Transit Corridors and a "Affordable" Street Car Technology

Emerald City's #1 "visionary" moves streetcars to the discussion front burner

Scott Schwebke adds more grist to the Emerald City public transit discussion mill this morning, with a Standard-Examiner Top of Utah section article which loosely describes several transit proposals which Boss Godfrey intends to present to the city council at Thursday's council work session. We incorporate Mr. Schwebke's lead paragraphs below:

OGDEN — The city council will unveil a priority list of top potential transit corridors within Ogden during a work session Thursday night.
Thirteen potential transit scenarios have been considered as part of the prioritization process, the council said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday night.
Specific details regarding the scenarios developed through discussions between the council, the city’s administration and the Ogden Planning Commission were unavailable.

In addition to a list of proposed corridors, this morning's story also again mentions Godfrey's intention to recommend study of a tantalizing alternate transit mode:

"However, he has said he intends to present the council with a proposal to study the feasibility of an affordable streetcar system."

Yesiree, Boss Godfrey is at least giving lip service to streetcars, although he's still keeping the details under wraps.

In the past week we've of course speculated here on Weber County Forum about this mysterious "affordable streetcar system" technology which Godfrey will unveil on Thursday. Gentle reader Dan S. has already opined in an earlier comments section that he believes Godfrey is thinking about something like this:

A streetcar named SWIMO; battery-powered tram in Japan

We heard similar speculation from gentle reader disgusted on May 13.

Whatever Godfrey has in mind, we confess we're sitting on the edges of our seats. How nice it would be however, we'll tentatively observe, if the lumpencitizens and their "visionary" mayor could find themselves marching in the same direction, at least once.

Before turning the floor over to our readers, we'll lodge a couple of our own lingering questions:

1) Why are we still studying alternate "preferred" transit corridors? We thought that issue was resolved by the Baker Study (at no small taxpayer expense) clear back in 2005.

2) If indeed it's to be the battery-powered SWIMO technology, we'll note that the whole thing looks entirely "experimental" to us. Though relatively cheap it may be, we wonder whether an unproven technology like SWIMO is something that could realistically become the backbone of our Ogden City public transit infrastructure.

So many questions; so few answers.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Bill O'Reilly Goes Nuts

Fair and balanced?

Hey Faux News fans! We stumbled upon this video whilst googling:

(We urge EXTREME READER CAUTION BEFORE VIEWING THIS VIDEO: "Salty language" is contained within. Make sure impressionable kids are AWAY from your computer when you view this) :

Bill O'Reilly Goes Nuts!

You'd better view it right away, before Fox News lawyers get it pulled from YouTube.

Comments, anyone? (We'd especially like to hear from socially-conservative Fox News fans.)

Why Clinton Lost

The Reason Nobody is Talking About

Everyone but Sen. Clinton knows it is over. Everyone is busy with post-game analysis of why she lost. But the reason is so obvious that it is staring us in the face. Even the best analysis, from Karen Tumulty, does not mention it, perhaps because it is too obvious.

Daily Kos
Why Clinton Lost: The Reason Nobody is Talking About
May 10, 2008

Excellent article and political analysis from Saturday's Daily Kos. Here's the gist from Saturday's article:

Fake mavericks like McCain rolled over and played nice. Sen. Clinton fully expected the Primary for Democratic nomination in 2008 to be a coronation: the real attacks would come from Republicans in the General Elections. So she was looking to the right and not the left as she made her decision. She made a crucial decision risking the lives of thousands of soldiers based on a mere political calculation.

We confess we've been watching with a sort of morbid fascination as Hillary Clinton plods onward during the waning days remaining prior to the Democratic National Nominating Convention, under circumstances in which it seems obvious to everybody but Hillary that she's a political "dead woman walking."

Sooner or later however, we were bound to get around to a political post-mortem examination on the subject of the failure of the Clinton campaign; and Saturday's Daily Kos article takes a step in that direction, proffering what we believe to be a very interesting hypothesis.

Read the full article here; and then don't forget to come back with your comments.

More Emerald City Transit Talk From the Utah Blogosphere

Transit in Utah chimes in again

Here's another great post from one of our Utah Blogosphere favorites, Transit in Utah. We post here the opening 'graphs from today's TIU article:

Opportunity for Ogden?
Well it looks like Mayor Godfrey is now looking at streetcars instead of just gondolas which hopefully a good sign:
Ogden Mayor has moved on from urban gondolas -- to street cars
Last time I talked briefly about how Ogden could create a nice urban area by putting together the streetcar, a revitalized Washington Blvd, and the Centennial Trail that goes along the Ogden River. Today I was planning to go into a little more detail and build upon those previous ideas.

Smart as the TIU blogmaster is on the topic of Urban Transit, we know what everyone in Ogden knows: Boss Godfrey has urban gondolas tattoed on his brain.

Our little Shite Mayor seems able to fool even the public transit experts, at least
some of the time.

Boss Godfrey Announces a Secret Transit Study Plan

Soon Emerald City "naysayers" will all be singing Kumbaya

Seemingly out of the blue, Boss Godfrey's eerily grinning portrait peers out from this morning's Standard-Examiner front page, along with a public transit-oriented story, reporting Godfrey's prediction that everyone in Emerald City will soon be singing Kumbaya. Godfrey reportedly has been visited by a new public transit brainstorm/vision, one that's already being greeted with some skepticism however. We incorporate Ace reporter Schwebke's introductory paragraphs below:

OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey says the city council should be pleased with a proposal he will unveil this week to study the feasibility of a local streetcar system.
“I think they will be thrilled, and we will be singing ‘Kumbaya’ at the end,” said Godfrey, who intends to present the plan during a council work session Thursday night.
But City Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske is skeptical of Godfrey’s proposal. She believes the plan is a diversionary tactic to prevent a formal, more extensive transit alternatives analysis of the corridor between the intermodal hub at 23rd Street and Wall Avenue and Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital.
“It’s a way to waste time,” Jeske said.

As Ace Reporter Schwebke reports (and as reported on WCF last week), Godfrey remains opposed to initiating an "alternatives analysis," a formal process which, according to our understanding, would be a mandatory stepping stone toward federal funding of a street car system such as is being contemplated for Emerald City. Street cars are too expensive, he insists. Thus Godfrey apparently has schemed up another tactic which, it appears to us, wouldn't put an Emerald City Streetcar project anywhere near the federal funding fast-track.

According to the Federal Transit Administration website, the completion of an alternatives analysis is a mandatory prerequisite for federal funding:

Alternatives Analysis -- To specifically qualify for New Starts funding (49 USC §5309), candidate projects must have resulted from an alternatives analysis study (also known as major investment study or multimodal corridor analysis) which evaluates appropriate modal and alignment options for addressing mobility needs in a given corridor. Alternatives analysis can be viewed as a bridge between systems planning (which identifies regional travel patterns and transportation corridors in need of improvements) and project development (where a project’s design is refined sufficiently to complete the NEPA environmental process). The alternatives analysis study is intended to provide information to local officials on the benefits, costs, and impacts of alternative transportation investments developed to address the purpose and need for an improvement in the corridor. Potential local funding sources for implementing and operating the alternatives should be identified and studied, and New Starts criteria should be developed.

We also invite our readers to view the handy flowchart on the FTA site, which shows where an alternatives analysis fits within the "formal" federal funding scheme. To our dismay, we don't see "Boss Godfrey Brainstorm" anywhere on the chart.

And there's another element to today's story we mustn't forget. Godfrey's continued dawdling also places local funding in jeopardy:

If an alternatives analysis isn’t undertaken soon, Ogden may lose out on its share of proceeds from a Weber County quarter-cent sales tax earmarked for transit projects, City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks said.

Admittedly we haven't yet had an opportunity to hear Godfrey's new "plan." True to his persistent "mystery-style" of municipal governance, he's keeping his new tactic close to his vest until Thursday night, when "all will be revealed."

We'll therefore try to keep an open mind for now, until we can find out exactly what Godfrey has up his sleeve (although we'll forthrightly confess we're feeling the irresistible compulsion to go along with Councilwoman Jeske's assessment.)

And what say our gentle readers about all this? Has Boss Godfrey come up with a way to cut the red tape... and save taxpayer money... or is he merely still dragging his feet?

Mother's Day 2008

A thought-provocative collection of articles and videos for Mother's Day 2008

When we arrived, it was our mothers who first taught us who we are and what we should do. Then, later, a few of our fathers – or their leaders – taught us war – and we forgot so much. Today, we honour our mothers - and perhaps, recall their teachings.

UN Observer and International Report
Mother's day 2008
May 11, 2008

An interesting collection of thought-provocative articles on the origin of the American Mother's Day Holiday, and some mom-oriented anti-war stuff from unobserver.com

Comments anyone?

State Demo and GOP Conventions

Check out today's Std-Ex story... and a live podcast

The magic day has arrived. Both the Utah Democratic and Republican Parties will whittle down their lists of candidates for the 2008 general election today. Read all about it in this morning's Standard-Examiner story.

As an added bonus for true political wonks, we link this media player, which will broadcast the live action from today's State GOP convention:

It's billed as experimental, so we wish the podcasters the best of luck.

We searched in vain for a similar podcast from the Demo Convention, BTW. If somebody can come up with a Democratic Convention podcast, please be sure to link it in the comments section below.

Don't forget to chime in with your comments.

Golf Course Update: Boss Godfrey Tips His Big-spending Hand

Big Spender Godfrey opts for $8 million mediocrity

We've had a busy calender today, but we didn't want the day to slip by completely, without putting the spotlight on one interesting story appearing in this morning's Standard-Examiner. Specifically, Ace Reporter Schwebke reports in this morning's edition that Boss Godfrey has finally played his hand, in connection with his proposed "four options" set forth in February, concerning his "vision" for the future of the Mt. Ogden Golf Course. From this morning's story:

OGDEN — Mount Ogden Golf Course must be completely redesigned or significantly modified to make it more playable and ultimately profitable, a city official said Thursday night.
“We’ve got to make changes that are drastic enough so that it really is a new, fresh product,” Todd Brenkman, the city’s golf course division manager, told the city council during a work session. [...].
Brenkman said he has consulted several experts who have concurred “hands down” that Mount Ogden Golf Course should undergo a complete redesign estimated to cost $6 million to $8 million to become profitable.

We don't know what Brenkman's true sentiments are with respect to the future of the MOGC, but it certainly comes as no surprise that he's become Godfrey's designated "point man" in the first publicly revealed step toward dropping another $6-8 million into another Godfreyesque scheme. As golf course division manager, Brenkman occupies a postion equivalent to an Ogden City department head. And we've all seen what happens to Ogden City department heads when they demonstrate the temerity to differ in their opinions with their can-do and visionary Boss Godfrey.

And what say our gentle readers about this? Are there any amongst our readership who may have knowledge of Mr. Brenkman's privately-expressed opinions regarding this matter? Bill C.? Jason W.? Anyone else who regularly plays the course? We don't want to get the poor guy in trouble; but it seems to us that Mr. Brenkman, of all people, would have at least some natural appreciation for the concept of "tightening up" operations, and aggressively promoting the unique qualities of Ogden's most challenging course first, before recommending the kind of drastic action which would turn MOGC into a foothill equivalent of El Monte. And wasn't a tidying up of MOGC operations the cornerstone of Godfrey's "new business plan," which was announced only last week?

We'll add that somehow we still have the uneasy feeling that Godfrey's idea of "high adventure" is something more sensible folks would label "mediocrity."

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Ogden Public Transit Redux: More Info Re Monday's WACOG Meeting

The public transit predicament approaches information overload

On the heels of Tuesday's Weber County Forum discussion, we've received additional information about Monday's WACOG meeting, during which Weber State University students asked the Weber Area Council of Governments to fund a study to determine whether a streetcar or bus rapid transit (BRT) should be the transit system linking downtown Ogden to WSU and McKay Dee Hospital. Boss Godfrey of course told the WACOG panel that he opposes the $200,000 city expenditure for a mass transit alternatives analysis because development of a streetcar system between downtown and Weber State University is "too expensive."

Mainly for the sake of continuity, we link yesterday's Scott Schwbke story on this same topic. Although this story adds little to the fact scenario already provided in Kristen Moulton's Tuesday article, there is one tantalizing nugget of new information, appearing midway through Ace Reporter Schwebke's writeup:

"There are some advanced streetcar-like technologies that could possibly be used between downtown and Weber State and McKay-Dee, Godfrey said."

Whereas Kristen's story had left us with the impression that Godfrey had been intentionally vague in his reference to "other [transit] methods," (leaving us to conclude he was still holding out for gondolas), Schebke's story adds an element we hadn't heard before: "advanced streetcar-like technologies."

Is it possible that he's referring to something like this?

Has Boss Godfrey suddenly beaten his obsession with gondolas, and opened his mind to rational and proven public transit alternatives? Only time will tell. We suppose we'll have to wait until the council work session on May 15, when all will be revealed -- we hope.

We're also pleased to provide two other useful reader resources this morning:

First, Gentle Reader Dan S. has graciously provided us an mp3 audio recording of Monday's WACOG session, in which our readers can hear the dulcet voice of Boss Godfrey, hemming and hawing at his very best.

Second, Dan has also forwarded a copy of a letter he sent to the Weber County Commission, containing an annotated transcript (with commentary) of Godfrey's portion the Monday WACOG proceeding.

Comments, anyone?