NEW ERA
After challenging the concept of streetcars for initial cost, applicability to a small city such as Lancaster, and obstructing traffic during rush hour, Carol Petersen’s column re streetcars concludes:
“Many of the cities with so-called ‘heritage’ lines cited by Lancaster streetcar fans found their ridership dropped off steeply after an initial period of either free or very low priced fares, and numbers continued to drop the higher the fare prices rose. And I speculate that, once the nostalgia novelty wore off, the same would happen to the streetcars of Lancaster.
“This proposed streetcar is not a ‘modern streetcar system.’ It is not light rail. It is not a commuter line. It is an amusement. And a very high-priced, disruptive, inconvenient, backward looking one at that.”
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail! Why does Mayor Rick Gray persist upon wasting money for a study of this obviously nutty idea which has virtually no public support?
Kudos to Carol Petersen once again!!
She continues to be one of the few ‘voices in the wilderness crying’ against the Lancaster Elite, and the Lancaster Power Hungry.
One has to wonder how much longer LNP will continue to print her common sense!. They have none of their own.
Editor’s note: We think the Lancaster Newspapers deserve credit for having improved a lot since the Convention Center debacle.
It can be very difficult to ignore the demands of powerful and influential people outside of government. Every elected official serves at the mercy of the voters; we have all seen the power of the local media to turn public opinion against elected officials who were doing the best that could be done to protect the public’s interests.