The Big GRIC Vote Day Is Now Upon Us....

In tracking the coverage today of the GRIC vote for a recently proposed realignment of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, I found a couple of interesting news stories. First, there's a great write-up at azcentral that covers much of this project's history (click here), and then there's this other story from azfamily (click here)...... Needless to say, I was not pleased with KTVK's horrible coverage, so I sent the following message to feedback@azfamily.com, and would not mind if you sent something similar:

As a South Mountain area resident and founding member of the Friends of the South Mountain Freeway group, I am concerned that your coverage focused on the freeway as a bypass route that will primarily be something of a burden to surrounding areas. This freeway also represents a vital piece of local infrastructure for people nearby, as it will bring a hospital to Laveen to serve the entire surrounding area, reduce trip times for people living and working in Laveen and Ahwatukee, and take heavy traffic off of our local arterial and collector streets. Further, the freeway brings with it a host of additional economic development benefit for its surroundings, by broadening the market base for retail and other commercial developments that will follow suit. Please do a better job in your future coverage to look at all sides of the story rather than the perspectives of a noisy few opponents -- especially when our fragile local economy is at stake. 

Update 2/7/2011, 10:00 PM: This just in, the unofficial vote results from GRIC are for the no-build option. This likely means that ADOT will pursue the original alignment and fast-track the project: http://www.gilariver.org/index.php/news/2552-gila-river-voters-say-no-to-loop-202-extension