These motorists are not window shoppers browsing the mile of upscale retail. The commuters are Stickin’ It To The Man by avoiding the Expressway toll — yet while doing so, they sit in traffic, expending gas and polluting the air, not getting to their destination any quicker, clogging the street and endangering pedestrians. Otherwise, Carytown receives no benefit.

Make no mistake. The RMA was created by the General Assembly in 1966 at the behest of then powerful midtown Richmond business interests to subvert the will of the people–who didn’t want the Big Ditch dug through Byrd Park, Randolph and Oregon Hill. By taking the matter to the GA, the people’s voices were ignored.

The same strategy was employed to overcome no less than two referendums that opposed digging the “Richmond Petersburg Turnpike” connection through Shockoe and Jackson Ward. That “Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority,” consisting of engineers, took a backhoe and bulldozer and wiped away more buildings than were destroyed in the 1865 Evacuation Fire.

The later RMA construction displaced more than 900 people, who were then “relocated.” In addition, the RMA is an appointed board–there is no vote from the public about rate increases. Hence, we suddenly learn of the proposal by reading the news.

One could make the argument that tolls are user fees–taxes–and this hike is taxation without representation.

What’s been needed for years is regional transit that could’ve grown out of our late and lamented street car system that was ripped out, burnt up and paved over in 1949.

Happy Muttering!

The state government would have had these roads up to about $2 by now, but man, would they have some beautiful new offices!