Laserfiche WebLink
Session 1818 <br />August 6, 2001 <br /> <br />Neighborhood Advisory Committee, which they feel is an outrage. Parkview is a <br />wonderful and beautiful historic neighborhood that the City should be treating as a jewel <br />to be protected. <br /> <br />John Frances, 6917 Pershing, wished to express his concerns about the new proposals <br />on the MetroLink alignment. They believe that MetroLink will be beneficial, but they are <br />concerned with the half-hearted design of the line. This is a facility and service that <br />could last one hundred years or more. The decision to create a noisy line that will <br />disaffect the local community is a bad one. Cutting costs now to appease short term <br />goals will disaffect many future generations. We believe that the project should be <br />done correctly and ask for the Council's support for the resolution. <br /> <br />The Mayor announced that there were no more requests to speak. <br /> <br />Mr. Schoomer said that the Parkview residents were in the wrong place and were <br />speaking to the choir and some realities here been overlooked. The right of way for the <br />proposed line is not in University City. It does not fall either under the historic <br />designations or zoning code. The City Council is not empowered to make any <br />decisions involving this matter. The Councirs authority is only moral and we have <br />exerted it at every opportunity. The resolution that Parkview wants the Council to <br />support is seriously flawed. The largest problem that he finds with it, is the request for <br />the project to be delayed. We are not drawing from an infinite pot of money, but from a <br />very limited one. If we end up being opposed to MetroLink, he feels that MetroLink will <br />die. This will help us combat urban sprawl, and provide a reason for the people to <br />return to the inner city. If we don't have this route, they will not come back. He <br />watched this community shrink as a boy, and he believes it will happen again if <br />MetroLink is not built. In order to continue the bus and MetroLink operations, Bi-State <br />will be forced to come back to the people for more money, whether it is the additional <br />quarter cent sales tax that was defeated ora fare increase. If they do not alter the <br />route to preserve Parkview and maintain the goodwill of University City then that <br />measure will fail and then the entire Bi-State operation will go bust. We cannot allow <br />the position that this resolution calls for of creating conditions that cannot possibly be <br />met. We are going to have to look for the best compromise. He will urge his <br />colleagues to defeat this resolution and ask for a compromise resolution that will call <br />upon the Council to continue to work with Bi-State and the engineers to solve the most <br />immediate problems. <br /> <br />Mr. Munkel stated that the Council passed two strongly worded resolutions that were <br />ignored by the decision makers who had planned to put this line down Millbrook at <br />grade. There were concessions that put the tracks underground at Big Bend. He <br />believes that this resolution is based on false assumptions. Nothing he has heard this <br />evening has changed his mind. The false assumption is that a third resolution will <br /> <br />9 <br /> <br /> <br />