Posted on 09/16/2019 6:28:53 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Seven years after its land buying program began, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has yet to acquire hundreds of parcels, even though the state has the power to condemn property in the way of its future tracks.
At the same time, the rail authority has become landlord to surplus acreage that serves no purpose in furthering high-speed rail but still must be managed by the state. It owns toxic waste sites, vacant lots and rental homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
SCAM anyway you paint it.
https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cash-20190610-story.html
...Tim Raven, a walnut and almond grower, is owed $500,000, he told The Times. John Tos, a big grower who has waged a legal battle against the project, says the state owes him $150,000. Wasser says Brenda Church, a former client, has been owed $1.9 million for three years. Ray Carter, who voluntarily sold his farmland, says he has been owed $630,000 for three years...
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I took a page from Cartelfornia's "One Weird Budget Trick" book last month and didn't pay my electric bill, natural gas bill, Visa bill, phone bill, cable bill, Internet bill, mortgage bill, federal taxes, state taxes, Medicare or FICA.
I also avoided paying for groceries by "seizing" anything I needed at the local Walmart.
I told the Walmart employees that their domain was eminently mine.
It was AMAZING the size of the "budget surplus" I had at the end of the month.
I'm going to do it again next month. :)
This was suppose to have died and it stills lingers. Kill it, stop this madness.
I’ve just concluded a project for the high speed rail authority. The way it was written and managed, it couldn’t have had any respect for economics. I could have conducted this same work for other sane entities at a fraction of the cost.
We are struggling with our own bullet train boondoggle here in Houston/Dallas.
sounds the people you want in charge of your healthcare. /s
Newsome didn’t kill HSR, he just admitted that the funding isn’t there, and there is no path to complete it from LA to SF. Instead, they are going to waste the money they already have on building between Bakersfield and Merced. It is a total waste, and there is no demand for rail between these towns.
He is counting on Democrats to take over the federal government and rain money on CA to build these “green” projects.
I’ve been in several projects that required right of way acquisition. Every person was handed their check they minute they signed the documents. Sometimes we were given less than an hours notice to have their checks ready.
The agency can ask for immediate use and possession without paying while the eminent domain case goes through the legal process. I’ve never heard of any acquisition where they agrement is made, docs are signed and no one gets paid.
This sounds like the railroad barons of the old west.
Willie Green must be rolling over in his grave.
We can hope, anyway.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:williegreen/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change
Boondoggle by any name is still a boondoggle. Burns up all kinds of resources better used to actually IMPROVE life for the greater number of Californians, and not just the few crony capitalists that stand to benefit directly.
This is not merely waste, it is creating the infrastructure for something that cannot possibly be repurposed to any lasting benefit.
Hedley Lamarr: Wait a minute... there might be legal precedent. Of course! Land-snatching!
[grabs a law book]
Hedley Lamarr: Land, land... "Land: see Snatch." [flips back several pages]
Hedley Lamarr: Ah, Haley vs. United States. Haley: 7, United States: nothing. You see, it can be done!
-- Hedley Lamarr
California is waiting Trump out. Federal money will come eventually. It will be like the Boston Big Dig on steroids.
Mr Sanford and his Son are somewhere smiling and saying,"Home Sweet Home".
It is a zombie rail system—it won’t die!
They are idiots, they should have just done what ever it takes to create easements on the properties and compensated just for that.
What california high speed rail. They blew all the money and got nothing for it. The plan is dead and gone.
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