Taken for a ride?
Readers speak out on the latest problems plaguing the city’s ART bus project
Get ART fixed and move on
REALLY? YOU couldn’t make this stuff up and sell any tickets if it was a movie. For those of us who have been longtime supporters of ART, and particularly those of us who strongly pushed for electric buses, the recent revelations have been much like taking delivery on a brand new car that has four flat tires. The only thing that exceeds the effects of the depth of the issues is the breadth of those issues. Is there anything that hasn’t been turned sideways, besides some of the stations, in this important initiative?
Living on Central Avenue has given me ample opportunity to address the many concerns my neighbors have had over the ART project. Most of those mostly reasonable people have been in ardent opposition to the project, but I unfailingly suggested an alternative, more positive perspective to their opposition.
Since the disclosures, however, I have taken to disguise and talking-on-my-cellphone subterfuge as I walk through our hood. But finally, after considering the breadth and variety of problems, all I can do is laugh — darkly, but laugh nonetheless. Of course, it will be far less laughable if, because of our missteps, we don’t get the federal funding we are counting on.
I will offer what I think are some of the more darkly humorous issues associated with the design and execution, taken either of two ways, of ART: A platform that is too close to an intersection thereby forcing the bus to extend into the intersection as it picks up and drops off passengers? Really? The top of the buses hitting some of the station canopies? Are the buses different than the specs we were given or did someone on the construction crew forget their tape measure at home? Same with those pesky support posts at the stations that inconsiderately bang on the ART bus mirrors. And then there’s the stations that were not built square to the street providing the buses with the opportunity to be in the right position in the front but requiring a rather large leap of faith in the back? Really?
I won’t go on since I am beginning to lose my vulnerable sense of humor about this. But I think there is good news: The Mayor’s Office and staff are capably addressing the problems head-on, and the bus manufacturer has committed to make things right — maybe even helping with the translation of the Chinese instructions on the charging stations?
A key, however, will be to see how those responsible for the design interact with the numerous contractors responsible for the construction. There will be ample opportunity for each to blame the other, but who cares about that at this point? Let’s just get it fixed so we can start laughing at more deserving things, and ART can fulfill all the promises it represented.
JIM FOLKMAN Albuquerque ‘I told you so’ does no good
SO THE MAYOR and (Lawrence) Rael agree that the ART project that has trashed the transportation heart of Albuquerque has “unresolved problems.” We fought this farrago of B.S. tooth and nail, and even before it’s “operational,” we get to say “I told you so,” for all the good that does.
My question, speaking as a resident of one of the neighborhoods disrupted by this former-Mayor (Richard) Berry’s ruthless, enormous boondoggle, who do we sue for restitution for this outrage, for pushing ahead despite funding not having been secured in order to force the monstrosity into being and for the additional costs of ameliorating the damage and getting some kind of public good out of it?
This stupid monstrosity has left entire neighborhoods seething, our trust in our own city government destroyed and our commercial corridor still struggling to survive.
The least Mayor (Tim) Keller can do is to fire the hell out of the planning administrators who put this bitter farce of a project forward in the first place, and (who) now have implemented it in such a cold, hamhanded and totalitarian manner.
SUZY CHARNAS Albuquerque ART may need a ‘DNR’
RICHARD BERRY and the City Council never explained to my satisfaction how ART was going to improve my life as a citizen of Albuquerque and a resident of the Ridgecrest-Nob Hill area. I thought the fact that they — and the judges who consistently decided for them — had to ram the project through without a public vote confirmed that, for current residents, there was no demonstrable benefit.
I came to the conclusion that it was a gentrification project and, as such, part of the plan would be to drive the locals out of the Central Avenue corridor so Berry’s contractor/developer cronies could move in, buy up the real estate and build highdollar condo lofts and office space — far out of the price range of ordinary New Mexicans — that would then be occupied by already rich, predominantly white people from Texas and the coasts.
Given the revelations of the past few days, I’m beginning to think maybe I gave them too much credit for planning and foresight. Now it’s looking more like a bungling boondoggle than a master plan. As Mayor (Tim) Keller begins to deal with this “lemon,” I hope he will realize that he owes the real citizens of Albuquerque, the actual people who live here and have for decades, an explanation of any further expense. He needs to explain clearly how a finished, functioning ART will benefit us. As it stands, it looks like ART, as designed, is a mess and that a completed ART will simply be a complete mess. If Mayor Keller can’t explain how completing ART will benefit this city and the neighborhoods it runs through, then it should probably be dismantled rather than completed. To put millions of dollars into finishing it just so the millions of dollars it has cost already will not have been spent in vain, might be the most foolish thing we could do.
Or, hey, we could always put it to a vote.
KIRK SMITH Albuquerque Second time’s charm on ART
THE PROBLEMS with the not up-to-snuff buses reminds me of the old budgeting conundrum that I perceive can be properly applied to virtually everything fiscal in New Mexico, “Why is there never enough money to do things right, but always enough to do them over?”
DAVID BLACHER Albuquerque Politicians should pay for ART
HERE WE ARE, no ART buses, no federal funding, no ART period, and a very large debt. Who is responsible for this, in my opinion, is very clear. Ex-Mayor Richard J. Berry and the members of the City Council who voted to go forward with a project that was not approved by the voters. Why? Because Ex-Mayor Berry and the City Council ignored the public concerns and refused the public’s outcry for a vote on the plan. Now we face even more financial distress over this project. Perhaps ex-Mayor Berry and those city councilors should be held financially responsible for this disaster. It was their decision and not that of the citizens of Albuquerque. Further, perhaps there should be an inquiry into malfeasance in the manner in which this project was conducted.
ROGER A. FURRY Albuquerque Shorter bus range no surprise
THE 200-MILE bus range has been known since Jan. 6, 2016, when BYD last modified this pdf brochure on this transit bus model, K11, see http://www.byd.com/ usa/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/K11. pdf. I don’t know where the 275-mile figure came from, but its does not appear to be part of the current 2016 specification. The modification date of the pdf file is listed in its attributes.
Why is the 200-mile range an apparent huge surprise two years later?
TONY WIGHT Albuquerque