Some sad and unsurprising news: Rocky Mountain News closed

As you probably all know by now, the Rocky Mountain News has closed. It's definitely a sad day for Colorado, Denver, journalism and democracy at large. The Rocky always provided an important voice when it came to transit issues with reporter Kevin Flynn in particular providing in-depth articles about RTD and transit in the Denver Metro Area. The Rocky will be sincerely missed.

When it came to transit related articles, the Rocky Mountain News was always way ahead of the Denver Post. I just hope the Rocky's former competitor will not let its transit riding readership down.

And a side note: I always though Denver's newspapers did a crummy job of taking advantage of transit ridership. Yeah, you could see a few boxes here and there by some bus stations, but I always thought newspaper boxes should be placed right next to light rail and bus stations. Transit riders have time to kill to actually read the paper. Hopefully, the Post will take more advantage of that before Denver becomes a no newspaper town.

Quick update: Transit strike avoided

In an extremely smart move, the Colorado Division of Labor sent the contract negotiations between RTD and Amalgamated Transit Union 1001 to third-party arbitration, avoiding a potentially dangerous transit strike.  This is a small victory for the transit union, which hoped arbitration would provide a means to come up with a fair and binding union contract with RTD.  

RTD actually hoped the state would allow the union to strike. RTD stated that arbitration would remove the incentive for fair negotiations with the union for some reason. That meant RTD had to argue to the state that a transit strike wouldn't really be that big of a deal.

The dozens of disabled and blind riders told the state otherwise last Thursday and the Division of Labor agreed. The Division of Labor can prohibit strikes if it believes such a strike would cause harm to public peace, health or safety. An almost complete stoppage of transit in Denver would have a devastating effect on many, not only those who are transit dependent, but anyone who travels in Denver and would have to face significantly increased congestion and travel times because of the transit strike.

RTD wants a three-year wage freeze and control over the union's benefits. The union wants modest wage increases and enough of the benefits control. Hopefully, they can negotiate a package that actually provides the union with most of what they want and RTD the ability to pay for such benefits. At the very least, RTD riders can rest assured there will not be a transit strike in five days that to paralyze our city.

RTD's disgusting excess

Face the State produced this great report Friday on the RTD Board of Directors spending of more than $54,000 in taxpayer money to travel to exotic locations, eat at fine-dining restaurants and provide ground transportation to trips just to Denver International Airport.

I am not going to go into a huge amount of specifics here, because Face the State did such a good job of laying it all out at their Web site, which I urge you to read in full.

But RTD directors basically got free hotel rooms, food, transportation and other amenities while on supposed RTD business at various conferences whose value to actual writers is most likely dubious. Some of the more egregious charges are $1,627 for a "China Trip" by District C director Juanita Chacon, the $328 District K Director Noel Busck charged to stay at a beach-front hotel during a San Diego conference, and various charges by directors for transportation and parking for travel to DIA, despite the fact that directors are given full, free transit passes for all RTD services including the Skyride to DIA. 

Though each director's travel budget decreased from $10,000 in 2008 to $7,000 in 2009, the RTD Board just passed a resolution at last Tuesday's meeting increasing the directors' ability to be reimbursed for expenses related to having directors' spouses attend RTD sponsored "events" (parties) for lobbyists and legislators. 

RTD Board of Directors are elected officials. And while they are only given a $12,000 yearly salary, many of them also have jobs as lawyers (or some other upper middle-class job), or are sufficiently wealthy in semi-retirement. Basically, they don't really need to be reimbursed for anything, but us taxpayers are giving them loads of free trips and other goodies. This is happening at a time when RTD is supposedly in a budget crisis, a time when the board is voting to increase fares and cut service. 

If you think $54,000 is not much money in the grand scheme of a huge and unfortunately too-powerful bureaucratic semi-governmental agency, you are wrong. $54,000 is literally enough money to save whole portions of several bus lines the board just cut on Tuesday.  RTD's own calculations show it would save $27,300 for the cuts on route 3LTD, and $22,800 for the cuts on Route 6. Eliminate these ridiculous expenditures and save both of them. 

The RTD Board of Directors are basically stealing taxpayer money at the expense of providing quality service to the actual riders they purport of serve. Simply outrageous! 

An RTD Strike and You

As we approach the February 28 deadline of the three-year Regional Transportation District's union contracts, it's still unclear what if anything will happen with the negotiations between RTD's union and RTD. 

First a slight bit of background. Using the bad economy as an excuse, RTD wants its union contract to have a three-year wage freeze. RTD also wants to take control of the union's health care and benefits system. Of course, the union doesn't like agreeing to the wage freeze and especially not the loss of control of their benefits, which was one of the main issues that resulted in the union's strike that paralyzed Denver transit for a week in 2006. 

On Thursday, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 (the union that represents many RTD workers, mostly drivers and mechanical operators) filed an intent to strike with the Colorado Department of Labor, a formality required by law for any union considering even the possibility of striking. The union actually wants the state labor department to deny its intent to strike, because it instead wants the state to take the case to a binding third party arbitrator, which the union said it feels would better fulfill its goals, because the decisions of that arbitrator are binding to both the union and RTD. At the department of labor meeting on Thursday were dozens of blind and disabled transit riders who also encouraged the state to deny the union's intent to strike and instead move the case to arbitration. The state has the ability to deny intents to strike if it feels such a strike would put public peace, health or safety at risk. That message was certainly what the disabled riders were trying to convey by attending the public meeting.

RTD actually prefers the union to strike instead of going to arbitration because that process could end up costing RTD more money that it says it has the ability to spend. 

“(Arbitration) would have a chilling impact on both sides to negotiate in good faith,” Cal Marsella, RTD general manager and chief executive told the Denver Daily News.

RTD is arguing that arbitration would put the transit union at a privileged position, and if the union wins many of its concessions, the agency may have to make even deeper and harder cuts to service.  However, that was not actually at issue at Thursday's meeting. The state doesn't care about what effects the strike will have on either the union or the agency, they only care about its effect on the public. And in that regard, RTD actually had to argue to the state that a strike really wouldn't be that big of a deal.

“The human being is a remarkable animal in its ability to adapt,” said Bruce Abel, RTD’s assistant general manager for customer services at Thursday's meeting.

Abel said that RTD has a contingency plan that will allow 43 percent of busses to run during the strike by using private contractors not associated with the union.

But the reality is that an RTD strike really will have a significant effect on all of us in Denver. Since the 2006 strike, the transit union has organized many of the workers in the three private contractors that RTD uses, making it much harder for the agency to use replacement workers during the strike. If a strike were to occur some of the most popular pieces of the system would be ground to a halt including the two most ridden busses the 15 and the O, the B bus that connects Denver to Boulder and all light rail. The disabled riders at the meeting were certainly alarmed by the prospect of another strike, with many recounting stories of not being able to attend doctor's appointments or pick up medications during the last strike. Even first responders such as firefighters and paramedics spoke out against the strike, stating that it would significantly increase road congestion, making their ability to get to where they need harder and more time consuming.

But RTD doesn't care. For the agency, the strike is twofer: A week or more of significantly reduced service allows the agency to save millions and with a strike, the agency is in a more privileged position to put public goodwill against the union get more concessions from the union on wages and benefits. 

I think the union has every right to be concerned with RTD's proposed contracts. Why should they agree to a three-year salary freeze for an economy that may only be bad for one year? And certainly losing control of hard-won benefits for what is a fairly crappy and even dangerous job is not something the union would want. The union might consider agreeing to a one-year salary freeze to be re-evaluated as the economy gets better and some benefit concessions, but I don't think they should consider the horrible deal RTD is offering them.

But basically the cretins at RTD would rather screw over its workers and the public at large to squeeze a small amount of savings from its employees. This despite the fact that the agency's own mismanagement is more to blame for its financial predicament then the flimsy "bad economy" excuse. 

In less than a week, the union contract expires. Hopefully, both sides will come to an agreement or the state will force both sides into arbitration before then. A strike would horrible for everyone in Denver and potentially disastrous for those who are dependent on transit just to live. 

RTD needs to stop playing games with Denver and avoid a strike. Here is the contact information for the Colorado Division of Labor. Please tell them how the strike could effect you and urge them to force RTD into arbitration. 

The damage is done.

The RTD board met last night and approved most of the proposed May 2009 service cuts. The board meeting had nearly 100 people in attendance, most trying to persuade RTD to save some service or another. Unfortunately, it looks like it was mostly to no avail. The largest turnout by far was in support of the Route U bus, which travels from Pine in the Jefferson County mountains to the Denver Tech Center, but was completely eliminated by the RTD board.  Except for a few services that were saved because various municipalities agreed to cost-share programs with RTD, pretty much all of the original cuts went through. 

RTD is clearly in a mismanaged free-fall. RTD Director Kent Bagley told the Denver Post that the cuts approved yesterday may just be the beginning under these current economic conditions. Though the cuts will save RTD $4.3 million, they still are nearly $3 million below budget. Like I have said many times, part of the problem is RTD's idiotic decision to lock in the price the agency pays for diesel back in October at $3.09 a gallon, which means they are paying more than a $1 a gallon than it would if they were buying fuel on the open market. With diesel prices continuing to fall, that decision is costing RTD millions of dollars every month. 

Apparently, RTD is trying to extend the agency's fuel contract with a new rate until 2010. I am not sure how the agency pays for fuel, but they really should consider multiple-length contracts where RTD pays part of the price of fuel at a current rate and the rest at a previous rate. That is what Southwest Airlines does to the company's benefit.  Clearly though, RTD is not being managed well and has zero accountability to its riders. At this point, I am not sure what riders themselves can do. Obviously, the direct approach yields little, as dozens of people fought for the U and it still was cut. What are the other options? I'd say kick all the idiots out, but the last election actually retained pretty much everyone on the Board of Directors and general manager Cal Marsella still has his job (and apparently a very good bonus/benefits package) despite what seems to be his general incompetence.

So the question is: What can riders do? Anyone have any ideas?

Does RTD actually listen to its riders?

I went to the RTD meeting on Friday about the agency's proposed and severe cuts to service. There were only 14 people in attendance. Since the meeting was on a Friday night, that seems pretty good. Friday night has to be the worst night to hold any kind of meeting, so of course RTD held five meetings then.

Those in attendance made their cases to save various routes. I was glad to see that many of the people were there to protest the cuts of the 1 bus. Many of them made very good points, noting that the geography of west Denver makes it harder for people to travel farther for transportation and that this burden is particularly hard on the transit-dependent riders such as the elderly and the disabled.

I made my case, explaining that RTD's service is already lackluster compared to other cities, that its unfair to increase fares and reduces service, and that riders should not have to suffer for RTD mismanagement and inability to anticipate problems. The RTD bureaucrat who conducted meeting dismissed by comments in typical bureaucrat fashion by not really answering my claims and instead insisting that there was nothing RTD could have done to prevent its current situation (fire the "several economic advisors [that] told us fuel prices were going to go back up again," for one).

We'll see what happens next. I think those of us who fought for the 1 were convincing and it seems like they might moderate the cuts somewhat in the final version. The bureaucrat asked if we would support having 1A service only during peak hours. I told him that I think the bus is used all day, particularly since much of the ridership consists of students, the elderly and low-income workers who often have different schedules then the typical "peak hour" users have. I suppose having the 1A at all is a positive step though.

In the end, I left the meeting feeling as though I wasn't really listened to. Even the bureaucrat admitted that the meeting was basically a legal formality and though there was a note-taker, there was no recording of the meeting, so who really knows if our opinions from the meeting are actually going to be heard by the board.

I know mine well at least, because I plan on attending the next board meeting. I found information about the meeting in the crevasses of the RTD web site. The next board meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17 at 5:30PM in the lower level meeting room at RTD headquarters; 1600 Blake Street. The public is allowed to attend and make three-minute comments directly to the board. You can also send an e-mail to your RTD board representative here. If you didn't attend the public meetings on the service cuts, this will be the last chance to give your opinion. I can't promise they will listen, but at least it will be heard.

Riding out the recession with mass transit.

In this weak economy, mass transit systems across the country are in a tough position. On the one hand, more people are using mass transit because they can no longer afford their cars. On the other hand, state and local revenue streams for mass transit are shrinking as people start saving and stop spending. This force is what RTD general manager Cal Marsella described in a recent New York Times article as the "Rider paradox,"and it has become a major problem to our nation's public transportation systems.

So while RTD announced massive transit cuts on the heel of a 14 percent fare increase, other transit agencies across the nation are doing the exact same thing. Just check out this map from the Transportation for America organization. More than 50 other transit agencies are increasing fares, decreasing service, laying off workers, or a combination of those three. St. Louis is cutting its bus transit in half after voters in November rejected a sales tax increase to fund transit.  And those that were holding out hope that some of the money from the massive stimulus bill being debated in Washington could go to the operating costs of transit agencies are looking to be disappointed as Republicans gathered just enough votes to prevent an amendment that would add $24 billion for infrastructure projects including mass transit. 

So what can we do in Denver? While there is little we can do to combat the economic forces at work, we can let RTD know what its transit cuts are going to do to its riders and try to figure out ways RTD can save money without such massive cuts. When I went to the September RTD meeting on the fare increase, I was one of only about a dozen or so riders in attendance. If you cannot attend a meeting, call, e-mail or write RTD to voice your concerns with the contacts on the side bar of this blog. There is still a chance to share your opinion before RTD makes its decision on cutting service.

Here is the list of the remaining public meetings. I'll be at the one on Friday at RTD's main offices, but please attend whichever is more convenient for you.

Arvada
Arvada City Hall
8100 Ralston Road
Ann Campbell Room
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.

Aurora
Red Lion (formerly Radisson Hotel)
3200 S. Parker Road
Boulder/Parker Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Boulder
Boulder Senior Center
West Senior Complex
909 Arapahoe, Creekside Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Brighton
Brighton Recreation Center
555 N. 11th Avenue
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Conifer
Conifer High School
10441 County Highway 73
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m

Downtown Denver
RTD Administration Building
1600 Blake Street
Rooms T & D
Friday, Feb. 6, 6:00 p.m.

Green Valley Ranch
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center
4890 Argonne Way
Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m.

Lakewood
Stein Elementary
80 South Teller Street
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Parker
Parker Town Hall
20120 E. Mainstreet
Council Chambers
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m

RTD: More for Less

As the Rocky Mountain News article from a few weeks ago hinted at, RTD finally revealed proposals for its "5 percent cut in services," and all I can say is ouch! Right on the heels of a 14 percent fare increase, RTD wants to saddle its riders with significant service reductions on 48 separate routes, meaning more than 30 percent of all RTD routes will see some kind of service cut.

RTD is proposing to cut these routes all together: The G light rail line from Lincoln to Nine Mile, the 465 on south Yosemite, 410 in Franktown and Parker, the 75 on Mineral and Ken Caryl Avenues, the 125 in the Denver West area, the 49 in northwest Denver, CC in Coal Creek, the U which connects Pine Junction and Conifer with Denver, the 145X, 108X, 76X,  and 88X, which are all higher-fare express busses that provide quick connections with communities and a specific destination (the 145X connects Brighton with DIA). The 38 and 24 Limited busses are also being discontinued as are the Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Parker and Brighton Call-and-Ride Services. A lot of these cuts are unfortunately to areas on the fringes of RTD service coverage and represent a significant and sometimes complete loss of service (The discontinuation of the CC, for example completely gets rid of any transit service to the Coal Creek area, even though they will likely continue to pay sales taxes to RTD). 

The other proposed cuts range from slight to severe. Many bus lines are likely to lose whole parts of coverage or late night, weekend and/or midday service. 

One of the biggest proposed cuts in my mind is to the 1 bus on west First Avenue. RTD wants to discontinue the 1A service which provided a small detour on 5th avenue between Sheridan and Knox Ct. and allowed extra service for riders on the rest of the route. RTD also wants to reduce service to a half hour during rush hour and to an hour other times and simply discontinue several other trips during the day.  I ride this bus quite often and it always has riders: Students going to school, low-income workers going to their jobs Downtown or in Cherry Creek, families going to the two Denver Health clinics on the route. I once saw a teenage kid with what looked like a stab wound take the bus to the Denver Health Emergency Room. Basically it is a route filled with transit-dependent riders and RTD is proposing to make it harder for them to meet the basic transportation requirements of their lives. 

The 1 is just an example of what RTD is proposing. There are a lot of other large cuts, especially to a lot of neighborhood routes.

A note on the brochure reads, "Due to current economic conditions (sales tax shortfalls and fuel cost increases), RTD service adjustments may be more extensive than usual." That line right there shows exactly how RTD management is completely blind to reality. How on earth can they say fuel cost increases are to blame when diesel prices are at a three-year low? Yes, RTD is surely facing lowered sales tax revenues, but their own management apparently can't anticipate a bleaker economic picture even with all evidence showing exactly that. 

I understand that the economy sucks and RTD has to find ways to save money. But what I don't understand is why RTD riders have to always take a huge brunt of RTDs continual mismanagement and inability to forecast. Back in September, RTD decided to pay $3.10 a gallon for fuel in 2009. Now diesel prices are more than 80 cents a gallon cheaper, a more than 70 percent drop. I am not sure if RTD can get out of its fuel contracts or not, but they should if they can, because by the time these cuts go into effect, diesel prices could even be lower and one of the biggest stated reasons for the cuts non-existent. And while sales tax revenue is apparently falling, (despite the fact that Colorado's population itself is growing), the stimulus package in congress could start making economic progress in the Denver metro area. And certainly that fare increase is going to put millions of more dollars into RTD's purse.

We should not allow RTD's mismanagement to be at the backs of its riders. We need to make sure every single cut is met by a fight from its riders. That's why we need to go to every single public meeting RTD is holding and let them know what we think. That's why we need to write letters to the editor, tell other riders about RTD's plans and hold RTD accountable for its actions.

Here are the times and locations of every RTD public meeting. Please attend and encourage other riders to do the same.

Arvada
Arvada City Hall
8100 Ralston Road
Ann Campbell Room
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.


Aurora
Red Lion (formerly Radisson Hotel)
3200 S. Parker Road
Boulder/Parker Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Boulder
Boulder Senior Center
West Senior Complex
909 Arapahoe, Creekside Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Brighton
Brighton Recreation Center
555 N. 11th Avenue
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Centennial/Highlands Ranch/Lone Tree
Cresthill Middle School
9195 Cresthill Lane, Cafeteria
Monday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m.


Coal Creek
Coal Creek Improvement Association
31528 Hwy 72
Thursday, Jan. 29, 7:00 p.m.

Conifer
Conifer High School
10441 County Highway 73
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Downtown Denver
RTD Administration Building
1600 Blake Street
Rooms T & D
Friday, Jan. 30, 12:00 p.m.
and
Friday, Feb. 6, 6:00 p.m.

DTC
Hyatt Regency Tech Center
7800 East Tufts Avenue
Thursday, Jan. 29, 12:00 p.m.

Green Valley Ranch
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center
4890 Argonne Way
Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m.


Lakewood
Stein Elementary
80 South Teller Street
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Longmont
Longmont Senior Center
910 Longs Peak Ave.
Rooms D & E
Monday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m.

Parker
Parker Town Hall
20120 E. Mainstreet
Council Chambers
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.

An article in the Rocky Mountain News on Friday shows that RTD's financial problems may be worse then many expected. The article said RTD's revenues from November 2008 fell 9.8 percent and the transit agency is considering a 5 percent cut in bus and light rail service along with a staff salary freeze. 

RTD cited decreased sales taxes during this recession as being the primary reason for the revenue drop, despite significant increases in fare collection during the same time. From the article:

The report shows RTD's total revenues down over last year by 0.3 percent through November, despite fare revenue being up 17 percent. And sales taxes, which saw a precipitous drop for November, are down 0.4 percent over those 11 months compared with 2007.

Sales tax revenue is RTD's lifeblood, making up about 60 percent of its resources. The national recession has eaten into retail sales, particularly since October.

Yet, another interesting tidbit contained in the article is that RTD managers apparently miscalculated the amount of available revenues they expected: 

RTD originally budgeted for a 4.3 percent increase in sales tax for 2008.

But with the economy slowing over the summer, the budget was adjusted to anticipate only a 2.5 percent increase over 2007. The picture looked stagnant until the fall.

But a slight drop in September, followed by a 6.3 percent decline in October, signaled problems.

November's figure showed the drop getting steeper, wiping out all previous months' gains over 2007.

"We've been on top of this for a long time, but, frankly, the 9.6 percent drop in November is much worse than we thought it would be,"  [RTD General Manager Cal] Marsella told the Rocky on Friday.

"After adjusting the budget twice, I was hoping we would at least be flat in 2008 over 2007, but it looks like we will be under water.

"You play the cards you're dealt, and you can't control that.

Anticipating future revenues is definitely a tricky game, but back in August, Marsella was still expecting increased sales tax revenues when many economic indicators such as the unemployment rate  and growth rate showed serious problems with the economy.  RTD seems to have a lot of difficulty projecting agency costs versus actual revenues and because of that, it always seems to be scrambling to push quick solutions instead of carefully planning to avoid major problems in the first place. To further Marsella's relatively stupid metaphor, you may have to play the cards you have, but you can still anticipate what cards are left in the deck before you are dealt the hand.

Certainly RTD needs to do what it can to ensure that it gets through the current economic problems without sacrificing too much of what makes it the "number one transit agency in North America." 

The wage freeze and the already implemented fare increases will help RTD's bottom line. RTD could also get a boost by decreasing fuel costs, which I guess they will have to wait another three months to take full advantage of (RTD locks its fuel prices in six month increments, so the agency locked the current rate back in October before diesel prices dropped in half). RTD is also currently in negotiation with its union to figure out the workers' contracts for the next three years after they expire at the end of February. The article suggested that RTD will try to use the economy as an excuse to either cut union pay of only accept very modest increases. However, the article did not elucidate the 5 percent service cuts proposed by Marsella, only to say that any cuts would have to be approved by the RTD board. I hope that cuts are the very last resort to RTD's budget woes. The last thing riders need is an even more difficult and/or longer commute than the one we have now, and the reality is that RTD would be kissing some of their fare increase revenues goodbye if they cut service by the 5 percent Marsella mentioned.

This is all grim news for RTD, and especially its riders. Let's just hope that lowered fuel costs and a hopefully quick economic recovery will help RTD get back on its financial foot again. Because the reality from a rider point of view is that its hard to demand much needed improvements to service or structure (fare cards, getting rid of zones), when the agency is quite possibly struggling just to maintain what it has now. 

RTD activism on YouTube

This blog is not the only RTD rider activism happening online. I was browsing some YouTube videos today, and there is quite a bit of interesting activism when you search for RTD. (Feel free to ignore the awful RTD PR pieces about FastTracks that somehow forget to mention the project's excessive cost overruns and very likely possibility of delay.)

Instead, most of the videos are related to eminent domain issues and RTD's abuse of eminent domain for its building of new transit. Now, I am not necessarily one to say that transit agencies and other governmental or quasi-governmental agencies shouldn't be able to use eminent domain for the greater good, but there is a human cost, and RTD has a very long and poor reputation of using eminent domain but not paying fair prices for the private property it decides it needs. 

Here is an interesting video about a Latino family in East Denver and their struggles with what they see as unfair use of eminent domain by RTD back when it first built the original light rail line in the 90s:

Here is another video produced by Colorado Inside Out on RTD's dual role as a transit agency and developer with FastTracks:

I'm not a huge fan of Jon Caldara and the Independence Institute, but I do appreciate their bringing issues of eminent domain into the public spotlight. In the next video, Jon Caldara interviews a family being ousted by RTD so they could build a parking lot and potentially 12 stories of retail on the site of their own family business. 



I am all for expanding much needed transit in Denver through RTD's FastTracks, but the unfortunate reality is that RTD as an agency isn't exactly being the best neighbor when it comes to taking eminent domain rights against private owners without fair compensation. The couple in the video above have no problem with the RTD project themselves, but feel (rightfully) screwed over when their property is being taken for private redevelopment use. And they are not alone. According to the Rocky Mountain News, more than 180 property owners will have some or all of their properties taken by eminent domain, sometimes using it for redevelopment. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court in one of their most egregiously wrong rulings has made the legal precedent for cases just like this in Kelo V. City of New London.

Of course, RTD can still avoid egregious use of eminent domain, have profit arrangements with landowners or other more mutually beneficial solutions. Instead though, RTD uses the broad powers of eminent domain to kick out longtime small businesspeople and redevelop their own businesses at that same site (I am sure it does this to make more money for itself). Just another case of RTD looking after only itself instead of the community it purports to serve.