Why would the conservative owner of a Milwaukee family business host a benefit dinner, for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's campaign for governor? In his own words, Azmi Alaeddin is looking for leadership that gets things done to improve the local business climate, making our city and state places that citizens can be proud of.
Bucking recession, the popular Aladdin's Restaurant has expanded into the new Inter-Modal Station housing Amtrak, Greyhound, Coach USA, and other transit services for Milwaukee. It offers the convenience foods travellers expect, but also chicken kabob and other affordable upscale specialties - real food.
But the condition of the shelter over the tracks, Alaeddin says, is disgraceful. While Barrett advocated spending the money necessary to replace the deteriorating structure with a clean, sturdy, long-lasting upgrade, his likely opponent for governor, county executive Scott Walker, along with local radio hosts Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling, loudly opposed any repair or rebuild.
"This is the first thing people see when they get off a train in Milwaukee" Alaeddin said. "We want people to get a good impression, feel welcome to the city." He added that while walking out the door from the station, he had noticed that the impact of the door closing knocked a small piece of masonry off the wall above it.
Everyone concerned with neighborhood property values knows that some homeowners maintain their property diligently, spending money when necessary for maintenance, repair, and upgrade, while others just let the property sit and deteriorate. Saving money by deferring maintenance costs a lot more in the long run. Alaeddin, also a Milwaukee homeowner, sees a lot of benefit from proactive upgrade of Wisconsin's transit options.
"I'm down at the station every morning at 6:00 am" he says "and 200 people are in line for the train. I'm back at 8:00am, and another 250 people are in line. These are people who work in Chicago. They live in Milwaukee, pay taxes here, spend their money here. Why? Because the train makes it convenient. Without the train, they'd all live and spend their money in Chicago."
He adds that China, which has moved up to the second largest economy in the world, and is not far behind the size of the presently stagnant American economy, has thousands of miles of high-speed rail under construction. The United States, by contrast, has three disconnected high speed rail projects. "If its not good for economic development, why is China investing in so much rail? Why is its economy doing so well?"
Comments
Well of course he wants his neighborhood cleaned up. It's good for business. His business. And by getting all of America to pay for it, he doesn't have to foot the bill. Rail would improve his bottom line at somebody else's expense and increase the value of his property. It's the Liberal way.
He may be a Republican but he isn't a conservative.
Business is really struggling in Milwaukee and it shows by the high rate of unemployment. I dont know this guys motvies, but why wouldn't everyone try to improve the business environment in the city, so that we can live and work in a nice town. I was shocked to see that Scott Walker, Sykes and Belling are all against this. I think the theory is that you invest all your money in roads rather than rail, which in turn supports increased gasoline usage and dependence on foreign oil. I think a better comparison is Europe where they have a very good rail system which improves the quality of life for everyone.
"...why wouldn't everyone try to improve the business environment in the city...."
Well, for starters, the so called "improvement" would leave us in debt for generations while taxes increase to the point where it, well, creates a bad business environment.
Duh, do a little research before you open your mouth. No transportation system pays for itself. Why do you think the nation's highway system needs just a couple hundred billion in repairs? Why do you think states like Pennsylvania, Texas, Nebraska...on and on....can't afford their road projects? So when the local DOT built a couple a million dollar off ramp for the new Wal-Mart free of charge out in the middle of no-where, that was OK with you? The gas tax needs to double to approach the fantasy world you think you live in.
Guess what? Society is changing. The era of cheap liquid fuel is fading. And the sprawl/drive 20 miles to Wal-Mart to buy everything is fading too. Society is starting to move back to more Urban Centers. Think communites laid out in 1900. Walkable, local businesses and work, mass transit.....Cities put in light rail and trolley lines and drive huge amounts of economic developement on the routes. (Read up on Charlotte NC as an example.) A new railroad station will revitalise the whole area around it.
I think you should invest all your money where it has the greatest chance of positive return on the investment ...
... Unlike Europe, which has a rail system that serves 6% of the population but is financed by 100% of it's population.
If we don't build the rail system that can be powered by electricity made from renewable energy (no oil needed), we will sit and watch all our cities crumble under rising oil prices, and the coming supply crisis. Building more roads in light of the coming oil shortages is not very smart. Any leader who continues to bury their head in the sand ignoring the fact that the cheap easy oil days are gone for good should not be elected ever again. We need leaders who can lead us into the 21st century - past the oil age. We should not vote for those that are stuck in the past.
Everyone in Europe sure loves their fast trains and ride them all the time. France's system has carried something like 1 billion people without a single fatality. Japan's imrpessive system has carried around 9 billion - also without a single fatality in 45 years! That's imrpessive, efficient transportation that we should have. We look like idiots sitting stuck for hours in traffic jams while all these other countries are speeding past us to their destinations quickly and efficiently without delay. China is kicking out butt! They are building over 10,000 miles of new high speed rail lines powered by solar and wind. We are still building roads powered by middle east and Gulf of Mexico oil... now who really is the smart country? We pretend we have plenty of cheap oil wasting it driving big SUVs with only one person in each, while we spend $10 billion per month running a war to secure "cheap" oil supplies. We are the idiots here borrowing nearly a trillion dollars to fight a war for oil, while China is spending half that getting off oil. Who is the smart country?
Um, where is the war for oil? News to me!
You're not confusing it with the war against religious fanaticism, are you?
War Against Religious Fanaticism? You aren't confusing that with the Iraq War are you? That's the one where we killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqi's, completey destroyed Iraq's ability to function, (which we got to try to fix!!) borrowed a trillion dollars to finance doing it all, then started are very own depression so that the soldiers coming back had no opportunities with their lives...All under Republican leadership!! Woohoo!! Bring em on!!....
Great to see this happen. It blows my mind that so many Republicans don't understand the importance of rail infrastructure. The Strip Mall Hell that most of America has become is unsustainable. Re-invest in rail and you are reinvesting in America. I can't wait to get that train running....
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