Let this be a city concern, about which we can work together to ensure quick, logical construction with careful thought given to neighborhood integrity and small businesses. The issue will be a lot more serious in a half-century when, instead of the thriving downtown we now have, it will have become unlivable. Mass transit preserves neighborhoods. Imagine traffic jams sending more and more drivers down residential streets. Mass transit also makes neighborhoods more livable by making residents less dependent on cars.
Light rail is only a part of the solution.
We need long-range regional transportation and development planning. Immediate steps in the right direction include SH 130 and some kind of rail connections between major Texas cities. One of the ironies of the current debate is that somehow Smart Growth has become cast as the cause of downtown problems rather than a long-term visionary solution as to how to deal with them. People who fought any restriction on development are now shocked that our city is filled to the brim, and they want to blame those in the pro-planning community for causing it. The only solution to growth is planning.