Back to the Disneyland Drive/Walnut Street discussion...
It is weird that the city is unwilling to give up Disneyland Drive because they want to keep Walnut Street as a residential street but is more than willing to buy and displace people in an apartment complex in order to build a road to nowhere. Almost like the city views some people as more important than others.
I don't know that it's all that sinister. The use of eminent domain by governments to acquire property to expand roads and infrastructure predates the invention of Portland cement. And it continues well into the 21st century. Heck, the state of California has taken hundreds of properties in recent years from private landowners and small farmers to build the
Bullet Train from Bakersfield to Modesto
(two megalopolises that are global centers of commerce, to be sure), and that's a project that may never be completed.
This is just a half-mile extension of an existing road.
Now, there's the question of whether or not this road extension is
actually needed. I'm of the opinion that this extension is not, and Gene Autry Way in general is an overbuilt road to nowhere for very few people who want to get nowhere.
If they built this Gene Autry Way extension, I can think of very few people that would want or need to use it between State College and the Convention Center. I can also think of only one or two events that may come along once every decade or three that this extension would be helpful for. It just seems like a bad idea from 20 years ago that hasn't aged well at all.
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