Quote:
Originally Posted by austlar1
How can you say that. Even people with jobs at the new Samsung fab aren't pullilng down especially big bucks. Dell manufacturing locally is almost all done with contracted cheap labor. Even if these homeowners in Manor or elgin or Hutto have a combined household income of 60K, which is probably not the case for many or most of them, they are looking at mortgage, insurance, taxes, auto expenses, food, clothing, child care, etc. You can't tell me that 4 or 5 bucks a day in tolls isn't a big hit for families budgeted down to the last dime. The economic data for the zip codes in Manor, Hutto, etc. suggest that the areas are not affluent. Many of the people that bought new homes out there did so with sub-prime loans that are starting to show up as a major problem in those markets. I personally know one family that bought in Manor in one of the cheapie subdivisions near the new 130 road. She does work in sales for Dell bringing home a little over 30K, and he has just started a landscaping business and drives all over the place to earn a living. They have 2 young children. I know another young family in that same new subdivision. He works for a swimming pool maintainance business as a manager making about 30K. She has been sick with Crone's disease and can't work right now. They have enormous medical bills. These are not by any stretch of the imagination well-off people. They are very typical of the kind of residents that are making their way over to the new expanded east side. The tolls are going to make life that much more difficult for them and thousands like them.
The really poor parts of the old east side are rapidly disappearing. Gentrification is in full swing. Out in Manor or Elgin or DelValle, you can get new construction for upwards of $110,000, with more spacious homes plentiful for under 150K. Try finding anything at that price in the older close-in neighborhoods in the traditional east side. It does not exist any longer, except in the most run down and crime ridden areas. Given that choice it is easy to understand the appeal of these new neighborhoods.
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As an aside, I will say that i have Crohn's disease and understand how hard it is.
I really appreciate your care for the interests of lower-paid people in Austin, but I can't ignore what you've said, especially when I feel that the situation or facts are wrong. Yes, $4 or 5 in tolls a day would eat up poorer peoples' money, but it doesn't change the fact that
a) these tolls are not on roads that are ultimately the only way to get to cheap housing or to employment centers. you can take the frontage roads, which are free, or you can take the existing free roads, 95% of which already serve these areas fine. 130 was built to alleviate NAFTA-related traffic and to find a solution around the near impossibility of the expansion of IH-35 through central Austin. It was not built to alleviate eastside traffic, of which there is little compared to the rest of the metro area. It will end up being a catalyst for more sprawl, so it's creating its own future problems, but that's another discussion.
b) are not east-west roads except for 45. therefore, most commuting will still be done via traditional, existing, free roads. if anything, the expansion of 183 east of 35 has done more to stimulate the Hutto/Elgin/Del Valle corridor of cheap housing than 130. most scenarios of using 130 that I can think of would only result in marginal time benefit, and those would be 10-mile-plus commutes anyway, where the tolls only become an added burden to an already expensive commute. it is completely wrong to say that 130 being tolled would make many of these people's lives harder, if anything, more affluent commuters will take 130, freeing up the older roads to more traffic. most of the traffic crunch in these new bedroom communities are on roads like 79, 71 and 290, which are all way behind in plans for upgrade.
c) the housing affordability ratio in austin is among the lowest in the nation, at just over 3 x median wages. (lower meaning more affordable) if they're having a hard time entering the market of home ownership here, then they will likely have a tougher time in any other market except for some other southern cities, and places like san antonio and houston. and i bet in those cities, they'd be commuting much longer and further out, negating some of the benefits of slightly cheaper homes. the truth of the matter is, austin has a very favorable cost of living, even with the rise in housing prices. when you compare it to a new prefab subdivision in humble or conroe it might not, but that's a very skewed perception of the entire national housing picture.
d) these toll roads are simply a different way to present what are essentially the same costs to the taxpayer. it's either pay-per-use (where some pay in the form of tolls or everyone pays (in the former of higher gasoline taxes). the toll roads got built as quickly as they did because of their ability to skirt the normal political process. i can guarantee you that if they were built the traditional way, we wouldn't be having this conversation, because there would be no roads to argue about.