Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Deb Miller wrote a Wichita Eagle editorial in which she states:
One of the studies examines the K-96 northeast Wichita bypass. The study found that since it was finished in 1993, the bypass has dramatically influenced the region’s development patterns. Much of Wichita’s job growth between 1994 and 2006 has occurred along the K-96 corridor.
No doubt this is true. But what are the consequences? Highways like K-96 enable and encourage growth in the outer fringes of Wichita and in suburban towns like Andover. Then, there’s a reaction.
Officials of USD 259 complain that there’s a “doughnut” and that urban schools are being underfunded. Much taxpayer money will be needed to fix this, they say.
Politicians like Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer still want to have a vibrant downtown, even though people have moved away. To achieve this, they’ll propose spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds to lure people back downtown. At tomorrow’s meeting of the Wichita City Council, more of this will be proposed.
The corker, though, is the global warming alarmists who don’t want people driving carbon-emitting automobiles on these roads. But since we’re doing that, they want us to undertake expensive and job-killing measures to mitigate these carbon emissions.
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