Talk Elections

Welcome to the office of Internal Affairs in Atlasia. I am your Secretary, morgieb.

If you have any questions or concerns, please post them here.

Thank you, and let's hope that my reign as the SoIA be a happy and successful one.

ATTENTION ATLASIANS:

I am taking requests from the regions for funding that needs appropriated from Section 5 of this law: https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Transportation_Infrastructure_Investment_Act (https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Transportation_Infrastructure_Investment_Act).

Can I ask how you came up with this list Governor?  I'm interested in the thought behind this..

The problem with low-density communities and transit systems is that determining where to place stops and where to establish optimal transportation hubs becomes a huge challenge. How do you create routes that will even cover half your population?

One of the benefits of proactive transportation planning is that transportation hubs can become a magnet for commercial growth. In a low density community, you have to account for the fact that the population isn't concentrated in a specific area. That means you have to leave room for parking at major terminals, which erases some of the potential for smart growth. Plus, the further away transit is from your home, the less likely you are to use it at all.

I'd actually argue that the money would be better spent in places that do have other forms of existing transportation. When transit systems work together, the benefits multiply. Businesses grow, cities become more walkable, and you have real hubs of growth.

I think you'd be better off eliminating the least dense communities from your list. Keep the 8 billion, but you'd be better to spend more money on the best suited communities. You don't want to pour money into a community that can't possibly establish smart transit routes... or else you'll have an expensive system with continued upkeep costs that very few people will use.

Sorry to nose my way in here, but I've spent a lot of time studying transit systems for university. I don't want to see you spending money in places that won't benefit from it.

Reading the text of the legislation, it says $8 billion shall be distributed among the regions. So unfortunately, we have to split the money. :P

Not necessarily. Money will go wherever it is best effective as determined by the Secretary. There is no minimum funding for a region.

I really can't disagree with anything you've said. It's nice to find someone with similar interests. :)

I'd emphasize, though, that if you're only looking to establish transit routes around the population centres for those low-density counties (which is the optimal way to do it), your ridership market will end up being lower than the 60,000 people you talked about. I haven't gone county-by-county though, so you're probably better informed on the specifics than I am. I'm not sure how many counties on your list are right at the 60,000 mark.

Anyhow, best of luck. TOD has the potential to solve a lot of regional problems. If you ever want to talk about it more, let me know. I love this stuff.

Provisionally granted.

So you're giving all $8 billion to the Northeast?

Well, it was less than 24 hours. I can guarantee you the Mideast will be acting on it as soon as I swear in tomorrow afternoon.

Mr. Secretary, would it be feasible to spend the 1.47 billion allocated for the creation of a national university in our region to instead be diverted to expand and improve our community colleges, as those colleges are the ones most essential to economic recovery in our region?

Thank you, Mr. SoIA, for your patience. :)

The Mideast Region formally requests part of the $8 billion for rapid bus transit systems to be established or expanded in the following counties within our region:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Will, Illinois
DuPage, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Kent, Michigan
Saginaw, Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Washtenaw, Michigan
Vigo, Indiana (Yes, there is bias here, but we sure need it! :P)
Tippecanoe, Indiana
Marion, Indiana
Jefferson, Kentucky
Boone, Kentucky
Summit, Ohio
Hamilton, Ohio
Franklin, Ohio
Kanawha, West Virginia
Henrico, Virginia
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Fairfax, Virginia
Loudon, Virginia
Baltimore, Maryland
Anne Anrundel, Maryland
Greene, Missouri
Jefferson, Missouri
Clay, Missouri

A vote was held yesterday in the Mideast Region on where we'd like our regional university to be located, and we have selected Elkhart, Indiana. We formally request that it be selected as the location for our regional university. :)

The IDS formally requests to receive funds from among the $8 billion to be dedicated to high speed transit in yonder locales:

Charlotte-Raleigh to Rocky Mount
Charlotte-Raleigh to Greenville to Atlanta
Charlotte-Raleigh to Charleston to Atlanta
Tampa to Lakeland to Orlando to Melbourne to Port St. Lucie to Miami
Atlanta to Birmingham to Jackson to New Orleans to Houston
New Orleans to Little Rock to Memphis to Atlanta
Memphis to Nashville to Charlotte-Raleigh

I request from the Department of Internal Affairs at their earliest convenience a study of the environmental impacts and the technological feasibility of this specific segment.

Mr. Secretary, would you please review and give the Judiciary Committee your opinion this legislation? (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=157350.msg3444279#msg3444279)

Stealing Pink Floyd lyrics for inactive people is my gig. :P

All $8 billion? What?

I stated I did not have the figures amongst me at the time, so....

You also have not approved our request yet.

What was your request, ftr?

It's posted in your office, by my Governor.

Apologies for being very late, but most of that law seems to make sense. The one thing I disagree with is that non-US citizens cannot buy guns, I think that they should.

     Oh, the Imperial Dominion of the South requests that Fed U be built in Charleston, South Carolina.