Posted on 08/05/2011 9:19:52 AM PDT by SmithL
When Jerry Brown began his first stint as governor in 1975, he soon became embroiled in an intense controversy over setting aside lanes in Los Angeles of the extremely congested Santa Monica Freeway
. . .
This bit of history is offered because Brown is once again occupying the governorship, once again he has a big, high-concept transportation project that may be a debacle in the making, and once again he has a way out.
It's the high-speed rail project to link the northern and southern halves of the state. Voters have approved a bond issue for the project, which is slowly being consumed by engineering and other planning.
The High-Speed Rail Authority is eager to break ground next year on an initial section in the San Joaquin Valley.
It is already advertising some contracts for that section, even though its ridership projections are shaky, its finances are uncertain, its "business plan" has yet to emerge and there is stiffening opposition from those on the route.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Medfly Brown again.......sheesh!
Not to metion being a perfect metaphor for socialism.
The Moonbat strikes again. Good-bye, California. It was great knowing you.
The riders aren't going to be there but they'll push ahead anyway wasting more billions.
At today's flight prices (Southwest Airlines), a round trip ticket is $300. For $42 billion dollars, I could round up 10,000 of my closest friends and fly them round trip SFO/LAX. Every day. For 38 years.
Why doesn't someone just publish that, or run an ad on TV? That'll get Jerry out of this mess fast enough.
I am not familiar with all the moonbats along the East Coast, but I DO have a good idea about California because I have lived here all my life.
The role of government is slowly being scaled back at the Federal level, with some glimmer of success, but there is a long way to go.
I strongly believe that California is the national template for dysfunctional legislatures composed of ignorant, icompetent individuals who get themselves elected to office, without an inkling of government, the limits thereof, and the proper acceptable role of central power. They visualize themselves as superheroes --- with the working taxpayers "unlimited" money.
There is a rational role for mass transit in California, but certainly not the connection between North and South.
But, more fundamentally, there is no need for ANY Mass Transit anywhere under the now traditional template : Massive bureaucracy, overspending and most importantly, creating a new Unionized Army to run the damned things. A recipe for disaster, both functionally and economically everywhere it exists.
In the case of California, the east west connection is critically needed, but not the North-South one. But only if the above guaranteed problems are addressed :
A clear and permanent charter guaranteeing that the system cannot now or ever be subject to the takeover by any unions whatsoever. The only thing worse than not having a substitute means of travel between points connected by highly congested highways, is creating a solution which will exist forever at the mercy of unionized thugs.
I can't think of a better thing to do right now than to pause and decide if the cure is worse than the disease.
As the ongoing struggle in Wisconsin has proven, NOTHING is worse than attempting to dislodge union thugs which have an entire area or state in its grip. Not even ridiculously congested traffic.
And I would bet that you didn't even factor in the interest due on that initial amount during those 38 years... or the ongoing maintenance and/or replacement costs on facilities and hardware.
My gut feeling is that you could make that 30,000 friends, or increase the period to 114 years.
If you have to go from Whittier to anywhere this would have been a pretty hand freeway and would have taken major pressure off of the 91, 60, 105 and 10 freeways which have been a mess for many years.
Jerry Brown killed this project and stalled the completion of the 55 Freeway, the 105 Freeway and probably many others for many years. Costs of course multiplied by at least an order of magnitude while we all wasted gasoline sitting in LA traffic jams.
And he's back.
If they spent this money to repair, repave, resurface, etc. I-5 and Rte99 and all the other roads/freeways that have been neglected for so many years, they’d do more for CA than this boondoggle.
But that would prevent the implementation of the urbanization plan getting people out of their cars.
Keep neglecting the roads, build a choo choo and keep eviscerating auto makers while increasing regulations governing autos and fuel standards.
Was that what Johnnie Carson used to call "the Slauson Cutoff" when he was pretending to be a used car salesman?
And like a stopped clock, etc.
The excerpted article doesn't quite do justice to Dan Walters' thesis, which is roughly that the Republicans in Congress will cut funding for HSR, thus driving a silver spike into the already dead body of the CHSRA. Jerry Brown will have an out just as he did when a federal judge scuttled Gov. Moonbeam's plans for carpool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway in the 1970s. You may recall this episode, and also his support for tax limitation after the voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978.
After the HSR budget is zeroed out, Brown can say, "The money just isn't there, so we would be stupid to proceed."
Not his idea, but he'll take the credit.
As much as I would like to blame Jerry Brown for this hideous idea, it was actually a voter-approved ballot measure. Yes, California’s population - increasingly comprised of non-native, non-English speaking foreign nationals who nonetheless vote, have no idea what a bond measure is, or how it’s paid back, and couldn’t care less about the state’s budget, simply voted yes and went back to watching the Price is Right or whatever the hell they do with themselves...
When I was in the Navy in the early 60's that ticket was $20.00. Sigh......
California is broke
FUJB
If you fly "Wanna Get Away" on Southwest Airlines it's 192.00 round
trip LAX to SFO to LAX.
That would get you and your 10,000 friends 59 years 11 months and 5 days of daily round trip flights. ;<)
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