- figure courtesy of Ramsey City Government, full agenda for Feb. 26, 2008 televised council meeting -
Click the page to enlarge, see the bar chart. It shows that the bus going between downtown and the Big Ramp in the Middle of Nowhere, has seen its ridership over a year rise from a daily handful to an actual discernible trickle. No fooling. It's there on the chart.
Wow.
Now cut the price from $4.50 one/way per day, each way, to $2.75 one/way per day, each way.
Why do that?
One could say to generate more data points on price elasticity. Or one could say -
Because Tinklenberg Group is out at up to $4000 per month pimping the idea of a Danny's choo-choo stop at City Hall.
For that, they would reawaken the Port Authority nonsense.
NO REFERENDUM, FORGET THE IDEA, NEVER A REFERENDUM, and do, instead, another costly cram-down of another big waste public capital spending project.
Call it "planning."
Met Council wastes a ton of money all the time.
They call it "planning."
***
So here's the game. Dehen was right, if you want head-count on a piece of paper to show somebody a number, make it free.
See if free you can get enough ridership, nothing paid, to justify the waste of money for a mega-train stop.
Why not?
There are slower ways to waste cash, why be a piker, go for the big plunge.
Steal a few riders from Elk River where it's more - the $4.50 price. And as a claim of not being too biased, it is after the windshield scraping season is largely over, and doing it then would would have favored the BIG RAMP.
It is a fare experiment. FAIR? Get real. This IS Ramsey.
Fair would have been what Watchdog always said - hold a referendum. Say what it really would cost, the ongoing rider subsidy - let the voters decide.
Most of them can figure the truth of the whole thing, that it is a sop and subsidy to the develper-&-land speculator crowd --- the Hunt family chasing Kurakian profit, for example. John Peterson for another example. They like the idea of it, especially when their profits grow and taxpayers subsidize them, instead of their paying the freight for their profit seeking hopes.
Give that crowd incentive to cut one another's throats all the way to Big Lake, with Sherburne County having a big, big BIG TIME advantage. It's not under Met Council jurisdiction.
It is free of the millstone around the neck.
Bless the wisdom of those there who want to keep it that way, despite Danny's train, etc.
CONSIDER THIS. There was a Danny's train tax added, without referendum or any major notice, to every property tax bill in Anoka County. Did you get to vote on whether that would be? Or course not. This IS Anoka County after all.
Too bad Danny couldn't have just settled for Lionel, atop a 4 x 8 plywood sheet, as other children have.
He wants more, the cohorts want more, the spending has been lavish, the pay back will suck.
And Ramsey's finest seven, they approved the fare pare. Are you at all surprised? All in a day's work for this spendthrift Ramsey council.
Matt Look had the good sense to oppose it. Dehen had the good sense to question it.
I think Dehen's experment is worth a try. Make it free. See at zero fare how used it is. That will give you a baseline demand. Free ramp parking. Free of anly fare.
And will the ridership - free - do better than double by next December?
TRY IT. BEN WON'T STOP SMILING,
$2.75, FREE, HIS VISAGE WILL NOT CHANGE.
AND - the people from the inner metro area riding outbound in the morning and back downtown at night - the reverse ride - they will have the opportunity to come out to the north 'burbs, and compete for jobs. That's how it will be with Northstar, never doubt it, they are planning at least one downtown-to-northend train in the morning, at least one northend-to-downtown train in the evening. So do the same with a free morning bus out of downtown to the north 'burbs, to establish numbers and demographics:
An agreement in principle was reached with BNSF Railway Company in May 2006 that guarantees five trips to Minneapolis and one reverse trip during weekday mornings, five trips to Big Lake and one reverse trip during weekday afternoons/evenings, and three round trips on each weekend day.
Everybody benefits that way, from Danny's train. At the Dehen zero fare, more will try it both directions. See what the elasticity is both ways. See how the competition for jobs in the north end will shake out. Pay elasticity just might be affected by a bigger labor pool from that traffic the other way that none of the officials seem to be saying a word about. Curious, indeed. The groundbreaking folks in Big Lake with that humongo choo-choo maintenance palace - they deserve the opportunity to compete for jobs there with folks heading that way in the morning providing labor price elasticity. A chance to show their productivity will be the same as anyone's because they will see themselves working as cheaply. Job competition that way, ultimately all the way to St. Cloud, Stearns County.
One of the people at the council table, I think it was Dehen again, he asked, "Isn't our purpose to keep people here, to ivest to promote jobs for our people here?"
Too quaint an idea for others except for the mayor, who said we've tried that and have been failing. Not so directly, it's seldom he says much directly, but watch the rebroadcast.
It is enlightening about who's making sense vs. who's up for reelection. But be patient. In the spirit of James Norman, it was hidden in the middle of the meeting, after this and that of little consequence.
And how, I wonder, is Lodi, China, these days. Are we generating all those export dollars to the sister-city? Minnesota goods to Lodi, so that balance of payments is - balanced, not skewed freighteningly.