Is it a timely and meaningful question to ask; is Cupertino ready for our own transit system?
I believe the answer may be yes; at least for the beginning of a discussion. I have made a few posts to the blog, in jest, that teases the question; if you recall, there was The Coop HoHo, the Coop Monorail and Coop Big Dig.
Our particularly well-governed City of Cupertino has gone from 50,000 to 58,000 citizens between census taking and is expected to continue growing.
The way the Coop was originally envisioned (or maybe there was no real plan and it evolved) resulted in a spread out suburban environment resulting in the need to travel mostly by motor vehicle. You know, go to one business, jump back in your car and go to another making 3 to say 5 start and stops in a trip to town.
In these trips around town it is not uncommon to travel to a near-by city and do your shopping there, resulting in the loss of business to our City and less tax revenue to say fund a local transit system.
In the event Measure C passes perhaps some of the expected increase in Hotel Tax revenue to the City could be used to fund a feasibility study on this issue. I believe the increase is expected to be around $450,000 per year.
After my in-jest blogs I was indicted with "you will never use it Gary." Who knows, that is not the point?
My guess is that many students, seniors, visitors, handicapped and employees at the new Apple headquarters will use it and maybe that is all it will take to make the idea work. Certainly local business should embrace the concept to make it easier for consumer and visitor dollars to remain in the Coop.
I believe there are two more hotels planned for Cupertino as well as the Main Street project, both of which should embrace the concept of a Cupertino Transit System.
Seed for thought and open conversation here on the Patch. What say you on this issue Cupertino Chamber of Commerce?
