by Gary Nelson – Apr. 14, 2011
The Arizona Republic
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith told a room full of Arizona transit experts Monday that the state needs to get over its border problem.
No, not that border.
He was talking about the borders that separate one city from another on maps that barely make a difference to residents who move among communities to work, shop and recreate.
Unless politicians and transit planners get over their parochialism, Smith said, the Valley will be stuck with a “hodgepodge system that is not meeting our needs and . . . is a detriment to our future.”
Smith made his comments at an Arizona Transit Association conference at the Phoenix Marriott Mesa that continued into Tuesday afternoon.
Returning to the theme of regionalism that has been a cornerstone of his nearly three years in office, Smith said civic narrow-mindedness is an even bigger threat than public transit’s chronic lack of money.
He used the proposed extension of light rail to Gilbert Road as an example.
Mesa wants to push the line 2 miles farther east of its scheduled terminus near Mesa Drive. Only last week the City Council approved an initial study of the idea, which has no funding and no timetable.
Light-rail planners believe Gilbert Road is a more logical collection point for passengers than is the eastern edge of downtown.
It’s not that Mesa thinks those 2 miles of Main Street will be a gold mine of redevelopment if the trains go through. It doesn’t.
“But from a system standpoint, that’s a huge game-changer,” Smith said. “It will benefit the entire system a lot more than it will ever benefit Mesa as a specific community.”
“And yet,” he added, “the frustrating thing is to see the pushback we get because other communities merely look at it as, ‘Gee, why does Mesa want to extend this?’ Well, the fact of the matter is, if you look at Metro’s ridership estimates, it is a system-changing extension, not a city-changing extension.”