By a 55%-45% margin, Phoenix voters have approved a major expansion of public transit throughout the city, including some 40+ miles of new light rail. Among other things, the new routes will connect three four-year university campuses to the system (ASU-West, Grand Canyon University and Arizona Christian University) for the first time, along with two major retail areas (Paradise Valley Mall and Metrocenter Mall). Both malls have been in decline, although the retail areas around them appear to have held their own. Much of the promotion of the ballot measure was based on the prospect of economic growth and revitalization in the new service areas. It will be interesting to see how this works out over time.
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2015/08/26/prop-104-supporters-lay-out-whats-next-for-phoenix.html
John Timm
On August 25, Phoenix voters will decide on a major transportation bond issue. Light rail is a big part of the picture. Here is a map of the proposed extensions.
http://movephx.org/get-the-facts/maps/
Note that the map only shows light rail within Phoenix city limits. The present route extends to the east several miles through Tempe to the new terminal in Downtown Mesa.
The problem with these numbers is that its extremely hard to say what exactly is related to the light rail development. It obviously has an impact but to just what extent? Per my friends at the Transportation Institue at the local major University, unless an area was (1) basically totally undeveloped before the arrival of public transportation or (2) a very "decayed" area that suddenly starts coming back once the public transportation is in place and there's no other factor to consider, there is no way to say for certain what growth is due to the arrival of the public transportation. You sometimes may be able to come up with a broad range but beyond that its probably just spinning numbers.
The "experts" need to look at the history of light rail and the accompanying investment in other cities before making such claims.
What ? Haven't all the " experts " said that these projects would only have minimum results. Granted that the very high temperatures in PHX may push these buildings toward light rail stops. What happens in Mesa in next few years may be telling.l
Metro added 3.1 miles to the east end of the line in April. It now extends into downtown Mesa. Here's a story from the Arizona Republic, focused on the economic impact of light rail in Phoenix thus far: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/07/28/phoenix-light-rail-billion-investments/30807211/
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