Spinach is good for you, too

Champaign-Urbana's bull-in-a-china-shop board attacked again.

In moves that surprised no one - except perhaps in its brutal bluntness - the C-U Mass Transit District last night annexed a whole bunch of neighborhoods and subdivisions into the Mass Transit District.

Many of those areas didn't necessarily want to be annexed.

Or more correctly, they didn't/don't want to pay the cost of being a part of the district.

Oh, they'll use public transportation. The handicapped folks will quickly discover the convenience of the MTD's handicapped pickup and delivery program. Folks with a broken down car WON'T have to call a neighbor for a ride. Folks who work at the UI WON'T have to worry about finding that parking place. Oh, they'll use it.

Still, it's unfortunate how the MTD went about this.

I guess there are two points to this story.
First, the people in most of the areas just simply didn't want to pay for a municipal service that the rest of us have been paying for for years. It's possible those folks had been walking a few blocks to a city bus stop and using it anyway. I'm sorry, folks; just because you don't WANT a municipal service is no reason to raise a ruckus. I hate paying for storm sewers (at least I hate it for about 345 days a year. When it rains like crazy, I'm glad they work ). I hate paying for street lights for neighborhoods in which I don't live (until I have a night meeting at church, then those lights make getting back to my car a lot more comfortable). Yeah, I don't want to pay for 'em, but in the end, I still use them.

The point is we live in an urban/metropolitan area. We enjoy and expect reasonable urban/metropolitan services like police, fire protection, library services, mass transit, street repair and cleaning, even storm sewers and street lights... We should expect to pay for those services. Even if you don't ride the bus, it's there if you WANT it. If you don't want urban/metropolitan services, don't live in an urban/metropolitan area. It's that simple.

Second, the C-U MTD Board has GOT to stop acting like it's the 500 pound gorilla who can do whatever-in-the-hell it wants whenever-the-hell it wants to do it. A little bit of arrogance goes a long way. The MTD's level of arrogance is way off the HolyShit Meter.

Maybe in instances like this the MTD CAN do whatever whenever. But people are starting to become pretty darn skeptical of the MTD's intentions. There was that silly $6 bajillion city streetcar plan they were so darned determined to shove down our throats because darn it it was good for us and we needed it if we were gonna be a moving and shaking metropolital behemouth.

That idea didn't fly too well (and when it returns - because it will - it STILL won't fly too well). The MTD's insistance on spending on planning and moving ahead despite overwhelming skepticism showed the first chinks in its armor.

Then, they tried to bulldoze their way into Savoy, despite the municipality's insistance it wasn't wanted.

Now this. Sure, annexing those areas - which are clearly part of the metropolitan area - is a good idea. It's most likely the right thing to do.

But do you have to do it which such an insensitive hammer?

Show a little tact, MTD. Show a little sensitivity. Show just a tiny little bit of brains.

If that's possible.

And so it goes.