Shownotes Transcript
Hi folks, Sam Stone here with a little Broken Pothole Short. We got big news here in Phoenix. We got Mayor Pete coming to town. Mayor Pete and our own illustrious copycat, Mayor Kate, they are holding a big event to commemorate the expansion of Phoenix's light rail.
You're going to have a whole bunch of people show up with multi-car convoys to tell you to ride the train, folks. That's what's happening. Yeah, this thing doesn't make any sense, and it never did. But look, if you're in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, any of these European cities, light rail makes sense. Trains make sense. But you know what those cities have in common, folks? They were built around the horse and buggy.
That's right, they were. I grew up in Boston, I know. Those streets are narrow, they're tight. The buildings are huge on every side of them. We got people packed in like sardines as far as the eye can see. That is a great environment for a train. You know what Phoenix was built around? It was built around the car. That's why all these people who always talk about the train, they love trains right up until someone asks them to ride them. No, no, no.
The biggest supporters of light rail in the world are people who envision others on it. Now that's right, they're not going to be on it. And frankly folks, we already subsidize every ride on the light rail by about $15. $15 per rider.
You know, for that money, why don't we just go out and get them some Uber vouchers? It'll be more convenient and cheaper. Now, this is a big deal because, you know, Kate, Kate, Kate, the great, not so great in my mind, but you know, in hers, she's the smartest person that ever walked into any room ever. Uh,
Even though she's never had an original idea, which I'm still not sure how those two match. But hey, she'll tell you how great light rail is and how it keeps winning at the ballot. Well, last time it went to the ballot, the side opposing it spent less than $250,000 and the side for it spent over $10 million. I got to tell you, I've been around politics a long time. It's pretty dang hard to beat $10 million with $250,000. It's just the way it is.
And we did a survey back when that happened. We asked people why they were supporting it. You know what the number one answer was? "What's going to take cars off the road?"
That's right. The people voting for it, just like the people promoting it, don't envision themselves using it. It's always going to be someone else. The problem is that doesn't work because the only people who get on it, you watch that thing go by at rush hour, it's got seven homeless people and one commuter. You want to ride a rolling homeless shelter to work? I don't. Most of Phoenix doesn't either. But that's what we're getting courtesy of our illustrious COVID lockdown artist, Kate. Folks, we're talking about one of the worst mayors in the country, and that is a high bar.
And the problem is not getting many better. You look around Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, all these cities I mentioned, and what's happened to them? 10 years ago, you could drive around, but today you can't. Today it's gridlock. It is intentional. This is what they're bringing you. They're bringing you trains nobody wants to use and roads nobody can use. This is modern progressive policy in your city. Don't fall for it. It's time to get back to reality, fill in some of the potholes,
If you do that, I don't even know if we have a show anymore. But I'd take it, because I'm sick of losing my fillings driving down the street. I think probably a lot of you are, too. It's been a broken pothole short.
