Five years after spending $35 million on a bus-rapid transit line that opened in 2014, Grand Rapids is upset that the line hasn’t generated the economic development that was promised. In a classic case of throwing good money after bad, it is now spending nearly $1 million to prepare a plan that it hopes will remedy this failure.
The notion that bus-rapid transit would generate economic development was promoted by the Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, which claims that its HealthLine has stimulated billions in new development since it opened in 2008. Transit officials never mention that much of that development has been heavily subsidized.
The bus route traverses what the city calls the Health-Tech Corridor, which in addition to tax-increment financing offers tax abatements, low-interest loans, various job-creation incentives, and a variety of other subsidies. In all the city has spent at least $100 million in the corridor on top of the bus-rapid transit line. If asked, I imagine the transit agency would say it is only a coincidence that the bus route goes through this corridor. Continue reading
