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"The cost-benefit ratio of the
Transbay Terminal is really absurd,"
said Bill Blackwell, a retired Bechtel
architect,
who contends that the new terminal costs
aren't justified by the improvements for transit riders. "People seem to
think we need a new monument,"
Blackwell said.
"We don't need a fancy new terminal. It doesn't do anything to enhance
transit use."
For that kind of money we should be doing SOMETHING that
will actually
relieve Traffic Congestion.
Instead of spending $3 billion (prob $7 bil.) on a
cost-ineffective
Transbay Terminal,
( A statewide
high-speed rail
bond dropped from the November 2004 election,
may never be re-submitted. )
Lets spend it on something that will
directly
reduce CONGESTION and
air-pollution - the
19th
Ave Tunnel bypass
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Transit hub moves ahead, even
if train never arrives (Matier
and Ross)
Think of it as the " Terminal of Dreams" -- a new
Transbay Terminal and high-rise in San Francisco that is gaining momentum
without so much as a promise that the money or high-speed railroad needed to
make it happen will ever be there.
Today, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority will announce plans for an
international design competition for the four-story terminal and a 70-story
hotel, condo and retail tower. That would be about on par with San
Francisco's tallest building, the Transamerica Pyramid.
"It creates a world-class transit hub linking the Bay Area's most vital
commuter systems and surrounds it with a new neighborhood,'' said Mike Nevin,
chairman of the joint powers agency.
The tricky part, transit insiders say, is that the agency has pledges for
only half the project's $2 billion estimated cost.
The other half won't materialize unless
state voters pass
a bond for a $10 billion bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles
-- a project that keeps being pushed onto a side track and may not even make
the ballot for years.
Nonetheless, the locals say they're ready to move forward -- and up --
with or without the bullet train money. Their big fear is that delays will
only drive up costs.
The idea, then, is to start construction and line up a developer to
finance the project while the hotel and housing market is still strong, in
the hope that if they build it, the bullet train -- and bullet train money
-- will come.
And if the train never arrives?
"It's going to be a transit center hosting bus, rail, BART and
Muni Metro'' via an underground people mover, said Adam
Alberti, spokesman for the
Joint
Powers Authority.
So in other words, they're hoping the money already promised, plus some
financial magic, will be enough to build at least a basic terminal plus the
tower.
And the sooner they get going on project, Alberti said, "the cheaper it's
going to be to build.''
Or overbuild.
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