mike krusee

In today's Chronicle, Lee Nichols writes an article about the lack of TOD on the Red Line in which Todd Hemingson, Capital Metro exec, says with a straight face:

A response to a former friend on facebook:

Being 'civil', at least the definition used by some in response to yours truly, is how we got rolled by Mike Krusee in 2000 and 2004 and ended up with the Red Line, an 845 boardings/day disaster which has set back the cause of transportation in Austin for a generation.

The hundred other strong rail advocates in this city put together have accomplished precisely nothing in getting Capital Metro to change by being nice (and maintaining access above all else).

I shot this while watching the 8:12 arrival of the Red Line downtown this morning (on my way to work). Excuse the quality; my standard for a phone is "does it make calls? is it free?".

Really sorry I don't have more time to spend on this blog - day job; family; etc. But this comment needed to be saved somewhere other than CM's blog so I could point to it.

I've been meaning to write a long post on "staying friends versus getting something done", but this will have to suffice for now.

Commented to this post:

From Streetsblog Capitol Hill:

Over the past two days at the Congress for the New Urbanism Project for Transportation Reform conference, attendees have called for reform at local, regional, and national levels.

In a panel debate about the future of transportation funding and the role of regional planning through MPOs, several speakers argued that the foundation of transportation and development funding had to be systematically overhauled.

From Streetsblog Capitol Hill:

Although I've never tried to hide my real name (Mike Dahmus, appended to the end of some of this category in particular), I've never done this part, either, and it's overdue.

(Some folks think this is 'anonymous blogging' if I don't, and the distinction is obviously very important as Transit Crackplogging D-Day Approaches).

A fairly good article this time about Krusee seeing the light on new urbanism and stepping down.

I'm honestly not sure how much I believe, which is a huge step up for me on this guy, actually. Here's some interesting quotes:

"It's an article of faith for Democrats that the sales tax is regressive.

The gas tax is much, much more regressive. The gas tax is, literally, a transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle class – to the upper-middle class."

You heard it hear first: State Representative Mike Krusee won’t be running again for the Round Rock seat he has held since 1993.

Texas Weekly and Political Junkie have the confirmation, which we signaled back on November 14.