Denver Light Rail

They whine when you don't build it, and then whine when you do.

...the preferred route under consideration now would use Union Pacific or Burlington Northern railroad tracks.

That brought a storm of criticism from residents such as one woman who predicted that middle-class residents will flee their neighborhoods, leaving behind crime-ridden slums instead.

Uh, so the people living in the trailer parks next to the railroad tracks are afraid this will hurt the quality of the neighborhood?

Outside the meeting, Olsen, a real estate appraiser, said she voted to fund FasTracks, thinking that it would simply run parallel to Interstate 25, just as it does in the south metro area.

That's true, but she has it backwards. In the south end of the city the highway was built next to the railroad tracks, not the other way around. In the north end...well nobody lived there when they built the highway so they just aimed for Cheyenne and started pushing dirt.

Anyway, she thought they'd build along the highway. That makes sense. Build the light rail in the one area that is already built up densely. Traffic-wise, that makes good sense. Cost wise it doesn't. How many businesses and homes would have to be torn down to build it in that case versus building on a 100-year old railroad right-of-way? You'd think a real estate appraiser could understand that.