Rabble-Rouser: Let’s Stir Things Up…

by KELLEY GILBERT
Where impact lacks, you’ll find the MAX. Indeed, in fact, it rhymes with tax. Relax, you’ll see. The facts don’t lie. It only took 87 million stacks to buy.
It is no secret that Fort Collins loves to spend money. From investing into a brand new football stadium when the current one is both intact and preferred among the community to spending millions in taxpayer’s dollars in researching the effects of recreational marijuana when the rest of Colorado is embracing its legality, there is no question the city needs to get its priorities in order.
In fact, our latest expenditure on the MAX rapid transit system to debut May 10 is a prime example of how the city never fails to keep throwing money away.
The MAX rapid transit is a glorified bus system created to run one block north of Laporte Avenue to one block south of Harmony Road on Mason Street. In other words, if a traditional bus and a light rail had children and those children married each other and had children, considering effects of incest and brain damage, you would get the MAX.
The only difference between MAX and the current transit system, Transfort, is that you can actually get around town with the Transfort.
Sure, the MAX will be a quicker alternative mode of transportation and hopefully divert traffic away from College Avenue, but you better hope you live near Mason Street or you are, as they say it, “shit out of luck”.
by KELLEY GILBERT
Oh wait, and the Transfort didn’t cost $87 million.
You would think that the city would be able to find more sustainable and impactful ways to spend $87 million. For instance, on low-income housing to shelter the homeless seen block to block in Old Town.
Whichever way you spin it, Fort Collins is not a metropolitan area. A similar transit system has shown to be effective in large, urban areas but is simply not necessary, or even relevant, to the fort.
Despite the expressed negativity toward the MAX, it is here and unavoidable. Who knows, maybe it will be a stimulating addition to our economy.
My only prediction thus far is that the summer of free rides is going to be the most popular aspect of its existence.
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