ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit

[ZEBuilder]

I have pretty low expectations for what’s left of local journalism, but what I can’t understand is the complete absence of public education from the region.

What’s the cost of current transport options? How much does it cost to maintain hespeler rd in its current state? What’s the price tag for moving 10000 cars vs 10000 train trips? How much new tax revenue has the LRT generated vs before it was built? Why is there no sales pitch from the data source itself, the region? I know all of this likely exists in some 400 page report prepared by regional staff who fear for their jobs daily and aren’t empowered to ever speak. So, why isn’t it taken from them by leadership and packaged in a compelling way for the public?

Nobody seems to be willing to get ahead of the usual angry cranks who seem to dominate all local discussions. I remember there was one slideshow from a city of Kitchener presentation years ago explaining how much it costs to service a low density vs high density neighborhood. Where’s that messaging to help people counter the “my taxes!!!” crowd? Why is it left to enthusiasts and activists to do?

Local politicians seem to only exist as vessels for people to whine to - why don’t they ever have the confidence to say “this is what we are going to do because I think it’s the right thing to do” and defend themselves with data and confidence and presentation quality?

Where is this piece on servicing low density?

There's multiple pieces of literature that show that lower density inherently has higher maintenance and capital costs associated with it.

In Metro Vancouver there was a study completed on initial servicing costs (which are covered by the developer) which showed higher densities have lower servicing costs.

Or even think of it this way. A street in Kitchener 370m long required reconstruction, all underground infrastructure needed to be replaced (Sanitary, Storm, Water) this includes the primary pipe plus all the connections to properties. This work cost the city 3 million dollars. The street itself has 34 single family homes and 1 small apartment. It means the city is incurring a cost of 85k per house. Not ridiculous but not insane either.

Now if we were to take 160m of King St by Station Park, its half the length but it is servicing roughly 2000 units, while yes you would require large pipes to carry the sanitary flows and water, you could realistically say the labour cost is comparative. Hence let's just say 3 million dollars. This is only 1500 dollars to the city when they have to eventually replace that in terms of per unit basis compared to 85k, yet the taxes you are collecting from Station Park are significantly higher than what the taxes of those SFH would be. So simply put density is cheaper in the city.

That's effectively what bravado was getting at.