CA HSR belongs in a round house-no rudder
As I monitor the CA high speed rail project status I see that the CA HSRA is flying by the seat of their pants as confirmed by recent plans to go back to the drawing board resulting in a change in plans. Statewide activists oversight challenging multiple facets of the project are forcing them to scramble to get rails in the ground before the federal stimulus funds are lost.
Their recent decision to go back to the Grapevine route to save time and money has led to backlash. Change Orders are not “free.” Somehow they overlooked the impact of that decision on the prior alignment which has resulted in the following litigation. The city of Palmdale was looking forward to the possibility of connecting their HSR station to a future maglev train to Las Vegas. Nice going. And I imagine that the Board members are held harmless for any legal costs created by their “wing it” actions.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CITY OF PALMDALE
NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: John Mlynar
PHONE: 661/267-5115
DATE: July 6, 2011
Palmdale Files Federal Lawsuit Against California High Speed Rail Authority
PALMDALE – The City of Palmdale filed a lawsuit against California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) on Wednesday, July 6 in United States District Court to prevent the Authority from illegally using Federal grant funds and Proposition 1A bond funds to study an alternative Interstate 5/Grapevine route for the California High Speed Rail Project that was previously considered and rejected over eight years ago.
“The people of California approved the passage of Proposition 1A bond funds for the high speed rail project that specifically listed Palmdale as one of the stops on the route and the federal grant does not allow for this Grapevine alignment restudy,” said Palmdale City Attorney Matthew Ditzhazy. “Surreptitiously, the CHSRA board is attempting to use that bond money, and restricted Federal grant funds, to study an alternative route over the Grapevine—a route that has already been studied and rejected.”
“In 2008, the voters approved Proposition 1A approving and establishing funding for a High-Speed Rail project that include a station in the city of Palmdale,” said Ditzhazy. “Using Proposition 1A funds, and corresponding Federal grant funds, to study an alignment outside of the approved sections is illegal, contrary to the will of the voters, and places the entire High-Speed Rail project in jeopardy.”
“Since 1992, the City of Palmdale has been a driving force in bringing the Antelope Valley to the table in terms of high speed rail,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “It makes absolutely no sense to use taxpayer dollars to study a route that has been shown to be inferior on so many levels. To change the route and take it through an area with few people and a strong resistance from environmental groups instead of a stop that is wanted by a community and has the potential to reach millions of people is totally absurd. Furthermore, the I-5 route completely bypasses our intermodel connectivity that is coming to Palmdale with our regional airport, a Metrolink Station, the High Desert Corridor freeway alignment at Avenue P-8, State Routes 14 and 138 and the soon-to-be started Desert Xpress train to Las Vegas,” Ledford said.
“The City of Palmdale has invested a tremendous amount of resources, time and energy to ensure that a Palmdale stop between Bakersfield and Los Angeles becomes a reality,” said Palmdale City Manager Steve Williams. “Our City and local businesses have made significant investments with this alignment—an alignment that the people of this State approved.”
*Measure once…..cut twice….oh no……Measure thrice…cut once! Sorry, but then it is the government doing this stuff…ya know!
I have a better idea……..
Cancel the whole thing, we are broke!
Thank you Mike. Yes, we are broke. What amazes me is that just over 50% of our state voters approved the initial $9.9 billion Bond measure two years ago while we were in the recession. As of now the state has not issued the Bonds because there is concern that the project may not be completed if started.
I agree. The high speed train is tooooo expensive. It will never produce a profit and the tax payers will be left holding the bag. Stop the litigation and stop the train. The country is broke and we are putting our children and grand children in a debt that no one can pay. Next thing we will be a third world country. When will the liberal mind set get it?
*”Build it and they will come!” Yes, friends and neighbors their is HSR in our future. We can blame overblown budgets, pension spiking, government ineffeciency, the time of day or your mother in law. The realities are: Local governments will prosper with HSR. Bringing new people to the market place that wouldn’t ordinarily stop by in an ongoing future problem. Unless communities continue to use developers to grab more land and build new apartments, houses or high rise…..then they will need to bring new business to those communities. How do they do that? Offer free entry to the local Wal-Mart? Come on folks…when is the last time you stopped by Downtown Barstow to pick up some quality products at the Outlet Store there? We do it every time we drive to Vegas. HSR will create that Oasis in the desert concept that will inspire new business.
Think about it….don’t you want your kids to visit the Gold Country up Highway 40 sometime? How about the Sequoias or Mammoth mountain for skiing? Yes sir, no Carmagedeon here with HSR.
This is the future folks….so either get behind it or crawl into some gate guarded community and hope that no one can get in.
R&A. Its so easy to spend other peoples money especially when we cut education and health care to balance our state budget. Does that bother you at all?
OH Larry. It’s only fun money due and payable 30 years from now and none of us will be here to make those payments. True. But what about our kids and grandkids, for those of us who have them, as future services for them will not be provided due to long term mandatory debt service obligations.
Larry Gilbert, thank you. As the most pessimistic guy in California, I do believe that we now have the wind at out back. The Republicans in the House have a stop-order on this project. What the rail authority has now in the bank is all they will have. They’ll dig some holes and lay some useless track in the CV. Then, game over.
As a Democrat, I say it’s shameful that this project falls along Party lines. Our Party is the party of the “poor.” Why are we being asked to put out tax dollars into project that only the “rich” can afford to ride?
Enough of the lies, the improvising, the gross mis-management, the arrogant heavy-handedness to build a project we can’t afford and don’t want.
*Spending other peoples money….eh? Isn’t that what taxes do? Kind of reminds us
of the cable TV….that wants us to pay for the Arab Language Channel, the Chinese
Language Channel, QVC and the Golf Channel. We don’t even get the NFL Network!
So, we can complain, but would good will that do?
NO folks, at least with HSR…..we might even be able to use the system if we ever
wanted to! How about fixing the potholes in OC with that Measure M money? Oh,
but that would be spending “other peoples money”. Just what do you consider “infrastruce”? Love to hear what you consider worthy of spending the tax
payers cash cow on.
I say fix the roads and use the gasoline tax for what it was intended, roads. Also lets cut education, it is mainly a waste of tax dollars. Let’s get back to the basics reading, writing and arithmetic. Educate the kids that want an education and stop the baby sitting. If we fix what is broken today we will have a brighter future tomorrow.
*Cheryl Lynn,
We applaud “the idealogue wing” of either party. Sadly, those days of the country
school room, the very kind, concerned and pleasant teacher – dedicated to each of their students welfare, education and understanding….have been over since the 50’s.
We can’t spend enough money to replace “true caring”. The harsh reality is that teachers will soon be a thing of the past. Children will go to an auditorium complete with wireless computers for each, a Multi-Jumbotron screen with each child and grade taking different courses. They will be immediately tested, graded and moved to the next Auditorium for further classes. Eventually, they will all be provided this service from the comfort of their home or the Auditorium. We will be able to reduce the number of teachers by a factor of minus 10. This system will start slowly, in smaller
communities and soon translate into urban areas. They of course will have to nail down the computers there…along with employing more security guards than teachers and administrators. There really isn’t any necessity in this day and age for School Administrators anyway. This could all be accomplished from a Regional Center which serves 15 to 20 Elementary, Middle or High Schools. For those that are worried that High School Football or Baseball will go away…not to worry…those kids will be “bonus babies” given scholarships to various Colleges and Universities after their sophmore
year of playing their High School sport. Moms & Dads and Nike will be more than happy to equipment, uniforms and print programs along with school Annuals. Hey, it’s modern days…………and some people will just have to admit that we now live in the 21st century….not the 20th!
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/07/pringle-quits-high-speed-rail.html
So Pringle got the message!