Increasing property values will drive up housing costs that are already going through the roof. We will soon see dramatic increases in water and electric rates as new capacity will be required to keep up with rapid growth. East Austin will be hit especially hard by gentrification. The same impact will be felt in South Austin neighborhoods. The sense of community that residents have enjoyed for decades will be destroyed.
Light rail is an enormously expensive project.
It would be, by far, the largest public works project ever attempted in the city of Austin. The South Texas Nuclear Project, with its construction delays and cost overruns, turned out to cost over a billion. In this climate of escalating costs and worker shortages, the city is proving it can't handle even small projects without incurring substantial overruns. The little footbridge over Town Lake had to be scaled back when costs came in over budget. The same people responsible for these relatively small projects sit on the Capital Metro board.