Commentary By Samuel Strait – February 5, 2023 You just can't make these things up. In combination with Redwood Coast Transit Authority and our illustrious Crescent City, City Council, the two governing bodies have decided to spend two to three million dollars on a local transit hub to be established on Front Street near the library. It is not as though this is something that the locals have in their minds as an essential feature for the community, but both governing boards have jumped on board of a re-envisioned Front Street experience. Claiming, somehow it would enhance commercial and residential use of the transit authority's system of local buses and increase rider safety. Quite frankly it is difficult for either board to explain why the two block move would accomplish any of those goals. The current hub, although not nearly as grandiose as the planned one, is but two blocks away, requires no staffing, maintenance, or loosing 70 public parking spaces. It also does not require spending $2 to $3 million dollars to construct the new hub or thousands of dollars going forward in maintenance and staffing costs. It sometimes becomes difficult to understand the seeming obsession to invest money on Beach Front Park and Front Street that those on the City's Council currently are invested in. There seems to be more concern over creating a legacy for the current council rather that a common sense approach to how future generations of the City's Council will be able to keep all they wish for without addressing the rising costs of maintaining the newly built edifices. Particularly without benefit of some kind of funding generated by the park and hopefully a share in the revenue generated by Redwood Coast Transit Authority for their use of the City's parking lot. Oh, wait a minute. Since the Transit Authority is heavily subsidized there would not likely be a way for RCTA to pay for their use of the City's parking lot. In fact if local residents were to have to make the Authority at least break even, the cost of fares would increase to the point that even the few that ride local buses wouldn't be able to afford the cost. All publicly funded transportation comes nowhere close to being a profitable enterprise. Fares collected to ride on trains, planes and local buses rarely fund 25% of the cost that governments expend to support local transportation. The rest comes from the tax payer who often never resorts to using public transport even in heavily urbanized areas. The idea that Crescent City has the need to fund a transportation hub for their meager fleet of buses rests solely in the minds of RCTA's board and the fantasy world of Councilman Blake Inscore. Another of the City's edifices in the mold of the Park, Front Street with its "street element", the community pool, the projected outdoors amphitheater, the "Sister City" pottery exhibit, and the Tolowa Interpretive Trail, have I missed any? All without any thought to how long any of it will survive the elements. Granted, for the few that actually use the services of RCTA's buses, a hub in the fantasy world of Blake Inscore would be delightful. The fact that it is to be paid for by yet to be successfully received grant funding, clearly is no obstacle for either Board. It only is a question of with all the issues that the City faces, now and in the future, is this the wisest course of action to be focused on? Perhaps might the City's streets be a more appropriate target for the Council to focus. Seems like the projected date of fully addressing street issues is sixty years. Kind of makes you wonder if the new transit hub will last that long.