Lotsa fallout from last night’s City Council meeting:
– As expected, the South End light rail project’s official cost was moved up again, and is now $427 million. And, surprise, completion date was also pushed back six months to April 2007 in an attempt to deal with the cost increase. Thankfully all of the rail-line bridges in the 10-mile run remain intact and we got an admission from tranist officials that without the $19 million bridges car traffic would snarl along South Blvd.
But the latest cost estimate includes $7 million more from the state which seems to be a stretch. In sum, stay tuned.
– The arts bundle is still a hot potato and no closer to finding the $130 million in city funds the $190 million package now requires. I expect some back-channel negotiations in the next few weeks with the tax-increment financing option to get a good going over as a result. So, this one is up in the air too.
