oldenGoldenDecoy's picture

    California High Speed Rail Funding and Jobs

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    Oh this is just too good to pass up . . .


    Many progressives across the US see the following as a big negative.

    NPR -- The Republican Governors Association targeted 10 so-called swing states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida and Nevada among them — helping to recruit candidates and investing $49.5 million on their gubernatorial campaigns. Most of the money went to buy ads and to messages that tapped deepening pessimism among voters about Obama and the Democratic Congress' handling of the economy and deficit spending. When the Republican push began, a Democrat was governor in 8 of the 10 states. Last Tuesday, voters elected Republican governors in nine of the 10.

     

    Yes ... and take a wild stab and guess which state got the only Democrat elected.

    So with that said... Here's a little letter to the US Department of Transportation:

     

    Dear US Dept of Transportation,

    Send this extra $1.2 billion planned for Ohio and Wisconsin that they don't want to:

    California Department of Transportation
    Attention: Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr.,
    Governor
    Moonbeam-elect.

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    We'll gladly add it to the $3 billion we've already collected and banked for the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

    And the estimated 600,000 construction and related workers will appreciate it and that also includes those workers from all across the country who will be high-balling it into California to pickup a paycheck.

    That is all...

    Thank you.


    Now ... If Brown is a Moonbeam -- Then these Republican governors elect are  black-holes...

    Have a fine day ... I'm going sailing . . .

    In the mean time you can all take a virtual quick trip between LA and San Francisco...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nx8rNysZSI&


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    ~OGD~

    Comments

    meanwhile in other federal/state correspondence news Smile:

    LaHood to states: Proceed with rail projects or give up stimulus funds


    By Steve Kastenbaum, CNN
    November 9, 2010 6:58 p.m. EST

    (CNN) - In some post-election hardball between the Obama administration and newly-elected Republicans, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is threatening to take back stimulus funds from states if they do not follow through on proposed rail projects.

    CNN obtained copies of letters LaHood sent to incoming Republican governors in Ohio and Wisconsin who have stated their opposition to rail projects already underway in their states. In the letters, LaHood said a rail link between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati in Ohio, and a high-speed rail connection between Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are vital to economic growth in both regions.

    more:

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/09/lahood.transportation.stimulus/in...


    Here in WI, it seems the "fiscally responsible" Gov-elect not only nukes the jobs provided by stimulus but also has to repay the $100 million already spent. Increased unemployment and a hundred million dollar hole blown in the budget. And he ain't even inaugurated yet. Smooth move.

    In the past, the primary push for progressives on transportation spending has been to secure money for things like mass transit, bike paths, pedestrian trails, etc. — spending that supposedly helps to wean America of our addiction to cars. Unfortunately, progressives have done next to nothing to curtail wasteful sprawl-driving spending on new pork highway projects and bridges to nowhere.

    LaHood was known as the King of Earmarks while a Republican member of Congress. He undestands how to play the tit-for-tat game with appropriations. I'd feel more secure about that talent being aimed in the right direction if progressives could learn how to use scissors and support earmark reform.

     


    Wow Watt ... Trying to harsh my mellow?

    Where you stated:

    In the past, the primary push for progressives on transportation spending has been to secure money for things like mass transit, bike paths, pedestrian trails, etc. — spending that supposedly helps to wean America of our addiction to cars. Unfortunately, progressives have done next to nothing to curtail wasteful sprawl-driving spending on new pork highway projects and bridges to nowhere.

    Well ... the past is the the past and the future for the so-called left leaning wild eyed liberals (Yes liberals - incorrectly referred to as progressives elsewhere) here in our own State of California have gone on record for a change to curtail wasteful sprawl-driving spending on new pork highway projects and bridges to nowhere.

    I take it that you didn't attend the 2010 Democratic State Convention at the LA Covention Center right up the 110 Harbor Freeway from you? It was quite an eclectic crowd...

    So, I direct you to my post over at Once Upon a Paradigm :

     

    And in that post I list the complete plank, but the specific area which you noted is covered as follows:


    From: 2010 California Democratic Party Platform (PDF)

    Adopted at the State Convention, April 18, 2010
    Los Angeles Convention Center

    Sustainable Communities

    To promote sustainable communities, California Democrats will:

    • Reward local governments and regions for completing voluntary, sub-regional comprehensive planning processes that stem the tide of urban and suburban sprawl and that reduce dependence upon the automobile as a primary means of transportation, and enhance infrastructure for public transportation, bicycles and pedestrians; 

    • Provide support for alternatives to driving, from bicycle education to high-speed rail;

    • Work for equitable and environmentally sound road and parking use;

    • Create greenbelts around our urban areas, thereby reducing traffic gridlock, wildfires and erosion, and promoting efficient land use;

    • Promote regional tax revenue sharing in order to decrease local governments’ dependence upon sales tax revenue and minimize sprawl;

    • Increase the construction of affordable housing to alleviate and prevent homelessness, and develop supportive housing with continuum of care services to help homeless people re-establish themselves as self-sufficient contributors to society;

    • Protect and promote affordable housing to alleviate and prevent homelessness;

    • Protect existing homeowners’ property rights by limiting eminent domain to reasonable public uses, and oppose the practice of abusing eminent domain to take homes without the consent of the owner and convey property from one private person to another or to any corporation merely to increase its tax revenue;

    • Encourage incentives to reclaim and redevelop old abandoned buildings and brown-fields;

    • Provide a homestead floor with absolute minimum protection for homeowners when they are forced into bankruptcy due to unanticipated health care costs or predatory lending schemes; and

    • Oppose utility monopoly referendums that change state community choice laws allowing local governments to contract freely for electric power.

    Thanks for dropping in Watt . . .

    ~OGD~

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    Thanks for the plank from the Golden State Dems. Couldn't make it down to the LA Convention Center from my cave on the coast of Oregon.

    Here's an idea. Why not push transportation dollars down to the sub-regional level to help pay for comprehensive planning. Reward that planning with fix-it-first block grants for repair, maintenance, and enforcement of traffic safety laws along existing city streets and county roads. How does California pay for costs associated with school busses? Seems like that should all come out of transportation revenues (gas taxes, vehicle-related fees, etc.).

    I understand the appeal of light-rail. According to my wiser partner, who got a degree in environmental planning from Stanford, BART's influence was mixed in terms of the Bay Area environment. Yes, it cut down on the number of commuter cars sitting in stalled traffic. No, it didn't curb sprawl. If light-rail connects communities that have already sprawled, it can alleviate traffic congestion. But it can also usher in large-scale suburban developments to small sub-rural communities. 

    Transportation is a rubik's cube, no doubt, and mass transit is part of the mix. Having tried to fend off a massively destructive highway boondoggle, I'm sensitive to expanding our orientation. And by "our" I mean anybody who cares about conserving natural resources and taxdollars.

    What is it with this liberal antipathy toward "progressive," by the way? I read a blog from A-man this morning and he seems to be singing that song. Fallout from the firebagger feud? Just curious.

    Thanks again OGD! You ducks are popular here in Oregon!

    Watt


    You're welcome ... for the plank . . .

    Sorry Watt. I have mistaken you for our fellow blogger Wattree who is a musician and lives in the Los Angeles area.

    About this firebagger feud? A very very high percentage of those in the current firebagger crowd weren't even born when I first became socially and thereby politically active in the early 60s. That's their feud, not mine. It's a distraction.

    As far as a discussion about the differences of a liberal versus that of a progressive, that could take a whole other discussion thread and of course would be debated endlessly and to the point of not only a distraction but invariably degrade to becoming divisive, as it has become throughout the blogger world.

    But I will state this relating to urban sprawl. It's a major area of concern for my children and grandchildren here in California. Although there's a very slim chance that I'll be around here to experience it, where in the name of the San Joaquin Valley is California going to absorb and house the additional estimated 23 million residents come mid-century? Growth without sprawl?

    Goodbye agriculture and open space -- or -- Hello skyscraper blight?

    Now ... To get back to the subject, one thing is quite obvious...

    All forms of rail is the future for state transportation needs.

    Oh and yes... the "Ducks" are very good.

    I'm personally a "Bruin."

    ~OGD~
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    Predictions of population growth are interesting. From a planning standpoint, most estimates I see come in 20-year intervals. Looks like you've accessed some data that pegs 23 million more Californians by mid-century. If we accept the underlying logic, that we're going to have to adjust to that kind of population growth, why not go ahead and project out a couple of hundred years. Try it. Double the age of our country, assuming current growth, and then imagine what kind of world our descendants will live in. Then double it again. And again.

    That's been a valuable thought experiment for me. When I force myself to do it, I mean seriously consider the consequences, at some point I realize that we must find a way to foster a stable population and an economy that isn't dependent upon ever-increasing consumption. And if we hope to hold on to the things we cherish, like the earth's ecosystem, we'll figure out how to do that sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it really won't matter how we choose to transport ourselves off the cliff.

     


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