A fictional dialogue for you.
“Daddy,” asked a little girl, “What’s a boondoggle?” Normally I would give a long-winded and verbose definition to impress my kids. This time I had an answer right from the papers and Sacramento.
“A boondoggle is a fast train that goes nowhere. People do not want it because it costs too much, delivers too little, depends on the pipe dream of high ridership, and spends money that the state does not have. If you live in Los Angeles and want to go to San Francisco, you have to drive several hours to get to the train, pay to park your car, speed through farm land, and then reach a yet undetermined destination where you rent a car and drive a couple of hours to get to San Francisco”. (If you thought the sentence was long wait until you take the ride.)
“Daddy,” the child continued, “Who would ever want to do that?”
“No one that I know and no one who has any sense. From what I understand, most of the taxpayers don’t want it, either,” I answered.
“Are you a taxpayer, daddy?” she asked.
“Regretfully I am, since I will be stuck with the bill even though I will never ride the boondoggle,” I sighed.
“Daddy, who does want the boondoggle train?” (Talk about picking the low-hanging fruit.)
“Well, the main person is a man named Jerry Brown,” I responded.
“What does he do for a living?” she wanted to know.
“He is our Democratic governor,” I muttered.
“Doesn’t he know what a boondoggle is?” she queried.
“Well, I would certainly think so but from his actions I doubt his mental and business acumen,” I responded.
“What is an ‘ack-oh-man’?” she wanted to know.
“Acumen is just a big word that means being smart,” I responded.
“Shouldn’t the governor be smart enough not to want to make us build a boondoggle train?” she probed. At this point the thoughtful father gave up because he had no answers.
As we all know, one cannot avoid answering a child's question by saying nothing. So after a few seconds the little girl chimes in again, “Daddy, you still did not answer me. Why would anyone want to build a boondoggle train?” she implored.
I cannot answer the question so I appeal to the readers. Can you answer the little girl? Surely somewhere, somehow, someplace there must be a RATIONAL answer.
Signed,
Mark Meuser is running for California State Senate, District 7
As far as where we should spend: I would say expand BART and local RAIL. Our system could work much better for more people. The DC subway system is quite useful and easy to use. I know the bay is not the same as DC but it can be done and should have been years ago. If HS rail could commute me to near OC airport from Oakland or San Jose Airport for a reasonable cost to me and the taxpayer I would be all for it. I think this project falls short from what I can see but I am not a rail expert.
When you have a dependant class that exceedes the productive portion of society then it becomes a one way street toward the type of world Ayn Rand told of in that novel. The majority will never understand till all is destroyed. That is why our government was formed as a republican (no caps) form of democracy. The founders understood that you have to protect the minority, like farmers, etc. who are important, but would not have a voice in a pure democracy. Sad, but I find very few folks understand how our form of government was originally intended to work and why.
It is very important to differentiate between being against expenditures for public transit and being against HSR (especially, as it has evolved going through the legislature). It also needs to be recognized that providing bus service in Alameda, improving and extending the aging BART system, etc. creates important services and needed jobs . After reading this blog about the HSR legislation recently passed, the question needs to be not only about the quality of the investment, but what is being bought! http://caltrain-hsr.blogspot.com/
To Rich, I will commute tomorrow from OAK to SNA as I do most weeks so this story is close to me heart as a targeted commuter and taxpayer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0711-san-bernardino-20120711,0,5646419.story You will notice a common denominator in all of these cases: The city's fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation's crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento's raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out, officials said. Our state is in the same situation and until we have major fiscal policy reform we will continue the current trend. This is only simple logic folks but the most powerful political force in the state does NOT wish to discuss this. The only good news is soon there will be no choice.
vote no on all new taxes and consider voting against all incumbents running this november (state and local level). the tax measure is disastrous policy for the state and will clearly make things worse, not better. we have to get spending and entitlements under control, and the evidence from abroad and now within this state is accumulating that time is running out. we already impose one of the highest tax burdens (and most progressive) on the beleaguered taxpayers of this state and look at the horrible fiscal situation we continue to find ourselves in.
http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43373-06-11-HouseholdIncomeandFedTaxes.pdf The CBO said that in both 2008 and 2009, the highest-earning 20 percent of taxpayers paid 94 percent of the total income tax burden – up from 86 percent in 2007, and 81 percent before the 2001 tax cuts. I
what does this have to do with hsr? well, since the project will most likely fall on the backs of the half of californians that actually pay state income tax since there is not likely private capital for this and federal monies are very suspect, i'd say the burden on taxpayers has a lot to do with hsr. and nobody is asking for sympathy for the top 20%, but then again people like to toss words like 'not paying their fair share' around a lot, and the facts are that the top whatever pay a very high percentage of taxes collected, and even more than they used to...and that in spite of warren buffet rhetoric, the average tax rate paid increases at every level as you go up in income...and that the percentage of people not paying any income tax has skyrocketed over the past couple of decades....none of which is necessarily bad policy, but the actual facts are not what you tend to hear in the press or from most politicos...much easier to point fingers than it is to talk about what will really fix the problem...
CEO Magazine: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/02/business/la-fi-mo-california-worst-state-20120502 CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46413845
Flight delayed until 9:00 p.m. due to fog at SFO. Arrive at Orinda BART at midnight. Would've gladly taken the train had there been one.
There are plenty of domestic flights from OAK. The AirBart bus is $3 and reasonably frequent, so you can still take BART.
Just today I was on BART and the train broke down. They had to turn the whole train off and reboot the systems. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes later then we originally were supposed to arrive. I guess the moral of the story is, if you are dependent upon other businesses or public transportation to get you from point A to B, be prepared that things may not always go according to plan.
Agreed. And this will always be the case unless one walks. What I would like to see, if not HSR, is at least an awareness that having more viable transportation alternatives available to Californians should be considered a positive goal.