Rethinking Regional Priorities
Thoughts on Monday’s CAMPO vote and COVID-19’s impact on Austin’s Project Connect
As a member of the Pflugerville City Council, I also serve my constituents as a member of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization or CAMPO. I’m appreciative of the opportunity to serve in an effort to find regional solutions to our ever increasing traffic problems.
At Monday’s CAMPO policy board meeting, I had a difficult vote.
In order to take advantage of the unique opportunity to leverage $3.4 billion in federal and state funding for improvements to I-35, we voted to defer funding for several much needed regional infrastructure projects. It wasn’t easy for CAMPO members to delay widely supported projects within their respective communities. Nevertheless, it was done to move the entire region forward, as a whole.
For years, an enormous amount of work has been undertaken to find solutions to our traffic problems. But it’s grown steadily worse. Traffic has spread beyond I-35, MOPAC, and downtown Austin to congest roadways throughout the region as people search for alternative routes.
Traffic is now not just an Austin problem — it’s region-wide and, in the case of I-35, our counties, our state, and our country are negatively impacted.
My decision Monday was made even more difficult because the plan we voted on does not completely address the social, economic and cultural barriers that I-35 has created for generations of Central Texans. I will continue to work with all stakeholders to seek design solutions to overcome these barriers so we can move forward as a more unified community. If we get this right, the regional impact of this project will be monumental.
Before the COVID-19 crisis, Central Texans understood that traffic was not only a threat to our quality of life, but also a significant threat to our economic future.
As we work to get through this pandemic, we have to consider not only how we move forward, but how we move forward to meet a new reality. The emotional impact of the virus on the Central Texas community has been grave, but it’s ultimate financial impact may be just as severe. Many are wondering where their next paycheck will come from and the challenge of taking care of their families, employees, and businesses has just begun.
We live in a very different world from even a month ago. Well-intentioned and well-planned proposals, like Project Connect, Austin’s mass transit solution, must be considered in the context of this present landscape. So much hard work, intelligence, and dedication has been put into this proposal — we can’t afford for it to fail as a result of this pandemic.
To me, it’s almost inconceivable that the average household would vote for a tax increase at a time when many are seeking a sense of stability in their own lives. This dramatically shifts the paradigm in which this proposal was originally considered.
Make no mistake, I remain committed to Project Connect. However, unlike today’s vote for funding for I-35, the money for Project Connect requires a bond vote in November, making approval precarious at a moment of unprecedented uncertainty.
Although many well-intentioned stakeholders want to vote on Project Connect in November, I’m asking those in a position to do so to look at all of the known facts and projections given, review this decision, and consider delaying the vote until the crisis is over.
Our response to this pandemic and its economic aftermath will be the defining moment of our era’s regional leadership. We will be judged, and rightfully so, by future generations on our ability to meet this challenge.
A successful response to COVID-19 will be one of cooperation and service to those who are vulnerable and in need. It is my hope and prayer that our traffic problems will be solved with the same spirit of sacrifice and cooperation. Our quality of life and that of future generations depends on it.
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Rudy Metayer currently sits on the Pflugerville City Council, CAMPO, and the Austin Bar Association. He is the son of Haitian immigrants, a proud Central Texan, graduate of UT Law School and LBJ School of Public Policy, and a happy husband and father of three girls.
