Two stories lit up the comments section this week. The first was David Hudnall’s piece questioning whether the planned light-rail line, which has become a sort of political football in the legislature, is still a good idea.
Andy Smith of Durham argues that we give the work that went into light rail short shrift: “This article uncritically repeats familiar anti-light rail arguments while barely mentioning the [GoTriangle] designers or the many detailed technical arguments in favor of the plan. The LRT plan has overcome tremendous hurdles to gain public support and local and federal funding. Running what amounts to a hastily researched anti-LRT editorial when the project is held political hostage is deeply irresponsible and diminishes my opinion of the INDY.”
Commenter hcayless counters that light rail will help developers more than anyone else: “The thing that crystallized it for me, despite being one of the few people who might actually use the D-O LRT occasionally, as I live near the proposed Woodmont station and work at Duke, was a meeting where a representative from the Chapel Hill Town Council spoke. He told us they saw Woodmont as an opportunity to build a new development and get things right … . So the station will be there, with no park-and-ride parking, in an area that is so low density we don’t even have bus service, because Chapel Hill wants to do its developer friends another big favor.”
Story number two is Grayson Haver Currin’s interview with Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, in which he askedamong other thingsabout the band’s refusal to condemn House Bill 2 like so many other prominent musicians have. Lavina Curletta thinks the focus on HB 2 reflects misplaced priorities: “Americans are sadly, myopically fixated on this and similar issues. … Children die. Actually diebecause their sleep is unsafe! If American children were dying in rates that malaria kills little Africans, we’d be up in arms (I hope). Little girls are forcibly circumcised. Others are sold into slavery. Women are stoned. Children with ‘defects’ are treated like garbage, abused, neglected. We don’t publicly condemn our celebrities for not speaking out on these atrocities.”
Durham Lou, meanwhile, simply says this: “I am no longer a fan.”
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