Forbes.com of May 5, 2009, has an article by Peter Gertler, entitled Trains and the City. It tells us that high-speed train mavens are predicting that the advent of high-speed trains will stimulate a building boom in cities around the train stations. Oh yeah? Maybe. And maybe in the sweet bye and bye there will be pie in the sky, but being the skeptical curmudgeon we are, that remains to be seen.
The reason for our skepticism is that we have heard that story before, and somehow the reality behind it has never matertialized. In Los Angeles, for example, they actually set up special assessment districts around subway stations in anticipation of new construction. It didn’t happen.
So stay tuned on that one and in the meantime don’t hold your breath.
To read the article, go to http://www.planetizen.com/node/38710