[quote=jpinpb]
At the same time, I think it’s a given that mass transit facilitates allowing the people to frequent communities they ordinarily would not. The concern is the criminal element a trolley would bring to UTC.
[/quote]
I lived briefly in Atlanta, and worked in the burbs (Gwinnett County). Gwinnett County blocked the MARTA gold line from entering the county. The Gold line ends right at the county line. Many of the stated reasons were fears of higher crime rates.
Having lived there – I suspect it has more to do with demographics – Gwinnett is 2/3’s white and Fulton & DeKalb counties (which have MARTA lines) are closer to 50% black. Don’t want “those people” coming into their county. (I realize that may be controversial – but racism was much more open in Atlanta than I was used to. It was an easy conclusion to reach – one my white coworkers would probably have agreed with.)
I remember when they first put in the trolley to the south bay in 1981. The planners had no clue that it would be more than a tourist attraction – and were surprised to find ridership was really high with commuters from day one.
There’s a lot of people who commute to businesses in and around the UTC mall. Not to mention UCSD. I would imagine there will be shuttle buses to serve the Torrey pines research park area – the same way the coaster has shuttle buses going into Sorrento Valley.
