to the Monroe mall. I now live in Los Angeles California. I enjoyed the video!

[maxwelldillivan]

When I first heard about the Silverline, I was really impressed and thought it would be a great idea. Listening to some of these counterpoints I can't help but agree and understand where you're coming from.

The point about it forcing more drivers from Division to 131 would be very disadvantageous; however, working at the Grand Valley Metro Council, I was aware of efforts to downsize Division to 3 lanes.

[twirlingchair]

yea whats the point of a new bus line if there are no people to transport? actually i hear talk that people are leaving michigan to pursue a more happy life elsewhere however, i do enjoy this state because it has a shoreline that doesn't produce hurricanes.