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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1982)
features Elevated rail in Houston? United Press International HOUSTON — Metropolitan Transit Authority Manager Alan Kiepper is sticking to his E rediction that Houston will ave Texas’ first rail transit sys tem by 1990, despite the outlook that his proposed downtown ele vated railway might not be approved. Response was favorable to Kiepper’s systemwide proposal; a $1.83 billion, 18.2-mile rapid rail system reaching southwest- ward and northward from downtown along what the MTA Houston Post columnist Lynn Ashby summed up the reaction by quot ing a letter from a read er: “A Train on Main is Plainly Insane. ” sees as the “spine” of Houston’s employment and residential areas. Kiepper says the 17-station system, reaching from the West Belt through downtown and northward to Crosstimbers, will help unravel Houston traffic. The proposal included a 2.3- mile, glass-canopied elevated rail atop Main Street to link the system to downtown. This caused the controversy. Developer-builder Frank Glass, chairman of the SpawG- lass Construction Co., who owns four blocks along Main and has invested $14 million in a build ing at the corner of Main and Texas in the heart of downtown, sounded the first complaint. He suggested an elevated rail would be a noisy negative on an already fading Main Street, turning the first floors of the buildings into basements. He said a Main Street subway would be better in the long run. County officials objected to the elevated leg on behalf of downtown businessmen. Houston Post columnist Lynn Ashby summed up the reaction Villa Oaks West WHAT A BETTER WAY TO START OFF ’83 C 2 Bedroom 1-1/3 Bath Approx. 810 sq. ft. Fireplace $ 340 D 2 Bedrooms 2 Baths Approx. 929 sq. ft. Fireplace 395 Villa Oaks West is conveniently located just off FM 2818 in Bryan 1107 Verde Drive 779-6296 779-1136 Suicides linked to economy B-CS by quoting a letter from a read er: “A Train on Main is Plainly Insane.” Last week City Council appa rently killed it by officially ob jecting to the Main Street ele vated rail. But Kiepper remains optimistic. Kiepper proposed the futur istic rail system in September and the MTA board voted later that month to build it, but left undecided how it would travel through downtown. Kiepper said the additional cost of substituting a subway downtown would be $340 mil lion during building and $3.5 million a year during operation. Others are suggesting moving the elevated rail to a side street, an idea the MTA is considering. In a recent interview, Kiepper said he was used to such con- United Press International In Fremont, Calif., just across the bay from San Francisco, offi cials of a United Auto Workers local chapter are blaming unem ployment for the suicides of eight workers. With unemployment at 10.8 percent nationwide — the high est since 1940 — some of the social maladies that experts asso ciate with unemployment are beginning to surface. work, not to die. But Reagan economics has nothing trickling down to us,” the note said. In Houston, the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office reported 386 suicides in In Detroit, with unemploy ment exceeding 15 percent, the director of a suicide prevention center said calls from people considering suicide would reach 4.500 this year — compared to 1.500 in 1980 — and suicides would be up 5 percent. And in Houston, funeral di rector Sam Garza handled the burials of five suicide victims last month. Mattawan, Mich., police found the bodies of Larry Perin, his wife and their two children in their rural home the day before Thanksgiving. Investigators said Perin, an unemployed auto mobile mechanic, strangled his children and wife, then shot himself. troversies. “I think my responsibility is to put recommendations before the board and not get too emo tionally involved with them,” he said. Kiepper came to Houston last May after 10 years in Atlanta, where he directed construction of the Atlanta rail system. The Houston bus system which Kiep per took over is struggling. “Up until May of 1981, Hous ton still operated its entire bus system out of one garage that was built in the early 1900s as a trolley car barn,” he said. “We didn’t even have a preventive maintenance program when I came.” Houston’s MTA, with 1,200 square miles and a one-third lar ger population to serve, fields 391 buses to Atlanta’s 700. MTA carried 48 million passengers last year; Atlanta’s system 107 million. But Kiepper sees great poten tial to do a quality job building Houston’s system, using the one-cent sales tax base, possibly tax-supported bond issues and other money, even without the federal financing no longer available for rail. Kiepper estimates it will take three years to get the bus system up to a reasonable level and five years to make it superior. “I think it’s the recession and the fact that a lot of people are unemployed,” said Garza. Experts agree. Studies by psychologists have linked high unemployment to a plethora of social ills — depression, broken marriages, child abuse, crime and suicide. Tony Garza, 53, and his wife, Kay, 50, lost their home and map-making business in Col umbus, Ohio, and moved to San Antonio to start new lives. Their bodies were found in a 1973 Chevy in south San Anto nio Oct. 13. Authorities said Garza shot his wife, then him self. In Garza’s pocket police found 54 cents and a note. “We came to San Antonio to Laid-off steelworker Albert Bragg, out of work for more than a year, said he drove around one day last summer, then walked from his car into a field near Midland, Pa., placed the barrel of his rifle to his head and fired. He missed. the county by mid-November — compared to 389 for all of 1981. Suicides traditionally increase during the Thanksgiving through New Year’s period. A Houston funeral home di rector, noting most suicide vic tims were young, observed: “The older people who went through the Depression under stand hard time. But the youn- S jer ones just can’t seem to nand- e it.” In Fremont, where the shut down of a GM plant has left 7,000 members of UAW Local 1364 jobless, union officials said eight members have committed suicide since the beginning of the year. Local 1364 Vice President John Scampas said there may have been ..other factors in the suicides, but added: “I worked there 18 years before the layoffs and I really knew of only one suicide in the plant.” In Duluth, Minn., and the surrounding Iron Range coun try, unemployment stood at 18.6 percent — second highest in the nation. Social service officials re ported increases in domestic vio lence, family breakups® and alcohol abuse-k suicide. “It’s not the stylehertil mil suicide,” a spokes®! United Steelworkers Jack Donahue in where unemploymentisijl cen t — reported thedivi was up and at least,onefe worker in nearby ~ mined suicide. by Ma Battal llaybe it’s Laid-off steelworker! ^? 11 re wa ^': Bragg, out of work fe' an(i a ceitai than a year, said lit i w ' n ^ s an l, 1 around one day Iasi >;:^ erest<) * then walked fromhiscar ^ ave 10 iave field near Midland, Fj ; P 01 V 011 iav the barrel of his rifletol ^ eUl and fired. He missed, Bpmgtaun “I don’t know if 1 diidHshopliftin out or whatever "h«aiBjon natio Now, Bragg, thefalktiHm $24 bil girls, is doing odd jobs® been suggest mg for full-timework, petiy theft is “I’m not going to give poinic time; tried that once andiij||ggs of the work.” he said. Sariment sai shoplifters h ™|n contact EXTRA!! Read All About It. MUSIC EXPRESS & COLUMBIA RECORDS of need. J’They sit litii it... to it,” he sak Present Their 1st Annual )an Feldn ' of the Sa je Station, : life people c; Tre had tl tket to pa' | tried to steal Jusinesse' shoplifters l prors, coir crio/ OFF vJU /o Our Sugg. Price List k ALBUM SALE FOR 3 BIG DAYS... 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