NYC Also Has Transit Crime Problems
What does transit crime have to do with the proposed Belmar Park West multifamily project at 777 S Yarrow St? Because to support projects like BPW, we are all supposed to embrace the use of public transportation and give up the use and ability to park private vehicles owned for business, trade or personal use.
We are supposed to run with open arms to public transportation facilities that feature rampant drug use, public urination and other illegal activities.
We’ve already documented the shortage of over 800 parking spaces just at BPW and the growing parking crisis throughout Lakewood. We’ve even captured photographic evidence of vehicles using a traffic lane as a parking area in Lakewood!
Now the Colorado legislature, to show their love and devotion to developers, is poised to outlaw parking space minimum requirements state-wide via the most extreme legislation of its type in the country!
We are all supposed to give up private vehicles and ride public transit in order to support this massive give-away to property developers.
We are told that if we are not ready to do that, how can we expect wealthy developers and their partners in the city planning industry to ever produce affordable housing in this country?
It is even possible to hire professional shills to promote their agenda on social media. According to a US Department of Defense study:
“Shills are real users hired by an organization in order to promote an idea or agenda by targeted combating of any opposing opinions.” Also
Developers want to get rid of parking because it is not seen as a money-maker. They would prefer to build housing with little or no parking. So the fix is in with city planners and social media shills who secretly represent developers to trick everyone into thinking they can just substitute public transit and as a result, get rid of their private vehicles.
They claim requiring adequate parking makes housing unaffordable.
What will developers want to get rid of next? Indoor plumbing? Windows? Building codes? Who knows? But the same argument can be used for almost any housing element.
Because retail sales are typically seasonal, shopping center parking lots are often sized for peak season needs. During the off-peak portion of the year, there is sometimes a surplus of parking spaces and developers photograph those empty spaces and send the photos to the Denver Post and other outlets for publication. This creates the perception that shills love to pump up on social media that we do not need parking for housing, medical facilties, etc. They love to mention there is a bus stop within ‘just’ 1 or 2 blocks or so. I’ve even seen them refer to a bus stop as a ‘transit center’ on social media.
Example: Have you ever had a medical emergency and needed Urgent Care/ER and then found out you needed emergency brain surgery that day? We have. Riding public transit and doing multiple bus transfers to get to the ER would not have been a good option. Arriving at the ER with no place to park a vehicle also would not have been a good option. Calling an ambulance that has to no place to park to load a patient would not have been a great option. Luckily, we had a private vehicle for the quick trip to Urgent Care where the emergency was diagnosed. Without a private vehicle and a guaranteed garage parking spot, this type of scenario could have been worse.
Colorado wants to take that away by eliminating all parking space requirements. It would then be totally up to developers to decide what is best for you. Does anyone have a problem with that? Have you seen places in Lakewood where allowing developers to call the shots resulted in parking issues? Abrusci’s? CFU? The list goes on. There is a long list we previously published from Lakewood’s own parking study.
It used to be that common sense prevailed during policy discussions. Now the need to make a few people super wealthy at the expense of the many is too often the priority.
A central point of this post is to highlight that we do not have safe, reliable, cost effective public transportation as an option. It is simply not available in Lakewood and metro Denver at the service level needed for most folks to get rid of their vehicles.
Let’s all please admit this fact – You would never use RTD for urgent/emergent medical transportation except as an absolute last resort. But using a private vehicle, especially for Urgent Care transportation, is a solid option.
Next question – Can we please have a show of hands of all local property developers who use RTD as their main mode of transportation?
And what is RTD doing about this problem of rampant drug use, urination and other illegal behavior? One strategy is that they plan to leave some elevator doors open – as a test. That is easier said than done because elevator doors close for a reason – safety.
But if the number of complaints declines, they may leave some elevator doors open on a permanent basis.
RTD manager Debra Johnson stated: ““I am confident that this pilot program will provide customers with a greater sense of personal safety and security,”
“RTD operators on Sunday will start leaving elevator doors open at three busy rail and bus stations in a test to try to reduce rampant drug use, urination and other illegal activities inside elevators.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/03/15/rtd-elevators-crime-riders-pilot-project/
Friends, it is a long way from leaving elevator doors open to having a safe, reliable, convenient, cost effective public transportation system that can replace private vehicles.
No matter how many social media shills developers hire to convince the public, let’s not pretend we already have such a system. The problems including rampant crime, lack of bus and train operators, and ongoing facilities and equipment maintenance needs are overwhelming RTD.
