Trams For Downtown Joliet? Beth Beatty Blasted By Patch Readers

JOLIET — Last week, Joliet Patch published another City Hall exclusive that garnered an incredible amount of reader reaction. The story concerned Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty's proposal to spend $95,000 in taxpayer funding, so the city of Joliet could acquire a motorized tram to transport people around downtown Joliet.

Joliet's City Council will vote on Beatty's proposal at Tuesday night's meeting.

On the Joliet Patch Facebook page alone, the downtown Joliet tram story received approximately 320 reader comments, along with nearly 60 shares. There were numerous animated GIFs posted by readers from a "Simpsons" episode where Springfield purchased a monorail system.

Here's a dozen of the comments shared by Joliet Patch readers in regard to Beatty's idea of adding a motorized tram for downtown Joliet:

From Juliana: "Of all the things they could spend money on to benefit the city, with all of its problems…this is what they come up with? Someone with connections is for sure profiting."

"For a second I thought it was April 1st!," wrote Marcy.

"The 95k is just for the bus. After you hire a couple of drivers and pay their benefits, buy fuel, do some maintenance, and repairs, I think it's going to be closer to 500k." — David

"Is downtown Joliet really big enough to justify spending $95,000 on this?" — Shari

"Downtowns are successful based on the success of their surrounding residential areas. That's why Joliet had a thriving downtown when it had 1/3 the population it does today. Today, Joliet continues to neglect all of its surrounding areas while dumping an oversized share of resources into downtown thinking the cart goes before the horse. It's backward thinking, literally." — Tom Bee

"For what!!!! There’s nothing in Joliet other than construction, roads and bridges closed. And nothing gets done!!!" — JC

"To go where? The courthouse?" — Edie

"And to all the lawyer offices there. There’s a handful of places to eat at and a couple museums. Nowhere to shop, 1-2 stores don’t justify me going downtown Joliet." —Tiffany

"Imagine catching the train, bridge up, And stuck behind a trolley during rush hour. Ffff that." — Ray

"Yes, let's buy a tram instead of properly fixing the constant water main breaks on Essington and Jefferson." — Nikki

"But you can literally walk the downtown area from one side to the other in like 10 mins." — Tom R

"Why? You can walk downtown Joliet in very little time! Waste of money!" — Mary Jo