Posted: Thursday, June 18, 2009 12:00 am
Michael Shields
Racine alderman
Connections equal wealth. It is a well-known business mantra and nowhere is that more true than for jobs and economic development. You can't work if you can't get to the job. Earning ability is limited by the accessibility to the job market. You can't sell a product if the customer can't get to your door, whether the product is a restaurant meal, a legal contract or a home. And cities not plugged into a region's work force, customers and culture are not appealing to businesses that want to grow and thrive. When there are affordable and convenient transportation options, the economy naturally grows as more people and businesses connect to more opportunities.
This is where the value of a Regional Transit Authority becomes clearly evident. It is no wonder Racine struggles with unemployment and land values are the lowest in the region. Its long-term trend for unemployment is tied in part to its physical isolation because there is no land for efficient highway access to Racine's Downtown, which would connect it to major markets to the north and south. Worse yet, our diminishing transit service provides minimal access to jobs in local business and industrial parks, and very little transit service to jobs regionally. Our lack of adequate transportation infrastructure is slowly and steadily killing our economy.
We have heard business leaders say over and over, year after year, that their businesses cannot thrive and expand to provide more local jobs at all skill levels without better transit to connect them with the regional workforce, and create a quality of life that attracts and retains talent, which is the very core of their success. It's time to listen to our business leaders and our workers and act to create a smarter way to invest in and coordinate our transit systems.
What do we get for a small investment in transit? We have seen the numbers: easy, affordable access to a job market that is 1 million strong within one mile of KRM stations between Milwaukee and Chicago, 4,000 jobs created just to get the train running, tens of thousands of long-term jobs from development and literally billions in economic impact over the next 25 years, created and supported by the value driven from better connections. This transit phenomenon is taking place all over the United States and globally. Where transit is implemented properly, jobs and economic development follow.
How can we become one of the places that reap the rewards of good connections? An RTA is the answer. It is the cornerstone of an adequately funded and well-coordinated regional transit network. RTAs open up access to major federal transit dollars to invest in Racine's economic growth.
Finally, after many years of transit studies and public dialogue, there is an RTA proposal moving through the Legislature in the state budget. Our Assembly representatives are to be commended for strengthening the plan, making it truly regional and integrated, providing additional funding for our buses, and positioning it better to gain federal funding for KRM commuter rail. It's not a perfect plan but it's a start. If we wait for perfection, we'll be on the same economic treadmill running in place decades from now, mired in indecision, unemployment and a struggling economy.
Now, we must keep the big picture in mind. It is imperative that we come out of the budget process with an RTA that gives us a strong regional foundation to build on. An RTA that will move the KRM project from the shelf to the track; supports our buses and creates an integrated transit system. We need an RTA now. Members of the Legislature, give us the tools to invest in our transit infrastructure so we can get people working and strengthen our economic base.
Michael Shields is the president of the NAACP and the Racine Democratic Party, a city alderman and member of the Racine Transit Task Force steering committee.