I've been to at least one session of each workshop since the series started. It's increasingly frustrating to see such an important project descend into yet another case of "paralysis by analysis". E.g. the DeKalb Pike routing is supposedly off the table so far as both the Township and nearly all attendees are concerned but it's still being presented as a viable alternative. That simply attracts opposition from low-information types, and a lot of time is wasted addressing arguments against an option that has an epsilon chance of being built in any case. At a higher level, the proposed timelines are ridiculously extended versus comparable systems that have already been proposed, designed, and built elsewhere. Right now even if everything goes forward as planned cars won't run until somewhere in the mid-2020s! That delay has caused developers to give up plans for TOD (such as the now dead in-mall station) and proceed with loads of car-centric layouts like those taking shape at the new Village site. A number of us have raised these issues at the workshops repeatedly but we've gotten nowhere.
At the risk of (yet again) sounding cynical, I'm becoming more and more convinced that, as necessary as the extension is, by the time it emerges from the meat-grinder it will be way too little and far too late.
Requiem for it's/its, your/you're, than/then, less/fewer. They were once such nice words with such different meanings...
